大学英语四topic

Unit 1Talk about the power of humor and share the humorous story or typical joke with your classmates.What is your favorite film and why do you like it so much?Unit 2Is Letter Writing Better than Calling?Does criticism does more harm than good? Why?Unit 3What are the characteristics of the ideal wife and the ideal husband?Who are teachers pets, boys or girls? How to avoid gender bias in the classroom?Unit 4Which should be emphasized in education, knowledge or creativity?What do you think parents can do at home to encourage a childs creativity? nit5 What is your favorite sport? How do you benefit from it? Should athletes be role models?Unit6Why would people like to take risks?What are the links between health risks and environmental pollution?Unit 7Talk about the similarities and differences between your expectations of college life and the reality1.Talk about the power of humor. Share the humorous story or typical joke with your classmates.A: I think humor is a very important quality for a person or for getting along with others. I like to be with humorous people. They are like sunshine and therefore very popular with others. B: Yes, together with humorous people, life becomes more interesting and enjoyable. But it doesnt mean everybody can understand the humor in a particular situation. C: I agree. Its well-known that laughter is the best medicine. I enjoy jokes because jokes can always make people laugh. They can help me when I am in a bad mood.D: Cross-talk is very popular in China. Its popularity lies in its humorous language, the performers quick wits, their funny gestures and their presentation skills. And it is close to real life so that it is popular with the audience. E: I cant agree more. I like slap-stick best. It is cross-talk too. Slap-stick is the most obvious humor. Its language is simple and direct. It is full of fun. It appeals to all ages and all cultures.A: Humorous people can make me laugh when I am unhappy. They can change an awkward situation and help people get rid of embarrassment by making everybody laugh.B: But humorous people require understanding from their listeners. When they laugh, communication is successful. However, sometimes humor can cause misunderstandings.C: When I have time I usually read some jokes in the newspaper or in books. There are many jokes which meet the needs of people of different age groups. I also like reading cartoons and comic strips.D: Take a joke for example, one man asks another, “ Who was that lady I saw you with last night?” The other replies, “That was no lady, that was my wife”. The humor lies in the fact that the second man is saying that his wife is not a lady.E: Cross talk uses bitter irony or funny teasing to amuse people. It can not only make people laugh but also make people think. It makes people compare our ideal life with our real life.A: Our life cant lack humor, otherwise our life will be very dull and boring.B: Humor can make us forget our worries and concerns.C: Humor can make us young and happy.D: Humor can make us feel at ease.E: Humor can make us live in harmony with other people.2. What is your favorite film and why do you like it so much?A: My favorite film is “Gone with the wind”. I love the film because the story is very touching and the topic thought-provoking. Vivian and Clark acted as Scarlet and Rhett Butler. Both are very famous and both acted very well.B: I like it（Gone with the wind） too. The story happened during the American Civil war. It was about love and war. I was deeply touched by Scarlets love for Ashley and Rhetts love for Scarlet. In both cases the love was so pure and hopeless.C: Yes, it is the most attractive part of the movie. When I watched the movie I hoped that Scarlet could realize how deeply Rhett loved her and repay his love. I cried when at the end of the movie their daughter, Bonnie, died and Rhett left ScarletD: Forrest Gump is my favorite. Forrest Gump who is unfortunately to be born with a lower IQ and the muscle problem, usually, people always think this kind of person cant be successful in doing anything. But, instead, this unlucky man has achieved incredible a series of success, he is a football star, a war hero, table tennis star, and later a millionaire!E: I m also deeply impressed by the film Forrest Gump. After having seen the film, I know everybody can succeed if they work hard and never give up.A: The love in “Gone with the wind” is a tragedy. The most tragic thing is that no one can really understand what love is. That is also the case with Scarlett. She loved Rhett, but she didnt know that. She thought she still loved Ashley, so did Rhett.B: Ashley stood in the way of their marriage, like a shadow that couldnt be waved away. I admire Scarlet because she is a brave, independent, courageous, and intelligent woman, though she is selfish and willful.C: I agree. Love is blind. Just as the saying goes, “A woman will be unwise when she is falling in love.” And that is one of the reasons for high divorce rate in the society.D: After having seen the film, I know people may encounter many unexpected unpleasant incidents, but if only we are brave enough to face them, we will overcome themE: I cant agree more. Differences exist in IO, but peoples IO dose not matter much. If we are determined to overcome every obstacle and difficulty, we are bound to succeed in the end. So we should be optimistic and confident even in hard times.3. Is Letter Writing Better than Calling?A: Writing a letter is not only a means of communication, but also a kind of pleasure. What is more, the letters can be kept and read again and again. Letters can express our profound ideas and deep feelings and inner thoughts.B: Sometimes letters are inspiring, and sometimes they are encouraging. You can write a lot of things in a letter and it dose not cost you much money to mail it. You can spend however