托福，到底有多難？

When it comes to preparing for the TOEFL, the difficulty of the test is the elephant in the room (meaning everyone is wondering about it, but no one quite knows what to do). Unfortunately, there』s no simple answer to this question. The research that has been done on the subject has one major, unavoidable flaw: it』s very difficult to scientifically determine language difficulty. With that in mind, let』s take a look at the individual sections of the test and consider their difficulty as best we can.

當人們開始著手準備托福時，考試的困難之處就像屋中象（意思是每個人都想要去知道它，可是沒人知道到底該去做什麼。）。不幸的是，這個問題沒有簡單的答案。在這個問題上所做的研究有一個重大的、不可避免的缺陷:很難科學地確定語言的難度。考慮到這一點，讓我們來看看考試的各個部分，並儘可能地考慮它們的困難程度。

Generally speaking, TOEFL reading is near the same difficulty as reading authentic American news sources, although the subject matter and vocabulary aren』t exactly the same. News media are not as focused on science and history as the TOEFL is.

一般來說，托福的閱讀和閱讀權威美國新聞資源幾乎是一樣的困難，儘管主題和辭彙並不完全相同。新聞媒體不像托福那樣注重科學和歷史。

That academic focus is a large part of the difficulty. According to a study from 2012, TOEFL reading is slightly more difficult than the average written English text, largely because the reading section uses more academic vocabulary. But this sense of 「difficulty」 depends on your native language, in part. That』s because there is no conversational, informal English in the text—only material you might find in a book that you read for a university class. And if your native language has Latin roots (e.g. Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, or French), then academic English may be easy compared to informal English, because academic English often has Latin roots. If your mother tongue isn』t Latin-based, though, those academic words are more difficult, because they are rare in general English. Words like 「comprise,」 for example, show up more often in TOEFL reading, but only rarely in relaxed speech.

很大一部分困難來源於學術上。根據2012年的一項研究，托福考試比一般的書面英語測試要略微難一些，很大程度上是因為閱讀部分使用了更多的學術辭彙。但這種「困難」的感覺，在某種程度上取決於你的母語。這是因為在你為大學課程所讀的書中，你可能會找到一種只有文本的材料，而不是那種只有對話的、非正式的英語。如果你的母語有拉丁詞根(如西班牙語、義大利語、葡萄牙語或法語)，那麼與通俗英語相比，學術英語可能比較容易，因為學術英語通常有拉丁詞根。如果你的母語不是拉丁語系，那麼這些學術辭彙就更難了，因為它們在一般英語中是很少見的。例如，像「comprise」這樣的詞在托福考試中經常出現，但在不嚴格的口語交談中卻很少出現。

Meanwhile, the timing of the reading section can also cause some serious trouble. You must be able to read those academic texts at a natural pace. Maybe you can work slowly through an article in the New Yorker with the help of a dictionary, but that doesn』t mean you』re going to get a top score on TOEFL reading. You have to read 750 words and answer 14 multiple choice questions in just 20 minutes.

That said, the TOEFL reading is easier than reading comprehension on the GRE, GMAT, or SAT, because you don』t need to understand as many subtle details. You only really need the plain information that is written, rather than the author』s intentions.

與此同時，閱讀部分的時間控制也會帶來一些嚴重的問題。你必須能夠以自然的速度閱讀那些學術文章。也許你詞典的幫助下慢慢的去完全的理解一篇《紐約客》上的文章，但這並不表示你將在托福考試中獲得高分。你必須在20分鐘內閱讀750個單詞，並回答14個選擇題。

也就是說，托福考試比GRE、GMAT或SAT的閱讀理解要容易，因為你不需要理解很多微妙的細節。你只需要了解字面上顯而易見的信息，而不是作者的意圖。

For a lot of students, the listening section is the hardest. The reading section has the hardest vocabulary, but the listening section gives us two major problems that the reading doesn』t. First of all, the recordings, though they are slightly slower than natural speech, are otherwise completely natural. They include all the 「umms,」 「likes,」 「y』knows,」 and sloppy pronunciation that make American speech sound the way it does. Second, you can only hear each recording once, and they can be over five minutes long. It』s tough to pay attention that long, and it』s even tougher to remember the information from the beginning of the lecture once you get to the questions. If you can listen to lots authentic speech (TV shows, for example), then you』re in a good position.

