Notes from 《张涵 -- 托福口语看这本就够了》

Task 1 — 独立自由选择

Tips

• 在进行深入的解释之前 , 考生必须非常直接的给出自己对于题目的答案
• 和讲道理比起来 , 他们更愿意听故事
• 在回答结尾时应尽量避免说出像That’s all.或者是Thank you.之类的表达
• 支持点最好只给一个 , 最多只给两个
• 使用你熟悉的单词, 短语, 和句型。平时练习的时候努力积累和使用。
• 宁肯直接收尾 , 也不要出现没办法在 45 秒内结束回答的状况 , 尽量保持答案的完整性。

Two structures

• Topic sentence — Supporting details — Ending
• Topic sentence — Supporting Sentence — Examples/details

Example1: Talk about the person you respect most and explain why you respect him or her. Use details and examples in your response.

Allen Iverson, the NBA superstar, is denitely one of the people for whom I have a huge admiration. (Topic sentence)
I admire him a lot because he is such a hard-working guy that you would feel like there’s nothing he cannot do.(Supporting Sentence)
Once I watched an interview of his coach in high school on NBC. He said that Allen was just super diligent. He was always the first person that arrived for the training, and always the last one to leave. He usually stayed for another 2 hours after all his teammates left for dinner. So it’s definitely his hard work that made him one of the most phenomenal players in the league.(Examples/details)

Example2: If you were going to take a trip alone, what would you take with you? Please include details in your response.

If I’m traveling myself, I guess I’ll take a lot of items with me, among which my iPad is a must. You know, it’s always pretty boring when you travel alone, especially when you’re on a plane or train. With iPad, I can do a lot of things to kill that kind of boring time. For example, I can chat with my friends through MSN or Facetime, play video games, watch movies, etc. I still have a very clear memory of my trip to Australia; it’s the iPad that got me through the tedious 10- hour flight. I can’t even imagine how bored I would be if I had to sit in the cabin doing nothing for such a long period of time.

Task 2 — 多选一

Tips

• ETS更愿意听到同学们直接地做出自己的选择 , 而不是在两个选择之间游离不定
• 最好的策略, 便是选择其中一边, 然后加以解释

Structure

• Topic Sentence — Supporting Sentence — Example/Details

Example1: Some people like to have dinner in a restaurant. Others like to cook dinner for themselves. Which do you think is better, and why? Please use details and examples to explain your answer.

I have a pretty hectic life, so I guess having dinner in a restaurant is definitely a better choice for me. (Topic Sentence)
You know, the problem is that I really don’t have that much time to cook for myself. (Supporting Sentence)
I can show you why it’s a mission impossible. I got off work every day probably some time between 7 and 8. If I want to have dinner at home, I’m going to have to spend 1 hour buying food materials in the grocery store, and probably another 1 hour cooking — I’m a terrible cook, by the way. So when I’m done cooking, it’s around 10. I seriously doubt that I still want to eat, not just go to bed or something. (Example/Details)

Example2: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “It is always better to have more than one leader in a group.” Use details and examples to explain your answer.

Admittedly, more people can contribute more ideas, but I don’t think having multiple leaders in a group always helps us work better. In many cases, this is quite a deficiency because it seriously slows down the decision-making process. Let me give you an example. When I was in high school, I worked in the student union, and we have like 5 or 6 people who all believed they were in charge. Once we were trying to find a venue for a prom. People all seemed to have their own preferences and just didn’t want to make any concession. It took us 3 hours, yeah, 3 hours to reach a consensus. If there had been only one boss, we could have gotten a final plan much more quickly.

