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. “On, 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 scapegoats 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 light-
hearted 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.
41. To make your humor work, you
should__________
[A] take advantage of different
kinds of audience.
[B] make fun of the disorganized
people.
[C] address different problems to
different people.
[D] show sympathy for your
listeners.
42. The joke about doctors implies
that, in the eyes of nurses, they are
___________
[A] impolite to new arrivals.
[B] very conscious of their godlike
role.
[C] entitled to some privileges.
[D] very busy even during lunch
hours.
43. It can be inferred from the text
that public services __________
[A] have benefited many people.
[B] are the focus of public
attention.
[C] are an inappropriate subject for
humor.
[D] have often been the laughing
stock.
44. To achieve the desired result,
humorous stories should be delivered
_________
[A] in well-worded language.
[B] as awkwardly as possible.
[C] in exaggerated statements.
[D] as casually as possible.
45. 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.
参考答案：
1. CBDDA