单选题
Passage Two
Public speaking fills most people with dread. Humiliation is greatest fear; self-exposure and failing to appeal to the audience come a close second. Women hate it most, since girls are pressurized from an early age to be concerned with appearances of all kinds.
Most people have plenty of insecurities,and this seems like a situation that will bring them out. If you were under pressure to be perfect,you are terrified of falling in the mostpublic of ways.
Extroverts,on the contrary , will feel less fear before the or deal.It does not mean they will necessarily do it better . Some very shy people manage to shine. When I met the Britishcomedian Julian Clary , he wasshy and cautious, yet his TV performances are perfect.
In fact, personality is not the best predictor of who does it well. Regardless of what you are like inreal life, the key seems to be toact yourself.
Actual acting, as in performing the scripted lines of acharacter other than yourself, does not do the job. While politicians may limit damage by having carefully written and rehearsed scripts to speakfrom, there is always a hidden awareness among the audience that the wordsmight not be true.
Likewise, the incredibly perfect speeches of many American academics are far from natural. You may end up buying their book on the way out, but soon afterwards, it ismuch like fast food, and you get a nameless sense that you'vebeen cheated.
But, being yourself doesn’t work either . If you spoke as if you were in your own kitchen, it would be too authentic, too unaware of the need to communicate with an audience.
I remember going to see British psychiatrist R. D. Laing speak in public. He behaved like a eriously odd person, talking off the top of his head. Although he was talking aboutmadness and he wrote on mental illness, he seemed to be exhibiting rather than explaining it.
The best psychological place from which to speak in public is an unselfconscious self-consciousness, providing the illusion of being natural. Studies suggest that this state of “flow”, aspsychologists call it, is very satisfying.
单选题
Women hate public speaking most mainly because of __________ .