ielts-yasi.englishlab.net

Written Oct. 21, 2006 

Communicating - the 'key' to the Speaking test

There is really no one 'key' or secret to the IELTS Speaking test, but if I had to choose one thing, I would say it is this: In the Speaking test, don't think that you are 'performing'; think that you are communicating with another human being. Don't think of the IELTS examiner as an 'examining god' or as an 'examining machine' but think he or she is another human being, just like you and on the same level as you, even if he or she is 70 years old. If you have this attitude, you will actually speak better. Not only that, you'll feel less nervous.

In fact, the IELTS Handbook actually describes the Speaking test as " ... assessing whether candidates can communicate effectively in English." Why didn't they just describe the test as " ... assessing how well candidates can speak English"? The reason is that 'communicating' and 'speaking' are not exactly the same. Speaking is a tool or method for the purpose of communicating. You can teach a parrot to speak a few phrases of English (maybe a good parrot could get a Band 2!) and someone who doesn't really understand a word of English could answer every question in the IELTS test by speaking memorized passages of Shakespeare in perfect English as their answers. However, when we communicate, we exchange meaning with another person and our answers to questions are closely related to the questions. If the other person doesn't understand the meaning we are trying to express, we try again to get the meaning across by perhaps changing the words we use or giving an example. Or, when we are explaining something complex, we especially try to speak in a logical way and might add examples or say, 'In other words, ...' when we feel that our language might not be clear enough. 

Of course, when we communicate, we don't always wait for the other person to say they don't understand – we look at them to see their reaction to what we say and to see if they understand. This is especially important in Part 2 of the Speaking test because the examiner will not ask you to repeat something he or she doesn't understand or hear clearly in Part 2 – they are not supposed to interrupt you at all. Many candidates stare at the task card all the time when they do their Part 2 monologue and that is a sign of poor communication. Other candidates stare into space as they talk, (possibly because they are recalling sentences that have prepared) and this is the same because they can't see whether the examiner is following what they are saying.

Some IELTS books tell you to look into the examiner's eyes all the time during the test. Yes, Westerners do look into each other's eyes more than Asian people when they talk and young Asians do tend to have the cultural habit of averting eye contact when they talk to older people or people they feel are their superiors. But even Westerners don't stare into the other person's eyes all the time! When I first started as an examiner, a few very attractive girls stared into my eyes all the time and I sometimes thought, "Wow! She's falling in love with me!" To be honest with you, this probably did affect my judgment sometimes – if I had to decide whether to go up or down when my calculation of her score was say, 5.5, I probably went up more often than I should have for some of these girls. (Examiners are supposed to go down. Also, It is possible that examiners have to report all the 4 sub-scores now but when I was an examiner a few years ago, we only had to report the final score.) [When I was an examiner, in 2001-3, there were no 0.5 scores in speaking, just whole numbers, such as 4, 5, 6 etc.] But you girls should be careful of using this as a method to try to get a better score from male examiners because I also remember sometimes feeling insulted when girls stared into my eyes like that; I thought they were trying to get a higher score by pretending to find me a fascinating person. It was only later, when I read the books that suggested candidates should maintain eye-contact all the time, that I realized the true reason why they did this. Just be natural! 

Another aspect of communication is that we correct our language if we make a serious mistake that could or does result in a misunderstanding. But in the IELTS test, for grammar or pronunciation errors that would not usually cause misunderstanding, you should not correct yourself more than a couple of times. Too much self-correction could result in a loss of fluency (loss of continuity) and actually make it harder to follow you.

And when we try to communicate but don't know or can't recall the exact word we want to say, we still try to convey our meaning by 'paraphrasing' i.e., explaining the meaning of the word we can't think of. Some candidates just give up immediately when they run across this problem but that is poor communication and it reveals an attitude of performing rather than communicating. This, and several other small aspects of communication are written into the examiner's grading criteria. Yes, it's not a bad idea to be aware of these small things but by simply having the attitude that you are communicating, these small aspects of communication will come more naturally to you and you won't need to specifically remember every small thing you should do. This includes eye-contact and the way you sit in your chair.

