高普考/三四等/高員級◆英文題庫下載題庫

    Men and women often have different ideas of what’s important—and at what point “important” topics should be 

raised. A woman told me, with lingering astonishment, of a conversation with her boyfriend. Knowing he had seen his 

friend Oliver, she asked, “What’s new with Oliver?” He replied, “Nothing.” 41 , later in the conversation it came 

out that Oliver and his girlfriend had decided to get married. “That’s nothing?” the woman gasped in 42 . 

<br>    For men, “Nothing” may be a ritual 43 at the start of a conversation. A college woman missed her brother but 

rarely called him because she found it difficult to get talk going. A 44 conversation began with her asking, “What’s 

up with you?” and his replying, “Nothing.” Hearing his “Nothing” as meaning “There is nothing personal I want to talk 

about,” she supplied talk by filling him in on her news and 45 hung up in frustration. But when she thought back, she remembered that later in the conversation he had mumbled, “Christie and I got into another fight.” This came so late 

and so low that she didn’t pick up on it. And he was probably equally frustrated that she didn’t.