What is the purpose of education?
From my perspective, the purpose of education is development. And well-educated individuals promote a well-developed society. On the one hand, we’re taught to develop personal and professional abilities. We acquire a broad range of knowledge and skills in various fields and cultivate creative thinking and imagination, which is important to the scientific inventions, cultural creation and exchanges as well as economic growth, and finally, the development of the whole human civilizations. On the other hand, we’re taught to develop sense of morality and values. We behave ourselves and interact with others, which is helpful to maintain harmony interpersonal relationships and construct a peaceful world. What problems does education have in China?
Firstly, Chinese students are taught to get good grades and enter good universities instead of becoming good citizens to serve the society. Chinese education lays overmuch emphasis on scores in assessment. Academic achievements are so dominant that personal hobbies or social abilities are often ignored by schools. As a result, students lack creativity, independence and social intercourse. Secondly, the education imbalance is obvious between rural and urban areas, which lead to the vicious circle that the poor people can’t afford the better education so that they will still stay poor. Thirdly, in basic education, children are seldom treated equally by adults. Teachers dominate the class while students are passive and don’t take an active part in study.
Some people believe public education is better than home education. What do
you think?
From my point of view, public education is better than home education. First of all, children will be provided with more opportunities to experience outside world at school than at home, which is helpful to broaden their horizons and cultivate interest in study. Moreover, children have more chances to take part in various activities and make friends with peers, which help them acquire communication skills and establish good interpersonal relationships. Therefore, they will learn how to get along well with others in future life. Last but not least, public education is cheaper and more convenient because children can share public facilities and resources. But as for home education, only some rich family can afford the high costs.
What do you think about the education imbalance between urban and rural
areas?
There are many factors associated with education imbalance between urban and rural areas, but the imbalanced economic development is the main reason. Because of poverty, the educational conditions are poor, the teachers are in severe shortage, and families can’t afford to send children to school. Thanks to the social wealth, urban students enjoy abundant educational resources, high-technology learning facilities and various after-school activities. As a result, well-educated people make contributes to the city development, but poor people without knowledge and skills can’t be helpful to local development, which lead to the fact that the urban-rural gap in China will be larger and larger.
Therefore, it’s necessary to establish the balanced and wide educational system.
In the long run, we should promote the sustainable development in China. The Government is expected to invest more money in rural education.
Topic 2 Psychology
Can you give some examples of people’s psychology that you notice in daily
life?
For instance, students feel depressed because they have too much homework to do, but when they’re aware that somebody who can’t afford the education even don’t have the chance to study in the university, they will become satisfied with themselves. An important competition is coming soon and the rivals seem to have advantages over our team. When we are afraid of rivals and get worried about the result, we will lose the confidence as well as the competition. However, if we believe in ourselves firmly and work together bravely and calmly, we can even beat the rivals who’re much stronger than us.
How can we keep psychologically healthy?
First and foremost, we should have an optimistic attitude. When we go to a university as freshmen, or go to work in a strange city, we may become nervous and worried. Just consider it as an opportunity to broaden our horizons and experience new things, we will adjust ourselves to the unfamiliar environment easily. Additionally, make a thorough and proper self-assessment. Human cannot be perfect thus we’re supposed to know clearly about our advantages as well as disadvantages. Accept some small failures calmly and correct mistakes modestly. Last but not least, relax ourselves in time. To get rid of negative emotions, we can share our feelings with parents, friends and teachers. It’s also advisable to read books, listen to music, playing sports or do other leisure activities.
How can you spot those telltale signs when people lie?
To begin with, liars are usually overdetermined in their denial and unconsciously distance themselves from their subject using language as their tool. So they will use a non-contracted denial such as “do not” or “cannot”, and they use distancing language such as “that woman” or “those people”. Moreover, to convince listeners, liars often use qualifying language. For instance, they will say “to tell you the truth” before describing something. They will repeat the question in its entirety, or pepper their account with too much detail. But actually, they will further discredit themselves. Additionally, body language can also give liars away. They freeze their upper body, look you in the eyes intentionally and produce a fake smile to cover their nervousness.
Can lies be classified into good and bad ones? Illustrate your ideas.
I think there are good lies and bad lies. In my opinion, honesty isn’t the best policy all the time without any exception. On some occasions, if the truth is going to hurt the people around us, we’d better take careful precautions to decide whether to tell the truth or not. What’s more, good lies are helpful to avoid conflict and embarrassments, which can make our conversation successful and smooth, create a better communicative environment and build a good relationship with other people. On the
contrary, if people tell lies for their own benefits and ignore others feelings, the lies will be bad ones. In summary, whether lies are good or not depend on the situation in which we tell them.
