2016年DSE英文卷二(writing)考核演講詞(speech)。演講詞並不難寫,它跟議論文有很多相同的地方。本文探討一些寫演講詞應留意的事項。
用軼事吸注意力
同學可用有趣的introduction(引言)去吸引讀者。要吸引讀者,不妨運用anecdotes(軼事)、questions(問題)或statistics(數據)等方法去帶出主題:
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Before I start my talk, let me tell you a story about Christina. Christina is a single lady. Recently, she met this Englishman, Romeo, on a popular dating site. Although Romeo was now working in Jamaica, he appeared to be the perfect man for Christina: He was handsome, successful, smart, and humorous. Most importantly, Romeo wanted to marry her.
One week after communicating with her online, Romeo started calling Christina "sweetheart", "darling", etc. Soon enough, Romeo said he wanted to see Christina face-to-face. Christina, of course, was highly expectant of his visit.
A day prior his flight to Hong Kong, Romeo however said he needed to settle a small problem first. Prompted by Christina, Romeo confessed that his business was not good lately and indeed, he desperately needed HK$200,000 to pay off his debts.
Would Christina be kind enough to advance the cash to him? Infatuated with love, Christina unquestioningly advanced the money to Romeo. After all, who could refuse her potential partner? Unbeknown to Christina, this pattern would repeat many times within their so-called relationship; in fact, in two years' time, Christina would use up all her savings on Romeo, before Romeo vanished completely without trace.
Wouldn't this narrative sound familiar to all of you? Indeed, we can all be another Christina. To avoid the same fate, we should all be cautious when using the Internet. That's why, today I'm going to share with you three basic rules you must follow to protect yourself from any Internet frauds.
主題放在段落最後的位置,故事則用來作引子,帶出文章的主旨。
組織有條理 句子短為宜
Organization(組織)對演講詞來說,尤其重要。在現實裡,觀眾沒有機會看講稿,倘若他們聽漏了什麼,可能會完全跟不上。即使在考試中,同學亦要留意文章組織,因為考官會留意文中有沒有topic sentences(點題句)去指出重點,或有沒有運用充足的transitional words(過渡詞)去連接ideas。
同時,因為是演講詞,句子較短為宜,不能過長。因為長句子較難使人明白文章的內容:
1. Phone X, which was created in 2014 by our company's designers, and which was on store shelves one year later, still sells well.
2. Our company's designers created Phone X in 2014 and introduced it to the market shortly afterward. It still sells well.
第二句只包含了simple and compound sentences,較容易明白。
Exercise
Revise the following sentence to make it easier to read.
My mother, who has an "undying" love for branded handbags, will travel to Europe every summer to replenish her stock.
Answer
My mother loves branded handbags and every summer she will travel to Europe to buy some expensive handbags.
■Dr. A. Chan,哲學博士,哲學碩士,英語講師。熟悉公開考試之出題模式與評分準則,任教英語。
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