英语口语期末考试内容

Topics for oral test (2011/09 --- 2012/01)

1. Please share with your group members your favorite athlete (at home /abroad). Nowadays, star athletes have not only acquired fame but also made a lot of money. Do you think star athletes really deserve what they get?

To many people, Michael Jordan appears as though he can actually take flight. From his famous basket shots that earned him the nickname “Air”Jordan, to the millions of fans who emulate him, Michael Jordan transcended the sport of basketball to become one of the 20th century?s greatest global icons.

The force that shaped Michael?s extraordinary talent began at an early age. Michael Jordan began to grow much taller than anyone else in his family and most people in general in his late high school years. He began to excel at basketball. Michael had to use every ounce of his talent and push himself harder than ever to win. He completely and quickly took over the Bulls. His rise brought admiration for his moves on court and scoring ability, but it wasn?t until the Bulls started to win, and win big, that his basketball genius was truly appreciated. Michael led the Bulls to three World Championships in 1991, 1992 and 1993 before he announced his first retirement. The world applauded when Michael returned to the NBA in March 1995, it is time for a comeback. He was named the league?s MVP for the 4th time and brought the team to their 4th World Championships in six years. He was rewarded with the largest one-year contract in the history of professional sports. He had become one of the most high profile celebrities on the planet.

While some athletes play beyond their best years for financial reasons, Michael was moving from one lucrative career to another as CEO of his JORDAN brand. He expanded his JORDAN clothing line from basketball gear to lifestyle wear. But Michael?s real legacy is that he showed that true greatness comes from within. He was aware of his success, but he never stopped trying to be better. As superstar Magic Johnson said, “There?s Michael, then there?s all the rest of us.”

2. What?s your opinion about advertis ing? Can we live without ads? Why?

Every day, it is easy to see advertisements all around us. Look around. How many different advertisements can you see?

With the development of material prosperity, advertisements have become more and more important in our daily life. Advertisements give latest information about products. If there were no advertising, consumers could not know about goods in their local shops. Advertising helps sell to a bigger market. Therefore, as more goods are sold they are cheaper. Advertisements also provide money for newspapers, magazines, radios and TV stations, etc..

However, we cannot belittle the disadvantages of the ads.

①To many ads do spoil our daily life and waste our time. They interrupt the TV programs, filling our letterbox, and ruin our appreciation of nature in place of interests. People often feel burdened with the ads instead of satisfying with them.

②On the other hand, some of the ads are illegal, spreading false information and planning to treat people who are eager to solve their problems.

It?s high time we took urgent and effective measures to curb this phenomenon.

①Firstly, we should intensify the effects to supervise the ads markets.

②Secondly, whoever takes advantage of ads treating consumers should be punished or imprisoned. ③Thirdly, we should educate people to abide by the law and give priorities to honesty and credit. Only when putting these measures into practice, will our society be purified into a paradise for us to live in。

3. What?s the purpose of holidays? And what do people do on holidays?

Indeed a long time before the summer, people begin to think of holidays. Usually parents schedule three or four weeks leave in summer to enjoy it with the family. Holidays are simply indispensable to Europeans. Two-thirds of all British people have their holidays in July and August, which are the most popular months for holidays. English school children are on holiday from the end of July to the beginning of September. The traditional British holiday is a seaside holiday. Children used to watch a Punch and Judy show and ride donkeys along a beach. Many British people spend much of their free time during the summer months down by the sea. Children enjoy swimming in the sea and building sandcastles. Europe is the most popular destination for UK residents, accounting for 80 percents of visits abroad. Spain has been the most popular country to visit since 1994, with 13.8 million visits in 2005. France was second in popularity, with 11.1 million visits.

Due to my earlier life in China, I found it difficult to understand European?s attitude to holidays and the importance of leave. In my eyes, holiday meant waste of

time and laziness. I felt guilty in applying for a holiday or if I accomplished noting during an imposed holiday. But hard work enabled me to survive the most difficult time in my life abroad, during my first few employments. Holiday can produce romance.

