作者：李洪武   新航道武汉学校托福口语讲师，毕业于山东大学，英语发音地道，熟悉英语国家不同地区方言和口音。

12/01/2018

本次考题的Task 1的所属分类为Describing Something You Want in the Future (描述你要做的某件事)，Task 2的所属分类为Education – University (大学教育)，都属于独立题的常见命题范畴。平时考生需要通过练习和总结，对独立题进行分类练习，那么无论考题如何变化出新，它们所属的分类和考察范畴是不会变化的。

考生在作答时，应多结合自身经历，多举例，那么再抽象的话题，都可以通过具体的论述来解决，体现足够的话题展开，并同时体现语言应用能力，这种举例的方式，适用于各个分数段的考生。

Task 1

Suppose you and one of your friends are starting a business, what kind of business would you do? Give specific examples and details to support your answer.

Personally, I would start an education business because I think that would benefit many people.

I remember volunteering in my community last summer, when I was helping primary school students who'd been struggling with their learning. With this experience I learned in my country they are cutting back on school hours so children generally spend much less time at school. This is a huge disadvantage for pupils who cannot afford to get tutoring outside of class. Students still need a lot of help with their studies, while the reduced school hours are just not enough.

So a business that fulfils this requirement would be helpful. We would offer our classes at reasonable price to ensure all students in the nearby neighborhoods receive proper education and we could make profits by building up a large and loyal customer base.

In conclusion, I think for me and my friend, the kind of business we would start is for education.

Task2

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

Teachers should give awards to students who get good grades in order to encourage the competition in class?

Personally, I disagree, because I think learning is about motivation, not competition.

I remember when I was in high school I participated on a regular basis in events organized by our school reading club. One activity that particularly impressed me was called reading fun, where everybody spent hours reading and then sharde what they'd read with their partners. I was eager to talk to people about my reading experience because I enjoyed learning the social way. I had a blast in the reading club and I was motivated by my intrinsic interest.

Now I have a chemistry teacher who likes to create competition among people and he constantly rewards students with better grades. A number of students have developed an attitude and they think they hate chemistry just because they're not so thrilled about the competition.

For those reasons, I contend that awards won't be helpful and competition has a negative impact for students' learning.

Task 4

12月1日的生物考题提到了silver ants耐高温的体质可以帮助他们觅食和躲避捕食者，下面是关于这种动作的背景知识 (双语)。

Saharan silver ant

Largely due to the extreme high temperatures of their habitat, but also due to the threat of predators, the ants are active outside their nest for only about ten minutes per day. The twin pressures of predation and temperature restrict their above-ground activity to within a narrow temperature band between that at which predatory lizards cease activity and the ants' own upper threshold.

由于栖息地的高温和捕食者的威胁，银蚁每天在巢外的时间只有大约10分钟。由于来自捕食者和高温的双重压力，银蚁每天活动的温度范围恰好在蜥蜴停止活动的温度之上和自身能够承受的温度范围之上。

The ants often traverse midday temperatures around 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) to scavenge corpses of heat-stricken animals. To cope with such high temperatures, the ant has several unique adaptations.

银蚁经常活动在正午47摄氏度的度高温时，出来捡食被热死的动物尸体。为了应对这样的高温，银蚁有好几种独特的适应性变化。

They have longer legs than other ants. This keeps their body away from the hot sand, and when traveling at full speed, they use only four of their six legs. This quadrupedal gait is achieved by raising the front pair of legs.

它们相比于其他的蚁种腿部更长，这帮助它们支撑起身体以远离高温的沙土。当全速前行的时候，他们只用6条腿中的4条，通过抬起最前面一对足，它们实现了这种4条腿走路的方式。

Keeping track of the position of the sun, the ants are able to navigate, always knowing the direct route back to their nest, and thus can minimize their time spent in the heat. They produce heat shock proteins, but unlike other animals they do this not in direct response to heat. Instead they do this before leaving the nest, so they do not suffer the initial damage when the body temperature rises quickly. This protein allows cellular functions to continue even at very high body temperatures. If they did not produce the proteins in anticipation of the extreme heat, they would die before the protein could have its effect.

通过记住太阳的位置，银蚁可以自行导航，他们总是知道回巢的直接路线，这样就能减少暴露在日照下的时间。他们会分泌热休克蛋白，但与其他动物不同的是，他们并不是感觉到热了才分泌这种物质，而是在离巢之前就分泌，这样就避免了出巢时快速升高的气温对他们的伤害。如果不能预先针对酷热分泌热休克蛋白，他们可能就会在蛋白发挥作用之前死掉。

A few scouts keep watch and alert the colony when ant lizards take shelter in their burrows. Then the whole colony, hundreds of ants, leave to search for food, although they need to complete their work before the temperature reaches 53 degrees Celsius (127 degrees Fahrenheit), a temperature capable of killing them.

当有食蚁蜥蜴在其洞中藏身之时，几只前哨蚁会侦查并警示整个蚁群，然后整个蚁群 (多达几百只)，就会全员出洞去寻找食物。不过，他们需要在53摄氏度之前完成工作，因为这个温度可以热死它们。

Silver ants are covered on the top and sides of their bodies with a coating of uniquely shaped hairs with triangular cross-sections that keep them cool in two ways. These hairs are highly reflective under visible and near-infrared light, i.e., in the region of maximal solar radiation (the ants run at a speed of up to 0.7 metres per second (2.3 feet per second) and look like droplets of mercury on the desert surface). The hairs are also highly emissive in the mid-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, where they serve as an antireflection layer that enhances the ants' ability to offload excess heat via thermal radiation, which is emitted from the hot body of the ants to the air. This passive cooling effect works under the full sun.

银蚁的背部和身体侧面都由特殊形态的毛覆盖，且部位之间有呈三角形的交叉覆盖的部位，这样的特征在如下两种情形下帮助他们防暑：在诸如太阳辐射最强的地区，这些毛对于近红外光线之线反射性非常强；同时，这些毛在电磁波谱的中红外部分形成防御反射层，可以增强银蚁通过热辐射排解过多热量的能力，热量直接通过银蚁高温的身体排出体外。这种被动降暑能力在充足日照下起作用。