1. Talk about a game, sport or other group activity that is played in your country. Explain why you think the activity is enjoyable.

Basketball is one group activity that is played in my country. It’s enjoyable because people can relax and get exercise from playing basketball. Almost every community in my country has a basketball court and every afternoon adults after work and children after school come to play together. Adults play to relax and to get rid of the tiring work in the morning, while some kids come to play for fun and exercise. Some kids enjoy throwing balls into the basket. Some enjoy running around, dribbling and chasing the one with the ball.

2. When looking for information for a research project, some students prefer to get their information mainly from the Internet. Others prefer to mainly use printed materials such as books and academic journals. Which do you prefer, and why?

I prefer to use Internet to look for information for the following two reasons. First, it’s very fast to find the information from Internet. Since now we have many search engines such as Google and Bing, we just need to input key words and the results will be listed on the screen. From the results, we can always find the information related to the research project. Second, Internet has way more information than do printed materials. Nearly all printed materials now have e-version online. With may scientific databases, we can always find what we need by title, author or even content. So, when we are doing research project, Internet is more convenient than printed materials.

I’ll choose printed materials rather than Internet. Even though Internet has a lot of information, I can’t find any useful information. For example, when I was doing a research project about Asian History. There wasn’t much related information available online. All the results from search engines or databases only gave me some introductions of Asian History. But I need to do deep research. So I stopped using Internet and went to library to find some old printed materials. Guess what? I got many relevant books and journals. These printed materials are old, so they don’t have e-versions online. But they are precious, at least for my research project.

3. The woman expresses her opinion about the university' s plan. State her opinion and explain the reasons she gives for holding that opinion.

The university is planning to build a new athletic stadium in order to attract more top students and to strengthen its relationship with the town. The woman doesn’t think it’ll work. Firstly, the woman thinks some of the conditions on campus are too bad to attract top students. For example, science labs have outdated equipment, library not enough books and student center being too small. Secondly, the woman says that since our teams always lose, people in the town rarely come to watch the games. And it’s impossible that the teams improve overnight. Besides, adding seats won’t help either. People in the town won’t come to stadium just because it is bigger. So building this new stadium is not going to improve the relationship with the town.

4. Explain what is meant by "perceptual constancy, " using the examples provided by the professor.

Perceptual Constancy is our ability to recognize the same object in many different contexts, even if the object may look different in different contexts. The professor uses two examples to illustrate this ability. The first example is plate. If we put a round plate directly at our face, it is a perfect circle. But if we put it in a horizontal position, it is no longer a circle but an oval. Still we recognize it as the same plate. The oval one is not a different object. Even if It looks different, we still perceive it as the same. The second example is the professor himself. He looks bigger to the students in the front row than those in the back row. If a student sits in the front row today and then in the back row tomorrow, the student will still perceive him as the same professor, even if to the student the professor’s size has changed.

5. The speakers discuss two possible solutions to the man‘s problem. Briefly summarize the problem. Then state which solution you recommend and explain why.

The man is supposed to drive everyone in the club to see an exhibition and he borrowed his mom’s van. But the problem is that the van broke down and can’t be repaired in time. There are two possible solutions to this problem. First, he can rent a van. But he thinks it’s a little risky. Because only a few people in the club agree to contribute some money to the van, it’s possible that the man will have to pay most of the bill. The second solution is to postpone the trip until his mom’s van is in good condition. But the man says everyone will be disappointed if they find out that they can’t go to the exhibition when they are ready. Personally, I would recommend the man to rent a van. Since some of the students have already promised to split the rent, those who haven’t replied will definitely agree to contribute money to the van. Even if the man has to pay most of the bill, he has to pay because he is the president and he has the responsibility to complete his task.

6. Using the examples of the leafy sea dragon and the cuttlefish, describe two kinds of camouflage and the benefits they provide.

Some sea animals have developed colors and shapes to resemble environmental features in order to avoid predators. For example, leafy sea dragon has leafy protrusions sticking out like arms. Its shape and color resemble the green sea plants so it blends in well in the environment. When it is swimming through green sea plants, predators have trouble seeing it. But without green plants, its camouflage doesn’t work. Another example is cuttlefish. Unlike leafy sea dragon, Cuttlefish’s camouflage can work anywhere. It changes color to blend in any environment. It has shifting pigments and can change color instantly. If it is swimming by the green sea plants, its color can change to green. If it is swimming by the brown sea floor, its color changes to brown.