A sign of weakness? What should you do when you realise that you have to apologise? Is it better to swallow your pride and say youre sorry when somebody is waiting30______your apology? The psychologist Jack Black says that people worry that an apology will be31______as a sign of weakness, rather than as their effort to understand and make up with the opponent. But he adds that effective apologies address the persons feelingsthey dont prove a point. As for how to do it, Professor Black has the following advice, The right way to apologise is the way your mother taught you. Say you threw a stone at your brother. Shed have you go and32______him in the eye and say: Im sorry I threw the stone at you and I wont do it again. Its important to name what you did wrong, to show yourself as being regretful in some way and to indicate what might be different in the future. You should33______that the number of times youll need to repeat the apology may vary depending on where you live.34______to preliminary data collected by Professor Black, for a minor offence, the optimal number is a single Im sorry. If the offence is large, then making two apologies seems to be the magic number for restoring trust and liking, Jack Black says.35______, if youre British, you may need to double that. A single Sorry does not36______as an apology: we have to say it so many times with a lot of adjectives, says Professor Black. 31. Ответ: 1. treated 2. referred 3. connected 4. related