much time you like writing a letter and you can write it again and again before you mail it.C: But letter writing is slow, and you have to wait a long time to get a response from your friends. On the other hand, making telephone calls is much faster, so they are more appropriate when you need a quick reply.D: But telephoning is expensive, and sometimes you cannot remember all the comments that are made because calls can not last very long, and cannot be kept for reading later like treasured letters.E: The conventional way of sending messages is writing a letter. It is one of the most commonly used ways of communication. With the development of science and technology, the telephone becomes so popular that it is indispensable in our daily life.A: I cant agree more. Letters can be kept for a long time. I treasure all letters from my friends and reread them in my spare time. They can accompany for ever. To me they are the symbols of friendship.B: When you write a letter you have enough time to think about how to express your ideas, so you wont say anything that shouldnt be said. So you can avoid some mistakes when writing a letter. C: I agree. But phones also enable you to hear your friends voice, which gives you a wonderful feeling. It is so easy just to pick up the phone and call whereas writing takes more energy.D: But when you are talking on the phone, sometimes you say something unconsciously that you may regret, or you may make a comment that will cause misunderstanding or that will hurt your friend or relations.E: It is difficult to say which is better. Every means of communication has its advantages and disadvantages. So it is very hard to say which is better. The only thing we can do is to make a wise choice between writing and calling according to the situation.4. Does criticism do more harm than good? Why?A: Everybody has self-respect and everyone wants others to respect him. So sometimes criticism will make others lose face, will do harm to people.B: Yes. But no one can be perfect, and everyone has one kind of fault or another. Criticism can make people know their shortcomings and help them overcome their shortcomings.C: I cant agree more. Just as the saying goes, “to err is human, forgive divine.” Nobody can avoid making mistakes and its never too late to mend.D: Yes. Criticism and self-criticism can make people progress. Only compliments and flatteries make people too proud and conceited. So we should listen to and accept others criticism.E: I agree, but frequent criticism can make people lose heart and discourage them from facing and overcoming difficulties. So we should be cautious when pointing out others mistakes.A: So we should use proper ways to point out others mistakes, which will generate negative effects on people otherwise and lead to quarrel or tense relationship.B: Yes, but we cant wink at others mistakes esp. serious mistakes which will result in bad consequences. For example, if a student who is often late for class doesnt receive any criticism, he will stick to the bad habit.C: If a student is often late for class, he must be disinterested in his studies. When he does a good job in his studies, we should praise him in time, which will encourage and interest him to work hard.D: Yes, we should be generous with compliments and uplifting words which will make people feel the warmth and enthusiasm around them.E: My teachers powerful words “nothing is difficult if you put your heart into it.” inspire me very much，which will help me to overcome every obstacle and difficulty.A: Criticism will result in bad effect while uplifting words will inspire people.B: Mistakes lead to success, so we should not be afraid of mistakes, nor should we fear criticism.C: Appropriate criticism will help people and inappropriate criticism will harm people.D: Whether criticism does harm or good to people just depends. 5. What are the characteristics of the ideal wife and the ideal husband?A: Traditionally women dont have to be well educated so long as their husbands could support the family. A preferred virtue of women is being loyal and good at house-keeping.B: Now the ideal husband should be rich, well-educated and have a good career. He must be kind, generous and loyal to his wife and family. He should be reliable supportive to the family. And he should share most of interests with his wife.C: An ideal wife should be capable of understanding her husband and support her husbands career. The wife should be intelligent and well-educated and have the same interests as the husband. The wife should also be a good cook to make the family healthy.D: The ideal wife should be kind-hearted and be able to care about and educate her child. The wife should be thrifty and able to make good care of the husband and child. The wife should be independent and have her own career. The wife should have a steady income and be able to support herself. E: The ideal wife should be able to get along well with the family but also be able to live in harmony with the society. The wife can communicate well with others and help and concern for others when they need help and concern. The wife should be modest and polite, and will not be a gossip.A: I think the ideal wife should be beautiful and be able to make herself look beautiful. B: The ideal husband should be good at his career and focus on his course. He should make great contributions to the society.C: The ideal husband should keep fit and be strong. He should be healthy enough to take on the heavy burn of the family and the society.D: The ideal wife should be a good teacher and friend of the child and the husband. The wife can lead the family to live a good and colorful life.E: The ideal husband should be considerate and thoughtful. He can budget the money and work out good plans for the family. He can help the wife do some housework and help the child do some homework.6. Who