运用美式思维攻克新托福听力

 　　朗阁托福培训名师表示：新托福听力最难的部分是lecture，这个老大难的问题不知道折磨了多少考生。每天孜孜不倦地背单词，记住单词发音、词汇、和句式，最后还是考不到高分。那么问题在哪里呢？古人有曰：求木之长者，必固其根本；欲流之远者，必浚其泉源。

　　提一个简单的问题：什么是lecture？回答：演讲。它翻译成中文是演讲，牛津说：lecture is a talk that is given to a group of people to teach them about a particular subject, often as part of a university or college course. 我们的希望出来了，所有的lecture本来就是讲述一个学生不知道的知识点，通过老师的嘴巴来解释让你能明白这个知识点，这才是lecture。共同的一个pattern就是让听者从不懂到懂的一个过程。

　　不要被动地去准备，主动出击是制胜的法宝。搞清楚游戏规则，才是托福听力的关键。既然我们已经知道了lecture共同的pattern，大家不妨尝试换换思维，我本来就不会的知识点听前何必紧张。这样听力必胜了么？没有，再多学一样反客为主的技巧，我们要知道哪里会考，也就是说认识清楚掌握好native的表达逻辑和思维模式。

　　这种美式思维，也就是lecture从不懂到懂的阐述方法有哪些？朗阁海外考试研究中心分析认为有两种，一种是演绎法，一种是归纳法。

　　演绎法 deductive method

　　In many ways, Mary is a model student. Mary studies hard and is always there to help her classmates with their homework. In her spare time, she does volunteering in a community center on a regular basis. She also devotes her time to helping her mother with house chores.

　　这是一段典型的演绎法范例。先给出结论说Mary是个模范学生，接着举例来证明她为什么是个好学生。

　　归纳法 inductive method

　　Mary studies hard and is always there to help her classmates with their homework. In her spare time, she does volunteering in a community center on a regular basis. She also devotes her time to helping her mother with house chores. In many ways, Mary is a model student.

　　这是一段典型的归纳法的范例。先说了Mary的一些表现，最后得出结论Mary是个模范学生。本段先提出论据，由这些论据得出了结论。

　　Topic sentence + supporting details，一个都不会少，这样才能让人听的明白。

　　我们来看几个例子：

　　TPO1 Lecture1

　　7. What does the professor say about Frantzen’s painting of a farm scene?

　　A.It resembles a photograph.

　　B.It may be Frantzen’s best-know painting.

　　C.It was painted in the Impressionist style.

　　D.It was painted while Frantzen lived abroad

　　Listening Script 1 Contemporary art

　　Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a contemporary art class.

　　Professor:

　　Good. So when you go to the exhibit, I really want you to take a close look at a certain painting.

　　It’s a farm scene. And you will see it right as you enter the gallery. The reason I think this painting is so important is that it stresses the impressionist aspect of Frantzen’s style（Topic sentence）. It’s an outdoor scene, an everyday scene. It’s kind of bleak, which you can really see those broad brushstrokes and the blurry lines. The colors aren’t quite realistic. The sky is kind of, well, in a natural… pinkish yellow. And the fence in the foreground is blue, but somehow the overall scene gives an impression of a cold, bleak, winter day on a farm. (supporting details) So that’s the impressionist side of her work.

　　答案C正解就是topic sentence，所有的supporting details都是在解释该painting的impressionism。

　　TPO6 Lecture4

　　13. Not long ago, the Sahara had a different climate. What evidence does the professor mention to support this?

　　Click on three answers

　　A.ancient pollen

　　B.bones from large animals

　　C.rock paintings

　　D.agriculture in ancient Egypt

　　E.underground water

　　Listening Script 4

　　Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an earth science class.

　　Okay, in principal they could, Karl. But the rock paintings aren’t the only evidence. Beneath the Sahara are huge aquifers, basically a sea of fresh water, that’s perhaps a million years old filtered through rock layers. And…er…and then there is fossilized pollen, from low shrubs and grasses that once grew in the Sahara. In fact these plants still grow, er…but hundreds of miles away, in more vegetated areas. (supporting details). Anyway, it’s this fossilized pollen along with the aquifers and the rock paintings, these three things are all evidence that the Sahara was once much greener than it is today（Topic sentence）, that there were hippos and probably elephants and giraffes and so on.

　　答案ACE。正解依然是topic sentence，值得高兴的是三个答案中ancient pollen和underground water文中给出了很好的解释，三者之间存在清晰的并列关系。

　　TPO10 Lecture1

　　What does DNA evidence indicate about relationships among whales?

　　A.All modern whales descend from sperm whales

　　B.Differences among toothed whales are less significant that was previously thought

　　C.Not all toothed whales are closely related

　　D.Sperm whale are more closely related to killer whales than was previously thought

　　Listening Script 1

　　Narrator：Listen to part of a Lecture in a Marine Biology Class

　　Err… and there have been some other interesting findings from DNA research. For a long time, we assumed that all whales that had teeth including sperm whales and killer whales were closely related to one another. And the same for the toothless whales, like the blue whale and other baleen whales, we assumed that they be closely related (supporting details). But recent DNA studies suggest that that’s not the case at all

　　答案C正解就是topic sentence，该题学生做时觉得困难，这个是归纳，先有supporting details推出topic sentence。

　　TPO里这样的例子比比皆是，按照美式思维出发，lecture会变得易懂很多，找准考点，正确率也将大有提升。