It is true that good writers rewrite and rewrite and then rewrite some more. But in order to work up the desire to rewrite, it is important to learn to like what you write at the early stage.
I am surprised at the number of famous writers I know who say that they so dislike reading their own writing later that they even hate to look over the publishers’ opinions. One reason we may dislike reading our own work is that we’re often disappointed that the rich ideas in our minds seem very thin and plain when first written down. Jerry Fodor and Steven Pinker suggest that this fact may be a result of how our minds work.
Different from popular belief, we do not usually think in the works and sentences of ordinary language but in symbols for ideas (known as ‘mentalese’ ), and writing our ideas down is an act of translation from that symbolic language. But while mentalese contains our thoughts in the form of a complex tapestry (织锦)，writing can only be composed one thread at a time. Therefore it should not be surprising that our first attempt at expressing ideas should look so simple. It is only by repeatedly rewriting that we produce new threads and connect them to get closer to the ideas formed in our minds.
When people write as if some strict critics (批评家) are looking over their shoulder, they are so worried about what this critic might say that they get stuck before they even start. Peter Elbow makes an excellent suggestion to deal with this problem. When writing we should have two different minds. At the first stage, we should see every idea, as well as the words we use to express it, as wonderful and worth putting down. It is only during rewrites that we should examine what we excitedly wrote in the first stage and check for weaknesses.What do we learn from the text about those famous writers?
| A．They often regret writing poor works. |
| B．Some of them write surprisingly much. |
| C．Many of them hate reading their own works. |
| D．They are happy to review the publishers’ opinions. |
What do people generally believe about the way human minds work?
| A．People think in words and sentences. |
| B．Human ideas are translated into symbols. |
| C．People think by connecting threads of ideas. |
| D．Human thoughts are expressed through pictures. |
What can we conclude from the text?
| A．Most people believe we think in symbols. |
| B．Loving our own writing is scientifically reasonable. |
| C．The writers and critics can never reach an agreement. |
| D．Thinking and writing are different stages of mind at work. |
No matter what type of business you run, it has to deal with situations in which things go wrong from your customer’s point of view. Complaints can be a great source of information for the organizations. So it’s important to learn to deal with customer complaints efficiently.
Firstly, listen actively to what the customer has to say by keeping comfortable eye contact and giving full attention with no interrupting. You should also show your customer that you do understand him.
Secondly, when receiving a complaint you should apologize for the failure the customer has identified. It’s important for you to know that your apology must appear authentic to the customer, and not an empty exercise. And also you should show the customer you’ve accepted the responsibility and provide him with choices if you have some in hand or otherwise assure the customer you’ll do something about his complaint.
Thirdly, talk with the consumer and discover the best means to resolve his problem. There will be times when, after gathering the facts of a situation, you’ll be unable to resolve the problem immediately. In this case it’s important to let your customer know how long it’ll take to take action on his complaint.
Fourthly, a simple “Thank you” is one way to let the customer know you appreciate the time and effort he has taken to inform you about a problem with your company’s service or product you need to know about.
Lastly, give your customer something that shows your appreciation for him giving the feedback to you. And let him know you’re sorry for the mistake that was made. It isn’t necessary to give something that is costly; but a coupon(赠券) for a free drink or movie is fine.
Your professional and well-organized method of dealing with your customer complaints is one more way that will make you stay ahead of your competitors.What does the passage mainly talk about?
| A．Importance of dealing with customer complaints. |
| B．Effects of customer complaints on business. |
| C．Tips for handling complaints from customers. |
| D．Several factors resulting in customer complaints. |
The author thinks that customer complaints _____________.
| A．are easy to deal with | B．are really quite annoying |
| C．can actually be avoided | D．are sometimes beneficial |
The underlined word “authentic” in Paragraph 3 most probably means _______.
| A．touching | B．believable | C．attractive | D．clever |
According to the passage, what is the first thing you should do when facing the customer complaints?
| A．Showing sincere attitude. |
| B．Making an honest apology. |
| C．Making an absolute promise. |
| D．Listening to the complaint attentively. |
The next time your face turns red after tripping(绊倒) over your own feet in public, don’t try to hide it—a new study finds that showing your embarrassment actually makes other people view you as more reliable.
