Oral test topics

Pair work (A pros & B cons or discussion)

1. How can you get a balance between enjoying life now and
preparing for the future?

T: How can you get a balance between enjoying life now and preparing
for the future?

S: For me, that’s depends how to define enjoying life, on the one
hand, for someone, it means playing cg, everyday, but on the other
hand, for others, it means making fully use of time to improve
themselves. So, for me, sometimes, enjoyment means valuing my
time. When spending time on what I’m major in, I’m also
preparing for my future. SO, as for me, there are no conflicts.

T: Oh, no conflict? What a special idea. But, It's a difficult question for
me. I'm upset these days. A few days ago, our teacher analyzed our
professional employment prospects with us. It diverts [daɪˈvɜːt] my
attention. I began to concern about my future, whether I can get a high
score in the examination, whether I can graduate successfully, whether I
can find a job and so on. The worst thing is that when I should
concentrate on my study, I always want to be distracted. Finally, I even
watched the funny videos for relaxing directly, put aside my studying
plan. It really upsets me. I want to change this situation, but I CAN’T.
However, meanwhile, the videos are about traveling. And tourism is the
industry I want to engage in the future.

S: So, you are preparing for your future at the same time. You needn’t
get much pressure. May be that’s because it's the highly time to relax
yourself. You are not really enjoy,

T: Oh, maybe you are right. I should enjoy a real break for myself. But,
it's difficult. Because there are too much things to do. Only one day I
delay to do, more tasks will come. Especailly when I heard my peers
they have all ready done. Anxiety will envelop [ɪnˈveləp] me. I even
gave up my habbit, seeing a movie every Friday. But after talking with
you, I feel better. I want to insist my amusement.

S: Yes. have a real enjoyment for us, or we’ll become so anxious, like
you now.

T: Yes, I should take a real enjoyment. In this way, I can better devote
myself to my study. YES, BUT I also should schedule my amusement and
learning time. Maybe One weekday for tenis and one weekend for
reading or climbing mountain or other enjoyments. That's good.

1. Would thinking more about death change your attitude to

life?

S: I suddenly realize that thinking more about death have changed my

attitude to life.

T: Why? Why do you think so?

S: I have finished my swimming test of PE class. You know, I have drawn

in the swimming pool in my childhood. Thus, I was so afraid of being in
the water.

T: Ohhhh, how can you choose Swimming as your PE class and

successfully finish your swimming examination?

S: Because I’m not sure whether I will fall in the river again in the
future, so I want to change my attitude to the swimming. And in the
swimming class, I realize that my teacher would help me and not let me
really drawn again. So, there was nothing to be afraid of in swimming
class as well as swimming exam.

T: Woww, so you think you can directly take bravery to face anything
except death?

S: Yes.

T: But in China, death is a very sensitive topic. We usually avoid

discussiing. But in fact, although I seldom talk about it, I often think of
something about death in my heart. When I repeat my boring days day
after day, I can't help asking myself, what is the purpose of living
[ˈlɪvɪŋ]? What's the difference between living and dying?

These thoughs but really change my attitude to my life. After all, people
will die. When I think of this, I will be more tolerant of life, more willing
to try when challenges come, and more calm when I encounter [ɪn
ˈkaʊntə(r)] embarrassment. And the last, I will want to spend more good
time with my cherished family and friends, rather than waste time
complaining about life.

S: Yes yes, death really can change our attitude to life.

T: Yes, it does.
 1. Does photography merely record a moment in the past or
can it inspire behavior and actions in the future?

T: Ohm how a interesting question.

S: What? Tell me see see.

T: You see. Does photography merely [ˈmɪəli] record a moment in the

past or can it inspire behavior and actions in the future? What do you
think?

S: I hold the opinion that photography merely record a moment in the past.
photograph is just a thing, it just records the scene, just like a painting,
the photograph itself does not have meaning. It's the memory of that
time, or what happened at that time that affects you.

T: EMM, But I stand the opinion that photography can inspire behavior
and actions in the future. This question occurs me that, I have a habit
that when I was too tired to keep on studying, I will open my diary
book, seeing the pictures in it and I can feel I get a lot of courage from
these pictures. So, I insist that photography not only record a moment,
but also record our good feelings and our cherished memories, with
these we can go further.

S: But what inspires them is actually what in the picture, what they want
to remember or who they love. photography just record these. without
photos, they can also get inspired from the memories in their mind.

T: But I get another example. Do you still remeber the Big-eyed girl of
Hope Project? She is a student in the Chinese Hope Project Primary
School. This photo has aroused [əˈraʊz] social attention to rural [ˈrʊərəl]
education. And it also starts the road to adjust the inclination [ˌɪnklɪ
ˈneɪʃn] of rural [ˈrʊərəl] educational resources. So, I think it does inspire
the behavior and actions in the future.

S:

1. Is it desirable to overcome racial prejudice, or should we

accept it as simply a feature of society?

T: Recently I have read some articles about the racial [ˈreɪʃl] problems.
And this question “Is it desirable [dɪˈzaɪərəbl] to overcome racial
prejudice, or should we accept it as simply a feature of
society?”puzzuled me until now.