Task 3 — 校园声明 / 观点和原因

Tips

• 短文的内容多种多样, 但在绝大多数情况下, 都是以下两种. 第一种是学校要颁布一个声明, 可能是需要改变某种政策. 第二种是一个学生给学校或学校领导写的一封信, 建议学校做某一个改变。
• 在托福口语的综合任务中, 乃至托福写作的综合任务中, 只要阅读部分和听力部分同时出现, 考生都应当把答题的重心放在听力部分上 , 而不是阅读部分上. 因此, 在答题过程中, 考生在讲述听力部分内容上所花的时间, 是远远超过在阅读内容上所花时间的。
• 不能掺入任何的个人观点。

答题步骤

• 学校计划做什么
• 学校计划做这件事的第一个原因
• 学校计划做这件事的第二个原因
• 学生是同意 / 反对学校的计划
• 学生同意 / 反对学校计划的第一个原因
• 学生同意 / 反对学校计划的第二个原因

Example

Reading：New Sports Complex

The university president announced last week that the school was planning to spend $3 million to build a new sports complex, with the hope that a new sports complex would help the university attract more excellent students. The president also said that, if there was a new sports complex, the university could strengthen its relationship with the local community since there would be suf cient space to seat more people, not only students, parents, and alumni, but also members of the local community.

阅读关键点：

• The university plans to build a new sports complex.
• Because the university wants to attract more excellent students.
• Because the university wants to strengthen its relationship with the local community.

Listening:

Now listen to two students discussing the article.
Male: So what is your opinion on the university’s new plan? Female: Well! I don’t know. I actually don’t think it’s gonna work. Male: Really?
Female: I mean I do not think top students would care a lot about a sports complex when there are obviously other conditions on this campus that need to be improved.
Male: What exactly do you mean?
Female: Like the science laboratories not having cutting-edge equipment, and the library needing many more books, and the cafeteria being so crowded...I think that the 3 million could be spent in better places if the school really wants to get more good students to come.
Male: Fair enough, but what about the other reason? I mean having more contact with the local community.
Female: Yeah, still not gonna work. Look, people in the local community hardly ever come to those sports games because our teams lose all the time and they are not going to start winning tomorrow. Moreover, even if there are more seats, it won’t make any difference. If they didn’t come before, they won’t come now just because there’s a brand new sports complex.

听力关键点

• The female student disagrees with the university’s plan.
• She believes excellent students won’t care too much about the new sports complex; rather, the money could be spent in better places such as science laboratories, cafeteria, and library.
• She believes a new sports complex won’t help attract people from local community to come to watch games because the reason why they didn’t come is that their teams always lose, not that the place was too old and small.

Answer：

The university is planning to spend a huge amount of money on building a new sports complex because they want to draw the attention from more high-level students. And also, they are really hoping to strengthen the tie between the university and the local community. But the woman thinks it’s a terrible idea. She thinks that spending money in such places as the library and cafeteria, which top students obviously care more about, is a much better choice compared with wasting it on building sports complex. Besides, it’s not going to help strengthen the relationship because people didn’t come to games because they hated to watch the teams losing, not because there weren’t enough seats.

Task 4 — 学术概念 / 抽象到具体

Tips

• 涉及到了三个方面的内容: 抽象的学术概念, 具体的例子或应用, 以及两者之间的关联。
• 最关键的信息 , 必定是此概念的定义。
• 凡事看到诸如 “this is known as”, “this is referred to as”, “this is called”, “people call this”, “people refer to this as”等类似表达的时候 , 此表达的前边一句话 , 很可能便是阅读中概念的定义句。
• 定义句(如果它存在)一般会在概念词的附近 , 通常会在前一句, 后一句 , 或者概念词本身所在的那一句。
• 对讲座中的例子或者应用 , 做一个清楚的, 简洁的摘要summary。
• 当概念和例子同时出现的时候 , 能把例子讲清楚 , 往往是更重要的。
• 如果听力部分的例子中出现专有名词(如植物名和动物名), 考生可以用诸如 “a kind of plant”和 “a kind of bird”之类的短语表达 , 不会说专有名词不会造成扣分。
• 考生需要记下 , 并能说出阅读中概念的名字(不要求准确发音)。

答题步骤

• 概念与定义
• 两个例子
• 呼应：将阅读中的概念引入到对听力段子的总结中去

Example

Reading: Perceptual Constancy

How an object affects our senses depends in part on external conditions, and these conditions are always changing. An object viewed from one angle presents a different shape to our eyes than when viewed from another angle; similarly, as the distance from which we view an object changes, the object will appear larger or smaller. In spite of this, even as conditions change and we see objects differently, we still recognize that they remain the same. This is what is known as perceptual constancy. If not for perceptual constancy, we might have difficulty recognizing familiar objects if we viewed them in a new and different context.

