Certain people make you feel comfortable when they are around. You spend an hour with them and feel as if you’ve known them half your life. These people have something in common. And once you know what it is, we can try to do it ourselves.

   How is it done? Here are several skills that good talkers have. If you follow the skills, they will help you to put people at their ease, and make friends with them quickly.

   First of all, good talkers have asked questions. Almost anyone, no matter how shy he is, will answer a question. One well-known businesswoman says, “At business lunches, I always ask people what they did that morning. It’s a common question, but it will get things going.” From there you can move on to other matters ----sometimes to really personal questions. And how he answers will let you know how far you can go.

   Second, once good talkers have asked questions, they listen for the answers. This point seems clear, but it isn’t. Your question should have a point and help to tell what sort of person you are talking to. And to find out, you really have to listen carefully and attentively.

   Real listening at least means some things. First it means not to change the subject of conversation. If someone sticks to one topic, you can take it as a fact that he is really interested in it. Real listening also means not just listening to words, but to the tone (语调)of voice. If the voice sounds dull, then it’s time for you to change the subject.

   Finally, good talkers know well how to deal with the occasion of parting. If you’re saying goodbye, you may give him a firm shakehand and say, “I’ve really enjoyed meeting you.” If you want to see that person again, don’t keep it a secret. Let people know what you feel, and they may walk away feeling as if they’ve known you half their lives.

1.You’ll like to stay with some people____.

A. who have something in common with you

B. when you get into real trouble

C. with whom you feel it easy to get along well

D. from whom you can get necessary and timely help

2.After asking somebody a question, you should____.

A. make it clear what is fit to ask next

B. wait quietly for his answers

C. go on to ask more questions

D. change the subject to another one

3.If you want to see that person again,____ when parting.

A. let him know what you feel

B. giving them a firm shakehand

C. asking proper questions and being a good listener

D. keeping talking to others to them in the conversation

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He stopped by the fence in front of the house where he lived with his aunt Polly. He looked at it, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.
He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day. They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.
He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets —nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea
At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.
While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding-Dong-Dong”, “Ding-Dong-Dong” again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.
Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I’m going swimming, but you can’t go, can you?”
No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.
Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you’ve got to work, hey?”
Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it’s you, Ben! I wasn’t noticing.”
“Say —I’m going swimming. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d rather work — wouldn’t you? Of course you would.”
Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said “What do you call work?”
“Why, isn’t that work?”
Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.
“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”
“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to say that you like it?”
The brush continued to move.
“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I shouldn’t like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”
Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said,
“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”
Tom thought for a moment, was about to agree; but he changed his mind.
“No —no —it won’t do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don’t think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”
“No —is that so? Oh come, now —let me just try. Only just a little.” “Ben, I’d like to, but if it isn’t done right, I’m afraid Aunt Polly … ”
“Oh, I’ll be careful. Now let me try. Say —I’ll give you the core of my apple.”
“Well, here —No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afraid …”
“I’ll give you all of it.”
Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought in for a dead rat —and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.
And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company －and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.
He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.
【小题1】How many characters are mentioned in this story?

----we’ve spent too much money recently.

----well, it isn’t surprising. Our friends and relatives______around all the time

A. are coming                             B. had come

C. were coming                            D. have been coming

In Daniel Gilbert's 2006 book "Stumbling(跌撞) on Happiness," the Harvard professor of psychology looks at several studies and concludes that marital(婚姻的) satisfaction decreases after the birth of the first child and increases only when the last child has left home. He also declares that parents are happier grocery shopping and even sleeping than spending time with their kids.

The most recent comprehensive study on the emotional state of those with kids shows us that the term "bundle of joy" may not be the most accurate way to describe our kids. "Parents experience lower levels of emotional well-being, less frequent positive emotions and more frequent negative emotions than their childless peers," says Florida State University's Robin Simon, a sociology professor.

Simon received plenty of hate mail in response to her research，which isn't surprising. Her findings shake the very foundation of what we've been raised to believe is true. In a recent NEWSWEEK Poll, 50 percent of Americans said that adding new children to the family tends to increase happiness levels. But which parent is willing to admit that the greatest gift life has to offer has in fact made his or her life less enjoyable?

Is it possible that American parents have always been this disillusioned(有幻觉的)? In pre-industrial America, parents certainly loved their children, but their kids also served a purpose—to work the farm, contribute to the household. Today, we have kids more for emotional reasons, but an increasingly complicated work and social environment has made finding satisfaction far more difficult. Raising children has not only become more complicated, it has become more expensive as well. The National Marriage Project's 2006 report says that parents have significantly lower marital satisfaction than nonparents because they experienced more single and child-free years than previous generations.

As for those of us with kids, all the news isn't bad. Parents still report feeling a greater sense of purpose and meaning in their lives than those who've never had kids. And there are other rewarding aspects of parenting that are impossible to quantify.

1..

