Capturing and keeping the audience's interest

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 655.

Exercise 3. Translate the sentences. Analyze semantic relations between the converted nouns in bold type and the verbs. Define which of the two words within a conversion pair is the derived member?

Exercise 2. Translate the sentences. Analyze semantic relations between the converted verbs in bold type and the nouns. Define which of the two words within a conversion pair is the derived member?

EXERCISES ON CONVERSION

1. Isabelwirelessed him from the ship. (W. S. Maugham) 2. At three o'clock that afternoon Reginald Corby wastelephoning his home. (J. Trevor) 3. Rose Mary goes to telephone and beginsdialling. (J.B. Priestley) 4. Mother stopped ladling the broth. (A. Cronin) 5. It was all for the best, that boy and these girls set on the right path,flanneledand stockinged for Jesus and the General Certificate of Education, stripped for ball games in the bitter cold. (P. Mortimer) 6. Then they go to Bratt's half hoping to find friends, but, more often than not, taking a melancholy satis­faction in finding the club deserted orpeopled by strangers. (E, Waugh) 7. Jimmie is singing as hemilks the goat, I think a Dutch song. (M. Spark) 8. She would have said more, had not the door opened and Phyllissailed in to take away the tea. (E. Bowen) 9. It's hardly becoming in a gentleman ap­proaching middle age who'schained to an invalid bed. (W. S. Maugham) 10. Hefiddled with the tape machine, pressed the lever. (M. Spark) 11. Laurencepiloted her out to the taxi, for she had been wobbly even when they arrived. (M. Spark) 12. His client Mr Richmond had to be punctual, indeed his appointment wastimed for 10 o'ctock — although the trial was not due to begin until 10.30 (H. Cecil) 13. Molly was nine, the eldest, and when she remembered this superio­rity, shemothered the party. (J. Gary) 14. Carolina had come round her head still bandaged, her leg nowcaged in its plaster and slung up on its scaffold. {M. Spark} 15. Her yellow face was deeplylined, but her hair which flew in whisps about her face, was a greenish yellow. (J. Gary) 16. He tried todiet me once. In fact, he did put me off my palm oil chop. (/. Gary) 17. My wife wasdogged by ill health for twelve years. (M. Spark) 18. What's the good inferreting out the truth all the time? (P. Mortimer) 19. He raised his hands palms together andsnaked them through imaginarry valleys. (P. Mortimer) 20. Bluebellcamelled her back, stalked on my matress, curled up, and began to purr. (M. Spark) 21. Miguel fishes in the stream all morning. (M. Spark) 22. She smiled at him over her drink, for their immediate haste was over and Laurence hadfished out the bottle which she had packed in his suitcase very carefully in its proper corner. (M. Spark) 23. These blackmailersbeetle round in a curious way, you know. (M. Spark) 24. Other items which heaired in the same breath, such as "There's been a cobweb on the third landing for two weeks, four days and fifteen hours, not including the time for the making..." (-M. Spark) 25. Bowen heard him land — it was a long drop — and run away round the side of the house. (A". Amis) 26. "And why not, officer?"thunderedMr Tewkesbury. {H. Cecil) 27. The sky had clouded and in spite of Laurence's protests the barking of distant thunder was undeniable. (M. Spark) 28. He said this rather good-humouredly over his shoulder as hewaved andhissed for the waiter. {K. Amis) 29. It made her purr and rise on her hind legs topaw my shoulder as I crouched on the patio whistling to her in the early afternoons. (M. Spark) 30. When's she going toface facts? (P. Mortimer) 31. Not that I actually expected to find anything — I was justnosing round so to speak. (A. Christie) 32. He consulted a doctor who told him he washeading for a breakdown and advised a nursing home. (J. Gary) 33. "Forgive my saying so, old boy," said-Brent, "but how can youstomach old Tewkesbury as a client?" {H. Cecil} 34. He had run through a good deal of money as a subaltern,backing horses; but many subalterns have done that. (J. Gary) 35. She was tremendously anxious not to disturb Jake, but wouldtiptoe past his study door leaving such a smell of gardenia behind her that in a few moments he would come out, sniffing, and join us in the kitchen or the sitting-room cluttered with patterns and pins, for we took to dress-making .at that time. (P. Mortimer) 36. Placed to the left of these, a corner bookcase was devoted to the Marian section, all heavilythumbed and annotated. (M. Spark} 37. The curious visiting Egyptian had glanced round at his neighbours and grinned,hunching his shoulders. (K. Amis) 38. He handed Ernest the slip he had signed and folded neatly and properly. {M. Spark} 39. Then Bob joined them in a third pint andshouldering their guns, they disappeared into the woods directly back of the pullet runs. (B. MacDonald) 40. We hadnosed our way into the foothills of the Olympics... (B. MacDonald) 41. The silence lengthened and he could feel Bachixa starting toeye him. (K.Amis} 42. She fingered a lace scarf. (W. S. Maugham} 43. They have taken over our living-room andrequisitioned all the best chairs. (E. Gurney} 44. His jaw dropped, but on he went,pumpingme for another half hour, (A. Sillitoe) 45. I liked topicture.the effect if I arrived with Jimmie in my wake. (M. Spark) 46. ... he hadstationed himself in the Saloon Bar for the rest of the evening to drink jar after jar of beer... (A. Sillitoe} 47. ...the bank that a week agoechoed my footsteps like a police court begged to advance my money, safeguard my valuables, and execute my will ... (R. Gordon) 48. The casualty room at St Swithin's was not likely tofire in any young man the inspiration to be a second Louis Pasteur or Astley Cooper. (R. Gordon) 49. It was important to decide on entering the room, which of the committee were doctors and which were lay governors, in order to tune the pitch of each reply correctly... (R. Gordon) 50. Tuberculosis offered work in pleasant country surroundings with plenty of fresh butter and eggs, but the drowsy routine of a sanatorium oftendrugs the doctors as well as the patients. (R. Gordon} 51. He'd happened topal up with a French bloke who'd been in the orthopaedic wards... (R. Gordon}