are teachers pets, boys or girls? How to avoid gender bias in the classroom?A: The teachers pets are the top students because people always like the best things or the best people. The top students can answer the teachers questions correctly and do well in homework.B: I cant agree more. It is easy for the top students to draw the teachers attention. Average students have fewer chances to have close contact with teachers, let alone to be their pets.C: “Male teachers tend to like girls better and female teachers tend to like boys better.” which gender will be the teachers pets depends on the teachers gender. Obviously, it is all because of the attraction between the sexes.D: Teachers like boys more than girls. Teachers are used to asking boys to answer questions and letting them do hands-on work. It was not because teachers like boys better, but because they think girls are afraid of losing face.E: I think teachers like girls more than boys because girls are more obedient and neat. They can and are willing to help teachers do things. Whats more, girls generally get higher marks in exams.A: I never thought girls would be ignored even if they were good students. Perhaps some teachers prefer girls in primary school and boys in middle school. But, all in all, I think the top students are always teachers pets.B: We should avoid gender bias in the classroom. Boys and girls should be treated equally by teachers. You see, we human beings are born equal. There should be no discrimination in gender differences.C: I think some schools should enroll single-sex students. That is to say the students in the school are only boys or girls. In this kind of school, there is the single same gender, so there will be no gender bias. D: I agree. But such schools will be much boring. To avoid gender bias, a few schools have introduced single-sex groups for math and science, and found significant improvements in girls results. E: Right. Separating boys and girls within schools for some subjects rather than a return to single-sex schools is the most hopeful solution.7. Which should be emphasized in education, knowledge or creativity ?A: Both are equally important, and no system should emphasize only one. Knowledge involves facts and skills which are essential, but creativity allows you to do original things with your knowledge.B: I cant agree more. If I had to emphasize one, I would choose creativity since it is more important than facts and figures that will be forgotten. But without knowledge, how can we create?C: We know knowledge is important to our growth intellectually. Knowledge is the foundation for creativity, without knowledge creativity is the castle in the air. However, in most cases, knowledge will go out of date and need to be updated from time to time.D: So in education, its more important to show students the way of obtaining knowledge than knowledge itself. Equipped with ways to gain knowledge, we are able to update our knowledge all the time.E: Of course, creativity is important. We can safely say that without creativity there would be no modern world. Anything new is the product of creativity. So schools should emphasize both ways of gaining knowledge and creativity.A: In primary school and middle school we should attach importance to knowledge, but in higher education we should emphasize creativity. To develop our country creativity is essential.B: Yes. Success has often been linked to creativity. First, students should be allowed to free their imagination. Students also have to have strange ideas and ask foolish questions, for they can sometimes lead to creativity.C: In addition, Mistakes lead to success. Students should be allowed to have foolish ideas and make mistakes. This will help create a good atmosphere for creative thought.D: At the same time, students should read, think and discuss with others. This process will enable them to gain inspiration from other people. For example they can read about famous inventors and examples of creativity.E: Yes. As university students we have to own much knowledge but also have creativity. Knowledge is the solid foundation to create new things, and creativity in return helps us have more and more knowledge.8. How can universities improve students scientific and technological abilities for innovation?A: I think to improve students scientific and technological abilities for innovation, the universities should make students grasp as much knowledge as possible and have creativity. In higher education we should emphasize creativity. To develop our country creativity is essential.B: Yes. Success has often been linked to creativity. First, students should be allowed to free their imagination. Students also have to have strange ideas and ask foolish questions, for they can sometimes lead to creativity.C: In addition, Mistakes lead to success. Students should be allowed to have foolish ideas and make mistakes. This will help create a good atmosphere for creative thought.D: At the same time, students should read, think and discuss with others. This process will enable them to gain inspiration from other people. For example they can read about famous inventors and examples of creativity.E: Its more important to show students the way of obtaining knowledge than knowledge itself. Equipped with ways to gain knowledge, we are able to update our knowledge all the time.A: Practice makes perfect. Universities should have first rate equipments for students to do every important experiment in the lab. After the experiment students should think and discuss with each other about the experiment.B: Yes. Experience plays a very important role in students scientific and technological innovations. So after the experiment students should write down the process and result of the experiment.C: Universities should encourage students to go out school and into the society to go throug