找到概念定义句：

• This is what is known as perceptual constancy
• Even as conditions change and we see objects differently, we still recognize that they remain the same

Listening:

Male: Let’s take an everyday example — an ordinary round plate like you’d find in a kitchen. If you hold the plate directly in front of your face and look at it, what shape do you see? A perfect circle, right? Suppose you tilt the plate to a different angle, to a horizontal position, like you are planning to put food in it. Still a perfect circle? No. The circle is now stretched out, flattened into an oval. Do you conclude that the plate has actually changed shape, or that it’s a different object? Of course not. It looks different, but we perceive it as still being the same.
Here is a different example. This classroom we are in, it’s fairly large, right? Now, from up close, from the front row, I appear to be relatively big, bigger than if you were in the last row, right? But let’s say you are sitting in a front row today, but tomorrow you are sitting in a back row. From back there I’m going to look smaller, but you don’t think I’ve actually gotten smaller. You don’t think you are seeing a different professor, a guy who looks like me except he is smaller. No matter where you are, up close or far away, you understand without even thinking about it that I am the same size, the same person.

概括例子：The professor gives us two examples.

• In the first case, if you hold a kitchen plate right in front of your face, it’s a perfect circle. But if you tilt it into a horizontal position, it becomes an oval.
• In the second example, if you sit in a front row in the classroom, the professor looks bigger, but if you sit in a back row, he will look much smaller.

呼应：

• So we can see that the shape of the plate changes, but because of the concept of perceptual constancy, we don’t think we have two plates, do we?
• Although the professor seems to have different sizes in the two situations, again, because of perceptual constancy, we know he’s the same person.

Answer：

The professor is talking about a psychological concept called perceptual constancy, which refers to the phenomenon that even as conditions change and we see objects differently, we still recognize that they remain the same. And he gives us two examples to illustrate this concept. In the first case, if you hold a kitchen plate right in front of your face, it’s a perfect circle. But if you tilt it into a horizontal position, it becomes an oval. So we can see that the shape of the plate changes, but because of the concept of perceptual constancy, we don’t think we have two plates, do we? In the second example, if you sit in a front row in the classroom, the professor looks bigger, but if you sit in a back row, he will look much smaller. Although the professor seems to have different sizes in the two situations, again, because of perceptual constancy, we know he’s the same person.

Task 5 — 学生对话 / 问题和解决方案

Tips

• 考生应当花 30 秒左右时间总结听力当中的内容, 然后再花 30 秒左右的时间去表达自己的观点。
• 考生在给出自己偏爱的解决方案的理由时 , 可以采用自己想出的理由 , 也可以参考文 章中提出的线索。

答题步骤

• Problems
• One suggests
• Two suggests
• Your opinion
• Your reason

Example

Male: Hey Lisa, how’s it going?
Female: Hi Mark. Uh, I’m OK, I guess, but my schoolwork is really stressing me out.
Male: Yeah? What’s wrong?
Female: Well, I’ve got a paper to write and two exams to study for. And a bunch of math problems to finish. It’s just so much that I can’t concentrate on any of it. I start concentrating on studying for one of my exams, and then I’m like, how long’s it gonna take to finish that problem set?
Male: Wow. Sounds like you’ve got a lot more work than you can handle right now. Look, have you talked to some of your professors... mean, you know, try to explain the problem. Look, you could probably get an extension on your paper, or on the math assignment...
Female: You think? It would give me a little more time to prepare for my exams right now.
Male: Well, I mean another thing that you might do... I mean have you tried making yourself a schedule? I mean that’s what I do when I’m feeling overwhelmed.
Female: What does that do for you?
Male: Well, I mean it helps you to focus your energies. You know, you make yourself a chart that shows the next few days and the time till your stuff is due and...
Female: Uh-huh.
Male: I mean think about what you need to do and when you have to do it by. You know then start filling in your schedule—like, all right 9:00 to 11:30 A.M., study for exam. 12:00 to 3:00, work on problem set. But I mean don’t make the time periods too long. Like, don’t put in eight hours of studying, you know, you’ll get tired, or start worrying about your other work again. But if you keep to your schedule, you know you’ll just have to worry about one thing at a time.
Female: Yeah, that might work.