Too many Part 2 topics!

Some students have asked me if there is any way to narrow down the number of possible Part 2/3 topics. The answer is, no, I don't think there is much that I can do to make this choice smaller. (I used to think that Part 2 topics are 'retired' after 12 months of use but it seems that some topics that are still being used have been in use for more than 12 months.) I believe that the test managers in China are approaching the point of having a largely unpredictable Part 2/3 topic. But it is not 100% unpredictable – IF you do the test on a day when they are introducing new topics, my estimate is that you have about a 50% chance of getting a new topic and a 50% chance of getting one of the many topics I've listed on this website. But since there are so many topics on my website, the situation requires a suitable way to handle this information. That is, you might need to rethink how you study.

Before I continue, I want to say that I don't know what method the test managers in China are using now for handling the Part 2 topics. Everything seems to have changed after the first test of May this year. Before that, the set of only 15 Part 2 topics was known. They used to change 5 of the topics every 4 months but after a few tests, it was possible to work out what these new topics were and even deduce which 5 topics had been taken out of the test. But now, I don't even know if the examiners still have a total of 15 topics to choose from – it could be a lot smaller but this smaller set of topics might be changed very frequently, i.e., for each morning or afternoon of examining. Why do I say this? Well, it's already obvious that for every test, (or almost every test), one new topic is introduced before each half day of the test. (I'm not sure if they take out the new topic from the morning session when they introduce a new topic for the afternoon session on Sunday but it seems likely.) But the reason I suspect a smaller set of choices is the pattern of what candidates report on the internet after each test. About half of the people report a new Part 2 topic but of the others, it seems that one or two of the topics in my list is used a lot more than they would be used if the examiner had 15 topics to choose from. For example, last week very many people reported getting the topic, "Describe a character from a story you heard (or read) in your childhood" How does this information help you? I don't know. It seems likely but not certain that an old topic that was used in the last test won't be used a lot in the next few tests but you can't even assume this with certainty.

I do seem to see a pattern where the examiners are using the more difficult Part 2 topics more often than the easier ones. By 'difficult' I mean topics which many candidates find difficult to answer or can answer fairly easily but often with grammatical (or other) errors. Or, the examiners might be choosing Part 2 topics whose Part 3 questions are known to cause problems or errors in candidates. Even if the examiners are not doing this, common sense tells you that you should give priority to preparing for those known topics that seem the most difficult for you. (One problem here is that many of you don't know when you are making grammatical errors.) One such topic is #5, 'Describe what you would do if you received a very large sum of money.' You might think that this is an easy topic because it is so open-ended – you could possibly talk for ten minutes about all the possibilities of what you would do. Yes, it is relatively easy to answer but a large percentage of candidates would make grammatical errors when answering this topic. You should give priority to preparing for the more difficult or error-inducing topics. 

Now that there are so many topics to study or prepare for, my suggestion is that you change the way you study. Instead of writing many answers for many topics and trying to memorize these answers, you should try to find more global methods of study. For example, let's look at the topics that require mostly past tense sentences in your Part 2 monologue. (Past tense topics are the most frequently used topics.) If you know that your (spoken) past tense is a little weak, spend some studying and practicing spoken past tense sentences. For example, do you always say 'id' when you pronounce the 'ed' of past tense regular verbs that originally ended in 'd' or 't' such as 'wanted, started, lasted, tasted, located, decided, funded, sounded etc.'? Do you know when to pronounce the 'ed' of other past tense regular verbs as 'd' and when to pronounce it as 't'? Do you know the correct pronunciation of the past tense of all the common irregular verbs? This way, you'll be better prepared for any past tense topic. 

