A conversation is not a business meeting at work or with your family. It is a personal or informal talk that takes place in the restaurant, in a car or walking on the street on your way to work.
It can make or break a relationship. It can make a career successful. It can make new friends. It can just brighten up another person’s life. It can change the world!
Here are some ways to make a conversation bring meaning to you and others.
Before starting a conversation, be clear about what you want to achieve. Knowing your purpose beforehand allows you to keep your conversation to the point and never get lost out of the way.
Start a topic that is very timely and appropriate. The starting point has to be depending on your relationship with the person you are talking to and the situation the person or both of you are going through. Starting the conversation with the right topic sets the tone that brings both sides at ease.
Come up with something that will make both of you interested. This allows the other person to be drawn more to speak up. Discovering common likes and dislikes opens up a bond (纽带) between two people.
Put yourself in the shoes of the other person. Think how the other person feels at that moment. Feeling how the other person feels helps you to be in his position.
One of the most difficult tasks to do in a conversation is really listening. Do not prepare for what to say while the other person is talking. Do not just keep quiet because you want to give the other person a time to talk. The proof that you really listen is to repeat your understanding of what was said in your own words.
After you have spoken, give the other person a time to talk. There are some people who like to talk about themselves. If you are one of them, try to be less selfish. A conversation is not a monologue (独角戏) or an interview.
Managing a conversation shows the kind of person you are. You do not have to wait for the other person to lead the discussion. You can do this. No matter who you are, if you lead a talk, you make a difference.
| How to make meaningful conversations |
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| Passage outline |
Supporting details |
| A conversation is a personal or informal talk taking place in the |
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| What can a conversation do? |
It can change the world by |
| How can you make a conversation |
Talk with a purpose. Knowing your purpose in |
| Choose a good |
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| Find common interests. Discovering common likes and dislikes opens up a bond between two people, allowing the other person to be drawn more to speak up. |
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| Put yourself in the shoes of the other person. Feeling how the other person feels can |
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| Allow your listener to |
第Ⅱ卷 (非选择题，共35分)
注意事项：
1．第Ⅱ卷共2页，用蓝、黑色的钢笔或圆珠笔直接答在试卷中。
2．答卷前，请将密封线内的项目填写清楚。
第三部分：写作
第一节：阅读表达（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）
阅读下面短文，按照要求完成阅读任务。
Native Tongue
At first Kate thought the Romanian girl could not speak and understand English. Nadia would not reply to anything Kate said. Kate was in charge of showing Nadia around on her first day at Buckminster Grade School. Kate could not figure out why the school had put Nadia in a class where she could not understand what people were saying.
“Why did they do this?” Kate wondered aloud. “I mean, you can’t learn if you can’t understand the teacher.”
Nadia’s voice was a whisper. “I understand English. I will learn.” Nadia’s English was perfect.
Kate was perplexed. She couldn’t understand why Nadia did not like to speak. Then she realized that moving to a new country probably wasn’t the easiest thing to do. There were hundreds of unfamiliar and unusual things to learn all at the same time.
“There’re a lot of new things to learn, huh?” said Kate.
Nadia nodded rapidly. In a quiet voice she replied, “Many things people say, I do not understand. I have been speaking English and Romanian all my life, but I do not know what some children are saying. For example, yesterday a boy asked if I could help him find the USB port on a thin black box he was carrying. Isn’t a port a place for ships? I was confused.”
“Don’t worry,” said Kate. “You’ll figure everything out in time. You see, that thin black box was a computer. A USB port is a place where you can connect other machines to a computer.”
Nadia and Kate were quiet after that. They took notes while the teacher gave a maths lesson. To Kate’s surprise, Nadia put up her hand and offered to answer questions at the blackboard.
Nadia handled every question the teacher gave her. Some of the questions were really difficult, and no one understood what was going on except Nadia and the teacher. When the teacher said that Nadia answered everything correctly, the whole class clapped their hands.
Nadia was smiling when she sat back down next to Kate. “Some things,” she said in a normal voice, “are the same all over the world.”
56. Where did Nadia come from? (Within 5words)
_______________________________________________________________________________57. What made Kate perplexed? (Within 5words)
______________________________________________________________________________
58. Please explain the phrase “figure everything out” in English. (Within 10words)
______________________________________________________________________________
59. Will you please give the reason why Nadia always kept quiet? (Within 15words)
______________________________________________________________________________
60. Did Nadia change a lot after her stay in America, what are they? (Within 20 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
Would you please listen? It’s a complaint we’ve all heard (though perhaps not listened to). The price paid for not listening can be high: from making a mess of a task to broken relationships. “Frustrated, devalued, and disrespected—that’s how people feel when they’re ‘heard’ but not ‘listened to’,” says Jennie Grau, president of communications training and coaching firm Taliaferro Grau Associates. Yet focusing attention and understanding—the qualities that make physically hearing different from actually listening—can be hard to develop.
Learn to truly understand others, and you’ll improve your personal and professional skill sets alike. Business is all about relationships, and being a better listener helps you establish more positive relationships, says Rockhurst University communications professor Laura Janusik.
The first step is to limit anything that draws your attention away. Give up multi-tasking, and focus on what the speaker’s saying. If the moment simply doesn’t allow you to pay full attention, set up an alternative time when you will be able to concentrate.
Next, stop interrupting. Always want to jump in before the other person finishes speaking? Control yourself like this: Press your fingers firmly, count to five, and re-evaluate whether it’s time to talk. Be aware of the subjects or words that influence your emotions—both positive and negative—and calm down before responding.
