口语
Recently, art is a very popular and hot topic in IELTS Oral English. And most of the students are having a hard time to answer questions related to it because most of them do not have any knowledge or idea about it. Actually, art is a creative way of expressing oneself and it is also the highest expression of every culture. There are many kinds of arts such as literature, visual arts, music, dance, and drama.
All of these kinds had become part of the IELTS Oral English questions today.
For example:
1 Is beautiful handwriting important nowadays?
2 What kind of music do you like?
3 Should children learn to draw or paint?
To be able to deal with these topics and questions, students should know variety of information about art such as:
Art helps people to understand and empathize with the living conditions people have endured at various times and places
Art provides an opportunity to create and do, which can be a refreshing break from studying or working.
Art teaches how to interpret different forms of communication. It teaches how to understand figurative things and the meanings of color.
Art provide opportunities for self-expression
Art can improve academic achievement -- enhancing test scores, attitudes, social skills, critical and creative thinking.
After knowing different meanings and knowledge about art, students now have adequate information to use in answering the question in IELTS Oral test. Below are the examples of question and answer of the test with the topic of ART.
Part I
1 Do you like arts? Why?
Absolutely, this is because art is a link to the past. It provides an enjoyable perspective from which people can examine the history. And also, art encourages imagination. It shows people how they might express their own feelings and experiences through different kinds of arts such as painting and drawing.
此问题主要是让考生回答自己是否喜欢艺术并且告知原因，范例提到的是因为艺术是与历史链接的纽带，建议考生也可从它能激发人们的想象力入手，同时通过不同的艺术如油画等有助于让人们表达自己的感觉与体验。
2 What kind of art do you like?
I don’t have any particular favorite when it comes to art because I am appreciative of each work of art that I see. I like looking at abstract and colorful paintings as much as I like looking at portrait paintings. I also enjoy looking at clay sculptures the same way that I enjoy looking at ice sculptures. Each work of art has its own reason, background and history.
这个问题主要考察的是考生对艺术的认识，即自己喜欢哪一种类型的艺术。考生若无非常特别喜欢的类型，则可以从广泛的方面出发去表达，如范例中作者因为对于每一项的艺术作品都是从欣赏的角度出发，因此并没有特别喜欢的，如其对抽象画和肖像画是一样的喜欢，对泥塑和冰雕也是一样的欣赏。原因是每项艺术的都有它的背景以及历史文化。
阅读
★The Triumph of Unreason
A.
Neoclassical economics is built on the assumption that humans are rational beings who have a clear idea of their best interests and strive to extract maximum benefit (or “utility”, in economist-speak) from any situation. Neoclassical economics assumes that the process of decision-making is rational. But that contradicts growing evidence that decision-making draws on the emotions—even when reason is clearly involved.
B.
The role of emotions in decisions makes perfect sense. For situations met frequently in the past, such as obtaining food and mates, and confronting or fleeing from threats, the neural mechanisms required to weigh up the pros and cons will have been honed by evolution to produce an optimal outcome. Since emotion is the mechanism by which animals are prodded towards such outcomes, evolutionary and economic theory predict the same practical consequences for utility in these cases. But does this still apply when the ancestral machinery has to respond to the stimuli of urban modernity?
C.
One of the people who thinks that it does not is George Loewenstein, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. In particular, he suspects that modern shopping has subverted the decision-making machinery in a way that encourages people to run up debt. To prove the point he has teamed up with two psychologists, Brian Knutson of Stanford University and Drazen Prelec of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to look at what happens in the brain when it is deciding what to buy.
D.
In a study, the three researchers asked 26 volunteers to decide whether to buy a series of products such as a box of chocolates or a DVD of the television show that were flashed on a computer screen one after another. In each round of the task, the researchers first presented the product and then its price, with each step lasting four seconds. In the final stage, which also lasted four seconds, they asked the volunteers to make up their minds. While the volunteers were taking part in the experiment, the researchers scanned their brains using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measures blood flow and oxygen consumption in the brain, as an indication of its activity.
E.
The researchers found that different parts of the brain were involved at different stages of the test. The nucleus accumbens was the most active part when a product was being displayed. Moreover, the level of its activity correlated with the reported desirability of the product in question.