Even if or when the number of Part 2 topics reaches 100, you can still study them by thinking for 1 minute and then speaking for two minutes on each topic. (That would only be a total of 300 minutes, i.e., 5 hours.) It's useful to make a tape recording of what you say in those two minutes. You can listen to the recording and, even though you are not an expert, you will be able to recognize places where you made mistakes or found it difficult to continue speaking. Then concentrate on fixing these weaknesses. If you give yourself only two weeks to prepare for the test, you won't be able to cover all the topics on this website but if you give yourself 2 months or more, you should be able to do it.

The "Three-Minute Training Exercise"

It's very important that you prepare yourself, as much as possible, not just for specific Part 2 topics but for any new Part 2 topic. What are some other ways to do this? Well, all Part 2 topics start with a minute of thinking time. This is not much time to think about a topic that you have just been given. The problem is not so much that you can't brainstorm lots of ideas for the topic; the problem is brainstorming lots of ideas in one minute. But I'm quite sure that, like anything, the more you practice, the better you'll become and this includes the skill of brainstorming in 1 minute. What you should do is go through the topics in my list and practice doing them by strictly giving yourself only 1 minute to brainstorm and then timing yourself as you speak so that you speak for 2 minutes exactly. As you speak, also note when the 1 minute has passed because, in the real test, you must speak for at least 1 minute but no more than 2 minutes. Don't give yourself 2, 5 or 10 minutes of brainstorming time; train yourself to do it in 1 minute. Later, you can spend more time preparing a better answer, using your dictionary etc. But first use each topic in my list as a 3-minute training exercise. Actually, this is not perfect because you have probably read many or all of the topics already so they will not be 100% new to you, as in a real test (if you get a new topic). Therefore, you should also practice this 3-minute activity by opening an IELTS book that has several Part 2 topics that you have not read before and practicing with them. But start by doing this 3-minute exercise with the topics in my list.

Try to speak naturally, as if you were telling a story in an informal setting. Don't speak as if you were reading a written story - this will reveal to the examiner that your answer was prepared beforehand. This is another reason, in addition to the fact that it is time-consuming, not to write and especially not to memorize, word-for-word, a prepared answer for Part 2. Yes, think of and write down some sentences and notes but not a complete script.

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As for Part 3, there are even more questions than for Part 2. First, read all the questions and just quickly imagine what you would say. Then, give priority to those questions that you think you would find most difficult if you were asked them and try to think of good answers for them. After you've prepared for the most difficult questions, go back to the list of questions and prepare as many as you can by first just speaking aloud what you would say. This way, you will further discover which questions are easier and which are troublesome. 

You should also try to find patterns in the questions. For example, questions about future change, comparison questions, and opinion questions are very common. The comparison questions often ask you to compare: a) men and women (boys and girls); b) old and young people; c) city and country; and d) today and before. 

Also, don't forget that Part 3 questions are mostly general questions. The examiner should tell you this at the beginning of Part 3 but many examiners don't emphasize it clearly enough. For example, you might get the Part 2 topic asking you to talk about a sports event (e.g., a football match) that you have seen. At the beginning of Part 3, the examiner should say: "We've been talking about a sports event that you watched and now I'd like to ask you a few more general questions related to the topic of sport." The word "general" should be emphasized, that is, spoken with stress in order to contrast it with the idea that your Part 2 topic was specifically about one particular event that you have seen. Then, in Part 3, you might get a question such as, "Do young men and women play the same kinds of sports in China?" It is a mistake to give an answer such as this: "Well, different people like different sports and there are so many sports to choose from now. A lot of people in China like table tennis. But there are also many people who are not very interested in any sport at all. As for me, I prefer basketball." The contents of that answer are not wrong but that answer is suitable for the question: "What sports do people in China play?" The original question was asking you to give some generalizations about young men and women (boys and girls) and sport, i.e., to make some general comparisons between the sports that boys play with those that girls play. A more suitable answer would be: "Not really, although there are some sports such as badminton and table tennis that both boys and girls like to play. In general, young men prefer the more physical sports such as basketball and football but girls prefer non-contact sports such as badminton and volleyball. In the sports that boys prefer, the players sometimes come into rather violent physical contact with their opponents but girls don't like that. Actually, girls are generally a lot less interested in sport than boys – only a few girls in China play competitive sport. Most of them prefer to exercise by doing activities such as aerobics, working out in the gym, swimming, yoga or similar gentle, non-competitive physical activities." (That is a Band 8/9 answer.) 

