2024年2月21日发(作者：)
MINI-LECTURE ONE
Effective Note-taking
The difficulty of taking notes: Note-taking requires a high level of ability due to
the (1) ________ of spoken language.
I. Before taking notes:
A. Be sure of the (2) ________ of yours and the speaker’s.
B. Review relevant background materials if available.
II. While taking notes:
A. Understand the new words by (3) ________ the meanings from the context. (3) ________
B. Study carefully the (4) ________, which usually implies
the most important information
C. Catch the speaker’s (5) ________ through tone, gesture, repetition and
illustration on the board.
D. Pay attention to the speaker’s indirect signals to indicate what is important,
like changes in speed, volume or (6) ________. (6) ________
(5) ________
(4) ________
(2) ________
(1) ________
E. While writing down the main points, develop a system of mechanics:
jotting down words or phrases; using shorthand, abbreviations and symbols;
leaving out (7) ________ words. (7) ________
(8) ________ F. While selecting words to write down, pick those having the (8) ________
information, like nouns, verbs or adjectives, and those indicating
the proceeding direction of the lecture, like (9) ________.
III. After taking notes:
A. Review and reword them as soon as possible.
B. (10) ________ notes with others to learn from them.
(9) ________
(10) ________
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MINI-LECTURE TWO
The Skills Required to Get a Job
I. Academic skills: basic foundation
1. Communication skills
— Understand and speak the languages in (1) ________
— Be a good listener
— Read written materials
— (2) ________
2. Thinking skills
— Think (3) ________ and act logically (3) ________
e.g. technology, physical science, the arts, skilled trades, social science, etc.
3. Learning skills
e.g. learn to use some new software after a few tutorials
II. Personal (4) ________ skills: combination of attitudes, skills and behaviors (4) ________
1. Positive attitudes and behaviors
— Have good self-esteem and confidence
— Be honest, have integrity and (5) ________ (5) ________
(2) ________
(1) ________
— Have positive attitudes toward work, learning, etc.
— Be energetic and (6) ________
2. Responsibility
— Set goals and priorities
— Plan and manage time, money, etc.
3. Adaptability
— Have a positive attitude toward (7) ________ in the job
III. Teamwork skills: skills to work with others co-operatively
1. Importance of teamwork
— Bring more resources to the problem situation
— Be more (8) and morale boosting than individual work
2. How to improve teamwork skills
— Involved in the group
— Be (9) ________ and listen to others
(9) ________
(10) ________
(8) ________
(7) ________
(6) ________
— Be a leader rather than a(n) (10) ________
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MINI-LECTURE THREE
Understanding Depression
I. Misunderstanding of depression
— Mistakenly believe that depression comes from (1) ________
— Criticize the depressed person’s low energy
— A wrong belief that the depressed attitude can be (2) ________
II. Causes of depression
1. Genetics
— depression runs in families
2. Life events
— e.g. (3) ________ of a close family member
or friend can lead to depression
3. Family and social environment
— it includes (4) ________ living situations such as poverty; homelessness; (4) ________
and violence in the family, relationships, or community
4. (5) ________ (5) ________
— substance use and abuse have impacts on mood
III. Symptoms of depression
1. Depressed mood
2. Weight changes
3. Sleep (6) ________
5. Brain fog
6. Thoughts of (8) ________
IV. Means to survive depression
1. (9) ________
2. Medication
— make sure to get the right dose
3. A combination of both
4. Suggestion for friends:
— help the severely depressed person receive the right treatment
rather than cheer up them or (10) ________ with them (10) ________
(9) ________
— help people understand depression and what they can do about it
(8) ________
(6) ________
(7) ________ 4. Feelings of guilt or (7) ________
(3) ________
(2) ________
(1) ________
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MINI-LECTURE FOUR
Some Theories of History
I. The problems of understanding history
l History with written records: the records may be
(1) ________ and inaccurate. (1) ________
l History before writing: we can only make a partial reconstruction.
