托福機經2016.03.13口語

Task 1

The university is going to make some changes to improve students’ life, which do you think university should change and why? 1, Cafeteria. 2, swimming pool. 3, Student dorm.

Sample response

If my school is making any improvements on school facilities, I'd go for swimming pool. To begin with, I always liked swimming, but my school’s swimming pool wasn't exactly what I wanted. It's outdated and dirty, and they don't refresh the water frequently, I'd like to swimming there more if they made any improvement to the pool. Another point I'd like to indicate is: it would encourage students to do exercise, especially in summer. We all know that students now all lack exercise, we got to admit that major part of the reasons why people don't like it is that it's too hot to do sports, we get sweaty after playing basketball, football. But when we know that we have a nice swimming pool, we'd jump right in!

Task 2

Do you think you can learn a lot about a stranger from the first observation or you have to know his personality after a long time?

Sample response

I’d definitely wait longer time to judge a person. Let’s picture this. You walk into a friend’s party, say hi to all the people you know or you don’t, you smile, you wave your hand, you tell people jokes to gain laughters, you keep perfect manners to make a good impression. Everyone does that, but we all know that it takes much longer time to actually know a person’s personality, whether he is kind or punctual, whether he has weird habits, and whether he treats his friends kindly. Someone may wear nice and decent clothes when he is out to make a good impression. As time goes by, when you know him more, he turns out to be a person who often leaves dishes dirty, keeps his room messy, or not showering for days. That is, my friend, the real him.

Task 3

【通告】The university is planning to close Eastern Campus Cafeteria. Since there is a decline in customer number and the school isn’t profiting, and the school has not yet had any plan to replace the cafeteria.

【意見】The man disagrees. 

【原因一 】East part of the campus is normally pretty crowded with people coming and going, a lot of students having classes or studying in the library, if the cafeteria was shut down, students have to take bus from east to the west for lunch.

【原因二】It would be a waste to shut it down before coming up with a better idea.

Sample response

The school decided to close the cafeteria at Eastern campus, considering there are not many people in the east side, the school isn’t profiting, and the school has not yet had any plan to replace the cafeteria. The male student thinks it might be a mistake to do so. The first point the man indicates is that: east part of the campus is normally pretty crowded with people coming and going, a lot of students having classes or studying in the library, if the cafeteria was shut down, students have to take bus from east to the west for lunch, which may cause inconveniences. Besides, the school obviously doesn't have any clear plan after shutting down the coffee house, it would just leave an empty space, there are plenty of empty spaces in campus already. It would be a waste to shut it down before coming up with a better idea.

Task 4

【名詞解釋】Bet hedging is the strategy adopted by certain plants to save part of their seeds for the next year during harsh climates in case they all dry up and die.

【教授舉例】The professor takes a kind of plant called pepper grass as an example. It would produce as many seeds as possible, but only sprout part of the seeds, leaving the rest as remain. When there is enough water or rain, the seeds that sprout will grow into maturity, but if there is no luck, not enough water for the plants, the seeds would die dry out, the rest part of the seeds, which didn’t sprout will wait until the next rainfall to grow.

Sample response

Some plants live in a harsh climate. If all of their seeds sprout, they might all dry up and die, so some plants would save part of their seeds for the next year, which is called Bet hedging. There is a kind of plant specie called pepper grass. Pepper grass lives in the desert where there is not enough water for all the plants. In order to survive in this harsh environment, pepper grass has developed adaptation to deal with it. It would produce as many seeds as possible, but only sprout part of the seeds, leaving the rest as remain. When there is enough water or rain, the seeds that sprout will grow into maturity, but if there is no luck, not enough water for the plants, the seeds would die dry out, the rest part of the seeds, which didn’t sprout will wait until the next rainfall to grow.

Task 5

【學生困難】The male students made a mistake by sending out the wrong date of performance's deadline on the campus newspaper. 

【方案一】：Change the date to the next week

【方案二】：Correct the information today

Sample response

The male students made a mistake by sending out the wrong date of performance's deadline on the campus news paper, there are two ways that might solve this problem. He might want to change it to the next week, that way there would be more audiences, or he can just correct the information today, and who ever saw the news could just come and watch. I think it would be safer for him to rearrange the time to the next week, I mean, it would be irresponsible for him to just post the news today when people are expecting to watch the show at its given time, I doubt it would be viewed by a lot of students since everyone has their own schedules to follow. Giving short notice would only bring a small audience to the performance, which is unfair to the group. Changing the date is a safer choice because that would allow everyone to see the poster and the team would actually have more time to rehearse.

Task 6

【講課要點】How to promote name recognition of advertising and the importance of it

【方法】Show  your name on the screen for many times repeatedly

【原因】People have tendencies to purchase the things with a familiar name, and the familiarity would lead them to connect the product with high quality images 

Sample response

In the lecture, the professor talks about the way to promote name recognition of advertising and the importance of it. First, you need to show your name on the screen for many times, repeatedly, like if you have a product named Quick Clean, you might want it in the camera, showing the name to the audiences over and over. You may also want the narrator to call the name for many times, so that people would have a better chance of remembering your product. Such recognition is essential because researches have shown that, people have tendencies to purchase the things with a familiar name, when people remember your product’ s name and become familiar with it, they would automatically connect your product with high quality images, that would definitely increase the sales.