People often ask me if I feel nervous before speaking, and I have to say that I always suffer intensely from nervousness before speaking. There is a great compensation, though, for this preliminary nervous suffering. After I have been speaking for about ten minutes I feel that my audience and I have gotten into full and complete sympathy with each other. There is a thread of sympathy and oneness that connects a public speaker with his audience, that is just as strong as though it was something tangible and visible. I believe that one always does himself and his audience an injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not believe that one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels convinced that he has a message to deliver. When one feels, from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, that he has something to say that is going to help some individual or some cause, then let him say it; and in delivering his message I do not believe that many of the artificial rules of elocution can, under such circumstances, help him very much. Although there are certain things, such as pauses, breathing, and pitch of voice, that are very important, none of these can take the place of soul in an address. When I have an address to deliver, I like to forget all about the rules for the proper use of the English language, rhetoric, and that sort of thing, and I like to make the audience forget all about these things, too. Nothing tends to throw me off my balance so quickly, when I am speaking, as to have someone leave the room. To prevent this, I try to make my address so interesting that no one can leave. The average audience, I have come to believe, wants facts rather than generalities or sermonizing. Most people, I think, are able to draw proper conclusions if they are given the facts in an interesting form on which to base them.

Question

People often ask me if I feel nervous before speaking, and I have to say that I always suffer intensely from nervousness before speaking. There is a great compensation, though, for this preliminary nervous suffering. After I have been speaking for about ten minutes I feel that my audience and I have gotten into full and complete sympathy with each other. There is a thread of sympathy and oneness that connects a public speaker with his audience, that is just as strong as though it was something tangible and visible. I believe that one always does himself and his audience an injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not believe that one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels convinced that he has a message to deliver. When one feels, from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, that he has something to say that is going to help some individual or some cause, then let him say it; and in delivering his message I do not believe that many of the artificial rules of elocution can, under such circumstances, help him very much. Although there are certain things, such as pauses, breathing, and pitch of voice, that are very important, none of these can take the place of soul in an address. When I have an address to deliver, I like to forget all about the rules for the proper use of the English language, rhetoric, and that sort of thing, and I like to make the audience forget all about these things, too. Nothing tends to throw me off my balance so quickly, when I am speaking, as to have someone leave the room. To prevent this, I try to make my address so interesting that no one can leave. The average audience, I have come to believe, wants facts rather than generalities or sermonizing. Most people, I think, are able to draw proper conclusions if they are given the facts in an interesting form on which to base them.

According to the author, what bothered him the MOST while he was speaking?
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1 point
people entering the room late
someone in the audience leaving the room
having to use the proper rules of rhetoric
nervousness

Answer 1

The author states that nothing throws him off balance more quickly while speaking than having someone leave the room. Therefore, the answer is "someone in the audience leaving the room."