第二章-托福口语考试概述之Task4（原Task 6）鸟瞰

Task 4（原Task 6）鸟瞰

Task 4 考试形式：

① Listening

 ② Speaking

刚刚我们已经知道了第 4 题和已经删除的第 5 题在形式上很类似，都 是先听录音，然后再用口语作答。但是题材跟之前的第 5 题不一样， 第 4 题是学术话题。通常我们可以把第 4 题想象为老师在对某个观点进行具体阐述，分为两个部分：前半部分是在阐述概念、 观点、现象、问题本身，后半部分则是对其进行展开论述，并 通过说明性的例子来证明。

考题自然是考查大家是不是把这个段落听懂了，是不是能 够理解真实的大学课堂上所描述的概念到底传递了哪些信息。 那么作答的时候自然要求考生使用刚刚听到的讲座中的观点和 例子来描述一些概念并解决问题。

在听的过程中有一个非常重要的任务，就是区分清楚我们 听到的内容之中，哪些内容可以最好地帮助我们说服听众，哪 些内容是老师所讲述的关键信息。因为，毫无疑问，听力文本 非常长，其中的信息也非常多，的确是每一句话似乎都能对所 介绍的概念起到一些作用，只不过有一些可能是起到非常重要 的作用，有一些可能是起到比较次要的作用。在答题过程中 （一共只有 60 秒），我们还要花一些时间对题目进行思考，所 以没有时间把所有的内容、每一句话都复述出来。我们必须具 备一个能力，就是筛选最重要的、最核心的信息，然后对信息 进行逐一复述。自己的观点在这里则不需要得到表达。

下面我们来看一个具体的题目，然后分析一下题目中到底 关注哪些内容。

 

Listening

Professor

   One of the hardest parts of teaching is keeping your students’ attention. Now, the key to doing this is understanding the concept of attention.

Basically, there are two types of attention. The first type is active. Active attention is voluntary. It’s when you intentionally make yourself focus on something. And since it requires effort, it’s hard to keep up for a long time.

Ok, so... um... let’s say you’re teaching a... a biology class, and today’s topic is “frogs,” all right? You’re standing at the front of the room and lecturing [make the state sounds very boring]:“A frog is a type of animal known as an amphibian.” Well [chuckling], this isn’t necessarily going to keep the students’ interest. But most of them will force themselves to pay active attention to your lecture. But it’s only a matter of time before they get distracted.

Now the other type of attention is passive attention when it’s involuntary. Passive attention requires no effort because it happens naturally. If something’s reallyinteresting, students don’t have to force themselves to pay attention to it. They do it without even thinking about it.

So, back to our biology lecture, you start talking about frogs, and then you pull a live frog out of your briefcase. You’re describing it while you hold it up, show the students how long its legs are and... and how they’re used for jumping, for example. Then, maybe you’ll even let the frog jump around a bit on the desk or the floor. In this case, by doing something unexpected, something more engaging, you can tap into their passive attention and it can last much longer than active attention. As long as the frog is still there, your students will be interested.

Question

Using points and examples from the talk, explain the difference between active and passive attention.

TPO-6 TASK 6 

 

参考答案：

There are two types of attention: active attention and passive attention. Active attention requires effort; it is when people force themselves to pay attention and so oftentimes doesn’t last a long time. Passive attention occurs when we involuntarily pay attention, which happens when we find something very interesting. The professor describes an example of each. If a biology professor gives an experiment-free lecture on frogs, the students will have to use active attention to listen to the lecture, since it will be boring. But such effort will not last long. However, if the professor shows the students a live frog, they will be naturally interested, and will pay attention all the time without any conscious effort.

   ——《新托福真题详解——口语分卷（第一册）第二版》

  

回答第 4 题时，毫无疑问，我们应该先尝试给出定义阐述。 比如，这道题目问的是“active attention”和“passive attention” 的差异，那么就会有一到两句话是根据听力材料提到的内容来 对其进行展开。在本回答中就告诉了大家到底什么是“active attention”，什么是“passive attention”。如果可能的话，再尝试 说明在听力材料中听到的论述方法是什么。比如在参考答案中 有细致的描述“The professor describes an example ofeach”。“an example”就是对于“professor”在描述两个定义时所使用的论 述方法的基本展开。剩下的就是详细地复述两个例子本身了。

当看到这里，我们会发现，事实上除了第 1 题外，第 2-4 题的解答在很大程度上都依赖于我们的复述能力，这也说 明为什么复述能力特别重要。

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