 What’s the main idea of the book Stumbling on Happiness?

A. Parents are happier shopping than looking after their children.

B. Once they have children, the couples can never be as happy as before.

C. Compared with their childless peers, parents are leading a sad life.

D. The adding of children at home brings down marital satisfaction.

2..

. What can we infer from Para.3?

A. The Newsweek Poll shows that people think Prof. Simon’s finding is right.

B. Many people can’t accept the fact that they are not happy with their children.

C. It isn’t surprising that Professor Simon’s controversial research made her famous.

D. Simon’s findings are based on the belief passed down from generation to generation.

3..

 What can we learn about American’s families in the past?

A. People had very good parents-children relationship in the family.

 B. Having children could be partly out of some practical purposes.

C. Parents loved their children but they still asked them to work a lot.

D. Children had to work very hard to make their parents love them.

4..

 What’s the author’s opinion about having children?

A. The author doesn’t think having children is a good thing to the family.

B. The author feels children make the life of a family happy.

C. The author thinks parenting can still be rewarding in a certain way.

D. The author believes that parents sacrifice a lot for having children.

Romance does not have to fizzle out（失败） in long-term relationships and progress into a companionship/friendship-type love, a new study has found. Romantic love can last a lifetime and lead to happier, healthier   1  .

"Many believe that   2  love is the same as passionate（多情的）love," said lead researcher Bianca P. Acevedo, PhD, then at Stony Brook University (currently at University of California, Santa Barbara). "It isn't. Romantic love has the intensity, engagement and sexual chemistry that passionate love has, minus the obsessive component（过度成分）. Passionate or obsessive love includes   3  of uncertainty and anxiety. This kind of love   4  drive the shorter relationships but not the longer ones."

These findings   5  in the March issue of Review of General Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.

Acevedo and co-researcher Arthur Aron, PhD, reviewed 25 studies with 6,070 individuals in short- and long-term relationships to    6  whether romantic love is associated with more satisfaction. To determine this, they   7  the relationships in each of the studies as romantic, passionate (romantic with obsession) or friendship-like love and categorized them as long- or short-term.

The researchers looked at 17 short-term relationship studies, which included 18- to 23-year-old college students who were   8  , dating or married, with the average relationship lasting less than four years. They also   9  at 10 long-term relationship studies including middle-aged couples who were typically married 10 years or more. Two of the   10  ncluded both long- and short-term relationships in which it was possible to distinguish the two samples.

The review found that those who reported greater romantic love were more   11  in both the short- and long-term relationships. Companion-like love was only moderately   12  with satisfaction in both short- and long-term relationships. And those who reported greater passionate love in their relationships were more satisfied in the short term   13  to the long term.

Couples who reported more satisfaction in their relationships also   14  being happier and having higher self-esteem.

Feeling that a partner is "there for you"   15  or a good relationship, Acevedo said, and facilitates（促进） feelings of romantic love. On the other hand, "feelings of insecurity are generally associated with   16  satisfaction, and in some   17  may spark conflict in the relationship. This can manifest（表白） into obsessive love," she said.

This discovery may change people's   18  of what they want in long-term relationships. According to the authors, companionship love, which is what many couples see as the natural   19  of a successful relationship, may be an unnecessary compromise(妥协). "Couples should strive for love with all the trimmings（修剪）," Acevedo said. "And couples who've been together a long time and wish to get back their romantic edge should know it is an attainable（可达到的） goal that, like most good things in life,   20  energy and devotion."

(   ) 1. A. scholarships      B. friendships        C. relationships     D. companionships

(   ) 2. A. obsessive            B. romantic           C. passionate        D. companion

(   ) 3. A. feelings              B. factors              C. consequences    D. barriers

(   ) 4. A. contributes        B. helps               C. prevents           D. speeds

(   ) 5. A. occur                 B. take                 C. write               D. appear

(   ) 6. A. find out             B. work out          C. take out            D. bring out

(   ) 7. A. separated            B. classified          C. divided             D. cut

(   ) 8. A. alone                 B. lonely              C. single                   D. unique

(   ) 9. A. glanced              B. glared              C. stared                   D. looked

(   ) 10. A. findings           B. examinations     C. experiments      D. studies

(   ) 11. A. unpleased        B. disappointed     C. satisfied            D. desperate

(   ) 12. A. referred            B. associated        C. contended        D. conflicted

(   ) 13. A. compared        B. comparing               C. added                   D. led

(   ) 14. A. reported           B. said                  C. believed           D. hoped

(   ) 15. A. takes               B. makes              C. means              D. depends

(   ) 16. A. higher              B. lower                      C. no                    D. much

(   ) 17. A. environments    B. states               C. air                   D. cases

(   ) 18. A. views                      B. expectations      C. remarks            D. statements

(   ) 19. A. progression       B. change             C. results              D. choice

(   ) 20. A. produces          B. satisfies            C. requires            D. consumes