Have you ever wished that you could make your little sister’s teddy bear talk to her? Or have you ever wanted to bring a puppet (木偶) to life? If so, you may be interested in learning the art of ventriloquism (腹语术). A ventriloquist can make an ordinary object seem to be alive by giving it a personality, movement, and speech.
Your object can be a puppet, or a doll. Give your new “friend” a name, and then decide on the personality that he will have. The next step is to give your friend movements that agree with the personality you have chosen.
Now you can learn to make your “friend” talk. A ventriloquist will control his mouth and lips so that it will appear that his voice is coming from the object he is using. This will take practice, but you can do it.
First, decide on a voice that is different from your own. It could be higher or lower than yours, or could even have a special accent. Then, find a clean teaspoon and hold the handle between your front teeth. Now, using the voice you created for your friend and holding the handle of the teaspoon tightly between your teeth, look into a mirror and talk. Practicing with the spoon in your mouth will help you learn to keep your mouth from moving. Now try telling a joke in your normal voice and have your friend speak in his voice. Practice those words until you can say them without your lips moving at all.
Ventriloquism is fun. It also requires hard work to become good at it. The most important thing to do is practice. But if you are willing to take the time to give your friend an interesting personality, to practice lively movements, and to work on good mouth control, then you will be well on your way to becoming a ventriloquist!According to the text, a ventriloquist .
| A．is a person who can make puppets |
| B．needs to work with another person |
| C．can speak without using his mouth |
| D．can make an object seem to speak |
You need to hold the handle of a teaspoon between your front teeth so that .
| A．your voice will change |
| B．your mouth won’t move |
| C．you can look humorous |
| D．you can feel your mouth’s movements |
If you want to be good at ventriloquism, you .
| A．need to spend much time practicing |
| B．must learn from famous ventriloquists |
| C．should learn at least one special accent |
| D．must have a great doll to practice with |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A．How to tell jokes |
| B．How to make puppets |
| C．Secrets of ventriloquism |
| D．Tips on making friends |
Imagine that you are in school, giving a speech to your class. Now think what it feels like when stammering (口吃) makes it a struggle to communicate your thoughts and feelings to other people.
The King’s Speech, which won the best picture at the Academy Awards in March, 2011, focuses on stammering along with other speech-related problems. The movie tells the story of Britain’s King George VI, who became king after his brother Edward VIII gave up the crown to marry an American woman.
As a result of British actor Colin Firth’s performance, people are starting to realize that stammering can damage a person’s self-confidence and cause him or her to escape from life.
“The serious problem is unseen and unheard,” said Norbert Lieckfeldt, an expert at the British Stammering Association, in an interview with a news reporter.
“Stammering masks your ability,” he said. “It's a serious disability.”
Most stammerers face bullying (欺负) in school, something that is “usually carried over into the workplace”.
George VI’s stammer took away his confidence as a speaker. But Samantha Mesango, a speech coach based in the UK, believes that speech problems are more common than most people realize. “Some simply don’t like the sound of their own voice; others are scared of speaking in public,” she said.
Travis Treats from St．Louis University praised The King’s Speech. He said it shows that “how one’s speech does not mean what one is inside”. He also added that people who stammer need to be heard and our society should recognize that they have a lot to give to the world. The author writes the first 3 paragraphs to .
| A．show how harmful stammer is for common people |
| B．introduce a famous movie winning great awards |
| C．tell the story of the king who suffers from stammer |
| D．draw readers’ attention to the problem of stammer |
We learn from the passage that .
| A．stammerers face bullying in school but not in the workplace |
| B．Edward VIII gave up his crown because he was a stammerer |
| C．stammerers should be understood and can contribute to the world |
| D．the sufferings caused by stammer haven’t been found yet |
According to Norbert Lieckfeldt, ．
| A．the voice of stammering people cannot be heard |
| B．people who stammer do better in work than school |
| C．there are a lot of things that stammering people can give to us |
| D．the serious problem of stammering remains unseen and unheard |
The paragraph that follows the last will probably talk about ．
| A．the success the king made by overcoming stammer |
| B．the medical treatments given to the stammerers |
| C．doctors’ opinions upon the serious stammer problem |
| D．how popular the movie The King’s Speech will become |
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