1.Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view.
译文及重点词汇重现：你的幽默一定要和听众(audience)有关(relevant)，要有助于表明你是他们中间的一员或者你理解(understand)他们的处境(situation)，并且你赞同(in sympathy with)他们的观点(point of view)。
2.If you are part of the group which you are addressing you will be in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it＇ll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible canteen foodor the chairman＇s notorious bad taste in ties.
译文及重点词汇重现：如果你是你的听众群体中的一员的话，你就会了解你们所有人的共同经历或问题，你就可以随心所欲地评论(passing remark)食堂的饭菜难吃(inedible)，或是评论领导选领带的品位极差(bad taste)，这些都无可厚非(appropriate)。
3.Often it＇s the delivery which causes the audience to smile so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making a light-hearted remark.
译文及重点词汇重现：使听众发笑的通常是讲话的方式，所以，讲话时要慢一点，要记住——扬扬眉(raised eyebrow)或露出一副难以置信的表情(unbelieving look)有助于使你的评论显得轻松愉快(light-hearted)。
4.And thanks to the continual miniaturization of electronics and micro-mechanics there are already robot systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with submillimeter accuracy—far greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their hands alone.
译文及重点词汇重现：由于微电子技术(miniaturization of electronics)和微型机械学(micro-mechanics)的不断发展，已经出现了能做某些脑部和骨科手术(brain and bone surgery)的机器人系统(robot system)，这些手术已达到亚毫米(submillimeter)的精确度(accuracy)——技术再娴熟(skilled)的医生(physician)仅凭手是远远达不到这种精确度(precision)的。
5.Despite a spell of initial optimism in the 1960s and 1970s when it appeared that transistor circuits and microprocessors might be able to copy the action of the human brain by the year 2010 researchers lately have begun to extend that forecast by decades if not centuries.
译文及重点词汇重现：二十世纪六十年代和七十年代，人们曾有过最初的乐观(optimism)时期，当时，人们认为，到二零一零年时，晶体管电路(transistor circuit)和微处理器(microprocessor)似乎就能够复制(copy)人脑的活动(action of the human brain)；但最近，研究人员(researchers)已开始把这一预言(forecast)向后推迟——即使不是几个世纪，也是几十年。
6.But the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and immediately disregard the 98 percent that is irrelevant instantaneously focusing on the monkey at the side of a winding forest road or the single suspicious face in a big crowd.
译文及重点词汇重现：但是人类的大脑在一瞥(glimpse)之下就能发现一个迅速变化的场景(changing scene)，随即忽视(disregard)百分之九十八的不相关(irrelevant)部分，瞬间把注意力集中(focus on)到蜿蜒的森林小路边上的猴子身上或大群人中的一张可疑面孔上。