10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking
By The Princeton Language Institute, Lenny Laskowski
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Warner Books
ISBN: 0446676683
This book is a course on giving public talks. It’s written by an expert in the field and has the tools to make you a relaxed, effective, and commanding public speaker. You can find clear, brief, step-by-step to help you: Overcome nervousness and discover your own natural style. Set up an immediate connection with your audience.
Practise new techniques daily in conversations with friends. Write a speech that builds to an unforgettable conclusion. Mix together humour and anecdotes into your talk. Use special techniques to memorize your speech.
In the Spotlight: Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking and Performing
By Janet E. Esposito
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Strong Books
ISBN: 1928782078
In the Spotlight is a gift for people experiencing any degree of fear or discomfort in speaking or performing in front of others, either in formal settings. The book has many different methods to help you get beyond stage fright and learn to speak or perform with ease and confidence.
The Lost Art of the Great Speech: How to Write One and How to Deliver It
By Richard Dowis
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: American Management Association
ISBN: 0814470548
Here’s expert guidance on how to write a forceful speech. Attractive slides, confident body language, and a lot of eye contacts are fine. Now everyone can learn to give a powerful, direct speeches that catch an audience’s attention. The key is not just in the delivery, but in using the power of language. It requires interesting ideas, presented in a clear and memorable way.
It’s speech-writing guide made by an award-winning writer. It has everything from researching and writing the speech to preparing the text to delivering the speech to handling questions from the audience.
Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History
By William Bathe
Paperback: 1,055 pages
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393040054
This is a collection of more than 100 speeches that seeks to show the enduring power of human eloquence (雄辩) to inspire and uplift (振奋). These speeches are said to have moved millions and changed history. There is an introduction to each speech, and an essay on the art of public speaking.
This collection is edited by a former presidential speechwriter-William Satire. He knows firsthand, the importance of putting together the right words for the right movement.
These speeches prove that, even in the digital age, the most forceful medium of communication is still the human voice speaking directly to the mind, heart, and soul.
49. The purpose of the above books is to _______.
A. give you encouragement in making a speech
B. tell you how to make a forceful speech
C. show you the skills of making a good speech
D. tell you how to catch an audience’s attention while making a speech
50. If you want to improve your speaking skills by reading some great speeches by famous people, you will read ______.
A. Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History
B. The Lost Art of the Great Speech: How to Write One and How to Deliver It
C. In the Spotlight: Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking and Performing
D. 10 Days to More Confident Public speaking
51. Which of the following people used to write speeches for presidents？
A. Rechard Dowis. B. Janet E. Esposito.
C. Lenny Laskowski. D. William Satire.
“Selfie” (自拍) joins ranks of dictionary words.
In 2002, an Australian man went to his friend’s 21st birthday party. He got drunk, tripped on some steps and cut his lip. He took a picture of his injuries and shared it with his friends on an online forum. “And sorry about the focus,” he wrote, “it was a selfie.” That was the first recorded use of the word “selfie”, according to linguistic experts at Oxford Dictionaries.
On Nov 19, Oxford Dictionaries declared “selfie” Word of the Year for 2013, in honor of the term having taken over the world thanks to millions of smart phone self-portraits and the resulting shares on social media.
So what does the choice of the word say about our culture? Mary Elizabeth Williams, writing in Salon magazine, says the word reminds us that contemporary culture is defined by our narcissism(自恋).Megan Jackson from a local newspaper points out a selfie may only focus on appearance.
Selfies invite judgment based on appearance alone. What kind of cultural influence does this have on women? Erin Gloria Ryan on Jezebel says selfies teach young woman to obsess over their appearance and judge themselves on the basis of beauty rather than accomplishments. “They’re a reflection of the warped way we teach girls to see themselves as decorative,” said Ryan.
