单选题 An English-schoolboy would only ask his friend: "Wassa time, then?" To his teacher he would be much more likely to speak in a more standardized accent and ask: "Excuse me, sir, may I have the correct time please?" People are generally aware that the phrases and expressions they use are different from those of earlier generations; but they concede less that their own behavior also varies according to the situation in which they find themselves.
Not only this, but in many cases, the way someone speak affects the response of the person to whom he is speaking in such a way that "modeling" is seen to occur. This is what Michael Argyle has called "response matching". Several studies have shown that the more one reveals about oneself in ordinary conversation, and the more intimate these details are, the more personal secrets the other person will let out.
Response matching has, in fact, been noted between two speakers in a number of ways, including how long someone speaks, the length of pauses, speech rate and voice loudness. The correspondence between the length of reporters' questions when interviewing President Bush, and the length of his replies has been shown to increase over the duration of his 2005-2007 news conferences. Argyle says this process may be one of imitation. Two American researchers, Jaffe and Feldstein, prefer to think of it as the speaker's need for balance. Neither of these explanations seems particularly convincing. It may be that response matching can be more profitably considered as an unconscious reflection of speakers' needs for social integration with one another.
This process of modeling the other person's speech in a conversation could also be termed speech convergence (聚合). It may only be one aspect of a much wider speech change. In other situations, speech divergence (分离) may occur when certain factors encourage a person to modify his speech away from the individual he is dealing with. For example, a retried general's wife, renowned for her continuous snobbishness (势利), may return her vehicle to the local garage because of inadequate servicing, voicing her complaint in elaborately phrased, yet mechanically unsophisticated language, with a high soft-pitched voice. These superior airs and graces may simply make the mechanic reply with a flourish of almost incomprehensible technical terms, and in a louder, more deeply lowered voice than he would have used with a less angry customer.

单选题 The example of the English schoolboy was used to show that ______.

A. English schoolboys respect teachers more than they respect their friends
B. young people have different ways to ask time from the previous generations
C. younger generations vary their speeches more than the previous generations
D. even the same person will speak in different ways in different contexts

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 由题干中的The example of the English schoolboy定位到原文首段前两句An English schoolboy would only ask his friend: "Wassa time, then?" To his teacher he would much... and ask... the correct time please? [精析] 推理判断题[考频：66]。原文首段最后转折词but所引导的句子说，但是他们很少承认他们自己的行为也会根据他们所处的环境发生变化。这里的“行为”就是上文例子中的讲话，由此可以推知，英国学生的例子是为了表明同一个人也会在不同的环境中使用不同的方式讲话。故D)为正确答案。 [避错] 原文只是提及了两种不同话语，并没有对其尊重性进行对比，排除A)“英国学生尊重老师胜过朋友”；原文只是说“通常说来人们都清楚他们用的词语和表达方式与以前的几代人不同”，并没有明确年轻人间时间的方式与上一代的不同，故排除B)“比起上一代人，年轻人有不同的问时间的方式”，原文只是提及“他们用的词语和表达方式与以前的几代人不同”，没有对话语转化的频度进行比较，故排除C)“年轻人比上一代人更易转化话语”。

单选题 If one wants to get more personal information from others, the best way is to ______.

A. tell them more general information about oneself
B. tell others more secrets about oneself
C. become their intimate friends by long conversations
D. imitate others in their speeches in more detailed ways

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 由题干中的personal information定位到原文第二段末句Several studies have shown that the more one reveals about oneself in ordinary conversation, and the more intimate these details are, the more personal secrets the other person will let out． [精析] 事实细节题[考频：51]。该句的比较级句式说，一个人在一般的交谈中越多地暴露自己的秘密，而且暴露的细节越具有隐私性，那么另外一个人就可能越多地吐露私人秘密。由此推知，要想让别人吐露秘密，最好的方式就是自己吐露更多的秘密。B)与之相符，故为正确答案。 [避错] 由原文比较级句式可知，暴露的是秘密而非一般情况，故排除A)“告诉他们更多自己的一般情况”；原文虽提及要靠交谈，但并没有说是长时间的，也没有说成为知心朋友，故排除C)“通过长时间交谈成为他们的知心朋友”；原文说首先要自己暴露秘密，也即自己的话语模式让别人模仿以达到目的，可知D)“通过更细致的方式模仿别人的话语”逻辑上不符，故排除。

单选题 According to the author, the correspondence between the lengths of reporter's questions and Bush's answers increased because speakers ______.

