原来当雅思口语考官也郁闷？

　　说起雅思考试，不少考生感到郁闷，这可以理解，毕竟有难度。如果我说考官也郁闷，你相信吗?作为一名雅思考官，我曾经连续三四周、每天八小时与中国考生对话，从北京到乌鲁木齐，从哈尔滨到武汉，听着他们背诵传说中保7分或者保8分的段落，然而事实是即使背诵地非常完美，得分也不会超过5.5分。

　　你觉得考官会更愿意与考生愉快地聊天，还是听他们机械地背诵那些关于姚明、熊猫的段落?答案当然是前者。考官真的不好当，不少考官在中国进行雅思口语考试时郁闷地想撞墙，因为大部分考生的回答都太无趣、太缺乏想象力。

　　怎样才能让自己的答案摆脱“无趣”这顶帽子呢?通过聆听众多雅思考官的“八卦”，我总结出一条经验——不走寻常路，具体怎么做我在书中详细讲到了，其中最好用的一个方法就是使用这个句式：“I don’t know about China, but in…”。这个句式为什么好用呢?举个例子，如果考官问“哪个古建筑最吸引你?”，一百名考生中，三十人会答“长城”，另外三十人会答“故宫”，余下四十人回答“颐和园”。这些答案考官已经听到耳朵起茧了，甚至考生不用张嘴他们已经预判出接下来将听到什么了。

　　也许你会说，我的内容普通，但是我的语言出彩啊!但是请记住，抛开有趣的内容、单有华丽的语言是没有意义的，考官最看重的是你语言背后的思想。然而这时候如果你说“中国的古建筑怎么样我不是特别了解，但是在其它国家......”，考官瞬间就精神抖擞了，他知道接下来有意思的对话要出现了!

　　举个例子：

　　“I don’t know about China, butthere’s an ancient building in Rome called The Colosseum. It was built duringthe Roman Empire over two thousand years ago. There used to be gladiators whowould fight each other, and also horse races in chariots.”

　　这样的答案，考官真的会洗耳恭听，考生轻轻松松拿到8分不是梦。

　　另外一个高分诀窍就是在语法上做文章。雅思口语考试伊始，考官通常会问你是学生还是已经工作了?这个问题看似简单，其实危机四伏。记住，雅思考试不是让你谦虚的地方，高调秀出自己很重要。如果你仅仅回答“我是学生”或者“我工作了”，接下来跟考官大眼瞪小眼，也就game over了。聪明的考生会使用将来完成进行时来炫酷一把：

　　“Currently I am a student, but bythis time next year I will be working as an intern for Baidu in Beijing.”

　　差距就体现在这里，与其干巴巴地问一答一，不如主动拓宽话题。通过使用将来完成进行时，考生在语法维度的得分轻飘飘地达到8分，因为这个时态几乎没有考生会用，你用了，你就赢了，考官瞬间就被你降服了。除了将来完成进行时，过去完成进行时也是超级得分点，例如：

　　"I have been studying economics at the university for the past three years. Currently, I am working on my thesis, hopefully I will have finished it by the end of the semester."

　　这个句子厉害了，考生既使用了过去完成进行时、过去完成时，还使用了将来完成时，这种时态混用的方式，你想不得8分都难!不仅语法使用恰当，内容也很丰满，这就是考官梦寐以求的答案!

　　说了这么多，重点只有一个——雅思考官也是人。他们也希望自己的工作充满了趣味性，而不是被迫去听机械背诵的答案。试着与考官互动，跟他们讲一些新鲜的、原创的内容，相信我，你的付出会让考官感动，也许你们聊着聊着就成朋友了也说不定呢!

　　如果以上内容吸引了你，那么你有必要入手一本由Dan Berns编著、范叔翻译的《雅思口语不传之秘》，你会在书中发现另一片天地!

　　I used to feel deeply frustrated as an examiner. Three or four days a week I would spend eight hours listening to candidates from all over Northern China, from Beijing to Urumqi, from Harbin to Wuhan reciting the same regurgitated passages from textbooks which promised sevens and eights but delivered the same average score 5.5 again and again and again even when followed perfectly delivered.