1. This was Helena's lasttry. (M. Spark) 2. Jimmie Wal Erford got off with a fewcuts and bruises. (M. Spark) 3. I don'1 keep up t-his house to be a hostel ofbores to come and gossip in. (E. Waugh} 4. I am afraid I can't ask you in for adrink.{E. Waugh} 5. He did not at all like thelook orfeel of the bed; the springs were broken in the centre and it creaked ominously when he lay down to try it. (E. Waugh) 6. "What do you mean?" he said with a presentableshow of injured innocence. (H. Cecil} 7. The line of least resistance, backed up by cloudy visions ofgain, had brought him here, rather against both his better judgement and his conscience. (K. Amis) 8. Bowen's firstkill was a big insect with an important, matriarchal appearance. (K. Amis) 9. That single name gave me astab of grief, sickening as a present grief—whereas the name of Roy Calvert himself I had heard without emotion. (C. P. Snow} 10. After he retired, it seemed for a time that the old.sting had left him. (C. P. Snow) 11. It was a dark night, not cold, with low cloudcover. (C. P. Snow} 12. He was not allowed a say for one single minute. (E. Bowen} 13. So he asked us to give her a taste of that for a year. (f. Bowen} 14. But I'm not in the least prepared to give tacitsupport to degrading superstitions. (C. P. Snow} 15. It would bea run of a. dozen miles or so inland, he had worked out. (K- Amis) 16. I thought I was just having arun of bad luck or that I didn't play as well as he did. (W. S. Maugham) 17. Now the children and I were just going up to the house fora bite, and we want you to come along with us. (B. Mac-Donald) 18. He hadn't said anything to me because he didn't want to disappoint me if the ranch had proved a poorbuy.(B. MacDonald} 19. "A lot happened to me then, you know." "Such as?" "Oh, just the ordinary casualrun of events." (W.S. Maugham} 20. The creature asked Jonah who he was and how he was enjoying hisswim. (E. Gurney} 21. ... I realized it might be possible to run for money, trot for wages on piece work at a boba puff rising bit by bit to a guinea agaspand retiring through old age at thirty-two. (A. Sillitoe) 22. For when my eyes recognize that I'm getting near the end of the course — by seeing a stile or cottage corner — I put on aspurt ... (A. Sillitoe) 23. A middle-aged man wearing a dirty raincoat, who badly needed ashave and looked as though he hadn't washed for a month, came out of a public lavatory with a cloth bag of tools folded beneath his arm. (A. Sillitoe} 24. ...I'm doing it in a place just where the drive turns in to the sportsfield — where they can see what I'm doing... (A. Sillitoe} 25. The appointment would be made after we had finished three months' work in casualty — and only one of us could be chosen. Thereject would be turned out in his medical infancy to wail on some other hospital's doorstep. (R.Gprdon) 26. The only faintly shady part of the practice was our electrocardiograph, an instrument for taking electrical records of the heart, which represented the conflict between Razzy the doctor and Razzy the financier; he knew that as a diagnostic aid it was almost useless, but he hated not seeing a returnon his capital. (R. Gordon) 27. With the weather thickening and the light fading early the crowd had thinned slightly either end of the ground. The better part of, it was now stuffed in the main stand and in the covered standopposite. 28. She was wearing a tweed coat trimmed with fur, smart travelling clothes, foreign in makeand cut.(A. Christie) 29...When it got dark I could thumb a lorry lift and get a free ride north with somebody who might not give me away. (A. Sillitoe) 30. He gave him twenty-five grains of quinine and lit a fire so close to his hammock that by morning it was singed and blacked with smoke. (E Waugh) 31. On first sight it looked distressingly forlorn, huddled there in the laps of the great Olympics, the buildings greyed with weather, the orchard overgrown with second-growth firs, the fences collapsing, the windows gaping. (B. MacDonald) 32. Caroline put the palms of her hands out to the sun to get them browned. (M.Spark). 33. His face also was long and hollow,dried up by sun and yellowed by fever.(J. Gary) 34. Caroline freedherself and gripped the side of the boat. (M. Spark) 35. I tried out "Dinner is served" on them in a vain attempt to better myself, but the effect was rather spoiled by the door-knob coming off in my hand as I said it. (M. Dickens) 36. As I eased in beside Small Anne and laid my cheek on one of Mrs Kettle's best pillow slips, I knew I would awaken with a basket of flowers imprinted on my right cheek. (B. MacDonald)

To capture your audience's interest, you need a lively introduction with a 'hook'; that is to say a way of making the audience want to know more. Some ways of doing this are:

· identify a problem you know they would like solved

· "trail" some new and interesting information that you are going to unveil

· ask rhetorical questions (questions to which you don't expect an answer: what exactly went wrong? where does that leave us? how can we interpret this?).

Once you have the audience's attention, you should ensure you keep it by:

· making clear, brief points

· using simple visual aids to highlight specific points (these should be vivid and with only minimal information)

· using humor if it is appropriate to your topic

· summarizing key points.

The body is the 'real' presentation. If the introduction was well prepared and delivered, you will now be 'in control'. You will be relaxed and confident. The body should be well structured, divided up logically, with plenty of carefully spaced visuals.

Remember these key points while delivering the body of your presentation:

· do not hurry

· be enthusiastic

· give time on visuals

· maintain eye contact

· modulate your voice

· look friendly

· keep to your structure

· use your notes

· signpost throughout

· remain polite when dealing with difficult questions.

Main body of a presentation