Nowadays my working compatriots in China enjoy long weekends as well as three weeks paid leave. Nevertheless my family experience in China and in Europe has made me understand now work is not my whole life and the family is also very important. It is important for all of us to strike a proper balance between work and leisure.

I love to learn about the culture and traditions of the countries that I visit. I like to visit all the sites but also get off the usual tourist trail. I enjoy camping and have camped in Spain and Italy. I like beaches but not to lie on all day I would get bored after half an hour. I like to explore and learn new things and meet new people.

4. What do you know about critical period theory? Do adults and children learn a language differently or in the same way? Try to explain with examples there is a (isn?t any) critical period for learning a skill.

The critical period is a theory that explains why it is easier for children to learn languages than for adults. The idea of a critical period comes from the study of animals. We say that there?s a critical period when the animal can learn a new things. Take songbirds for example. A songbird learns to sing the first few months after it?s born by listening to its parent?s song and repeating it. The bird can only learn to do

this when it?s a baby. An adult bird cannot learn to sing. So, if you remove the baby bird from its parents the bird just won?t learn to sing when it?s older. So there is a perfect example of a critical period.

One theory is that there is a critical period for language learning. The theory is that people?s brains change when they?re adolescents and these changes make it more difficult for adults to learn a new language than for children. There is evidence for learning to speak with a native accent. Somehow children can hear the different sounds better, and their mouth muscles can make the new sounds. But generally, adults who learn a new language after adolescence speak with a foreign accent. They never learn to speak with a native accent, no matter how hard they try. So we can conclude that there is critical period when both animals and humans can learn certain things.

5. Is TV an essential part in our daily life? Why? Do you agree that TV brings some problems to our life? Then what problems could we have with watching TV?

TV has a huge impact on children, kids today watch a lot of TV. In the USA, almost all families have a TV, many families have more than one TV. It?s about three or four hours of TV everyday or almost of time that kids spend in school each year, about 900 hours, and you can see that TV must have a big impact.

To assess how much violence is on TV, research has focused on counting the number of acts of violence on TV in an average day. Now this includes any act that

could hurt or kill people in real life. Surprisingly cartoons for children have the most violence more than many shows for adults. First, we?ll focus on some immediate effects of watching TV violence, what happens immediately after a child watches something violent on TV. Another way to assess the effects of TV violence on children is to focus on the long-term effects, what happens many years a child watches violent TV. The researchers found that children who watched a lot of violent TV at age eight were more violent at age eighteen. Children who watched less violent TV were less violent TV at age eighteen. So this study suggests that there is a link between TV violence and real violence that watching violent TV has long-term impact on these kids.

6. What is genetically modified food? Do we need GM food? What do you think of GM food?

Genetically modified food is food that has been altered in the laboratory by scientists. The scientists take something from one plant or animal; add it to a different plant or animal to make it grow in a different way.

We will look at some of the benefits and the possible risks of genetically modified food. One benefit is that genetically modified plants may need fewer pesticides than normal plants. So by using fewer pesticides, the crops are cheaper and the environments are cleaner. Another benefit of genetically modified plants is that they may grow better than normal plants. Finally, a third benefit is that many genetically modified plants stay fresh longer after they are harvested.

One risk is that genetically modified plants may start to dominate the other wild plants in the environment. Another risk is that genetically modified plants will hurt wild animals and insects in the environment. The most important risk is that genetically modified food may be harmful to the people who consume the food.

So it?s clear that there are some important benefits to genetically modified food but also some risks. Therefore let?s stop here and discuss any questions you have at this point.

7. How important is negotiation in our life and work? Can you talk about any of your negotiating experience? What techniques did you use to negotiate? What was the result?

