托福TPO3口语
1.What characteristics do you think make someone a good parent? Explain why these characteristics are important to you.
答案
My mom has many good characteristics that I think all parents should have, let me give you some of them. First, she is a good listener who always pays attention to what I have to say, that makes her the person who knows me the best in our family. And also, she has a good manner. I’ve learned from her how to treat others around me with dignity and respect since I was young, thanks to her I made many good friends in my life. Also, she’s very supportive of me. For example, she’s always wanted me to get in to Finance, but my passion is in Art. Although we had different views of what I should be studying in college, she was very supportive of me and my goals and decided to send me to the best Art school in the country.
2.Some students prefer to work on class assignments by themselves. Others believe it is better to work in a group. Which do you prefer? Explain why.
答案
I prefer to work on class assignments in a group. First of all, when having discussions with a study group, I get a better understanding of the subject matter. And people are usually more focused when participating in a discussion, I myself tend to put things off or get lazy when working alone. Second, I can gain other perspectives when studying with a group. For example, I think it’s amazing sometimes there are so many different ways to solve a single problem. When studying by myself, my thoughts are very limited. But when working with a group, I can learn how to think differently from listening to other group members.
3.The woman expresses her opinion of the change that has been announced. State her opinion and explain her reasons for holding that opinion.
阅读材料
Beginning next month, Dining Services will no longer serve hot breakfast foods at university dining halls. Instead, students will be offered a wide assortment of cold breakfast items in the morning. These cold breakfast foods, such as breads, fruit, and yogurt, are healthier than many of the hot breakfast items that we will stop serving, so health-conscious students should welcome this change. Students will benefit in another way as well, because limiting the breakfast selection to cold food items will save money and allow us to keep our meal plans affordable.
对话
Woman
Do you believe any of this? It’s ridiculous.
Man
What do you mean? Well it’s important to eat healthy foods.
Woman
Sure it is, but they are saying yogurt’s better for you than an omelet or than hot cereal? I mean whether something is hot or cold, that shouldn’t be the issue, except maybe on a really cold morning. In that case which is going to be better for you, a bowl of cold cereal or a nice warm omelet? It’s obvious; there’s no question.
Man
Uh I’m not gonna argue with you there.
Woman
And this whole thing about saving money.
Man
What about it?
Woman
Well, they are actually going to make things worse for us, not better, ‘cuz if they start cutting back and we can’t get what we want right here on campus, well we are going to be going off campus and pay off-campus prices. And you know what? That’ll be expensive. Even if it’s only two or three mornings a week, it can add up.
答案
The school is planning to stop serving hot breakfast at the university dinning hall, because cold items are healthier and doing so can bring down the cost of campus meal plan. In the conversation, the woman disagrees with the schools plan for the following reasons. First of all, she dosen’t think that cold food for breakfast is a good idea. Especially in a cold morning, a warm omelet can make you a lot more comfortable than something cold. Second, she thinks cutting back the menu will make student’s life a lot harder. People are going to be forced to go off campus to get what they want. And off campus food is usually more expansive. Over time, students will end up spending a lot more money.
4.Using the example discussed by the professor, explain what cognitive dissonance is and how people often deal with it.
Individuals sometimes experience a contradiction between their actions and their beliefs－between what they are doing and what they believe they should be doing. These contradictions can cause a kind of mental discomfort known as cognitive dissonance. People experiencing cognitive dissonance often do not want to change the way they are acting, so they resolve the contradictory situation in another way, they change their interpretation of the situation in a way that minimizes the contradiction between what they are doing and what they believe they should be doing.People deal with each other every day. This interaction is at the heart of social life. The study of social interaction is concerned with the influence people have over one another’s behavior. People take each other into account in their daily behavior and in fact, the very presence of others can affect behavior. For example, one principle of social interaction, audience effects, suggests that individuals’ work is affected by their knowledge that they are visible to others, that the presence of others tends to alter the way people behave or perform an activity.
原文
Professor
This is a true story, from my own life. In my first year in high school, I was addicted to video games. I played them all the time and I wasn’t studying enough. I was failing chemistry. That was my hardest class. So this was a conflict for me, because I wanted a good job when I grew up, and I believed, I knew, that if you want a good career, you got to do well in school. But I just couldn’t give up video games. I was completely torn.
And my solution was to… to change my perspective. See, the only class I was doing really badly in was chemistry. In the others, I was… I was Ok. So I asked myself, if I wanted to be a chemist when I grew up, and the fact is I didn’t. I was pretty sure I wanted to be a sociologist, so I told myself my chemistry class didn’t matter, because sociologists don’t really need to know chemistry. In other words, I changed my understanding of what it meant to do well in school. I reinterpreted my situation. I used to think that doing well in school meant doing well in all my classes. But now I decided that succeeding in school meant only doing well in the classes that are related directly to my future career. I eliminated the conflict, at least in my mind.
