托福到底考的是考生的什麼能力？

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做過較長一段時間的托福老師，所以厚臉皮來答一下。

當然了，托福當然考得是英語能力。呵呵。

其實，這是句廢話。

ETS真正想考察考生的，是你的邏輯思維能力，儘管這一點在TOEFL上體現的沒有其他幾個如GMAT或者GRE明顯。

我從我主要教的聽力這一科目來說說吧！（溫馨提示：以下篇幅較長，請耐心看完，相信你會有所收穫。）

托福聽力的出題人，或者說整個托福考試，想考察的是應試者一個關鍵的能力，邏輯思維能力。

說白了，就是有一個事，這個事是什麼，當然更關鍵的是究竟為什麼這個事。

記住：是什麼和為什麼。

好，我們先拿個題來說明。

Professor

Hey, Ellen. How are you doing?

Student

Oh, pretty good, thanks. How are you?

Professor

OK.

Student

Did you, um, have a chance to look at my grad school application這件事是什麼。 . . . you know, the statement of purpose I wrote.

Professor

Well, yeah. In fact, here it is. I just read it.

Student

Oh, great! What did you think?為什麼來---解決問題。問題是什麼。

這裡插一句，托福聽力的對話學生有問題，一定有人給予回答。不回答到底決不罷休。但這裡的解決不一定是完整的方法，可能是教授也並不清楚，那就回答我不清楚，有待考證，這都沒關係。

Professor

Basically,為什麼以這個語氣說這個詞？ it』s good. What you might actually do is為什麼用主語從句？ take some of these different points here, and actually break them out into separate paragraphs. So, um, one: your purpose for applying for graduate study; uh, why do you want to go to graduate school, and an area of specialty; and, uh, why you want to do the area you』re specifying; um, and what you want to do with your degree once you get it.為什麼說這些話的時候語調先揚後抑？

Student

OK.

Professor

So those are . . . they』re pretty clear on those four points they want.解釋了為什麼。

Student

Right.

Professor

So, you might just break them out into uh . . . you know, separate paragraphs and expand on each point some. But really what』s critical with these is that, um, you』ve gotta let yourself come through解釋了為什麼。. See, you gotta let them see you解釋了為什麼。 in these statements. Expand some more on what』s happened in your own life and what shows your . . . your motivation and interest in this area—in geology. Let 『em see what really, what . . . what captures your imagination about this field.

Student

OK. So make it a little more . . . personal? That』s OK?學生提問。為什麼？

Professor

That』s fine.這句話我們知道教授的答覆是肯定的。可是為什麼呢？原因緊跟著： They look for that stuff. You don』t wanna go overboard . . .

Student

Right.

Professor

. . . but it』s critical that . . . that somebody sees what your passion is—your personal motivation for doing this.

Student

OK.

Professor

And that』s gotta come out in here. Um, and let』s see, uh, you might also give a little, uh—since this is your only chance to do it解釋了為什麼, you might give a little more explanation about your unique undergraduate background. So, you know, how you went through, you know, the music program; what you got from that; why you decided to change. I mean, it』s kind of unusual to go from music to geology, right?

Student

Yeah. I was . . . I was afraid that, you know, maybe the personal type stuff wouldn』t be what they wanted but . . .學生提問。為什麼？

Professor

No否定的答覆。, in fact it』s . . . um, give an example: I . . . I had a friend, when I was an undergrad, um, went to medical school. And he put on his med school application—and he could actually tell if somebody actually read it 『cause, um, he had asthma and the reason that he wanted to go to med school was he said he wanted to do sports medicine because he, you know, he had this real interest. He was an athlete too, and . . . and wanted to help athletes who had this physical problem. And he could always tell if somebody actually read his letter because they would always ask him about that.為什麼舉大段的例子？

Student

. . . Mmm . . . so something unique.

Professor

Yeah. So see, you know, that』s what』s good and and I think for you probably, you know, your music background』s the most unique thing that you』ve got in your record.

Student

Right.

Professor

. . . Mmm . . . so you see, you gotta make yourself stand out 解釋了為什麼。from a coupla hundred applications. Does that help any?

Student

Yeah, it does. It gives me some good ideas.

Professor

And . . . what you might also do too is, you know, uh, you might get a friend to prove it or something at some point.

Student

Oh, sure . . . sure.

Professor

Also, think about presentation—how the application looks. In a way you』re actually showing some other skills here, like organization. A lot of stuff that』s . . . that they』re not . . . they』re not formally asking for, they』re looking at. So your presentation format, your grammar, all that stuff, they』re looking at in your materials at the same time.解釋了為什麼。

Student

Right. OK.

好，上面這一大段懶得看，沒關係，我幫你提取出來關鍵的部分。

學生為什麼來：

有關於申請的問題。

學生問題是：

不知道怎麼改得更好。

教授答覆：

確實一般，改。（這個就不用說為什麼了。。。）

改的方法是：

方法1:sperate+具體。

為什麼方法1:they want。

方法2：expand+具體。

為什麼方法2：come through。

（學生產生疑問1。

為什麼疑問1：改得更好。

疑問是：personal好不？

教授答覆：肯定。

為什麼肯定：they look for+passion。）

方法3：explain background+具體。

為什麼方法3：only chance。

（學生產生疑問2：personl真的好？！

教授答覆：肯定。

為什麼肯定：大段例子:+stand out。）

方法4：prove。

為什麼方法4：空缺。

方法5：presentation。

為什麼方法5：they look at。

現在總結一下：

我們在這裡想一想，平時我們和人講話，如果你想說服一個人，你會怎麼做。

（千萬不能大聲喊。。。因為有理不在聲高。。。）

比方說，

我想勸說大家都做跟讀。

我怎麼勸？

方法1：大家做跟讀吧~~~大家做跟讀！！！大家做跟讀啊。。。= =

方法2：做跟讀，就像背單詞一樣，背單詞是把形或者義save到你的大腦里。而跟讀是把音save。跟讀可以幫組大家聽覺存儲庫進行加強，從而再遇到相同或者相似的音能完美把握，提高聽力成績。

方法3：我有一個學生，按質按量做跟讀堅持了半年，聽力成績從7分提高到了26分。

好了，現在，你覺得哪種方式你更被我打動？

我覺得，必然是後兩種。

為什麼？

因為，後兩種提供了一種東西，叫支撐。

方法2的支撐在於，它提供了做跟讀的好處或者理由。

方法3的支撐在於，它提供了做跟讀成功的例子。

而這種支撐，正是邏輯思維能力中非常重要的一環。

說白了，就是為什麼。

這也正是托福乃至其他留學考試想要考察你的根本能力。

今天先碼這麼多：）

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