Describe a time you received good news

這張題卡的準備方式

這張題卡（cue card）要你直接用過去式敘述，所以主要的風險是選到太瑣碎、幾乎沒有情緒可說的消息，或太重大又罕見、細節聽起來不可信的消息。一則你能清楚記得的真實好消息，例如工作錄取通知、考試成績、入學許可，或是關於家人的好消息，正好提供三個要點和「and explain」那一行所要求的材料。

順序在這裡很重要。考官會聽你是否交代清楚事情的先後：消息如何傳到你這裡、你當下的反應，以及接著你告訴了誰。最好把這三個環節分開規劃，不要混在一起，尤其「how you found out」和「how you felt」，不先在腦中分開，很容易搞混。

關於感受的那一項，是展現自然、不那麼正式的說法的好機會，不用怕描述有點混亂但誠實的反應，例如驚訝、難以置信、想立刻告訴別人的衝動，而不是平淡的「I was happy」，光是這句話通常得不到什麼分數。

讓回答更出色的詞彙

1分鐘準備計畫

在1分鐘的準備時間裡，可以寫下：

• news: what it was, background context
• how found out: method, moment
• who told: order, reactions
• how felt: honest, specific emotion

範例回答

以下是這張題卡完整回答的一種寫法，用來示範結構和程度，不是要你照背。

I’d like to talk about the day I found out I’d been accepted onto a university exchange programme I’d applied for almost six months earlier. I found out through an email that arrived while I was actually in the middle of a lecture, and I remember trying to read it discreetly under the desk because I’d been checking my inbox obsessively for weeks by that point. The moment I saw the word “congratulations” in the subject line, I genuinely couldn’t focus on anything else for the rest of the class, and I think I read the whole email about four times just to be sure I hadn’t misunderstood it. As soon as the lecture ended, I called my mother straight away, since she’d been almost as anxious about the outcome as I had, and I could hear how relieved she was even before I’d fully explained what the email said. After that, I told a couple of close friends who’d been through the same application process, one of whom was still waiting to hear back, so I tried to be a little careful about how I shared it rather than seeming like I was showing off. Honestly, I felt a strange mix of emotions — genuinely over the moon, but also slightly in disbelief, since I’d half convinced myself I wouldn’t get in after such a long wait. It probably took a full day for the news to properly sink in, and I remember still smiling about it randomly for the rest of that week.

這張題卡的常見錯誤

• 選了太模糊或太微小的消息，結果對自己的反應沒有什麼具體可說。
• 跳過「how you found out」，這是三個要點之一，不是可有可無的細節。
• 只用一個平淡的形容詞描述感受，而不是具體、自然的語言。
• 以一般性的現在式描述這則消息，而失去了過去式的敘述主線。