2017-02-17 TOEFL: int writing, listening attitude

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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https://www.ted.com/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic
What are some ways we could solve or prevent this problem?
- produce biodegradable plastics
- reduce the total amount of plastic we use (for example by reusing bottles more than once)
- recycle plastic (and research new methods to recycle it)
- don’t throw plastic into the sea
- use paper bags
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Read the sample responses to yesterday’s altruism prompt.
With your partner, decide what score each one probably got and why. (They are all different scores.)
Worst to best:
1 - “The lecture said about altruism.”
2 - “Alturism is considered an act of selfishness.”
4 - “Baed on the lecture”
5 - “The lecture completely refutes the passage.”
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The response really should be focused on the lecture. As we can see from the score 4 response, summarizing the lecture without directly saying the points from the reading that it contradicts can still get a high score. (If you do the opposite, mostly summarizing the reading without directly referring to points from the lecture, you’ll get only 1 or 2.)
(Note that this essay still does use contrast signals to show that the student understands the lecture contradicts the reading.)
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The score 5 response addresses all three points on which the lecture contradicts the text, even though there aren’t paragraph breaks or transition signals for each separate point.
There’s a variety of vocabulary and grammatical structures, and really no grammar mistakes. This makes the essay easy to read and understand.
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When a person gives one of his kidneys, his self-worth increases. - sexist, assumes male by default
When a person gives one of his or her kidneys, his or her self-worth increases. - awkward and long
When a person gives one of their kidneys, their self-worth increases. - singular “they” has always been used in English, but some people think it’s ungrammatical in writing
When people give one of their kidneys, their self-worth increases. - changing everything to plural (when possible) is probably the best option to make everyone happy
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Listening - second part of the test, 60-90 minutes, 6 or 9 listening passages.
Question types -
- detail
- purpose
- inference
- prediction
- main idea
- function
- attitude
- organization
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DELTA p. 214 - Listen to the conversation and answer the questions.
p. 215 - Talk with your partner about a few ways people could do each of the things in the “Some examples of purpose” box. (That is, what words or phrases might they use?)
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BREAK
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Handout (Cambridge) p. 291 - Listen to the conversations. What is each person’s attitude?
1 a d
2 b d
3 b c
4 a c
(Longman) p. 152-154
1 B
2 C
3 annoyed
4 enthusiastic, interested
5 B
6 D
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(Cengage) p. 312-317 - Listen to the passages and answer the questions after each one.
1 c
2 c
3 d
4 a
5 d
6 b
7 c
8 a
9 c
10 a
11 b
12 d
13 b
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Homework: Take some time to improve your other response from yesterday (about dinosaurs) based on the example essays and rater comments we looked at today. (Email your new responses to me at [email protected])