II. Some theories have been proposed to give coherence to human history
Theory 1
l Man continually (2) ________ in terms of his potentials and
his abilities to actualize these potentials.
l Modern man is superior to his ancestors
(3) ________, physically and morally.
(3) ________
(4) ________
(2) ________
l A branch of the theory: man rose to a (4) ________ before.
Theory 2
l Man’s history is a (5) ________ of stages of development,
whose pattern is the rise and fall of civilization.
l Whether modern man is superior to his ancestors depends on
what (6) ________ of civilization he is in.
Theory 3
(5) ________
(6) ________
l In this theory, the first two theories (7) ________ with each other.
l It is known as the (8) ________ of history.
Theory 4
l This theory views human history from the (9) ________
of socioeconomic groups.
(7) ________
(8) ________
(9) ________
l Human history can be interpreted as the (10) ________ of class struggle. (10) ________
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MINI-LECTURE FIVE
Types of Language Testing
I. Placement
— sort new students into (1) ________ (1) ________
(2) ________ — test the student’s (2) ________ rather than specific points of learning
— Interview as a good form of placement tests:
- (3) ________ both positive and negative factors that
are not revealed by written tests
- assess both oral production and fluency
II. Diagnostic
— also called (4) ________ or progress tests
(3) ________
(4) ________
— check student’s progress after learning a particular point
— the results (5) ________ those learning well, meanwhile,
give feedback to those not
III. (6) ________ (6) ________
(5) ________
— also called attainment tests
— examine a longer period of learning than diagnostic tests
— determine which level a student lies with (7) ________ standard
IV. Proficiency
— assess the student’s ability in (8) ________
(8) ________
(9) ________
(7) ________
— test student’s ability to repair (9) ________ in communication
— An example of proficiency test: TOEFL
- Listening Comprehension: to measure the ability to understand English
as it is spoken in US
- Structure and Written Expression: to examine the knowledge of
structural and (10) ________ points in standard written English (10) ________
- Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension: to test the ability to understand
a variety of reading materials
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录音原文及参考答案
MINI-LECTURE ONE
Effective Note-taking
Good morning, everyone! Today I’d like to continue our series of talks about study skills in
university. This morning I’m going to discuss how to take notes effectively.
[1]As we all know, note-taking is difficult since spoken language is more diffuse than written
language and its organization is not immediately apparent. In addition, spoken language is quickly
gone, which makes analysis difficult. So it can be seen that to achieve such a complex task as
note-taking, a high level of ability in many separate skills is required. Now let’s discuss these skills
in details.
Before taking notes, prepare yourself mentally. [2]Be sure of your purpose and the speaker’s
purpose. Review your notes and other background material if available because increased
knowledge results in increased interest. Besides, a clear sense of purpose on your part will make the
speaker’s content more relevant. Be ready to understand and remember. Anticipate what is to come,
and later evaluate how well you were able to do this.
While taking notes, the student has to understand what the lecturer says as he says it. The
student cannot stop the lecture in order to look up a new word or check an unfamiliar sentence
pattern. This puts the non-native speaker of English under a particularly severe strain. Often he may
not be able to recognize words in speech which he understands straightaway in print. He’ll also
meet words in a lecture which are completely new to him. [3]While he should, of course, try to
develop the ability to infer their meanings from the context, he won’t always be able to do this
successfully. He must not allow failure of this kind to discourage him, however. It is often possible
to understand much of a lecture by concentrating solely on those points which are most important.
But how does the student decide what is important? It is, in fact, the second skill I want to talk
about today.
[4]Probably the most important piece of information in a lecture is the title itself. If this is
printed beforehand, the student should study it carefully and make sure he is in no doubt about its
meaning. Whatever happens he should make sure that he writes it down accurately and completely.
A title often implies many of the major points that will later be covered in the lecture itself.
