3 . Best friends Joe and Paul spent the morning of fine 23, 1963, playing baseball. At about noon Paul started feeling _________. He wanted a hamburger from the store on Center Street with Joe.

“Ummm. I’ll ask my mom if I can go. I need her_________,” Joe said. The situation was difficult for Joe. There were_________ that he shall not sit with his friend because of the color of his skin.

Joe’s parents and many other people were trying to_________ those rules. They listened to the speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, who was trying to remove_________ practices completely.

“It’s hot, ” Joe’s mother said. “Why not take the bus to the store?” “No, me’ am. Bikes are_________” Paul hated riding the bus with Joe because they would be_________ to sit in the back?

When the boys reached Center Street. Joe started to get_________.

“Dad told me about some trouble here last week,” Joe said sadly. “I’ll just wait outside, ” “Not happening” Paul said, as he grasped Joe’s arm and the two boys. _________ into the store. Paul tightened his fists __________they headed for two empty chairs.

A waiter gave them a dirty look and__________ their way. “go around back if you’ re with him. ” he said, pointing at Joe.

Before the boys could responded, a soft voice interrupted the discussion. “These boys will be joining me.” The man and the boys__________ their bodies to see a woman in a wheelchair. “Excuse me,” she said smiling, as she moved her chair toward the man, __________ to go forward. Not wanting to appear__________ to the woman, the man stepped aside. Joe and Paul followed the woman to the chains. She parked beside them and talked steadily as they ordered and ate their lunch.

After the meal, she said, “Two friends like you, that shouldn’t be a problem.” Then she__________ away. Joe and Paul never got her name, but they never forgot her either.

5 . I once stopped behind several cars, waiting at the red light. The wind blew fiercely. Ahead of me stood a young woman alongside the street rubbing her bare hands together and dancing to keep ______. Beside her rested a sign that read, “I have a baby and no food.”

Homeless and unemployed people are a ______ sight in many of our large cities, and most people drive by without ______ assistance. No doubt they have been taught that giving them money develops a dependent ______, or that the cash may be used to buy alcohol ______ the food it was intended for. Like me, they may have been taught that one should give money to a local charity, as these organizations can ______ those in need far more effectively

As I waited for the light to turn green, I felt ______ about that woman. She was obviously in need. And whether or not she actually had a baby really didn’t ______. What should I do?

Should I give her money?As I ______, the window of the car in front of me was ______ down and a hand reached out holding a pair of warm gloves. The driver ______ her own gloves and gave them to the woman. I saw the young woman ______ the words “Thank you” and a broad smile lit up her face.

As I was wondering, somebody else ______. As I tried to decide the best way to help, somebody else just did what she could. I made myself a(n) ______ that day to always do something. Whether it is big or small, just do something.

Something is almost always better than nothing!Too often we underestimate(低估)the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the ______ to turn a life around.

6 . One student took a box of chicken to class. Another carried on a cell phone _________ , and still another whistled loudly every time the _________ turned his back. Reform school? No. College.

More and more, professors say, they are coming across _________ students in their classrooms. Many of today’s young scholars(学者) arrive late, leave_________, talk loud or take care of personal _________ such as paying bills during class.

Why are the students behaving badly?

“Because they can,” said a student of University of North Texas. “A lot of the time, the professors let them get _________ with it. ”

Some educators say it is time to bring politeness back to their classrooms—and even _________ taking some of the blame for bad behavior. They say that rude students are by no means the majority but that one of them can ruin an entire _________.

People are _________ when they learn that impolite behavior is becoming more and more common in __________ education, says Dr. Gerald Amanda, a counselor at City College of San Francisco. They __________ some high school students to misbehave but think those who get to __________ will behave more politely.

Dr. Amanda believes that society in __________ has become more tolerant(容忍的) of rude behavior and __________ people in power, including professors, no longer __________ standards for __________. That leads to a growing imprudence(轻率行为) __________ some college students. “There’s a great __________ of bad behavior in the world around them, and young people see it and __________ disrespect,” said Dr. Amanda, __________ that sometimes students have no idea that they are being rude.

