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 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 of 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 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.

单选题 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
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。第一段第三句说:你的听众不同,你要谈的问题也应不同,所以C应是正确答案。
单选题 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
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推断题。第二段内容风趣幽默,把护士眼中的医生形象很好地表现了出来:傲慢、不讲理、自以为是,正跟上帝一样。所以,B项正确。
单选题 It can be inferred from the text that public service ______.
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
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推断题。第三段最后一句说:如果你把邮局或电话局当替罪羊来开涮的话,你不会得罪人。由此推知,邮局和电话局这些公共服务业是大众的笑柄(laughing stock)。所以,D项正确。
单选题 To achieve the desired result, humorous stones should be delivered ______.
A. in well-worded language
B. as awkwardly as possible
C. in exaggerated statements
D. as casually as possible
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。第四段第一、二两句告诉我们:如果你想把幽默的话说得自然,你须尽可能轻松自在地(casual,relaxed,unforced,off-the-cuff)讲。所以D正确。
单选题 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
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】主旨题。本文前三段主要讲了针对不同的听者选择不同的幽默内容。后两段主要讨论了如何讲述幽默故事。因此,整篇文章的中心是“怎样有效地运用幽默”。A为最佳标题。