Question

Pacing and Pausing

Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve’s new wife, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn’t hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.

Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there’s no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I’m finished or fail to take your turn when I’m finished. That’s what was happening with Betty and Sara.

It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.

The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping (思维定势). And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in — and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.

That’s why slight differences in conversational style — tiny little things like microseconds of pause — can have a great effect on one’s life. The result in this cause was a judgment of psychological problems — even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.

1.What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?

A. Betty was talkative.

B. Betty was an interrupter.

C. Betty did not take her turn.

D. Betty paid no attention to Sara.

2.According to the passage, who are likely to expect the shortest pauses between turns?

A. Americans. B. Israelis.

C. The British. D. The Finns.

3.We can learn from the passage that ________.

A. communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing

B. women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US

C. one’s inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes

D. one should receive training to build up one’s confidence

4.The underlined word “assertiveness” in the last paragraph probably means ________.

A. being willing to speak one’s mind

B. being able to increase one’s power

C. being ready to make one’s own judgment

D. being quick to express one’s ideas confidently

Answer

1.C

2.B

3.C

4.D

【解析】

试题分析:本文探讨了不同国家的人说话的习惯和停段时间的长短。

1.C细节理解题。根据短文第一段While Sara felt Betty didn’t hold up her end of the conversation, 以及Conversation is a turn-taking game.可知Sara认为Betty不接她的话，故选C。

2.B细节理解题。根据Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses以及And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.可知Sara在话语间的停顿是很短的，而她也很难在Israelis的话语中找到停顿，说明Israelis停顿的时间最短，故选B。

3.C细节理解题。根据短文It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American以及文章中的例子可发现，人们的说话方式与自身的文化背景息息相关，故选C。

4.she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.以及who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.联系上文可知这个女人被认为缺乏开口说话的能力，所以她需要对此进行训练，训练快速自信的表达自己观点的能力，故选D。

考点：考查社会现象类短文阅读