對很多學生來說，聽力部分是最難的。閱讀部分有最難的辭彙，但是聽力部分給了我們兩個主要的問題，而閱讀卻沒有。首先，這些錄音雖然比自然語言稍慢，但卻是完全自然的。它們包括所有的「umms」、「likes」、「y』knows」，以及聽起來像美國人交談那樣草率的發音。其次，你只能聽一次錄音，而且錄音可能超過五分鐘。這麼長時間一直集中注意力是很難的，更難的是當你開始回答問題時，要去記起講稿開始時的信息。如果你能聽很多真實的演講(比如電視節目)，那麼你就處於一個有利的位置了。

That』s not to say that the TOEFL listening is very similar to American or English TV. It』s not. TV shows are much more difficult, on average, because characters speak more quickly, use more idioms, and often speak at the same time as each other. TOEFL listening is comparatively simple (even though it is often academic, about scientific topics). But keep in mind that the listening section is difficult largely because of the amount of information you hear and the expectations of memory. You need to take notes and remember a lot of detail!

那並不是說托福聽力和美國或英國電視節目很相似。不是的。通常來說，電視節目要困難得多，因為節目中的人物說話更快，使用更多的習語，而且經常在同一時間為彼此說話。托福聽力相對來說比較簡單(儘管它通常是學術性的，關於科學的話題)。但請記住，聽力部分之所以困難，很大程度上是因為你聽到的信息量大和對自己記憶的預期過高。你需要記筆記來幫助你記住很多細節！

I』m going to group these two sections into one, here, because they』re equally hard to measure. Consider two things:

在這裡，我要把這兩部分歸結成一個整體，因為他們同樣難以評估。我們需要考慮兩件事情：

• 2/3 of speaking and 1/2 of writing are about reading and/or listening

• There are no 「right」 or 「wrong」 answers to measure difficulty with

On that first point, the difficulty of these sections is very similar to the difficulty of the other sections, because they include the same skills, the same academic vocabulary, and the same 「natural」 speech that you listen to. So you might say that these two sections are similar in difficult to the reading and listening sections.

2/3的口語和1/2的寫作是關於閱讀和聽力的

沒有「正確」或「錯誤」的答案來衡量困難

在第一點上，這部分的難度與其他部分的難度非常相似，因為它們包含相同的技能，相同的學術辭彙，以及你所聽的相同的「自然」的講稿。所以你可能會說這兩個部分的難度與閱讀和聽力部分是相似的。

But on the other hand, answering a question such as 「Name a person you respect, and explain why」 can give a very wide range of answers, depending on your level of English. So you might say that it』s a 「hard」 question because you can give a complicated answer. But you could also say it』s 「easy,」 because a simple answer with common vocabulary is also possible. What I mean to say is that the difficulty here is based largely on how advanced your vocabulary and grammar are. It』s really just a range from non-communicative up to native-speaking. The difficulty depends on you and your vocabulary and grammar.

但另一方面，回答一個問題，比如「說出一個你尊敬的人的名字，並解釋為什麼」可以給出非常寬泛的回答，這取決於你的英語水平。所以你可能會說這是一個「很難」的問題，因為你可以給出一個複雜的答案。但你也可以說這很簡單，因為一個普通辭彙組成簡單的答案也是可行的。我想說的是，這裡的困難很大程度上取決於你的辭彙和語法有多高級。這只是一個從無法交流到說母語的範圍。困難的大小取決於你和你的辭彙量的多少和語法水平的高低。