In the professional world, oral communication skills in the workplace, which is the art of using speech to convey information, thoughts and feeling to others, is important for the success of any organizations.
The 21st century has been considered to be an era of communication. The way we convey our thoughts is of great importance in building relationships. In the workplace, there are employees of diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. This makes team working on a difficult task, but with a clear understanding of the task to be achieved, all members work towards the same goal. Misunderstandings, conflicts and differences in opinions are easily managed when there is a clear flow of communication between team members.
With proper communication, a close relationship and trust build among the employees, therefore promoting excellent working conditions. An atmosphere of support and cooperation is promoted by properly conveying expectations of the management team to the employees and vice – versa (相反的情况). Therefore, developing oral communication skills is important to success in life ahead.
How to improve oral communication? In the business world, individuals are expected to be confident about their beliefs and ideas. Therefore, they must include words like “in my opinion”, “as far as I know”. While improving skills on oral communication, people in a workplace must learn the art of listening. In addition, one must also have a positive body language during conversations. A person with a smiling face and positive attitude can raise the spirits of everyone around him. When we’re talking to someone, we must give the other person an opportunity to talk as it improves our listening ability.
Communication is an art and it can be improved by working on it constantly. Since it is not an overnight work, one needs to learn it by observing people who are good at it.

The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific study of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts has found. Researchers have studied each of her messages to the Commonwealth countries since 1952 to find out the change in her pronunciation from the noble Upper Received to the Standard Received.
Jonathan Harrington, a professor at Germany’s University of Munich, wanted to discover whether accent changes recorded over the past half century would take place within one person. “As far as I know, there just is nobody else for whom there is this sort of broadcast records,” he said.
He said the noble way of pronouncing vowels (元音) had gradually lost ground as the noble upper-class accent over the past years. “Her accent sounds slightly less noble than it did 50 years ago. But these are very, very small and slow changes that we don’t notice from year to year.”
“We may be able to relate it to changes in the social classes,” he told The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. “In 1952 she would have been heard saying ‘thet men in the bleck het’. Now it would be ‘that man in the black hat’. Similarly, she would have spoken of ‘the citay’ and ‘dutay’, rather than ‘citee’ and ‘dutee’, and ‘hame’ rather than ‘home’. In the 1950s she would have been ‘lorst’, but by the 1970s ‘lost’.”
The Queen’s broadcast is a personal message to the Commonwealth countries. Each  Christmas, the 10-minute broadcast is put on TV at 3 pm in Britain as many families are recovering from their traditional turkey lunch (传统火鸡午餐).
The results were published (发表) in the Journal of Phonetics.
【小题1】What is the text mainly about?

School was over and I felt quite tired. I sat at the very   36   of the crowded bus because of my anxiety(焦虑) to go home. Sitting there makes me  37   like a shiny coin in a pile of dull pennies.

Janie, the   38  , tried to break the uncomfortable   39    by starting a conversation. I tried to mind my manners and politely   40   her, but usually I am too busy thinking about my day. On this day,   41 , her conversation was worth listening to.

“My father’s sick,” she said to no one in   42  , I could see the anxiety and fear in her eyes. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked. With her eyes wet and her voice tight from fighting the tears, she       43  , “Heart trouble.” Her eyes lowered as she continued. “I’ve   44   lost my mum, so I don’t think I can stand losing him.”

I was shocked. My   45   ached for her. And this reminded me of the great   46   my own mother was thrown into when her father   47  . I saw how hard it was, and still is, for her. I wouldn’t like anyone to   48   that.

Suddenly I   49   Janie wasn’t only a bus driver. That was just her job. She had a whole world of   50   and concerns, too. I suddenly felt very selfish(自私). I realized I had only thought of people as far as what their purposes were in my life. I paid no   51   to Janie   52   she was a bus driver. I had judged(评价) her by her   53   and brushed her off as unimportant.

For all I know, I’m just another person in   54   else’s world, and may not even be   55  . I should not have been so selfish and self-centered. Everyone has places to go to, people to see and appointment to keep. Understanding people is an art.

