In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh(法老)treated the poor message runner like
a prince when he arrived at the palace, if he brought good news. However, if
the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news, his
head was cut off.
Shades of that spirit spread over today’s conversations.
Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing.
As we walked light-heartedly out the door, picnic basket in hand, a smiling
neighbor looked up at the sky and said, ”O(jiān)h boy, bad day for a picnic. The
weatherman says it’s going to rain.”I wanted to strike him on the face with the
peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report, for his while
Several months ago I was racing to catch a him As
I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Grey hound counter, the sales
agent said with a broad smile ,”O(jiān)h that bus left five minutes ago.”Dreams of
head-cutting!
It’s not the news that makes someone angry. It’s
the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s the unsympathetic attitude with
which it’s delivered. Everyone must give bad news from time to time, and
winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a
patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way. A boss informing
an employee he didn’t get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners
know, when delivering any bad news, they should share the feeling of the
receiver.
Unfortunately, many people are not aware of this. When
you’re tired from a long flight, has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your
room isn’t ready yet? When you had your heart set on the toast beef, has your
waiter mainly told you that he just served the last piece? It makes you as
traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.
Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with
sympathy, I would have appreciated his warming .Had the Greyhound salesclerk
sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left, I probably would have
said, ” Oh, that’s all right I’ll catch the next one.” Big winners, when they bear bad news
,deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded(被轟炸的)person
is sure to have.
1.In Paragraph 1,the writer tells the story of the
pharaoh to ____.
A. make a comparison B.
introduce a topic
C. describe a
scene D. offer an argument
2.In the writer’s opinion, his neighbor was ___.
A. friendly B.
warm-hearted C. not considerate D. not helpful
3.From “Dreams of head-cutting!”(Paragraph3),we learn
that the writer___.
A. was mad at the sales agent
B. was reminded of the cruel pharaoh
C. wished that the sales agent would have had dreams
D. dreamed of cutting the sales agent’s head that night.
4.What is the main idea of the text?
A. Delivering bad news properly is important in
communication.
B. Helping others sincerely is the key to business
success.
C. Receiving bad news requires great courage.
D. Learning ancient traditions can be useful.
here!
uth shut. And I did, for over 42 years. Once in a while, a kid pulls the wool over people’s eyes. So that’s one of my little secrets I’ve never revealed before. Don’t tell anyone now!
