Pacing and Pausing Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve's new wife, but B

Pacing and Pausing

Sara tried to befriend her old friendSteve's new wife, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sarafelt Betty didn't hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained toSteve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do withexpectations about pacing and pausing.

Conversation is a turn-taking game. Whenour 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'mfinished. That's what was happening with Betty and Sara.

It may not be coincidental that Betty, whoexpected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, whoexpected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interruptedby Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing mostof the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard timecutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.

The general phenomenon, then, is that thesmall conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to drawconclusions 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 socialphenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from thesouthwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job inpersonnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she keptsearching for the right time to break in --- and never found it. Although backhome she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed asshy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was toldto take a training course because of her inability to speak up.

That's why slight differences inconversational style --- tiny little things like microseconds of pause --- canhave a great effect on one's life. The result in this case was a judgment ofpsychological problems --- even in the mind of the woman herself, who reallywondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertivenesstraining.

1.What did Sara think of Betty when talkingwith her?

2.According to the passage, who are likelyto expect the shortest pauses between turns?

3.We can learn from the passage that______.

4.The underlined word"assertiveness" in the last paragraph probably means ______.

试题答案

【答案】

1.C

2.B

3.C

4.D

【解析】略