It may help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech.At some point in every speech,every speaker says something that is not understood exactly as he has planned.Fortunately,such moments are usually not obvious(明显的) to the listeners.Why?Because the listeners do not know what the speaker plans to say.They hear only what the speaker does say.If you lose your place for a moment,wrongly change the order of a couple of sentences,or forget to pause at a certain point,no one will be any the wiser.When such moments occur,don’t worry about them.Just continue as if nothing happened.
Even if you do make an obvious mistake during a speech,that doesn’t really matter.If you have ever listened to Martin Luther King’s famous speech—“I Have a Dream”,you may notice that he stumbles(结巴) over his words twice during the speech.Most likely,however,you don’t remember.Why?Because you were fixing your attention on his message rather than on his way of speech-making.
People care a lot about making a mistake in a speech because they regard speech-making as a kind of performance rather than as an act of munication(交流).They feel the listeners are like judges in an ice-skating petition.But,in fact,the listeners are not looking for a perfect performance.They are looking for a well-thought-out speech that expresses the speaker’s ideas clearly and directly.Sometimes a mistake or two can actually increase a speaker’s attractiveness by making him more human.
As you work on your speech,don’t worry about being perfect.Once you free your mind of this,you will find it much easier to give your speech freely.
【小题1】The underlined part in the first paragraph means that no one will .A．be smarter than youB．notice your mistakesC．do better than youD．know what you are talking about【小题2】You don’t remember obvious mistakes in a speech because .A．your attention is on the contentB．you don’t fully understand the speechC．you don’t know what the speaker plans to sayD．you find the way of speech-making more important【小题3】It can be inferred from the passage that .A．giving a speech is like giving a performanceB．one or two mistakes in a speech may not be badC．the listeners should pay more attention to how a speech is madeD．the more mistakes a speaker makes,the more attractive he will be【小题4】What would be the best title for the passage?A．How to Be a Perfect SpeakerB．How to Make a Perfect SpeechC．Don’t Expect a Perfect SpeechD．Don’t Expect Mistakes in a SpeechB
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(答案→)B
解析：
【小题1】这是一道推断题。根据第一段“Because the listeners do not know what the speaker plans to say. They hear only what the speaker does say.”可知如果你在演讲中出现了错误,例如弄错了句子的顺序,或者没有及时停顿,不用在意,因为没人会注意到你的错误。
【小题2】这是一道推断题。根据第二段“Even if you do make an obvious mistake during a speech,that doesn’t really matter....Because you were fixing your attention on his message rather than on his way of speech-making.”可知听众主要的注意力在演讲的内容上,所以就算有一些错误也不会被记住。
【小题3】这是一道推理题。根据第三段“Sometimes a mistake or two can actually increase a speaker’s attractiveness by making him more human.”可知有时犯一两个错误会使演讲更加有吸引力,不一定是坏事。
【小题4】这是一道主旨题。本文的主要观点是完美的演讲是不可能的,听众的注意力主要在演讲的内容上,偶尔犯错误也没有关系。