I'm working on writing some notes that will help you better answer some of the known Speaking test questions. These are not answers for you to memorize but rather some suggestions and advice. I hope to post this on this website soon.

ielts-yasi.englishlab.net

写于 2006 年 10 月 21 日

沟通 - 口语考试的“关键”所在

雅思口语考试中实际上并没有一个“关键点”或是什么秘密之处，但是如果必须要我选一点的话，我会说是这样的：在口语考试中，不要认为你是在“表演”；把这个场景想成你在和另外一个人进行沟通。不要认为雅思考官是“考试之神”或“考试机器”，把他/她看成是一个人，就像你自己一样，而且处于和你同样的级别，即使他/她已经 70 岁了。如果抱有这样的态度，实际上你会说得更好。不仅如此，你会感觉不那么紧张。

事实上，雅思手册中对口语考试的真实描述为“... 评估考生是否可以使用英语进行有效的沟通。”为什么他们不把考试形容成“…评价考生的英语口语水准呢？”其原因在于，“沟通”和“口语”并不完全等同。口语是以沟通为目的的一项工具或方式。你可以教一只鹦鹉说一些英语词组（也许聪明的鹦鹉能达到雅思 2 分的水平呢！）而对英语一窍不通的人也可以通过背诵莎士比亚的著作段落，在雅思考试中用完美的英语回答每一个问题。但是，我们在沟通的时候会与他人交换自己的想法与意思，而我们的作答与问题本身是紧密相关的。如果别人不明白我们想要表达的意思，我们也许会改变用词或举例子来尝试再次传达自己的意思。或者，当我在解释复杂的事情时，我们会尽量以逻辑性的方式进行论述，当感觉到自己的语言不足以解释清楚的时候，可能还会加入一些例子或是说“换而言之……”。

当然，我们在沟通的时候不会总等着别人指出他们不明白的地方——我们会观察他们对于我们所述内容的反应，看他们是否已经明白了。这在口语考试第 2 部分之中至关重要，因为考官不会让你重复他在第 2 部分中没有听懂或听清的内容——他们不可以打断你。许多考生在第 2 部分考试的时候都一直盯住任务卡片并自言自语，这是沟通不良的标志之一。另外一些考生会在说话的时候盯住空中某个地方（可能是因为他们在回忆自己所准备的句子），这与上述情况是一样的，因为他们无法知道考官是否能够明白他们所说的内容。

有些雅思备考书中会告诉你，在考试期间要始终盯着考官的眼睛。是的，与亚洲人相比，西方人在讲话时的确会更多地直视对方的眼睛，而亚洲的年轻人在与较年长的人或者他们认为比自己地位高的人谈话时，在文化上确实会有避开视线对视的习惯。但是即使西方人也不会一直盯住别人的眼睛！当我刚开始做考官不久的时候，有些非常漂亮的女孩在考试期间一直盯住我的眼睛，有时候我觉得“哇！她爱上我了！”说实话，有时候这大概影响了我的评判——如果我在计算她的分数时候需要决定是否要升一档还是降一档，假如她当时的分数是 5.5 分，那么与其他女考生相比，这个女生的分数升一档的可能性大一些。（考官在这种情况下应该是降档的。此外，现今的考官可能需要呈报全部 4 项小分了，但是当几年前我是考官的时候，我们只需要报上最终分数即可。）[我党考官的时候，在 2001至2003，没有 0.5 只有 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 等。Chris 翻译。]  然而，女孩子如果想这样做来从男考官手里博得高分时需要小心，因为我还记得，当女孩子这样直盯我的眼睛的时候，有些时候我会觉得被侮辱了；我觉得她们假装认为我很迷人，从而想取得更高的分数。直到后来，我读了一些雅思备考书籍，里面建议考生们自始至终都保持视线接触，才恍然大悟这种情况的真正原因。自然一点就好！

