笔记之于托福听力的重要性

　　听力在整个托福考试中起着举足轻重的作用，或许“得听力者得天下”这句话是对其重要性最精辟的一个概括。同时，听力相对来说又是托福四门单科中最让学生们头痛的一个科目，因为它的做题模式决定了它的考试难度，经常会拿雅思与其进行对比，雅思的听力考试模式是边听边做，但是托福的考试模式却是先听再做，换句话说，当你在听的时候你是“裸”听，不知道何时出题，出什么题，这样的考试模式和大家心目中神一样存在的英语专业八级考试的听力部分非常类似，所以可见托福IBT听力的含金量。因此在新托福听力这个过程中，笔记就凸显出它微妙的作用。

　　首先，在练大家最头痛的TPO之前，我们得先搞清楚，ETS为什么要以这样的模式考听力。新托福听力一共分为两个section，每个section包含了一个conversation和2个lecture.所以学生们首先要搞清楚什么是lecture。澳际语言学校告诉你哦，所谓的lecture就是在你美国大学校园里的真实上课场景，类似于国内大学里面学生们在阶梯教室里上的毛邓三马哲课程。大家都知道国外的书跟国内的书来比真的是天价，所以学生一般都用二手书，需要大家在听课的过程中进行note taking。因此托福听力采取这样的考试模式，就是为了让学生在准备托福考试的过程中学着适应这样的学习习惯，学会边听边抓教授的主要内容，记录一些细节，听懂教授语音语调突变的地方等。所以想到以后要上2个小时甚至3个小时的课，托福听力5分钟左右的lecture 只是在你去国外学习之前的预热而已。

　　有一些学生们普遍会问，到底是记重要还是听重要?不记笔记是不是肯定拿不了高分?为什么我的笔记对我做题一点帮助都没有?为什么我记的都是没有考到的内容?那么，今天澳际语言学校就先来讨论下托福听力中笔记的微妙作用。同学们应该也注意到“微妙”这个词，可知笔记所起到的仅仅是辅助作用，“三分手记，七分脑记”，不记笔记不代表你不能拿高分，但是正确地记笔记对你做题肯定会有效。

　　笔记的微妙作用一：理清文章结构。托福听力的文章中有两种比较常见的文章结构分类和对比，比如TPO17L4里面关于章鱼的自我保护行为，文章开篇便告诉你有三种自我保护行为，通过改变颜色，纹理和形状大小，那么其中的三道细节题便是从这三个保护方式中出题， 所以笔记可以让你在听的过程中思路清晰，条理清楚。

　　笔记的微妙作用二：名词定位。大家都觉得托福听力难很大一部分原因在于觉得词汇的学术性和专业性，在文中经常会出现一些你八辈子打不着杆的专有名词或是生词，很多同学就会觉得听不懂，的确，这是在所难免的，一方面是你词汇量的问题，另一方面是你对这个知识点本身就存在盲点的问题，比如天文学里面讲道蟹状星云，小行星带等，或许很多同学连中文背景知识都很缺乏，所以在这个过程中记录文章中的名词就显得非常重要。再拿TPO17L4中这篇章鱼的自我保护行为作为例子，澳际语言学校从中列出了几个专业名词chromatophores(色素细胞), papillae(突起物).这两个词非常专业，在大家的词汇书中估计都找不到，但是它不会干扰你做题，这个时候笔记就产生作用了，你得记下来这两个生词是在分别讲哪种保护行为下提到的，请看第31题：

　　31. How does an octopus change color to match the colors in its environment?

　　A.By raising its papillae.

　　B.By releasing colored ink.

　　C.By reflecting light from its environment.