F.
When the price appeared, however, fMRI reported more activity in other parts of the brain. Excessively high prices increased activity in the insular cortex, a brain region linked to expectations of pain, monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures. The researchers also found greater activity in this region of the brain when the subject decided not to purchase an item.
G.
Price information activated the medial prefrontal cortex, too. This part of the brain is involved in rational calculation. In the experiment its activity seemed to correlate with a volunteer’s reaction to both product and price, rather than to price alone. Thus, the sense of a good bargain evoked higher activity levels in the medial prefrontal cortex, and this often preceded a decision to buy.
H.
People’s shopping behaviour therefore seems to have piggy-backed on old neural circuits evolved for anticipation of reward and the avoidance of hazards. What Dr Loewenstein found interesting was the separation of the assessment of the product (which seems to be associated with the nucleus accumbens) from the assessment of its price (associated with the insular cortex), even though the two are then synthesised in the prefrontal cortex. His hypothesis is that rather than weighing the present good against future alternatives, as orthodox economics suggests happens, people actually balance the immediate pleasure of the prospective possession of a product with the immediate pain of paying for it.
I.
That makes perfect sense as an evolved mechanism for trading. If one useful object is being traded for another (hard cash in modern time), the future utility of what is being given up is embedded in the object being traded. Emotion is as capable of assigning such a value as reason. Buying on credit, though, may be different. The abstract nature of credit cards, coupled with the deferment of payment that they promise, may modulate the “con” side of the calculation in favour of the “pro”.
J.
Whether it actually does so will be the subject of further experiments that the three researchers are now designing. These will test whether people with distinctly different spending behaviour, such as miserliness and extravagance, experience different amounts of pain in response to prices. They will also assess whether, in the same individuals, buying with credit cards eases the pain compared with paying by cash. If they find that it does, then credit cards may have to join the list of things such as fatty and sugary foods, and recreational drugs, that subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable at the time but can have a long and malign aftertaste.
Questions 1-6
Do the following statemets reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?
Write your answer in Boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
TRUE if the statement reflets the claims of the writer
FALSE if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is possbile to say what the writer thinks about this
1. The belief of neoclassical economics does not accord with the increasing evidence that humans make use of the emotions to make decisions.
2. Animals are urged by emotion to strive for an optimal outcomes or extract maximum utility from any situation.
3. George Loewenstein thinks that modern ways of shopping tend to allow people to accumulate their debts.
4. The more active the nucleus accumens was, the stronger the desire of people for the product in question became.
5. The prefrontal cortex of the human brain is linked to monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures.
6. When the activity in nucleus accumbens was increased by the sense of a good bargain, people tended to purchase coffee.
Questions 7-9
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 7-9 on your answe sheet.
7. Which of the following statements about orthodox economics is true?
A. The process which people make their decisions is rational.
B. People have a clear idea of their best interests in any situation.
C. Humans make judgement on the basis of reason rather then emotion.
D. People weigh the present good against future alternatives in shopping.
8. The word “miserliness” in line 3 of Paragraph J means__________.
A. people’s behavior of buying luxurious goods
B. people’s behavior of buying very special items
C. people’s behavior of being very mean in shopping
D. people’s behavior of being very generous in shopping
9. The three researchers are now designing the future experiments, which test
A. whether people with very different spending behaviour experience different amounts of pain in response to products.
B. whether buying an item with credit cards eases the pain of the same individuals compared with paying for it by cash.
C. whether the abstract nature of credit cards may modulate the “con” side of the calculation in favour of the “pro”.
D. whether the credit cards may subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable but with a terrible effect.
Questions 10-13
Complete the notes below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage 1 for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.
To find what happens in the brain of humans when it is deciding things to buy, George Loewenstein and his co-researchers did an experiment by using the technique of fMRI. They found that different parts of the brain were invloved in the process. The activity in …10… was greatly increased with the displaying of certain product. The great activity was found in the insular cortex when …11…and the subject decided not to buy a product. The activity of the medial prefrontal cortex seemed to associate with both …12…informaiton. What interested Dr Loewenstein was the …13… of the assessment of the product and its price in different parts of the brain.