[5]Be alert to the speaker’s emphasis through tone, gesture, repetition and illustration on the
board. A good lecturer, of course, often signals what is important or unimportant. He may give
direct signals or indirect signals. Many lecturers, for example, explicitly tell their audience that a
point is important and that the student should write it down. It is worth remembering that most
lecturers also give indirect signals to indicate what is important. [6]They either pause or speak
slowly or speak loudly or use a greater range of intonation, or they employ a combination of these
devices, when they say something important. Conversely, their sentences are delivered quickly,
softly, within a narrow range of intonation and with short or infrequent pauses when they are saying
something which is incidental. It is, of course, helpful for the student to be aware of this and for
him to focus his attention accordingly.
Having sorted out the main points, however, the student still has to write them down. And he
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has to do this quickly and clearly. [7]In order to write at speed, try to develop a suitable system of
mechanics: jot down words or phrases, not entire sentences; develop some system of shorthand and
be consistent in its use; leave out small service words; use contractions, abbreviations and symbols.
Most students find it helpful to abbreviate. [8]They also try to select only those words which
give maximum information. These are usually nouns, but sometimes verbs or adjectives. Writing
only one point on each line also helps the student to understand his notes when he comes to read
them later. An important difficulty is, of course, finding time to write the notes. If a student chooses
the wrong moment to write, he may miss a point of greater importance. Connecting words or
connectives may guide him to a correct choice here. [9]Those connectives which indicate that the
argument is proceeding in the same direction also tell the listener that it is a safe time to write.
“Moreover”, “furthermore”, “also”, etc., are examples of this. Connectives such as “however”, “on
the other hand” or “nevertheless” usually mean that new and perhaps unexpected information is
going to follow. Therefore, it may, on these occasions, be more appropriate to listen.
After taking notes, review and reword them as soon as possible. Don’t just recopy or type
without thought. Reminiscing may provide forgotten material later. Rewrite incomplete parts in
greater detail. Fill in gaps as you remember points heard but not recorded. [10]Arrange with
another student to compare notes. Sharpen your note-taking technique by looking at other students’
notes. How are they better than your own? How are your notes superior? Compare the information
in your notes with your own experience. Don’t swallow everything uncritically. Don’t reject what
seems strange or incorrect. Check it out. Be willing to hold some seeming inconsistencies in your
mind over a period of time. Make meaningful associations. Memorize that which must be
memorized.
OK. In today’s lecture, we’ve discussed several skills that can help one in taking notes
effectively. In our next lecture, we’ll explore how to read effectively.
参考答案
1. diffusion 2. purpose(s) 3. inferring
4. title 5. emphasis 6. intonation
7. small service 8. maximum 9. connectives // connecting words
10. Compare
MINI-LECTURE TWO
The Skills Required to Get a Job
Good morning, everyone. In today’s lecture, I will talk about the skills required to get a good
job. Well, it is true that now competition for employment is more so than ever. So it begs the
obvious question, how do you stand out? There will be three main points I will be discussing. They
are academic, personal management, and teamwork skills. I will give you examples of these skills,
and reasons why these skills are important for you to get a job.
First of all, academic skills. Academic skills are probably the most important skill you will
need to get a job. It is one of the or the first thing an employer looks for in an employee. They are
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skills which give you the basic foundation to acquire, hold on to, and advance in a job, and to
achieve the best results. Academic skills can be further divided into three sub-groups:
communication, thinking, and learning skills.
[1]Communication skills require you to understand and speak the languages in which business
is conducted. You must be a good listener, and be able to understand things easily. One of the most
important communicating skills should be reading. You should be able to comprehend and use
written materials including things such as graphs, charts, and displays. One of the newest things we
can add to communicating skills would be the Internet, since it is so widely used all around the
world, [2]and hence you should have a good understanding of what it is and how to use it.
Then, thinking skills. [3]Thinking critically and acting logically to evaluate situations will get
you far in your job. Thinking skills consist of things such as solving mathematical problems, using
new technology, instruments, tools, and information systems effectively. Some examples of these
would be technology, physical science, the arts, skilled trades, social science, and much more.
After that, learning is very important for any job. For example, if your company gets some
new software, you must be able to learn how to use it quickly and effectively after a few tutorials.
