词汇大师(Wordmaster)--TOEFL

Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": July 25, 2002
Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: July 28, 2002

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- TOEFL tips!

RS: Each year close to one million people around the world take the TOEFL -- the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Since it's required to get into many colleges and universities in America, we get a lot of questions about it.

AA: So we turn to Mari [pronounced Mary] Pearlman at the Educational Testing Service, the private organization in Princeton, New Jersey², that administers the TOEFL exam.

PEARLMAN: "It takes about two-and-a-half hours, whether it's paper-and-pencil or computer-based. Students are asked to read relatively³ lengthy⁴ academic passages. Let's say there might be a reading comprehension passage about the greenhouse effect. There might be another reading passage about twentieth century architecture. There might be a third passage about great social movements in Europe from 1860 to 1900.

"Those passages are followed by comprehension questions, comprehension both of the subject matter in the passage -- did they understand what they read -- also did they understand how the language works, did they get the signals. For example, in English, when we qualify an assertion, we use certain linguistic⁵ signals. Can they see what those particular kinds of signals are doing."

RS: The TOEFL also tests for listening comprehension. Recordings⁶ are played.

PEARLMAN: "Sometimes they sound like lectures in a classroom, sometimes they're conversations between two or three speakers. In either case, students are asked to listen through headphones, and then they're asked comprehension questions about both the content of what was said and how the speakers interacted if it was a conversation."

AA: In another section, students must recognize and correct grammatical errors in sentences. And then there is an essay.

PEARLMAN: "Usually the essay questions are things like this: 'Some people say that young people are the source of all really innovative⁷ ideas. Others say that it is only after people have aged⁸ and raised their own children that they have true wisdom. Which of these would you agree with? Give two specific examples to support your point of view.'"

RS: Mari Pearlman is vice¹ president of teaching and learning at the Educational Testing Service.

PEARLMAN: "One of the things that is pretty clear to us is that, in the United States, what you want to find out is what people do in response to things they don't know yet. That is, unfamiliar⁹ material. Since going to university and graduate school is largely a process of encountering things you don't yet know -- that's why you're there -- this seems like a good measure of certain skills that are important."

RS: Yet in many places in the world, Mari Pearlman says, that is an unfamiliar definition of knowledge.

PEARLMAN: "So, for a lot of students, how to prepare for TOEFL is mysterious, because their whole model of learning is that they just memorize lots and lots and lots and lots, and they expect to see some portion of that on the test. And that's not the way this test works."

AA: Since the TOEFL is a test of academic language, Mari Pearlman says the best way to prepare is to read a lot of high-level material in English. The Educational Testing Service and others sell test preparation materials.

RS: She says another thing to do is to listen to a lot of English. And, once a speaking test is added to the TOEFL next year, it will be important to practice speaking.

PEARLMAN: "That is probably the thing that's most neglected, sounding like an English speaker, which is hard. I mean it's hard for any of us to sound like a speaker of another language. That's the hardest part."

RS: "When it's not our native language. Of course."

PEARLMAN: "Intelligibility¹⁰ is obviously part of what we score, but it's also the key to knowing whether the person can actually address the content as well."

AA: In 2004, the fortieth anniversary of the TOEFL, the Education Testing Service will introduce what it calls the "next generation" of the exam. Mari Pearlman says E-T-S has been working for about ten years with researchers to develop the new test. Instead of testing each language skill separately, the new TOEFL will integrate reading, writing and speaking.

RS: This September E-T-S will come out with a CD-ROM to help teachers prepare students for the new TOEFL. Mari Pearlman says her organization hopes the new exam will have a "big effect" on the teaching of English as a foreign language, to better prepare students for academic life. To learn more about the test, there's a TOEFL Web site; it's TOEFL (that's T-O-E-F-L) dot o-r-g.

RS: You'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. Our e-mail address is。。。。。。。With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

 

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

5 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

6 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

7 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

8 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

9 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

10 intelligibility   

n.可理解性，可理解的事物

参考例句：

• Further research on the effects of different characteristics on intelligibility is necessary. 不同的特征对字码可懂度的影响力的进一步研究是必要的。 来自互联网
• Demand concisely intelligibility, word number 30 or so thanks! 要求简洁明了，字数30左右谢谢啦！ 来自互联网