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e novel The Magic Mountain, Tomas Mann identifies the essence of talk and stresses the bonding nature of discourse when one of his characteristics is prompted to say: “Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact-it is silence which isolates.” Yet it is often said that “talk is cheap” and that we live in a “world of words.” Therefore, our consideration of talk has focused on comment to the verbal interactions of both women and men. We now turn to the particular social elements of talk that have sexual determinants. It may be that some time-honored myths about the communication of and between the two genders will be shattered! 1.1 Turn- taking One area in which communication behavior has been found to vary according to gender is turn-taking in conversation. At some point we have all tried to present our ideas in a group. Many persons of both genders find interruption during verbal interchange a source of irritation. Apparently there are some differences between the two genders in this practice. Men not only have been found to talk much more than women in a mixed group, but also have been found to interrupt women more often than women interrupt men. Many women have a difficult time getting and keeping attention in a group. Perhaps because their voices are less powerful and they have a harder time getting the floor and a harder time keeping it through interruptions. When speaking in a group, some women feel that men put their listening on a "whole pattern" and do not really hear them. Others complain that when they offer an idea or suggestion, the group takes no notice of it. As one student put it: It's not so much that the group interrupts you. It's as if your comments really don't penetrate their awareness, and the wheels of group talk just never stop grinding on, over, and around you and you're behind with your mouth open, still clutching your skate key. On the other hand listening is a form of stroking behavior, and the stroking role is often perceived as appropriate for a woman. When a woman varies from listening-stroking behavior and becomes more directive, controlling, and goal-oriented in her talk, she may not be taken seriously, and her contribution may be automatically written off as nonessential or easily dispensed with. Rarely, however, do men sit silent while women talk. Chesler points out that when a man is with a group of women, he will speak up and he will question the women, generally from a "Superior" position. In many cases, he ultimately controls the conversation. 1.2 The selection of topics As individual previously, men speak more and interrupt more, then what at least do they talk about? And do they differ from women? Studies of conversational topics show that gender is high on the list. Baseball, football, and other sports, politics, work, and other men are also discussed. Women, on the other hand, don’t appear to discuss gender with each other as much as men do. Elinor Langer, a customer's service representative for a telephone company concluded that religion and politics were avoided in women's conversation, while men had frequent political discussion. Women think that such heavy topics are properly in the domain of men. Further more, she believed that women did not wish to let "foolish 'politics' interfere with the commonsense and harmonious adjustments they have made to their working lives." In men-men conversations, almost one-half the fragment