江苏省外语口语/口译等级证书考试

This exam asks you to complete four tasks in English: (I) answer three simple questions; (II) read a passage aloud; (III) answer three questions; and (IV) describe what you see in a picture.

Task I: Answering Simple Questions

A tape will pose three questions about you. It allows fifteen 15 seconds for you to respond to each. You will hear each question ONLY ONCE. Please speak loudly and clearly, so the equipment can record your voice.

Now, let’s begin.

Question 1: What’s your name?
Question 2: Where do you come from?
Question 3: What is your job?

Task II: Reading Aloud

Please read the following a passage aloud. You will have ONE minute to prepare and TWO minutes to complete your reading. Please speak loudly and clearly, so the equipment can record your voice.

Time Zones
If you travel far, either east or west, you will notice that strange things happen to your sense of time. Your watch and body may tell you it is early morning, for example, while the sun sets below the horizon.
Twenty-four time zones divide the earth into an equal number of hours. Travel across these zones adds or subtracts hours to or from days.
If you cross the Atlantic Ocean in five days，your ship enters a different time zone every day. The time changes one hour with each zone you enter. Traveling west, you set your clock back; traveling east, you set it ahead. Each day of your trip has either twenty-five or twenty-three hours.
If you travel by ship across the Pacific，you cross the international date line. By agreement, this marks a new day’s beginning. When you cross the line, you change your calendar one full day backward or forward. Today becomes yesterday as one crosses the line traveling east; it becomes tomorrow as one crosses it traveling west.

Please begin reading after the beep.

Task III: Answering Questions

A tape shall pose each of the three questions TWICE. After the second reading, you will have thirty seconds in which to complete your answer. Please speak loudly and clearly, so the equipment can record your voice.

Let’s listen to an example.

You will hear:

An international student has become your friend and is inviting you to go out for coffee. What should you say if you would like to accept the invitation?

You may answer:

“Sure, I have nothing scheduled for the next hour. Let’s go.”

“Oh yes, I would love to. Let’s go now.”

Now, let’s begin.

Question 1:
You are at the airport to meet your colleague Mr. Davis for the first time. How would you introduce yourself to him?

Question 2:
You and Mr. Davis plan to meet for dinner at 6:00 p.m. at a downtown restaurant. A traffic jam, however, delays your arrival ten minutes. How would you explain your delay to him?

Question 3:
Your friend Mr. Davis wants to buy a Chinese present for his daughter’s birthday. He comes to you for advice. What would you say?

Task IV: Describing a Picture

Please study the following picture for one minute before describing it in a short talk. Your description must include answers to the three questions below the picture. You will have two minutes to complete your talk. Please speak loudly and clearly, so the equipment can record your voice.

Question 1: How many men and women appear in the picture?
Question 2: What are the woman and man in the foreground doing? What is the man in the middle doing?
Question 3: Where might you possibly see this scene?

Please begin your talk after the beep.

You have completed the exam. Thank you.

Oral English Certificate Examination (Intermediate Level)
(Sample)
江苏省外语口语/口译证书英语考试（中级）
（样卷）

This exam asks you to complete four tasks in English: (I) answer three simple questions; (II) answer three questions based on a reading; (III) again answer three questions based on situations drawn from everyday life; (IV) give a talk based on the picture(s) given to you.

Task I: Answering Simple Questions
A tape shall pose three short questions, allowing fifteen seconds for you to respond to each. You will hear each question ONLY ONCE. Please speak loudly and clearly, so the equipment can record your replies.

Now, let’s begin.

Question 1: How long have you been studying English?
Question 2: Why do you study English?
Question 3: What difficulties do you find with your English?

Task II: Reading Comprehension
Please take two minutes to read the following passage before answering three questions. You will hear each question TWICE, and after the second reading, you will have thirty seconds in which to complete your answer. Please speak loudly and clearly, so the equipment can record your voice.

Now, read the following passage:

Jiangsu (江苏), an eastern Chinese province, has a 1000-kilometer coast along the Yellow Sea. The Yangtze River and the Jing-Hang (京杭) Grand Canal cross the province, one from west to east and the other from north to south. Han (汉), Hui (回), Manchu (满), and other ethnic groups occupy Jiangsu’s 100,000 square kilometers. Their populations total 73.54 million. Shandong (山东) borders Jaingsu to the north, Anhui (安徽) to the west, and Shanghai (上海) and Zhejiang (浙江) to the south.
An annual average temperature ranging from 13°to 16°C renders Jiangsu’s climate semi-humid and temperate. Four distinct seasons including cold winters and hot summers vary its climate. Sixty percent of its average annual rainfall of 800 to 1,200 millimeters, concentrated more heavily in southeast than northwest, occurs during the summer. Spring and autumn accordingly mark the best seasons for tourism.

