托福口语话题材料

　　托福口语话题材料

　　一、托福口语话题材料——电视机

　　I. Listen

　　Listen to the text with the help of the following notes.

　　1. it is more convenient ...in search of amusement elsewhere: (对四口之家来说)舒服地坐在家里，有着包罗万象的娱乐节目供选择，当然比外出到别的地方寻找娱乐活动更为方便，更合算了。

　　2. only to discover... disappointing: 最终发现演出是那样令人失望。此处only 表示出乎意料。

　　3. takes no initiative: 没有任何主动性。

　　4. The most distant countries...into one’s sitting -room: 最遥远的国度、最奇异的风俗了情被直接送到人们起居室。

　　5. flickering pictures: 闪烁为定的图像。

　　II. Read

　　Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

　　1. Why Watch Television?

　　Matthew: Television is undoubtedly a great invention, but one of the main criticisms of it is that people just aren’t selective enough. Lesley, you’ve got a television; how do you pick out the sorts of programmes you want to watch?

　　Lesley: I try and look at the programmes that are on to decide which particular ones interest me, rather than you turning it on at seven o’clock and you leaving it on until half-past eleven when the programmes finish.

　　Matthew: Do you think of television though as a great time-waster?

　　Lesley: I think it can be a time-waster and it depends on how particular people are about what they want to see...Mm, it can just be a sort of total amusement for someone and totally consuming without really considering what it is they’re watching.

　　Matthew: Aha, but how do you prevent it coming into your life and taking over your evenings and at the same time perhaps get... get out of the television some of the sort of best things... best programmes that ... that undoubtedly are on television?

　　Lesley: Well, I suppose one of the problems is... will depend on what a person’s life style is, and that if he has other outside interests which are equally important to him as television, he will then, you know, mm... be more careful about which programmes he wants to watch because he has time which he wants to use for other things.

　　Matthew: Do you think though that ... that in... in a sense television has killed people’s own er...sort of, creativity or their ability to entertain themselves because if they’re bored all they do is just turn on the television?

　　Lesley: Yes, I think that is a danger, and I think that... in fact is what is happening to a lot of people who use it as their ... their main ... um field of amusement and ... because they don’t have other outside interests and even when people come round they’ll leave the television on and not be, you know, particularly interested in talking to them, you know the television will be the main thing in the room.

　　Matthew: Peter, have you a television?

　　Peter: I have, in fact I’ve got two televisions.

　　Matthew: Do you watch them a lot?

　　Peter: Er...no I ...I watch very seldom er... In fact, I find that I watch television most when I’m working which requires nothing of me, then I watch television a lot. When I’ve got more energy left...um ...in my own private time, then I find I do more different things. I do things like um reading, or going out, or working on anything ...my hobbies.

　　Matthew: Do you think though that people can live a perfectly happy life if they haven’t got a television?

　　Peter: Oh yes, I think people who don’t have a television or people who don’t watch television can be expected to be more happy. You can assume I think if they never watch television they are happier people than the people who watch a lot of television, because I think that television goes with the kind of life which leaves you with nothing to spare, nothing left, you have to be given potted, passive entertainment.

　　Matthew: But in that case you...you seem as though you’re completely against television, is that true?

　　Peter: No, it’s not. I ...I have a television in fact, I have two as I said, but er I ... I ... I think there’s a dilemma, a difficult situation. Television in itself is very good; a ... a lot of the information and a lot of the programmes are very instructive, they introduce you to things you may never have though of before or never have hard about before. But in watching, it makes you very passive; you sit for hour after hour and you get very receptive and very unquestioning and it seems to me the important thing in life is to be active, to ... to do things, to think things and to be as creative as possible, and television prevents this.

　　III Consider

　　Does television play a positive or negative role in the modern word?

　　Arguments

　　1. Television is now playing a very important part in our lives.

　　二、托福口语话题材料——学生兼职

　　Is It Good for Students to Have Part-time Jobs?

　　Text

　　School Part-timers

　　More and more high school students in Beijing are turning their minds to ways of making money.

　　They are capitalizing on opportunities such as one group of students who went to the front gate of the Children’s Centre in the East District of Beijing when a film studio was there conducting auditions(1).

　　The group sold the young hopefuls(2) application forms at five fen a piece after getting the forms from the center for free.

　　Young entrepreneurs are also capitalizing on high demand commodities not always available away from the big shopping centres(3). Birthday or greeting cards are an example. One department store estimated that 80 per cent of its sales of cards are to students for resale.

　　Xia Li, a junior high school student at Fengtai District in the southwest region of the capital, spent 40 yuan buying cards from downtown shops just before the last Spring Festival.

