私醫聯招 英文歷屆試題｜第 331 題

Men and women often have different ideas of what's important—and at what point "important" topics should be raised. A woman told me, with lingering astonishment, of a conversation with her boyfriend. Knowing he had seen his friend Oliver, she asked, "What's new with Oliver?" He replied, "Nothing."  (31) , later in the conversation it came out that Oliver and his girlfriend had decided to get married. "That's nothing?" the woman gasped in  (32) . For men, "Nothing" may be a ritual  (33)  at the start of a conversation. A college woman missed her brother but rarely called him because she found it difficult to get talk going. A  (34)  conversation began with her asking, "What's up with you?" and his replying, "Nothing." Hearing his "Nothing" as meaning "There is nothing personal I want to talk about," she supplied talk by filling him in on her news and  (35)  hung up in frustration. But when she thought back, she remembered that later in the conversation he had mumbled, "Christie and I got into another fight." This came so late and so low that she didn't pick up on it. And he was probably equally frustrated that she didn't.