S: I think we must overcome racial prejudice. It is just a cancer of

society. we cannot just say, oh, just let it go, it's unchangeable, so we
must accept it as a feature of society. that is wrong. how can we choose
to accept a wrong exsistence just because it is hard to overcome?

T: Yes, I can't more agree with you. I can't imagine why anyone would
agree that racial discrimination can be a feature of society. It's
exsistence is a real bomb in the society. It is a social problem itself and
it certainly will cause more social problems. If we take the racial
prejudice as a feature of society, the racist [ˈreɪsɪst] must preach the
theory of Racial superiority [suːˌpɪəriˈɒrəti] and inferiority [ɪnˌfɪəriˈɒrəti]
, one day a part of people who think others are humble are likely to be
the killers. Who dares to promise the tragedy [ˈtrædʒədi] of Nazis
[ˈnɑːtsiz] not to comeback?

S: Yes, the root of the racial prejudice is basic of the opinion that they
think they have Higher social status than others. Isn't that the idea of
inequality? that influence people harmfully. does harm to the society
can the world.

T: YES,YES It's danganrous. When a child grows in the surroundings

without equality and respect, he or she is more likely to be a person,
who is indifferent towards life. And it's not a small part of people, who
are suffering prejudice in this world. It It is not conducive [kənˈdjuːsɪv]
to building a harmonious society.

S: YESYES, from the history we also find what are human fight for is not
only money or power, but also the equality. why we fight for our rights,
just because we feel we are treated inequaly. in china, Peasants were
not equal to the landowners, so there had revolution. in american, black
people are not equal to the white. so there are so many news that they
harmed each other.历史上我们也在建设，美国的新闻， 黑人奴隶，

whats more, because of this, we can not get to know other people and other contries,
before we really get contact with it. like me, i knew there are some There are some
foreigners do like chinese students, they even bully them. so evenif i havenot been in
other contries, i already have a unfriend atitude toward them. that is not good for me,
u know? 见识到了阶级的危害， 带感情色彩去认识别的世界，不利于建设社会

T: RIGHT. We should get rid of racial prejudice in our society.

S:对对对，所以我们要努力去克服
T:

S:

T:

1. Which kind of society do you prefer: an individualist or a

collectivist one? Why?

T: How funny, you know, these days the advantage and disadvantage
between individualist and collectivist sociey is standing on the top serch
in the internet over again. Do you know what is individualist society?

S: Yes, Individualistic societies are those that prioritise the needs of an

individual over the needs of a group as a whole. In this type of culture,
people are viewed in an independent way and social behaviour tends to
be directed by the attitudes and preferences of individuals.

T: Wow, you are extremly precise [kənˈdjuːsɪv]. AND Collectivist

societies are opposite [ˈɒpəzɪt]. It emphasises ['emfəsaɪz] the needs,
wants and goals of a group over the needs and desires of each
individual. These societies less emphasise self-contribution and have
social values that revolve [rɪˈvɒlv] around what is best for a community
[kəˈmjuːnəti] and society.

S: So turn back to your question. Which one you prefer to live in?

T: Actually, I prefer to live in an individualist society. Not the collectivist

society isn't good. Just because I don't like the feeling that We
potentially [pə'tenʃəli] take our own interest sacrifice [ˈsækrɪfaɪs] for
granted.

S: Why? I like collectivist society. i think in nowadays we are actually in a

society like collectivist society. we help each other, everyone take his
reaponsibilities in the school or the company. although there may be
somegays don't do their parts well. but we still have strong
social and individual ties. 我们现在就已经像在一个集体的社会。每个人都承
担自己的责任。尽管有的人会不做好自己的工作，但我们还是有很强的 ties。

T: For example, there is a group task. No matter how you are unwilling,
you should show you are highly willing to work together, or you will be
comdemned by others. And the most disgusting situation is that
someone in this group finish the task carelessly but the others who
want to make work perfect should respond more. But
the benefit of the labor tasted by all.
So, I think in a individualist society, our interest and labor will be more
respected.

S:you are right, i also have faced this kind of situation, that's really bad.
but in the society, we can not really do a work without any extral
inflence or helpness. maybe you can get a individual task, but that ia
just one small task of a bigger task, don't you agree with that? if that is
really a big task, which may be divided into many parts, you also need
others to do these parts. i think we can not really do a complate work
individually. 可以独立完成的工作也是大工作的一部分，一个大的任务还是要
分部分多人完成，不能真正意义上的完全独立完成一件事。

T: Yes, society does need teamwork. Individulist society can finish

teamwork, too. No need to worry.

1. Do you agree that love can waken love, or can you love
without being loved?

T: Recently, I have read a book, named Love beloved. The main role's
regretless love for the person he likes, arouses my thought of this
question "Whether love can waken love?"

S: i don't think i can love someone, who do not love me, i can't love
without being loved. if she or he do not love me, i can not get any
happiness or joys from the relationship. then i would not have the
power to love. why you ask me this question?

