1 . As our lives become more closely connected with the digital age, it’s more important than ever to keep the spark of human connections, a key part of which is making small talk.     1     Here’s how to master the art of small talk.

The cornerstone of effective small talk lies in developing genuine interest. Genuine interest is about actively seeking to understand the other person, valuing their perspectives and appreciating the uniqueness they bring to the conversation.     2    

Small talk extends beyond spoken words; it includes the art of observation. As you engage in conversation, pay attention to the speaker’s body language, facial expressions and tone of voice.     3     Being familiar with them not only helps you navigate the conversation with sensitivity but also enables you to establish a deeper connection by respecting the slight differences of the other person’s communication style.

Actually listening and connecting with someone is essential for a conversation. By providing your undivided attention, you convey respect and interest in what the other person has to say.     4     Ask follow-up questions to show that you value their insights. This depth of engagement lays the foundation for a more meaningful connection.

At the heart of successful small talk lies the authenticity (真实性) of your engagement. Authenticity fosters a sense of trust and connection, making the conversation more meaningful and memorable. Avoid the temptation to project an image or use scripted responses.     5     In the world of small talk, authenticity is the key that unlocks the door to deeper connections and more fulfilling interactions.

A．Instead, let your true self shine through.

B．Some accessible topics are great for small talk.

C．Active listening involves fully engaging with the speaker.

D．Focus on understanding their viewpoints beyond simply hearing words.

E．The signals provide valuable insights into their emotions and intentions.

F．Small talk may be a gateway to building rich and meaningful relationships.

G．By expressing authentic curiosity, you make the other person feel seen and heard.

2 . When you are communicating, you spend nearly 60% of your time listening to other people, but most people only remember 25% of what they hear.     1    

    2    

Do you find yourself looking at your phone or following a TV show during a conversation with a family member or a friend? These little distractions can have much bigger consequences than you might think and you should try to limit them completely. When you are listening to someone, put everything else aside and give your full attention to the person.

Empathize with the person

When you are listening to another person, try to think what they might be feeling or going through at that very moment. Empathy towards other people can be improved by imagining yourself in different situations, as well as by learning more about people and different cultures.     3     Before you give your own opinion, try to look at the situation from the person’s angle and see what you can learn from the discussion.

Ask more questions

Being a good listener doesn’t just mean that you sit quietly and let the other person speak, you also need to ask meaningful questions. Try to find an answer to questions “why” and “what”.     4    

Train your emotional intelligence

The way you are able to manage your own emotions influences your ability to listen to other people.     5     Learn to understand your own emotions, both the negative and positive feelings and be aware of your reactions when you are listening to someone.

A．Be more open

B．Be more present

C．The good news is that you can practice it.

D．Don’t hurry or pressure the person into saying anything.

E．So how can you listen more and become the person people want to talk to?

F．Don’t start listening to someone with a predicted idea of what the person should do or say.

G．Don’t be afraid to ask for a clarification because misunderstandings can harm the conversation.

3 . All relationships require work, though it may not always feel like work.     1     Professional relationships require work too. Here are some tips to improve your relationships and get along better with others in both your personal and your professional lives.

Listen to others. The most important skill in communication is the ability to listen to others. Rather than doing all the talking, take time to stop and hear what others have to say.     2    

Be polite and positive. When you are the one speaking, do it in a way that considers others’ feelings and leaves a positive impact. Think about what you want to say before you say it.       3     If you’re responding to someone, say something positive if you agree and offer an encouraging word. Doing this early in your relationship sets a healthy example for future interactions.

Be honest and sincere. Another communication skill is to make sure you speak with honesty and sincerity.     4     When we trust people, we know that “they say what they mean, and they mean what they say. ”

    5     Listen with respect for other people’s experiences. Look for chances to listen to them, even if you disagree with what they are saying. Be open to changing your mind or understanding things in a different way. You may also want to ask for and receive feedback on your own business. A different view provides you with the chance to grow and learn.

A．Keep an open mind.

B．Look for common ground.

C．Avoid interrupting other people.

D．Ask questions that help you understand them more deeply.

E．Don’t be afraid to apologize if you say something unintended.

F．You will build relationships with others when you tell them the truth.

G．That could mean calling a friend, or getting together with your family for the holidays.

4 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．Those who wish to be a leader.

B．Those who are warm and inviting.

C．Those who have trouble socializing.

D．Those who judge people by first impressions.

2.

A．Because it means time is important.

B．Because it reflects that you value them.

C．Because it allows you to get ready early.

D．Because it applies to various business situations.

3.

A．By communicating with people in public.

B．By talking with anyone around you in life.

C．By trying to stop talking every time you use them.

D．By practicing with these words at home one at a time.

5 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What does the passage mainly tell us?

A．Working from home has its benefits.	B．Workplace friendships are easy to develop.
C．Young people favour remote employment.	D．Working remotely limits workplace friendships.

2. What can employees get from workplace friends at critical moments?

A．Financial support.	B．Emotional comfort.
C．Frontline services.	D．Educational resources.

