Question

【題目】

Do you want to become better at making small talk with new people? Do you want to become better at networking with others? Nothing will improve your networking ability and your ability to make a successful conversation with other people rather than your curiosity about them.

When you are curious about other people, you will want to discover some of the interesting ways that they are similar to you. When you are curious about them, you’ll also be interested to discover the ways in which they think differently and live differently from you.

When you have curiosity about others, you will be much less self-conscious and your conversations will work a lot better. Instead of worrying yourself, “What can I say next that won’t sound stupid?” you will be focused on learning more about the other person.

Making small talk with strangers can be tricky. We’ve all heard the advice that we should pick something out of our immediate environment and use that as a main point to start our small talk with the other person.

It’s true that this can be a great starting point for a conversation. However, when you focus too much on discussing things like the weather in your city, you can bring the conversation to a painful end very quickly. The other person will sense that you are trying to make a conversation, but that you have no interest in really getting to know him or her.

How can you keep small talk from becoming boring?

One way is to watch the other person for clues they will give you about what is really interesting to them. When you get these clues, use them to start making the conversation a bit more about their life, their opinions, and their experiences.

After you have had a couple of minutes to break the ice, try looking for ways to make the conversation a little bit more personal. Ask the other person for his or her opinion about something that is a bit more personal but not extremely so. The first few minutes of talking to someone new will not be the best time to ask the other person his or her opinion on religious （宗教的） or political（政治的） matters. However, he or she might be happy to discuss his or her favorite team or musical band.

【1】In Paragraph 1, the writer mainly wants to tell us that___________.

A.it’s hard to make a talk with new people

B.curiosity can help us start a good small talk

C.curiosity helps us know new people quickly

D.it’s hard to make a successful talk with others

【2】The underlined word “self-conscious” in Paragraph 3 probably means___________.

A.nervousB.seriousC.self-centeredD.self-controlled

【3】What is the best title for the passage?

A.The way of starting small talk.

B.The importance of small talk in our life.

C.Improving our small talk with curiosity.

D.Improving our relationship through small talk.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】A

【3】C

【解析】

本文介紹了如何改善我們與他人之間的閑聊，以及怎樣才能不讓閑談變得無聊。

【1】主旨大意題。根據(jù)“Nothing will improve your networking ability and your ability to make a successful conversation with other people rather than your curiosity about them.”“沒有什么比你的好奇心更能提高你的人際交往能力和與他人成功交談的能力了。”可知，第一段主要告訴我們，好奇心可以幫助我們開始一個(gè)好的閑聊，故選B。

【2】詞義猜測題。A. nervous緊張的，B. serious嚴(yán)肅的，認(rèn)真的，C. self-centered以自我為中心的，D. self-controlled有自制力的。根據(jù)“Instead of worrying yourself,”此處表示不擔(dān)心自己，因此表示不太緊張。故選A。

【3】標(biāo)題歸納題。根據(jù)第一段的“Do you want to become better at making small talk with new people?......Nothing will improve your networking ability and your ability to make a successful conversation with other people rather than your curiosity about them. ”可知，本文主要講述了好奇心能改善我們的閑聊。故選C。