托福口语 TPO25 参考答案

Task 3 The plan is that the university will hold two graduation ceremonies. There are two reasons. First, the number of students has increased in recent years. As diplomas are awarded individually, the single ceremony has become uncomfortably long. Second, the hall for the ceremony is too small to accommodate the growing audience of friends and family members. The woman disagrees with the problem for two reasons. First, reducing the number of speeches can make the ceremony shorter. Students may not need many speeches because some of them are pretty boring anyway. Second, they allow students to invite too many people to come and watch. They can reduce the number of guests each graduating student gets to invite. Right now, each graduating student can invite up to ten people. But at most schools, students only invite like four or five people. If they reduce the number from ten to six, there will be enough space for the increasing audiences.

Task 4 Cultural lag is a period of transition when people are adjusting to technological change. At first, people are not accustomed to the new technology and may not understand it and they may have a negative attitude toward it. Over time, their attitudes will change and they successfully incorporate the new technology into their daily lives. The professor gives us an example about telephone. When the telephone first became widely available, towards the end of the 19th century, only businesses used telephones because businesses realized how the telephone could benefit them, how it could help them be more productive. But, a lot of people in the general public did not think the phone should be used for personal communication. Some did not like to listen to someone's voice without being able to see them. Also, others thought that it was rude to call someone on the telephone instead of visiting them in person. They missed the sense of personal connection they got from meeting someone. However, as we all know, people gradually changed their minds about the telephone. It took about 30 years but eventually most homes came to have telephones and everyone came to depend on them. So, talking to someone began to seem more normal even if you cannot see them. Friends began to call each other just to chat, just for fun. And after everyone agreed on certain rules of politeness, such as not calling someone late at night, no one considered it rude anymore to make personal phone calls.

Task 6 There are two ways weathering occurs. First, weathering can be caused by water. Rocks are often exposed to water and in cold wet environments, rocks can break due to water freezing inside of them. When water freezes, it expands. Over time this can lead to weathering. Imagine a rock with a small opening or crack in it. It rains and water gets into the crack and stays there. Then, at night, the temperature drops and water inside the crack freezes. This growing, expanding ice pushes outward on either side of the crack causing it to get slightly bigger. When this happens again and again, the crack becomes larger and eventually pieces of the rock break off. Second, weathering can also be caused by plants, a plant growth. If a plant seed gets blown into the crack of a rock, it may take root. And its root will grow down into the rock. The plant’s roots can cause the rock to break down, the fracture. You may have seen this with large trees growing on top of a rock. Usually there is enough dirt in a crack of a rock or on top of a rock to allow a tree to start growing there. As the tree grows over the years, the tree’s roots extend downward into the crack and crevasses of the rock in search of water and nutrients. Over time, the roots get bigger and grow deeper, widening and enlarging the cracks, causing the rock to break apart.