Twenty-first century humanity has mapped oceans and mountains, visited the moon, and surveyed the planets. But for all the progress, people __
1 don’t know one another very well.
That brings about Theodore Zeldin’s “
2 of conversation” — events
3 individuals sit in pairs with persons they don’ t know for three hours of
4 talk designed to help people know better about each other.
Mr. Zeldin heads Oxford Muse, a l0-year-old foundation based on the
_5 that what people need is not more information, but more inspiration and encouragement.
The “feast” in London looks
6 at politics or events, but at how people have felt about work, relations among the sexes, hopes
7 fears, enemies and authority, the shape of their lives. The “menu of _
8 ” includes topics like “How have your concerns changed
9 the years?” Or, “What have you done against the past?”
As participants gathered, Zeldin opened with a speech: that despite
_10 communications like QQ and MSN in a globalized age, issues of human heart
11 . Many people are lonely, or occupied in dealing with their daily businesses that discourage knowing the
_ 12 _ of one another. “We are trapped in _
13 _ conversations and the whole point now is to think, which is sometimes painful,”he says. “But
14 _ interaction is what separates us from other species, __
15 maybe dogs that do have interactions with humans.”
The main rules of the “feast”: Don’t
16 _ with someone you know or ask questions you would not answer. The only awkward moment came when the multi-racial crowd of people of different ages, in sun hats, ties and
__
17_, looked to see
18 they would talk with for hours.
19 15 minutes later, everyone was seated and talking, continuing full force until organizers interrupted them 180 minutes later.
Some said they felt free to talk on
20 topics. Thirty-something Peter, from East London, said that “it might take weeks or months to get to the level of interaction we suddenly opened up.”
| 小题1: | | A．still | B．already | C．even | D．yet |
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| 小题2: | | A．topic | B．subject | C．idea | D．feast |
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| 小题3: | | A．what | B．when | C．that | D．where |
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| 小题4: | | A．free | B．organized | C．guided | D．random |
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| 小题5: | | A．theory | B．idea | C．opinion | D．fact |
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| 小题6: | | A．not | B．not only | C．never | D．ever |
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| 小题8: | | A．talk | B．speech | C．conversation | D．communication |
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| 小题9: | | A．during | B．over | C．for | D．within |
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| 小题10: | | A．convenient | B．accessible | C．immediate | D．instant |
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| 小题11: | | A．leave | B．appear | C．disappear | D．remain |
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| 小题12: | | A．depth | B．well | C．truth | D．good |
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| 小题13: | | A．small | B．daily | C．deep | D．shallow |
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| 小题14: | | A．thinking | B．talking | C．communicating | D．lecturing |
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| 小题15: | | A．with | B．besides | C．except | D．from |
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| 小题16: | | A．talk | B．pair | C．involve | D．sit |
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| 小题17: | | A．dresses | B．skirts | C．T-shirts | D．coats |
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| 小题20: | | A．hot | B．popular | C．sensitive | D．private |
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