Task 3 Reading comprehension. In American business meetings, people are expected to participate verbally (口头上) ,or else others may think that they are uninterested in the meeting. Active participation involves the following: 1. Starting a discussion, bringing up new ideas and topics, and making suggestions. 2. Asking people for opinions, information, and explanations. 3. Repeating ideas and explanation for those who can’t understand you. 4. Encouraging people to speak by accepting different points of view. If an employee appears to be passive at a meeting, Americans may feel that the person is not contributing to the meeting. “Brainstorming” is a common practice at American meetings. The purpose of brainstorming is to express as may ideas as possible on a given question or problem. This technique is used to collect all the ideas of the group, without stopping to discuss or evaluate the value of each suggestion. First people brainstorm freely; then they narrow down and eliminate ideas or suggestions that are not workable. Brainstorming is a creative process that demands full verbal participation. This method of creating, exploring, and solving problems is foreign to many people who are not culturally comfortable with “blurting out” (不加考虑地说出) ideas.