Topic 3 Astronomy
What do you know about the solar system?
The solar system consists of the Sun, the 8 planets as well as their moons, asteroids, comets, dust and gas. The Sun is in the center and others travel around it in orbit. Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun and has no moon. Venus is brightest in the sky. Of all planets, Venus resembles the Earth most in size. Earth is between Venus and Mars. The temperature of Mars is closest to the Earth's, although it is much colder. Jupiter is the largest planet and has the most moons. There are some asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Saturn is the lightest planet and surrounded by beautiful rings. Uranus and Neptune are far from the Sun.
Do you believe that there are aliens living somewhere in the space? Why or
why not
I believe that there are other life forms with advanced civilization living in space, which can be called \"aliens\". The universe is enormous, if we are the only intelligent living things in space... why is it so big? We live in the Milky Way. It was thought that this galaxy was the universe (space) until other galaxies were discovered in the early 20th century. Now we know that the Galaxy where humans live is one of the BILLIONS of galaxies in space. If there are billions of galaxies...don't you think there are more planets in those galaxies containing aliens? Even our Galaxy might have more planets that we haven't discovered yet! Human beings can’t make scientific advance without imagination and exploration. What we need to do is to seek more firm evidence to support our opinions.
What do you know about Shenzhou-10 mission?
There are 3 astronauts in Shenzhou-10 mission, NieHaisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping. The Shenzhou-10 blasted off on June 11th in 2013 from northwest China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. During the 15-day journey, the Shenzhou-10 manned space mission has achieved all its goals including accurate injection into orbit, precise docking with Tiangong-1 space module, stable operation, maintaining good health of the crew in orbit, and its safe return. Wang Yaping became China’s first teacher to give a lecture from space. The success of China’s fifth manned mission is just the latest step in its long term goal of setting up a permanent space station. Would you like to be a space traveler? Why or why not?
I don’t want to be a space traveler at all. First of all, the ticket is too expensive for me. According to the estimation, one traveler at least pays 200 million dollars for a ticket. In addition, it will take a long time to prepare for the space travel. To adapt to the zero-gravity environment in space, the traveler need to receive a wide range of training. What’s more, I can’t stand to stay in an uncomfortable and inconvenient spacecraft. It will drive me crazy. Last but not least, it’s not absolutely safe to travel in space. I’m not sure whether the travel will do harm to my health or not thus I won’t take a risks to be the space traveler.
Topic 4 Geography & Environment
A. What basic themes does the subject of geography mainly consist of?
The five themes of geography are location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region. Location discusses the position of objects, and includes both relative and absolute location. Place is used to describe the physical and human characteristics of a location. Human-Environment Interaction studies the ways humans impact the environment around them. There are three concepts that are shaping this relationship: Humans depend on the environment; Humans adapt to the environment; Humans modify the environment. Movement associated with the travel of people, goods, and ideas throughout a particular location or throughout the world. Region is a way of dividing the world into distinct areas through unifying characteristics.
B. What do you know about Mount Kailash? Why is it called the axis of the world?
Mount Kailash is located in one of the remotest areas of Tibet in southwest China. It is called the axis of the world because its peak has four faces, aligned to the points of the compass, and four major rivers flow from its summit to the four quarters of the world. It’s really amazing. Thanks to its connection with the mythical mountain, Kailash is so sacred that it's never been climbed. And it is also Tibet's most important pilgrimage site. For local people, pilgrimage is a journey from ignorance to enlightenment. A pilgrimage around the sacred mountain is believed to wipe out the sins of a lifetime, increasing the chance of a better re-birth. Every year, pilgrims of different faiths gather at the foot of Mount Kailash for the most important festival in the Tibetan calendar – the Saga Dawa festival.
C. How do you think human activities affect the environment?
For the purpose of a better life, humans modify the environment by various activities. For instance, people clear forests to get wood for fires and to grow crops. However, nowadays people usually change the environment only for their own benefits, which lead to severe environmental problems, such as air pollution from burning coal, vehicle exhaust emissions and industrial production cause the smog in Shanghai. As we all know, humans and environment are interacting, so the harmful influence we have on environment must impact on ourselves in future. For the sustainable development, it’s high time for us to protect our planet and maintain a harmony relationship with environment.
