2015年经济类联考英语阅读练习及答案12

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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.