2015年9月19日托福口语真题及解析

　Task 1
　　An occasion people exchange gifts in my country is Christmas. Firstly, it's a great opportunity to show that you really care about someone. For instance when I was 6, my family was going through a hard time because my dad just lost his job, but he and my mom still managed to cut back on their own life and saved enough money to buy me the bike I'd always wanted, and that really meant a lot to me and I felt their love for me and their willingness to do anything for me. Also, Christmas is a time when we think about giving instead of taking, exchanging gifts is more of a symbolic gesture to remind us of the meaning of Christmas.
　　Task 2
　　I think bikes will never be replaced for two reasons. First of all, bikes are one of the most eco-friendly ways of transportation so far. Compared with trains, buses and automobiles, bikes don't bring any environmental problems to the society, if more people used bikes, there would be less tail-gas emission and our planet would be a more livable place, so in the long run, more and more people would probably choose to use bikes. Also, bikes are pretty cheap, it's good for students like me who have a limited budget, I get to save a lot of money by using bikes instead of paying for the expensive subway ticket. So in my opinion, bikes will never be replaced.
　　Task 3
　　The student suggests that the university should open a coffee shop in the fine art building due to two reasons. The first reason is that students can have a place to buy snacks and drink between classes. The second reason is to encourage students to come to the fine art building to appreciate the artworks of students. In the conversation, the woman agrees with the suggestion. In the first reason, she mentions that now the closest coffee shop is in the student center which is 10 minutes' walk, and students will be late for the next class if they go there to buy stuff. As for the second reason, the woman points out that it would be really fun to hang out in the fine art building and see some of the students' works.
　　Task 4
　　In the lecture, the professor talks about the concept of subject-expectancy effect which means the tendency for the subjects of the study to let their expectations affect the outcome. He offers us an example to illustrate it. Some workers from a company always complain that they feel fatigue, so researchers offered them some vitamin pills and claimed that the pills were very helpful to increase people's energy, after taking the vitamin for a while, these workers felt they were indeed more energetic than before and it significantly improved their work efficiency. The truth is, the vitamin didn't really have that effect on people, it was simply the workers' expectation of the vitamin that worked.
　　Task 5
　　The man's problem is that the computer he borrowed from his roommate broke while he was writing up his history paper, and his paper is due tomorrow. There are two possible solutions. The first one is ask his roommate to fix it up. And the second solution is to switch to a different computer to finish his paper. If I were in his shoes, I would go for the second solution because the man did say in the conversation that he would still be able to remember what he wrote in the paper even if it's a different computer. I personally don't recommend the other solution because his roommate goes to bed pretty early and there's no reason to mess up with his routine. He might be upset with the man and that could jeopardize their relationship.
　　Task 6
　　In the lecture, the professor talks about two ways plants attract protective insects. He offers us two examples to illustrate it. The first kind of plants can release a kind of chemical and use this chemical as a signal to attract lady ants when under attack, and lady ants can then kill the harmful insects for the plants. The second plants on the other hand can provide food for protective insects. For example some cactuses can release a kind of juice which happens to be the perfect food source for their protective insects.