新托福TPO 口语参考答案

新托福TPO 口语参考答案
新托福TPO 口语参考答案——TPO1
1. Talk about a book you have read that was important to you for
some reason. Explain why the
book was important to you. Give specific details and examples to
explain your answer
Recently, I read a book named Keep the aspidistra flying written by
George Orwell. The book
influences me a lot because the story has something that touches my
heart. The story talks about a
man who wants to be a poet and who abandons many well-paying jobs to
pursue his dream of
being a poet. I have a similar experience of quitting a very good
job in order to be a writer. Also,
the man in the story is lack of money because he works as a
bookstore assistant and thus has a
very low salary. He lives in a shabby apartment and sometimes have
no money to buy food. Again,
I?ve got similar experience. I once lived in a cramped apartment
alone and had no money. The
book is important to me because it touches me and gives me
encouragement to persist.

2. Some people believe that television has had a positive influence
on society. Others believe it
has had a negative influence on society. Which do you agree with and
why? Use details and
examples to explain your opinion.
I think television has a positive influence on society. It?s a good
source of news. The members in
the society can get news easily from News Channels and thus keep
themselves informed of what?s
happening around. Like, my grandfather watches News on TV everyday
just to keep up with the
latest television can be a kind of entertainment.
People can watch different shows
on TV such as funny talk shows and soap operas. I have many friends
who like watching Late
show with David Letterman and some other friends like watching TV
series such as Lost and
Friends. They all consider TV as a good way of relaxing themselves
and of killing time. So, with
the news and same TV programs, people in a society share a lot of
things that they can talk about
in any event. Therefore, society actually benefits from TV.
3. Explain why the woman disagrees with the reasons expressed in the
letter.

The writer of the letter opposes the university?s plan to acquire a
new sculpture because the
university?s financial condition is poor and the sculpture is so
large that it?ll take up all the green
space in front of the campus center. The woman in the conversation
thinks the two reasons are
totally unconvincing. The woman says it?s an anonymous donor who
pays the bill of the sculpture
not the university so there is no need to worry about the
university?s financial condition. As for the
point about the space, the woman thinks Paul, the writer of the
letter, always plays soccer with his
friends on the lawn where the sculpture will be. She thinks Paul
just doesn?t want to move to
another place. For him, it?s convenience versus sculpture.
4. Explain groupthink and its effects using example of the computer
company.
Groupthink is a process in which individual members of a group
conform their ideas to the group
consensus even if the result may not be well. The professor in the
lecture uses his personal
experience in a computer company to illustrate this process. Once he
and his co-worker suggested

to give their computer a design make-over to look cooler in order to
attract new customers. At first,
the majority supported their suggestion. But there were a few senior
managers who didn?t support.
Then some supporters changed their mind, so did the professor?s co-
worker. The co-worker
changed his mind because he didn?t want to make a bad impression on
senior managers. He
thought disagreeing with them might harm his future promotion. Then
after a long discussion and
with more and more people sided with senior managers, the professor
himself thought he was the
only one who?s delaying the decision. Then, he voted against himself.
So they all agreed not to
have this design make- over. At last, the company lost profit because
its competitors came up with
good-looking computers and win more customers.
5. The speakers discuss two possible solutions to the woman?s
problem. Briefly summarize the
problem. Then state which should solution you recommend and explain
why.
The woman was supposed to drive a bunch of elementary students to
the zoo tomorrow but she

didn?t rent a van in time and the kids will be disappointed if the
trip gets cancelled. The man
suggests her to borrow a car from one of her friends. But she has to
borrow two cars to hold all the
kids and it?s hard to find another driver. Then the man suggests her
to take the public
transportation. He is pretty sure that there is a bus line past the
zoo. But the woman thinks it?s hard
to control the kids on the bus. Well personally, I would recommend
the woman to take the bus line.
Even if the kids are handful, they are still controllable. But there
is no guarantee that she can
borrow two cars and find another driver at the same time.
6. Using the research described by the professor, explain what
scientists have learned about the
mathematical abilities of babies.
In the lecture the professor describes how scientists learn about
baby?s mathematical abilities.
Researchers did an experiment to test baby?s ability to add that
baby knows one plus one equals
two. They first put a doll in front of a baby and lowered the screen
to hide the doll. So the baby
knows it?s there. Then they clearly put another doll behind the
screen so there should be two dolls.

