TALKING TO PLANTS AND APPROACHING GROUPS

You are going to read an extract from a book on networking and public speaking skills. Six paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (1-6). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

In this book extract from “…and death came third!” Andy Lopata and Peter Roper show nervous business people how to network with panache.

At networking events, I will often look to start a conversation with people who are on their own. It is much easier than breaking into a group conversation and the chances are they won’t tell you to leave them alone and go away. Very few people go to networking events for solitude.

When approaching these people you are already at an advantage because they will both respect your courage (which they have probably lacked) and be grateful that you’ve taken the time and effort to relieve them from their anxiety. They are probably just as nervous as everyone else, and they’ll be delighted to get into a conversation with you. You’ve rescued them from walking around, avoiding interrupting other people for fear of rejection.

Having spoken to them, try not to leave them on their own again because you’ll just return them to the same state as you found them. Move on with them and introduce them to someone else.

If someone is talking and you interrupt, or ask if you can join them, people will stop listening to the person who’s talking, and invite you into their group. That’s great for you but not so nice for the person who is talking. Stand just on the edge of the group and wait for the appropriate time.

Alternatively, it may be that they’re talking about something in which you have an interest, in which case, when there’s an appropriate pause, you can just say, “Excuse me, I heard you mention so-and-so. Can I ask you a question? Are you involved in that? And you’re in the conversation. Or it may just be that you have a pause, and you ask “May I join you?” But it’s always best to wait for the right pause in the conversation.

While the guide lines above are important, you need to be aware of the body language of people talking to each other and networking events. Whether in couples or groups, people will always send very clear signals about approachability by the way they are standing.

Reading this body language may mean that you are better advised approaching two people rather than a group.

A. The one thing I try to avoid is approaching two people who are in discussion. If you see two people talking together, they may be building a rapport and interruption may break that. Alternatively, they may be discussing business.

B. The easiest way to approach a group is to catch the eye of one of the participants and smile. Usually they should invite you to join them at the appropriate juncture.

C. The other advantage of this is that your companion, in introducing you, may well talk about how you’ve helped them, how great you are at what you do or praise you in another way that you would not have been able to do. This will awaken a greater interest in you from the new contact than may otherwise have been possible.

D. You can often find these people around a bar or buffet table (they’ve probably read the advice above!) or by the walls. Nervous people on their own seldom stand in the middle of a room unless they are milling around trying to pluck up the courage to approach someone. Often they will be admiring the art on the walls or the flora in the room, which gives you a nice topic with which to start a conversation.

E. When you do approach them, take care not to dive in aggressively but be empathetic to their nervous state. Ask them if they mind if you join them before introducing yourself, rather than running up asking “So, what do you do then?”

F. If you see a group of people talking, approach the group, but don’t butt in. Remember, as Susan Roane says in How to Work a Room, “There is a difference between including yourself in other people’s conversations and intruding on them.”

G. If their body language is ‘closed’, and they are facing each other, you should avoid interrupting them. If they are more ‘open’ and they are standing at an angle that leaves room for another party in the conversation, you are likely to be more welcome.

You are going to read an article containing reviews of recently-published books. For questions 7-16, choose from reviews (A-F). The reviews may be chosen more than once.

A Reading a new novelist is a bit like asking a stranger out on a date. You never quite know if this is the start of a beautiful relationship. You check the blurbs, the publicity photograph, and flick through the book to look for the two essentials: entertainment and substance. Beginner’s Greek by James Collins is certainly big on the latter, weighing in at 400-plus pages. And the quotes on the back cover have the effect of a bunch of friends saying to you, ‘Go on, you’ll get on brilliantly’. Early indications are that this blind date could lead to a deeper relationship. Beginner’s Greek is described by The New York Times as a “great big sunny lemon chiffon pie of a novel” about romantic love amongst the American middle classes. It is indeed delicious.

B In Manil Suri’s second outing The Age of Shiva we have a broad-sweeping, epic novel with an unforgettable heroine so wilful yet flawed that it calls to mind that other famous leading lady, Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. The story begins at a firework party in Delhi where Meera falls disastrously in love. We follow her journey to Bombay, marriage and obsessive motherhood, with occasional flashbacks to a childhood that was marred by political turmoil. Mathematics professor, Suri, captures the fluidity of the role of women with a beautiful kind of precision.

C Devotees of playwright David Mamet, whose screen work includes Wag the Dog and the award-winning Glengarry Glen Ross may be less than enamoured of Ira Nadel’s new biography, David Mamet: A Life in the Theatre. It may seem churlish to question the minutia of incidents that abound in this comprehensive tome, but whilst Nadel is clearly striving for accuracy one feels there ought to have been more sifting, more mining for the gold amongst the biographical trivia. In addition, Nadel’s tone is somewhat dry and academic and seems at odds with the brilliance of David Mamet’s own writing. That said, the book offers a sound introduction to the life and career of the man hailed as one of America’s most outstanding writers.

