单选题
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. "Oh, 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 that 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.
单选题
To make your humor work, you should ______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。利用定位关键词可以定位到第一段“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.”，即“在谈话中用幽默来使人发笑，你就必须知道如何识别共同的经历和共同的问题。你的幽默必须与听众有关，能够向他们显示你是他们的一员，或者你了解他们的情况，同情他们的观点。根据与你谈话的不同对象，问题也有所不同”，由此可知选项C(针对不同人，谈话也要不同)为正确答案；选项A(充分利用不同种类的听众)与原文不符，原文所强调的是按照不同种类的听众来采用不同的幽默手段，而不是去利用听众；选项B(取笑那些行为混乱的人)和选项D(对你的听众表示同情)原文都没有提及。
单选题
The joke about doctors implies that, in the eyes of nurses, they are ______.
单选题
It can be inferred from the text that public services ______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 推断题。利用定位关键词可以定位到第三段“You will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoats like the Post Office or the telephone system.”，即“你去开邮局或电话系统(即public services)的玩笑则比较安全，不会有冒犯什么人的危险”；同时本句中还出现了一个关键词“scapegoats”，意思是替罪羊，也说明public services常常成为人们的笑柄。因此，选项D(经常成为笑柄)为正确答案。选项A(使许多人受益)干扰性比较大，大家都知道公共服务肯定使许多人受益，但是文章没有提到这点。
单选题
To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should be delivered ______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。利用定位关键词可以定位到第四段“Often it"s the delivery that 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”，即“常常是你说话的方式使听众发笑，因此说慢一些，并且记住扬扬眉毛或者做出一种不相信的表情都会向人们显示你正在说笑话”，另外该段中其他关键词，如“natural”“relaxed”“unforced”“light-hearted”等，说明说笑话的时候要自然、平和、全身放轻松，因此选项D(尽可能地随意)为正确答案；选项A(措辞要恰当)、B(尽可能地笨拙些)、C(采用夸大的言辞)与原文信息都不相符。
单选题
The best title for the text may be ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题。主旨题需要利用全文的信息，特别是段落的首尾句和高频核心词汇。第一段提到“If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and problems”(如果想在谈话中用幽默来使人发笑，你就必须知道如何识别共同的经历和共同的问题)，即如何使幽默产生效果，其他各段都是围绕如何有效地使用幽默而展开，所以选项A(有效使用幽默)为本文的主旨；选项D(不同的幽默策略)迷惑性较大，但文章没有详细讲不同的幽默策略，如果这个选项是标题，那么文章就该详细写幽默分几种策略，每种策略应该怎么运用。