新托福聽力考試：關(guān)于商業(yè)類的話題講解

廣州智美教育-朗閣海外考試研究中心

我們都知道，在新托福考中，聽力的話題是非常具有多樣性的：生物類，天文類，地理地質(zhì)類，歷史類，藝術(shù)類等等。今天我們將要涉及的是比較小眾但又不容忽視的一類話題：商業(yè)類。這類話題所占比重不大，容易被忽略，而且高中生或大部分大學(xué)生對這一話題又不夠熟悉，因此一旦出現(xiàn)，殺傷力會比較大。除了詞匯應(yīng)當(dāng)掌握外，還要注意聽力練習(xí)過程中的總結(jié)和長句理解。下面廣州朗閣海外考試研究中心的專家將與大家一起具體探討下如何應(yīng)對這一類話題。

一、概述

商業(yè)類場景往往和其他分支學(xué)科產(chǎn)生。具體可以從以下幾個(gè)方面來考察：

☆ 某個(gè)商業(yè)術(shù)語的介紹 例如歷史上的經(jīng)濟(jì)政策（如放任主義），以及某個(gè)商業(yè)概念（如邊際效益）等。

☆ 某種市場現(xiàn)象 例如互聯(lián)網(wǎng)泡沫，郁金香熱等。

☆ 商業(yè)案例分析 例如某個(gè)公司的營銷情況介紹，興衰原因等。

☆ 其他話題 商業(yè)容易和其他學(xué)科產(chǎn)生交叉，如歷史，文化和政治等。

商業(yè)類的聽力話題一般來說是考察考生短時(shí)間內(nèi)的理解能力。雖然可能會出現(xiàn)比較難的術(shù)語，但不考察專業(yè)知識。有背景知識固然好，但不會因沒有背景知識而做不出題目，所以考生們大可放心。但建議考生平時(shí)多關(guān)注時(shí)事，以及瀏覽如Economist之類的雜志，拓寬知識面。

二、案例分析

下面是一個(gè)人文學(xué)的經(jīng)典案例：

TPO 6 Lecture 1 (Boom and Bust)

聽力原文：

1)… Of course, booms aren’t always followed by busts. We’ve certainly seen times when local economies expanded rapidly for a while and then went back to a normal pace of growth. But, there’s a type of rapid expansion, what might be called the hysterical or irrational boom that pretty much always leads to a bust. See, people often create and intensify a boom when they get carried away by some new industry that seems like it will make them lots of money fast. You’d think that by the 90s, people would have learned from the past. If they did, well, look at tulips.

Q: What is the main purpose of the talk?

A. to show what happens after an economy has experienced a boom-and-bust cycle

B. to illustrate the conditions needed to produce a boom-and-bust cycle

C. to demonstrate how boom-and-bust cycles have changed over time

D. to explain why the boom-and-bust cycle is not a frequent historical occurrence

廣州智美教育老師分析：

在前幾講中我們提到過，大部分lecture的主旨都位于開頭前幾句話。而在這里，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，文章中好像沒有一句和文章選項(xiàng)是相對應(yīng)的。這就需要我們根據(jù)上下文的內(nèi)容進(jìn)行總結(jié)。在此我們可以看這幾個(gè)下劃線句子，“繁榮之后不一定跟隨的是衰敗，而這種非理性的，不正常的經(jīng)濟(jì)繁榮之后，難免就是衰敗了”。我們不禁思考：這種非理性的擴(kuò)張到底是什么樣子的呢？或者說，有哪些因素導(dǎo)致了這種擴(kuò)張，從而導(dǎo)致經(jīng)濟(jì)泡沫呢？因此總結(jié)看來，B項(xiàng)是合適的。

朗閣海外考試研究中心的專家提醒大家，這里句子長，語速快，還伴隨生詞或詞組，要仔細(xì)推敲。比如be carried away的意思是“失去自制力”，“沉溺于”，這些表達(dá)方式要多看聽力原文進(jìn)行總結(jié)。

2) … It turns out that the Netherlands was an ideal country for growing tulips. It had the right kind of sandy soil for one thing, but also, ⑴ it was a wealthy nation with a growing economy, willing to spend lots of money on new exotic things. Plus, the Dutch had a history of gardening. ⑵ Wealthy people would compete, spending enormous amounts of money to buy the rarest flowers for their gardens. What happened then was a craze for these specialized tulips. We called that craze ‘tulip-mania’. So, here we’ve got all the conditions for an irrational boom: ⑶ a prospering economy, so more people had more disposable income - money to spend on luxuries, but they weren’t experienced at investing their new wealth. Then along comes a thrilling new commodity. Sure the first specimens were just plain ordinary tulips, but they could be bred into some extraordinary variations, like that dark purple tulip. And finally, ⑷ you have an unregulated marketplace, no government constraints, where price could explode.

Q: What were some of the factors that contributed to the tulip craze in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century? Click on three choices.

① wealthy gardeners liked to complete for rare plants

② the number of people with disposable income was growing

③ tulip bulbs were initially cheap and easy to obtain

④ tulips in the wild bloomed in unusual color combination

⑤ the tulip market was not regulated by the government

廣州智美教育老師分析：

節(jié)選內(nèi)容原文很長，這里只選取了和考點(diǎn)有關(guān)的信息。本題是一個(gè)細(xì)節(jié)題，五選三，這在lecture中比較少見（一般來說是四選二）。加粗字體提醒大家要注意表示分類，列舉和次序的路標(biāo)詞。細(xì)節(jié)題考察大家筆記記錄的條理性，所以聽到speaker有列舉情況，要素，種類的意圖時(shí)要馬上記筆記。在此，⑵句對應(yīng)的是選項(xiàng)一，⑴ ⑶句對應(yīng)的是選項(xiàng)二，⑷句對應(yīng)的是選項(xiàng)五，且均采取總結(jié)和同義置換形式。還要注意，此題涉及的篇幅較長，聽時(shí)注意力一定要集中，還要在聽的過程中學(xué)會總結(jié)。

參考筆記形式：

1. ↑Eco spend 幣

2. rich 競→ 稀 花

3. income↑; lux

4. unrgltˉmkt; no gov

細(xì)節(jié)題考察小知識點(diǎn)的辨音及把握。注意力集中的同時(shí)快速記錄下平時(shí)用的比較多且印象深刻的簡寫符號，努力做到有條理性，節(jié)省查找筆記的時(shí)間。

三、考點(diǎn)追蹤

通過郁金香熱這個(gè)例子，我們可以看出眾多商業(yè)類的聽力話題具有以下特點(diǎn)：

☆ 結(jié)合段首甚至全文總結(jié)主旨

☆ 順序和列舉路標(biāo)詞 考察小細(xì)節(jié)。

☆ 邏輯性強(qiáng) 要求考生把握全文主線，根據(jù)主題推斷相關(guān)細(xì)節(jié)等內(nèi)容。

朗閣海外考試研究中心的專家建議廣大考生適當(dāng)關(guān)注一下商業(yè)方面的聽力段子，培養(yǎng)細(xì)節(jié)思維和邏輯思維。雖說新托福lecture的聽力段子話題多樣，但本質(zhì)不變，多少會有差異性。平時(shí)備考多一分準(zhǔn)備，考試就會多一份勝算。