【托福培训-听力】上海新东方新托福听力揭秘（一）

ETS主办的托福考试平均每十年酝酿一次大型变革。继1995年8月的托福变脸之后，2005年9月新托福考试又将在全球范围内实施，它模拟北美校园的真实语言环境，将听、说、读、写四部分有机结合在一起，全面考查考生的语言水平和沟通技能。可见，新托福考试已经不仅仅是一项简单的入学测试了。 

从听力角度而言，新托福的考察范围仍然不会超出Campus Life——校园生活这个大主题，但除此之外，相对于旧托福而言，新托福在形式与内容上有了明显的变化。

听力形式“四大不同”

　　从形式上看，旧托福的听力部分采用传统纸笔形式答题，而且“只闻其声，不见其像”；同时全程采用单项客观选择题型（四选一），学生可以提前扫描和预读选项，从而变被动为主动，唯一不足是听力过程中不可以做笔记帮助记忆。

　　以下则是新托福听力部分的做题指南。

Listening Comprehension Section Directions

　　 This section measures your ability to understand conversations and lectures in English. You will hear each conversation or lecture only one time. After each conversation or lecture, you will answer some questions about it. The questions typically ask about the main idea and supporting details. Some questions ask about a speaker"s purpose or attitude. Answer the questions based on what is stated or implied by the speakers.

　　You may take notes while you listen. You may use your notes to help you answer the questions. Your notes will not be scored.

　　If you need to change the volume while you listen, click on the Volume icon at the top of the screen.

　　In some questions, you will see this icon: . This means that you will hear, but not see part of the question.Some of the questions have special directions. These directions appear in a gray box on the screen.

　　Most questions are worth one point. If a question is worth more than one point, it will have special directions that indicate how many points you can receive.

　　You must answer each question. After you answer, click on Next. Then click on OK to confirm your answer and go on to the next question. After you click on OK, you cannot return to previous questions.

　　You will have 20 minutes to answer the questions in this section. A clock at the top of the screen will show you how much time is remaining. The clock will not count down while you are listening to test material.

　　Note: In the Listening Section of the actual test, you will both hear and read the questions.

　　可见，新托福在考试形式上有明显变革，主要体现在以下四个方面，

1） 答题方式大不同。新托福告别纸笔形式，采用计算机化考试。保证每个考生拥有个人化应试环境，每人一个小隔间，一台电脑和一副耳机，不受外在因素干扰，而且考生可以在听力中做笔记，帮助记忆细节。如下图所示：

2） 答题界面大不同。新托福改变旧托福一味强迫考生纯粹用耳朵接受信息，用眼睛扫描选项的抽象界面，代之以大量相关图片配合声音资料，活化题目场景，加强考生的理解程度。例如下面这幅图片明显表明是一位教授与一个女生在办公室里的一段对话：

3） 答题程序大不同。新托福由于采取机考形式，听完整篇文章之前是无法预读和扫描任何问题或选项的，只能按部就班通过先听、后读、再选的程序答题。

4） 考察题型大不同。新托福除单选题以外加入多选题，还有图表题、是非题、排序题等其它诸多新题型，以加大对主观题的考察。例如下面这种是非题在新托福中就频繁出现：

　　Based on information in the lecture, indicate whether the statements below about human emotion reflect beliefs held by Plato.

　　For each sentence, click in the YES or NO column.

　　当然下面这种多选题更是屡见不鲜：

　　According to the conversation, what are two ways in which bacteria cells get resistance genes? Click on 2 answers.

　The resistance genes are carried from nearby cells.

　The resistance genes are carried by white blood cells,

　The resistance genes are inherited from the parent cell.

　The resistance genes are carried by antibiotics.