Part II
Notes to Reading Passage 1
1. the nucleus accumbens, the insular cortex, and the medial prefrontal cortex:
大脑的不同部位 (皮层，皮质等)
e.g. cerebellar cortex 小脑皮层cerebral cortex 大脑皮层
2. hone:
珩磨，磨快，磨练，训练使。。。更完美或有效.
3. subvert:
毁灭，破坏;摧毁：
4. piggyback：
骑在肩上;在肩上骑
5. deferment:
推迟、延迟、分期付款
6. aftertaste:
余味，回味事情或经历结束后的感觉，特指令人不快的感觉
Part III
Keys and explanations to the Questions 1-13
1. TRUE
See the second and third sentence in Paragraph A “Neoclassical economics assumes that the process of decision-making is rational. But that contradicts growing evidence that decision-making draws on the emotions—even when reason is clearly involved.”
2. TRUE
See the third sentence in Paragrph B “ Since emotion is the mechanism by which animals are prodded towards such outcomes, evolutionary and economic theory predict the same practical consequences for utility in these cases.”
3. FALSE
See the second sentence in Paragrph C “In particular, he suspects that modern shopping has subverted the decision-making machinery in a way that encourages people to run up debt.”
4. TRUE
See the last sentence in Paragrph E “Moreover, the level of its activity correlated with the reported desirability of the product in question.”
5. FALSE
See the second sentence in Paragrph F and G respectively “Excessively high prices increased activity in the insular cortex, a brain region linked to expectations of pain, monetary loss and the view
★Don’t wash those fossils!
Standard museum practice can wash away DNA.
1. Washing, brushing and varnishing fossils — all standard conservation treatments used by many fossil hunters and museum curators alike — vastly reduces the chances of recovering ancient DNA.
2. Instead, excavators should be handling at least some of their bounty with gloves, and freezing samples as they are found, dirt and all, concludes a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today.
3. Although many palaeontologists know anecdotally that this is the best way to up the odds of extracting good DNA, Eva-Maria Geigl of the Jacques Monod Institute in Paris, France, and her colleagues have now shown just how important conservation practices can be. This information, they say, needs to be hammered home among the people who are actually out in the field digging up bones.
4. Geigl and her colleagues looked at 3,200-year-old fossil bones belonging to a single individual of an extinct cattle species, called an aurochs. The fossils were dug up at a site in France at two different times — either in 1947, and stored in a museum collection, or in 2004, and conserved in sterile conditions at -20 ºC.
5. The team’s attempts to extract DNA from the 1947 bones all failed. The newly excavated fossils, however, all yielded DNA.
6. Because the bones had been buried for the same amount of time, and in the same conditions, the conservation method had to be to blame says Geigl. "As much DNA was degraded in these 57 years as in the 3,200 years before," she says.
Wash in, wash out
7. Because many palaeontologists base their work on the shape of fossils alone, their methods of conservation are not designed to preserve DNA, Geigl explains.
8. The biggest problem is how they are cleaned. Fossils are often washed together on-site in a large bath, which can allow water — and contaminants in the form of contemporary DNA — to permeate into the porous bones. "Not only is the authentic DNA getting washed out, but contamination is getting washed in," says Geigl.
9. Most ancient DNA specialists know this already, says Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary geneticist at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. But that doesn’t mean that best practice has become widespread among those who actually find the fossils.
10. Getting hold of fossils that have been preserved with their DNA in mind relies on close relationships between lab-based geneticists and the excavators, says palaeogeneticist Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. And that only occurs in exceptional cases, he says.
11. Pääbo’s team, which has been sequencing Neanderthal DNA, continually faces these problems. "When you want to study ancient human and Neanderthal remains, there’s a big issue of contamination with contemporary human DNA," he says.
12. This doesn’t mean that all museum specimens are fatally flawed, notes Pääbo. The Neanderthal fossils that were recently sequenced in his own lab, for example, had been part of a museum collection treated in the traditional way. But Pääbo is keen to see samples of fossils from every major find preserved in line with Geigl’s recommendations — just in case.