答案
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort caused by the conflict between our actions and believes. People tend to change their perspective to deal with it. The professor talks about his own experience. He was addicted to video games in high school and that caused him a poor grade in chemistry class. His solution was to change his perspective. Because he didn’t want to become a chemist, he thought that chemistry class was not that important to him anyway. He used to think that doing well in school meant doing well in all classes, but to solve the conflict, he decided that doing well in school meant only doing well in the classes that are related directly to his future career.The professor talks about audience effect which means people would perform differently when they know they are being watched. In the first example, two groups of students were asked to put on some shoes, while the first group knew they were being watched, the other group didn’t. The result shows that the first group put on the shoes faster than the second group. The same thing happens when people learn a new activity. When we learn how to type, and know that we are being observed, we would type faster, but we will also make more mistakes.
5.The speakers discuss two possible solutions to the woman’s problem. Briefly summarize the problem. Then state which of the solutions you recommend and explain why.
Student A
Hey, Marny! What’s wrong?
Student B
Oh… I’m just struggling about what to do… I won an award from the Creative Writing Institute for a story I wrote. And…
Student A
That doesn’t sound like anything’s wrong.
Student B
Well, it’s a huge honor to win, and there’s an award ceremony they’ve invited me to attend, which I’m so excited about, but…and here’s what’s frustrating: I’ve got a biology exam that’s scheduled for the same time!
Student A
Uh-oh! Well, have you talked to your professor about this?
Student B
Yeah, she said I could write a five-page paper instead. And I’ve lots of ideas and know I could do a good job. But…
Student A
But what?
Student B
Well, writing a paper would take up so much time, a lot more time than studying for and taking the exam. I’ve lots of other schoolwork to deal with.
Student A
Oh! Or, you could have someone else receive the award for you, I mean, go in your place and accept it on your behalf.
Student B
Maybe… I’d still get the award and the money that way.
Student A
Ooh!!! You won money too?
Student B
Yeah, pretty cool, huh? But anyways, my parents were really looking forward to coming and seeing me on stage, shaking hands with the Institute’s president and all. I’d hate to disappoint them.
Student A
Um…true… I’m sure they’re really proud.
Student B
Like I said, I’m still struggling about what to do.
答案
The woman’s problem is that she wants to attend an award ceremony and accept her award, but she’s got a biology exam that’s scheduled at the same time. There are two possible solutions, the first is to skip the exam and write a five page paper instead. Or she can find someone to receive the award for her. I think the first solution is better. First, she did mention in the conversation that she has plenty of ideas, and she’s confident she’ll be able to do a good job. Also, if she does not attend the ceremony, her parents are going to be very disappointed because they can’t see her on stage.
6.Using points and examples from the talk, explain the two definitions of money presented by the professor.
In advertising, um…various strategies are used to persuade people to buy products. In order to sell more products, advertisers will often try to make us believe that a product will meet our needs or desires perfectly, even if it’s not true. The strategies they use can be subtle, uh…friendly forms of persuasion that are sometimes hard to recognize.
In a lot of ads, repetition is a key strategy. Research shows that repeated exposure to a message, even something meaningless or untrue, is enough to make people accept it or see it in a positive light. You’ve all seen the car commercials on TV, like the one that refers to its roomy cars over and over again, you know which one I mean. This guy is driving around and he keeps stopping to pick up different people. He picks up three or four people, and each time the narrator says “plenty of room for friends, plenty of room for family, plenty of room for everybody”. The same message is repeated several times in the course of the commercial. Now the car… er… the car actually looks kind of small. It’s not a very big car at all, but you get the sense that it’s pretty spacious. You think that the viewer would reach the logical conclusion that the slogan… er… misrepresents the product. Instead, what usually happens is that when the statement “plenty of room” is repeated often enough, people are actually convinced it’s true.
Um, another strategy they use is to get a celebrity to advertise a product. It turns out that we are more likely to accept an advertising claim made by somebody famous, a person we admire and find appealing. We tend to think they are trustworthy. So… um… you might have a car commercial that features a well-known race car driver. Now it may not be a very fast car, er… it could even be an inexpensive vehicle with a low performance rating, but if a popular race car driver is shown driving it, and saying “I like my cars fast”, then people will believe the car is impressive for its speed.
答案
The professor talks about two strategies that are used in TV ads that will make them more convincing. One strategy is repetition, when people hear something often enough, the message becomes positive. Take a car ad for example, the narrator says “plenty of room for everyone” for many times, although the car is small, eventually people will start to think that the car is fairly big. The second strategy is using a celebrity to advertise a product because people tend to believe someone famous. A race car driver who says “I like my car fast!” might actually make people think the car in the ad to be pretty fast, because we find them trustworthy.
