C
Prepare: Plan ahead and think about what you are going to say. In the words of Mark Twain, it usually takes you more than three weeks to prepare for it.
Know your subject: Always make sure that you know the subject and have background information at hand for question time.
Know your audience: Find out who you will be addressing so that you can tailor (适合) your comments accordingly.
Make a point: Keep your speech short and brief and have a few clear points that you need to convey.
Practice: Never learn your speech by heart as your delivery will become unnatural, but do practice it a few times in front of the mirror, your parents or your dog.
Eye contact: If the thought of looking into a sea of faces scares you, adjust your gaze regularly at different points in the room to create the same effect.
First impressions: Your first impression is important when making a public presentation. Find out about dress codes at the place so that you look your best and, if possible, check the microphone beforehand to ensure you know how to use it.
Get help: If public presentations are a major part of your life, read up on the art of speech writing and delivery to improve your skills.
Knowing your subject helps you ______.
A. shorten your preparation time
B. find out who likes your presentation best
C. make better answers when asked questions about the subject
D. keep a clear head and have clear points
If asked for more advice besides what has been mentioned in the text, you may suggest ______.
A. eye contact with the audience B. various tone and body language
C. proper clothes D. more practice
Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
A. How to teach others to speak
B. How to prepare for a perfect speech
C. How to be a good speechmaker
D. How to improve your speaking skills
D
As we all know, sunshine is important to vegetables, but not all vegetables need lots of sunshine. Mark Hoffman and his wife, Guia, own a bed-and-breakfast guesthouse in rural Kempton, Illinois. They often serve their guests produce fresh from the garden.
The Hoffmans have been growing food and flowers for twenty-five years. For almost ten of those years, Mr. Hoffman has been experimenting and working with shade plantings. He says visitors to his website — greenhousebed.com — often ask how to plant in shade spaces. He said, “The bottom line here is that most plants will produce more in full sun. But if you do not have full sun, there are other options.”
For example, he grows tomatoes near oak trees. Oak trees can produce a lot of shade. But Mr. Hoffman says his tomato plants grow as long as they get five hours a day of direct sunshine, especially morning sun. Not only does this go against the traditional advice that tomatoes need six, eight, even twelve hours a day of full sun, it also shows how plants and trees roots can share nutrients and water. Mr. Hoffman also planted asparagus (芦笋around a tree at its drip line (滴水线), the area below the outer limit of the branches. So when it rains, all the rain drips down right on the asparagus.
The Hoffmans’ website includes a list of vegetables, flowers and herbs that have produced acceptably for them in partial shade. Mr. Hoffman says plants with wider leaves seem to do better in shady environments. He also found that his potatoes did better in partial shade than in full sun.
Moving them out of the sun helped control an insect problem with leaf hoppers. Mr. Hoffman does not use pesticides (农药). Instead, he planted the potatoes at the drip line, especially on the east side of the tree. The potatoes get morning sun, but they are shaded during the hottest part of the day. Leaf hoppers dislike shade, and the hottest part of the day is when they do the worst of their damage.
Time of day, brightness of the sun, shadows from trees, walls and buildings, these all influence how much sunlight falls or does not fall on plants.
What can we infer from the second paragraph?
A. Sun can affect the production of some plants.
B. Food growing in the shade contains more nutrients.
C. Food and flowers produce more in the shade.
D. Food growing in the shade is the best choice for most plants.
By using asparagus as an example, the author wants to explain that ______.
A. asparagus prefers to grow in the shade
B. how leaves gain sunshine under the tree
C. vegetables grow better in partial shade
D. how plants and tree roots share water
The underlined words “leaf hoppers” in Para. 5 may be a kind of ______.
What’s the author’s purpose of writing the passage?
A. To present a kind of eco-friendly lifestyle.
B. To show vegetables can be planted in the shade.
C. To recommend an approach to managing a website.
D. To introduce Mark Hoffman and his family.
