新托福TPO口语参考答案——TPO24

1. Talk about a popular gathering place in your town where people like to
go. Describe the place and explain why people enjoy going there.
(2011.5.13；2009.10.24)

In my town, the public park is the popular gathering place. There are
several reasons why it’s popular. The first reason is that the park has a
very big square where senior citizens go nearly every day to do some
physical exercise. I can see them every day after dinner, they dance
together energetically. Another reason is that there is a beautiful lake
beside the park, and young people, especially those from the university,
like to sit on the bank, enjoying the view and having some talk. If the
weather is fine, beautiful young girls and handsome boys can be seen sit
side by side.

2. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Students benefit more from classes with a large number of students than
they do from smaller classes
Use specific examples and details to support your opinion

I don’t agree with this statement. I believe students benefit more from
small classes than from large classes.. First of all, there are many students

in a large class and it’s usually in a big lecture hall. Teachers or lecturers
will always focus on their own topic. There aren’t as many interactions in
it as in a small class. In small classes, students are allowed to make
discussions. Also, students can get more attention from teachers and thus
have more opportunities to voice themselves. Secondly, in a large class, if
there is a point a student doesn’t understand, he or she might be left
behind, while in a small class, teachers give attention to every student, so
no one will be left behind.

3. The woman expresses her opinion about the student’s proposal. State
her opinion and explain the reasons she gives for holding that opinion.

The student proposes to close the Campus Coffee house because students
usually don’t use it and the food in the coffee house is not good. The
woman in the conversation doesn’t like the proposal. She says the good
thing about the Coffee House is that it’s never crowded. So it’s a great
place to study. She always reads a book or works on a paper in it. She
even prefers it to the library. Plus, students can eat while they study there.
She also says that though the food wasn’t great, it’s a lot better now. The
Coffee House has got a new manager. Last week she went there and the
food was delicious. Besides, the new manager has added a lot of really

healthy food and snack.

4. Using the example of the macaw from the lecture, explain the concept
of a flagship species.

A flagship species is a particular species that represents a threatened habit
to the general public. The professor takes Macaw as an example to
explain the concept. Macaw is a beautiful bird and has colorful features.
It lives in the rain forest and relies on the trees for food and nesting. But
the trees have been cut down. So macaw and a lot of other animals are in
trouble. The populations of animals drastically declined. Then a group of
people used macaw to represent the threatened habitat. They spread the
word about how macaw needed the help and distribute books with
macaw’s pictures to the school and other community places. After that, a
lot of people started to take actions and contribute money to help set up a
protected land, a special area where no one could cut down the tree. So,
the number of macaw and other animals increase.

5. Briefly summarize the problem the speakers are discussing. Then state
which solution you would recommend. Explain the reasons for your
recommendation.

The woman just moved into a new place to live. But the problem is that
the new doesn’t have an Internet connection. She has to do research and
email people everyday. There are two possible solutions to this problem.
The first solution is to call Internet companies to install Internet. But it’s
costly, the woman has to pay for the service every month. The second
solution is to use the computer center on campus. The Internet there is
free. But the woman doesn’t have classes on campus every day and the
computer center can get crowded sometimes. I would recommend the
woman to take the first solution. Even if installing the Internet will be
costly, it’s absolutely worth it. Since she has to do research and email
people everyday, she must need a stable and handy Internet connection.
After all, computer center is on campus and it may be crowded.

6. Using the examples from the lecture, discuss two types of narrators that
an author of fiction might use.

The professor talks about two types of narrator in fiction. The first type is
an objective narrator. An objective narrator can describe what the
characters do and say. For example, if a man and woman is about to take
a trip, the only information we get from the objective narrator is what the

characters say to each other and their actions such as getting on a train
and looking out the window. It forces the reader to fill in the information
and to decide what the conversation might mean. The second type is an
omniscient narrator. An omniscient narrator knows everything about the
characters. In the example above, the omniscient narrator knows not only
what they say and do, but also what they are thinking. Like, it may tell us
that the man is nervous because he hasn’t seen his friend in a long time
and he is worried about whether his wife will like his friend.