再次考试时的迎战
今天我预约的是11:15的考试,我大概不到十点钟就到了考试地点。虽然等待考试的过程很漫长,但是在休息室里花大概一个小时的时间来最后一次把自己几天来准备的东西从头筛一遍,也是挺有意义的一件事。至少对于我来说,自己的心里不再那么没底,也不再那么不知所措了。考试的过程如下:
第一部分:复述文章内容
这是一篇介绍programming的文章(An Introduction to Programming)。文章的开头讲人们以前做事用手的,现在做事用写的。写好了要做的事情,交给计算机,计算机就能很聪明的把事情做好;就算我们老了退休了,它们也依然稳健如初,聪明依旧,效率如前。然后说写好要做事情的recipe的过程就叫programming……后面的内容我没看,因为我已经有了自己要说的东西。吸取了上次的教训,这次我可不敢光写提纲了。对,把自己要说的话,都写上,然后反复演练就是了。所以文章读了不到五分钟,我就开始动手写自己要说的东西了:
(1)In the old days, if we wanted to do something, we had to do it manually with our hands.
(2)Nowdays, if we want to do something, we can just write things down and tell computers how to do these things. Then the machines will do these things for us while we are having a rest and enjoying a cup of coffee(写到这的时候我得意了一下,哈哈,看着文笔,看这描述,多惬意啊!嗯,当我给面试官讲到这儿的时候,那小伙儿也憨憨的冲着我笑!)
E.g., (3) in the old days, if I wanted to add 100 numbers together to get their sum, I had to add numbers step by step;
(4)however, nowdays, what I need to do is just describe the task and tell a computer how to add numbers together. Then the computer will perform the task for me.
(5)The description and solution of a task we give to a computer (考试的时候,这个地方我说的不好,于是又重新说了一遍。实践证明:这样做也是可以滴——知错能改,善莫大焉!)is called program.
(6)The process to write a program is called programming.
(7)The language we use to write a program is called programming language.
(8)Sometimes a program may be written not correctly. As a result, the computer can’t perform the task perfectly well. So we need to work hard to look for defects lying in the program and then remove them. This process is called debugging.(这几句话的灵感有赖于我这几天不断的解释专业词汇,所以可以发出一连串专业词汇的解释。听起来还觉得逻辑性蛮好,够专业,够强大,哈哈!)
(9)That concluded my presentation. Do you have any questions? (这句话是上英语课的时候学到的经典句型,临场发挥的时候用了一下,当时三个老师就傻眼了,互相对视一下,无奈的笑笑说:No。怎么样?可以达到威慑对方的效果吧!不过,我觉得应该用concludes更好,用过去式好象不对。不过就这样吧,当时大脑短路,想不明白用啥词了,就随便抓了个时态)。
关于语速,以前看别人的经验都说“要慢,别太快”。不过我觉得这个尺度很难把握。啥叫快,啥叫慢啊?咋定量衡量啊?说得太慢一个词一个词往外蹦,岂不是连连贯性都破坏了?个人觉得,合适的语速是你可以一边不犯语法错误地说着一句话,一边头脑里组织着下一句话的内容。这样的语速,听上去的感觉是人们感受得到你在句子之间作出的停顿,但又不用担心你下一句会什么时候蹦出来,因为人们能觉察出你在有条不紊的组织着自己的语言,表达着自己想要传达出的意思。
第二部分:专业词汇朗读
由于预先对自己平时积累的专业词汇进行了认真的演练,再加上Tutor Sarah老师的悉心指导,所以我考试的时候不慌不忙,充分的利用给定的那一分钟时间慢慢的浏览了所有单词,并想想每个单词如何解释。虽然没有时间多想,但是多了一分准备,就少了一分紧张。我读专业词汇的时候读的很慢,因为这样一来可以有足够的时间推敲每个单词的发音,从而保证把错误个数减少到最低。
第三部分:专业词汇解释
坦白的说,40个词里面不超过40%的词是我准备过的,所以我有些没底。没办法,谁让他们把题库给换了?要是还是夏天时候用的那张单词纸,我肯定能准备了80%以上啊!三个随机单词分别是:operating system,virus和ram(random access memory)。因为operating system我最熟了,所以我先拿它开刀,稳定军心!