听力内容“五大变化”

　　从内容上看，旧托福的听力由三部分构成。Section A包括30个短对话， Section B和Section C分别由两个长对话和三个课堂教学段落构成，每段长度不会超过3分钟。三部分加起来共50个题目，每题1—2分，共68分。题目之间间隔12秒，整个听力部分用时30到35分钟。

　　新托福则大不同。主要体现在以下五个方面：

1） 考察内容有侧重。新托福的考察内容相比旧托福更侧重学术语言环境。语言素材主要集中在国际学生通常在北美留学时选择的商务、教育、人文、工程、自然科学和社会研究等六大学科上，但不要求考生有特殊的个人专业背景。其题型设计就是要使一般学生能够听、说，能够理解各种学术话题。话题的难度和大学生在校园生活中所遇到的各种语言环境相当。

2） 组织结构大不同。新托福的听力部分取消了对短对话的考察，代之以两篇长对话和四篇课堂长段落，因此在很大程度上淡化了做题技巧，更加注重对听力实力的考察。比如下面这段长对话就不能用简单的场景和题型技巧加以应对。

Narrator

　　Listen to part of a conversation between a student and a professor.

Student

Hi, Professor Johnson.

Professor

Hi, Anna. What can I do for you?

Student

[upspeak]

Remember, I e-mailed you about getting the handouts from the class I missed the other day, and you said I could stop by and pick them up today.

Professor

Oh, that’s right. [friendly, but seeking an explanation]

You know, that’s the fourth class you’ve missed this semester, and that’s not doing your grade any good.

I assume you had a good reason for being out...

Student

[apologetically]

I know, I really hated to miss another class, but I had the flu, and I could hardly get out of bed. That’ll be the last class I miss, though. I promise.

Professor

[accepting her promise]

Okay...

[sincerely]

So how are you feeling now—are you all recovered?

Student

Well, I’m still not quite a hundred per cent, but I’m feeling much better than I did a few days ago.

Professor

Well, that’s good.

Okay, uh…

[regaining train of thought]

oh yes, the handouts. There were three of them, and I’ll get those for you in just a minute. They’re pretty self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, just send me an e-mail.

But...

Student

[interrupting]

Okay, thank you.

Professor

Sure. Uh, but we also watched a video, and we’ll be having an essay question about it on the next exam, so,

[searching for a solution]

uh… [thinking]

Hmmm…Do you have a VCR at home?

Student

Actually, I don’t, but I do have access to one.

Professor

Okay…Well I can lend it you, but the only thing is, you’d have to watch it tonight and get it back to me early tomorrow, because I’m going to be showing it in the other section of that class tomorrow afternoon.

Student

That’d be great.

Professor

But you realLy have to get it back to me tomorrow before my class.

Student

No problem. I can drop it off first thing in the morning if you’d like.

Professor

Okay...

[changing his mind]

You know what? How about if we do it this way. I’ll keep it for now and show it in my class tomorrow, and uh then you can drop by here and pick it up on Friday morning and keep it for the whole weekend, and just bring it with you when you come to class next week. How does that sound? Uh then you’ll have a couple of days to watch it, and you won’t have to worry about getting it back here tomorrow.

Student

[checking her schedule in her mind]

Let’s see, Friday morning...

[turning happy when she realizes she can do it]

Yeah, that’ll work.

Professor

Excellent. I’ll be here from about ten to eleven thirty.

Student

[leaving]

Great. I’ll see you then.

Professor

Uh, just a second. Let me get you those handouts.

Student

Oh, yeah. Thank you.

3） 篇幅长度大不同。新托福的长对话和课堂演讲的时间都不同程度的增长，平均在4-6分钟左右，细节较多，容易遗忘，而且语速为normal speed，达到本土话，每分钟140-220个字节。很明显，这意味着新托福对考生在耐力、理解力和反应速度方面提出了更为严苛的要求。这种要求完全可以在下面这段课堂教学中窥见一斑。

Professor

So today we’re gonna talk about song development in birds and how—you may be surprised to know—the songs of most songbird species are learned—not completely instinctual—which is what we used to think…so I’d like to start things off today by, um, centering our discussion on the chaffinch.

The chaffinch is a type of European songbird, and we’re gonna use the chaffinch’s song development as illustrative of songbirds’ song development in general, because many other songbirds follow this same pattern, this pattern of learning songs.

Okay, so soon after hatching, baby chaffinches start producing these, um, begging sounds, begging calls, actually, which basically are a message to the parents saying, “Feed me; feed me.” That’s all for about the first five weeks, until they grow feathers and start getting ready to fly, you know, become fledglings, and then those calls—those begging sounds—are replaced by, uh, well…you know how babies—human babies—you know how they make that…baby…babbling sound? Like little, soft, vocalized…murmurings? Well, that’s pretty much similar to the noises that fledgling chaffinches make at this next stage of development…which is called subsong…

“Subsong” makes sense, right, because “sub” means “below,” and so the subsong is…uh, below, or…happens before their mature song, right? It’s an immature, or underdeveloped song, a baby song. Make sense?

