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?

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

3.We can learn from the passage that ______.

4.The underlined word "assertiveness" in the last paragraph probably means ______.

People have smoked cigarettes for a long time now. The tobacco which is used to make cigarettes was first grown in what is now part of the United States. Christopher Columbus, who discovered America, saw the Indians smoking. Soon the dried leaves were transported to Europe . In the late 1800s, the Turks made cigarettes popular.
Cigarette smoke contains at least two harmful substances, tar and nicotine. Tar, which forms as the tobacco burns, damages the lungs and therefore affects breathing. Nicotine, which is found in the leaves, causes the heart to beat faster and increases the breathing rate. Nicotine in large can kill a person by stopping a person’s breathing muscles. Smokers usually take in small amounts that the body can quickly break down.
Nicotine can make new smokers feel dizzy(头晕) or sick to their stomachs. The heart rate for young smokers increases 2 to 3 beats per minute. Nicotine also lowers skin temperature and reduces blood flow in the legs and feet. It plays an important role in increasing smokers’ risk of heart disease and stroke.
Smoking cigarettes is dangerous. Cigarette smoking was the cause of lung cancer and several other deadly diseases.
【小题1】.
Tobacco first appeared in_________.

他希望靠卖饮料 (drinks)为生。(make one’s living，by doing)

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A person searches various websites for different reasons, such as school, work, or entertainment. For teenagers, many informative resources on the Internet can be used. As a matter of fact, there are educational, music and art websites that are truly helpful to teenagers, because they can help make one’s life easier.

Educational websites are helpful to a teenager in doing school work and searching for a college. Some can help studying for tests, explaining a lesson, and doing homework. Some can help find the right schools based on one’s interests. And still others have pages devoted to the social life at each of the colleges or the specific activities that occur at a certain school.

   Some free music sites enable a teenager to diversify their musical tastes. On these sites, all types of music are available such as pop, cock, jazz, and country. One can type in a song, category or artist and his or her entire catalog appears. Then, the listener can make multiple playlists without creating an account(账户)with the site.

   There are various art websites that can help students to appreciate and create art pieces. On these sites, a student can view numerous photos and art pieces from different mediums or create an account with the website to upload them art pieces for people to see. In addition, one can enjoy various art projects that people have created on display for the rest of the world.

Truly informative resources are offered on the Internet. The best suggestion one car receive is to try to look for new websites that can help in the educational, music, or art area so one can become well-rounded and informed.

Truly Helpful Websites for Teenagers

When I was 19，I had got a job in my local bookstore. Living in the large city，I usually saw many strange customers(顾客)，most of  1  were teenagers. They didn’t come often；I forgot all the customers  2  two. One night a 15-year-old girl came in looking for a book with a boy. They seemed to find what they wanted to buy. But  3  they came to the counter（柜台），the girl found she was a dollar or two short to buy the book，and she took
4 all her money to prove it. She looked so disappointed. Just then I remembered my discount card and 5  was still active，so I told the girl   6  to worry. I put in my code（密码），being happy that I could help them with this card. With the book in her hand she gave me  7   thankful smile，and then she and the boy got out of the store happily，leaving me feeling content，too.  8 fact, sometimes a little thing can also make one’s world beautiful.