Updated Nov. 2, 2014
Notes about some Questions (Page 9)
INTRODUCTION
If a note below is about a Part 2 topic, the note assumes that the wording of the Part 2 topics, especially the verb tense, is as shown in the list of topics on this website. Possibly the real wording is different to that shown on this website. BE CAREFUL!
If some of the notes on this page are possible in an answer to a question, be very careful about speaking those exact same words, especially the same word combinations, in the test. If several people speak the same sentences in the test, the examiners will eventually know that these sentences are not your original words. This will seriously damage your score! Some examiners might even read this website. Examiners don't like answers that candidates learn, word for word, from a book, a website or from the blackboard in a class because such answers are not real, natural communication. The best idea is to adapt the ideas below (if you want to) by making your own sentences and speaking naturally in the test. Completely memorized answers are usually not spoken in a very natural way by candidates. Try to avoid letting the examiner know that you have read this website!!
For many Part 2 topics, you can get some additional ideas by reading the Part 3 questions that follow that topic.
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Previous Pages of Notes
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Part 2 Topic 552 - Family Celebration
Make sure you know the definition of "celebration". Basically, people celebrate happy events. A party is a kind of celebration if the party is held because of a particular event, such as someone's birthday. At a celebration, people do joyous things such as sing, dance, eat and drink alcohol. Public celebrations might involve fireworks and street parades.
You can speak about a traditional festival such as the Spring Festival, which is mostly celebrated within families, but your choice doesn't have to be a traditional celebration like that. In China, National Day is a celebration but it is more of a public celebration, not a family celebration.
Make sure to speak the past tense, not the present tense. You are describing a particular celebration that took place at a particular time, such as two years ago. So, if you describe a Spring Festival family gathering, don't say something like, "We always eat dumplings" but, instead say, "We ate dumplings". It's not wrong to add that you always do that as a tradition, but the question should focus on one particular Spring Festival family gathering, at one particular time in the past.
Of course, "family" can mean the extended family (e.g., cousins), not just the nuclear family (parents and their children).
Be careful of using a "wedding" (e.g., your cousin's wedding) as your example. A wedding itself is not an example of a "celebration" although most weddings are accompanied by or followed by a celebration. A wedding is a ceremony. What is a ceremony? A ceremony is a formal event that is often ritualistic in nature, especially when it is a religious ceremony. "Ritualistic" means that people follow the same pattern of actions and words whenever this ceremony is performed. A wedding a a legal and/or a religious ceremony that legally unites a man and a woman in marriage. Certain words are always spoken at a wedding ceremony and the bride and groom need to sign a legal document. Sometimes this ceremony takes place at the same place as the wedding celebration, and the two events are combined. At other times, the wedding itself might take place at a courthouse with only a few people in attendance besides the bride and groom, and the celebration takes place later, with many people in attendance. So, to use such an event as your example, you should call it a "wedding celebration", a "wedding dinner" or a "wedding reception", which might have included the wedding ceremony itself, or might not have. The word "reception" in this usage comes from the fact that the bride and groom usually stand at the door and greet each guest as they enter, and such greeting is called, "receiving a guest". People "receive guests" whenever they go to the door and greet guests, usually for more or less special occasions such as a dinner. If your friend just visits your home to play computer games with you and you greet him at your door, we don't usually say that is "receiving a guest" because that is not such a special occasion.
A "ceremony" is rather a serious event and can be a sad event such as laying a wreath at a monument for soldiers who died in a war, or a funeral ceremony. Governments also carry out ceremonies such as when a new President or Prime Minister is officially sworn into office.
Pronunciation: "celebrated". There is no word stress on the "a" before "ted". Instead, "cel" is stressed more. See here for an explanation of this.
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Part 3
Although you see some Christmas decorations etc. in
Asian countries at Christmas time, it is inappropriate to say that people in
most of Asia celebrate Christmas
Of course, people from different counties who share the same cultures or religions have the same or similar traditional celebrations.
Possibly the only public holiday that is celebrated worldwide is New Year's Day (January 1) but those few cultures that mainly follow a different calendar do not celebrate it very much.
"Big" & "small" here refers to the student population, not whether the school buildings were 4 floors high or only one-storey buildings.
