功能题在托福听力考试中并不罕见,功能题经常考察教授与学生之间的问答,通常有两种方式,一是学生提出观点然后教授评价,觉得这个观点正确或者错误,但错误时通常教授不会直接指出,而是委婉的说,二是学生提出疑问,教授引导学生回答。下面留学360为考生举例分析:
例一:Why doesthe professor say this?
A. To offer a hint about the answer to a question he asked
B. To clarify a question that a student asked
C. To find out whether students understand question he asked
To find out whether students understand an important comparison hemade
Student:
Mostly iron?
Professor:
Yeah… iron andsome nickel, both of which are metals. And, if you‘re trying to find metal?
Student:
Oh! Metal detectors!
And, if you’re trying to find metal?”
教授抛出来了半句话,然后是升调,也就是问句语气,是在引导学生回答后半句,学生的确回答了:“Oh! Metal detectors!”就是为了引导学生得出答案,教授谈到一个奇怪的现象就是大量存在的石头陨石很难被找到,相比之下还有一种金属陨石容易被找到。教授引导学生希望学生得出相关答案。然后学生说出了金属探测器一说。
例二:Why doesthe professor say this?
A. To indicate that he understands why the student may be confused
B. To emphasize that the student has asked a very important question
C. To remind the student that she may know the answer to her ownquestion
D. To invite other members of the class to answer the question
Student:
But, professor, are you sure these are poems? I mean I thought poemswere shorter; these were more like long stories. I mean one of them must allabout love, but the other one the Chan…Chan…whatever itcalled, the other one; it’s all about fighting and battles. I mean can both of them beconsidered to be poems?
Professor:
Well, think back to the very beginning of this course.
学生觉得文章的长度决定了它是否真正是诗歌,但教授否定这一观点,教授没有直接说他错了,知识委婉地让他回个一下讲座之前的内容,一来说明讲座谈到相关内容,二来说明学生的答案不是正确的,因为正确的答案在讲座中都会大肆鼓励的。
例三:What doesthe professor imply when he says this :
A. The current age estimates for the South Pole-Aitken Basin are based onincorrect assumptions.
B. The technology to analyze Moon rocks has not advanced much sincethe days of the Moon landings
C. Too few of the original Moon-rock samples were dated accurately
D. Only by testing samples from South Pole-Aitken Basin can its agebe precisely determined
Dian:
But if we know around how old the Basin is, I’m not sure that’s reason enough to go to the Moonagain.
Professor:
No…, but suchcrude estimates…um…we can do better than that.Besides, there are other
学生觉得没有必要深入了解spa盆地上的石头,登月没有必要因为别的方法也可以达到相同的效果,但是教授做出否定的回答,在他眼中这样的结果还是太crude,也就是不够准确。教授通过自己的回答评价了学生观点。