Now listen to the questions:

Question 1:
What does this passage tell you about Jiangsu Province?

Question 2:
According to the passage, which nationalities reside in Jiangsu Province?

Question 3:
When would you invite a delegation of outsiders to visit your company in Jiangsu? Why?

Task III: Situational Questions
A tape shall pose three questions based on situations drawn from everyday life. You will hear each question TWICE, and after the second reading, you will have thirty seconds in which to complete your answer. Please speak loudly and clearly, so the equipment can record your voice.

Let’s listen to an example.

You will hear:

An international student has become your friend and would like to borrow your bicycle, but the brakes on your bike are not working well. What should you say to this friend?

You may answer:

“Sure, you may take it, but be careful: the brakes are not working well.”

“Well, I’m afraid you cannot take it. Its brakes need repairing.”

Now, let’s begin.

Question 1:
You are working in a joint venture company and Mr. Davis, a western colleague, is inviting you to visit him over a weekend. You know, however, you will be very busy at that time. How should you politely decline the invitation?

Question 2:
Mr. Davis is a western colleague, and you share the office with him. His chain-smoking greatly upsets you. What should you say to him?

Question 3:
You have caught a cold and cannot go to work. How should you ask your boss, Mr. Davis, for a leave by telephone?

Task IV: Describing a Picture
Please study the following picture for one minute before interpreting it in a short talk. Your interpretation must include answers to the questions below the picture. You will have two minutes to complete your talk. Please speak loudly and clearly, so the equipment can record your voice.

The sun is coming out.

(Note: 这幅漫画题为“太阳出来了”。它描写了都市里的人们渴望阳光沐浴的情景。)

Questions:

What are the people doing in this picture?
What can we learn from this picture?

Now, begin your talk after the beep.

You have completed the exam. Thank you.

Oral English Certificate Examination
(Advanced Level)

江苏省外语口语/口译证书英语考试（高级）
（样卷）

Task I: Warming-up questions
1. What is the climate like in your hometown?
2. What does friendship mean to you?
3. What do you do during the Spring Festival?

Task II: Listen to a short story twice and then retell it. (3 minutes for retelling) 30%
An old man living in a small side street in London had to put up with the nuisance of having boys playing football outside his house at night.
One evening when the boys were particularly noisy he went out to talk to them. He explained that he was happiest when he could see boys playing his favourite game. He said he would give them 25 pence each week to play in the street at night.
The boys were thrilled. They were being paid to do something they enjoyed! At the end of the first week they knocked at the old man's house and asked to be paid. He did so.
The second week when they asked for payment he said he had run out of money and sent them away with only 15 pence.
The third week the man said he had not yet received his pension and gave them only 10 pence. The boys were very disappointed but there was not much they could do about it.
The fourth week the man said he could not afford to pay them 25 pence as he had promised, but would give them 5 pence each week.
This was too much for the boys. "You expect us to play seven days a week for 5 pence!" they yelled. "No way." They stormed away and never played on the street again. (228 words)

Task III. Role-play. (3 minutes for preparation and 3 minutes for speaking)
30%

You are a university student. One of your classmates was absent from the writing class yesterday in which an assignment was given. Tell him/her about the assignment according to the information provided below.
1. Topic/Content:
Choose from the recommended reading list
2. Length:
2,000 to 3,000 words
3. Presentation:
Must by typed, double spaced
4. Title page:
Include your name, tutor’s name, title and course name
5. Submission date:
Before the last day of term (in 4 weeks)
6. Place of submission
Tutor’s office. If not there, in a box outside office.
7. Others:
Extensions must be granted by the tutor, and only for exceptional circumstances. Will be returned in first week after vacation.

Task IV. Make comments on a topic. (4 minutes for preparation and 3 minutes for speaking) 40%
It was reported in the press some time ago that a few second-and third-year students in a provincial university decided to try their hand at business in order to get prepared for the future. They opened six small shops near their university. Their teachers and classmates had different opinions about this phenomenon. Some thought that the students’ business experience would help them adapt better to society after graduation, while others held a negative view, saying that running shops might occupy too much of the students’ time and energy which should otherwise be devoted to their academic study. What do you think? Should university students go in for business? Please give your viewpoints on this issue and explain your reasons.

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