D. Can you explain what acid rain is and how harmful it is?
Acid rain consists of acidic water because of air pollution, which results from burning coal, vehicle exhaust emissions and industrial production. Normal rain water is slightly acidic and has a pH range of 5.3-6.0. Acid rain is anything below that scale. There are several harmful impacts of acid rain on both natural and man-made environments. First of all, it pollutes water and causes the aquatic life to die. In addition, it falls on trees, damaging their leaves and barks, which makes them defenseless to disease, extreme weather, and insects. What’ worse, it falls on soil and make it impossible to grow healthy plants or crops. Finally, acid rain can corrode architecture, cars, railroad tracks, airplanes, steel bridges, and pipes above and below ground.
Topic 5Economy
Have you ever heard green economy? What is it?
The green economy is defined as a sustainable economy and society with zero carbon emissions and a one-planet footprint where all energy is derived from renewable resources which are naturally provided. It is based on six main concepts: Renewable energy; Green buildings; Sustainable transport; Water management; Waste management; and Land management. The green economy includes 25 industries, such as Carbon capture and storage, Ecosystem services, Green IT, Hydropower, Ocean power, Solar energy, Sustainable and organic agriculture, food and products. In contrast to a green economy, a traditional “black” energy economy is based on carbon-intensive fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. By definition, a low-carbon economy is distinct from a green economy because it still generates carbon emissions.
What do you know about inflation and deflation?
Inflation is a persistent increase in the general price level of goods and services over a period of time. Consequently, Inflation reduces the real value of money. In another word, people can buy fewer goods and services with the same amount of money over time; On the contrary, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0% (a negative inflation rate). It increases the real value of money, which allows people to buy more goods and services with the same amount of money over time. Today, most economists favor a low and steady rate of inflation, which is helpful to the economic development.
What is financial crisis? What do you know about it?
Financial crisis refers to a variety of situations in which some financial property suddenly loses a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and many recessions coincided with these panics. Other situations that are often called financial crises include stock market crashes and the bursting of other financial bubbles, currency crises, and highest defaults. Financial crises directly result in a loss of paper wealth but do not necessarily result in changes in the real economy. However, as for individuals and companies, financial crisis can still cause unemployment and collapse, which is harmful to the social stability. Many economists have offered theories about how financial crises develop and how they could be prevented. But there is no consensus, and financial crises continue to occur from time to time.
What functions does a bank perform?
There are 6 main functions of commercial banks. The most important function is to accept deposits from the public, which can keep the needs and interests of various sections of society. The second important function is to advance loans to its customers. Banks charge interest from the borrowers and this is the main source of their income. If there are no deposits in the current account, banks will give loans to its customer’s up to a certain amount through over-drafts, another function. After that, discounting of Bills of Exchange is the most common and important method of
advancing loans to the traders for short-term purposes. In addition, there are Investment of Funds and Agency Functions. To sum up, banks play an important part in economy. Topic 6Food
Do you usually eat at the school canteens? What do you think of the food
there?
What is junk food? Why shouldn’t we eat too much of it?
Junk food is any food that provides too much fat and calories but not enough nutrients. Such as French fries, hamburger, hot dogs and so on. We shouldn’t eat too much of it because it’s harmful to our health. First of all, junk food contains overmuch fat especially trans-fat, which can increase our blood fats, and cause the risk of obesity as well as serious diseases, such as diabetes and heart attack. What’ worse, except physical health, there are also links between junk food and mental health. According to study, middle-aged office workers will be more likely to get depression. Additionally, the researchers discover that junk food has bad effect on children’s brain development. Therefore, it’s better keep away from junk food. What kinds of food are popular in China?
What is important for you when you choose a place to eat out?
Topic 7Shopping
Do you like shopping? Why or why not? What do you usually buy?
Have you noticed the differences between men and women in their shopping
habits?
Do you like to go shopping in a big supermarket? Why?
Do you think it is a good idea to do the shopping when things are on sale?
Why or why not?
Topic 8Travelling
What places have you been to? Which one impresses you most?
If you have a chance to travel abroad, where would you go? Why?
Australia.
What do you know about Australia?
Suppose you have a foreign friend who wants to travel somewhere in China.
Where would you recommend? Why? Qingdao.
Topic 9Crimes
Are there any crimes you have witnessed or heard of on campus?
Do you think that punishment for violent crimes should be the same for juveniles
and adults? Why or why not?
Do you think gun control is a good idea? Why or why not?
What can you do to protect yourself and your home from thieves?
10Leisure Activities
What do you usually do in your leisure time?
What’s your favorite type of TV program? And why?
What are the positive effects of music on people?
What kinds of indoor and outdoor leisure activities are popular in China?
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