7 . When I re-entered the full-time workforce a few years ago after a decade of lonely self-employment, there was one thing I was looking forward to the most: the opportunity to have work friends once again. It wasn't until I entered the corporate world that I realized, for me at least, being friends with colleagues didn't emerge as a（n） ________ at all. This is surprising when you consider the prevailing emphasis by scholars and trainers and managers on the importance of cultivating close ________ relationships at work. So much research has explored the way in which collegial（同事的）ties can help overcome a range of workplace issues ________ productivity and the quality of work output such as team-based conflict, jealousy, undermining, anger, and more.

Perhaps my expectations of lunches, water-cooler gossip and caring, deep-and-meaningful conversations were a ________ of the last time I was in that kind of office environment. Whereas now, as I near the end of my fourth decade, I realize work can be fully functional and entirely fulfilling without ________ to be best mates with the people sitting next to you.

In an academic analysis just published in the profoundly-respected Journal of Management, researchers have looked at the concept of “indifferent relationships", a simple term that summarizes the fact that relationships at work can ________ be non-interpersonal, inconsequential, unimportant and even, dare I say it, disposable or substitutable.

Indifferent relationships are neither positive nor negative. The limited research conducted thus far indicates they're especially ________ among those who value independence over cooperation, and harmony over confrontation. Indifference is also the ________ option among those who are socially lazy. Maintaining relationships over the long term takes effort, which, for some of us, is much too________.

As noted above, indifferent relationships may not always be the most ________ approach in resolving some of the issues that pop up at work. But there are nevertheless several apparently proven benefits. One of those is ________ . Less time chatting and socializing means more time working and churning（产出）.

The other is ________ . As human beings, we're programmed to compare ourselves to each other in what is an anxiety-causing phenomenon. Apparently, we look down on acquaintances（泛泛之交）more so than friends. Since the former is most common among those ________ to indifferent relationships, their predominance can promote individuals' sense of self-worth.

Ego aside, a third advantage is that the emotional ________of indifferent relationships has been found to enhance critical evaluation, to strengthen one's focus on task resolution, and to gain greater access to valuable information. None of that might be as ________ as after-work socializing but, hey, I'll take it anyway.

9 . Several years ago, Jeremy Clarkson, presenter of BBC television programme discovered one of his guests was half German and half Irish. Immediately, he said, “That’s quite a strange ______ . It’s like, this must be done absolutely perfectly...tomorrow”.

This joke played on ______ of the Germans as efficient and the Irish as lazy. Many people could ______ be offended by these kinds of assertions. We do not know every Irish person, so how can we conclude that every Irish person is lazy?

I recently read on a website that Irish business people were ______ as being “generally rather casual” and more outwardly friendly than many European counties’. German business people, on the other hand, are considered very ______ and they do not need a personal relationship in order to do business. Once you hear advice like this, it becomes easier to understand where jokes like the one in the first paragraph come from.

So why do some people ______ of the kind of stereotypes as seen in Clarkson’s joke, but not batting an ______ when it comes to generalizations. What is the difference between the two?

By definition, a stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. A cultural characteristic, on the other hand, is a pattern of behaviour that is ______ of a certain group.

So what does this really mean? Stereotype are simply overstated assumptions about groups of people. Imagine if a tourist visited a small town in Switzerland and saw a number of locals playing the alphorn instrument, and then ______ that Swiss people can play the alphorn. This would be a stereotype! This is an ______ image of the Swiss which is based on one tourist’s experience.

If however, this tourist were to say that the Swiss are very punctual, this could be seen as a cultural ______ . This is because it is a pattern of behaviour which is very typical in Switzerland: from their transport system to their business meetings in this way, some people argue that generalizing another culture is not just useful, but important. Politicians always have to be ______ of the cultural characteristics of different countries. By becoming aware of different cultural characteristics, they can avoid causing offence in those cultures.

______ , others argue that generalizing cultures will always lead to offensive stereotypes. They argue that the best thing we can do is to stop generalizing cultures and start treating people as ______ .

All this raises important questions: Can making generalizations about groups of people be a ______ thing? Or should we always avoid making broad assumptions about different groups?