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 chaiman. 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 scrvices
[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 wellworded 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.
Passage2
Since the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty. That compulsion has resulted in robotics—the science of conferring various human capabilities on machines. And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of science fiction, they have begun to come close.
As a result, the modern world is increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but whose universal existence has removed much human labor. Our factories hum to the rhythm of robot assembly arms. Our banking is done at automated teller terminals that thank us with mechanical politeness for the transaction. Our subway trains are controlled by tireless robo drivers. And thanks to the continual miniaturization of electronics and micromechanics, there are already robot systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with submillimeter accuracy—far greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their hands alone.