In Slate magazine, Rachel Simmons has the opposite view. She argues that selfies are an example of young women promoting themselves and taking control of their own self-presentation. Think of each one, she says, as “a tiny pulse of girl pride —a shout-out to the self”.Which of the following is true about the first use of “selfie”?
| A．The Australian man created it to celebrate his friend’s 21st birthday. |
| B．The Australian man created by chance when he got drunk and shared his photo online. |
| C．The Oxford Dictionary used it to thank the creation of smart phone. |
| D．The social media were so advanced that they made the word transmitted. |
The underlined word “tripped” in the first paragraph probably means “________”.
| A．traveled | B．stepped lightly |
| C．fell down | D．made mistakes |
Who holds a positive opinion towards selfie in the life of women?
| A．Mary Elizabeth. | B．Megan Jackson. |
| C．Erin Gloria Ryan. | D．Rachel Simmons. |
The text is mainly concerned with ________.
| A．the introduction of the word “selfie” |
| B．the choice of the word “selfie” |
| C．the history of the word “selfie” |
| D．the characteristics of the word “selfie” |
Tayka Hotel De Sal
Where: Tahua, Bolivia
How much: About $95 a night
Why it’s cool: You’ve stayed at hotels made of brick or wood, but salt? That’s something few can claim. Tayka Hotel de Sal is made totally of salt—including the beds (though you’ll sleep on regular mattresses (床垫) and blankets).The hotel sits on the Salar de Uyuni, a prehistoric dried-up lake that’s the world’s biggest salt flat. Builders use the salt from the 4,633-square-mile flat to make the bricks, and glue them together with a paste of wet salt that hardens when it dries. When rain starts to dissolve the hotel, the owners just mix up more salt paste to strengthen the bricks.
Green Magic Nature Resort
Where: Vythiri, India
How much: About $240 a night
Why it’s cool: Ridding a pulley(滑轮)-operated lift 86 feet to your treetop room is just the start of your adventure. As you look out of your open window—there is no glass!—you watch monkeys and birds in the rain forest canopy. Later you might test your fear of heights by crossing the handmade rope bridge to the main part of the hotel, or just sit on your bamboo bed and read. You don’t even have to come down for breakfast—the hotel will send it up on the pulley-drawn “elevator”.
Dog Bark Park Inn B&B
Where: Cottonwood, Idaho
How much: $92 a night
Why it’s cool: This doghouse isn’t just for the family pet. Sweet Willy is a 30-foot-tall dog with guest rooms in his belly. Climb the wooden stairs beside his hind leg to enter the door in his side. You can relax in the main bedroom, go up a few steps of the loft in Willy’s head, or hang out inside his nose. Although you have a full private bathroom in your quarters, there is also a toilet in the 12-foot-tall fire hydrant outside.
Gamirasu Cave Hotel
Where: Ayvali, Turkey
How much: Between $130 and $475 a night.
Why it’s cool: This is caveman cool! Experience what it was like 5,000 years ago, when people lived in these mountain caves formed by volcanic ash. But your stay will be much more modern. Bathrooms and electricity provide what you expect from a modern hotel, and the white volcanic ash, called tufa, keeps the rooms cool, about 65℉in summer.(Don’t worry—there is heat in winter.)What is the similarity of the four hotels?
| A．Being expensive. | B．Being beautiful. |
| C．Being natural. | D．Being unique. |
What does the underlined part “Sweet Willy” refer to?
A. The building of Dog Bark Park Inn B&B.
B. The name of a pet dog of the hotel owner.
C. The name of the hotel.
D. The name of the hotel owner.Which of the hotel makes you have a feeling of living in the far past?
| A．Tayka Hotel De Sal | B．Green Magic Nature Resort |
| C．Dog Bark Park Inn B&B | D．Gamirasu Cave Hotel |
Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to the patients at the clinic.
One evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful-looking man. He’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old son. “Good evening. I’ve come to see if you’ve a room. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no bus till morning.” He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no success. “I guess it’s my face…I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments…” For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: “I could sleep in this chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning.”
I told him we would find him a bed. When I had finished the dishes, I talked with him. He told me he fished for a living to support his five children, and his wife, who was hopelessly crippled (残疾的) from a back injury. He didn’t tell it by way of complaint. Next morning, just before he left, as if asking a great favor, he said, “Could I come back and stay the next time?” He added, “Your children made me feel at home.”
