1 . In Favour of Simple Writing
Do you edit text messages carefully before sending them? If so, you may be the kind of person who takes pride in
People are constantly receiving messages, from the mailbox to the inbox to the text-message alert. What to read, what to skim (略读) and what to ignore are decisions that nearly everyone has to make dozens of times a day. A new book titled All Readers are Busy Nowadays makes the argument for being the careful kind of
Take “less is more”. Most books on writing well advocate the advice to
Keeping messages to a
Syntax (句法) and
If everyone is a busy reader, everyone is a busy writer, too. That may make it tempting to sent as many messages as
A.conveying | B.understanding | C.crafting | D.sending |
A.care | B.quantity | C.simplicity | D.technology |
A.reader | B.poster | C.learner | D.writer |
A.structures | B.principles | C.aims | D.alternatives |
A.remove | B.ignore | C.reconsider | D.interpret |
A.conveyed | B.translated | C.tested | D.shaped |
A.lowered | B.affected | C.doubled | D.maintained |
A.basic | B.positive | C.definite | D.single |
A.Recording | B.Reducing | C.Counting | D.Estimating |
A.in comparison | B.after all | C.for instance | D.in particular |
A.word-choice | B.pattern-design | C.target-setting | D.platform-selection |
A.difficult | B.suitable | C.challenging | D.common |
A.carefully | B.often | C.politely | D.quickly |
A.outcomes | B.points | C.figures | D.benefits |
A.received | B.written | C.read | D.answered |
2 . Many people changed residences and are eager to get familiar with their new neighbors. Here’s a quick refresher on making the most of neighborhood relationships.
Begin at the beginning. Building good neighborly relationships starts when you or someone else moves into the area. If a new neighbor moves in, be proactive (主动的) and welcome them to the neighborhood.
Be inclusive. If you are hosting a large party, consider extending invitations to your neighbors. During the holiday season, remember the people next door with a card, a homemade goodie, or an offer of assistance. Give without expectations.
Allow people to be human.
Accept it. If you have tried your best to resolve a conflict without success, let it go. Sadly, some people won’t like you whatever you do. And you aren’t going to enjoy some people.
A.Maintain your space |
B.Be the first to stop by and say hello |
C.It’s easier to accept it and move on |
D.Everyone has a bad day now and then |
E.Take steps to ensure it won’t happen again |
F.Let others know you are thinking of them |
G.Some neighbors are more easygoing than others |
3 . How do people respond when you have a talk with them? Maybe they brush your emotions aside or never listen to you.
Use confident body language. This type of body language can increase your self-respect and help you earn people’s respect. Confident body language can include good eye contact and appropriate postures (姿势). Keep your eyes forward instead of down.
Improve your listening skills. Good listeners often come across as sympathetic and caring, which are admirable qualities. A skilled listener can make others feel valued and appreciated.
Avoid oversharing. It’s common to talk too much and start rambling (瞎扯) when you get nervous or want to make a good impression. But to gain others’ respect, you can’t ramble or talk too much about yourself.
A.Keep calm and your anger in check. |
B.There’s no need to fill every silence. |
C.Therefore, he may be respected in return. |
D.Try to make your message as clear as possible. |
E.You might feel that you just don’t matter to others. |
F.Don’t leave your arms crossed or hands in your pockets. |
G.Instead, you need to slow down and find some common ground. |
A.She avoids most of her neighbours. |
B.She likes to make friends with everyone. |
C.Most of the neighbours are unfriendly. |
D.Some neighbours are hard to deal with. |
The ingredients of love
In modern times, finding love seems more central to people’s lives. Then, researchers wonder, can love, a highly valued emotional state, be created?
To help determine the ingredients of attraction, one research paired 164 college classmates and had them talk for 3, 6 or 10 minutes to get a sense of each other’s individuality. Then students were asked to predict what kind of relationship they might build with their partners. After nine weeks, they reported what happened. Reports showed their initial judgments often held true. All these students seemed to distinguish at an early stage who would best fit into their lives.
Scientists have also turned to nonhumans to increase understanding of attraction. Many animals give off pheromones — natural chemicals that can be detected by, and then can produce a response in, other animals of the same species. Pheromones can signal that an animal is either ready to fight or is feeling open to partnerships. In contrast, humans do not seem to be as gifted as other animals at detecting such chemicals. Smell, however, does seem to play a part in human attraction. Although we may not be aware of chemicals like pheromones consciously, we give and receive loads of information through smell in every interaction with other people.