3. How can workplace friendships benefit employers?

A．Workplace friendships help to avoid disagreements at work.

B．Workplace friendships motivate employees to work longer hours.

C．Workplace friendships contribute to efficiency and security at work.

D．Workplace friendships encourage employers to interact with customers.

6 . Bad judgments are meant to feed our own personal ego (自我意识) and put others down, which is not the healthiest thing to do. Here are five reasons why you should stop it now.

You start finding faults in everyone. Judging quickly moves on to more private areas of your life.     1     You fail to appreciate them and start getting dissatisfied with them. You become critical of even those who matter to you.

Judging becomes a habit. If you judge people, sooner or later, it becomes a habit, and you start judging everyone around you for the tiniest of things.     2     And you might dismiss even the best of people through these microscopic judgments.

People begin to distrust you. If you pass judgments about other people in front of your audience, you will lose their trust. As they will begin to feel that if you can judge others in front of them, you can talk about them behind their back.     3    

Judgment is a sign of unhappiness. If you are 100% happy with who you are, you are a lot less likely to feel the need to judge others. If you are self-assured, you will not feel the need to cast a downward glance at others.     4     Either way, it is a negative attitude.

    5     If you’re judging others, you’re probably judging yourself pretty harshly as well. You often tend to think that if you are judging people by what they wear, someone might in turn judge you, which, as a consequence, makes you extremely concerned with your appearance.

A．You are viewed positively by people.

B．You start taking yourself too seriously.

C．Hence, seeing others positively shows we are positive people.

D．You judge their clothing, actions, success, values, and everything.

E．Likewise, you also judge because you feel you are better than others.

F．You start judging your close ones; friends, family members, partner, etc.

G．And no one wants to make friends with someone often talking unkindly about others.

7 . What if your next job is just a weak tie away? A recent study, conducted by a team from Stanford University and LinkedIn, revealed that weaker social connections have a greater beneficial effect on job mobility (流动性) than stronger ties. Stanford Professor Erik Bryson suggests a practical outcome of this study is to encourage job seekers to expand their reach beyond immediate friends and colleagues. Weak ties, he explains, often provide more unique, beneficial information and connections.

The advantage of weak ties theory is based on the idea that weak ties allow distant group of people to access novel information that can lead to new opportunities and innovation. Weak ties are more likely to introduce new job information to a wider social network.

The research team conducted a five-year experimental study with LinkedIn, involving 20 million global participants and 600,000 new jobs created. Using LinkedIn’s “People You May Know” (PYMK) algorithm (算法), the researchers tested the weak tie theory’s impact on the job market. The team randomly assigned LinkedIn users to receive either more weak or strong tie recommendations from the PYMK algorithm, then tracked the labor mobility of these groups over five years.

Their findings confirm that weaker ties enhance job mobility. Besides, the researchers looked at differences across industries and found that adding weak ties creates significantly more job opportunities in digital and high-tech industries. “This may reflect the fact that there is more rapid change and need for novel information and connections in those industries,” Bryson said.

He points out that the traditional methods used by policymakers to analyze labor markets are quickly becoming outdated. “They need to recognize that the labor market, like all aspects of the economy, is being digitized,” Bryson said. “It is important that we understand how the algorithms used by digital platforms like LinkedIn impact the labor market.”

1. According to paragraph 1, what should job seekers do?

A．Expand network to include weak ties.	B．Limit the search to their current industry.
C．Strengthen connections with close friends.	D．Rely on strong connections for opportunities.

2. How did the researchers test the weak tie theory?

A．By carrying out on line surveys.	B．By interviewing LinkedIn employers.
C．By tracking user data and job mobility.	D．By conducting a large-scale job fair.

3. What can we learn about digital and high-tech industries?

A．They are fast-paced and value novelty.	B．They cause weak ties among employees.
C．Strong ties are the main source of mobility.	D．Weak ties do not contribute to job mobility.

4. What might Bryson advise policymakers to do?

A．Prioritize traditional methods only.	B．Ignore the impact of digital platforms.
C．Recognize the influence of digitization.	D．Understand the rules on digital platforms.

8 . Young children are always watching-including when people swap spit through actions like food sharing. Such behavior helps babies infer who is in close relationships with one another, a study suggests.

Typically, people are more likely to engage in activities that can lead to an exchange of saliva (唾液), such as kissing or sharing an ice cream, with family members or close friends than with an acquaintance. So saliva sharing can be a marker of “thick relationships, “ or people with strong attachments, says MIT developmental psychologist Ashley Thomas.

To see if young children might use saliva sharing as a social cue for close bonds, Thomas and colleagues ran experiments of people engaging with puppets(木偶). When shown a puppet seemingly crying, kids of 8 months old were more likely to look at an adult who had previously shared saliva with the puppet than an adult who hadn’t, the team reports.