You must continue doing this for the rest of your career. It is one thing that will always be useful in
any situation, not just jobs.
The second major job skill I want to discuss is management skills. [4]Personal management
skill is the combination of attitudes, skills, and behaviors required to get, keep, and progress on a
job and to achieve the best results. Personal management skills can be further divided into three
sub-groups just as academic skills, which are positive attitudes and behaviors, responsibility, and
adaptability.
Positive attitudes and behaviors are also very important to keep a job. You must have good
self-esteem and confidence in yourself. [5]You must be honest, have integrity, and personal ethics.
You must show your employer you are happy at what you are doing and have positive attitudes
toward learning, growth, and personal health. [6]Show energy and persistence to get the job done,
these can help you to get promoted or a raise.
Responsibility and adaptability are also essential. Responsibility is the ability to set goals and
priorities in work and personal life. It is the ability to plan and manage time, money, and other
resources to achieve goals, and accountability for actions taken. [7]While adaptability means
having a positive attitude toward changes in your job, and recognition of respect for people’s
diversity and individual differences. Creativity is also important. You must have the ability to
identify and suggest new ideas to get the job done.
Last but not least, I want to emphasize teamwork skills. [8]Employers now focus on
employees’ teamwork skills simply because teams can bring more talent, experience, knowledge
and skill to the problem situation and teamwork can be more satisfying and morale boosting for
people than working alone. There are two reasons. First, team recommendations are more likely to
be carried out than recommendations by an individual because people are more willing to support
an effort that they have helped to develop. Second, teams can react to a variety of problems that are
beyond the technical competence of an individual, since teams can be composed of individuals
cross department and division lines. Teamwork skills are those skills needed to work with others
co-operatively on a job and to achieve the best results. You should show your employer you’re able
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to work with others, understand and contribute to the organization’s goals. Involve yourself in the
group, make good decisions with others and support the outcomes. [9]Don’t be narrow-minded,
listen to what others have to say and give your thoughts toward their comments. [10]Be a leader not
a loner in the group.
In conclusion, I would like to say that all these skills I have discussed are critical to getting
and keeping a job and to achieve the best results possible for you. Of these skills though academic
skills would be the most important skills you will learn, I think. So if you keep at these skills you
will be happy with what you are doing unlike a lot of people who are forced to get jobs that they do
not like.
After you get a desirable job, here comes the second question on how to advance in the job
you have already acquired. Of course this is the topic we shall discuss in the next lecture. Thank
you for your attention.
参考答案
1. workplace 2. Use the Internet 3. critically
4. management 5. personal ethics 6. persistent
7. changes 8. satisfying 9. open-minded
10. loner
MINI-LECTURE THREE
Understanding Depression
Good morning, everyone. Today we’ll talk about the topic of depression. As we all know,
depression is very common and affects people of every color, race, economic status, or age.
Unfortunately, not everyone recognizes depression when it happens to someone they know.
[1]Some people have the mistaken belief that depression comes from weakness or is a character
flaw. Some people don’t really understand about depression. People who don’t understand may
react to a depressed person’s low energy with criticism, yelling at the person for acting lazy or not
trying harder. [2]Some people mistakenly believe that depression is just an attitude or a mood that a
person can shake off. It’s not that easy.
In today’s lecture, in order to erase these misunderstandings and draw a rough picture of this
issue, we will cover three domains of depression. They are causes, symptoms of depression and the
way to get over it.
Firstly, let us begin with the causes of depression. Actually there is no single cause for
depression. Many factors play a role including genetics, life events, environment, and medical
conditions.
Research shows that depression runs in families and that some people inherit genes that make
it more likely for them to get depressed. Not everyone who has the genetic makeup for depression
gets depressed, though. And many people who have no family history of depression have the
condition. So although genes are one factor, they aren’t the single cause of depression.