　　She sold them at her school and schools nearby at prices 15 to 20 per cent higher than what she had paid. In a month, she earned 100 yuan, representing a 250 per cent return on her initial investment.

　　A senior high school student who had been selling cards has now become an amateur wholesale dealer(4). His wholesale price is 8 per cent higher than his purchasing price and 10 per cent lower than the retail price(5). Within two months, the had earned several hundred yuan in profits.

　　Many students have merged their activities to avoid price wars.(6) For example, in an area with few State-owned shops and far from the city center, student union heads from the schools there have reached an agreement on card prices. The agreement says prices may be higher than at the downtown shops but lower than at the peddlers’ stalls.

　　Card-selling is just a beginning. Some students turn their eyes to other more profitable ventures.

　　Take one senior high school sophomore who has developed a flourishing business selling photos of famous people. He even has his own name card that reads: The High School Student Corporation Ltd of Exploitation of New Technology(7).

　　The student carries a portfolio(8) of the photos around with him in an album to show his young customers. He offers a wide variety of photos, from American movie star Sylvester Stallone in Rambo pose to Taiwan’s famous singer Qi Qin(9).

　　"These all depend on my high quality camera," he boasts and explains how he clopped the pictures from magazines, photographed them and then developed the prints into various sizes. He has sold hundreds. Another student is mow an amateur salesman for a company and earns a three per cent commission(10) on each sale.

　　When he had earned 300 yuan through his own efforts, he said, "I feel that I have really become an adult."

　　三、托福口语话题材料——城市热点

　　常用词汇：

　　apartment, banks, bookstore, building, cafeteria, capital, church, court, countryside, courtyard, district, flat, highway, hotel, house, hospital, junk shop旧货店;library, market, metropolis 大都市;monument 纪念碑;municipal市政的;municipality 市政当局;museum, newsstand 报摊;outskirts, port, restaurant, school, scenery, shop, store, skyscraper 摩天大楼;slums 贫民区;stadium体育场;station, suburb, theatre, university, urban, zoo, etc.

　　常用短语：

　　art gallery 美术馆;barber shop, be up to one's neck in work 忙碌;botanical garden 植物园;city centre, city hall 市政府;city planning, densely populated, department stores, down payment 分期付款的定金;employment agency 职业介绍;garden city, get one's hands full 很忙;modern buildings, modern industry, post office, public lavatory, public telephone, residential area, shopping center, snack bar, stock exchange 股票交易所; traffic light, etc.

　　常用句型：

　　1. Could you tell me where the bank is?

　　2. Excuse me, where is the post office

　　3. How do you like where you live?

　　4. I' m an office worker.

　　5. I work for the government.

　　6. Let' s go to the snack bar and get something to eat.

　　7. The mall is packed today.

　　8. What are the main problems of the city life?

　　9. When is the store / the bar closing?

　　10. Where is the Lost and Found counter?

　　四、托福口语话题材料——人才外流

　　Should the Brain Drain Be Stopped by Restrictions?

　　Text

　　Brain Drain(1)

　　It is said that Shanghai’s musicians abroad could form a world class symphony orchestra(2).

　　But the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra once failed to find a qualified conductor for a whole year!

　　A similar situation exists in science, medicine and sports circles.

　　Stopping the outflow of talent depends on creating a sound domestic environment rather than simply setting up barriers for those who wish to go abroad.

　　A handful of people go abroad to seek a comfortable life. But most Chinese intellectuals emigrate because they cannot bring their talent into full play in their motherland.

　　Many conductors trained by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music(3) have gone abroad either because they cannot find jobs in symphony orchestras due to the competition fro places, or because they cannot develop themselves in orchestras where promotion comes only by way of seniority.

　　We face a keen shortage of talent, but one batch of gifted people after another have gone abroad(4). The situation is grim.

　　It is impossible to improve the conditions for all intellectuals by a wide margin(5). But it is possible for governments at all levels to create a better environment for their development.

　　The outflow of talent is a loss to our nation as well as a pressure forcing us to optimize the environment (6) for the talented.

　　I. Listen

　　Listen to the text with the help of the following notes.

　　1. Brain Drain: 人才外流。

　　2. a world class symphony orchestra: 世界一流水平的交响乐队。

　　3. Shanghai Conservatory of Music: 上海音乐学院。

　　4. one batch of gifted people after another have gone abroad: 一批又一批的有才华的人们相继出国。

　　5. by a wide margin : 大幅度地。

　　6. to optimize the environment:尽可能改善工作环境。