Researchers at the University of California have carried out the study and found that embarrassment is a good signature of a person to whom you can entrust valuable resources.
Not only are the findings useful for people seeking cooperative and reliable team members and business partners, but they also make for helpful dating advice.“Moderate(适度的) levels of embarrassment are signs of virtue. Our data suggests embarrassment is a good thing, not something you should fight.”said Matthew Feinberg, who led the study.
While the most typical gesture of embarrassment is a downward gaze to one side while partly covering the face, a person who feels shame, as distinguished(区别) from embarrassment, will typically cover the whole face, Feinberg said.
The results were got from a series of experiments. In the first experiment, 60 college students were videotaped describing embarrassing moments, such as making incorrect assumptions(假想) based on appearances. The college students also participated in the “Dictator Game” which is used in economics research to measure altruism(利己主义). For example, each was given 10 raffle tickets(奖券) and asked to keep a share of the tickets and give the reminder(提示物) to a partner.
The findings, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showed that those who showed greater levels of embarrassment tended to give away more of their raffle tickets, indicating(﹦showing) greater generosity. According to the passage, which of the following is thought to be reliable?
| A．A person who feels shame. |
| B．A person who hides his embarrassment. |
| C．A person who shows his embarrassment. |
| D．A person who gives away more raffle tickets. |
We can infer from Paragraph 3 that ________.
| A．it’s useless to fight our embarrassment |
| B．people should try to overcome their embarrassment |
| C．embarrassed people are not good at doing business |
| D．people who show embarrassment can be good business partners |
The “Dictator Game ” is used to _________.
| A．measure the students’ economic status |
| B．test whether a student is generous or not |
| C．determine the different levels of embarrassment |
| D．record how each student reacts during embarrassing moments |
We learn from the last paragraph that those who showed greater levels of embarrassment ____.
| A．proved to be more generous | B．kept more of the raffle tickets |
| C．didn’t care for raffle tickets | D．were less reliable |
How to Tell If Someone Is Happy or Sad on the Phone
Scientists have come up with some researches on what makes different types of people“tick”.
The scientists at the University of Cambridge have developed new mobile phone technology called Emotion Sense that can tell if a caller is happy, angry or sad.
Scientists hope to fit the speech recognition system to standard mobile phones and use it to determine emotions—it will also use a GPS tracking system to log where the call is made.
And they’ve already made some pretty major breakthroughs into really getting under the skin of us humans.
The results from the pilot scheme make interesting scientific reading. Among the key revelations (﹦facts) are that callers feel happier at home and sadder at work.
To break it down, scientifically, it shows 45 percent of all emotions produced at home are “happy”and 54 percent of emotions at work are “sad”.
Meanwhile, people show more “intense”(﹦nervous) emotions in the evening than they do in the morning.
Of course, this could just be because most people feel too tired in the morning to get overly “intense”. Eating breakfast and getting to work on time is usually enough of an achievement.
Anyway, the Emotion Sense technology has been developed by psychologists(心理学家) and computer scientists who say it uses speech recognition software and phone sensors(传感器) attached to standard smart phones to judge how callers’ emotions are changed by everyday factors.
The sensors analyze voice samples and these are then divided into five categories: happiness, sadness, fearfulness, anger or neutral-—boredom or passivity(消极) would fit into this last category.How many emotions can the sensors tell?
| A．Two | B．Three | C．Four | D．Five |
What does the underlined sentence mean?
| A．Scientists have put something testing people’s emotions under humans’ skin. |
| B．There were some breakthroughs in this technology in getting something from people’s skin. |
| C．In this technology, people’s skin was broken through. |
| D．There were improvements in testing people’s emotions. |
Why do most people feel less intense in the morning than in the evening?
| A．Because morning is the start of a new day. |
| B．because they feel too tired in the morning. |
| C．Because of humans’ physiological structure. |
| D．Because of the fresh air and bright sunlight. |
Which of the following hasn’t been put into the standard mobile phones?
| A．Speech recognition software. | B．Phone sensors. |
| C．GPS sensors. | D．Translation system. |
I woke up this morning. There is an empty feeling that I have had so many times before and it seems to be coming back into my mind. What is it? I can’t figure it out.
