缘的寂静森林

13岁女生雅思三科满分总分全国最高

　　小学到初中免上英语课

　　昨天晚上，鼻梁上架着眼镜、身材娇小的钟琬婷和父母出现在记者面前。谈起这次考试经过，小姑娘轻描淡写地抛出一句：“里面的单词我都会，下个月还要考新题型的‘托福’，那可比雅思更容易、好玩。”

　　并非她骄傲自大。早在10岁时，她就以高分通过了相当于本科生毕业时英语水平的国家公共英语四级考试，并从9岁开始浏览国外数理化网站，还和美国的中学数学资深教师经常通信探讨美国初中生需要做的数学题目。她说，做国外的趣味数学题目的喜悦，让她更加明确了学英语的目的是“更好地使用一个有用的工具。”

　　从小学到初中，因为英语程度远超同龄人，琬婷一直被学校允许免上英语课。在英语课上，除了每个人都要参与的互动性游戏，当别的同学听课时，她却自顾自地阅读英语原著、写英语作文和小说。在她看来，参加包括雅思在内的各类考试不过是“让自己保持学习英语的兴奋度”。

　　值得一提的是，钟琬婷小学四年级便成为《岭南少年报》小记者，曾全英文采访迪斯尼冰上巡演活动，其表现令现场许多“大人记者”都自愧弗如。曾连续3年获得《岭南少年报》优秀小记者称号，并代表报社参加第一届中国优秀小记者评选，获得“明星小记者”称号。

　　厨房里做“面粉爆炸”实验

　　更难得的是，琬婷不仅英语能力出类拔萃，在数学、生物、化学、古文方面也是佼佼者。去年，她刚获得广东省生物联赛一等奖和广州市第一名。最近一次“月考”，她在六门课程中拿了四个“第一名”，总分比第二名竟高出了38.5分。她不好意思地告诉记者，自己最向往的大学是美国麻省理工学院。

　　当着女儿的面，钟妈妈故作埋怨状地告诉记者，女儿最喜欢窝在厨房里面做那些学校没有要求动手操作的实验。最近一次特别惊险，她往面粉罐里使劲打气，然后点燃里面的蜡烛，结果弄出了一场小“爆炸”，搞得地面一团狼藉。

　　和老爸扮演公仔练英文

　　钟琬婷的父母并不否认，女儿的优秀首先得益于“入门方法”得当。钟爸爸是一名高级工程师。刚开始教7岁的琬婷学英语时，他采取了“童话剧”教育的形式：给家里的每个公仔取一个英文名字，父女俩各挑一个角色扮演，对着《英语900句》练习对话。钟爸爸抛开传统音标、记单词、句型的方法，从“hello”等日常用语开始，让孩子学会听说后再练习拼写，绝不用中文翻译的办法帮助记忆。很快，一本厚厚的《英语900句》就被攻克。

　　父母说，女儿并非语言天才，夫妻俩平时用重庆家乡话交谈，她就一直没有学会。但好在小学阶段学习方法对头，引导孩子培养起对英语的兴趣和学习自主性。

　　孩子既要因材施教，更要精心选择“教材”。刚开始起步的时候，一些英语笑话、童话、寓言成了琬婷的“教材”，后来琬婷迷上了《福尔摩斯探案集》、爱伦·坡的著作等英文侦探小说以及浏览国外教学网站，父母也因势利导，让她在实践中学习英语。“最近我刚读完了《哈里·波特》六本英文原著，觉得有些地方的意境中译本翻译得不对。”小姑娘笑眯眯地说。

作者钟琬婷13岁，第一次参加雅思考试，取得了总分8.5分的成绩。 其中，听力9分，阅读9分，写作7分，口语9分。 以下是口试详细过程回忆。

1:23pm

Arrival of the examiner, a small, heavily sun-tanned middle-aged man with a slightly bald head. He gave me a small smile as he went into the test-room and closed the door.

1:25pm

   I was beckoned into the room. On sitting down, I handed him my ID card and watched him check the information. After that, he set a small mp3 recorder on the desk between us and started the interview. First, he stated the place and date of the interview and began asking me questions.

Part 1

Q: What’s your full name?

A: My name is Zhong Wanting and you can also call me Helen.

Q: OK, Helen, where are you from?

A: My hometown is Chengdu, Sichuan, but I’ve stayed in Guangzhou, for more than 12 years.

Q: Can you tell me what you do? Do you work or do you study?

A: I’m a junior high school student, as you can see, and I’m now studying in Grade 9 in Guangdong Experimental Middle School.

Q: What do you study at school?

A: The middle school curriculum. We study a range of different subjects, for example, the 6 main subjects as we like to call them---- Chinese, maths, English, chemistry, physics and politics. Apart from these, we also have P.E. and history. Now we are in Grade 9, which is the tensest and busiest year in junior high school, as we have to prepare for the senior high school entrance examinations. This means that we have to drop some of the courses we have learnt in Grade 7 and 8, such as biology and geography.

Q: Of these parts that you study, which one do you like best?

A: I like chemistry the most, even though we only started it this term, meaning that we have studied it for only 4 months. I really like the various reactions, and how matter changes. The experiments are so amazing. I just love doing things in the chemistry laboratory.

Q: What kinds of clothes do people like to buy?

A: Well, teenagers like to choose clothes that are in, that are trendy, for teens like fashion, especially when they are with their peers. And the elder generation, the adults, tend to buy clothes that are more comfortable to wear and more economic. So, I think the different ways in which young people and older adults choose apparel reflect their different views about fashion, and value.