A. are trying to be accepted by others without even knowing it
B. have a strong demand for balance when they are speaking
C. always have an instinct to imitate the people they are talking to
D. themselves want to know each other well

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 由题干中的Bush可以定位到原文第三段第二句The correspondence between the length of reporters' questions when interviewing President Bush, and the length of his replies has been shown to increase over the duration of his 2005—2007 news conferences． [精析] 目的原因题[考频：24]。题干问的是“作者”认为记者所提的问题的长度与总统的回答长度之间的一致性明显提高的原因。在原文第三段末尾，作者提出“这两种解释都不是特别具有说服力。把‘反应配对’理解为说话人想要融入彼此的一种无意识的反映可能更好些。”A)“说话人努力去被别人接受而不自知”，就是一种“无意识地融入彼此”，故为正确答案。 [避错] 由原文“Jaffe和Feldstein倾向于认为这是由于讲话人有寻求平衡的需要”可推知B)是作者否定的解释之一，故排除；由原文“Argyle说这一过程可能就是一种‘模仿”’可推知C)也不是作者的观点，故排除；D)“说话者们想更好地了解彼此”并未在原文提到，故排除。

单选题 What can we learn about speech convergence from the passage?

A. It means all of a much wider speech change.
B. It only happens during the interviews.
C. It means to follow the other's speaking style during conversations.
D. It was first concluded by Argyle after his interview with Bush.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 由题干中的speech convergence可以定位到原文第四段首句This process of modeling the other person's speech in a conversation could also be termed speech convergence． [精析] 语义理解题[考频：37]。由该句“这种在谈话中模拟他人讲话的过程也可以被称作话语会聚”推知，C)“在谈话中追随别人的话语方式”为正确答案。 [避错] 由原文“它可能只是更宽范围的语言变化的一个方面”可排除A)“它意味着更宽范围的语言变化的全部”；原文说“在谈话中模拟他人讲话的过程”，并未特指只发生在采访中，故排除B)；原文中Argyle只是提及了相似的观点，并没有说他是第一个提出的，而且也没有说是他采访了布什，故排除D)。

单选题 The example of the retired general's wife and mechanic is mentioned in the text to show that ______.

A. wives of high ranked official are usually very pride to poor people
B. modeling is not the only way people respond in different situations
C. there is a distinct speech difference between rich people and the poor
D. the poor tend to pretend to be well-educated in front of the rich

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 由题干中的retired general's wife和mechanic定位到原文末段第四句For example, a retried general's wife, renowned for her continuous snobbishness...。 [精析] 推理判断题[考频：66]。原文末段举例之前说，模拟可能只是更宽范围的语言变化的一个方面。在另外一些情况下，当某些因素促使讲话人想要让自己的话尽量有别于听者的时候，则会发生话语离散。换句话说，语言变化除了模拟(modeling)还有别的形式，就是采取有别于听话人的说话方式讲话。然后举出将军妻子的例子。由此可以推知，该例子是为了证实“模仿不是人们在不同环境中唯一的反应方式”，故B)为正确答案。 [避错] A)“高官衔军官的夫人通常在穷人面前很骄傲”，而原文只是举例，不能说明这是普遍情况，排除；原文叙述的是两入各自的话语行为的变化，并非两人之间的对比，故排除C)“穷人和富人之间存在明显的话语区别”；原文虽提及“机械师可能会用大量的难以理解的技术术语”，但并非假装受到良好教育的倾向，而是“讲话人想要让自己的话尽量有别于听者”，故也排除D)。