Mr. Zhou, who has heavy, crescent-shaped eyebrows and speaks smoothly, seemed to handle awkward situations with wit, laughing.
Someone lofty may have spoken smoothly into the ear of his lieutenant, Michael Gove, to persuade him he was prime minister material and that he should desert.
The stars, meanwhile, must navigate the five-hundred-foot red carpet in their heavy gowns and towering heels, must speak smoothly and graciously about their fellow-actors, and must be charming yet aloof.
But there he was last week, at Eleven Madison Park, leading a tasting of his wines, speaking smoothly in French, gesturing with long arms that seemed as if they would be a lot more comfortable sprung from the confines of his rumpled blazer.
To hear Latin poetry spoken smoothly and quickly is to hear a mellifluous, rat-a-tat-tat language, the rich, distilled, romantic, pure, heady blueprint of its close descendant, Italian.
Were you speaking smoothly or stammering?
In fact, slowing down or pausing when you reach a stuttering obstacle can train you to speak more smoothly and with less anxiety.
Alwan, a compact man with scrunchedtogether features who has been at B.B.N. for two years, spoke rapidly but smoothly, with a droll delivery.
So when he spoke neatly and smoothly on national television about his admiration for Sibelius and The Catcher in the Rye it was a minor sensation.
Mr. Kocache, who also knows Hebrew, says the officer spoke the language smoothly, like an Israeli, not with a thick American accent.
