演讲是一门艺术。好的演讲自有一种激发听众情绪、赢得好感的鼓动性。要做到这一点,首先要依靠演讲稿思想内容的丰富、深刻,见解精辟,有独到之处,发人深思,语言表达要形象、生动,富有感染力。如果演讲稿写得平淡无味,毫无新意,即使在现场“演”得再卖力,效果也不会好,甚至相反。在内容丰富的前提下,演讲的开场白也是非常重要的,如果演讲者能在开场白上激发起听众或者评委老师的兴趣,那么,他的演讲至少成功了一半,下面两个是比较成功的能引起听众兴趣的英语开场白:
1. So earlier this year, I was informed that I would be doing a TED Talk. So I was excited, then I panicked, then I was excited, then I panicked, and in between the excitement and the panicking, I started to do my research, and my research primarily consisted of Googling how to give a great TED Talk.And interspersed with that, I was Googling Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. How many of you know who that is?...

2. My big idea is a very, very small idea that can unlock billions of big ideas that are at the moment dormant inside us. And my little idea that will do that is sleep.This is a room of type-A women. This is a room of sleep-deprived women. And I learned the hard way,the value of sleep. Two-and-a-half years ago, I fainted from exhaustion. I hit my head on my desk. I broke my cheekbone, I got five stitches on my right eye. And I began the journey of rediscovering the value of sleep. And in the course of that, I studied, I met with medical doctors, scientists, and I'm here to tell you that the way to a more productive, more inspired, more joyful life is getting enough sleep....