【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[听力原文]
You have probably noticed that many speakers at business and professional meetings start off by saying something like this: "I"m glad to have a chance to speak to you today." They are giving an icebreaker—a polite little prologue to "break the ice" before getting into their speech.
When you give speeches in the community, an icebreaker is helpful because it eases your nervous tension and it lets the audience get accustomed to your voice. You don"t need an icebreaker for classroom speeches because your audience has already settled down and is ready to listen.
I don"t like "Hello, how are you?" as an icebreaker. It leaves a question as to whether the speaker wants the audience to roar a response like "Fine, thank you!" It is much better to say, "I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you tonight." But, you might object, phrases like this have been used so often, they are meaningless. Nevertheless, they are valuable aids to smooth social relationships. Such expressions are dull but they are necessary because they lubricate the wheels of human discourse.
In addition to expressing appreciation for the invitation to speak, you can include a thank-you to the person who introduced you or a reference to the occasion. Some speakers also use the icebreaker to formally greet the audience. This custom, however, has fallen out of fashion.
An icebreaker should be very brief—just a sentence or two. If you are too slow getting into the attention material of your introduction, you may cause some listeners to tune you out.
Q: Why is an icebreaker helpful according to the speaker?