Answer:
The anecdote at the beginning of Tennan's article rightly presents the topic she will be dealing with in the paper. This anecdote also illustrates the issue that will be the main focus of the whole text.
Step-by-step explanation:
An anecdote is a certain short story about a real person and real incident, often an amusing one. In this regard, the author of "Sex, Lies, and Conversation" also uses an anecdote to start her text.
In Deborah Tennan's "Sex, Lies, and Conversation", she recounts about a certain gathering one particular evening in a women's group where the men were also invited. Though the topic of the discussion was on the issue of men not talking to their wives. The man in particular had been talking and even offering examples and anecdotes while his wife sat quietly nearby. But as it turns out, the woman was the talker of the house while the man is usually quiet at home. This was quite funny, considering that men were presumed to be less talkative than the womenfolk, but as the man had shown, he is talkative indeed, more than his wife, especially during the gathering. This anecdote about the talkative man illustrates the topic of misunderstanding between couples.