A speech is a wonderful opportunity to inform,persuade or entertain.The best speeches often take on a combination of all three of these components（组成部分）.However,before you can go about the writing of a great speech,it is important to set goals.Goals keep you,your speech and your audience focused.

What a goal is

    In the context of a speech,a goal is the purpose of the speech,and what it hopes to accomplish.For example,the goal of a eulogy（颂歌）might be to celebrate the life of a loved one.The goal of a speech at a political gathering would be to inform the crowd about the political position of a candidate and persuade them to vote and campaign for the candidate in question.

    Why a goal is important

    Without a goal,a speech is without direction.The goal informs the structure and content of the speech.For example,if a speech's goal is to convince people that smoking is bad for them,the speech will be structured with persuasive arguments to back up the goal.A speech with a goal of informing audience will keep the information fair and factual.

    A goal is incredibly important to the speech's ability to connect with an audience.If the speaker is unaware of the goal of the speech,the audience will likely be unaware as well.This severely reduces the effectiveness of the message.

    Besides informing the audience of the content and structure,a speech's goal drives the speaker to greater heights. If a speaker is asked to speak on a specific subject but never establishes the goal,they won't know where to start in the research,organizing and writing of the speech.

    If you have been charged with delivering a speech,establishing a goal can seem difficult at first.There are several things to take into consideration.First,think about who you will be speaking to.The demographic（人口统计）of your audience will likely determine whether you will be able to persuade them or whether they will be able to sit through（一直坐到……结束）.Second,think about the topic itself.If the topic is something controversial（有争议的）,it may worth your while to consider an informative approach to present both sides of the issue.Finally,consider your resources.A speech with an informative or persuasive goal usually requires a great deal of research,and sometimes takes more time to write.

    Steven Spielberg never fails to blow us away with his imagination.

    The US director's latest film Ready Player One, which was released in Chinese mainland cinemas on March 30, is a story set in the year 2045, when people escape their hopeless everyday lives by putting on a VR mask and entering a virtual (虚拟的) world named Oasis. This fantasy land is filled with characters and settings right out of classic films and videogames like The Shining and Overwatch. It's a feast both for the eyes and mind. And at the age of 71, Spielberg is still “at the top of his game”, wrote reporter Rafer Guzman on Newsday.

    Indeed, Spielberg has always been a gamer himself or rather a game changer. When his thriller Jaws came out in 1975, it struck a chord (引起共鸣) with audiences all over the world and kept people from going swimming for fear. The film was also the first example of what we now know as summer blockbusters.

    “Jaws invented that form of pleasurable entertainment, wrote Stephen Marche on Esquire. It also turned sharks, in the popular imagination, from fish into monsters.”

    And again, in his 1982 film E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial Spielberg challenged people's beliefs that aliens are something to be feared by telling a story about a loving friendship between a space creature and a little boy. “Spielberg redefined popular sci-fi”, wrote Marc Lee on The Telegraph. “Extra-terrestrials no longer had to be a threat to humanity: the universe, he was saying, is also full of awe and wonder.”

    Now comes Ready Player One. When Wade Watts, the film's teenage protagonist (主角), finally prevents Oasis from falling into the wrong hands, he's given ownership of the virtual world by its late designer James Halliday. But Watts makes a decision that he hopes will make people want to appreciate their real lives, instead of spending all their free time escaping reality in Oasis, which is a real-life message that Spielberg is trying to deliver to the audience.

    The booking notes of the play “Sherlock”

    Price: $10

    BOOKING

    There are four easy ways to book seats for the performance:

    in person

    The Box Office is open from Monday to Saturday, 10 am—8pm

    by telephone

    Ring 01324976 to reserve your tickets or to pay by credit card (Visa and MasterCard).

    by post

    Simply complete the booking form and return it to Box Office.

    --online

    Complete the online booking form at www.Satanfiedtheatre.com.

    DISCOUNTS:

    Saver: $2 off any seat booked any time in advance for performances from Monday to Thursday. Saver s are available for children up to 16 years old, over 60s and full-time students.

