Task 1: Your friend is concerned about a presentation that he has to give to the class. What advice would you give to help your friend to prepare for the presentation?
Sample
If my friend is going to do a presentation, I would like to give him the following suggestions. First, practice for as many times as possible in front of a mirror, and with others. Ernest Hemingway once said that the first draft of anything is shit. I couldn’t agree more. Practice makes perfect. Perfection doesn’t come easy. Second, don’t put too many words on each slide. The most common mistake a presenter can make is putting too much information on the screen and read from the it. It makes a presentation boring and predictable. Use fewer words is the way to go. Pictures help too, they communicate so much better than letters.
Task 2: Some teachers prefer students to send questions about course work or assignments by email. Other teachers prefer that students ask these questions in person. Which do you think is better? Explain why.
Sample
I think it’s better to ask questions in person for the following reasons. First, one can learn so much more from a conversation or discussion. Many of brilliant thoughts were only made possible through having discussions and exchanging ideas. Both student and teacher are able to dig a little deeper into the topic if they sit down and talk for a few minutes. The second reason would be: instant feedback. Emails can take days to be answered, they aren’t really that reliable. They end up in spam folders or get buried up pretty quickly.
Task 3
Reading:
Proposal: The university now uses electricity to keep the buildings heated, they should reduce the energy used on campus.
Suggestion 1: To replace the old windows with better insulated windows
Suggestion 2: To reduce the opening time of buildings where few students study at night
Listening:
The man agrees
Reason 1: The buildings on campus now are sort of old, sometimes people feel cold sitting next to the windows
Reason 2: Usually the building is empty by 9pm, even though there might be some groups still working there, they can choose to use the library
Task 4
Definition: Synomone means animals emit certain kinds of chemical substances to achieve mutual benefits.
Example: The professor gave us an example of poly fish and clown fish, poly fish can release a chemical that attracts clown fish, clown fish then releases a certain kind of chemical to lure in another kind of fish which can be the food source of poly fish.
Task 5
Problem: The man has to finish a paper about American literature this weekend, but his mom is going to hold a birthday party at home at the same time
Solution 1: Give his parents a call and explain why he can’t go home this weekend
Pro: /
Con: His mom might be disappointed and he would feel bad
Solution 2: Take his paper with him and go home
Pro: /
Con: He might be distracted because the party will be noisy
Task 6
Two ways to make activities people are familiar with more enjoyable.
Example 1: Change the location and environment of their activities, for instance, when people hike, they get bored taking the same route every time, they can try a new route from time to time
Example 2: Change the frequency of the activity, for instance, people might get tired eating ice-cream every single day, what they can do is to try eating ice-cream only 2 days a week
