时间:2018-12-01 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2008年(十二)月


英语课
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

For the past two weeks, we have talked about the SAT and ACT college admissions tests and the GRE for graduate school. This week in our Foreign Students Series, we move on to English language tests.

Most American colleges and universities accept one or both of the two major tests. One is the Test of English as a Foreign Language, known as the TOEFL. The other is the International English Language Testing System, or IELTS.

The TOEFL is given in one hundred eighty countries. The competing IELTS is given in one hundred twenty-one countries.

One million people each year take the TOEFL, says Tom Ewing, a spokesman 1 for the Educational Testing Service. Same with the IELTS, says Beryl Meiron, the executive 2 director of IELTS International.

She says two thousand colleges and universities in the United States now recognize the IELTS. Schools might accept it only for undergraduate or graduate admission or both.

The IELTS is a paper test, while the TOEFL is given on paper only in places where a computer test is unavailable.

The TOEFL paper test costs one hundred fifty dollars. It tests reading, listening and writing. A separate Test of Spoken English costs one hundred twenty-five dollars.

The computer version is called the TOEFL iBT, or Internet-based test. The price is different in each country, but generally falls between one hundred fifty and two hundred dollars.

The TOEFL iBT and the IELTS both measure all four language skills -- listening, reading, writing and speaking. But with the IELTS, the speaking test is done separately as a live interview. You speak with an examiner who is certified 3 in ESOL -- English for speakers of other languages.

Everyone takes the same speaking and listening tests. But there is a choice of two kinds of reading and writing tests -- either academic or general training.

IELTS International says the test measures true-to-life ability to communicate in English for education, immigration and employment. Institutions in Britain and Australia jointly 4 developed it.

The cost is different in each country. But Beryl Meiron says the price in local currency is generally comparable 5 to about one hundred sixty dollars. The IELTS Web site is ielts.org. The TOEFL Web site is toefl.org.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 spokesman
n.发言人,代言人
  • The government spokesman gave a quick briefing to the reporters.政府发言人向记者们作了情况简介。
  • They drew lots to decide who should be their spokesman.他们抽签决定谁是他们的发言人。
2 executive
adj.执行的,行政的;n.执行者,行政官,经理
  • A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
  • He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。
3 certified
a.经证明合格的;具有证明文件的
  • Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
  • The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。
4 jointly
ad.联合地,共同地
  • Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
  • She owns the house jointly with her husband. 她和丈夫共同拥有这所房子。
5 comparable
adj.相似的,同类的,可比的,比得上的
  • A fire is comparable with the sun,both give light and heat.火可以和太阳相比,两者都可以发光发热。
  • No horse has a speed comparable to that of his.没有一匹马的速度能比得上他的马。
学英语单词
a carrier
acid phosphate mixer
acreages
aeromechanical
agent team
amiota (amiota) furcata
analog auto pilot
anti-oxidant anti-corrosion additive
Arendt, Hannah
association reaction
atod
atomization steam
attended trail printer
automatic switching over
Baal-zephon
bamm
belt guard
Blondel de Nesle
bounce time
branched-chain explosion
bureaucratic business style
centre of buyconcy
cercaria(e)
compadre
dalamen
Dasyonygidae
dead-reckoning equipment
design change
double slide wire potentiometer
Emericellopsis
esophageal ring
etymologer
evaporator vapour
external antistatic agent
fly bait
folliculated
forwarding letter book
free A-module
fuel pool outer gate
gift cheques
gold spot
granular texture
hermannias
huntington-heberleim sink and float
Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome
hydraulic efficiency shock
hypnopyrine
incoming and outgoings
inner ring with double raceway
insurrectionary personnel
ipsedixitism
Kabardian
keep abreast of
keyboard function key
kuraton
line with lead
Los Tarros, R.
magnetic temporal variation
make her market
meet the ear
membrana granalosa interna
morphom
mouseovers
Nian Rebellion
nonhardcore
partial denervation
Pernambuco Seamounts
phase failure sensitive thermal-overload release
photoacoustic technique
pneumatic servo element
rectilineal flow
RF characteristic measuring set
right-hand polarized electromagnetic wave
road rage
seat cover
semi-rectangular
shifting block
shinisaurus crocodilurus
sign up
soot prevention compound
soothered
soroka
sorvinoes
standard mineral
stationary vibration
steel band butt welder
surripe
survey traverse
suspense accounts
tactile sensor
tearily
telamones
Tindal
titanic oxides
tradespark
traditional value
trans-information
true sidereal time
unbalanced cutter chain
very long wave communication
working orthogonal plane
zonal wind