Warm and wet
13. Geigl herself believes that, with cooperation between bench and field researchers, preserving fossils properly could open up avenues of discovery that have long been assumed closed.
14. Much human cultural development took place in temperate regions. DNA does not survive well in warm environments in the first place, and can vanish when fossils are washed and treated. For this reason, Geigl says, most ancient DNA studies have been done on permafrost samples, such as the woolly mammoth, or on remains sheltered from the elements in cold caves — including cave bear and Neanderthal fossils.
15. Better conservation methods, and a focus on fresh fossils, could boost DNA extraction from more delicate specimens, says Geigl. And that could shed more light on the story of human evolution.
(640 words nature )
Glossary
Palaeontologists 古生物学家
Aurochs 欧洲野牛
Neanderthal (人类学)尼安德特人，旧石器时代的古人类。
Permafrost (地理)永冻层
Questions 1-6
Answer the following questions by using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
1. How did people traditionally treat fossils?
2. What suggestions do Geigl and her colleagues give on what should be done when fossils are found?
3. What problems may be posed if fossil bones are washed on-site? Name ONE.
4. What characteristic do fossil bones have to make them susceptible to be contaminated with contemporary DNA when they are washed?
5. What could be better understood when conservation treatments are improved?
6. The passage mentioned several animal species studied by researchers. How many of them are mentioned?
Questions 7-11
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Please write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the writer
FALSE if the statement does not agree with the writer
NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage
7. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Geigl and her colleagues have shown what conservation practices should be followed to preserve ancient DNA.
8. The fossil bones that Geigl and her colleagues studied are all from the same aurochs.
9. Geneticists don’t have to work on site.
10. Only newly excavated fossil bones using new conservation methods suggested by Geigl and her colleagues contain ancient DNA.
11. Paabo is still worried about the potential problems caused by treatments of fossils in traditional way.
Questions 12-13
Complete the following the statements by choosing letter A-D for each answer.
12. “This information” in paragraph 3 indicates:
[A] It is critical to follow proper practices in preserving ancient DNA.
[B] The best way of getting good DNA is to handle fossils with gloves.
[C] Fossil hunters should wear home-made hammers while digging up bones.
[D] Many palaeontologists know how one should do in treating fossils.
13. The study conducted by Geigl and her colleagues suggests:
[A] the fact that ancient DNA can not be recovered from fossil bones excavated in the past.
[B] the correlation between the amount of burying time and that of the recovered
DNA.
[C] the pace at which DNA degrades.
[D] the correlation between conservation practices and degradation of DNA.
Suggested answers and explanations
1. washing, brushing, varnishing 见第一段。
2. handling with gloves / freezing samples ( any one of the two ) 见第二段。
3. losing authentic DNA / being contaminated / contamination ( any one of the three) 见第八段“Not only is the authentic DNA getting washed out, but contamination is getting washed in”(答being contaminated或 contamination比较保险)
4. they are porous porous 的意思是多孔的。见第八段“... which can allow water — and contaminants in the form of contemporary DNA — to permeate into the porous bones.”
5. human evolution 见第十五段。其中“shed light on sth”的意思是使某事显得非常清楚，使人了解某事。
6. 4 分别为第四段的“an extinct cattle species, called an aurochs”，即欧洲野牛，已经绝迹;第十一段“Neanderthal”， 是人类学用语，尼安德特人，旧石器时代的古人类;第十四段“woolly mammoth”和“cave bear”，其中mammoth是猛犸，一种古哺乳动物。
7. T 见第二段。
8. T 见第四段“Geigl and her colleagues looked at 3,200-year-old fossil bones belonging to a single individual of an extinct cattle species, called an aurochs.”即他们研究的骨化石是一头欧洲野牛身上的。
9. NG
10. F 见第十二段第一、二句话。
11. T 见第十二段末句“But Pääbo is keen to see samples of fossils from every major find preserved in line with Geigl’s recommendations — just in case.”意即为保险起见，Paabo还是非常希望见到用Geigl建议的方法保存的化石样本。“just in case” 的意思是以防万一，就是Paabo对用传统保存处理的化石不放心的意思。
12. A 见第三段。This information就是前一句中“... just how important conservation practices can be”(to preserve good DNA)。“be hammered”之中hammer一词的意思是不断重复强调。
13. D 面信息。需要理解文章各处关于Geigl和她的同事所作的研究。
写作
Some people believe that it is beneficial for children to spend time on TV, video and PC games, while some hold the opposite view. Talk about these two views and give your own opinion.