Operating system: is a very important and complicated software program. It can help us communicate with a computer. For example, if I want a computer to grade students’ projects automatically, I can just send a command to the operating system. Then it will translate my command into instructions understood by the hardware of the computer. After that, the hardware can perform the task of grading students’ projects. Therefore, an operating system can help us interact with a computer.
这里我还想提一点儿自己的心得:说英语的时候最好和面试官保持良好的eye contact。当你看一个人的眼睛时,你可以比较容易的搞清楚他是否在认真听,他是否明白你所讲的内容,他对你说话的内容有怎样的反应。当我看着一个人的眼睛说话时,我会不自觉的把语速放慢,把每个单词发清楚,以便对方可以给我一个积极的回应,比如点头,微笑或者专注的眼神表示她在认真的听讲。
由于另外两个词我都没有预先准备过,比起硬件来说,我更愿意选择virus这种软件来说事儿,因为我的研究方向是Software Engineering。
Virus: is a kind of program which is written by some special people who want to use it to break an operating system or some applications. As a result, the operating system or the applications can’t work well. So virus can ……(这是一个大卡,卡了大概三秒钟,这个时间我就死盯着一个面试官看,搞得他同情的冲我笑了笑,嘿,想找的词来了!)do harm to our operating system or applications.
Interviewer: then why do they want to create virus?(哈,说到我心坎上了。没看过哪个机经说面试官会插嘴提问的。嗯,不错,是个好兆头!)
Me: Oh, there may be a lot of reasons. An obvious one is that they want to prove that they are powerful. They can do things other people can’t. They can write programs other people don’t have the ability to do. And they can break operating system and applications while other people can’t.
看见了吧?准备的术语解释就是比没准备的术语解释要精彩得多!我在解释virus的时候简直就是一个单词一句话颠过来倒过去的说,关键词就是“virus,operating system,some applications”。不过,面试官还是听懂了,而且貌似并不介意我如此没有新意的解释这个词。所以,从这角度讲,面试官的要求还真不高。
第四部分:图表说明
我看到的是又是个饼图:两张饼分别对应两个学生的生活方式——第一个学生大部分时间用在参加各种活动上,只有45%的时间放在上课和学习上;第二个学生大部分时间用在学习上(75%的时间里不是上课,就是学习,要不然就是在实验室工作),我需要比较这两种生活方式并且评价一下哪种更好。
在说之前,有1-2分钟的准备时间。我充分利用了这段时间,不仅仔细看清楚题的要求,图表内容,还认真组织一下例子以扩充自己所要讲的内容,直到面试官提示我时间到的时候,我才开始娓娓道来(哈,看着成语用的,真恰当!)
Here are two pie charts describing the lifestyles of two students concerning how they spend their time. From the charts we can see that both of these students spend 25% of their time on class participation. However, what is the difference between these two students is that the first student spends most of his or her time on activities other than study. For example, he spends 25 percentage of his time on college organizations. However(这个写出来的时候,我才发现自己说话时用的连接词这么无趣,但说的时候可是一点儿感觉都没有), the other student spends most of his time on study, that is 75%. I prefer the lifestyle of the first student, because he spends most of his time on various activities. And he can acquire a lot in this activities. For example, he can communicate with other students in activities. He can make friends with other people in college organizations. He can also improve his ability to communicate with other people (这个有些重复,不过没办法,当时我思考的速度也只能应付到这个程度) and other capabilities. So I think the first lifestyle can make our life more colorful!
第五部分:TA角色扮演
一如既往的准备充分,没啥特别的。只不过在说那句“I’m looking forward to being of assistance to you through the semester”时,自己还有些许感动。是啊,就是为了帮助我可爱的学生们,我才一次一次的过这个坎儿!面试官们,看我这么真诚,放了我吧!