例

If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom you are

addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries,

you may want to comment on their disorganized bosses.

Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses’ convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St.

Peter. He sees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly

pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushes to the head of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table by himself. “Who is that?” the new arrival asked St. Peter. “Oh, that’s God” came the reply, “but sometimes he thinks he’s a doctor.”

If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it’ll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible canteen food or the chairman’s notorious bad taste in ties. With other audiences you mustn’t attempt to cut in with humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks about their canteen or their chairman. You will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoat like the Post Office or the telephone system.

If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural. Include a few casual and apparently off_the_cuff remarks which you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced

manner. Often it’s the delivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making a lighthearted remark.
Look for the humor. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist on a familiar quote “If at first you don’t succeed, give up” or a play
on words or on a situation. Search for exaggeration and understatements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humor.

The best title for the text may be .
［A］ Use Humor Effectively
［B］ Various Kinds of Humor
［C］ Add Humor to Speech
［D］ Different Humor Strategies［2002年45题］
A［正确答案］

例

When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn’t biting her nails just yet. But the 47_year_old manicurist isn’t cutting, filing

or polishing as many nails as she’d like to, either. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. “I’m a good economic indicator,” she says, “I provide a service that people can do without when they’re concerned about saving some dollars.” So Spero is downscaling, shopping at

middle_brow Dillard’s department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. “I don’t know if other clients are going to abandon me, too.” She says.

Even before Alan Greenspan’s admission that America’s red_hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent

from last year’s pace. But don’t sound any alarms just yet.

Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy’s long_term prospects even as they do some modest belt_tightening.

Consumers say they’re not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, “there’s a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses,” says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied

overbidding quiets. “Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three," says John Tealdi, a Bay Area real_estate broker.

And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job.

Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn’t mind a litter fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock_market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see

an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan’s hot new Alain Ducasses restaurant used to be impossible. Not anymore. For that,

Greenspan&Co. may still be worth toasting.

To which of the following is the author likely to agree?
［A］ A new boom, on the horizon.
［B］ Tighten the belt, the single remedy.
［C］ Caution all right, panic not.
［D］ The more ventures, the more chance.［2004年55题］
C［正确答案］

例
Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply_cuts in March, the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel, up from less than $10 last December. This near_tripling of oil prices calls up scary memories of the 1973 oil shock, when prices quadrupled, and 1979—1980, when they also almost tripled. Both previous shocks resulted in double_digit inflation and global economic decline. So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time?
The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth, at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term.
Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrolthan it did in the 1970s. In Europe, taxes account for up to four_fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past.
Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price. Energy conservation, a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy, energy_intensive industries have reduced oil consumption. Software, consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel or car production. For each dollar of GDP (in constant prices) rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that, if oil prices average $22 a barrel for a full year, compared with $13 in 1998, this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0.25%-0.5% of GDP. That is less than one_quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand, oil_importing emerging economies—to which heavy industry has shifted—have become more energy_intensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed. One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not occurred against the backbone of general commodity_price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economist’s commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70%, and in 1979 by almost 30%.

From the text we can see that the writer seems .
［A］ optimistic
［B］ sensitive
［C］ gloomy
［D］ scared［2002年55题］
A［正确答案］