T: Maybe you are right. But as far as I'm concerned, I agree that we Love
can without being loved. At the first time I thought this question, I also
want to agree the side love can waken love, But Later, the parents' love
invade in my brain. Their fostering, their education and their accompany
all arouse my memories of their love. When I was a small kid, I don't
know what is love, they selflessly love me without being my loved.

S: i think that be changed: like can waken like, and then develop into
love. in our lives, we can find many examples, like a boy Pursue a girl,
who may not like him before. they can be couples, say some
sweetwords like i love u or somethings others. but i don't think that is
real love, that is just like.

T: May be, sometimes people can start to like a person after they know
this person fell in love with them. But I think why we hope love to
waken love? The most important reason is that we want to get respond
from ohters. But when you love someone, can you force ohers to give
you respond? Take the fan of LiuDeHua, for example. She crazily fell
love with LDH and expressed her love to him on the internet, regardless
of his and her family. How can LDH respond and waken love like this
situation? Therefore, love is own business, we can hope to get a good
result, but we can't impose [ɪmˈpəʊz] others. Perheps,
Once, we paid out for another regretless, it is enough to impress in our 
hearts

S:

T: Yes, we should respect our love and others' feeling.

1. How can you conserve a culture and its traditions if it’s

under threat from global influences?

S: With global integration, there are more and more economic

exchanges between countries, and the cultural from other countries
also have more influence to us.how do you think we can do to protect
our traditional culture? Or just let it develop with the global influences?
要保护还是放任它随着全球化发展

T: With the progress of globalization, every culture must collide [kəˈlaɪd] and blend
with other cultures. And we must conserve our culture. As far as I'm concerned, the
most efficent way to conserve culture and traditions must be heritage [ˈherɪtɪdʒ]. To a
great extent [ɪkˈstent], culture is intangible [ɪnˈtændʒəbl] and traditions depents
culture. Thus, we can pass culture by protecting the traditions.

S:But as we all know there are good things as well as bad things in the
heritages and traditional culture. 传统文化有糟粕

T: Yes, Especially, China has a vast territory [ˈterətri] and abundant

resources, and there are great cultural differences among different
places. There are some traditions that we need to get rid of, such as
some unfriendly bridal chamber [ˈbraɪdl ˈtʃeɪmbə(r)] and excessive [ɪk
ˈsesɪv] spending on dowries [ˈdaʊəriz]. But how do we know what to
discard and what to retain? In my opinion, the most effective protection
is to improve people's understanding of culture and awareness of
protecting culture.

S: But how can we raise the awareness?

T: For example, we can pass the culture by telling the the history and
the traditions. The ancient poems and Chinese myths we learned from
childhood are good examples.
S: Yes, we can also 举例子 或者说自己的保护方法

T:

S:

T:

S:

T:

1. Who was the greater hero: Richard Picciotto or Eleanor

Roosevelt? Why?

S:They are all heroes. like A is the hero we can meet in our ordinary
lives, who might save our lives. like B can influence our life from a
higher level, like make some policies or established some organizations
to change the environment around us to help us. that is also hero.

You know the lyrics, who says a man covered in mud isn't a hero?
Richard picciotto was just a hero like this lyrics describe. in the 911 were
many heroes like him who fought for others lives.

T: Yes, I agree with you. But I likely to stand the Richard Picciotto 理查德·
皮乔托 is the greater hero. Because he is more close me in my life and
the politicions [ˌpɒlɪˈtɪʃənz] is far away from my life, I can't really
understand the affects what the politicions do, until others told me. But
even like that I also can't feel certain great of them. Because what they
do, seems no affect in my life. However, the people like firefighter is
different. They really exist in my life. When I can't open the door,
firefighters will come to help. When I meet danger, police will come to
help, and so on.

S: You are right.

T: Exactly, they both are heroes. It's just that I prefer civilian [səˈvɪliən]
heroes, or to be anoher word "grassroots heroes", 草根英雄, in Chinese.
You know, we are common people. But when I see them, I CAN get
power from them by realizing that common people also can be
uncommon in their life. Just like Lei Feng. This what I want to be in life,
too.

S:the politisions are deedly far from us. i think their contributions is
more on another level, as i said, they can change the enviroment
around us, they can change the atmosphere of the society. they can
affect our perception. why are more people talking about human's
rights nowadays? these concepts didn't just pop into our heads, but
with some guidance from some organizations, more people think about
these problems and they try to solve them. that's politisions' influence.

T: I know. But they are sitting up high in a leading position, they're too
far from me. So, I prefer a common person as a hero, they can also
inspire me, an ordinary person as well. Perheps, I know more about
politics, I'll agree with you. Can you tell me what Eleanor Roosevelt 埃莉
诺·罗斯福 did?

S:Like Eleanor Roosevelt delivered her most famous speech, “The

Struggle for Human Rights,” which urged U.N. members to vote to
pass the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it arouse people's
awearness of the human's rights. 具体，她的人权组织和演说引起人们的意
识

T: Oh, Yes, I see.