I. Listen and fill in the missing words.
How To Deliver An Oscar-Winning Presentation :
Here’s a cold, hard, FACT for you: everyone hates doing presentations. Even people that do
nothing but give presentations day-in, day-out and are a member of the “I love giving
Presentations!” group on Facebook… even they hate giving presentations. They’re horrible
and stressful and you have people looking at you and judging the things you’re saying.
Fortunately, there’s some stuff you can do to help ________ ________ (1) it.
Step 1: Relax
Think of the bigger picture. It’s just a presentation and, no matter how much is ________
________ (2) it, no one’s died. It doesn’t really matter. Even if you were to stand up there
with a frying pan on your head, do a funny little dance and faint, in the grand scheme of
things no one’s really going to care. So go in there with a care-free attitude.
Step 2: Practice
The more you know your source material the better. You need to be able to answer any
questions, no matter how ________- ________(3) they are, in an enthusiastic and ________________ (4) manner. Read, and re-read around the topic as much as possible.
Step 3: Don’t be afraid to stop
Pausing for thought is not a crime. A dramatic pause at the end of a ________ (5) point will
not only work wonders, but will also give you time to ________ (6) plan what you’re saying
next.
Step 4: Handouts
Print out handouts of your presentation. This serves two purposes: firstly, your audience will
be able to refer back to your points when the presentation is a distant memory and, most
importantly, it’ll give them something to look at that isn’t you.
Step 5: Use PowerPoint
And use it well. Make sure it’s well written, with clear, concise points. There’s no point
putting an essay up there because no one will read it while you’re talking. Get to the
________ (7) of your current message, and summarise it in three-to-five key points.
Don’t be afraid to copy slides so you can return to it between slides later in the presentation,
it’ll help ________ (8) an important point home.
Use PowerPoint as a visual prompt – it’s there to replace cheat-sheets, so use it as such.
Step 6: Jazz It Up
A white page with three bullet-points on it is boring. Use PowerPoint with SmartArt and
make your presentation visually ________ (9). Give your audience something to look at. Use
as many slides as you like, and refresh through them at a quick enough rate so that they never
become ________ (10). Using colour and styles is dead easy now thanks to the massive
________ (11) of options under the ‘Design’ tab. Colours, fonts, all that, ready for you to use.
So use it.
Step 7: Numbers
If your presentation contains number, beware: numbers are boring to look at. It’s possible to
kill an audience member with a boring enough number, so turn it into a chart. Pie Charts work
well because you can click and drag segments to make them stand out. You can even do them
in 3D, which looks so professional you’d ________ (12) believe it.
Step 8: Presenter View
Presenter View is a special feature of PowerPoint you’re probably not aware of. It’s a second
screen you can have on a laptop in front of you that will show you extra details.
So, you can make notes down the side of a slide that only you can see. There’s also a timer so
you know how long you’ve been ________ ________ (13) for, what slides are coming up
next and all sorts. It’s an invaluable tool.
Step 9: Picture Them Naked
Because that always works.
Presentations are a pain, but a necessary pain. Get it right and you could be looking at
________ (14). So get it right.
Done.
II. Find the words for these definitions from the gaps:
compelling, crux, stale, array, sneakily, scarcely, well-versed, promotion,
left-field, blistering, waffling on, muddle through, riding on, hammer
a. a move to a more important job in a company or an organization = PROMOTION
b. interesting or exciting making you pay attention to sth = ________
c. knowledgeable and skillful = ________
d. almost not = ________
e. secretly = ________
f. achieve your aims even though you do not know exactly what you’re doing = ________
g. emphasize a point, an idea so that people fully understand it = HAMMER sth home
h. strange or unusual, long way from normal = ________
i. using a lot of words but without saying anything important = ________
j. group or collection of things or people = ________
k. no longer interesting or exciting = ________
l. critical = ________
m. depending on = RIDING ON
n. the most important part of an issue/a problem = ________
II. Find the words for these definitions from the gaps:
compelling, crux, stale, array, sneakily, scarcely, well-versed, promotion,
left-field, blistering, waffling on, muddle through, riding on, hammer
a. a move to a more important job in a company or an organization = PROMOTION
b. interesting or exciting making you pay attention to sth = ________
c. knowledgeable and skillful = ________
d. almost not = ________
e. secretly = ________
f. achieve your aims even though you do not know exactly what you’re doing = ________
g. emphasize a point, an idea so that people fully understand it = HAMMER sth home
h. strange or unusual, long way from normal = ________
i. using a lot of words but without saying anything important = ________
j. group or collection of things or people = ________
k. no longer interesting or exciting = ________
l. critical = ________
m. depending on = RIDING ON
n. the most important part of an issue/a problem = ________
III. Grammar: study the following example from the listening exercise – explain what it
means. What is the Czech equivalent of this?
“The more you know your source material the better.”
We use this structure to say that the more one thing changes, the more another thing changes.
The larger a bottle of whiskey you drink, the drunker you will be.
The further the hotel is from the sea, the longer it will take us to walk there every morning.
After each "the", we can use either an adjective or an adverb in the comparative form.
The more in a hurry we are, the more slowly he eats!
The angrier the teacher got, the more we laughed.
These sentences are often truncated when the rest is understood:
The earlier we arrive at the beach, the better. (...it is for us.)
The closer you sit to the TV, the worse. (...it will be for your eyes.)
And there is one expression in English which talks about the fact that a party is better when
there are a lot of people present: The more, the merrier.
IV. Choose the correct answer.
1. The ____ you study for these exams, the ____ you will do.
a. hard-better
b. harder-more successfully c. much-better
d. more-good
2. She doesn't really like vodka, so the ____ a bottle you find, the ____ it will be for us!
a. small-cheaper
b. smaller-cheap
c. smaller-good
d. smaller-cheaper
3. My neighbor is driving me mad! It seems that the ____ it is at night, the ____ he plays his music.
a. later-more loud
b. late-louder
c. later-louder
d. more late-loud
4. He spent a year in India and loves spicy food. The ____ the food is, the ____ he likes it.
a. hotter-more
b. hot-much
c. hotter-much
d. hot-more
5. Of course you can come to the party! The ____ the ____.
a. more-merrier
b. more-good
c. many-better
d. much-better
6. She will be really angry about that vase being broken! The ____ she knows about it, the ____.
a. more-better
b. less-better
c. worse-worse
d. worse-better
7. He has 6 large dogs to protect his house. The ____ the dog, the ____ he feels.
a. big-safer
b. more big-more safe
c. bigger-safer
d. bigger-safe
IV. Think of your own examples. Be creative…
e.g. The more I practice English the better I become at speaking.