Eye contact is a nonverbal technique that helps the speaker "sell" his or her ideas to an

audience. Besides its persuasive powers, eye contact helps hold listeners' interest. A successful speaker must maintain eye contact with an audience. To have good rapport (关系) with listeners, a speaker should maintain direct eye contact for at least 75 percent of the time. Some speakers focus exclusively on their notes. Others gaze over the heads of their listeners. Both are likely to lose audience interest and esteem. People who maintain eye contact while speaking, whether from a podium (演讲台) or from across the table are "regarded not only as exceptionally well-disposed by their target but also as more believable and earnest."

To show the potency of eye contact in daily life, we have only to consider how passersby behave when their glances happen to meet on the street. At one extreme are those people who feel obliged to smile when they make eye contact. At the other extreme are those who feel awkward and immediately look away. To make eye contact, it seems, is to make a certain link with someone.

Eye contact with an audience also lets a speaker know and monitor the listeners. It is, in fact, essential for analyzing an audience during a speech. Visual cues (暗示) from audience members can indicate that a speech is dragging, that the speaker is dwelling on a particular point for too long, or that a particular point requires further explanation. As we have pointed out, visual feedback from listeners should play an important role in shaping a speech as it is delivered.

This passage is mainly concerned with ______.

A．the importance of eye contact

B．the potency of nonverbal techniques

C．successful speech delivery

D．an effective way to gain visual feedbacks