智联学堂| 浅析雅思口语中的“对比类”问题

智联Lily

在雅思口语考试中，让考生们对比两种事物或情景似乎是考官们的“心头好”。不管是在Part 1或是Part 3, 这样的问题比比皆是。笔者也能理解这类问题受到考官们如此宠爱的原因，因为它真的能让考官们快速掂量出考生们的口语水平，所以要想让考官们在内心给你点赞，这类问题我们一定要攻克下来。本文中，笔者将从以下几点分析这类话题的回答技巧。

说到底，对比类问题的实质其实就是Make comparison。当你在考场中听到考官抛出的问题里含有“differences”, “prefer”, “which…”, “changes”, “advantages and disadvantages”等词汇，你就一定要敏感地捕捉到考官问的是对比类问题了，此时，回答对比类问题的“特技”就要甩出来了。
特技一：比较级

两者进行比较时，使用比较级算是最基本的“特技”了，比如eating at home is cheaper than eating out. 这种入门级的技巧只要分清楚什么样的形容词直接在单词后面加上-er或是-ier, 而什么样的形容词要在前面加上more就行了。

特技二：比较级的修饰

如果你在回答此类问题时，能有意识地使用一些词汇或是短语来修饰比较级的程度，那你就比其他考生更容易打动考官的心了，比如下面的几个例句：
1. Eating at home is far cheaper than eating out.
2. Travelling with others is a lot more fun than traveling on your own.
3. Going to a concert live is way more exciting than watching one on TV.
4. The pace of life in cities is quite a lot faster than the countryside.
5. Life in the countryside is quite a bit more laid-back than life in the city.
6. Swimming in the sea is considerably more dangerous than swimming in a pool.

标注出来的词汇就是用来表示比较的程度，除了我们常见的表达“much”, 这些用法能让你的口语脱颖而出！而如果两者对比的效果不是很强烈，我们可以用到以下的表达：
1. Studying with others is a bit more enjoyable tan studying on your own.
2. Traveling by coach is slightly more expensive than traveling by train.
3. Newspapers are relatively more informative than magazines.
4. Photos of people are generally a bit more interesting to look at than photos of scenery.

从以上的例子我们就可以看出副词的高级之处了。用slightly, relatively这样的副词来表示轻微的对比也正是体现了口语表达讲究细节化，具体化！另外，如果大家厌倦了经常用”more”来进行比较，我们还可以尝试去用”less”来替换，增强表达的多样性，比如下面的四个例句：
1. Watching a concert at home is a lot less fun than going to one live.
2. Life is the countryside is generally less stressful than life in the city.
3. Watching a concert at home isn’t as fun as watching it on TV.
4. Mobile phones are generally not as expensive as they used to be.

特技三：时态的多样性

除了比较级，对比类问题的回答还常常涉及到时态的变化。笔者借用Part 3来进行进一步的阐述。Part 3中的对比类问题一般分为五大类：中外、古今、老少、男女、大小。而“古今类”的对比，考生们最容易忽视时态的先后对比，笔者以下面的三个例句为代表：
1. Most cities now are extremely congested, whereas in the past, there didn’t use to be that much traffic on the roads.
2. In the past, people used to spend a lot of their free time watching television, whereas nowadays, they are probably spending more time on the internet.
3. In the past, there used to be only a limited variety of restaurants, whereas nowadays, there’s a much wider range of places to eat at.

以上的三个例句中都进行了过去和现在情景的比较，而标注出的表达正是体现出考生对于时态的精确把握。这点其实在回答此类问题时尤为重要。除此以外，在进行过去和现在的对比时，我们还经常运用到的表达有：
1. Cities are a lot more congested than they used to be.
2. The air quality in my hometown isn’t as good as it used to be.
3. Life is more stressful than it used to be.

1. Cities have become a lot more congested.
2. The air quality in most cities has got quite a lot worse.
3. The quality of films in my country has improved quite a bit.

最后笔者想要提醒考生的是，口语的表达想要地道、出彩，无需运用多么华丽的词汇或是复杂的句型，只要细节化具体化一些，离理性的分数仅是一步之遥，两者进行对比的时候，很多学生都会用“…than other…”这样的句型，比如The service in Haidilao is better than other restaurants. 但是如果你再多走一小步，多用了一两个简单的词汇，你的口语就会更加的地道，比如以下的例句：
1. “…than most other restaurants”
2. “…than many other restaurants”
3. “…than a lot of other restaurants”
4. “…than the majority of other restaurants I’ve been to”

所以，综上所述，对比类问题看似简单，其实确实简单，但简单的问题考生们想要回答得出彩，却不简单，需要大家能够意识到考官们想听到什么样的回答，再投其所好抛给他们。这样一来，口语上6分+也只是轻轻松松的事情啦。