托福真题第一套Q1: Talk about a book you have read that was important to you for some r eason. Explain why the book was important to you. Give specific details and examples to explainyour answer.解题思路一：重要性来自于书的内容TS: General Introduction of the book (Name, author, time you read the book)Give a simple account of the book.Key Word: Important-Interesting: draws you in.-knowledge you have learnt-enlightenment you have gainedConclusion: emphasize the IMPORTANCESample Response:3 months ago, I read a book called The Five People You Meet in Heaven written byMitch Albom. It recounts the life and death of a simple yet dignified old man, Eddie. After dying in a accident trying to save a little girl in an amusement park, Eddiefinds himself in heaven where he encounters five people who have significantlyaffected his life. The 5 lessons Eddie learnt about brotherhood, sacrifice, forgiveness, love and purpose of life have also enlightened me. That book changedmy attitude towards life and death. It taught me to cherish life more than ever.解题思路二：重要性来自于书的意义TS: General Introduction of the book (Name of the book, how/where did you getthe book)Give a simple account of the process of getting the book.Key Word: Important-It was a souvenir given by an important person-It was very difficult to get the book (e.g. Limited edition)-You got the book from a special event as a reward.Conclusion: emphasize the IMPORTANCESample ResponseOn my book shelf, there is a hard-covered book-Hamlet-that I have been treasuredfor years. It was given to me as a reward for my progress in Language Arts courseby my high school English teacher Mr Cave. In my 10th grade, I developed a special interest in classical literature. I was crazy about Shakespeare’s play despite my weak English foundation/the lack of English proficiency. Over the 2 years, I havestudied hard and improved my Language Arts’ grade from a C to an A. Therefore, myMr Cave gave me this book in my graduation day and told me to keep my interest inclassical literature. This book is very significant to me because it has become the motivation for my pursuit in English Literature in University.Q2. Some people believe that TV has had a positive influence on society. Othersbelieve it has had a negative influence on the society. Which do you agree withand why. Use details and examples to explain your opinion.解题思路一: Positive InfluenceTS: State your standR1:Positive influence: focus on the main function of TV:-dissemination of information and knowledge-entertainmentR2:Negative influence (just mention)ConclusionSample Response:This is indeed a controversial issue. Form my point of view; TV has far more prosthan cons. Firstly, television has long been regarded as a tool to disseminate information and knowledge. People watch news on TV to know about what’s happening in the country and the world. Children watch Animal World or National Geography to gain more knowledge. At the same t ime, TV is also the most prevalent and effective device to entertain the masses.Although there’s no denying that TV sometimes delivers negative information to people, the public or government censorship can ensure the quality of our TV programs today. Therefore, generally speaking, TV has had apositive influence on society.解题思路二: Negative InfluenceTS: State your standR1:Positive influence (just mention)R2:Negative influence-Lack of censorship bad TV program influence social ideology-Make people lazy/unhealthyConclusionSample Response:In my opinion, unfortunately, television has had much more negative influence onsociety than positive ones. Despite the fact that TV has kept us entertained, there are many negative elements that have infiltrated into our daily life via TV. Forexample, the modern Cinderella stories have created many money-worshiping youngladies who dream to marry rich guys and enjoy all the luxuries in the world.Uncensored TV programme with violent and sexual content can misguide teenagers who are very susceptible to those detrimental influences. Besides, long time watchingTV will negatively affect our eyesight and health. It has become the contributingfactor for many illnesses like obesity, especially in the more developed countries.Q3 Intro: Centerville College is planning to purchase a sculpture for its campus.A student wrote a letter to the school newspaper to oppose the plan.The instruction before you read the passage is important since it gives you anoverview of what the passage is about.The passageLetter in the Centerville College NewsThe administration has announced plans to acquire a new sculpture for campus. Weshould all oppose this plan. The university’s poor financial condition led it to increase the price for campus housing and tuition by 15% this year. Surely then itis in no financial position to purchase such an expensive sculpture. Moreover, just look at the sculpture: several 60-foot long steel plates, jutting out of the earthat odd angels! It’s so large. It’ll take up all the green space in front of the campus center! This is public space that should be reserved for student to use.The conversation:M: Did you see Paul’s letter in the paper about the new sculpture?W: Yeah, but it was totally unconvincing. His reasons for opposing the plan are just totally off. I’m glad we will finally have some nice art on campus. I’d like to shake the donor’s hand and say ‘thank you’!M: What do you mean ‘the donor’?W: You didn’t know? An anonymous donor is paying the bill for most of the sculpture. M: Not the university?W: No. His assumptions about who’s paying for, they are all wrong.M: Still, I wonder if he has a point about the space it’ll take up.W: Well, you know why Paul is upset. He and his friends are always there on the lawn right where the sculpture will be, kicking around a soccer ball. They’ll just haveto use another part of the campus to play.M: Oh, so he just doesn’t want to have to move.W: Yeah. For him, its sculpture verses convenience.Explain why the woman disagrees with the reasons expressed in the letter.Preparation Steps: 4:6Step 1:Read the letter and take note of the main ideas. Omit redundant details such as numbers and people’s name. (Those may be important in Listening section). Tryto form pictures in your mind to help you memorize the content of the letter. (e.g.The 2nd reason: imagine一群本来在草地上踢球的学生很无奈的看着一个从天而降的巨大雕塑把他们的草坪占据了…)Step 2: Identify how many reasons and disagreements there are in the letter andconversation.Pay special attention to signaling words/sentences because they give you an idea about how many points you must include. (e.g. ‘Moreover’ in the letter.)Step 3: Take notes on paper while listening to the conversation. Fast and clear.Don’t expect to fully spell out all the words you’ve heard. Just use your own spelling so that you can pronounce the word. If you didn’t manage to take down some words that you think are important, don’t try to recall, move on and listen to the restof the conversation. 