CBSE Class 9 English Communicative Sample Paper Set 54

Q1. Read the following passage carefully: 

In talking with people don‟t begin by discussing the things on which you differ. Begin by emphasizing the things on which you agree. Keep emphasizing, if possible, that you are both striving for the same end and your only difference is one of method and not of purpose.

Get the other person saying “Yes, Yes”, at the outset. Keep him, if possible, from saying „No‟. A „No‟ response is a most difficult handicap to overcome. When a person has said „No‟, all his pride of personality demands that he remains consistent with himself. He may later feel that the „No‟ was ill-advised; Nevertheless, there is his precious pride to consider. Once having said a thing, he must stick to it. Hence it is of the very greatest importance that we start a person in the affirmative direction.

A skillful speaker gets at the outset a number of „Yes‟ responses. He has thereby set the psychological processes of his listeners moving in the affiramative direction. It is like the movement of a billiard ball. Propel it in one direction, and it takes some force to deflect it, far more force to send it back in the opposite direction.

The psychological patterns here are quite clear. When a person says ‟No‟ and really means it, he is doing far more than saying a word of two letters. His entire organism-glandular, nervous, muscular-gathers itself together into a condition of rejection. There is, usually in minute but sometimes in observable degree, a physical withdrawal or readiness for withdrawal.

The whole neuro-muscular system, in short, sets itself on guard against acceptance where on the contrary, a person says „Yes‟ none of the withdrawing activities take place. The organism is in a forward moving, accepting, open attitude. Hence, the more, “Yeses” we can, at the very outset, induce, the more likely we are to succeed in capturing the attention for our ultimate proposal.

It is a very simple technique-this „Yes‟ technique. And yet how much neglected! It often seems as if people get a sense of their own importance by antagonizing at the outset. The radical comes into a conference with his conservative brother, and immediately he must make them furious! What, as a matter of fact, is the good of it? Indeed, he is only psychologically stupid.

(i) Give very short answers:

1. Why does a person stick to his negative response for long?

2. How does a clever speaker move his listeners in the affirmative direction?

3. What is meant by physical withdrawal?

4. What is the psychological process of a listener compared to?

5. Which title given below is the most appropriate one for the passage ?

(a) Say „Yes‟ or „No‟

(b) A good speaker

(c) Getting a Positive Response

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