托福口语考试中,拉低考生分数的除了口齿不清、表达不畅等表层原因,还有一个深层原因:大部分考生主题表达过于肤浅可笑,话不对题的现象时有发生。
比如在谈论这个话题:Describe a job that you would like to do in the future.的时候,一个学生说:I think good job is no job but have much money.我们暂且不去评论这个学生的语法问题,但从学生想要表达的内容上来看,一个好的工作就是不做事就有钱拿,这样的观点,可能很难得到考官的赞同吧。真正的好的内容应该是积极向上的,有自己独到见解的。所以这样的回答所能得到的分数就可想而知了。而这样存在逻辑问题的表达也会进一步造成考生的表达不清的问题。那么我们在托福口语考试中如何避免这样“话不对题”“思维混乱”的表达呢?
首先要有足够的ideas。 我们就以工作这个话题为例,什么样的工作才算是好工作哪?有人喜欢工作well-paid,secure,有人则更看重challenging,exciting,认为那样的工作才worthwhile, rewarding。有没有free time,公司是否提供较好的pension benefit,medical benefit,working condition,和colleague是否相处融洽也都是很多人在择业前考虑的因素。可一个工作也总有不让人满意的地方,如果工作太demanding,职员会感到它stressful。又或者这个工作boring,dangerous,要不就是工人们必须在difficult environment中工作,都会造成负面的情绪。
比如,我们在谈论工作的时候可以说:Money is good, but I want a job which is also rewarding in other ways. It shouldn’t be boring like some other jobs, and there should be always something unexpected. Thus I’ll feel I am doing something worthwhile.
其次,加深对个别话题的了解。
就工作这个话题而论,由于很多考生是尚未走出校园的学生,对工作不甚了解,就是由于这种不了解,所以无法很好的回答考官的问题,而偏偏对于学生后期的发展打算又是托福口语考题中的一个组成部分,所以,做好一些背景知识的补充,先去了解一些相关的知识,就显的尤为的重要了。
比如,我们应该去了解一些常见的岗位,和不同岗位的职责。如对各种岗位职责的描述: I have to supervise and know about what’s going on in all the different parts of the company. I have to represent the company in all important decisions. (Chief Executive Officer) I am a qualified accountant and a member of the management team. I monitor my company’s financial performance, as well as supervising the budgets for various projects and controlling their costs. (Finance Manager) My job is around the development and training of the managers in the store where I work, and making sure they do their jobs well. Also, I’m responsible for the recruitment of new staff. (Human Resources Manager) I give advice about all sorts of different things connected with food, such as advice on how to market it, developing new recipes; I also write articles about it. (Marketing Consultant)
此外,在论述的时候,建议考生也可以结合一些时代的特色。 比如在谈论工作时,我们可以谈论现代工作的工作节奏很快,员工们不得不为heavy workload拼命,很容易feel tired, feel fatigued,feel frustrated,feel depressed,每天都必须do paperwork,meet tight deadlines,很少有时间take a holiday。这些问题都越来越被重视,特别是当人们意识到繁重的工作量还能导致很多的symptom,stress-related illness,比如high blood pressure,ulcer, fatigue,对于其心情的影响是毋庸置疑的,bad mood,low spirit会使整个公司面临low morale的困扰。可喜的是,很多公司都在着手解决这个问题,比如提供sports facility, create appealing working environment。而员工自己也要学会arrange time,来increase efficiency,而且经常做些运动来relax,这样可以使自己feel refreshed,keep fit在工作中have good performance。
在论述的时候,我们可以跳出自己个人而泛泛谈论一种社会现象,这样就可以使我们的回答的立意更高远,更有深度。比如在谈论工作时,我们还可以如是回答:Nowadays the pace of work has increased beyond people’s expectations. They are usually overwhelmed with the heavy workload and feel tired. Overwork will result in stress-related illness, such as high blood pressure and ulcer. Employees will give very poor performance in their work.
|