千万不要为了捡芝麻而丢了西瓜！Step 4: Organize your thoughts in the 30 seconds to make a mental outline of howto answer the question. Try to rephrase the words or sentences in the letter andthe conversation.Answering the question:Reason1 in the letter.Disagreement 1 in the conversationSignal words/sentence for transactionReason2 in the letter.Disagreement 2 in the conversationConclusionSample Response:The first reason given by Paul (if you can’t remember the name, you can just omitthis) in the letter against the purchasing of the new sculpture is that he assumesthe financial difficulties faced by the university makes the sculpture too costlyto buy.However,the woman disagrees because most of the price of the sculpture ispaid by a donor. Hence the university will only bear a small sum of money.Besides, Paul also suggests that the huge sculpture will occupy the space in the campus which is supposed to be reserved for students’activities. The woman d ismissed this point because she knows that Paul is just reluctant to find another place to play soccerwith his friends if the lawn they used to play on is occupied by the sculpture.Further more, the woman thinks that the sculpture is a nice art that can actually make thecampus prettier.Q4:PassageGroup thinkOne process by which groups may make bad or irrational decisions is know as group think. Individual members of a group attempt to conform their opinions to what they believe to be the group consensus even though the result may be negative. There are many reasons why groupthink happens. These include the desire to be liked, fearof losing a job, or even not wanting to be the one employee delaying a decision that seems inevitable. These kinds of implicit pressures to conform lead group membersto ultimately make decision that each, by himself or herself, might normally notmake.LectureSo, let me t ell you about my own e xperience with this when I was working for a computer company a couple of years ago. One day a coworker and I suggested that we shouldgive our computer a design make-over, make t hem look more up-to-date. Market research was showing that new customers said they would be more interested in buying ourcomputers if they looked cooler. Our technology was advance, but the outside design looked really old-fashioned. At first, more than half of the group supported us.There were a few senior mangers they are though who didn’t support the design change.’One of the senior manager said, ‘Our focus has always been on technology. Changingthe look is unnecessary cost.Almost immediately, some of our supporters changedtheir minds. Even my c oworker changed his mind.When I asked him why after the meeting, he told me he didn’t want to make a bad impression on the senior managers. He thought that disagreeing with them might jeopardize his chances of getting a promotion, by not looking like a team player. ‘What about me?’‘Ehm…I hate to admit it but aftera few hours of discussion I started wondering if it worth everybody’s time to argue about this. As more people sided with senior management I started to feel that Iwas the only one holding-up the vote. Everyone else seems to think change was unnecessary so I voted against my own idea in the end. So we unanimously decidedto stay with the current old-looking design, but this decision ended up costing usa lot of money.That same year, our competitor came out with a new design thatattracted some of our customers and prevented us from profiting on potential newcustomers.Explain group think and its effects using the example of the computer company.PreparationStep 1: Read the passage and take note of the main ideas. Omit elaborations on details such as examples.Step 2: Pay special attention to technical terms and explanations. If can’t quite understand, try to guess first and wait for more illustration in the lecture later on.Step 3: Picture a short skit in your mind when you listen to the lecture/story told by the professor.Step 4: Listen to similarities between the lecture and the passage you’ve read just now, especially the examples given to prove a point. (e.g. the answers given by the professor’s coworker when the professor asked him for the reasons for his changingof mind)Step 5: Take notes. Make sure that if you know the professor is going to recounta story, you should have the story recorded in chronological order. Outline of the story must be clear. Pay attention to signaling words.Step 6: Organize your thought in the 30 seconds to make a mental outline of how toanswer the question. Try to rephrase the words or sentences in the letter and theconversation.Answering the question:Definition of group thinkExample of the computer companyLink the example to the effect about group thinkSample Response:Group think means that the individuals in a group all agree about something whichmay not be correct. They are under pressure to conform and make i rrational decisions that they seldom make alone.The professor gives an example of him working in a computer company years ago. At first, his coworker and he suggested a proposal toup-grade the outlook of their product. The supporters changed their minds as soonas they realize