沟通还存在另外一面，那就是如果我们出现了会导致误解的严重错误，那么会对自己讲的话进行改正。但是在雅思考试里，对于不会造成误解的语法或者发音错误，你并不需要太多地进行更正，适当地出现几次就可以了。过多的自我改正可能会导致流利度的下降（连贯性不佳），事实上会使听者更难于跟随你的思路。

当我们尝试进行沟通但不知道或者想不起来想说的具体词的时候，仍然会“换一种说法”来尽量传达自己的意思，这即是说，我们会解释想不起来的词的意思。有些考生在遇到这个问题的时候就直接放弃了，但这其实是一种不良沟通，并且揭示了考生在进行表演、而不是沟通的讲话态度。沟通中的这一点和其它小方面都记录在考官的评分标准中。是的，能注意到这些小细节也不失为一个好主意，但是你只需要抱持着沟通的态度，这些沟通当中的微小方面就会更自然地呈现出来，而且你不需要特别记住自己所做的每一件小事，包括眼神交流和坐在椅子上的方式。

我会在接下来的博客日志中写一些关于沟通（以及其它话题）的更多内容。希望这不会让你厌烦！

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第 2 部分的话题太多啦!

有些学生问我，有没有办法把可能出现的第 2/3 部分话题的数量加以缩小。答案是：不，我认为在缩小选择范围方面没什么可做的。（我曾经以为第 2 部分话题在使用 12 个月之后就会“退役”了，但是看起来有些仍在使用的话题已经超过了 12 个月的使用期限。）我相信，中国地区的考试管理层所采取的方式是采用大部分不可预测的第 2/3 部分话题。但这并不是说它们 100% 不可预测——如果你在他们推出新话题的当天参加考试，我的估计是，你会有 50% 的可能遇到新话题，另有 50% 的可能会遇到我在这个网站上所列的多个话题中的一个。但是有鉴于我网站上的话题数量如此庞大，你需要适当的方式来处理这些信息。这即是说，你可能需要对你的学习方式加以重新考量。

我想在继续下面的内容之前先表明，我并不知道中国地区的考试管理层目前对于第 2 部分话题采用什么样的处理方式。从今年五月的第一次考试之后，好像一切都变了。在那之前，在第 2 部分中仅有 15 个成套的已知话题。过去，他们在每 4 个月的时间段内只换了 5 个话题，但是在经过几次考试之后，我们可以找出有哪些新话题，甚至可以推理出哪 5 个话题被从考试中取消了。但是现在，我甚至不知道考官是否还会从总共 15 个话题中进行挑选——数量可能大幅减少，但是这些数量较少的话题组可能会被更换得非常频繁，即每场考试的早上或下午。为什么我要说这些内容？很明显，对于每次考试（或者几乎每次考试），在考试的每半日开始之前会推出一个新话题。（我不确定他们在周日下午加入一个新话题的时候是否会去掉一个上午考试的新话题，但是看起来似乎是如此。）但是，我怀疑考官们采用较小的话题组进行选择的原因来自于每次考试后考生们在网上报告的情况。大约半数的人汇报出现了新的第 2 部分话题，但是对其他人而言，看起来我所列话题中的某一两个话题的使用频率比从 15 个话题中随机抽选的频率要高很多。例如，上周许多人都汇报说自己被考到了这个话题：“Describe a character from a story you heard (or read) in your childhood”。这个信息对你有什么帮助？我不知道。看起来有可能是这样的（但无法确定）：上次考试中所用的一个旧话题在接下来的几次考试中不会被高频使用，但是你甚至不能确定这一点。

