Question

It doesn’t make any difference how long your speech is. Unless you tune (定调) in the first 60 seconds, the chances are they will tune you out.

Take the fellow who opens: “On my way over to the club tonight, I ran into a bum (流浪汉) who asked me for $ 49.50 for a cup of coffee. I told him he’d do much better if he asked for a quarter. He said, “Do you think I’m going into the Ritz in these clothes?” We know his purpose: to win his audience over with humor. His bit of humor, however, has no connection with his speech. He has his audience laughing at the wrong time. Once you have an audience laughing it’s hard to get them to switch to an entirely different train of thought. There is nothing wrong with humor in a speech as long as it has something to do with the purpose of his speech. To open a speech with humor just to be entertaining invites an almost sure “turnoff” for the remainder of the talk.

1. What, in a speech, determines its failure or success?

A. The purpose of the speech.

B. A sense of humor.

C. The opening remarks.

D. A forceful ending.

2. If a speaker decides to be humorous, his humor should ___.

A. be connected with his subject

B. make his audience laugh

C. be fresh and different

D. be reserved for the end

3. The underlined words mean ___.

A.     to make your audience go away at once

B.     likely to cause your audience to lose interest

C.     to switch their thoughts to other things

D.     likely to have your audience laugh with you

4. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A.     The opening part of your speech should not be long.

B.     Humor is important in the success of your speech.

C.     Your humor should be relevant (相关的) and timely.

D.     An outstanding speech is full of jokes.

Answer 1

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