题目

阅读理解 Extraverts(外向型的人) are hugely sociable—they really care about their relationships, and possess outstanding social skills. Well, that's how extraverts are generally described. But, according to new work, that's not exactly how other people see them. In a series of studies reported in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Francis J. Flynn at Stanford University, US and colleagues consistently found that more extraverted people are considered to be poorer listeners. Their research also reveals a likely reason why. There is no academic agreement on what constitutes "good" listening. But, in line with some other researchers, the team conceptualises it as involving emotion-related processes, cognitive processes and also behavioural processes. In everyday life, it's not necessarily easy to ascertain whether the person we're talking to is really listening, however. They might be making plenty of eye contact, for example, but it's always possible that they're just pretending to be listening well. In this research, the team focused on only the participants' perceptions of others' listening skills. In an earlier study, 147 first-year business students, who met weekly in groups of six to work on leadership skills, rated the listening skills of everyone else in their group. The participants then completed a scale that assessed their own extraversion. The team found that those with higher self-reported extraversion got poorer marks for listening. However, in this study, people's perceptions could have been influenced by the actual social relationships they had with other members of their group. So in almost all of the subsequent studies, fresh groups of participants rated the listening skills of fictional people who were described as falling at various points on the intraversion-extraversion spectrum (范围). Results from these studies supported the previous finding. Time and again, extraverted people were rated as being poorer listeners in social situations. As the team writes: "That is, despite the tendency for people to see extraverts as highly sociable, they tend to see this sociability as highly one-sided." An online study of 337 US-based adults suggested why this might be. Fictional people who were described as highly extraverted were also perceived to be better at controlling and modifying how they come across to others. "To observers, this signal of malleable self-presentation suggests that extraverts are more interested in ‘looking the part' than attending to what others have to say," the team writes. It would be really interesting, though, to see work on the real-world implications of this particular belief. "For example, listening has been identified as the key to successful sales," the team notes—so perhaps it would be wise for highly extraverted sales people to try to modify their behaviour with clients. A vast amount of research has been done on extraversion itself. "Our findings contribute to the study of extraversion by examining how people think about extraversion," the researchers write. And for understanding conversations and relationships, which of course are two-way, that's clearly important, too. （1） What is Paragraph 2 mainly about? A . Some reasons for poor listening ability. B . The participants' perception of listening. C . A common understanding of good listening. D . Some practical skills in improving listening. （2） What can we learn from the passage? A . Being extraverted might be an unpleasant personality. B . Some people are afraid to assess their group members. C . Fictional people decrease the reliability of the research. D . Actual social relationship determines the scores of rating. （3） What does the underlined word "malleable" in Paragraph 5 probably mean? A . Smart. B . Flexible. C . Consistent. D . Stable. （4） What message does the author probably convey to extroverted people? A . It is wise to listen more when communicating. B . Focusing on people's eyes makes a good speaker. C . Rating oneself honestly helps one in social situations. D . It is necessary to change one's self-presentation style. 答案： C A B A

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