　　Do you think it’s only candidates who get frustrated in the speaking exam? Don’t you think examiners would prefer to have eight hours of interesting intelligent conversations every day, rather than listening to recited passages about Yao Ming, pandas, and how sky blue is the candidate’s favourite colour.

　　Being an examiner is a tough job. Lots of examiners beat their heads against the wall in frustration at how boring and unimaginative Chinese candidates can be. That’s why I wrote Dan Berns Unconventional IELTS Secrets, not just so candidates like you could understand exactly it is an examiner wants to hear, but also to save thousands of examiners from going insane each year.

　　I mostly wrote Unconventional Secrets when I was on the road as an examiner. Examiners like to talk and gossip. There was one phrase that I kept hearing again and again. “If I was taking the test I would say…” and then I’d hear answers straight from the horse’s mouth. If candidates knew what these examiners were saying, I thought, they’d pass the test easily. That’s when I started to secretly write down their ideas.

　　I knew that if I’d get caught, I’d get in trouble, but deep down I knew the test was deeply unfair, candidates had to pay a large amount of money for a test they didn’t know how to pass. I wanted to change that. The thing that examiners were craving more than anything else were imaginative and engaging responses, so that’s what I encouraged in the book.

　　One of the best ways to get out of boring answers, I realised, was to give a subtly different answer to the question being asked. I describe a few ways to do this in the book, but the best method is using the phrase, “I don’t know about in China, but in…” Let’s look at how thar works.

　　If an examiner asks one hundred candidates about an ancient building in their country that they’re interested in, you’re guarantee to get thirty three percent The Great Wall of China (it’s not technically a building), thirty three percent The Forbidden City, and the remaining thirty four percent The Summer Palace.

　　Examiners have heard it all before and in some cases can even predict what you’re going to say next. Examiners are supposed to grade based on language, but language without content is worthless. What examiners value above all else is original ideas. Here’s where this great phrase comes in handy.

　　“I don’t know about China, but there’s an ancient building in Rome called The Colosseum. It was built during the Roman Empire over two thousand years ago. There used to be gladiators who would fight each other, and also horse races in chariots.” Your examiner would be smiling ear to ear if he heard an answer like that. You see, in that example the language is not so tough, but the ideas are original enough to score an easy eight.

　　The other easy route to scoring seven, eight, and nine in the IELTS speaking test is by using high level grammar in imaginative ways. The first question in the IELTS test is usually “Are you a student or do you work?” On the surface, this seems like a simple question, but there is a danger here. In the IELTS exam you need to be showing off. Modest candidates do not succeed. Instead of just saying, “I am a student.” Try throwing in the Future Perfect Continuous tense.

　　“Currently I am a student, but by this time next year I will be working as an intern for Baidu in Beijing.” Do you notice the difference? Instead of directly answering the question, you can also expand the topic and include the future perfect continuous tense, which is an easy route to a grammar score of 8 in the test. Candidates NEVER use this tense, so it’s really going to make the examiner pay attention right in the first minute of the exam. You don’t just have to focus on the future though, you can focus on the past.

　　“I have been studying economics at university for the past three years. Currently, I am working on my thesis, hopefully I will have finished it by the end of the semester.” See what happened in that example? The candidate used the past perfect continuous, the present continuous, and the future perfect. This is the kind of grammar mix that you need to be using if you want to get an eight in the IELTS test. By combining imagination and high-level grammar you will be able to hit IELTS eight, because that’s exactly what examiners are desperately listening for.

　　In closing, what I want you to take away from this article is that examiners are human too. They work long hours and they don’t like listening to memorised answers from second-rate text books. Try to engage with the examiner, tell them something new and original, don’t just rely on the normal bullshit that candidates lazily recite in the test. Everyone is a afraid of the examiner, but with a little bit of effort and imagination, you can turn your worst enemy into your best friend.

　　If you want to find out more information about how you can master the IELTS speaking test, be sure to buy Dan Berns – IELTS Speaking Unconventional Secrets, and if you have any questions or suggestions, please be sure to get in touch.

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