　　D.By contracting the muscles around its chromatophores

　　那么当你的笔记中记到这个chromatophores出现在color这个分论点下，马上就能选出D这个选项,你无需去理解这个单词到底是什么意思，但是一定要知道它的位置，它到底是为哪个分论点服务的。有些同学可能会错选A，因为在文中也有提到papillae这个单词，但是它是在texture这个分论点下提到的，所以在这里是干扰选项，所以笔记在这个过程中就产生了作用。

　　笔记的微妙作用三：突出出题点的重要性。很多学生会困扰是不是要听懂全文才能做对题目，其实不然。一篇5分钟的文章才出6个题，它更侧重于考察文章的逻辑和结构。所以在这个过程中信号词就起到非常重要的作用，那么在课上我给学生总结了十大出题点，那么所谓的出题点也就是托福听力可能会出题的地方，是学生需要听到这些信号词竖起耳朵认真听的，澳际语言学校提醒，那么通过课上所讲的笔记符号便可突出重点，从而让你做题的时候能够快速找到你要的答案，就不会存在笔记没有对做题产生任何作用的问题。

　　附TPO17，听力L4原文

　　TPO 17 Lecture 4

　　Biology(Octopus)

　　Narrator

　　Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.

　　Professor

　　Ok, now I want to talk about an animal that has a fascinating set of defense mechanisms. And that's the octopus, one of the unusual creatures that live in the sea.

　　The octopus is prey to many species, including humans, so how does it escape its predators?

　　Well, let me back up here a second. Anyone ever heard of Proteous? Proteus was a God in Greek mythology who could change form. He could make himself look like a lion or a stone or a tree, anything you wanted, and he could go through a whole series of changes very quickly.

　　Well, the octopus is the real world version of Proteus. Just like Proteus, the octopus can go through all kinds of incredible transformations. And it does this in three ways: by changing color, by changing its texture, and by changing its size and shape.

　　For me, the most fascinating transformation is when it changes its color. It's a normal skin color, the one it generally presents, is either red or brown or even grey, and it's speckled with dark spots. But when it wants to blend in with its environment to hide from its enemies, it can take on the color of its immediate surroundings: the ocean floor, a rock, a piece of coral, whatever. Charles?

　　Student

　　Do we know how that works, I mean, how they change colors?

　　Professor

　　Well, we know that the reaction that takes place is not chemical in nature. The color changes are executed by two different kinds of cells in the octopus' skin, mainly by color cells on the skin's surface call chromatophores

　　Chromatophores consist of tiny sacks filled with color dye. There might be a couple hundred of these color sacks per square millimeter of the octopus' skin, and depending on the species, they can come in as many as five different colors. Each one of these sacks is controlled by muscles. If the muscles are relaxed, the sack shrinks, and all you see is a little white point. But if the muscle's contract, then the sack expands, and you can see the colors. And by expanding different combinations

　　Student

　　And just with various combinations of those five colors, they can recreate any color in their environment?

　　Professor

　　Well, they can no doubt create a lot with just those five colors, but you are right, maybe they can't mimic every color around them, so that's where the second kind of cell comes in.

　　Just below the chromatophores is a layer of cells that reflect light from the environment, and these cells help the octopus create a precise match with the colors that surround them. The colors from the color sacks are supplemented with colors that are reflected from the environment, and that's how they are able to mimic colors with such precision. So, that's how octopus mimic colors.

　　But they don't just mimic the colors in their environment; they can alos mimic the texture of objects in their environment. They have these little projections on their skin that allow them to resemble various textures. The projections are called papillae. If the octopus wants to have a rough texture, it raises the papillae. If it wants to have a smooth texture, it flattens out the papillae, so it can acquire a smooth texture to blend in with the sandy bottom of the sea.

　　So the octopus has the ability to mimic both the color and the texture of its environment. And it's truly amazing how well it can blend in with its surroundings.

　　You can easily swim within a few feet of an octopus and never see it.

　　Student

　　I read that they often hide from predators by squirting out a cloud of ink, or something like that.

　　Professor

　　Yes. The octopus can release a cloud of ink if it feels threatened. But it doesn't hide behind it, as is generally believed. Um, the ink cloud is ... it serves to distract a predator while the octopus makes its escape.

　　Um, now there's a third way that octopus can transform themselves to blend in withor mimic their environment, and that's by changing their shape and size, well, at least their apparent size.

　　The muscular system of the octopus enables it to be very flexible to assume all sorts of shapes and postures. So it can contract into the shape of a little round stone, and sit perfectly still on the seafloor. Or it can nestle up in the middle of a plant and take the shape of one of the leaves. Even Proteus would be impressed, I think.