Finally, listen between the lines. If you hear only the words without paying attention to the speaker’s tone of voice, facial expression, and body language, you risk missing hidden meanings or important signals. Confirm you’ve “gotten” the message. Transform what others said into a few words of your own.
And when it’s your turn to speak, know you’ve provided a model for how you hope your words will be received.
63. What’s the difference between hearing and listening according to the passage? (No more than 14 words)
_________________________________________________________________________
64. What does the author mean by saying “listen between the lines” in Paragraph 5? (No more than 8 words)
__________________________________________________________________________
65. What’s the best title for the passage? (No more than 8 words)
__________________________________________________________________________
第II卷（非选择题，共35分）
注意事项：
1. 用黑色墨水的钢笔或签字笔将答案写在答题纸上。
2. 本卷共6小题，共35分。
第三部分：写作
第一节阅读表达（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）
阅读下面短文，并根据题目要求用英语回答问题（请注意问题后的字数要求）。
Sleepless in Seattle? Hardly. West Virginia is where people are really staying awake, according to the first government study to monitor state-by-state differences in sleeplessness. West Virginians’ lack of sleep was about double the national rate, perhaps a side effect of health problems such as obesity(肥胖), experts said.
Nearly 1 in 5 West Virginians said they did not get a single good night’s sleep in the previous month. The national average was about 1 in 10, according to a federal health survey. Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma also were notably above average with nearly 1 in 7 people reporting in a lack of sleep. In contrast, North Dakota was below average, with only 1 in 13 reporting that degree of sleeplessness. Health officials do not know the exact reasons for the differences.
In the survey, people weren’t required to answer the question why they were not able to get enough rest or sleep. But experts noted several possible explanations: West Virginia ranks at or near the bottom of the nation in several important measurements of health, including obesity, smoking, heart disease and the proportion of adults with disabilities.
Studies have increasingly found that sleeping problems often occurred among people with certain health problems, including obesity. “You would expect to see poorer sleep within a chronically (慢性地) diseased population,” noted Dr Ronald Chervin, a sleep disorders expert in University of Michigan.
Financial stress and work shifts(倒班)can play roles in sleeplessness, too, Chervin added. He suggested those may be contributing factors in West Virginia, an economically depressed state with tens of thousands of people working in coal mining.
The report was based on results of an annual telephone survey of more than 400,000 Americans, including at least 3,900 in each state. The survey did not include people who use only cellphones.
56. What is the main idea of Paragraph 1? (No more than 15 words.)
___________________________________________________________________________
57. What does the underlined word “notably” in Paragraph 2 mean? (No more than 3 words.)
___________________________________________________________________________
58. What was the possible reason for the high rate of sleeplessness in West Virginia according to Paragraph 3? (No more than 12 words.)
___________________________________________________________________________
59. List three factors that contribute to sleeplessness based on the passage.
(No more than 8 words.)
①____________________ ②_____________________ ③______________________
60. How was the research carried out? (No more than 10 words.)
___________________________________________________________________________
第二节：阅读下面61到65几段文字，为它们从A到F中选出适当的标题。注意：有一个标题是多余的。
| A．The most common problem is a “wandering” mind |
| B．Selective listening is also a mental barrier |
| C．Listening isn’t an easy skill to master |
| D．Attitudes can also interfere with good listening |
E．Noise and background music makes listening more difficult
F．Listening is also related to the level of the listener’s knowledge
1．__________________
Listening is not as easy as someone thought．Even good listeners may recall only fifty percent of what they hear．Retention, the ability to remember and recall information, decreases about twenty to twenty – five percent after a few days．So no matter how well you listen in class, you’re always going to have to refresh your memory before a test! Unfortunately, many people have poor listening habits, and little listening training．To improve your listening skills, it’s important to understand what causes poor listening．
2．__________________
If you find it difficult to concentrate solely on what a speaker is saying, there’s good reason．The mind processes information much faster than a speaker can speak．The brain can process over 500 words per minute, while the average speaker talks as a rate of 124 to 250 words per minute．That means the mind can hear what’s being said and can think about something else at the same time．
3．__________________
If you have a negative idea about the speaker or the topic, you’ll find it difficult to listen attentively．Hostile or captive audiences often have more difficultly listening than do favorable or voluntary ones．
4．__________________
If a speaker speaks “above the heads” of an audience, people find it difficult to concentrate．Speakers who use unfamiliar words or who use incomplete explanations make it more difficult to listen．Speakers who “speak down” to audiences, failing to acknowledge what the audience already knows, also create mental blocks．
5．__________________
When people listen selectively, they simply block out what they don’t want to hear．For instance, many people have habits that are dangerous to their health, like smoking．However, they often choose to block out what a speaker says about health risks．They may listen to a speech and think that the speaker’s message applies to other people, not them．In other words, they hear what they want to hear and ignore what they don’t want to hear．
第二部分原文填空
Fly the kite when a ________ appears to be coming on .Stand inside a door or under some __
___, so that the silk ribbon does not get wet. Take care that the string doesn’t touch the wall or the door. When a thundercloud comes over the kite, the__
___ piece of metal will pull the electricity from the cloud. The kite and the string will become _
____. When the kite and the string are wet from the rain, they will conduct the electricity very well. You can _
___ and store the electricity in the condenser and use it for other experiments