Question

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?

A. Betty was talkative.                                                       B. Betty was an interrupter.

C. Betty did not take her turn.                              D. Betty paid no attention to Sara.

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

A. Americans.                     B. Israelis.                 C. The British.            D. The Finns.

3.58. We can learn from the passage that ______.

A. communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing

B. women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US

C. one's inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes

D. one should receive training to build up one's confidence

Answer

1.C

2.B

3.

【解析】

试题分析：

【文章大意】本文是一篇说明文。文章介绍了不同国家之间的语言交谈的文化差异。

1.C考查细节理解。根据文章第一段中的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.可知，Sara认为Betty坚持不到她对话的结束，Betty抱怨Sara从不给她说话的机会。所以选C。

2.B考查推理判断。根据文章第三段中的Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.可知，Sara期望对话停顿短些，而Sara却发现在拉丁美洲人和以色列人之间插话很难找到时间。这说明他们之间的说话停顿更短。故选B。

3.C考查推理判断。根据文章的第三段可知，不同国家之间的对话停顿时间不同，这是由各国的文化决定的。所以选C。

考点：考查说明文的阅读理解。