(节选自袁昊《托福口语真经》一书)
1.You will now be asked a question about a familiar topic. After you hear the question, you will have 15 seconds to prepare your response and 45 seconds to speak.
State one of your challenging experiences. Explain why it is challenging and how did you conquer this challenge. Please include specific examples and details in your explanation.
Preparation time: 15 seconds
Response time: 45 seconds
2.You will now be asked to give your opinion about a familiar topic. After you hear the question, you will have 15 seconds to prepare your response and 45 seconds to speak.
Some students would choose to study a subject because it brings plenty of job opportunities. Instead, others would choose to study a subject which really interests themselves, although it probably doesn’t sell well in the job market. Which opinion do you agree about? Explain why. Preparation time: 15 seconds
Response time: 45 seconds
3.You will now read a short passage within 50 seconds and then listen to a talk on the same topic. You will then be asked a question about them. After you hear the question, you will have 30 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to speak.
Excerpt from a school announcement:
New Course Credit Policy
Western University has decided to offer a new course credit policy to undergraduate students. Before the application of this policy, undergraduate students taking graduate courses can only receive credits for their undergraduate program. However, according to the new policy, all distinguished undergraduates who take graduate courses from now can receive credits for both undergraduate and graduate programs. It means that if these outstanding students choose graduate program in Western University after their graduation, they don’t have to take the same courses again. This new policy is believed to be very helpful in encouraging top undergraduates to stay in Western University for their graduate study.
Listening conversations between two graduate students:
Woman: did you hear about the new policy? It looks good, right?
Man: oh, no! It doesn’t look that great for me. Actually, I think they are going to mess up the whole situation.
Woman: really that bad? What makes you say so? It has nothing to do with our graduate students, right?
Man: well, you know, the best part of graduate education is that it always keeps seminars in a very small scale. I enjoy the intense discussion and drawing a lot of personal attention from professors, but if too many undergraduates choose to take graduate courses, I am afraid that we have to say “bye” to small classes forever.
Women: aha, I get your points. It sucks really.
Man: to make it worse, because most undergraduate students taking graduate courses are so smart, they may look down upon us. In addition, er…I think this policy is harmful not only for us, but also for the undergraduates too.
Woman: really? I had thought they are going to love it. But why do you say that?
Man: I think it is rather obvious. Graduate study is supposed to be a good chance for you to see different people, visit different places, and perhaps even live in totally different environments. Take me as an example, I took my undergraduate study in another state and went to Western University for my master’s degree. Personally, I have benefited a lot from this experience. So, I think the undergraduates shouldn’t be encouraged to stay in the same school for their graduate study.
The man expresses his opinion of the university’s new policy. State his opinion and explain the reasons he gives for holding that opinion.
Preparation time: 30 seconds
Response time: 60 seconds
4. You will now read a short passage and then listen to a talk on the same academic topic. You will then be asked a question about them. After you hear the question, you will have 30 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to speak.
Quotations from a psychological textbook
Role Distancing
People play many different roles all through their lives, such as sons, husbands and fathers. However, under certain circumstances, people may want to adapt to new social roles rather than keep the roles they are currently playing. In the field of social-psychology, this interesting conflict between roles people wish for and roles people possess of is called “Role Distancing”.
Only in very rare cases, people would express their reluctance of playing current social roles directly. Normally, they would still keep playing the roles bestowed by their surrounding environments on one hand, but on the other hand, they would release some emotional clues that imply their unwillingness of accepting the roles.
Lecture script:
Male professor:
That is the definition of the phenomenon which we call, er…, “Role Distancing”. To help you understand this phenomenon better, here is an example. Supposed you were a thirteen years old boy and you were playing with your friends in the living room. Now your mom came in and asked you to finish your kitchen duty, that is, to wash dishes piled up in the sink.
What did you feel then? You knew that you should obey your mom’s words and do the dishes. But you felt that you were an adult already and thus it was so “uncool” if you did what your mom asked you, especially in front of your friends. So what would you do? You still had to wash the dishes for sure, but you did not want your friends thinking that you were a nice, good kid. Then you walked into the kitchen slowly, or you dragged yourself out of the living room, so that all your friends would know that you were unwilling to accept your social role as a kid any more.
The professor takes one example to illustrate the phenomenon of “Role Distancing”. Explain how this example is related to the reading passage.
Preparation time: 30 seconds
Response time: 60 seconds
5.You will now listen to a conversation. You will then be asked a question about it. After you hear the question, you will have 20 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to speak.
Conversation:
Man: hi, Tina. How is everything going? Ah... I am so exhausted.
Woman: come on! What makes you so tired?
Man: my presidentship, of course. You know I am chairing the photographers’ club in school. It is like I have to deal with a thousand things at one time. You know, the money in and out every week, public seminars, new guys recruitment… and everything else.
Woman: totally understand! It can be a very tough job.
Man: that is not everything yet. Plus, I have chosen five classes for this semester. You know, normally students would only choose four.
Woman: aha…no wonder you look so tired. Listen, why not try to release yourself by stepping down your presidentship? You don’t have to work that hard and you could also give some other new guys a few chances by the way.
Man: Yeah…that can be a good solution. But you know what? I love the club so much that I don’t think I can live without it. I simply enjoy the relaxing atmosphere and I have to stay there for a while everyday.
Woman: or, maybe, you can try to drop some classes. It is still pretty early for dropping classes now. Perhaps you don’t need to take all five classes for this semester.
Man: that is right. Only four of them are mandatory actually. But I really like to visit Professor Lora. I have benefited from the visits a lot. She is so smart, nice and knowledgeable. Besides, she is not going to be available here next semester.
The woman discusses two possible solutions to the man’s problem. Describe the problem and the two solutions. Then state which of the two solutions you prefer and explain why.
Preparation time: 20 seconds
Response time: 60 seconds
6.You will now listen to part of a lecture. You will then be asked a question about it. After you hear the question, you will have 20 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to speak.
Now listen to part of a paleontology lecture.
Female Professor
Welcome to be with us, everyone. We will discuss the two hypotheses explaining the extinction of dinosaurs today. Well, one theory believes that dinosaurs all died of the lack of food. The other one, on the other hand, believes that dinosaurs extincted because of the rising temperature.
According to the first theory, the lack of food theory, an asteroid hit our planet millions of years ago. The dust clouds aroused by the collision blackened the sky for months. First, the plants died because we all know that plants have to rely on sunshine to survive. Soon after that, the plant-eating dinosaurs died out because they had nothing to eat. Finally, after the death of plant-eating dinosaurs, all the carnivore dinosaurs disappeared permanently from our planet.
However, the rising temperature theory believes that most dinosaurs died out as the result of volcano eruptions. This is because, er…you know, the volcano eruptions always bring large amount of carbon dioxide into the air. Although this gas is harmless itself, it absorbs heat from sunshine and keeps the heat from running away. Let’s put it this way…it is exactly like a screen of the earth. Therefore, with the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it didn’t take long that the air temperature increased to a dangerous point. Now we all know that the gender of baby dinosaurs depended on the hatching temperature of where the eggs had been laid. The higher the temperature, the less likely that female baby dinosaurs would come out. And because fewer female baby dinosaurs came out, even fewer eggs could be laid. Eventually, all dinosaurs as a species died out millions of years ago as the result of ever rising temperature.
Using the points and examples from the lecture, explain the two possible explanations of dinosaurs extinction.
Preparation time: 20 seconds
Response time: 60 seconds