On his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and the largest oysters (牡蛎) I had ever seen. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us and there was never a time that he did not bring us vegetables from his garden. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned how to accept the bad without complaint when facing the misfortune.Why did the author agree to let the man spend the night in his house at last?
| A．Because the man said others refused to accommodate him. |
| B．Because the man said he would not cause much inconvenience. |
| C．Because the man said he had come from the eastern shore. |
| D．Because the man said he had been hunting for a room since noon. |
How long would it take the man to travel from his home to Baltimore by bus?
| A．About 1 hour. | B．About 2 hours. |
| C．About 3 hours. | D．About 4 hours. |
From the text we can know that __________.
| A．the author’s children were kind and friendly to the man |
| B．the man was fed up with his hard-work and his family |
| C．John Hopkins Hospital provided rooms for the patients to live in |
| D．the author and his family were thought highly of by his neighbors |
The author’s family were grateful to know the man because __________.
| A．he often brought them fish and vegetables from his garden |
| B．he paid them money for his staying |
| C．he taught them how to accept the bad without complaint |
| D．he stayed only overnight with the writer’s family |
The National Gallery
Description:
The National Gallery is the British national art museum built on the north side of Trafalgar Square in London. It houses a diverse collection of more than 2,300 examples of European art ranging from 13th-century religious paintings to more modern ones by Renoir and Van Gogh. The older collections of the gallery are reached through the main entrance while the more modern works in the East Wing are most easily reached from Trafalgar Square by a ground floor entrance
Layout:
The modern Sainsbury Wing on the western side of the building houses 13th- to 15th-century paintings, and artists include Duccio, Uccello, Van Eyck, Lippi, Mantegna, Botticelli and Memling.
The main West Wing houses 16th-century paintings, and artists include Leonardo da Vinci, Cranach, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bruegel, Bronzino, Titan and Veronese.
The North Wing houses 17th-century paintings, and artists include Caravaggio, Rubens, Poussin, Van Dyck, Velazquez, Claude and Vermeer.
The East Wing houses 18th- to early 20th-century paintings, and artists include Canaletto, Goya, Turner, Constable, Renoir and Van Gogh.
Opening Hours:
The Gallery is open every day from 10am to 6pm (Fridays 10am to 9pm) and is free, but charges apply to some special exhibitions.
Getting There:
Nearest underground stations: Charing Cross (2-minute walk), Leicester Square (3-minute walk), Embankment (7-minute walk), and Piccadilly Circus (8-minute walk). In which century’s collection can you see religious paintings?
| A．The 13th. | B．The 17th. | C．The 18th. | D．The 20th. |
Where are Leonardo da Vinci’s works shown?
| A．In the East Wing. | B．In the main West Wing. |
| C．In the Sainsbury Wing. | D．In the North Wing. |
Which underground station is closest to the National Gallery?
| A．Piccadilly Circus. | B．Leicester Square. |
| C．Embankment. | D．Charing Cross. |
It happened to me recently. I was telling someone how much I had enjoyed reading Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father and how it had changed my views of our President. A friend I was talking to agreed with me that it was, in his words, “a brilliantly （精彩地）written book”. However, he then went on to talk about Mr. Obama in a way which suggested he had no idea of his background at all. I sensed that I was talking to a book liar.
And it seems that my friend is not the only one. Approximately two thirds of people have lied about reading a book which they haven’t. In the World Book Day’s “Report on Guilty Secrets”, Dreams From My Father is at number 9. The report lists ten books, and various authors, which people have lied about reading, and as I’m not one to lie too often (I’d hate to be caught out), I’ll admit here and now that I haven’t read the entire top ten. But I am pleased to say that, unlike 42 percent of people, I have read the book at number one, George Orwell’s 1984. I think it’s really brilliant.
The World Book Day report also has some other interesting information in it. It says that many people lie about having read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky (I haven’t read him, but haven’t lied about it either) and Herman Melville.
Asked why they lied, the most common reason was to “impress” someone they were speaking to. This could be tricky if the conversation became more in–depth!
But when asked which authors they actually enjoy, people named J. K. Rowling, John Grisham, Sophie Kinsella (ah, the big sellers, in other words). Forty-two percent of people asked admitted they turned to the back of the book to read the end before finishing the story (I’ll come clean: I do this and am astonished that 58 percent said they had never done so).How did the author find his friend a book liar?
| A．By judging his manner of speaking. |
| B．By looking into his background. |
| C．By mentioning a famous name. |
| D．By discussing the book itself. |
Which of the following is a “guilty secret” according to the World Book Day report?
| A．Charles Dickens is very low on the top-ten list. |
| B．42% of people pretended to have read 1984. |
| C．The author admitted having read 9 books |
| D．Dreams From My Father is hardly read. |
By lying about reading, a person hopes to .
| A．control the conversation |
| B．appear knowledgeable |
| C．learn about the book |
| D．make more friends |
What is the author’s attitude to 58% of readers?
| A．Favorable. | B．Uncaring |
| C．Doubtful | D．Friendly |