Memories about TOEFL on Mar.23 2014

michaelab

About the TOEFL Mar.23 2014

Reading

Passageone:

blank

Passagetwo: history of a kind of race( the word started with the letter A)

An archeologist argues that the vanishing ofsome ancient civilization in America was due to human activity rather than climatechange. The human activities had made the large villages more vulnerable topoor harvest caused by climate change.

Passagethree: industry modernization

The society relied more on market. The income ofresidents increased. Immigrates flew more rapidly and freely.

Improvement of furnace and other things.

Above are incomplete information.

Listening

Sectionone:

Sectiontwo:

Additionaltest: classical

Conversationthree: between a student and his biology professorabout how to write the assignment. The student complains that it is hard tofind resources about bird immigration, but the professor doubts that(Re-listening Question: why does professor say this?).

Lecturefive: about classification of plants in botanyclass.

Lecturesix: about ragtime music and piano in music historyclass.

Speaking

Independentone, personal preference:

Talk about an activity you will participate innear future and explain why you will do it.

I talked about the internship I will take atGoldman, one of the largest(biggest) five hundred in the world, this summer.First, it will help we to improve my professional skills and major knowledge.Second, it will help me to communicate with each other better, improve mycommunication skills. Furthermore, it is way for me to contribute my ownefforts to the society, which is very good.

Independenttwo, choice:

Do you agree or disagree with the followingstatement:

It is always to be a member than to be a leaderin a group.

Integratedone, campus events:

Read a proposal on school newspaper and thenlisten to a conversation between two students.

Proposal: the university plans to introduce anew kind of study coaching courses targeted at freshmen. First, it will helpstudents with studying methods and other things. Second, the class size will belimited in order to give more opportunities for students to learn.

In the conversation between a boy and a girl,they agree with this proposal. First, the studies in universities are verydifferent from those in high school. The boy is faced with difficulties whendealing with research and preparing for big exams. Second, the limited size ofthe class is appropriate. According to the boy, many courses are given in theform of big lectures during freshman year. However, students will have morechance to communicate with teachers and share their ideas with their fellowclassmates if the class is small.

Integratedtwo, academic lecture:

The composite signals of animals refer to theanimal behivor integrating of two or more individual messages.

The lecturer gives an example of the compositesignal, which he experienced himself. When a truck went by his house with noisytrucks, his dog rose his ears and tried to chase after the truck. Only afterthe truck went away did the dog stop. Then his neighbor approached with hisdogs. Then the professor's dog began to rising his ears. The lecturer wasafraid that the two dogs may end up with a fight. But they began jumpinghilariously. The professor noticed that his dog was also wagging his tail. Itwas a composite signal.

Integratedthree, dilemma solving:

The girl will go hiking and camping this Friday,however she has no tent. She got two options. First, she can share the tentwith her friend, but the tent has holes and it will be wet and uncomfortable ifit rains. In the other hand, she can also buy a tent on her own, although it isexpensive. It may be a wise choice in the long run since she can use it foranother time. However, it may also be useless if she find out that she doesn'tlike camping. ( above is also what I said in the exam, except the reasons foror against each options) I recommend the girl to buy a tent on her own. Thusshe can still use the tent in the future and don't need to worry about thequestion any more. If she doesn't like camping, she can also sell it or rent itto another student.

Integratedfour, academic lecture: about agriculture

Weeds may be unwantedbecause they compete with agricultural crops. However, ( following is what Isaid in the exam) there are two approaches that weeds benefit farmers. Use thecoffin( illusive, uncertain, unclear, I just imitate the pronunciation) as anexample. First, the weeds can hold the fertile soil, prevent it from being washed out by rains. Second, some insects like to eat one part of coffin,but they prefer to eat that part of weeds. The farmer can plant weeds amongcoffins. The insects will eat the weeds and leave coffin alone.

Writing:

Integrated writing: about bison, a kind of animal, something likecattle or horse

The reading passagesuggests that the declining bison was due to the European American settlers. Itprovides three reasons. First, when European American crossed prairies, theyhunted bisons as food because there is no food in prairies. Second, theybrought cattle (I put an "s" after cattle as a mistake) horses, whichcompeted with bisons for resources. Third, the evolving technology, especiallyguns, let hunters kill several bisons in a short time.

The professorcontradicts each of these three points. First, the European American moved fromeast to west, but the bisons decline in the western part of America. Thepattern of how bisons disappeared gradually was different from that of movementof European American. Second, bisons have double furs covering their bodies andunique head structure, which allow them to live in harsher and colder areas.The areas were unreachable for cattle (put a "s" to make a mistakeagain) and horses. How could different spices compete with each other inseparate territories( spelled wrongly as "terittories")? Third, the advanced technology should not beblame worthy for the decreasing bisons. The ancient methods are as effectivelyas guts. Skilled ancient American hunters could kill several bisons with shortintervals. The third explanation (spelled wrongly as"explaination")provided by the author of the reading material is not well-grounded. Inconclusion, the professor completely refutes all three points made in thereading material.

I wrote a little morethan

Independent writing:

Do you agree ordisagree with following statement:

The students who graduate from high schoolshould take at least one year off to travel or work before start studying atthe universities.

I can't agree more with the statement. There aremany reasons contributing to my opinion.

First, it can open students' eyes and broadentheir horizon.

Second, it will help them to be moreindependent. Traveling or working requires skills of scheduling and planning(mistaken as “planing”). In high school, students are underattention of their parents. The studies at universities are quite different.Students should accomplish (spelled wrongly as "accompalish")research and other tasks on their own. Traveling or working can help them bewell prepared for the studies at universities.

Third, traveling can also serve as the role ofrelaxing activities. After years of hard working, students definitely havedesire for leisure activities. Traveling can help them to relax themselves.Working can help students to finance themselves.

Further, nowadays more and more students spendone or more years exchanging to other universities. If they can spend one yeartraveling before entering into college, they won't need to exchange and canfocus on their studies at their home universities.

In conclusion, I think spending one year beforestudying at universities traveling or working do( should be does) more goodthan harm. Students should take one or more years off to travel or work beforestudying at universities.

I wrote a little more than 400 words.

Filling the blank and making modification to the existing contents are more than welcomed!