PASSAGE 9
The First Four Minutes
?When do people decide whether or not they want to become friends? During their first four minutes together, according to a book by Dr. Leonard Zunin. In his book, Contact: The first four minutes, he offers this advice to anyone _____: Every time you meet someone in a social situation, give him your unpided attention for four minutes. A lot of peoples whole lives would change if they did just that.
You may have noticed that the average person does not give his unpided attention to someone he has just met. He keeps looking over the other persons shoulder, as if ____. If anyone has ever done this to you, you probably did not like him very much.
When we are introduced to new people, the author suggests, we should try to appear friendly and self-confident. In general, he says, People like people who like themselves.
On the other hand, we should not make the other person think we are too sure of ourselves. It is important to appear interested and sympathetic, realizing that the other person has his own needs, fears, and hopes.
Hearing such advice, one might say, But Im not a friendly, self-confident person. Thats not my nature. It would be dishonest for me to act that way.
In reply, Dr. Zunin would claim that a little practice can help us ____. We can become accustomed to any changes we choose to make in our personality. It is like getting used to a new car. It may be unfamiliar1 at first, but it goes much better than the old one.
But isnt it dishonest to give the appearance of friendly self-confidence when we dont actually feel that way? Perhaps, but according to Dr. Zunin, total honesty is not always good for social relationships, especially during the first few minutes of contact. There is a time for everything, and a certain amount of play-acting may be best for the first few minutes of contact with a stranger. That is not the time to complain about ones health or to mention faults one finds in other people. It is not the time to tell the whole truth about ones opinions and impressions.
Much of ____ also applies to relationships with family members and friends. For a husband and wife or a parent and child, problems often arise during their first four minutes together after they have been apart. Dr. Zunin suggests that these first few minutes together be treated with care. If there are unpleasant matters to be discussed, they should be dealt with later.
The author says that interpersonal relations should be taught as a required course in every school, along with reading, writing, and mathematics. In his opinion, success in life depends mainly on ___. That is at least as important as how much we know.
EXERCISE:
A) Feel comfortable about changing our social habits
B) What has been said about strangers
C) How we get along with other people
D) Interested in starting new friendships
E) Hoping to find someone more interesting in another part of the room
F) Who are eager to make friends with everyone
KEY: D E A B C
PASSAGE 10
Public Relations
?Public relations is a broad set of planned communications about the company, including publicity2 releases, designed to promote goodwill3 and a favorable image.
Publicity then is part of public relations when it is initiated4 by the firm, ____. Since public relations involves communications with stockholders, financial analysts5, government officials, and other noncustomer groups, it is usually placed outside the marketing6 department, perhaps as a staff department or outside consulting firm reporting to TOP management. This organizational placement can be a limitation because the public relations department or consultant7 will likely not be in tune8 with marketing efforts. Poor communication and no coordination9 may be the consequences. ____, this influence generally may be less than that provided by the other components10 of the public image mix.
Publicity may be in the form of news releases ______. Publicity on the other hand should not be porced from the marketing department, as it can provide a useful adjunct to the regular advertising11. Furthermore, ____; some can result from an unfavorable press as a reaction to certain actions or lack of actions that are controversial or even downright ill-advised.
The point we wish to emphasize is that a firm is deluding12 itself if it thinks its public relations function, whether within the company or an outside firm, can take care of public image problems and opportunities. Many factors impact on the public image. Many of these have to do with the way the firm does business, __ __. Public relations and directed publicity may help highlight favorable newsworthy events, and may even succeed in toning down the worst of unfavorable publicity, but the other components of the public image mix create more lasting13 impressions.
EXERCISE;
A) that have favorable overtones for the company initiated by the public relations department
B) not all publicity is initiated by the firm
C) usually in the form of press releases or press conferences
D) such as its product quality, the servicing and handling of complaints, and the tenor of the advertising
E) what it means to the company is
F) Although the basic purpose of public relations is to provide positive influence on the public image
KEY: C F A B D
相关文章推荐