Scientists, of course, can’t know exactly babies’ thought. But tracking where they look offers hints. The team used where the kids looked first when a puppet showed distress as an indicator of their understanding of the relationship.

In some experiments, the team showed 8- to 10-month-olds or 16- to 18-month-olds videos of a woman sharing an orange slice with a puppet. A second video depicted another woman and the puppet playing with a ball. During a final video, which showed the puppet crying while seated between the two women, the kids’ eyes were more often drawn to the woman who had shared the orange.

The team saw similar results in another experiment. One woman stuck her finger in her mouth and then in one puppet’s mouth to share saliva. For the other, she touched only her forehead and then the puppet’s forehead. After the woman showed distress, kids spent more time looking at the puppet that had seemingly swapped saliva.

It’s unclear how the findings relate to children’s daily lives. Future studies could switch out actresses for family members to better understand the role saliva may play in distinguishing relationships. Other cues, such as hugging, may also play a role, Thomas says.

1. What is the main finding of the study?

A．Saliva-sharing behavior is a cultural phenomenon.

B．Saliva-sharing is an indicator of trust between individuals.

C．Saliva-sharing can help children distinguish close relationship.

D．Children can understand relationships through saliva-sharing behavior.

2. What does Ashley Thomas think of saliva sharing?

A．It is a natural behavior for young children.

B．It can be an indicator of strong attachments between people.

C．It is a cultural behavior young children learn from their parents.

D．It is a result of the development of young children’s social skills.

3. Which method do the scientists apply when conducting the experiments?

A．Comparison.

B．Reference.

C．Inference.

D．Description.

4. What may be discussed in the following paragraph?

A．The limitations of the current study.

B．The importance of saliva in social relationships.

C．The role of other cues in distinguishing relationships.

D．Saliva sharing can affect children’s social development.

9 . We’ve all had things to apologize for. Whether on the playground or at the office, intentionally or not, we’ve hurt people. Research shows that apologies benefit us in many ways, which can reduce stress and ease heart rates, as well as boosting relationship well being and cooperation.     1    

Like so many other habits that are good for us, apologies must overcome our own mental barriers. When people know they’ve made a mistake and hurt somebody, they may still remain silent in the face of their wrong doings.     2    

First, the offender (冒犯者) may not be concerned with the relationship, especially if they have little empathy for the other person. The second barrier is the perceived threat to one’s self-image. Some people fear that apologizing will be both humbling and prove that they aren’t a good, moral person.     3     They worry that the offense is too great or that the offended won’t forgive them.

While this too is a possibility, in most cases the opposite is true, because people have a tendency to overestimate the negative consequences of apologizing and underestimate the benefits of apologizing. But once we’ve actually apologized, we both feel better, and it can really have a positive impact.

    4     Sometimes, it’s only the beginning of a settlement, for the other person may need time to forgive, or forgiveness may not come at all. That’s okay, because a true apology doesn’t come with the expectation of forgiveness. It’s not a confession (忏悔) by which you clean your morality by unburdening your mistakes on another.

    5     It says you’re sorry you hurt them, that the relationship is important to you, and that you will do better in the future.

A．Have you ever said sorry to somebody?

B．But then why are apologies so difficult?

C．A true apology is a gift to another person.

D．In some cases, it may take time for the person to forgive and forget.

E．Finally, people may simply underestimate the effectiveness of their apology.

F．But even if you make the apology, don’t think the conflict is over automatically.

G．According to the researchers, there are three mental barriers to explain this silence.

10 . How to Deal with Nosy People

They can come in the form of friends, relatives or strangers. The thing about nosy people is that they don’t understand personal space. Things can get confusing when your family members or friends become nosy. You don’t want to hurt them, but you may not want to share everything, either.     1    

Respond. Do not react.

When someone starts asking personal questions one after the other, you might get confused as to why he or she is asking all those questions and what you should do. This confusion can then turn into discomfort. When you are in this situation, remind yourself to slow down.     2     Instead, be mindful of the situation and try to respond consciously.

Answer them reasonably without revealing too much.

One great strategy is to give a satisfactory answer without giving away too many details. You will satisfy their curiosity and maintain your personal boundaries at the same time.     3     For instance, your loved one might ask, “Hey! I heard you had a fight with your husband. What happened?” In response, you could say, “Oh, nothing serious. We are fine.” This will let them know you are doing fine.

    4    

Sometimes, you just don’t feel like answering the other person’s questions. It could be because they have no business knowing the details or because the question annoys you. So, if someone asks you a personal question, you could politely decline to answer.

Show a lack of enthusiasm.

    5     It tells the other person whether you are interested in talking to them. So, if you want to communicate that you don’t appreciate them being nosy, you can do so with your body language. How do you do this? Just show a lack of enthusiasm.

A．Give detailed answers.

B．Politely decline to answer.

C．There is no need to feel rushed at all!

D．Your body language tells a lot about you.

E．Here are tips on how you can deal with nosy people.

F．Use this strategy when the other person is a loved one.

G．It shows them you are not interested in the conversation.