听力部分的三个关键信息点分别是:

• The woman finds it very difficult to finish all the schoolwork.
• The man suggests that the woman try to explain the problem to the professor and ask for an extension on the paper.
• The man suggests that the woman make herself a schedule. If she follows the schedule, she will be able to focus her energies and get the work done.

自己给出两个关键信息点：

• If I were the woman, I would definitely make myself a schedule.
• Because the professor might not grant me the extension. Also, even if I don't have to write the paper now, it does not mean that I don't have to write it forever. It’ll just lead to an even more hectic future.

Answer

The woman got a lot of schoolwork to do, such as papers, exams and problem sets, so she finds it next to impossible to finish all the work. The man suggests that she try to explain the problem to the professor and ask for an extension on the paper. Or, she can make herself a schedule. If she follows the schedule, she will be able to focus her energies better and then get all the work done. If I were the woman, I would definitely make myself a schedule. Speaking of the reasons, first, the professor might not grant me the extension, right? Second, even if I don't have to write the paper now, it does not mean that I don't have to write it forever. It’ll just lead to an even more hectic future.

Task — 学术话题 / 摘要

Tips

• 托福口语第六题是一个学术场景的题目 , 但和同为学术场景的第四题不一样的是 , 在此 题中并不一定会直接涉及一个学术概念(因此不一定有一个明确的概念名称), 而是围绕一 个学术概念的两个方面进行讨论和举例。
• 考生在总结听力中例子的时候 , 应当首先抓住核心信息。如果考生听力能力较强 , 语速也较快, 能够保证在60秒内说完 , 适当地增加次要信息。
• 考生应当花更多的时间去讲述听力中的例子, 而不是概念. 在托福口语题目中, 凡是概念和例子同时出现 , 后者的重要性往往要超过前者.

答题步骤

• 教授在讨论的主题
• 教授讨论的主题的第一个方面
• 第一个方面的例子
• 教授讨论的主题的第二个方面
• 第二个方面的例子

Example:

Female: So, let’s talk about money. What is money? Well, a broad definition is this: money is anything that people can use to make purchases with. Since many things can be used to make purchases, money can have many different forms. Certainly, coins and dollar bills are money. Typically, people exchange goods and services they produce for dollar bills, and they use this money... these dollar bills... to obtain other goods and services. You might give a taxi driver five dollars to purchase a ride in his taxi. The taxi driver might give those dollars to a farmer to purchase some vegetables. So dollars serve as a way of purchasing goods and services and thus are a form of money.
Now suppose we didn’t have coins and bills to serve as money. People would need some other way to make purchases—perhaps they’d use a barter system, where people exchange goods and services directly for other goods and services. The taxi driver, for example, might give a ride to a farmer in exchange for some vegetables. Since the vegetables are used to pay for a service, by our broad definition the vegetables are used in barter as a form of money.
Now, there is also a narrower definition of money. In the United States only coins and bills are legal tender—meaning that by law, a seller must accept them as payment. The taxi driver must accept coins or bills as payment for a taxi ride. OK? But in the U.S., the taxi driver is not required to accept vegetables in exchange for a ride. So a narrower definition of money might be whatever is legal tender in a society, whatever has to be accepted as payment.

听力部分的五个关键信息点分别是:

• The professor is discussing two different definitions of money.
• A broad definition of money is anything that can be used to make purchases with.
• For example, people might give a taxi driver coins or bills, or even vegetables for a ride.
• A narrower definition of money is something that must be accepted as payment, legal tender.
• For example, a taxi driver must accept coins and bills, but he does not have to accept vegetables, because vegetables are not legal tender in the U.S.

Answer

The professor is talking about two different definitions of money. A broad definition of money is anything that can be used to make purchases with. For example, people might give a taxi driver coins or bills for a ride. If they don’t have coins or bills, they may even use vegetables as a form of money to purchase the service, I mean, the ride. OK, a narrower definition of money is something that must be accepted as payment, in a more formal way, legal tender. For example, a taxi driver must accept coins and bills because they are legal tender in the U.S., however, he does not have to accept vegetables, because he is not required by the law to do this.