Task One: Focusing on the Main Ideas

▇Choose the best answer to complete each of the following sentences according to the information contained in the listening passage. 

1. The talk mainly talks about ________.

A) how to improve one’s communication skills with people of the opposite sex

B) what has gone wrong in men’s and women’s communication with each other

C) how men and women should communicate to each other

D) what research has shown about gender differences in communication

2. The popular view about how men and women communicate is that ________

A) they differ greatly in how they communicate

B) they need to communicate more with one another

C) they can both be aggressive in their communication

D) they can both be patient in their communication

3. Research has shown that ________.

A) men and women come from different cultures

B) men and women have a lot in common in their communication

C) women are more loving than men in their communication

D) men are less patient than women in their communication

4. What really differs between men and women is that ________.

A) they hear different messages from each other’s talk

B) they enjoy different status in society

C) they talk about different topics

D) they read different books

5. When a husband shares with his wife a problem about his work, the wife would be more likely to ________.

A) offer some solutions to his problem

B) criticize him for not working hard enough

C) empathize about the amount of work he has to do

D) help him finish his work at home

Section C  Task Two: Zooming In on the Details

Listen to the recording again and fill in each of the blanks according to what you have heard.

Although many people think that there are huge differences in what men and women say and in how they communicate, research has actually shown that there are ________________ in their way of communication. It has also been shown that both men and women can be ________________, patient or impatient in their communication. ________________ between the genders is that they hear different things ________________. Women are more likely to be sensitive to ________________ or read between the lines about ________________ while men are more likely to read between the lines about ________________. For example, when a man tells his wife that he is tired but still hasn’t finished all his work, his wife’s reply of “I know, it just sometimes seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day” would be interpreted by the man as ________________ him for getting too little done although his wife intends to ________________ about all the work he has to do.