Many students ask why they should learn to give speeches. They often argue that they don’t plan to be politicians, members of board, or company presidents. Students think that those are the only careers that require public speaking but overlook¹ the fact that most of the thousands of speeches delivered every day are given by average people. The coach who explains and demonstrates² the right way to make a lay-upis giving a speech. So are the police officer who speaks to second graders about not talking to strangers and the parent who reports to 110 about atraffic accident.

许多学生问为什么他们要学会演讲。他们通常认为他们并没有要成为政治家，董事成员，或公司总裁的打算。学生们认为那些是唯一需要公共演讲的职业，但他们忽略了一个事实，在每天成千上万的演讲中有大部分是通过普通人来发表的。教练解释并演示了演讲是正确的休息方式。警察告知二年级的学生不要跟陌生人说话，而家长向110报告了一个交通事故。

If you think about it, you’vegiven and listened to more speeches than you realize. It only makes sense to study how to do it well, because speech-making is such an important part of your daily life. Most good speakers learn the speech-making skills; they weren’tborn with them. What is more, there are listening techniques that will help youget more out of the speeches you hear. You never know when you’ll have the opportunity to present a speech or to listen to one. By learning³ good speech-making techniques, you can take advantage of opportunities at school, on the job and as a citizen in society.

如果你想一想，你做和听到的演讲比你意识到的还要多。理所当然你会学习如何把它做得更好，因为演讲在你日常生活中是如此重要的一部分。大多数优秀的演讲家都是通过学习演讲技巧而不是天生的。而且，有一些听力技巧会帮助你让你比所听到的演讲本身获益更多。你永远不知道你什么时候有机会做演讲或听演讲。通过学习良好的演讲技巧，你可以在学校，工作以及社会中利用更多的机会。