Passage three

　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.

　　Let’s look at another example of how people’s communication patterns

　　differ: the way people conserve. Some foreigners have observed that when

　　Americans carry on a conversation, it seems as if they are having a

　　Ping-Pong game. One person has the ball and then hits it to the other side

　　of the table. The other player hits the ball back and the game continues.

　　If one person doesn’t return the ball, then the conversation stops. Each

　　part of the conversation follows this pattern: the greeting and the

　　opening, the discussion of a topic, and the closing and farewell. If

　　either person talks too much, the other may become impatient and feel that

　　he is dominating the conversation. Similarly, if one person doesn’t say

　　enough or ask enough questions to keep the conversation going, the

　　conversation stops.

　　Many North Americans are impatient with culturally different

　　conversation styles simply because the styles are unfamiliar. For example,

　　to many North Americans, it seems that some Latin Americans dominate

　　conversations, or hold the ball too long. Speaking of her co-workers from

　　several Latin American countries, one North Americans woman said,” I just

　　find it difficult to cut in. they seem to take such a long time to express

　　themselves. They give you a lot of unnecessary details.” when she talked

　　with them, she became tense, because she found it so hard to participate.

　　Yet she also noted that when they talked to each other, nobody seemed

　　uncomfortable or left out.

　　The North American woman didn’t know how to interrupt the Latin American

　　conversations because North American ways of listening and breaking in are

　　very different. She had been taught to listen politely until the other

　　person had finished talking. (once again, there are gender(性別)difference;

　　it has been observed that men tend to interrupt women more than women

　　interrupt men.)when the North American woman did what was “natural” or

　　“normal” for her(i. e., listen politely without interrupting), she was not

　　comfortable in the conversation with the Latin Americans. The result was

　　that she became more passive in her conversations with her co-workers. The

　　differences between the unspoken rules of conversation of each cultural

　　group interfered with their on-the-job relationship.

　　31. When North Americans converse together, each one of the group is supposed

　　to _______.

　　A.participate in the talk

　　B.play Ping-Pang games

　　C.interrupt the speaker

　　D.dominate the conversation

　　正確答案：A

　　32. When North Americans converse with the Latin Americans, the North

　　Americans would feel _______.

　　A.involved

　　B.left out

　　C.comfortable

　　D.relaxed

　　正確答案：B

　　33. To the North Americans, the Latin Americans are __________.

　　A.polite

　　B.communicative

　　C.dominant

　　D.familiar

　　正確答案：C

　　34. We can infer from this passage that ____________.

　　A.people from different cultures cannot communicate with each other.

　　B.different conversational styles may affect people’s relationships

　　C.men are more talkative than women

　　D.North Americans’ conversational habits are better than those of Latin

　　Americans’

　　正確答案：B

　　35. The best title for this passage is ________.

　　A.Different Conversation Styles

　　B.Different Conversation Topics

　　C.Different Conversation Processes

　　D.Different Conversation Effects

　　正確答案：A