Passage 2 Read the following interview transcript and choose the BEST answer for each question.
Joan Gay: Your new book just launched this week, and it’s getting a fantastic reception. Can you
summarize for us the thesis of the book and how you arrived at it?
Sonia Chuck: Yes. The idea of the book is that we live in a culture that is biased against a
constellation of traits, namely shyness, seriousness, introversion… and this leads to a colossal waste
of talent and of energy and of happiness, and that introversion really does have all kinds of
attributes to it. Sore real surprising powers to what it means to be an introvert and yet this is not
something we are mindful of and instead what we do is we encourage introverts to act more like
extroverts instead of acting like their best selves.
JG: That’s interesting. Can you explain for us briefly what the difference between an introvert and
extrovert is?
SC: Yeah… good question. So, introverts are people who like quieter and less stimulating
environments, whereas extroverts crave more stimulation to feel at their best, and this is an
important thing to see because people often assume that being an introvert means being anti-social,
but it’s really not that at all. It’s just differently social. So, an introvert preferring less stimulation
will often prefer to have a glass of wine with a close friend as opposed to going to a loud party full
of strangers.
JG: And you say that this part of your personality may be as crucial as your gender and race. Why
is that?
SC: Yeah, because the question of what your orientation is in general, are you oriented more
towards the outer world or more towards the world of your own inner riches? It’s very profound,
and it affects every day-to-day interaction in your life. It affects how you like to spend your time. It
affects you in similar ways to the way gender does in terms of it shaping your life.
JG: And if there really is a bias against introverts then that’s a bias against almost half our
population.
SC: Yes. And this is another way in which there’s a parallel to gender. I often say that the place of
introverts in our culture today is very similar to where women were around fifties or the early
nineteen sixties. I mean it was half the population, and it was a piece of the population that was
discounted because of something that went to the core of why they were, and I will also say it was a
part of the population that was on the verge of coming into its own, and I believe that’s what’s
happening with introverts now. I think we’re at the cusp of a real sea change in the way we
understand this personality type.
JG: Do you think that now in workplaces and in society in general, we are mistaking the person
with the loudest voice and maybe the person with charisma as a good leader?
SC: Oh yeah. Yes. We absolutely do that. And, in fact, we know that extroverts are much more often
groomed for leadership positions than introverts are and this isn’t to say… extroverts of course can
be wonderful leaders, but there’s also interesting new research by Adam Grant out of the Wharton
School showing that in certain circumstances introverts make the better leaders and specifically
when you have employees who are really proactive and really engaged, they often do better with
introverted leaders because those leaders let the proactive employees run with their ideas and
implement them, whereas an extroverted leader almost without realizing what they’re doing may be
putting their own stamp on things and being more dominant so that the ideas of the employees may
never actually really come to light. JG: So, tell me a little bit more about the sea change. How do you actually see this going into
effect? What do you hope to accomplish?
SC: Well it’s a few things. I mean the first thing I would like to change is people’s psyches. So
many of the introverts who I interviewed for my book and many of the people don’t appear
introverted, but so many of them told me about a kind of secret sense of shame that they had about
who they were and how they prefer to spend their time. So, the first thing that I want to see
changing is people’s psyches, you know, you know for people to have a comfort level about who
they are…. But then I’d also like schools and workplaces to really rethink how they are structured
and to think about meeting the needs of their introverts as well as their extroverts. 【題組】48. How does the connotation of the word “introvert” influence its meaning within the context of
the passage?
(A) The connotation of “introvert” is negative, suggesting that introverts tend to be anti-social.
(B) The connotation of “introvert” is positive, highlighting the unique qualities of introverted
individuals.
(C) The connotation of “introvert” is neutral, mainly describing a preference for quiet
environments.
(D) The connotation of “introvert” is contradictory, making it difficult to determine its meaning.
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