When it comes to whether children shall spend their spare time watching TV, video and playing PC games, people’s opinions diverse greatly. Some say it is basically a waste of children’s time, while others argue that children can benefit a lot from such activities.
It is firmly maintained by many parents and teachers that children’s main purpose is to pursue outstanding academic achievements at school. To beat their competitors, they must make the best use of every precious minute. Therefore, they can not afford to indulge themselves before the “idiot box” as TV or in playing the senseless virtual games. Moreover, watching TV and playing PC games are addictive for many poorly-disciplined children, consuming their interest in study and eroding their academic aspirations.
However, many other people hold different views, arguing that if properly guided and supervised, children can expand vision and knowledge as well as foster their creativity from those fun activities. There are many educational programs on TV such as Discovery which feed children extensive knowledge in science and arts. By sparking children’s interest and imagination in various topics, these programs are often more enlightening than textbooks. Furthermore, when playing PC games, children can foster a stronger sense of cooperation as well as competition, and sharpening their mind against possible risks in the real world. Last but not least, watching cartoons and science fiction movies definitely stimulates children’s imagination and creativity. Many youngsters have been inspired to come up with novel inventions of become engineering elites in later life exactly with the inspirations from those sources.
From the above discussion, it is evident that if children can balance their study and fun time properly, watching TV, video programs and playing PC games will unquestionably bring them more benefits than harm. After all, books are not the only source of useful knowledge; in order to grow healthily in modern times, children need to accumulate knowledge and skills from various channels, and suitable time for relaxation and inspiration is surely more welcome than not.
1. a waste of (time / energy): 对(时间/精力)的浪费
2. benefit from: v. 从„中获益
benefit: n.利益，收益 gain benefits from =benefit from, Something brings benefits to somebody
beneficial: a. 对„有益的 something is beneficial to somebody.某事对某人有益
beneficiary: n. 受益人 somebody is the beneficiary of something. 某人从某事中获益
3. make the best use of：充分利用
4. afford to do: 能够承担做某事
5. addictive: a. 使人上瘾的, something is addictive to somebody
addicted: a. 上瘾的, somebody is addicted to something
6. educational programs: 教育节目
7. enlightening: a. 具有启发性的
8. last but not least: 最后
9. science fiction movies: 科幻电影
10. stimulate / trigger / inspire / enhance: 刺激、促进
Advanced Phrases
1. pursue outstanding academic achievements: 追求杰出的学术成绩
2. indulge oneself in: 沉迷于
3. idiot box: 指电视
4. expand vision and knowledge：拓展视野和知识
feed children extensive knowledge in (science)：使儿童充分吸收(科学)知识
6. foster their creativity / a sense of cooperation：培养创造力/合作精神
7. come up with inventions / new ideas：做出发明/产生新想法
8. spark children’s interest and imagination：激发儿童的兴趣和想象力
9. sharpen the mind: 使头脑敏锐
10. accumulate knowledge and skills from various channels
Useful Sentences
1. When it comes to„people’s opinions diverse greatly. 当谈到„时，人们的看法有很大差别 e.g. When it comes to the use of nuclear power, people’s opinions diverse greatly. 例：当谈到核能利用时，人们的看法有很大差别。
2. Some say it is basically a waste of children’s time, while others argue that„一些人认为这基本上就是浪费儿童的时间，而另外一些人则认为„
e.g. Some say it is not a fundamental responsibility of the government to patronize arts, while others argue that it is a promotion of humanity.
例：一些人认为对艺术的赞助并不是政府的基本职能，而另外一些人则认为这是对人性的提升。
3. To / In order to beat their competitors, they must make the best use of every precious minute.为了打败竞争者，他们必须充分利用每一分每一秒。
e.g. To / In order to protect young people’s basic education rights, we must equally offer opportunities of secondary schooling to the public.
