第一部分和第二部分通常要求考生说明一些事实,谈论他们的生活以及他们所熟悉的范围,但第三部分要求考生就一些自己并不熟悉或从来没有思考过的话题进行讨论。第三部分在学术上表述为Two-way Discussion,然而实际上主要由考生回答考官的提问,所谓的two-way体现得并不明显。虽然理论上该部分的问题由第二部分的描述内容派生而来,但这些问题灵活性大且有深度,例如:Part2要求描述一位影响你一生的老师,那Part3中就会延伸到你对教育的看法。有的考生会感觉头脑一片空白,无话可说,对于尚未习惯用第二语言来表达自己想法或者缺乏这种能力的年龄较小的考生来说,要完成这一任务有一定困难。同时,在该部分,考官所考察的语言技能也有所不同。考生不仅需要有观点和想法,能够运用生活中的实例来支持这些观点和想法,更为重要的是,还必须有效、快速地用恰当的语言将他们组织起来,让自己的想法被考官所理解。通过下面的例子,来给大家做个具体的分析。
拿到一个问题,我们的首要工作,就是产生观点。
Sample Part Three Question
Do you think that education has changed much in your country over the past 20 years? 对于很多年龄较小的考生来说,这个问题很有挑战性——他们从来没有20年前受教育的经历,又如何来进行比较呢? 然而,如果考生不拘泥于自身的观点和经历,而更多地考虑周围的真实世界(如第一和第二部分那样),问题就变得简单了。如果能够运用自己身边人的经验,比如家人,他们将发现家人的经验会为他们提供很多回答这一问题的素材。还有一点要说明的是,问题的回答并非一定是非常肯定和确切的,考生完全可以运用假设和讨论的语气,增加和考官的讨论和互动性。
如下:
Student
Parents
went to university
went to high school, finished middle school
new buildings
old buildings
computers
a radio
Some foreign teachers
only Chinese teachers
Colorful textbooks
black and white text books
boring books, boring teachers
boring books, boring teachers
lots of tests
lots of tests
现在,我们就有了足够的观点来回答这个问题了。
口语在某种程度上其实和写作有着相似之处:我们需要组织我们的语言,即展开话题,说明观点,并且运用事实来支持和证明这些观点。当考官问完问题后,考生所要做的是表明自己已经听懂了这一问题,并正准备进行回答,即展开话题:
Yes, I think education has changed a lot in China. / No, I don’t think education has changed much at all. / Well, it’s a tough question. I haven’t thought much about that before but I guess it has changed somewhat.
接下来,我们需要进入回答的主体部分,即表达观点并说明原因:
One reason why I think education has changed is that today there are university towns around the main cities with lots of universities in them. For example, I went to a university in Nanjing and there were lots of other universities in our area.
Another difference is that in the past there were no foreign teachers or university programs in China. Now there are a lot. My university has several MBA joint venture programs and lots of foreign teachers teaching languages, history and culture.
On the other hand, some things have not changed: textbooks are still very boring and the teaching style of many teachers is still quite uninteresting.
最后,我们用一句话来收尾:
So that’s why I think education has changed in China.
开头——主体——结尾,这三部分组成了整个问题较为完整的回答。在回答的过程中,一些关联词的使用非常重要,可以显出逻辑和条理性,考生们应该引起足够重视。
以上的分析希望能够给广大“烤鸭”一些启发和帮助。