A

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(好奇心) 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.  curiosity can help us make a good talk  

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

C.  curiosity helps us know new people quickly 

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

1. The underlined word “self-conscious” in Paragraph 3 probably means_____.     

A.  self-centered     B. self-controlled    C. serious         D. nervous 

2.  While carrying on a conversation, we should_____.                           

      A. think about what won’t sound stupid   

B. show our interests to the other person    

C. try to learn more about the other person     

D.  discuss things like the weather in the city 

4. What is the best title for the passage?                   

   A. The way of starting small talk. 

B. Improving our small talk with curiosity. 

C. The importance of small talk in our life. 

D. Improving our relationship through small talk.

                                                                              B

Tony loved basketball. One afternoon on his way to a basketball game, he was walking and dreaming about playing college basketball the next year. Suddenly a car hit him and he was thrown three meters into the air.         Tony woke up in a hospital room. When the doctor told him that both his legs were broken, he knew his college basketball dreams were over. Tony did what the doctors told  him, but it didn't work. After he left the hospital, Tony was sent to a health center．      

 A week after he arrived there, he met Sunny Chen. Sunny used to be a coach．His legs were hurt badly in a skating accident．

Though he couldn't move his legs，Sunny became a coach of a basketball team called the Suns．It was an on-wheelchair basketball team，because everybody on the team played from a wheelchair. Sunny invited Tony to join the game. Tony played badly,but for the first time since the accident, he stopped feeling sorry for himself．

     After becoming a part of the Suns. Tony improved quickly. Basketball was like medicine for him．Tony was much better than before．When Tony became sad or angry，Sunny was there to be with him．The day before Tony left the center, he had dinner with Sunny.He asked Sunny how he could be so happy, even with his broken legs.      

Sunny smiled and said,“It’s really quite easy．When you keep your face to the sun，the shadows fall behind.”

1. From the passage, we know that ________.      

   A. Tony was hit by a bus            B. Tony was hit by a car

   C. Tony was hit by a basketball       D. Tony was hit by a football 

2. Where was Tony when he woke up after the accident?     

     A. In a hospital. B. In a health center. C. In a college. D. In a sports center.  

3. How did Sunny help Tony?                             

A. By teaching him how to play basketball.  

B. By giving him some medicine in the game.   

C. By having dinner with him in the health center.    

D. By inviting him to join the Suns and being with him. 

4. According the passage, we can know that Sunny was ________.           

A. shy and careful               B. humorous and patient 

C. helpful and hopeful            D. serious and hardworking