Mastering Skills for the TOEFL iBT 2nd - Speaking

TranscriptsQ4 Practice 1Step 1 - LectureW: Although it once wasn’t thought possible,neuroscientists now believe that there are at leasttwo different ways that a damaged adult braincan achieve some amount of recovery.First, in certain areas of our brain . . . cells thathave been lost through damage can be replacedby new ones. In a 1998 study of dead humanbrain tissue, researchers discovered that neurons,or brain cells, can actually re-grow themselvesafter they had suffered damage. Neurons thathave not been damaged can divide into multipleneurons. This ability to regenerate can occurthroughout our lives, allowing areas of the adultbrain to recover to a certain degree after seriousbrain damage. Unfortunately, this ability can onlyoccur in two areas of the brain.The adult brain also has the unique ability toreorganize itself so that other parts assume thetasks of the damaged area. Take adults who havesuffered from strokes, for instance . . . when thebrain is damaged by a stroke, patients often losesuch functions as motor control, memory, or theability to speak and understand language. However,researchers have found that often what happensafter a stroke is that uninjured—or healthy—areasof the brain will reorganize themselves to performthe same—or nearly the same—functions of thedamaged areas.Step 3 - Sample ResponseAccording to the reading, an adult brain has two waysto recover from brain damage. The professor explainsthat the first way is by brain cell re-growth. She saysthat sometimes an adult brain can re-grow cells thatwere lost through damage. She says that this canhappen when undamaged brain cells divide to formnew cells. She then explains the second way the adultbrain can recover from brain damage—by reorganizingitself. The professor gives the example of those whohave suffered from strokes. Sometimes when patientslose certain functions due to a stroke, the healthyparts of their brains are able to change. They can takeover those functions that were found in the damagedparts of the brain.Q4 Practice 2Step 1 - LectureM: Probably the most obvious downside of interactivetelevision is that, like all television, it can influencea child’s intelligence in a bad way. A recent studyshowed that children who are exposed to televisionat a young age score lower on intelligence teststhan do other children, leading a pediatrics institutionto conclude that children under age two shouldnot be watching television as it could harm themcognitively. Despite this fact, interactive televisionsystems are being made for children as young astoddlers. Studies have now estimated that childrenas young as a year old are watching over twohours of television a day. So interactive televisionsimply increases the time our children spend infront of the TV, thus harming them in the long run.Interactive television will also allow advertisers totarget children in new ways. For instance, certaininteractive Internet games have already beendeveloped which advertise products to childrenas they’re playing the games. Products like cereal,chocolate chip cookies, and beverages have allbeen advertised through interactive games thatchildren can play. This is a problem becausechildren are inherently vulnerable to advertising.They usually accept what they see or hear asfact. With interactive television, because it oftenworks through an Internet connection, advertiserscan target children based on what they learnabout them—their gender, age, even their behaviorsand preferences.Step 3 - Sample ResponseAccording to the reading, interactive television cannegatively affect children’s intelligence and allowcompanies to target children. The professor expandson this first point by saying that television has beenshown to be harmful for children under the age of twoto watch. Tests have shown that it can lower intelligencelevels. Yet there are many interactive television programsout there made especially for children under two. Healso says that interactive television allows advertisersto target young children. They can sell specific productsto children based on what they learn about themthrough the Internet. Children are easily persuaded bythese advertisements and accept what they see orhear as being true.Transcripts 11