Eye contact is a nonverbal (非言语表达的)technique that helps the speaker “sell” his or her ideas to an audience. Besides its persuasive powers, eye contact helps hold listener interest. A successful speaker must maintain eye contact with an audience. To have good rapport(关系) with listener, a speaker should maintain direct eye contact for at least 75 percent of the time. Some speakers focus exclusively （唯一的）on their notes. Others gaze over the heads of their listeners. Both are likely to lose audience interest and esteem. People who maintain eye contact while speaking, whether from a podium(演讲台) or from across the table, are “regarded not only as exceptionally well-disposed by their target but also as more believable and earnest.”

To show the potency (力量，效应)of eye contact in daily life, we have only to consider how passers-by behave when their glances happen to meet on the street. At one extreme are those people who feel obliged to smile when they make eye contact. At the other extreme are those who feel awkward and immediately look away. To make eye contact, it seems, is to make a certain link with someone.

Eye contact with an audience also lets a speaker know and monitor the listeners. It is, in fact, essential for analyzing an audience during a speech. Visual clues(暗示) from audience members can indicate that a speech is dragging, that the speaker is dwelling on (to think, speak, or write a lot about) a particular point for too long, or that a particular point requires further explanation. As we have pointed out, visual feedback from listeners should play an important role in shaping a speech as it is delivered.

1. This passage is mainly concerned with ______.

A. the importance of eye contact　　　 B. the potency of nonverbal techniques

C. successful speech delivery　　　　　　 D. an effective way to gain visual feedback

2. According to the passage, a good speaker must ______.

A. “sell” his or her ideas to an audience　　　 B. maintain direct eye contact with listeners

C. be very persuasive and believable　　　 D. be exceptionally well-disposed

3. The word “target” in the last sentence of the first paragraph can best be replaced by ______.

A. “destination”　 B. “goal”　 C. “audience”　　 D. “followers”

4. In daily life, when the glances of two passers-by happen to meet, these two persons will inevitably(不可避免地) ______.

A. smile to each other　　　　　　　　 B. feel awkward and look away immediately

C. try to make a conversation with each other　 D. none of the above