例：为了保护年轻人基本的受教育权，我们必须公平的向公众提供接受中学教育的机会
4. It is firmly maintained that„(人们)坚定地认为
e.g. It is firmly maintained that the preservation of wild life is one of the most pressing issues.
例：人们坚定地认为保护野生动物迫在眉睫。
It is firmly maintained that such regulations should be strictly observed.
例：人们坚定地认为这些规章应该严格遵守。
5. „is addictive to „, consuming their interest in „ and eroding their aspirations for „ 某物使人上瘾，消磨他们对„的兴趣和对„的渴望
e.g. Drinking is addictive to the majority of young people, consuming their interest in work and eroding their aspirations for life.
例：对大部分年轻人来说，喝酒使人上瘾，消磨他们对工作的兴趣和对人生的渴望。
6. However, many other people hold different views, arguing that„ 然而，很多人持不同看法，
他们认为„
e.g. However, many other people hold different views, arguing that the preservation of wild life is not a necessity.
例：然而，很多人持不同看法，他们认为保护野生动物势在必行。
07. By sparking children’s interest and imagination in various topics, these programs are often more enlightening than textbooks. 通过激发儿童对不同领域的兴趣和想象力，这些节目往往比教科书更具启发性。
e.g. By use renewable energy, people are trying to find a solution to environmental problems. 例：通过使用可再生能源，人们试图解决环境问题。
If / Once 过去分词/介词短语, somebody / something „ 如果/一旦„
e.g. If wrongly used, nuclear energy can be a destructive force.
例：如果使用不当，核能会成为毁灭性力量。
Once in an urgent situation, people can demonstrate tremendous potential.
一旦遇到紧急状况，人们会表现出巨大的潜力。
From the above discussion, it is evident that„ 从以上讨论可以明显看出„
e.g. From the above discussion, it is evident that many employees are apathetic about management policies.
例：从以上讨论可以明显看出员工对于管理政策漠不关心。
10. „is surely more welcome than not. „肯定是受欢迎的
Accuracy of details is surely more welcome than not for policy makers
保护动植物
In many countries practical solutions to protect wildlife do exist, but a recovery plan cannot be useful without jointly enforcing legislation world-wide. Trade in endangered plants and animals is now internationally prohibited, as is commercial exploitation, and so what? Penalties for violations used to be too minimal to stop such destructive human activities as illegal hunting and deforestation and pollution, even though nobody should like to see the situation becoming bad to worse.
To begin with, the habitat of flora and fauna has been losing ground, although it is not known exactly how many species of animals and plants have been killed off or wiped out on earth since the Industrial Revolution. And how many more are disappearing at an alarming rate. Until recently few thought that human actions could affect the world’s ecosystem on a global scale. It is as if anything that humans touch is doomed. These days many are more sure that such actions are occurring, and that this problem is so big that no government can tackle alone. Accordingly, the biodiversity--living things and relationships among them, demand international actions.
Gradually, the public is beginning to worry that the worse is yet to come. Some fear that if little or nothing is done in time to prevent the disaster from happening , humankind as a species might be doomed as well. Such is at least the view held by quite a few scientists and environmentalists who call for severe sanctions, or else. Others, however, believe that the case is not hopeless. The good news is that there is an increasing awareness of the great danger human beings are in. An urgent global commitment has actually been reached to join forces to maintain ecosystem, saving Nature for Nature’s sake, despite the fact that in certain crucial fields apparently not enough has been done. As it is, protecting the natural mechanisms and preventing pollution are hard tasks to deal with, nevertheless human beings ought to trust themselves in meeting the challenges, by reason or by force.
Excessive logging, illegal hunting and fishing, and out-of-control pollution continue in many corners of the planet on penalties of heavy fines and criminal charges, but concerned governments across the world are no longer turning a blind eye. It is a truth universally acknowledged that, unless effective measures are taken altogether at once, mankind’s road to doom is sure, although very slow. Fortunately human beings now know that harming the earth is easy like pulling bricks from a giant wall, and that they may keep doing it until the wall suddenly collapses.
