It was already half past seven and I was running late again for the dinner appointment with my wife, Eleanor. We had  1  to meet at the restaurant at seven o’clock. I felt a little uneasy, but to my  2 , I had a good excuse: A business meeting had run over and I’d wasted no time getting to the dinner.

   When I arrived at the  3 , I apologized and told Eleanor I didn’t mean to be late. She screamed, “You never mean to.” Well, I could  4  she was angry. “I’m sorry but it was not  5 .” I said. Then I told her about the business meeting.  6 , my explanation seemed to make things worse.

   Several weeks later, when I  7  the situation to my friend Ken Hardy, he smiled, “You  8  a classic mistake. You’re  9  in your own way of thinking. You didn’t  10  to be late. But that’s not the point. What is  11  in your communication is how your lateness affected Eleanor.”

   Thinking more about Ken’s words, I  12  recognized the root cause of such disagreement. It’s the result of the action that really  13 . I should have started the conversation by expressing how my actions  14  Eleanor and saved the discussions about my intention for later, much later and even never.

   Later on, after talking to Eleanor and really  15  her experience of the results of my lateness, I’ve managed to be on time a lot more frequently.

1.      A. started              B. agreed              C. continued            D. managed

2.      A. relief               B. surprise        C. regret               D. sorrow

3.      A. house           B. room             C. restaurant           D. supermarket

4.      A. tell             B. say              C. admit                D. permit

5.      A. movable         B. comfortable          C. acceptable           D. avoidable

6.      A. However         B. Therefore            C. Moreover        D. Otherwise

7.      A. spread           B. wrote                C. translated           D. described

8.      A. knew             B. made             C. found           D. took

9.      A. stuck            B. recognized           C. struck               D. fitted

10.  A. need            B. prove                C. pretend          D. intend

11.  A. funny           B. important            C. possible         D. simple

12.  A. usually          B. merely               C. hardly               D. gradually

13.  A. inspires             B. matters          C. improves             D. challenges

14.  A. affected             B. infected         C. disliked             D. cheated

15.  A. showing         B. satisfying           C. understanding        D. destroying