Learning how to write is like taking a course in public speaking. I’d ask whether anyone in class had evertaken such a course. Always a few hands would go up.

　　"What did you learn in that course?" I’d ask.

　　"Well, the main thing was learning how to face an audience: not to be inhibited (拘謹(jǐn))... not to be nervous. "

　　Exactly, when you take a course in public speaking nowadays, you don’t hear much about grammar and vocabulary. Instead. you’re taught how not to be afraid or embarrassed, how to speak without a prepared script. how to read out to the live audience before you. Public speaking is a matter of overcoming your long-standing nervous inhibitions.

　　The same is true of writing. The point of the whole thing is to overcome your nervous inhibitions, to break through the invisible barrier that separates you from the person who’ll read what you wrote. You must learn to sit in front of your typewriter of dictating machine and read out to the person at the other end of the line.

　　Of course, in public speaking with the audience right in front of you, the problem is easier. You can lookat them and talk to them directly. In writing, you ’re alone. It needs an effort of your experience or imagination to take hold of that other person and talk to him or her. But that effort is necessary or at least it’ s necessary until you’ve reached the point when you quite naturally and unconsciously "talk on paper".

　　練習(xí)題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.The main task of a public speech course is to __________.

　　A.teach grammar and vocabulary

　　B. teach how to write a script

　　C. teach how to overcome nervousness

　　D. teach live spoken-language expressions

　　2.Learning how to write is similar to learning how to speak in public in that writer should _____.

　　A.overcome his or her nervousness in the first place

　　B. take hold of a reader and talk to him or her before writing

　　C. learn to use a typewriter or dictating machine

　　D. talk to himself on paper

　　3.what does the author compare writing and public speaking?

　　A.Writhing needs more experience and imagination than public speaking

　　B.Both writing and public speaking require great effort

　　C.Writhing is just as imagination as public speaking

　　D.Writhing is not as natural as public speaking

　　4.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

　　A.Few students feel the need to learn public speaking

　　B.Training is necessary before you can speak with a script

　　C.In public speaking, the audience are more nervous than the speaker

　　D.Writing is just like making a public speech on paper

　　5.This selection is mainly about ___________.

　　A.the effort involved in writing

　　B.the similarities between writing and public speaking

　　C.learning how to make a public speech

　　D.learning how to talk on paper