Being fond of someone seems to have a number of factors, including seeing something we find attractive. Researchers had people judge faces for attractiveness. The participants had 0.013 seconds to view each face, yet somehow they generally considered the images the same as people who had more time to study the same faces. The way we assess attractiveness seems to be somewhat automatic. When shown an attractive face and then words with good or bad associations, people responded to positive words faster after viewing an attractive face. Seeing something attractive seems to cause happy thinking.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . Picking up after your dog is interesting, but it must be done. Most dog owners understand the importance of picking up their dogs’ waste, so it can be especially frustrating to see dog owners that obviously refuse to perform this duty.
Ask them directly. Talking to another dog owner about picking up their dogs’ waste can be uncomfortable. However, asking the owner directly to pick up after their dog will often work to fix the problem.
Use a friendly tone. Although you are probably fed up and mad at a dog owner that isn’t cleaning up after their dog, approach them in a friendly manner. Yelling at them may make them defensive and angry.
Give them a reason. It’s possible this person doesn’t realize how their neglect in picking up after their dog is negatively affecting those around them.
A.Be honest |
B.Raise some dogs |
C.If you want to help them to sweep their waste |
D.And they will likely do more harm than good, too |
E.When you ask them to pick up their dogs’ waste |
F.There are many reasons people don’t pick up after their dogs |
G.Figuring out how to convince these owners to change their ways can be difficult |
7 . Your manager stops you and says she needs to have a word about your performance in the recent project. She begins by praising you for the good work you’ve done on the project, and you wonder if this is the praise that starts off the typical “feedback sandwich”.
However, when feedback becomes such a routine, employees can start to perceive positive feedback as simply a form of sugarcoating the negatives, thus decreasing its value. Instead, positive feedback should not simply be seen as something to cushion the negative.
Cultivate a “growth mindset”. Many of us tend to focus our praise on the end result and seeming inborn talents. For example,
Create a culture of offering positive feedback. Make giving positive feedback part of your team culture. Don’t just wait for special moments to give feedback. Offer informal positive feedback when making small talk.
A.you have a real talent for organizing events. |
B.You know how the feedback sandwich goes. |
C.Attempt to inject some positivity into negative feedback. |
D.you really put a lot of effort into making this event a success. |
E.Don’t always follow positive feedback with negative feedback. |
F.Feedback doesn’t have to only come from the higher ranks either. |
G.It should also be delivered so as to reinforce and encourage good performance. |
8 . Only about 20% of U.S.adults say they have a best friend at work.Should the other 80% start looking for one?Yes and no.
But if becoming best friends with your coworkers feels too daunting (使人气馁的),or just not your style,you can still benefit from social support.When most people hear “social support”,they think of emotional support,like venting (发泄) to a coworker over coffee, Heaney says.
A.But it comes in many forms |
B.Research on the topic is clear |
C.The goal isn’t necessarily to make lifelong friends |
D.It’s easy to talk yourself out of making these gestures |
E.It s often considered equal to smoking 15 cigarettes a day |
F.That could mean seeking input from people at all levels of the company |
G.There’s no doubt that social support in the workplace is important for your health |
9 . We’ve all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.
What’s the problem? It’s possible that we all have compromised conversational intelligence. It’s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s awkward and challenging, or we think it’s annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it’s an invaluable social practice that results in big benefits.
Dismissing small talk as unimportant is easy, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for casual conversation. Small talk is the grease (润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. “Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk, ” he explains. “The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them. ”
In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at UBC, invited people on their way into a coffee shop. One group was asked to seek out an interaction (互动) with its waiter; the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported significantly higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. “It’s not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband,” says Dunn. “But interactions with peripheral (边缘的) members of our social network matter for our well-being also.”
Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a significantly greater sense of belonging, a bond with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. “Small talk is the basis of good manners,” he says.
What phenomenon is described in the first paragraph?A.Addiction to smartphones. |
B.Inappropriate behaviours in public places. |
C.Absence of communication between strangers. |
D.Impatience with slow service. |
10 . We’ve all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.
What’s the problem? It’s possible that we all have compromised conversational intelligence. It’s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s awkward and challenging, or we think it’s annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it’s an invaluable social practice that results in big benefits.
Dismissing small talk as unimportant is easy, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for casual conversation. Small talk is the grease (润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. “Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk,” he explains. “The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.”
In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at UBC, invited people on their way into a coffee shop. One group was asked to seek out an interaction (互动) with its waiter; the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported significantly higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. “It’s not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband,” says Dunn. “But interactions with peripheral (边缘的) members of our social network matter for our well-being also.”
Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a significantly greater sense of belonging, a bond with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. “Small talk is the basis of good manners,” he says.
1. What is important for successful small talk according to Carducci?A.Showing good manners. | B.Relating to other people. |
C.Focusing on a topic. | D.Making business deals. |
A.It improves family relationships. | B.It raises people’s confidence. |
C.It matters as much as a formal talk. | D.It makes people feel good. |