The second factor is some upset life events. [3]The death of a family member, friend, or pet
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can go beyond normal grief and sometimes lead to depression. Other difficult life events, such as
when parents divorce, separate, or remarry, can trigger depression. Even events like moving or
changing schools can be emotionally challenging enough that a person becomes depressed.
Family and social environment also play a role. For some people, a negative, stressful, or
unhappy family atmosphere can affect their self-esteem and lead to depression. [4]This can also
include high-stress living situations such as poverty; homelessness; and violence in the family,
relationships, or community.
Substance use and abuse also can cause chemical changes in the brain that affect
mood—alcohol and some drugs are known to have depressant effects. [5]Certain medical
conditions can affect hormone balance and therefore have an effect on mood. When these medical
conditions are diagnosed and treated by a doctor, the depression usually disappears.
Secondly, let us take a look at the symptoms of depression. Although depression varies from
person to person, there are some common signs and symptoms. Here are some major symptoms that
people have when they’re depressed.
1. Depressed mood, a person may report feeling “sad” or “empty” or may cry frequently.
Children and adolescents may exhibit irritability.
2. Weight changes, significant changes in weight when not attempting to gain or lose may be
indicative of depression.
3. [6]Sleep disturbances, insomnia or sleeping too much may be a symptom of depression.
4. [7]Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, a depressed person may feel that they have no value or
they may feel inappropriately guilty about things they have no control over.
5. “Brain Fog”, it means a depressed person may have a diminished ability to think,
concentrate or make decisions.
6. [8]Thoughts of suicide, a depressed person may have recurring thoughts of death, especially
thoughts of suicide, with or without a specific plan.
When someone has five or more of these symptoms most of the time for two weeks or longer,
that person is probably depressed. Depression is more than occasionally feeling blue, sad, or down,
but a strong mood involving sadness, discouragement, despair, or hopelessness that lasts for weeks,
months, or even longer. It interferes with a person’s ability to participate in normal activities.
Next, let’s turn to the next main point, how to get help if someone gets depressed. Depression
is one of the most common emotional problems. The good news is that it’s also one of the most
treatable conditions. There are professionals who can help. In fact, about 80% of people who get
help for their depression have a better quality of life—they function better and enjoy themselves in
a way that they weren’t able to before.
Treatment for depression can include talk therapy, medication, or a combination of both.
[9]Talk therapy with a mental health professional is very effective in treating depression.
Therapy sessions help people understand depression and what they can do about it.
Sometimes, doctors prescribe medicine for a person who has depression. When prescribing
medicine, a doctor will carefully monitor patients to make sure they get the right dose. The doctor
will adjust the dose as necessary. It can take a few weeks before the person feels the medicine
working. Because every person’s brain is different, what works well for one person might not be
good for another.
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One more suggestion I want to give to the friend of a depressed person is that friends need to
step in if someone seems severely depressed and isn’t getting help. Although it’s important to be
supportive, trying to cheer up a friend or reasoning with him or her probably won’t work to help
depression or suicidal feelings go away. [10]Depression can be so strong that it outweighs a
person’s ability to respond to reason. Even if your friend has asked you to promise not to tell, this is
a situation where telling could save a life. The most important thing a depressed person can do is to
get the right treatment.
Up till now, we’ve got a general idea of depression, including causes, and symptoms of
depression and the way to survive depression. In our next lecture, we’ll continue to discuss another
health problem, obesity.
参考答案
1. weakness 2. shaken off 3. death
4. high-stress 5. Medical conditions 6. disturbances
7. worthlessness 8. suicide 9. Talk therapy
10. reason
MINI-LECTURE FOUR
Some Theories of History
Good morning, everyone. In today’s lecture, we are going to talk about some theories of
history.
How much of man’s history do we know? We really know very little. [1]Written records exist
for only a fraction of what we suppose to have been man’s time as a unique species. Furthermore,
the accuracy of these records is often suspected, and the scope and selection of significant detail in
them often needs improvement.
It is worse when we try to reconstruct man’s history before the development of writing, and
this is unfortunate because the history of the early development of human society is lost to us. The
most that we can do is to use traces, deduction, speculation and the knowledge we have of the
habits of those animals which have some elementary social order to help us make a partial
reconstruction. This is hardly a satisfactory substitute for precise information.
