下面来讲解如何回答Part 2的问题。以一个高分答案为例子,看看其中亮点在哪里。
I guess the activity I most enjoy doing is to go to karaoke with my friends. We always have a lot of fun.
If I have a stressful week, I will call my friends and we’ll head to one of the karaoke places near our university campus to blow off steam. If I have an assignment or an exam, I will shut myself away to study, and I’ll take breaks by being a couch potato and watching movies. But once that is over, it is time for karaoke.
To be honest, I don’t really have a great singing voice, although that I guess that isn’t the point. I don’t feel self-conscious with my friends so I don’t have to be shy. It’s great to have that feeling, at least in some small way. It makes me feel like a singer, and it’s just a lot of fun really.
I used to sing in the shower and annoy my family, but it was when I became a college student that I started to go to karaoke. Whenever it’s someone’s birthday, karaoke is what we always do, and we have so many pictures of us at different karaoke bars.
It’s basically a very popular activity in my country and also throughout Asia. I heard that it isn’t really popular in western countries, so I think I will really miss it if I go abroad. Maybe I will have to find some like-minded friends and we can buy a microphone and start a special karaoke club.
考生在回答中用的全是口语化表达,一个“大词”都没有,边想边说,十分流畅。中间的连接词像铁环一样,把回答串联起来,丝丝入扣。
“blow/let off steam”的意思是大家平时熟悉的“relieve/ease pressure”,“shut myself away”的意思是“confine myself to the dorm”,“being a couch potato”的意思是“watching TV”,“that isn’t the point”意为“that doesn’t matter”。这段回答语言浅白,但是意思表达得非常到位。“I don’t feel self-conscious with my friends so I don’t have to be shy.”,这句话的意思是“在朋友面前,不在乎自己唱得好不好,自然就放得开”。
这段回答还有一个特点,就是全部都是关于自己的讨论(personal discussion),把自己的情况说给考官听,所以听起来很亲切,没有“掉书袋”的感觉。回答具有个人特色是雅思口语要求中很重要的一点。有些考生觉得只要背熟几个模板,然后在考官面前流利地说一遍就可以了,这恰恰是考官最忌讳的。而且考官都具有丰富的经验,一听就能够辨别出是考生自己的回答,还是背出来的模板。
本书在提供练习材料时,既采用了不少口语化表达,又尽量使用考生熟悉的、比较简单的词汇,力求让考生在短期内领会回答技巧,并且活学活用。回答中偶尔插入一些俗语,达到让考官“耳目一新”的效果。举这个例子旨在让考生清楚Part 2的要求。尽管在这一部分,考官要求考生记笔记,但绝不是鼓励大家使用书面语,或是把临时写的(甚至是事先准备好的)稿子背出来,语言仍然是越简单、越常用越好,回答的方式越自然越好。思路要清晰,逻辑要严谨,而且最好可以结合个人经历描述相关内容。