Good phone manners are important both at work and at home. If you want to leave a good impression, talking in a polite way is always the most important thing to do. Here are some common practices that will make you sound polite.

When you answer the phone

Most companies and people would like to answer the phone by saying “You’ve reached the John Smith Company” or “Hello, this is John Smith” when they pick up the phone. Unless you are asked to answer the phone in a special way, choose a way that’s comfortable for you and polite to others. Just remember not to make the person on the other end feel uncomfortable.

If you need to take messages

  If you answer for someone who is busy or for someone who is not around, you should always offer to take a message. This can be as simple as saying “I’m sorry. He’s busy at the moment. May I take a message?” If the person who is calling asks you to help out instead, but you don’t know how to solve the problem, it is always polite to say, “I’m sorry I don’t know, but I’d be happy to pass the message on to John.”

If you have to interrupt others

  If you need to use the phone or talk to someone who is on the phone, you should wait until he finishes his phone conversation. However, if it’s so urgent that you can’t wait anymore, you can say “Excuse me, may I talk to you for a second?” or “I’m sorry, but I need to make an urgent call. Do you mind if I use the phone?”

1. From the passage we can learn that ______________ is the most important thing to leave a good impression when talking on the phone.

A. speaking slowly     B. giving as much information as possible

C. speaking politely     D. making yourself feel comfortable

2. When answering the phone, most companies like to _____________ as soon as they pick up the phone.

A. let the caller know who he or she has reached    B. ask the caller’s name

C. wait for the caller to introduce himself or herself   D. ask what the caller is calling for

3. The underlined word “urgent” means “_________________”.

A. making you feel proud  B. very strange

C. very difficult       D. needing to be done at once

4. The passage is written mainly to __________________.

A. teach some good communication skills     B. teach some good phone manners

C. show the importance of good phone manners  D. tell people good manners are important

 

  Getting paid to talk about the World Cup is a great job. I' m not a football commentator (评论员), though - just an English teacher in Japan.

 I came to Japan two years ago, and didn' t think I would stay, but Japan has that effect on you. People often end up living here longer than they planned. I think it' s best to teach, in a bigger city where there are other foreigners to mix with, rather than a small town where English teachers often complain of feeling like a goldfish in a bowl. Many people choose to live in Tokyo, of course, which is good for the nightlife factor. But I' d say that for general quality of living, cities of neither too large nor too small, like Sapporo where I live, are better choices.

  I teach English privately, which means I' m my own boss. If you want to devote yourself to private teaching, it's well worth doing a TEFL course first, because your lessons will be much better for it. The problem with private teaching is finding students; it took me a year to build up a full schedule (日程表) of private lessons, so I started out teaching in schools part-time.

  Most of my foreign friends here work full-time for big English conversation schools. The salary is fine to live on, but whether you can save money depends on how much going out and traveling you do here.

  The schools are reluctant to take time off - even teachers with tickets for the England-Argentina game had trouble getting the day off.

1. From the passage we know in Japan the writer likes to live in ________.

A. Tokyo    B. a small town  C. a city of middle size     D. a big city

2. According to the writer, one had better ________ first to do private teaching better.

A. take a TEFL course       B. decide his or her own lessons

C. find students          D. build up a full schedule

3. The underlined sentence in the second paragraph implies that ________.

A. there are many foreigners in Japan    B. Japan is good for nightlife

C. they can teach English privately in Japan

D. Japan has something more attractive than expected

4. The underlined word “reluctant” in the passage may probably mean ________.

A. kind     B. unwilling     C. free      D. careless

 

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