A. front              B. end            C. side              D. middle

A. stand for           B. stand up          C. stand out         D. stand by

A. doctor             B. driver            C. teacher        D. classmate

A. mood              B. condition        C. atmosphere    D. occasion

A. listen to            B. argue with       C. explain to       D. talk to

A. however            B. instead          C. therefore         D. otherwise

A. surprise         B. particular        C. purpose           D. silence

A. replied             B. shouted          C. cried               D. spoke

A. totally              B. already           C. completely       D. heavily

A. leg               B. stomach         C. heart              D. head

A. pain               B. respect         C. happiness        D. disappointment

A. was lost            B. was away         C. died                    D. was sick

A. go against         B. go for           C. go by              D. go through

A. realized            B. recognized      C. argued                  D. explained

A. family            B. school        C. friend           D. job

A. money             B. attention      C. respect          D. time

A. unless             B. though          C. because            D. while

A. voice               B. job                  C. family            D. look

A. anyone            B. someone         C. everyone       D. nobody

A. happy             B. smart         C. important       D. useful

                                  A
Before I started school, people felt that I was not going to be successful. At the age of four I started speech lessons because basically I could not speak well enough for anyone to understand me. The story goes downhill from here.
The first grade was a struggle. I not only had difficulty speaking, but also felt nervous about the fact that I was expected to learn to read and I just couldn’t do it. The second grade was not much better. I still struggled with the inability to read. It was in the third grade that the school district built a new school close to my home. I remember going there with my parents and helping to get the school ready so that we could move to the new one. However, things were still not much better as far as my schooling was concerned and did not get better for the next two years.
It was in the fifth grade. Mrs. Wakefield was my teacher, and if ever there was a teacher that deserved a gold star, it was her. She did not make me feel defeated. On the contrary, she did her best to let me know that I could be whatever I wanted to be. And that is just what I did.
For the past 22 years, I have been a fifth grade teacher. Because of Mrs. Wakefield’s influence on my life, I am now encouraging students who have had difficulties in their lives to believe that they can overcome any difficulty and become someone. I have won numerous awards up to now, such as Teacher of the Year. I owe it all to one fifth grade teacher who believed in me and challenged me to be all that I could be.
【小题1】The writer ______ when he was in the third grade.

School was over and I felt quite tired. I sat at the very   36   of the crowded bus because of my anxiety(焦虑) to go home. Sitting there makes me  37   like a shiny coin in a pile of dull pennies.

Janie, the   38  , tried to break the uncomfortable   39    by starting a conversation. I tried to mind my manners and politely   40   her, but usually I am too busy thinking about my day. On this day,   41 , her conversation was worth listening to.

“My father’s sick,” she said to no one in   42  , I could see the anxiety and fear in her eyes. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked. With her eyes wet and her voice tight from fighting the tears, she       43  , “Heart trouble.” Her eyes lowered as she continued. “I’ve   44   lost my mum, so I don’t think I can stand losing him.”

I was shocked. My   45   ached for her. And this reminded me of the great   46   my own mother was thrown into when her father   47  . I saw how hard it was, and still is, for her. I wouldn’t like anyone to   48   that.

Suddenly I   49   Janie wasn’t only a bus driver. That was just her job. She had a whole world of   50   and concerns, too. I suddenly felt very selfish(自私). I realized I had only thought of people as far as what their purposes were in my life. I paid no   51   to Janie   52   she was a bus driver. I had judged(评价) her by her   53   and brushed her off as unimportant.

For all I know, I’m just another person in   54   else’s world, and may not even be   55  . I should not have been so selfish and self-centered. Everyone has places to go to, people to see and appointment to keep. Understanding people is an art.

1.A. front                 B. end             C. side                 D. middle

2.A. stand for             B. stand up            C. stand out          D. stand by

3.A. doctor               B. driver               C. teacher        D. classmate

4.A. mood                 B. condition           C. atmosphere    D. occasion

5.A. listen to             B. argue with         C. explain to         D. talk to

6.A. however              B. instead            C. therefore          D. otherwise

7.A. surprise           B. particular          C. purpose              D. silence

8.A. replied                B. shouted            C. cried                    D. spoke

9.A. totally                 B. already             C. completely         D. heavily

10.A. leg              B. stomach           C. heart                 D. head

11.A. pain              B. respect         C. happiness         D. disappointment

12.A. was lost            B. was away           C. died                D. was sick

13.A. go against                B. go for             C. go by                  D. go through

14.A. realized           B. recognized      C. argued                       D. explained

15.A. family            B. school          C. friend             D. job

16.A. money              B. attention      C. respect           D. time

17.A. unless            B. though            C. because               D. while

18.A. voice               B. job           C. family                D. look

19.A. anyone           B. someone          C. everyone        D. nobody

20.A. happy            B. smart         C. important       D. useful