TOEFLスピーキング練習模試05
You have 15 seconds to prepare for the answer.
- Many students are asked to evaluate their professors at the end of the semester. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this?
You have 45 seconds to record your answer.
Task 2 Integrated Speaking
Read a passage below. You have 50 seconds to read through:
A CAMPUS ANNOUNCEMENT
At the moment the university choir only performs on campus. However, the choir’s new director wants to improve the standard of the choir by taking the choir to choir competitions in other cities and towns.
The choir director believes that participation in choir competitions will motivate choir members to set themselves higher standards of excellence in their singing performance. He also believes that taking part in these competitions will improve the public opinion of the university’s music program. This improved public opinion will attract more people to the program.
Now listen to the conversation below.
Prepare your answer in 30 seconds. Then answer the question below:
- The man describes his opinion about the change described in the article. Briefly summarise the change. Then state his opinion about the change and state his reasons for holding that opinion.
You have 60 seconds to record your answer.
Task 3 Integrated Speaking
Read a passage below. You have 50 seconds to read through:
Groupthink
Groupthink describes the process that a group follows in which individuals try to conform their opinions to what they believe are the opinions of the group, and as a result the group makes a bad decision. In groupthink, because people wish to be liked, fear losing their job, or don’t want to limit the group’s progress, individuals will conform their thinking to that of the group, even if they know the thinking is flawed and or misguided.
Now listen to the lecture below.
Prepare your answer in 30 seconds. Then answer the question below:
- Explain Groupthink and how the example used by the professor illustrates the concept.
You have 60 seconds to record your answer.
Task 4 Integrated Speaking
Now listen to the lecture below.
Prepare your answer in 20 seconds. Then answer the question below:
- Using the main points and examples from the lecture, describe two primary reasons why railroads contributed to the rapidly growing economy in America in 17th century.
You have 60 seconds to record your answer.
Sample Answer
Sample Answer Task 1
I believe that it is beneficial to evaluate professors at the end of the semester, but there can also be some disadvantages.
First, since superior staff can’t sit it on every class, they should take input from the students on how the class went. Students are likely to be honest in their reviews, so the professor can also learn from their mistakes.
However, I believe that there are disadvantages as well. If a student knows that they will receive a failing grade, they may be dishonest in their review just to spite the professor. They may say that the professor wasn’t fair, even if that isn’t true. This can be hurtful to the professor and detrimental to their career.
So, I believe that there are advantages and disadvantages to asking students to evaluate their professors at the end of the semester.
Sample Answer Task 2
Sample Answer – Task 3
Groupthink is referred to in the reading and lecture as the instances in which groups of people make bad decisions or adhere to bad rules because of fear of being disliked, not being included, or even losing their job.
The professor explains groupthink through her own personal experience with a job. After accepting a job at the recommendation of a friend, she came to realize quickly that the hours the job required were not the same as she agreed to in her contract.
Also, she discovered that she was being paid less money than others doing the same job. When she spoke about this with her co-workers, they all expressed their unhappiness, yet nobody did anything to change the system for fear of losing their jobs.
This willingness of an entire group to go along with a bad or improper decision, even in the light of knowing it’s wrongness, is what is called groupthink.
Sample Answer – Task 4
In the lecture, the professor describes how railroads played a large role in expanding American business in the seventeenth century. He gives two main ways in which the railroad improved business.
First, railroads opened new pathways for business. Whereas a business could previously only sell to locals because of the limits and time it took to transport goods, now they could sell an item all across the country because they could ship salesmen and goods anywhere they pleased.
Secondly, the use of transportation gave businesses more options. Rather than needing to centralize all industries around the raw materials for creating something, a business could ship coal, wood, or other resources to their manufacturing plant, then make their product, then ship it somewhere else entirely.
So the railroad revolutionized the way business was limited by space and resources by providing alternative options for markets and transportation.
Transcript
Transcript – Task 2
| Student 1: | Hey, Frank, have you read this article about the new choir director and his plans? |
| Student 2: | Yeah, the choir members are very excited. People have been incredibly motivated since his appointment. You know I sing in the choir, don’t you? |
| Student 1: | I do, yes. So what do you think of his plans? |
| Student 2: | I think they are great. Competing against other schools is going to take us to a new level. |
| Student 1: | Do you think the choir is good enough? Aren’t you going to embarrass yourselves? You’ve never performed outside campus. |
| Student 2: | None of us think it is going to be easy, but we are all super motivated. We are a lot more disciplined during practices now that we know we have to compete against others. Also, we are all prepared to rehearse three evenings per week as opposed to once a week. |
| Student 1: | Practice makes perfect, they say. |
| Student 2: | Practice and passion. Before we lacked passion, but now we are inspired to LIVE our passion for music. I have no doubt this passion will attract more people to the music program at the university. |
| Student 1: | And new, talented choir members? |
| Student 2: | Absolutely! We are a small group now but once others hear this choir sing, they are going to want to be a part of a winning team. That can only be good for the choir and the university’s music program. |
Transcript – Task 3
| P: | This is my own experience with Groupthink. I had my first job when I was 25 years old. I actually had to move to another country on the recommendation of a friend. He was already working in this company. The company was a small one that was just barely 2 years old. I joined them and it was only after I joined that I began to realize exactly what I had gotten myself into. It turns out that the hours I would have to work were not the same as proposed in my offer letter. What was even worse was that I was not getting paid overtime for this work and neither were any of my colleagues. |
| We all knew it was against the law, but nobody had confronted the employers before. I tried to rouse some of my colleagues for us to make a group complaint, but when it came time to speak up, nobody would volunteer. Eventually, I just accepted my fate and I became like everybody else and never said a word about it again for three years, after which I left the company. This is a very good example of just giving in to the group mentality that I found already in place when I arrived. Under different circumstances, I would have acted differently. |
Transcript – Task 4
| P: | So… one of the reasons why America has such a rapidly growing economy was the emergence of railroads. By the 1840s, railroads were beginning to emerge in America. This was the period in which the railroad industry emerged as “America’s first big business.” It gave hundreds of thousands of Americans steady employment and created capital markets and mechanisms of finance. This brings the question; how did railroads create such a huge impact on the economy and business? In summary, there are two primary reasons behind it. Mm… I will make it easier to understand. |
| First of all, railroads opened the channels for people in business to sell their products. Before the advent of railroads, businesses could only target customers within their reach. What I mean is…they could only sell products as far as their carriages would take them. However, with railroads, things got easier; transportation became much more convenient and even faster. Traders could carry larger quantities of products across the country. | |
| Secondly, the railroads provided cheap transportation. This gave businesses more choices to where they could build their factories. Like for example, a company that relies on coal to manufacture products had to open their factory near the coal mine before. Now with the railroad, they can choose to have their factory built in any part of the country. And it’s simply because they can rely on the railroad to transport the coal for them. |