如果你事先未做准备，听众中的一些人很快就会发觉，实在不用你加以指点。而其他的人可能不会发现，你又何必引起他们的注意力？为什么要侮辱你的听众？——因为你这样说，等于是在向他们暗示，你认为他们不值得你去准备，而且你在火炉边无意中听来的一些资料就足以满足他们。不，不，听众不希望听到你说抱歉。我们齐集一堂是要听取新的消息和意见，激起我们的兴趣。你要特别记住后面这一点。你一来到听众面前，很自然而且无可避免地引起我们对你的注意。在以后的五秒钟内继续维持我们对你的这份注意力并不困难，但要在以后的五分钟内维持这份注意力，可就很困难了。你一旦失去了听众对你的这份注意力，要想再争取回来，那就加倍困难了。因此，你在第一个句子中就要说出某些吸引听众兴趣的话。不是第二个句子，更不是第三句，是第一句！第一句！To begin a talk with an apology does not get you off to a good start either. How often we all have heard speakers begin by calling the attention of the audience to their lack of preparation or their lack of ability. If you are not prepared, the audience will probably discover it without your assistance. Why insult your audience by suggesting that you did not think them worth preparing for, that just any old thing you had on the fire was good enough to serve them? No, we don't want to hear apologies; we want to be informed and interested-to be interested: remember that. Let your opening sentence capture the interest of your audience. Not the second sentence. Not the third sentence. The first!