Читать книгу THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING - J. BERG ESENWEIN DALE CARNAGEY - Страница 29

1. What advantages has the fluent speaker over the hesitating talker?

2. What influences, within and without the man himself, work against

fluency?

3. Select from the daily paper some topic for an address and make a

three-minute address on it. Do your words come freely and your sentences

flow out rhythmically? Practise _on the same topic_ until they do.

4. Select some subject with which you are familiar and test your fluency

by speaking extemporaneously.

5. Take one of the sentiments given below and, following the advice

given on pages 118-119, construct a short speech beginning with the last

word in the sentence.

Machinery has created a new economic world.

The Socialist Party is a strenuous worker for peace.

He was a crushed and broken man when he left prison.

War must ultimately give way to world-wide arbitration.

The labor unions demand a more equal distribution of the wealth

that labor creates.

6. Put the sentiments of Mr. Bryan's "Prince of Peace," on page 448,

into your own words. Honestly criticise your own effort.

7. Take any of the following quotations and make a five-minute speech on

it without pausing to prepare. The first efforts may be very lame, but

if you want speed on a typewriter, a record for a hundred-yard dash, or

facility in speaking, you must practise, _practise_, _PRACTISE_.

There lives more faith in honest doubt,

Believe me, than in half the creeds.

--TENNYSON, _In Memoriam_.

Howe'er it be, it seems to me,

'Tis only noble to be good.

Kind hearts are more than coronets,

And simple faith than Norman blood.

--TENNYSON, _Lady Clara Vere de Vere_.

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view

And robes the mountain in its azure hue.

--CAMPBELL, _Pleasures of Hope_.

His best companions, innocence and health,

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

--GOLDSMITH, _The Deserted Village_.

Beware of desperate steps! The darkest day,

Live till tomorrow, will have passed away.

--COWPER, _Needless Alarm_.

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

--PAINE, _Rights of Man_.

Trade it may help, society extend,

But lures the pirate, and corrupts the friend:

It raises armies in a nation's aid,

But bribes a senate, and the land's betray'd.

--POPE, _Moral Essays_.[5]

O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal

away their brains!

--SHAKESPEARE, _Othello_.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishment the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

--HENLEY, _Invictus_.

The world is so full of a number of things,

I am sure we should all be happy as kings.

--STEVENSON, _A Child's Garden of Verses_.

If your morals are dreary, depend upon it they are wrong.

--STEVENSON, _Essays_.

Every advantage has its tax. I learn to be content.

--EMERSON, _Essays_.

8. Make a two-minute speech on any of the following general subjects,

but you will find that your ideas will come more readily if you narrow

your subject by taking some specific phase of it. For instance, instead

of trying to speak on "Law" in general, take the proposition, "The Poor

Man Cannot Afford to Prosecute;" or instead of dwelling on "Leisure,"

show how modern speed is creating more leisure. In this way you may

expand this subject list indefinitely.

_GENERAL THEMES_

Law.

Politics.

Woman's Suffrage.

Initiative and Referendum.

A Larger Navy.

War.

Peace.

Foreign Immigration.

The Liquor Traffic.

Labor Unions.

Strikes.

Socialism.

Single Tax.

Tariff.

Honesty.

Courage.

Hope.

Love.

Mercy.

Kindness.

Justice.

Progress.

Machinery.

Invention.

Wealth.

Poverty.

Agriculture.

Science.

Surgery.

Haste.

Leisure.

Happiness.

Health.

Business.

America.

The Far East.

Mobs.

Colleges.

Sports.

Matrimony.

Divorce.

Child Labor.

Education.

Books.

The Theater.

Literature.

Electricity.

Achievement.

Failure.

Public Speaking.

Ideals.

Conversation.

The Most Dramatic Moment of My Life.

My Happiest Days.

Things Worth While.

What I Hope to Achieve.

My Greatest Desire.

What I Would Do with a Million Dollars.

Is Mankind Progressing?

Our Greatest Need.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 4: See chapter on "Increasing the Vocabulary."]

[Footnote 5: Money.]