以下为按课堂已讲方向整理的课后复习改进版,内容围绕课堂中实际讲到的 party、改变想法、无手机聚会、堵车和小组合作素材。
Describe a time when you organized a happy event successfully.
This is a very interesting question. I am quite an outgoing person, and I have a lot of friends, so I really enjoy organizing events.
Today, I would like to talk about a party I planned a few days ago. It happened on June 1st, which was Children's Day. The party lasted the entire day, from the evening until late at night.
We had this party at my apartment in Beijing. It is an apartment I rent, and it is a great place for parties because it is quite spacious and has almost everything we need.
There were about twelve people at the party. Most of them were my friends, but there were also two people I had never met before because they were my friends' friends.
At the party, we did many interesting things. First, we cooked together. We made some Chinese dumplings, my friend Mary made some sushi, and my friend Tom made pizza and pasta. The food was really delicious.
After dinner, we played some games. For example, we played some poker games, and everyone had a lot of fun.
At the end of the party, we talked with each other. I talked to the two people I had never met before, and we found out that we had a lot in common. Later, we followed each other on social media.
Overall, it was a very successful and happy event. I was proud of myself because I planned it well, and everyone enjoyed it.
Describe an occasion when you were not allowed to use your mobile phone.
I would like to talk about a no-cellphone party I had with my friends.
The reason we made this rule was that people nowadays are always looking at their phones instead of talking to each other. We had a party before where everybody was playing with their phone, and it was really disappointing.
So at this party, we decided that nobody was allowed to use a cellphone. At first, it felt a little strange because we couldn't check messages or search online.
However, it turned out to be a great experience. Because we didn't have our phones, we couldn't take pictures with them, but my friend brought a film camera. We took a lot of pictures with that camera, and the pictures looked really special and different.
Also, when we were cooking, we couldn't look up recipes online. We had to use our brain, talk to each other, and figure things out together. That gave us a sense of achievement.
In the end, nobody really missed their phones. I think we should use our phones less in our life because real conversations are more important.
Describe a time when you changed an important opinion of yours.
This is a tough question because I usually don't change my opinions very easily. I am quite strong-minded.
However, today I would like to talk about how I changed my opinion about a Chinese actress.
I didn't like her at first because I saw a TV interview of her. In that interview, she didn't say anything meaningful, and she seemed rude. So I thought she had a bad personality.
Later on, I found out that on the day of the interview, she was in a really bad mood and she was very tired. In addition, the interviewer was asking some silly questions.
After that, I watched some of her TV shows, and I realized that she was actually a pretty good actress. She could take on different kinds of roles.
I also found out that she graduated from a top university in China. Unlike some movie stars or TV stars, she is actually very smart and well educated.
This really changed my mind. I used to think actresses were just pretty, but now I know that someone can be pretty and intelligent at the same time.
Describe a time when you sent a message but received no reply for a long time.
I would like to talk about a time when I sent messages to my little cousin, but she didn't reply for a long time.
My little cousin is not very good at returning messages. Sometimes I send something interesting to her, but it takes days for her to reply.
At first, I felt quite disappointed because I really wanted to share interesting things with her. I even wondered if she didn't want to talk to me.
One day, I asked her why she didn't reply to my messages. She told me that she was very busy studying because she had a lot of work at school.
That made me realize that not everybody is on their phone all the time. Maybe I was just bored, and maybe I should find more meaningful things to do, like studying English.
I think smartphones are very important communication tools, and they make our life more convenient. However, there is also a lot of useless information on them. Also, people sometimes have unrealistic expectations. We expect others to reply right away, and I don't think that is healthy.
Describe a time when you got stuck in traffic for a long time.
Two years ago, I got stuck in traffic for about five hours with my mom, my dad, and my sister.
We wanted to drive to another city to visit our grandparents. It was winter, and it was very cold. Unfortunately, we didn't check the weather before we left, so we ran into a snowstorm and got stuck on the highway.
At first, it was really boring, and we all got really bored. We took a nap for about an hour, but when we woke up, the traffic still wasn't moving.
Then my sister and I played some poker games for another hour. After that, we got bored of that too, so we decided to sing karaoke. Everyone took turns singing their favorite songs.
Later, the traffic still wasn't moving, so we started to talk with each other. It actually gave us an opportunity to talk about our life face to face instead of looking at our cellphones.
Five hours later, the traffic finally cleared, and we were able to continue to our destination. It was tiring, but it was also a special family experience.
Describe a time when you worked in a group.
About one year ago, when I was studying in Sydney, I had a group project for a class called International Issues and Perspectives.
There were four people in our group, including me. One of them was my good friend, and the other two were just classmates.
For this project, we needed to make a poster and give a presentation. Because I had learned art in high school and I was good at drawing, I was responsible for the drawing part.
At first, I enjoyed the group work because I could use my strength. While we were drawing and preparing the poster, we also talked with each other, and I learned some new ideas from my group members.
However, one group member didn't really contribute much. He came two hours late and left before dinner. His only contribution was coloring one small part of the poster.
The deadline was the next day, so the rest of us had to stay up all night to finish the poster. In the end, he got the same score as us, which felt unfair.
Even though it was not a perfect experience, I still learned how to work with different people in a group.