Okay, now, they’re not begging for food anymore with the subsong. So what do you figure they’re making these soft murmurings for? Well, it’s at this stage—what we call early subsong—that, and this is important, the chaffinch’s subsong begins to provide auditory feedback from which the chaffinch learns, and so...self-learning is taking place, because the fledgling hears itself calling out, hears the sounds it’s making, you know, hears, hears its subsong, and so, it’s kinda’ comparing it to the parent’s song and so self-learning is taking place, um, through this process…get it?…

Alright. Now, as the chaffinch gets a little older, it enters into what could be called late subsong where parts of its subsong start sounding more and more like its parent’s song, 
and we have the next step in song development taking place in late subsong, that is, the introduction of plastic song within the subsong--plastic song referring to—I don’t have to write that on the board, do I?—referring to the parts of the subsong that sound like the parent’s song.Plastic song. Does that sound a little strange to you? Well, keep in mind that “plastic” has, um, formative implications, you know, it can mean, like, growth, or development into something.…like what the chaffinch’s song is doing…it’s developing into its parent’s song…it’s, uh, not quite fully realized yet—it doesn’t sound precisely like its parent’s song—remember this is still the subsong stage we’re talking about—but it’s on its way, the fledgling is still learning, imitating parts of its parent’s song, just not quite the whole thing yet.

So. The fledgling gets older and now it’s winter, and during the winter, the young chaffinch doesn’t practice its singing. But in the spring, the chaffinch starts back up again, singing and practicing, and this time there is more of an emergence of plastic song, ah…a stronger presence of it within the subsong, and so thereby, the parent’s song is growing increasingly more recognizable and distinct, follow? Then, after about a month, the young chaffinch’s song crystallizes into what’s called full song—the, um, exact song the adults sing. So full song’s, uh, a full-blown imitation of the adult song. Alright?

Now what’s interesting is that chaffinches are able to complete this process, even from only a short exposure to their parents’ song. Exposure during the first few weeks of life is really all they need, and after that they can remember it, even though they need quite a bit of practice to produce it accurately themselves. So the theory is that there is a sensitive period in the chaffinch’s early life, its early development, a special sensitive period during which it learns what its song should sound like. So chaffinches, um, along with many other birds, learn songs early in life, and when they become adults, they don’t change their songs—it’s a copy of the parents’ song, like we said, okay?

4） 题目数量大不同。新托福的长对话和课堂演讲平均每篇设计5到6个题目，加起来共34道题，每道试题1－2分，共34－36分。新托福的题目数量是旧托福的一半，考试时间却达到50分钟左右，为旧托福的两倍，明显说明题目的含金量进一步加大。

但值得欣慰的是新托福的听力部分并未固定每个题目的答题时间，比如旧托福就严格控制为12秒。这就意味着考生可以自由分配答题时间，简单题少花时间，难题则可相应延长时间做答，只要保证在规定的20分钟之内做完所有的题目即可。这样无疑大大加大了听力部分的正确率。

5） 角色数量大不同。新托福的段落中有一位教授与多个学生对话的情形，这要比旧托福一对一的对话形式更易引起角色混淆和误听。比如下面这段就是三个人之间的长对话。

Narrator

　　Listen to part of a discussion in an astronomy class. The professor is discussing Pluto.

Professor

Well, today I thought we’d talk about some of the reasons why Pluto’s status as a planet has been debated. You see, until recently what makes a planet a planet was one of the simpler concepts in astronomy. It’s always been deemed so, uh…so obvious, so… basic that it was never officially defined…So anyway,…uh improvements in telescopes and related technology have led to a whole host of discoveries in our solar system…with one result being that now even the generally accepted idea of what a planet is is being challenged…or at least qualified. And this directly affects the status of Pluto.

Student A

So what makes Pluto so different that it could be, um…reclassified?

Professor

Well, actually, there are several important differences between Pluto and the other planets. First, when you look at the other planets, especially the planets in the outer solar system, where Pluto orbits, you see that Pluto stands out, it’s the oddball…and I’ll give you one guess why.

