Speaking in public Before you read What events do you know which feature public speaking? Would any of them interest you enough to go and listen, or perhaps even to take part? Reading: Looking for Alibrandi Read the following extract from a novel. Fact file Voting facts • In Australia, all citizens 18 or older have the duty to vote in federal elections. • Before you can vote, your name must be put on the electoral roll, the list of enrolled (= registered) voters. • Enrolment and voting are compulsory. If you don’t vote, you may be fined. • This measure makes sure that voter turnout is much higher than in other systems. F 1 2 30–31c It is Have a Say Day and pupils from all over Sydney have come to a park in the city centre, for a speech competition. There are even members of Australia’s political elite in the audience. The story is told from the perspective of 17-year-old Josie Alibrandi, the novel’s main character. So I sat there next to a Jewish hunk, wishing he believed in Jesus so we could get married, and behind a girl resembling Poison Ivy who belonged to a Presbyterian school. Seated on my side was Jacob Coote from Cook High. Cook High is a public school in the city area. Because it’s the closest school to us we don’t get on well with them. We think we’re better than them. They think we’re the biggest dags in the world. When we were young, they would throw things out of their bus windows at us and in Year 10, on the last day of school, Jacob Coote and about ten of his friends, male and female, blocked both entrances of a lane we cut through to get to our bus stop. Twelve of us were bombarded with eggs, rotten fruit and vegetables. Everyone said that one day we would look back on the occasion and laugh. Very unlikely. “What are you going to talk about?” he whispered in my ear. I moved away hoping nobody had seen him speaking to me. My friends think he’s gorgeous. His hair is brown, shoulder-length, not cut into any particular style and his eyes are green and they always seem to be laughing at you. He grinned and by the way his lips were twitching he looked like he was trying to control a laugh. I knew he recognised me from the lane. “Didn’t I once squash two eggs against your glasses?” he asked. “I’m flattered you remember. I tripped over a rubbish can, you know, and cut my hand on some broken glass.” “Oh, come on. We were suspended for that. We didn’t go to school for six weeks.” “Very funny. We had six weeks holiday after that.” He tapped the Presbyterian girl in front of us and asked her what she was going to speak about. “University careers,” she smiled, flirting before turning around. “Great choice,” he said looking at me and making a face at her back. Some people spoke about the government’s school cuts, others about careers. The environment was spoken about, as well as the homeless. I decided to talk about sex education in our schools due to the AIDS issue. I had used it as an oratory speech before and had won, so I knew I couldn’t go wrong. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 109 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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