that the senior managers did not like the plan.His partner also gave up the original thought because he was afraid that if he insisted, he will leavebad impression on others.Despite the consensus we had reached about the proposal, our ultimate product was a failure. Therefore group think sometimes will resultsin negative results.Q5. Conversation between 2 studentsM: Hey Marry! How’s your volunteer work going? You still involved in the after school programme with the elementary school kids?W: Yeah, but I’ve got a problem. I am supposed to be driving a bunch of them to thezoo tomorrow, and I am supposed to rent a van for the trip, but I waited too longto call the rental agency to reserve one and now it turns out they don’t have any van available for tomorrow. I don’t know what to do. These kids will be really disappointed if their trip gets canceled.M: Hmm…well doesn’t one of your friends on campus have a car? I mean couldn’t you borrow it for the day?W: Yeah, probably, but I need to borrow 2 cars or there wouldn’t be enough space for all the kids. That’s why I was going to rent the van and then I need to find somebody else to drive too. I can’t drive 2 cars by myself.M: Yeah, that’s true. Well, I’m sure you can probably find a volunteer or if you want to save of the trouble of hunting down the second driver, what about public transportation? Check the bus schedule. I guess there’s a bus lane that goes rightpass the zoo.W: Yeah, that’s possibility, but I don’t know. It might be a real challenge supervising the kids on the bus. Sometimes they are handful when they get excited.It’s an option though.The speaker discussed 2 possible solutions to the woman’s problem. Briefly summarize the problem. Then state which solution you recommend and explain why.PreparationProblem Solution1 Solution 2The woman is supposed to drive a group of primary school kids to the zoo tomorrow but she has called too late to rent avan. She does not want to disappoint the kids by canceling the trip. Borrow cars from friend andfind volunteer to drive.Take public transportProblem of solution She needs two 2 cars for allthe kids and she has to findanother driver. It is hard to supervise kids in public transportations.This question involves a difficult choice to make. Most of the times, bothsolutions seem feasible. You can choose either one you are more comfortable with elaborating on.Base on the potential problems related to the 2 solutions to think about morepros and cons of each solution.Answering the question:Talk about the problem.Introduce all solutions.Choose one solutionR1 for supporting the solutionR2 for not supporting the other solutionConclusionSample Response:The woman is supposed to drive a group of primary school kids to the zoo tomorrow,but she has called the rental agency too late to rent a van. She does not want todisappoint the kids by canceling the trip.Hence, her friend has given her two possible solutions: borrowing a car or taking a bus.I prefer the first solution because it shouldn’t be very difficult to find someone who has cars available andcan drive for the kids as a volunteer for a one day trip only. Besides, primary school kids are really hard to supervise in public transports, especially when they getexcited. Nevertheless, she should still consider taking bus as the last resort lest she fails to find cars and drivers in such a short period of time.Q6. Now listen to a part of a lecture in a psychology class. The professor isdiscussing the mathematical capabilities of babies.Scientists have learnt some interesting things about the intellectual abilities of babies. They say that there is evidence that babies as young as 5 months old cando basic arithmetic - that they can add!Scientists think that babies know that one plus one equals two and not one. The evidence is indirect because obviously you can’t ask a 5-month-old baby to add up some n umbers for you. So they devised an experiment. In this experiment, a baby is shown a doll on a table. Okay, so the baby looks atthe doll then the researcher lowers a screen in front of the doll, so now the doll hidden behind the screen. But the baby has already seen the doll so known it’s there. Then the researcher takes a second doll and very obviously places it behind the screen with the first one. So now you have 2 dolls behind the screen right? Well, No, because what the researchers did was they secretly took away one of the dolls. And then when they raise the screen back up the baby expects to see 2 dolls, but there’s only onethere. And guess what? The baby surprised, it expected 2 but it only sees one. How could the researchers tell that the baby surprised? They recorded the baby’s eye movements on camera and we know that when a baby is surprised by something, a loudnoise or an unexpected flash of light many b e. Its stares at where the noise or lightis coming from and that’s what the babies in the experiment did. They stared cozthe baby knows if you add one doll and one doll, you should have 2 dolls. So whenit sees 1 doll, then it’s stares because it’s surprised.Using the research explained by the professors what the scientists have learnt about the mathematical abilities of babies.Answering the question:State about what the scientists have learnt.Introducing the experimentAccount of the experiment. Pay special attention to transition and signalingwords.ConclusionSample Response:The scientists have learnt that babies as young as 5-month old can do basic arithmetic/simple addition. They have come to this conclusion from researches that explore babies’mathematical abilities.In one experiment, babies were shown a doll on a table and then the doll is blocked by a screen. After that, they watch theresearches put a second doll behind the screen. At that point of time, the babiesexpect to see 2 dolls once the screen is removed. Therefore, when they only see one doll left on the table after the screen is raised up, they started because they were surprised.This research proves that baby knows that one plus one equals two.。