If the question wording is like that, then the answer depends on from whose viewpoint you consider the pluses and minuses, the viewpoint of the students or the viewpoint of the government, or the viewpoint of society as a whole ....
It's possible that the examiner asks that question without specifically including what the students are overburdened with. In this case, the candidate needs to say what the students are overburdened with. Is it -
homework/study?
the amount of material to learn in class?
the number of subjects they study in school?
the difficulty of materials to learn?
the frequency/difficulty of tests?
the amount of information that is available in everyday life as a result of media such as the internet? (i.e., "information overload")
overburdened with demands on his or her time in general? (e.g., not enough time for sports, friends, hobbies etc.)
Or, overburdened with high expectations from their parents or from society?
Part 3 Topic 557
If the examiner just says "play" without adding the word, "games" then the meaning is different to playing games. It is not certain that the examiner does ask questions about "children's play", although someone seems to have reported that he or she got these questions.
Children's play is what children do when they are not doing something like reading, practicing the piano etc. Usually they do it with friends or siblings and / or with toys ("play with toys".) Often, children's play is a form of role-playing, playing the roles that they imagine adults play in real life. For example, little girls pretending to be mothers with their dolls, and little boys pretending to be driving their toy cars or pretending to fight with guns or swords etc. Western psychologists say that children's play is an important part of childhood development. By pretending to play roles, the children are exercising their imagination. Other play might involve physical games or activities and this exercises their bodies. Children play for enjoyment but certain ("educational") games, puzzles, toys etc, can also involve the children learning something new. In addition to that, when children are allowed to play in (or explore) new environments, or with new things, they naturally learn many things because children are naturally curious.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_%28activity%29 . The English on that page is quite advanced but various other languages are available on the left of that page.
Part 3 Topic 567 - A Place for a Home
If the word, "traditional" is used (not just "old"), then it refers to that type of house that people were living in two hundred years ago, and for hundreds of years before that. Traditional styles of homes evolved over many years to best suit the climate of each place as well as the social environment of each place, such as the family structure and the type of work that people did. (Think of the type of houses that people lived in in hot humid places such as Guangzhou in China, which allowed for free-flowing air in summer, or houses that have steeply pitched roofs in places where it snows a lot.)
It is possible to have a traditional style of house today (or even a house that is actually hundreds of years old) that has all the facilities and conveniences of modern houses such as electricity, indoor toilets, running water, heating and air-conditioning. Basically, a "traditional" style of house not only looks similar, from the outside, to houses of hundreds of years ago but also has a similar internal design to houses of hundreds of years ago and is usually built using similar building materials to those earlier homes, or has the appearance that it was built using the same materials. With modern air-conditioning and heating, there is less need today to have traditional designs of homes.
Modern-style apartments (flats) are not really "traditional" to any place, although some places, such as some European cities, have had apartments buildings for several hundred years. Of course, those buildings were usually less than 6 storeys (floors) high because those buildings didn't originally have lifts (elevators).
If you get any of these questions about "restriction" or "regulations" about travel, most likely the question is seeking an answer connected to the scientifically fraudulent idea that mankind's production of CO2 is producing dangerous global warming - see here. (Of course, all industries should be governed by some regulations.) People who have been fooled by this fraud say that airline travel produces too much CO2 and should be restricted, and this does not just refer to business travel. It's your choice what you say. Read some background information at the link above and the links below.
Part 3 Topic 572 - A Sport You Like
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Part 3
Who do you think is better suited for promoting sport, governments or private companies?
Only the second of those two questions was reported.
You need to be aware that "sport" can be divided into different categories. "Spectator sport" and the sport that people actually take part in are obviously different.
For the second question, you need to understand that "fitness" is similar to "general good health" although "fitness" is achieved mainly through exercise while "general good health" is achieved by exercise, diet and other good habits (or avoiding bad habits such as smoking).
For also need to understand that "exercise" and "sport" are not exactly the same thing in English. You get exercise by walking up three flights of stairs in a building but that is not sport.
For the first question, you need some knowledge, some opinions and some English vocabulary to talk about and possibly compare socialism or state-owned enterprises with capitalism or private enterprise.
If the examiner does not include the word, "abroad" then the answer could be quite different.
As with most questions that ask, "Do you think the government should ....?", the key point in your answer should be explaining why you believe this is (or should be) one of the responsibilities of government or not.