Learning how to write is like taking a course in public speaking. I'd ask whether anyone in class had evertaken such a course. Always a few hands would go up.
"What did you learn in that course?" I'd ask.
"Well, the main thing was learning how to face an audience: not to be inhibited (拘謹)... not to be nervous. "
Exactly, when you take a course in public speaking nowadays, you don't hear much about grammar and vocabulary. Instead. you're taught how not to be afraid or embarrassed, how to speak without a prepared script. how to read out to the live audience before you. Public speaking is a matter of overcoming your long-standing nervous inhibitions.
The same is true of writing. The point of the whole thing is to overcome your nervous inhibitions, to break through the invisible barrier that separates you from the person who’ll read what you wrote. You must learn to sit in front of your typewriter of dictating machine and read out to the person at the other end of the line.
Of course, in public speaking with the audience right in front of you, the problem is easier. You can lookat them and talk to them directly. In writing, you 're alone. It needs an effort of your experience or imagination to take hold of that other person and talk to him or her. But that effort is necessary or at least it' s necessary until you've reached the point when you quite naturally and unconsciously "talk on paper".
練習題：
Choose correct answers to the question:
1.The main task of a public speech course is to __________.
A.teach grammar and vocabulary
B. teach how to write a script
C. teach how to overcome nervousness
D. teach live spoken-language expressions
2.Learning how to write is similar to learning how to speak in public in that writer should _____.
A.overcome his or her nervousness in the first place
B. take hold of a reader and talk to him or her before writing
C. learn to use a typewriter or dictating machine
D. talk to himself on paper
3.what does the author compare writing and public speaking?
A.Writhing needs more experience and imagination than public speaking
B.Both writing and public speaking require great effort
C.Writhing is just as imagination as public speaking
D.Writhing is not as natural as public speaking
4.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A.Few students feel the need to learn public speaking
B.Training is necessary before you can speak with a script
C.In public speaking, the audience are more nervous than the speaker
D.Writing is just like making a public speech on paper
5.This selection is mainly about ___________.
A.the effort involved in writing
B.the similarities between writing and public speaking
C.learning how to make a public speech
D.learning how to talk on paper
1.[C] 事實細節(jié)題。原文第4段,特別是第4段的最后一句表明c為正確選項。本題稍具干擾性的是D，該選項中的live一詞在第4段第2句末尾也有出現(xiàn)，但事實上D與該句的意思不相同。
2.[A] 事實細節(jié)題。本題考查對比處。第5段第1句表明下一句就是演講和寫作的相似之處，而A就是對該句的同義替換。其他選項并未按照題目的要求對比演講與寫作，只是說明了寫作必須做的，因此都不正確。
3.[A] 推理判斷題。本題考查對比處。結(jié)尾段對比了演講和寫作的不同之處，第1、2句和第3、4句形成了內(nèi)在的對比關(guān)系，由此可推斷寫作比演講更需要經(jīng)驗和努力，因此可確定A正確，而C不正確。雖然在這一段可找到effort和naturally等詞，但原文并沒有從是否要付出同樣多的努力(B)或是否自然(D)等方面對比演講與寫作，因此B和D也不正確。
4.[D] 推理判斷題。根據(jù)最后一句中的“在紙上說話”,可推斷作者認為寫作如在紙上作演講一樣，因此D正確。A中的Few students與事實不符;B中的speak with a script在文中未有提及;C中的separated by a barrier錯誤。
5.[D] 主旨大意題。文章的開頭句就是全文的主題句，作者在前四段說明如何演講，從第5段開始，作者轉(zhuǎn)向說明如何寫作,文章的結(jié)尾句對開頭句做出了呼應。作者之所以將演講和寫作過程做比較是為了讓自己的觀點更容易、更生動地被讀者明白和接受，因此本文的中心內(nèi)容是圍繞寫作，而不是演講。其余選項雖然文中都有提及，但只是各個具體的側(cè)面內(nèi)容，不能概括全文大意。