D Can Any Mother Help Me? is the true story of a desperately lonely mother who, in 1935, appealed to other women through the letters page of a women’s magazine. Writing under a pseudonym, the woman known as Ubique (meaning ‘everywhere’) little realised that she would be the trigger for the launch of a new and private magazine that would last for the next fifty years. The Cooperative Correspondence Club was formed to offer comfort and support to wives, often well-educated women, who craved stimulation beyond the drudgery of family life. Jenna Bailey has done a superb job of organising and editing this compendium, adding her own insightful commentary.

E Subtitled, The Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Jessie Child’s debut historical biography, Henry VIII’s Last Victim, was the worthy winner of last year’s Elizabeth Longford Prize. Henry Howard’s victim status is owing to the fact that he was the final person to be executed by King Henry VIII, a mere nine days before the king himself expired. Although killed ostensibly for treason, the Earl of Surrey’s only real crime it seems was leading an unsuccessful army campaign in France. Only 29, he was also a distinguished poet with a fine literary voice, a persona which refutes his reputation as the spoilt son of the Duke of Norfolk.

F This is the 25^th outing for T. Keneally but he’s lost none of his writing powers. The Widow and Her Hero takes real life events during the Second World War as its inspiration and builds a tale of love and intrigue. Grace looks back on her life to recall her courtship with the hero of the title, the handsome Captain Leo Waterhouse. Leo is tragically killed whilst on a secret mission but it is many years before Grace discovers the facts about his death. Keneally made fans galore when Schindler’s Ark was published and later made into the award-winning Steven Spielberg film, Schindler’s List. The Widow and Her Hero will bring him even more fans.

1. For Questions 1-10, read the text below and decide which answer A, B, C or D best fits each space. There is an example below (0):

Despite its (11) ___ small size, the United Kingdom is one of the most culturally (12) ___ countries on Earth, populated by four main native nationalities, plus later arrivals from all over the world. The United Kingdom consists of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), plus Northern Ireland. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands (principally Jersey and Guernsey) are also parts of the British Isles, but somewhat confusingly not officially part of the UK.

The UK is also a geologically diverse country, with such landscapes as the rolling moors of Yorkshire, the lakes and mountains of the Lake District and Scotland, and the (13) ___ forests of Nottinghamshire or the (14) ___ beaches of Wales. All this, (15) ___ genteel villages with chocolate-box cottages or vibrant cities at the forefront of modernity, means the UK has something to (16) ___ everyone.

London is the natural (17) ___ point for visitors and is a great introduction to this varied country, with famous sights such as the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye and (18) ___ exhibitions in the National Gallery, Natural History Museum and Tower of London. (19) ___ away from the capital are the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, with their elegant architecture, and Windsor, home to the Queen’s famous castle residence.

The British (20) ___ is at its best in the south coast resorts of Brighton and Bournemouth or the harbour villages in Cornwall, Dorset and Devon. For more (21) ___, wilder, windswept beaches, head to the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales or the Scottish islands of Skye, Shetland and Orkney. Walkers have no end of (22) ___ with hundreds of miles of hiking trails in the hilly Peak District, the mountainous Lake District, Wales and Scotland or along the coastal paths of southern England. For more gentle pursuits, pretty villages of the Cotswolds and Suffolk offer endless photo opportunities of thatched cottages or leaning timber-framed houses.

The truth (0) is nobody really knows how language first began. Did we all start talking at around the same time (31) ___ of the manner in which our brains had begun to develop?

Although there is a lack of clear evidence, people have come up with various theories about the origins of language. One recent theory is that human beings have evolved in (32) ___ a way that we are programmed for language from the moment of birth. In (33) ___ words, language came about as a result of an evolutionary change in our brains at some stage.

Language could well be programmed into the brain but, (34) ___ this, people still need stimulus from others around them. From studies, we know that (35) ___ children are isolated from human contact and have not learnt to construct sentences before they are ten, it is doubtful they will ever do so. This research shows, if (36) ___ else, that language is a social activity, not something invented in isolation.

In this book extract from “…and death came third!” Andy Lopata and Peter Roper show nervous business people how to network with panache.

Having spoken to them, try not to leave them on their own again because you’ll just return them to the same state as you found them. Move on with them and introduce them to someone else.

Reading this body language may mean that you are better advised approaching two people rather than a group.

B. The easiest way to approach a group is to catch the eye of one of the participants and smile. Usually they should invite you to join them at the appropriate juncture.

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