I got ready for work. On the way I decide to stop and get a cheese from the little shop just down the road. I have never been there before but I was hungry and it would be 5 hours before I got off work.
The owner of the store took my order. He asked me what I wanted and I told him I heard he made a great cheese. He seemed pleased to hear that.
As I was sitting in the small space，there was an elderly gentleman finishing his breakfast. He paid the waitress, received this change and made a small joke. As he turned to get up, which was quite a difficult feat for this gentleman, he looked over at me. I gave a small smile.
He looked again in my direction for a moment and said to me, “Has anyone ever told you, you have the most beautiful brown eyes?”
Seeing as I have blue eyes, I can’t say I have ever heard that before. I humored him and said, “No, I can’t say anyone has ever told me that before.”
He smiled, and said,“Well since they are blue you wouldn’t have heard that, but you have beautiful blue eyes.”
I laughed and said thank you very much. He began to tell me a few one liner jokes so I smiled and laughed at his jokes.
He tried to get up to leave again and looked at me and said“Your smile really brightens a room, do you know that?”I said,“Thank you very much.”
He proceeded to get up, which took him quite some time. As he got up he said,“Take care of that smile.”
I felt a sense of comfort wash over me and I reflected on my morning and that empty feeling I had. For a moment in time it seemed to be filled.Before the writer went to work, he felt________.
| A．sleepy | B．energetic | C．sick | D．unhappy |
From the text, we can infer the old man __________.
| A．was optimistic about life | B．liked to play a joke on others |
| C．was unwilling to leave | D．had difficulty in hearing |
By saying“since they are blue”, the old man meant“_____________”.
| A．because they feel cold | B．because they are sad |
| C．because they have blue eyes | D．because they are hungry |
What lesson can we learn from the story?
| A．We should find comfort from stranger. |
| B．We should pay attention to our own business. |
| C．We should laugh off our worries in life |
| D．We should show respect to the old people. |
Roger Alvarez, 22, was one of the 52 percent of students who didn’t make it through his senior year at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles.
He dropped out several years ago, but by the time he was in ninth grade, Alvarez says he already knew he wasn’t going to graduate.
“There’s a certain amount of knowledge you have to have when you enter in a specific grade, and I didn’t have it.” Alvarez says,“Every class I used to go in, I was like, ‘Do I know this? I don’t know this.’”
It was a shameful attitude, he tells his former English teacher, Antero Garcia, 29.
“You were determined to help me, but what was I willing to give? I could have actually tried.”
For his part, Garcia wants to know how he could have reached out to Alvarez better, but Alvarez says Garcia had always been helpful.
“I mean, you could cheer me up, and then I see other students doing way better,” Alvarez says,“So then, I get nervous. I get stuck, and then my motivation goes to the floor.” He felt the situation was hopeless.
“You talked to me like if I could do it, but inside me, I knew I couldn’t.” he tells Garcia,“I just didn’t want you to think that I’m…stupid.”
Now, school is a life tool that Alvarez says he’s missing—but his teacher isn’t to blame.
“Always, I just wanted you to know…you were a good teacher, and I always respected you.” he tells Garcia,“Some teachers, I felt like they only wanted to teach a certain group of people. But you looked at me and you paid attention.”
“Maybe it didn’t get me to graduate, but there’re a lot of teachers, they don’t take the time to take a look. And it was never your fault.”
Alvarez now works the night shift at a loading dock(码头). He still hopes to get his degree one day.When Alvarez entered a grade, he was sure that ___________.
| A．he wasn’t going to pass the class |
| B．he would do better than other students |
| C．he might learn an amount of knowledge |
| D．he would try his best to learn at class |
By saying “my motivation goes to the floor”, Alvarez meant __________.
| A．he hid his goal from others | B．he lost heart gradually |
| C．he built up his motivation | D．he fell to the ground completely |
In the opinion of Alvarez, most teachers _______.
| A．paid no attention to teaching | B．had no time to read books |
| C．didn’t care about what he did | D．showed no respect to students |
The passage mainly tells us that _________.
| A．a dropout complains about being treated badly |
| B．a dropout plans to get his degree again |
| C．a dropout shows respect for not graduating |
| D．a dropout has thanks to his teacher not blame |