我仿佛能够看到一个模式，那就是考官更加频繁地使用比较难的第 2 部分话题。这里所说的“难”是指许多考生会觉得难以回答的话题或是可以比较轻松地回答但是会经常犯语法（或其它）错误的话题。或者，考官也可能会选择某个第 2 部分话题，而与之相关的第 3 部分问题会造成考生回答中遇到一些问题或出现错误。即使考官不这样做，常识也会告诉你应该先准备对你而言最难的已知话题。（这里存在一个问题，那就是你们许多人可能在犯了语法错误的时候自己意识不到。）第 5 号话题“Describe what you would do if you received a very large sum of money.”就是一个这样的话题。你可能觉得这是个简单话题，因为它的开放性很高——也许你可以连续讲上十分钟，提及所有自己可能会做的事情。是的，这个话题相对比较容易回答，但是很高比例的考生在回答这个话题时都会犯语法错误。你应该优先准备较难或者较易犯错的话题。

鉴于要研究和准备的话题数量如此庞大，我建议大家改变学习方式。你应该尽量找到更全面性和整体化的学习方法，而不要对大量的话题都写下答案并进行背诵。例如，让我们来看一看在第 2 部分话题中大部分时间需要使用过去时的话题。（过去时话题是最常用的话题。）如果你知道，你在（口语）过去时方面有点弱，就需要在过去时的句子方面进行一些学习和练习。例如，当你在念出以字母“d”或“t”结尾动词的过去式规则形式（比如 wanted、started、lasted、tasted、located、decided、funded、sounded 等等）的发音时，是否总是对于字母“ed”部分发音为“id”？你是否知道什么时候应该对其它动词过去式规则形式末尾的“ed”发音为“d”，而什么时候该发音为“t”？你是否知道所有常用不规则动词过去式的正确发音？这样做，你就能对任何过去时话题做出更好的准备。

即便第 2 部分话题达到了 100 个，你也仍然可以通过对每个话题进行 1 分钟思考然后进行 2 分钟讲话的方式对它们加以学习。（这总共只需要花 300 分钟，即 5 个小时即可完成。）对你在 2 分钟之内讲话进行录音也是很有用的。你可以听一听自己的录音，即便你不是专家，也可以识别出错误或者讲话连续性遇到困难的地方。然后，你可以集中精力解决这些弱项。如果你只有 2 周时间进行考试准备，那么无法涵盖这个网站中的全部话题，但是如果还有至少 2 个月的备考时间，那么你应该能够完成这项练习。

“三分钟训练”

你要尽可能多地进行准备，不仅仅是针对特定的第 2 部分话题，而要对任何第 2 部分新话题进行准备，这一点非常重要。还有没有其他方法来进行练习呢？呃，所有的第 2 部分话题在开始时都会给你 1 分钟的思考时间。如果你刚刚看到这个话题，一分钟的思考时间的确不长。问题并不真正在于你无法针对这个话题想出很多要说的想法；而在于在一分钟之内想出很多想法。但是我可以很确定的是，和任何事情一样，熟能生巧，而这也包括在 1 分钟之内思考要说的想法的技能。你需要浏览我所列出的各种话题并对它们加以练习，严格计时 1 分钟来整理思路，然后在讲话时计时，从而能够正好讲满 2 分钟的时间。在讲话的时候要留意什么时候到 1 分钟，因为你在实际考试中必须把讲话限制在 1 至 2 分钟之间。不要给自己 2、5 或 10 分钟时间进行思考和思路整理；训练自己在 1 分钟之内完成。然后，你可以花更多的时间来准备更好的答案，还可以使用词典之类的工具。但是首先，你需要对我所列出的每个话题中进行 3 分钟的训练。事实上，这项训练也不是完美的，因为你大概已经看到过许多或所有的话题了，所以这些话题对你而言并不是全新的，无法与之实际考试中的新话题相比（如果你遇到新话题的话）。因此，你还应该翻开雅思备考书籍，找出几个你从来没看到过的第 2 部分话题，并对其进行 3 分钟训练的练习。但是首先你应该对我所列出的这些话题进行这项练习。

你要尽量自然地讲话，就像你在非正式的场合下讲故事一样。不要把语气变得好像你在朗读一个书面的故事一样——这会告诉考官，你的答案是事先准备好的。除了耗时之外，这也是在第 2 部分准备中不要写出并逐字背诵事先准备好的答案的原因之一。是的，你要思考并记下一些句子和注释，但是不要写出完整的发言稿。