With our knowledge of human history, which is only fragmentary at best, it is therefore nearly
impossible to reconstruct the beginning, and to deduce the end, of the story of man. Thus, there
have developed many schools of thought on the subject, each of which attempts to give coherence
to the human past by fitting it into the framework of a theory of history.
[2]The first theory I want to introduce is assumed that man continually progress. He has
evolved from a lower to a higher form of being, and he continues to evolve. This evolution takes
place both in terms of his potentials and his abilities to actualize these potentials.
[3]If one holds this theory, one feels that modern man must be more intelligent and civilized
today than his ancestors, as well as physically and morally superior to them. One further assumes
that this progress will continue into an ever more glorious future. Here deduction often ends and
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dreams of utopia begin, for it seems that most of us find it hard to think of the human race
developing into a race of angels. All in all, as a theory of history, the above view has had many
eminent supporters.
It might be well to mention here a variation on this theory that used to be popular, [4]namely
the idea that man rose from a low condition to a Golden Age at some time in the remote past, and
that things have gone straight downhill ever since. Many eminent men have found a sort of gloomy
comfort in this idea, but science has now opened up possibilities for the future which makes this
theory less defendable. Perhaps for this reason the theory has little modern support.
A second theory of history is held by those men who see man’s history as something quite
different from a simple progression from a lower to a higher state. [5]They see it as a cycle of
stages of development which are predictable in their broad outlines and main features. As surely as
a civilization rises and comes into being, so also must it decline and fall. The chief pattern one sees
in history is the rise and fall of civilization.
To holders of this theory, modern man is not looked upon as the most superior social being yet
produced. He is simply the typical product of the current stage in the cycle of our civilization. In
fact he may actually be inferior to members of past civilizations. [6]It all depends upon what stage
of civilization we happen to be living in. Indeed, it has been said that the average modern literate
city dweller is comparatively more ignorant of his era’s fund of knowledge than other literate city
dwellers of the past. While the staggering fund of knowledge in our technologically advanced world
is undoubtedly greater than that of any past civilization, it is probably true that the average modern
man, relying on such repetitive forms of entertainment as television and working in a narrowly
specialized job, knows a great deal less sheer information about his world than did earlier people.
[7]In a third theory of history, the two above theories are to some degree reconciled.
[8]According to this theory, which is often termed the spiral view of history, human societies do
repeat a cycle of stages, but overall progress observable in the long historical perspective.
Civilizations do rise and fall, as the advocates of the second theory maintain, but the new
civilization which replaces the first, usually by conquest, contains superior qualities which enable it
to rise to a higher stage of development until it, too, declines and is replaced by yet a third
civilization.
The above theories interpret history in term as if the overall progress of mankind in general
without respect to differentiations within the social order. [9]It is also possible to view human
history in terms of the interaction of socioeconomic groups. [10]Human history, according to this
theory, is most clearly interpreted as the disappearance of class struggle. Most people who hold this
theory assume an eventual resolution of the struggle through the disappearance of class differences,
although it would be just as correct to assume that the struggle could continue unresolved. Those
who assume that the struggle can eventually be resolved hold that history has a goal and that
progress can be measured in terms of how quickly mankind is reaching that goal.
OK. This brings us to the end of today’s lecture. I hope now you can have a better
understanding of what history is. Thank you for your attention.
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参考答案
1. incomplete // fractional
4. Golden Age
7. reconcile
10. disappearance
2. progress
5. cycle
8. spiral view
3. mentally
6. stage // period
9. interaction
MINI-LECTURE FIVE
Types of Language Testing
Good morning, everyone. Today, we’ll talk about the language tests. As we know, the testing
history in the world can be traced back to nearly two thousand years ago. And in today’s lecture, I’d
like to mainly discuss the different types of language testing.