Q: Can you tell me something about your grandparents?

A: My mother’s father passed away when I was only 2 years old, which means that I do not have a clear, distinct memory of him, but I have seen his picture, and I have heard stories about him from my mother, about how he worked as a pilot in the Chinese army. Grandmother doesn’t live with us now, but we usually phone her on special occasions. On my father’s side, his mother----my grandma, -----passed away when I was in primary school. She died of cancer of the intestines. I miss her very much because she had always been kind to me. My grandfather lives in Chengdu now with my aunt, uncle and cousins as a retired worker. When I was a little child, I used to live with my grandparents (my father’s parents). They took good care of me and were very fond of me because I’m the only girl in my family in my generation.

Q: What roles do grandparents (old people) play in Chinese families?

A: Grandparents are the elders in a family, and are the most respectable figures. They carry with them history and tradition, the deep marks of past years and the heavy burdens of their times. The grandparents of our generation grew up in the darkest times of war and bloodshed and the hardest times of reconstruction after the birth of a new country, and they have a lot of stories from those times to tell their offspring. Grandparents are also more traditional, and usually, it is them who accompany children and teach them how to behave and tell them about the traditional Chinese virtues.

Part 2   Cue Card

[ Talk about a shopping center you are familiar with

l   Where the shopping center is

l   What you can buy

l   How often you go there

and the reason why you like it              ]

The shopping center that I like the most is called Emperor Square. It is settled in Zhongshan road, next to the Zhonghua Plaza, and it’s in the vicinity of my school, so it’s convenient for me to go to. This place is focused on fashion and trend, so it’s very popular among teenagers. At weekends, the place is filled with middle school students. You can buy most of the ‘innest’ things there, such as albums of famous pop stars and comic fan stuff. For boys, there are shops highlighting football, where you can buy pillows with Manchester United or AC Milan’s emblem on them. For girls, there are shops selling fancy clothes, accessories, make-up and cute chains to hang on mobile phones. There are also special shops featuring ‘DIY’, where you can do a range of things from hammering your own silver necklace to making soap and perfumes. We once made a cake of soap ourselves in Junior 1 for our English teacher, who was about to leave China, as a farewell present.

I am not as crazy about shopping as many of my peers, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t shop at all. I go to the Emperor Square more frequently than other places, about twice or three times a month. I still remember the first time I visited the place with my friends. It was right after an important exam, and my friends decided to go out to relax. When they invited me, I agreed, and I went to the Square with them. From then on I have always regarded the Emperor Square as an interesting place to be.

I am not as rich as others, and sometimes I don’t have enough money with me, but even window-shopping there is highly enjoyable. Just strolling in the maze-like corridors and alleys and studying the exquisitely displayed commodities is a pleasure. Also, we have found this shopping center a good place to purchase birthday presents for our friends, since in the various stores there you can certainly find something suitable for a teenage friend. I really like the Emperor Square, a place of shopping surprises.

Q: Are there many people in the shopping center you just described?

A: Yes, and most of them are teenage students as I have mentioned.

Part 3   General Questions

Q: What features do you think a successful shopping center must acquire?

A: In my opinion, a successful shopping center must, in the first place, be clear about what sort of customers they need to attract------does it focus on customers of a certain category, for example, sports lovers or old people? Or does it want to attract the general public? With this in mind, a shopping center can then import the correct goods to sell.

Also, the shopping place needs to be well furnished, equipped with adequate facilities, such as comfortable air-conditioning and spacious, easily accessible lifts. I don’t think anybody would like to shop at a construction site!

Then, the commodities the shopping center sells should be both modest in price and high in quality. Everybody likes things that are nice and cheap.

Last but not least, the service in a shopping center should be enhanced in order to attract more customers. Shop-assistants must be friendly to customers and willing to serve them well. There are picky shoppers who find fault with everything and can’t make up their minds. A shop-assistant then, must be patient with them instead of being annoyed, and should try his best to satisfy the customers’ needs and help them choose what fits them best.

Q: What do you think can be done to make a shopping center more attractive?

A: First of all, adjustments can be made to a shopping center’s facilities to make them more comfortable. More kinds of goods can be added to the storage and arranged in such a way that they can be more convenient for customers to access to.

Secondly, more sales activities can be held to raise interest. For example, a sales season around Christmas can attract many shoppers, and there can be more commodities on discount ----- cheaper merchandise means more buyers! Also, a shopping center can invite famous people, such as pop singers, to help promote its goods and entertain customers. These activities can certainly make a shopping center more popular.

Q: What do you think are the benefits of Internet shopping?

A: Talking about Internet shopping, I often buy books via the Internet, and I really enjoy this kind of shopping.

Internet shopping can save you a lot of time and energy. If you shop in the traditional way, you may have to run all around the city and turn all the shops upside down just for one special article. It may also cost you a whole morning and you may feel exhausted at the end of the day. However, if you do your shopping on the Internet, you can simply key in a few words and with a click of the mouse, your order is off and you can wait for your merchandise to be delivered to you.

Internet shopping is much more convenient than traditional shopping. It can be hard for you to find something you need, for it may be tucked away in a corner of a shop. Yet on the Internet, you can just search for the merchandise you need, and receive the result a second later.

1:42 pm

The examiner told me that it was the end of the speaking test. After saying goodbye, I left the room. I felt that I had done quite well in the speaking section.