Just listen

I suspect that the most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our  36  , and especially if it’s given from the 37 . When people are talking, there’s no need to do anything but 38 them. Just take them  39 . Listen to what they’re saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than  40 it.

One of my patients told me that when she 41  to tell her story, people often  42  to tell her that they had once had something just like what happened to her. Subtly, her pain became a story about themselves.   43  she stopped talking to most people. It was just too 44 . We connect through listening. When we interrupt what someone is saying to let them know that we understand, we move the 45  of attention to ourselves. But when we listen, they know we care.

I have ever learned to 46  to someone crying by just listening. In the old days I used to reach for the tissues(纸巾)  47 I realized that passing a person a tissue may be just another way to shut them  48 , to take them out of their  49 of sadness and pain. Now I just listen. When they have cried all they need to cry, they find me there 50  them.

This 51  thing has not been that easy to learn. It certainly went against everything I had been  52  since I was very young at school. I thought people listened only because they were too  53 to speak or did not know the answer. A loving silence often has far more 54  to connect than the most well-intentioned(善意的) 55 .

1.                A．introduction     B．instruction      C．attention  D．relaxation

2.                A．head           B．memory        C．mind D．heart

3.                A．talk to          B．listen to         C．object to(反对) D．stick to(坚持)

4.                A．in             B．up             C．off  D．away

5.                A．denying(否认)   B．remembering    C．questioning    D．understanding

6.                A．managed       B．tried           C．hoped    D．expected

7.                A．encouraged     B．interrupted      C．discouraged   D．urged

8.                A．Eventually       B．Immediately     C．Completely    D．Especially

9.                A．impolite        B．meaningless     C．lonely    D．selfish

10.               A．middle         B．focus          C．center    D．choice

11.               A．respond        B．compare        C．link   D．regret

12.               A．unless         B．if             C．until  D．when

13.               A．down          B．away           C．in    D．off

14.               A．experiment     B．mixture        C．judgment  D．experience

15.               A．with           B．against         C．for   D．among

16.               A．complex(费解的) B．simple         C．single D．complicated(复杂的)

17.               A．mentioned      B．published       C．taught D．proved

18.               A．shy            B．greedy         C．active D．proud

19.               A．strength        B．energy         C．power D．force

20.               A．gestures        B．praise          C．criticism   D．words

Would you like to be a king or queen? To have people waiting on you hand and foot? Many Americans experience this royal treatment every day. How? By being customers. The American idea of customer service is to make each customer the center of attention. Need proof? Just listen to the commercials. Most of them sound like the McDonald’s ad: “We do it all for you.” Actually, not all stores in America roll out the red carpet for their customers. But wherever you go, good customer service means making customers feel special.

People going shopping in America can expect to be treated with respect from the very beginning. Most places don’t have a “furniture street” or a “computer road” which allow you to compare prices easily. Instead, people often “let their fingers do the walking” through the store hot lines. From the first “hello”, customers receive a satisfying response to their questions. This initial contact can help them decide where to shop.

When customers get to the store, they are treated as honored guests. Customers don’t usually find store clerks sitting around watching TV or playing cards. Instead, the clerks greet them warmly and offer to help them find what they want. In most stores, the clear signs that label each department make shopping a breeze. Customers usually don’t have to ask how much items cost, since prices are clearly marked. And unless they’re at a flea market or a yard sale, they don’t bother trying to bargain.

When customers are ready to check out, they find the nearest and shortest checkout lane. But as Murphy’s Law would have it, whichever lane they get in, all the other lanes will move faster. Good stores open new checkout lanes when the lanes get too long. Some even offer express lanes for customers with 10 items or less. After they pay for their purchases, customers receive a smile and a warm “thank you” from the clerk. Many stores even allow customers to take their shopping carts out to the parking lot. That way, they don’t have to carry heavy bags out to the car.

By quoting (引用) the McDonald’s ad: “We do it all for you”, the author intends to_______.

A. suggest that customers believe what commercials say deeply

B. show readers the American idea on good customer service

C. express all the stores pay much attention to the customers

D. persuade readers to choose the stores with ads correctly

In the USA, what may you do at first if you want to do some shopping?

A. To visit a professional street with lots of similar stores.

B. To compare prices in many shops in the same street.

C. To make phone calls and get better shopping choices.

D. To receive other customers’ answers to the questions.

The Underlined words “a breeze” in Para.3 most probably means _________.

A. an easy job　　  B. a trouble　　    C. a funny thing　　    D. a boring task

Which of the followings shows American stores offer convenience to customers in this passage?

A. The store clerks don’t usually sit around watching TV or playing cards.

B. Some stores offer price bargain to the customers like a yard sale.

C. The clerks give customers a smile and a warm “thank you” after paying.

D. Some stores open new checkout lanes when the lanes are crowded.

D
Taste is suc．h a subjective matter that we dori't usually conduct preference tests for food． The most you can say about anyone's preference is that it's one person's opinion．But because the two bigcola companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola-are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered how big arole taste-preference actually plays in brand loyalty．We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting．
we inwited staff wolunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi, Diet Coke．or Diet Pepsi．These were people who thought they'd have no trouble telling their brand from the oLher brancl．
We eventuallv located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers．Then we fed them with four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other．rOVe asked them to tell us whether each sample wa．s Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices \~-ith what mere guesswork could have accom-plished．
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, biit not too tough, we thought, for people whobelieved they could recognize their brand． In the end, only 7 0ut of 19 regular cola drinkers correct-ly identified their brand of choice in all four trial．s． The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 out of 27 identified all four samples correctly．
Both groups did better than chance would predict, but nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times．Two people got all'four samples vrrong． Overall, hal．f theparticipants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so tiredness, or taste burn-out, was not a factor． Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price．
71．According to the passage the preference test was conducted in order to______
A．show that a person's opinion about taste is mere guesswork
B．compare the ability of the participants in choosing their drinks
C．find out the role taste preference plays in a person's drinking
D．reveal which cola is more to the liking of the dr-inkcrs
72．The statistics recorded in the preference tests show that         
A．there is not much difference in taste between Coca-Cola and Pepsi
B．few people had trouble telling Coca-Cola from Pepsi
C．people's tastes differ from one another
D．Coca-Cola and Pepsi are people's two most favorite drinks
73．It is implied in the first paragraph that______
A．the competition between the two colas is very strong
B．blind tasting is necessary for identifying fans
C．the purpose of taste test is to promote the sale of colas
D．the improvement of quality is the chief concern of the two cola companies
74．The underlined word "bumout" here refers to the state of          ．
A．being seriously bumt in the skin
B．being badly damaged by fire
C．being unable to bum for lack of fuel
D．being unable to function because of too much use
75．The author's purpose in writing this passage is to           ．
A．emphasize that taste and price are closely related to each other
B．recommend that blind tasting be introduced in the quality control'of colas
C．show that taste preference is highly subjective
D．argue that taste testing is an important marketing strategy

__________ with the size of the whole earth，the highest mountain doesn’t seem high at all.

A.When compared                              B.To compare?

C.While comparing                                   D.It compared?

I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps (快照), maybe occasionally for magazines. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an assistant, “Can I have one of those?”? He looked perturbed (不安). “Do you want to try it first?” he said. It didn’t quite sound like a question. “Do I need to?” I replied ,“There is nothing wrong with it？” This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad. “No, no. But you should try it,” he said encouragingly. “Compare it with the others. ”
I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.
But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out of my chosen camera from cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers… and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well.
Why do we think that new options still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.
【小题1】The shop assistant insisted that the writer should________.