Question

Many people think that listening is a passive business. It is just the opposite. Listening well is an active exercise of our attention and hard work. It is because they do not realize this, or because they are not willing to do the work, that most people do not listen well.
Listening well also requires total concentration upon someone else. An essential part of listening well is the rule known as ‘bracketing’. Bracketing includes the temporary giving up or setting aside of your own prejudices and desires, to experience as far as possible someone else’s world from the inside, stepping into his or her shoes. Moreover, since listening well involves bracketing, it also involves a temporary acceptance of the other person. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will seem quite willing to open up the inner part of his or her mind to the listener. True communication is under way and the energy required for listening well is so great that it can be accomplished only by the will to extend oneself for mutual growth.
Most of the time we lack this energy. Even though we may feel in our business dealings or social relationships that we are listening well, what we are usually doing is listening selectively. Often we have a prepared list in mind and wonder, as we listen, how we can achieve certain desired results to get the conversation over as quickly as possible or redirected in ways more satisfactory to us. Many of us are far more interested in talking than in listening, or we simply refuse to listen to what we don’t want to hear.
It wasn’t until toward the end of my doctor career that I have found the knowledge that one is being truly listened to is frequently therapeutic(有疗效的) In about a quarter of the patients I saw, surprising improvement was shown during the first few months of psychotherapy(心理疗法), before any of the roots of problems had been uncovered or explained. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, but chief among them, I believe, was the patient’s sense that he or she was being truly listened to, often for the first time in years, and for some, perhaps for the first time ever.
【小题1】The phrase “stepping into his or her shoes” in paragraph 2 probably means _______.

A．preparing a topic list first	B．focusing on one’s own mind
C．directing the talk to the desired results	D．experiencing the speaker’s inside world

【小题2】What is mainly discussed in Paragraph 2?

A．How to listen well.	B．What to listen to.
C．Benefits of listening.	D．Problems in listening

【小题3】According to the author, in communication people tend to ________.

A．listen actively	B．listen purposefully
C．set aside their prejudices	D．open up their inner mind

【小题4】According to the author, the patients improved mainly because _______.

A．they were taken good care of.	B．they knew they were truly listened to.
C．they had partners to talk to.	D．they knew the roots of problems.

【小题5】What type of writing the article likely to be?

A．Science fiction

B．A news report.

C．A medical report.

D．Popular science

Answer 1

【小题1】D
【小题2】A
【小题3】B
【小题4】B
【小题5】D

解析【文章大意】善于倾听使交往通畅，双方共同成长。倾听要全聚焦，懂得认同；倾听要精气足，学会海纳百川。作者利用倾听心理疗法改变了他的病人，就是一个很好的例证。
【小题1】语意推测题  his or her shoes隐喻为the inner part of his or her mind。由上文Bracketing includes the temporary giving up or setting aside of your own prejudices and desires, to experience as far as possible someone else’s world from the inside.和下文Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will seem quite willing to open up the inner part of his or her mind to the listener.可以得知。
【小题2】大意理解题 第二段中心句Listening well also requires total concentration upon someone else.接着从两个方面①An essential part of listening well is the rule known as ‘bracketing’.②Moreover, since listening well involves bracketing, it also involves a temporary acceptance of the other person.来阐述如何善于倾听。
【小题3】细节理解题tend to（有…倾向）由第三段Even though we may feel in our business dealings or social relationships that we are listening well, what we are usually doing is listening selectively.（即使我们觉得在自己的生意和社交场合会倾听，但只是带着目的有选择性的听。）以及… prepared list in mind and wonder, achieve certain desired results to get the conversation over as quickly as possible or redirected in ways more satisfactory to us.(…头脑里想好听哪些事，听到自己想听的来尽可能快地结束话题或转换话题，听自己满意的。) 可以得知B选项正确。
【小题4】细节理解题由最后一段There are several reasons for this phenomenon, but chief among them, I believe, was the patient’s sense that he or she was being truly listened to, often for the first time in years, and for some, perhaps for the first time ever.（病人被治好的有一些原因，其中主要是病人感觉到许多年来自个儿第一次被倾听。）得知B选项正确。
【小题5】资料来源推断题  Science fiction（科幻） A news report.（新闻报道）A medical report.（医学报告）Popular science（科普）文章主要告诉我们如何学会倾听以及倾听在医疗上的应用。所以该文具有科普特点。