Researchers who study relationships have discovered that a big difference between those who make new friends easily, and those who don’t, is that socially successful people tend to make eye contact with their conversation partners much more frequently than those who are less successful socially. In fact, you may be able to become much more socially successful by making this one simple change to your behavior.
Most Americans prefer to have a lot of eye contact when they are talking with someone. When a person doesn’t make eye contact with them, they tend to think that the person is hiding something or the person doesn’t believe in himself/herself.
When you are having a conversation and you want to leave a friendly impression, be sure to keep looking at that person frequently while you are talking. If it really bothers you to look directly into another person’s eyes, you can gaze generally at, not above, the eyebrow area or the bridge of the nose; this is close enough to the eye region that you will appear to be looking at the person’s eyes. But neither the hair or the shoulders have the same effect. Don’t stare at other people too intensely, otherwise, you will look aggressive(攻击性).
Keep the majority of your focus on the other person. If you glance around the room too much, or look too frequently at other people, your conversation partner may guess that you are looking around for someone else you would rather talk with.
You can lighten your nervousness by smiling more often, nodding, and by gazing at the entire face as well as the eyes. In addition, you can frequently look away for very short periods.
When people get the sense that you are really paying attention to them, they will be much more likely to want to have conversations with you!
小题1:Which of the following is NOT the impression left by those who don’t make eye contact during the talk?
A．They are not telling the truth.
B．They are bored with the partner.
C．They are lacking in confidence
D．They are angry and ready to attack.小题2: Besides the eyes of the partner, during the talk, you can look at his/her ___________.
A．hair
B．shoulders
C．the bridge of the nose
D．area above the eyebrows小题3: From the passage, we can learn that ____________________.
A．looking away during conversation should always be avoided.
B．looking at a person frequently can give him/her a good impression.
C．many Americans feel like being stared at for a long time.
D．all successful people are good at making eye contact.小题4:What would be the best title for the passage?
A．How to make yourself socially successful
B．How to use eye contact to make a good impression
C．How to make friends with the people around you
D．How to leave a good impression during a talk