One of the most difficult issues in negotiation is when one side blames the other for something. When one side feels that the other did something wrong or caused the conflict in some way. Let?s start with an example. Let?s say that you are having a conflict with a co-worker. Now my co-worker Joe and I are working on a project together. But Joe didn?t finish his work on time. And because of this, I couldn?t finish my work on time either. We need to give the project to our boss, but it?s not ready. The boss is angry, I blame Joe for this problem. Joe is angry, the problem will be worse.

So now I will introduce a technique you can use to avoid blaming someone. This technique is called “using …I? statements.” What you do is, you start sentences with the word “I.” Say something like “I am upset about this problem.” With this “I”

statement, you avoid blaming the other person. You are explaining how you feel, how the problem affect you.

When a negotiation doesn?t work, the problem is not the issues in the negotiation, most problems can be solved with enough time and communication. Problems are caused by the way the people on both sides feel about the negotiation. So you need to avoid anything that will make people feel angry or upset. And using “I” statements is one way to develop that.

8. What do you know about sleep disorder? What is insomnia? What are its symptoms? How can we improve our sleeping?

Let?s start with the problem of sleep deprivation. Many people don?t recognize that this is a serious health problem. However, today more and more doctors are becoming worried about it.

What are the causes of sleep deprivation? You may be surprised to learn that our modern lifestyle and modern technology. Everyone needs a certain amount of sleep, our bodies require a certain amount of sleep to function well. Now most people require a minimum of 8 hours of sleep each night.

What are the effects of sleep deprivation? The most common effect is sleepless during the day. If you get all the sleep you need, you won?t feel sleepy during those times. One consequence of this is mistakes at work. Without enough sleep, we don?t function well, we don?t have enough energy and we can?t always think very clearly. Another consequence of sleep deprivation is car accidents. So we need to recognize

that sleep deprivation is a serious problem. We need to find out what creates the problem and figure out a way to change our sleep habits, to educate people about getting more sleep, at least 8 hours.

9. How do you decide what is right and wrong? Do you think personal feelings, religious teachings, the law; ethical standards contribute to our decision?

Ethics are the rules we follow to decide what is right and what is wrong. We?ll use these ethnical principles to analyze a situation and justify our decision about what to do. We?ll look at it from the principle of “individual rights ”and the principle of “common good.”

The source of individual rights is the writing of Kant, he believed that our most important right as human is our ability to think and make decisions. So that?s how we can define the principle of individual rights—to respect other people?s right to think and make decisions. Common good basically means choosing whatever is good for most people. This principle says that it is OK to hurt some people sometime but only if the same action helps more people. So basically, the principle of common good means that, to be ethnical, we should choose the action that helps the most people and hurts the fewest people.

So following the principle of individual rights, the lie is not ethical. Following the principle of common good, the friend can justify the lie to the dying woman. One person will be hurt, but many people will be helped.

10. Talk about names, naming, good/bad names (Do people care about their names? How do people tend to name their children? Do you like your name?)

Names a re a cultural universal, this means everyone uses names. A person?s name can tell us a bit about a person?s family. There are several ways parents choose the first name for their child. The first way is by family history. Parents may choose a name because it is passed from generation to generation. The second way parents choose a name is after a family member or friend who has died recently, or after someone they admire. The third way is to provide a “push” for the child. Parents want to choose a name that sounds very “successful.” A strong name might help them in the business world.

Let?s look at the origin of last names, also called family names or surnames. The first category is place names. Place names usually identified where a person lived or worked. The second category is patronymics. A patronymic(源于父名的名字) is the father?s name, plus an ending like S-E-N or S-O-N. The ending means that a child, a boy, is the son of his father. The third category is added names. Linguists sometimes call this category “nickname,” but when most of us hear the word “nickname,” we think of a special name a friend or a parent might use. The word “nickname”is actually an old English word that means an additional name, an added name. So I?ll use the term “added name.”This category of last names is fun because the names usually described a person. The

fourth category is occupational names. The origin of the family name was the person?s occupation.

Though names may tell us something about someone?s family history, you need to keep in mind that they may not tell us much at all about the present.