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至于第 3 部分，其中包括的问题甚至比第 2 部分还要多。首先，要读一下全部问题并快速地想一想自己会怎么作答。然后，对于那些你认为最难的问题率先进行练习，并尽力想出好的答案。在对于最难的问题做完准备之后，再次浏览问题列表并对于尽可能多的问题加以准备，只需要在第一时间大声说出你想说的答案即可。这样，你可以进一步发现哪些问题比较简单，而哪些问题比较棘手。

你还应该尽力找出问题的模式。举例而言，关于未来变化、对比、以及观点的问题很常见。对比性问题通常要求你对比：a) 男人和女人（男孩和女孩）； b) 老年人和年轻人； c) 城市和国家； 以及 d) 今天和过去。

此外别忘了，第 3 部分的问题大多都是一般性问题。考官应该在第 3 部分开始之前告诉你这一点，但是许多考官都没有强调得很清楚。例如，你在第 2 部分话题中可能被要求谈论一项你所观看过的体育赛事（比如一场足球比赛）。在第 3 部分开始时，考官应该说：“We've been talking about a sports event that you watched and now I'd like to ask you a few moregeneral questions related to the topic of sport.（我们讨论了你所观看的体育赛事，现在我想再问你一些关于体育方面的更加普遍性的问题。）”应该对“general（普遍性）”这个词采用重音进行强调，从而与你在第 2 部分话题中谈论自己所观看过的一场特定比赛的内容加以对比。然后，你在第 3 部分中可能会被问到这样的问题：“Do young men and women play the same kinds of sports in China?（在中国，年轻的男性和女性做同类的运动吗？）”采用这样的答案是错误的：“It is a mistake to give an answer such as this: "Well, different people like different sports and there are so many sports to choose from now. A lot of people in China like table tennis. But there are also many people who are not very interested in any sport at all. As for me, I prefer basketball.（呃，不同的人喜欢不同类型的运动，而且现在有多种多样的运动可供选择。在中国，许多人喜欢乒乓球。但是还有许多人对任何运动都不感兴趣。就我个人而言，我更喜欢篮球。）”这个答案中的内容并没有错，但是它适合于“What sports do people in China play?（中国人喜欢做什么运动？）”这个问题。原先的那个问题是要求你对于年轻的男性和女性（男孩和女孩）以及体育运动进行一些概括，即对于男孩从事的运动和女孩从事的运动进行一般性的比较。这样的答案会更加适宜：“Not really, although there are some sports such as badminton and table tennis that both boys and girls like to play. In general, young men prefer the more physical sports such as basketball and football but girls prefer non-contact sports such as badminton and volleyball. In the sports that boys prefer, the players sometimes come into rather violent physical contact with their opponents but girls don't like that. Actually, girls are generally a lot less interested in sport than boys – only a few girls in China play competitive sport. Most of them prefer to exercise by doing activities such as aerobics, working out in the gym, swimming, yoga or similar gentle, non-competitive physical activities.（基本上不是这样，但是的确有些运动是男女都喜欢的，比如羽毛球和乒乓球。总体而言，年轻男性更喜欢肢体性运动，比如篮球和足球，但是女孩子却偏好无需身体接触的运动，比如羽毛球和排球。对于男孩子喜欢的运动而言，参与者有时候需要与对手发生激烈的身体接触，但是女孩子不喜欢这样。事实上，女孩子对于体育的兴趣总体上比男孩子要弱很多 – 中国玩竞技体育的女孩子并不多。她们大多喜欢做诸如有氧运动、健身房内的健身、游泳、瑜伽之类较柔和的非竞争性身体活动。）”（这是一个 8/9 分的答案。）

我会着手写一些注释，帮助大家对于已知的口语考试问题进行更好地作答。这些答案不是供你们背诵的，仅仅是建议而已。我希望自己能够尽快在本网站上发布这方面的内容。