Describe an animal you find interesting

這張題卡的準備方式

這張題卡（cue card）考的是描述用的詞彙，以及你說明自己為什麼感興趣、為什麼著迷的能力，不是考生物學知識，所以你對這種動物的事實了解只有一般程度也不必擔心。考官想聽的是清楚的描述，包括外觀、棲息地、行為，再加上你真實而具體的興趣理由，而不是像百科全書條目那樣背誦的一串事實。

選一種你能用英文有把握地描述的動物，最好是和某個個人回憶有關的：寵物、紀錄片裡令你印象深刻的動物，或是你在動物園或野外看過的動物。一種與具體回憶相連的動物，自然就回答了「how you learned about it」，也讓整個回答有敘事的形狀，而不只是平淡的描述。

用大約20秒說明是哪一種動物、住在哪裡，用30～40秒說明你是怎麼第一次認識或遇到牠的，剩下的時間說明牠為什麼特別讓你覺得有趣，例如某種行為、某種能力，或是牠讓你領悟到的某件事。更有反思性的語言就用在這裡。

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：

• animal: octopus, saw documentary
• lives: oceans worldwide, mostly seabed
• learned: nature documentary, then read more online
• interesting: intelligence, camouflage, short lifespan
• closing: makes me question what “smart” means

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。你自己選的動物和你的想法應該決定真正的內容。

The animal I find genuinely interesting is the octopus, which I first learned about properly through a nature documentary a few years ago, and then ended up reading a fair amount about afterwards out of curiosity. They live in oceans all over the world, usually somewhere near the seabed, often hidden in crevices or among rocks, which actually connects to one of the things I find most fascinating about them: their ability to change both colour and texture almost instantly to blend into their surroundings. Watching footage of one essentially disappearing against a rock, then reappearing a second later, was honestly one of the most surprising things I’d seen in a documentary in a long time.

What makes them interesting to me, beyond the camouflage, is how intelligent they apparently are, despite being so different from us biologically — they can solve fairly complex problems, apparently recognise individual people, and in some recorded cases have even escaped from supposedly secure tanks. What I find genuinely thought-provoking about that is how short their lives typically are, often only a year or two, which means all that intelligence exists briefly and then is essentially lost. It made me question, in a small way, how narrowly we usually define intelligence, since we tend to associate it with animals more similar to us, like primates, rather than something as alien-looking as an octopus. It’s a small thing, perhaps, but it genuinely changed how I think about animal intelligence in general.

這張題卡的常見錯誤

• 背誦關於這種動物的一般事實，卻沒有任何個人連結或感興趣的理由。
• 選了一種你無法用英文描述的動物，結果卡在詞彙上。
• 跳過「how you learned about it」，這是一個簡單又自然、容易發展的要點。
• 以籠統的理由收尾，例如「it’s cute」或「it’s cool」，而不是具體說明的理由。