What can you say when you have to speak to someone for the first time or when you have to open a meeting? Here are some possible ways of starting a conversation or getting the audience's attention before a talk or speech. 与人初次交谈时打开话题，会议开始要讲话，或者演讲之前引起听众注意，可用以下方式：

• ◆ Do you mind if I sit here? 我坐在这儿可以吗？
• ◆ Hello, is this seat taken? 你好，这个座位有人吗？
• ◆ May I join you? Can I get you a coffee? 可以和你一起吗？我给你拿杯咖啡好吗？
• ◆ Lovely weather we're having!/Can you believe this rain/wind/cold/sunshine? 多好的天气呀！/真想不到会下这么大雨/刮这么大风/这么冷/阳光这么灿烂！
• ◆ Excuse me, could I ask you a question? 打扰一下，可以问您一个问题吗？
• ◆ Shall we make a start? I think it's almost three o'clock. (BrE) 我们马上开始好吗？我看都快三点了。
• ◆ Shall we get started? I'd like to introduce our speaker. (especially NAmE) 我们开始吧？我来介绍一下演讲人。
• ◆ I think everyone's here, so I'd like to welcome you to this conference. 我想大家都到齐了，在此我对出席本次会议的各位表示欢迎。