TOEFL  - Speaking
Question 3
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Directions: In this question, you will read a short announcement and then listen to a dialogue on the same topic. You will then answer a question about them. After you hear the question, you will have 30 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to speak.  

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Narrator: The Alumni Office has issued a notice about a new sports facility. Read the announcement about the new facility. You will have 45 seconds to read the announcement. Begin reading now.

 

 

Announcement of New Sports Facility

The Alumni Office of Central State University is pleased to announce that construction of a new sports facility will commence this summer. Due in part to a very generous grant from a 1974 alumnus, Jason Chitwood, the new facility will include an indoor basketball court, a swimming pool, an indoor track, and a climbing wall. The groundbreaking ceremony will be on April 7th with construction to begin shortly thereafter. The project is scheduled to be completed by summer of 2009.

 

 

Narrator: Listen to two students as they discuss the announcement.

 

Student 1(female): Jeez, I can see where the school’s priorities lie.

 

Student 2(male): What do you mean?

 

Student 1: After a big donation from an alumnus, the first thing this school does is announce that it’s upgrading its sports program. What about the library, or the old dorms, or the science building?

 

Student 2: Well, we already have all those things. What we don’t have is an indoor track, or a climbing wall, or an indoor pool.

 

Student 1: I don’t see why they couldn’t use that money to build a new science building or an addition to the library. Half of the library’s books are in storage. I have to have classes in the basement of the science building because we don’t have many classrooms.

 

Student 2: A new library or science building might be nice, but after that, they won’t draw in much money. A new sports facility will bring in basketball ticket money so that the school can do more things to improve in the future.

 

Student 1: But with a new library and science building, we can entice more students to come to our university and have more tuition money.

 

Narrator: Now get ready to answer the question.

 

Narrator: The woman expresses her opinion about the announcement made by the Alumni Office. State her opinion and explain the reasons she gives for holding that opinion.

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The woman is upset that the university is building a new sports facility. The university has just received a large donation of money from a past alumnus, and now the money is going towards sports rather than updating other facilities on campus. The woman thinks this is wrong. She thinks that the money should be used for a new library. She says half of the library’s books are in storage. The woman also thinks that the money should be used for a new science building instead of a new sports complex. She has to have her science classes in the basement of the building because there aren’t enough classrooms. She thinks it would be better to update the non-sports part of the university so that more students will want to come to the university. She thinks the money from new students’ tuition will be more than the money the university will make from building a new sports complex.