【正文】 . Suddenly everyone’ s attention turns to the new arrival, the food on the plate, or the “ charming” little child. Nobody is aware of the interruption — except the speaker. They fet all about the fact that the speaker hasn’ t made his or her point. Or you’ re all sitting around the living room and someone is telling a joke. Suddenly, just before their big punch line (妙語 ), little Johnny drops a dish or the phone rings. After the crash, everyone talks about little Johnny’ s carelessness. After the call, the subject turns to the uping marriage or medical operation of the caller. Nobody remembers the great punch line got unfinished — except the joke teller. When it’ s you entertaining everyone at a restaurant, have you ever noticed how you can almost set your clock by the waiter ing to take everyone’ s order just before your funny punch line? Most joke and story tellers are too shy to say, after the interruption, “ Now, as I was saying ?” Instead, they’ ll spend the rest of the evening feeling bad they didn’ t get to finish. Here’ s where you e in. Rescue them with the technique I call “ Lend a Helping Tongue.” Watch the gratitude in the storyteller’ s eyes as he stabilizes where his story sunk and he sails off again toward the center of attention. His expression and the appreciation of your consideration by the rest of the group are often reward enough. You are even more fortunate if you can rescue the story of someone who can hire you, promote you, buy from you, or otherwise lift your life. Big winners have excellent memories. When you do them subtle favors like Lend a Helping Tongue, they find a way to pay you back. 28. Very often, a storyteller cannot make his point because _________. A. people are more interested in food than his story B. many guests bring their babies to the party C. he is interrupted by something unexpected D. his story is easily fotten by the listeners 29. From Paragraph 3, we know that when someone is telling a joke, _________. A. something bad will surely happen just before their punch line B. listeners’ attention is often drawn to something else C. the only person really interested in the joke is the joke teller D. the waiter knows when to take everyone’ s order 30. How can we help the joke and story tellers when they are interrupted? A. By giving them a chance to finish. B. By forting them to make them happy. C. By going on telling the story for them. D. By teaching them some useful techniques. 31. What is the text mainly about? A. People should learn how to take turns in a conversation. B. We can win someone’ s heart by getting him back to his story. C. Telling jokes will make you the center of attention. D. It is impolite to cut in on someone’ s talk. D Once upon a time, science fiction was just a style among other styles. There were crime stories, there were horror stories, there was literary fiction– and there was science fiction. But today science themes dominate these other styles. It’ s difficult to think of much modern crime, horror or “ serious” fiction that doesn’ t involve science. And it’ s not just books. With every second movie and puter game having a scifi element, science fiction seems to have controlled our entire entertainment culture. It’ s clear that if we want to define science fiction we should relate it to the role that science plays in our lives. Perhaps the place to start is by noting when it began. Although some experts have claimed to be able to trace scifi back to ancient times, it is more plausible to find it in initial form in the 19th century, when industrial societies arose. One of the features that set industrial societies apart from other kinds was the increasing part that science played in everyday life. Factories with vast machines turned out huge quantities of goods, which were transported by trains, motor vehicles and ships all over the world. Cities were built on the back of technology, with electricity in homes and hospitals helping everyone to lead healthier, more convenient lives. All of these changes had great effects not only on people’ s real lives, but on their imaginative ones. Writers began to articulate these changing physical and mental landscapes, eventually giving science fiction a large and devoted fan base of especially young readers, who found that it spoke to their curiosity about the future that science would create. But scifi reflected fears about science more than it did hopes. These typical early science fiction novel might be a UK novel like . Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1897). With great skill, Wells played upon the fears of technology by imagining Earth under threat by a civilization – that of men from Mars. The science fiction of today expresses the impact of the puting revolution, robotics and our environmental challenges, while it is less concerned with “ little green men from Mars” and other themes of past scifi. Given that science, technology and politics are always intertwined (交織 ), contemporary science fiction often has a great deal to say about power. Many recent novels – like American Cory Doctorow’ s Little Brother (2020) – are concerned with government and security service “ conspiracies (陰謀 )” against the people, particularly as the revelations of whistleblowers like Edward Snowden sink in. This can give scifi writing a “ skeptical” feel. This underlines one of the features that remains constant between the