But researchers secretly took one away and when they lift the screen
up, the baby was surprised
because it expected to see two dolls but there was only one. We know
when a baby is surprised, it
stares at the thing that makes it feel surprised. The researchers
recorded the baby?s eye-movement
with a camera and found that the baby stared. So the baby has the
ability to add. It knows one doll
plus one doll equals two dolls.
新托福TPO 口语参考答案——TPO2
1. Choose a place you go to often that is important to you and
explain why it is important. Please
include specific details in your explanation.
I often go to the basketball court near my apartment. It?s very
important to me because I play
basketball there everyday and basketball is my favorite sport. Ever
since I was a little boy, I have
been playing in that court with my friends. When in junior high, I
practiced shooting and dribbling
in that court nearly everyday till late at night. Besides, the court
is the reminder of an awful lot of
my valuable memories. I still can remember that how I started out
shooting badly and then after

several weeks? practice, I could shoot well and dribbled well. I can
also remember many friends
with whom I played basketball and form teams. Without that court, I
couldn?t possibly make so
many friends. So it?s very important to me.
2. Some college students choose to take courses in a variety of
subject areas in order to get a broad
education. Others choose to focus on a single subject area in order
to have a deeper understanding
of that area. Which approach to course selection do you think is
better for students and why?
Well, I think taking a wide variety of courses is better for
students. Because, first of all, I think
undergraduate study is meant for broadness. Students had better
broaden their horizon and prevent
themselves from being narrow-minded. Second of all, I think before
students find their “true love”,
I mean, the subject they really want to go deep into, they should
probably extend their study field
and taste different subjects in various areas so as to identify the
“true love”. Take myself as an
example, my major is software engineering in the college, but I took
various courses outside my

major field. Then I found out that I was more interested in
literature than in computer and software.
So literature is my “true love”.
I think it depends on the students themselves. If a student doesn?t
know his or her interest. It?s
better for them to take a variety of courses so as to taste various
kinds of subjects to find their
interest. Take myself as an example, my major is software
engineering in the college, but I took
various courses outside my major field. Then I found out that I was
more interested in literature
than in computer and software. So literature is my interest. If a
student already know what he likes
and what he needs to learn. Then taking many different classes will
be a little bit waste of time.
It?s better for this student to concentrate on his or her interest.
For instance, I don?t think Bill
Gates need to take courses other than computer science when in
Harvard, coz he knew what he
liked and what he wanted. He already knew his interest.
3. The man expresses his opinion of the university?s plan to
eliminate the bus service. State his
opinion and explain the reasons he gives for holding that opinion.

The university has decided to stop its free bus service because not
very many students ride the bus
and plans to use the money saved to expand the overcrowded parking
lots. But the man
in the
conversation doesn?t like the plan. As for the point about few
students riding the bus, the man says
it?s because the bus routes are out of date. The bus only goes
through the places that are too
expensive for students to live. If the buses change route and the
man thinks there will be plenty of
students taking those buses. The man also disagrees with the
university?s plan to expand the
parking lots. He thinks the plan will encourage more students to
drive, which will add noise and
create more traffic. Then they?ll need more parking space. He thinks
the university should make it
easier for students to take the public buses not the other way
around.
4. Explain how the examples of tying shoes and learning to type
demonstrate the principle of
audience effects.
The principle of audience effects is that individuals? performance
is affected by the knowledge

that others are watching them. The professor uses examples of tying
shoes and learning to type to
demonstrate that we actually increase our speed of performing if we
know that we are being
observed. In the example of tying shoes, one group of college
students was told that they were
being observed, the other didn?t know they were being observed. The
students who knew they
were being watched tied their shoes much faster than the other group.
And in the example of
learning to type, when we are conscious of being observed, we will
increase typing speed. We
type faster than we do alone. Also, other behavioral pattern will
increase, like making mistakes.
So when we type faster when we know we are being observed, we also
make more mistakes.
5. The speakers discuss two possible solutions to the woman?s
problem. Describe the problem and
the two solutions. Then explain what you think the woman should do
and why.
The professor asks the woman to attend a field trip, but the woman
has already promised another
professor to help set up a museum exhibition next week. And this is
the problem. The professor

