26. Originally this vast area lying to the west of Place de la Concorde was swamp land. After its proclamation, in 1667 it was turned into a wide avenue called GrandCours, reaching from the Tuileries as far as Place de Gaulle. At the beginning of the avenue are the horses of Marly; from this point as far as the Ronde Point of the Champs Elysees the avenue is flanked by a park. At the time of the Second Empire, this became the most fashionable meetingplace and upperclass residential area in all Paris. Today it may no longer have its onetime aristocratic character, but it has lost nothing of its beauty and elegance; luxurious shops, theatres, famous restaurants and important airline offices line its wide footpaths, which are always full of Parisians, tourists and a cosmopolitan throng.
27. True, we consider the length, shape, size, or texture, but an object’s physical aspects are less important than what it has done or can do to us —— hurt us, surprise us, anger us or make us joyful. We also use categorizations colored by emotions in our families, communities, and overall society. Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement that certain things and actions are “good” and others are “bad”, and we apply these categories to every aspect of our social life —— from what foods we eat and what clothes we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept.
29. It is important that they be looking at the speaker at the precise moment when the speaker reestablishes eye contact: if they are not looking, the speaker assumes that they are disinterested and either will pause until eye contact is resumed or will terminate the conversation. Just how critical this eye maneuvering is to the maintenance of conversational flow becomes evident when two speakers are wearing dark glasses: there may be a sort of traffic jam of words caused by interruption, false starts, and unpredictable pauses.