Student B

It’s gotta be the size…Jupiter, Saturn and uh, Uranus and Neptune,…they’re the gas giants, and, well, Pluto isn’t.

Professor

Exactly,…uh compared to the gas giants, Pluto’s very different,…it’s neither gaseous nor a giant. See, uh Pluto is less than half the size of the next smallest planet, Mercury. It’s even smaller than our moon…and smaller than other moons in our solar system. So Pluto is very small for a planet,…maybe it’s not large enough to be considered a planet.

Student A

But Pluto orbits the Sun and…I mean…well, that’s one of the things planets do.

Professor

You’re right…Most people agree that a planet orbits a sun, and Pluto certainly does that…every 248 years, but with a highly eccentric orbit. Take a look at this:

What I mean when I say ‘eccentric’ is…it’s not like the other planets’ orbits, instead it’s different in uh, two major ways. One, it’s elliptical, but the others are nearly circular. So for part of its orbit, Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune and for the rest it’s farther away. And two, Pluto orbits on a different plane. That is, all the planets orbit the Sun on the same plane, except Pluto…which orbits at a seventeen degree angle to the other orbits. Do you see where it looks like it crosses the other orbits?

Student A

[interrupting]

But I don’t see why being small and having an unusual orbit would change Pluto’s status. I mean it still has most of the features that the other planets have, doesn’t it? It’s got an atmosphere, granted it’s thin, but it’s there. It even has a moon!

Professor

That’s true. In fact, if it wasn’t for the discovery of the Kuiper belt rhymes with “piper”, there probably wouldn’t be a question about Pluto’s status….

[questioning sounds by the students]

Student B

It’s…I’m sorry, the what belt?

Professor

Uh, it’s the Kuiper belt.

It’s like a swarm of icy-rocky objects out beyond Neptune. It turns out that Kuiper belt objects, which are also called KBOs, have a lot in common with Pluto.

For one, KBOs and Pluto are made of the same stuff, namely rock and ice. And for most of its orbit, Pluto is in the Kuiper belt. Remember when I said that Pluto has an eccentric orbit? Well, many KBOs do, too,…for the same reason,…their orbits are influenced by Neptune’s gravity. Now, without going into too much detail,…let me just say that Neptune’s gravity sort of pulls Pluto and the KBOs around…this results in orbits that are elliptical and almost exactly one and one half times longer than Neptune’s.

In light of these similarities, some suggest that Pluto’s merely the largest KBO found to date. Now, I’m saying this because several other large Kuiper belt objects have been found, some half as large as Pluto. Some scientists believe that they might find other KBOs as large as Pluto…

Student B

So you’re saying that Pluto’s more like a KBO than a planet?

Student A

Yeah…I mean, considering everything you just said, um, if Pluto were discovered today, would it even…well,…would it even be called a planet?

Professor

Well, let’s see. You tell me.

Student A

Hmmm, well…I’d still call it a planet. Like I said before…it may be small, but it’s got an atmosphere and a moon, it orbits the Sun and…

Student B

[interrupting]

Come on…it, it’s obviously a KBO. I mean, it’s in the Kuiper belt, it’s made of the same materials, it orbits the same way and it’s way smaller than any other planet. I think it’s clear

Professor

Well, nobody knew about the Kuiper belt when Pluto was discovered, so they called it a planet. But now? I think its status will continue to be questioned until there’s an official definition for planet.

　　由此可见，新托福的听力给考生带来了巨大的挑战。不仅仅是听力，综合新托福的听力、阅读、写作和口语四大部分来看，除阅读之外，写作和口语部分对考生听力水平的要求也是史无前例的，在这两部分的考察中，考生不仅需要听懂指定的整段对话或课堂演讲，而且需要在此基础上理解、归纳整段对话或课堂演讲的中心思想和论证思路，并与所阅读的文章的中心思想和论证思路融会贯通后再回答问题。可想而知，如果我们开始就听不懂，那么无论是写作题还是口试题都将无从下手。所以我们的当务之急就是在整体上把握和熟悉新托福的基础之上，切实提高自身的听力水平，而不是一味追求所谓的“考试技巧”。