Question

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 (思维定式). 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 case 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：本文讲的是不同国家说话的节奏和停顿。

1.C细节题。从第一段得出正确答案并不难：Sara felt Betty didn't hold up her end of the conversation Sara觉得 Betty没有把握她的机会，也就是接不上话茬。故选C。

2.B细节排序题。本文选项都很短，一看就知道考查的是一堆国家，遂回头去找第三段国家名字聚集处。题目问“shortest pause ”即讲话最快的，S已经很能讲了却还败在LA 或I 人脚下，根据第三段最后一句Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.在以色列人(Israelis)说话时插不上嘴，故选B。

3.C细节题。段首句明确该段主要论点，关键词抓取：Personality, abilities,思维定式（中文注释）；上课说“题目只考重要信息”，A为but前内容，非本段重点；D出现索命词“should”，读一遍基本可以排除；B为超级细节，与C相比，后者更对应“思维定式”等重要信息，也就是说A不符原文，B无中生有，D无中生有，C关键要理解culturally determined，由文化决定或者受文化影响。故选C。

4.D词义猜测题。该training 明显为上一段提到的内容，回去在第四段段末出现文章重要信息提示——因果词because of，则后接本题答案，排除B、D关键词不对，A选项可能是个较强的干扰选项，比较AD会发现D项confidently更加对应原文speak up，而A选项中的willing一词有失偏颇。难点在于A选项的干扰作用。原文说那位MM的inability to speak up注意别人认为她没能力，不是说她不愿意。所以D比A好，此处用反义对比方法。故选D。

考点：考查风俗习惯类阅读

【名师点评】

本文包括3个细节题和一个词义猜测题，其中第9题细节比较排序题是亮点，要求学生从复杂的表述中理清顺序，区别出哪国人的说话节奏最快。

【名师点拨】

根据对比关系猜测词义

在一个句子或段落中，有对两个事物或现象进行对比性的描述，我们可以根据生词的反义词猜测其词义。表示对比关系的词汇和短语主要有：unlike, not, but, however, despite, in spite of, in contrast等。表示对比关系的句子结构：while 引导的并列句。比如第11小题，D词义猜测题。该training 明显为上一段提到的内容，回去在第四段段末出现文章重要信息提示——因果词because of，则后接本题答案，排除B、D关键词不对，A选项可能是个较强的干扰选项，比较AD会发现D项confidently更加对应原文speak up，而A选项中的willing一词有失偏颇。难点在于A选项的干扰作用。原文说那位MM的inability to speak up注意别人认为她没能力，不是说她不愿意。所以D比A好，此处用反义对比方法。故选D。