[1]The first one is a placement test, which is designed to sort new students into teaching
groups, so that they can start a course at approximately the same level as the other students in the
class. [2]It is concerned with the student’s present standing, and so relates to general ability rather
than specific points of learning. As a rule, the results are needed quickly so that teaching may begin.
A variety of tests is necessary because a range of different activities is more likely to give an
accurate overall picture of a student’s level than a single assessment.
Sometimes one member of staff sees each student individually before the final class allocation
is made. This procedure has several advantages. [3]It helps to complete the assessment for each
individual student by disclosing factors which are not revealed by the written tests, either positive
ones such as a friendly, outgoing character or a higher level of production than a writing test
suggests, or negative ones such as a slight stammer or more than average shyness. Perhaps the
greatest advantage of the interview is that there is now the opportunity to assess both oral
production (the ability to make English sounds) and fluency (the ability to sound English in a social
situation) at one and the same time.
Secondly, let us look at diagnostic tests. [4]This test, sometimes called a formative or progress
test, checks on student’s progress in learning particular elements of the course. It is used, for
example, at the end of a unit in the course book or after a lesson designed to teach one particular
point. These tests can take the form of an extension of the lesson from a practice phase into an
assessment phase. They can provide information about progress which may be used systematically
for remedial work. The diagnostic test tries to answer the question “How well have the students
learned this particular material?” [5]If his learning has been successful, the results will give a
considerable lift to the student’s morale and he is likely to approach the next learning tasks with
fresh enthusiasm. If he finds he has not mastered the point at issue, the test should give him clear
indication of how he falls short, so that he can do some useful revision.
[6]Next, achievement test. An achievement test, also called an attainment test, looks back over
a longer period of learning than the diagnostic test, for example a year’s work, or a whole course, or
even a variety of different courses. It is intended to show the standard which the students have now
reached in relation to other students at the same stage. This standard may be established for a
country, as with school-leaving certificates; or it may relate to an individual school or group of
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schools which issues certificates to students attending courses. [7]But the important point which is
common to all these situations is that the standard remains constant as far as possible from course
to course and from year to year and is external to the individual class or textbook.
Lastly, proficiency. [8]The aim of a proficiency test is to assess the student’s ability to apply in
actual situations what he has learnt. It seeks to answer the question: “Having learnt this much,
what can the student do with it?” This type of test is not usually related to any particular course
because it is concerned with the student’s current standing in relation to his future needs. Efforts
must be made to use in the tests the kind of language which actually occurs in the situation the
student will meet. For example, a test which sets out to assess the proficiency of a student hoping to
follow a university course in an English-speaking country would need to take into account not only
his level of skill in listening to lectures, but also his ability to take notes, to make full use of what is
gained from the lecture in his subsequent writing. [9]An important element in proficiency testing is
to assess in some way the student’s ability to repair breakdowns in communication, by asking for a
repetition or an explanation, for example, or by rephrasing what he has just tried to say.
A rather typical example of a standardized proficiency test is the Test of English as a Foreign
Language or TOEFL. It is used by nearly 1,000 institutions of higher education in the United States
as an indicator of a prospective student’s ability to undertake academic work in English. The
TOEFL consists of the following sections:
— Listening Comprehension measures the ability to understand English as it is spoken in the
United States.
— [10]Structure and Written Expression measures mastery of important structural and
grammatical points in standard written English.
— Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension tests the ability to understand the meanings and
uses of words in written English as well as the ability to understand a variety of reading materials.
Proficiency tests sometimes add sections that involve free writing and/or oral production.
Lastly, I want to remind you that though it is convenient to say that the purpose of any test can
be defined in this way, there are in practice several different purposes for every test.
Now, to sum up, in today’s lecture, we have discussed some main types of language testing,
namely, placement, diagnostic, achievement and proficiency. In our next lecture, we will take a look
at the evolution of the language testing.
参考答案
1. teaching groups 2. general ability 3. disclose
4. formative 5. encourage 6. Achievement
7. constant 8. actual situations 9. breakdowns
10. grammatical
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