offers two possible solutions. The first is that she can talk to the
other professor to see if there is
someone else who can replace the woman to help set up the museum
exhibition. The
second is that
the woman finishes setting up the museum before they set out the
field trip. Actually, I think the
woman should choose the second solution, because she has already
agreed to help the other
professor and the other professor is counting on her. It?s possible
that there is no one else who can
take her place. So she?d better finish the task first before she
goes to the field trip.
6. Using points and examples from the talk, explain the two
definitions of money presented by the
professor.
The professor talks about two definitions of money, a broad one and
a narrow one. By the broad
definition, money is everything with which we can make purchases.
For example, coins and bills
can be money, because we can use them to buy goods such as
vegetables and pay for services such
as taxi. But in a barter system, vegetables can be money, because
farmers can give drivers

vegetables in exchange for a drive. By the narrow definition, in a
society, the legal tender is
money. For instance, in the US, drivers and farmers must accept
dollars as payment. People can
use dollars to pay for taxi and buy vegetables because dollar is the
legal tender in the US. So,
dollar in the form of coin and bill is money.
新托福TPO 口语参考答案——TPO3
1. What characteristics do you think make someone a good parent?
Explain why these
characteristics are important to you.
I think a good parent should be patient. Because children are always
confused with the things
around them, they ask questions every now and then. A good parent
should be patient enough to
give them answers. When i was very young, I always asked questions
like “Why can
airplanes
fly?”,“Why can?t we fly?” and “Why the earth is a globe?”. My
parents answered these questions
patiently and if they couldn't, they would buy books that have the
answers to my questions. I also
think a good parent should be open-minded. In other words, they
should respect their children's

decisions when their kids are growing up. My parents always show
their respect to my decisions.
My major in the college is software engineering, but I decided to be
an English teacher after
graduation. My parents respected my decision and allow me to pursue
my own interest. Thanks to
my parents, I am patient and I respect other people.
2. Some students prefer to work on class assignments by themselves.
Others believe it is better to
work in a group. Which do you prefer? Explain why.
I prefer to work on assignments individually. There are two reasons.
The first is that I like to be in
a quiet place while studying. If I study in a group, I will always
be interrupted by group members
who talk about irrelevant things. Then it?s possible that I can?t
even finish the assignments. Once,
I attended a group discussion. Many people were not even discussing.
They were just talking
about NBA games. When it ended, I got nothing from it. The second
reason is that I?d like to think
independently. Studying individually gives me enough time to develop
my own ideas. When
studying in a group, I will always be distracted by other?s opinions
and thoughts. So sometimes

many assignments are not done by myself but by other group members.
Like last week, I worked
in a group to solve math problems. It turned out that many problems
were solved by others not by
myself. I felt very unhappy about it.
Personally, I like working in groups better. There are two reasons
to name. First is that there is
diversity in groups. Group members all have their different
perspectives so some members can
help other members. Last week, I attended a math group and there was
one math problem I
couldn?t work out. But there was one member who knew how to solve
that problem and he
worked out the problem in a completely different way. Then I learned
from him. The second
reason is that I can practice my communicative skills. In group
discussions, I should be able to
understand others? ideas and at the same time to convey mine clearly
in order to make the
communication go well. I learn how to express myself properly and to
be a good-listener.
3. The woman expresses her opinion of the change that has been
announced. State her opinion and
explain her reasons for holding that opinion.

Dining services will not serve hot breakfast food anymore. They only
serve cold
breakfast food.
The woman in the conversation thinks the change is ridiculous. First
of all, she thinks whether
something is hot or cold doesn?t necessarily mean it is healthy. She
says that in a really cold
morning, a nice warm omelet is obviously better than a bowel of cold
cereal. Secondly, she thinks
the change will not help save money. Because if the students can?t
get what they want from dining
hall, they will go off- campus. Then they have to pay off-campus
price, which is more expensive.
So this change will not help save money but actually end up costing
more.