    Supersavers: half-price seats are available for people with disabilities and one companion. It is advisable to book in advance. There is a maximum of eight wheelchair spaces available and one wheelchair space will be held until an hour before the show.

    Standby: best available seats are on sale for $6 from one hour before the performance for people suitable for Saver and Supersaver discounts and thirty minutes before for all other customers.

    Group Booking: there is a ten percent discount for parties of twelve or more.

    School: school parties of ten or more can book $6 standby tickets and will get every tenth ticket free.

    Please note: we are unable to exchange tickets or refund money unless a performance is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

                                                              Ways to Improve Vocabulary in Just One Day

    The average American has a vocabulary in the thousands. Try these tricks to make sure yours builds up.

    ①Watch movies

    "If you see the movie version of your favorite book you're likely to have a deeper understanding and knowledge of the words in it," says Neuman, professor of Childhood and Literacy Education at New York University. "Seeing and reading something on the same topic is really important."

    ②Read magazines

    If you want to improve vocabulary, don't just flip through your favorite magazine, really read it.

    ③Listen to how words sound

    Many people won't remember tricky words unless they come across them frequently. But if you hear a word that you think sounds interesting, you become word conscious(有意识的) and start using it yourself, says Neuman.

    ④Join a book club

    "Book clubs are a wonderful strategy(策略) to learn new words," says Neuman. Not only will it force you to set aside time in your day to read, it's also a good way to discover books you might not normally be drawn to.

    ⑤Listen to the radio

    Those types of programs can expose you to topics you may not be familiar with. Don't miss these middle school vocabulary words adults still don't know.

    ⑥Pay attention to your surroundings

    Next time you walk down a busy street or take a walk in the park, try to describe what you're seeing as much as possible inside your head.

    ⑦Read, read, read

    Even if you don't stop to look up every single foreign word, chances are you can improve vocabulary simply by figuring out(想出)their meaning based on the context

    The popular image of the mountain climber is of a person carefully climbing a steep cliff with a network of safety ropes, but it is not the only kind. Many climbers now enjoy bouldering. It's more accessible and better for the environment.

    Here is an example of a climber addressing a bouldering problem.

    Figure 1: The climber has two routes she could take, one to the left and one to the right. The left one appears easier because it has a jug within easy reach, but look what happens if she chooses that direction. She gets stuck on the rock and has to go back down. Sometimes that is even more difficult than going up.

    Figure 2: The climber takes the one to the right this time. Using a foothold and placing her right hand in a crimp, she is able to lift herself up and locate other handholds. After only a few moves, she is able to throw her leg over the top of the boulder and pull herself up.

    Many of us think, wrongly, that the moon doesn't change. For example, the Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ruoxu once wrote that "Generations have come and passed away; From year to year the moons took alike, old and new."

    However, a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience shows that the moon is in fact slowly shrinking over time. For the study, a group of US scientists examined and analyzed thousands of photographs taken by the NASA orbiter Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (月球勘测轨道飞行器照相机) . They found that there were lots of faults (断层) on the surface of the moon. These faults were formed by recent movement on the moon.

    According to NASA, the moon is made up of pieces of rocks with a hot core (核) .The moon continued to expand as it was born. But in this process, it released energy and cooled down. Then it began to shrink, in a way comparable to the shrinking of a grape into a raisin (葡萄干) . Over the past several hundred million years, it has become 46 meters "skinnier". But due to its hard and rocky crust (外壳) . the moon's surface continues to push up, "Some of these quakes can be fairly strong around five on the Richter scale (里氏震级) ," said Thomas Watters, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in the US.

    But does that mean the moon is a dangerous place that human shouldn't try to explore and live on in the future? Maybe not, reported the Telegraph, "This isn't anything to worry about. The moon may be shrinking, but not by much. It's not going anywhere," Watters comforted us.

    The new discovery proves that the idea that the moon is a dead, boring place is wrong. "We have been to the moon and we've done some great science, but there is still a lot we don't know. The moon is shrinking ­ we didn't really realize that until recently. It's a much more active and interesting place than we thought and we should explore that," NASA scientist Nathan Williams said.