雅思口语话题卡---勾魂话题2

朗阁海外考试研究中心  王元

    雅思口语考试第二部分的话题卡中有部分话题难度较大，我们把这类话题卡叫做“勾魂话题”。很多考生碰到较难的话题，就会六神无主，胡乱回答。虽然这些话题需要不少专业词汇，但我们也可以做出相应的准备。朗阁雅思培训老师给考生们准备了一些较难的话题卡，以及相应的参考答案，如果考生不能记住全文，请务必记住每一题的回答思路。
勾魂卡片举例如下：

★ 艺术

A work of art
Describe a work of art you have seen or heard about.
You should say:
what the work of art is
where you saw it
when you saw it
and explain why you think it is special.

Talking about a work of art, I want to talk about Leonardo da Vinci''s famous Mona Lisa. Any list of the world''s top ten most famous paintings will surely include da Vinci''s Mona Lisa, and everyone can easily recognize this portrait. Part of the painting''s appeal is its mystery.

This masterpiece was painted in the 16th century, during the Italian Renaissance（文艺复兴）. The oil painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose facial expression is often described as enigmatic（神秘的）.

The sitter was the wife of a rich merchant of Florence. Her first name was Lisa and Mona is a contraction（缩写）of ma Donna, which means "my lady" in Italian. Da Vinci had worked on the portrait for 3 years, and then put it away for a couple of years before finishing it right before his death.

The amazing amount of time he spent on the painting explains why it is such a masterpiece. Everyone knows that Mona Lisa displays a mysterious smile. It is said that the shadows from her cheekbones play visual tricks（在视觉上给我们开了玩笑）. When we look directly at the mouth, our central vision doesn''t see the shadows, so the smile suddenly disappears. As our eyes scan different parts of the portrait, Mona''s smile seems to fade in and out. The ambiguity（含糊）of the sitter''s expression was a novel quality that has contributed to the painting''s continuing fascination. It is perhaps the most famous and iconic（标志性的）painting in the world.

Da Vinci said that he wanted to represent eternal femininity (=womanliness). I guess he succeeded, because she has been one of the most famous women in the world for more than 500 years!

The painting also comes with some amazing stories. I learned that at the beginning of the 20th century, the painting was stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris. It took the police 2 years to recover it.

Although I don''t know much about art, I truly hope to get a chance to travel to Europe in the future. The architecture, the fountains, the statues and the old buildings there must be breathtaking. And I will definitely stop in Paris to admire the Mona Lisa. It must be a once-in-a-life-time experience.

{背景知识}
《蒙娜丽莎》是一幅享有盛誉的肖像画杰作。它代表达•芬奇的*艺术成就，成功地塑造了资本主义上升时期一位城市有产阶级的妇女形象。画中人物坐姿优雅，笑容微妙，背景山水幽深茫茫，淋漓尽致地发挥了画家那奇特的烟雾状“无界渐变着色法”般的笔法。画家力图使人物的丰富内心感情和美丽的外形达到巧妙的结合，对于人像面容中眼角唇边等表露感情的关键部位，也特别着重掌握精确与含蓄的辩证关系，达到神韵之境，从而使蒙娜丽莎的微笑具有一种神秘莫测的千古奇韵，那如梦似的妩媚微笑，被不少美术史家称为“神秘的微笑”。

A handicraft
Describe a handicraft you have seen or heard about.
You should say:
what the handicraft is
where you saw it
    how popular it is
and explain why you think it is special.

My country is famous for its wide variety of handicrafts, especially folk handicrafts. Every Chinese person is familiar with embroidery（刺绣）, calligraphy, and making of Chinese knots（我国结）. However, my favorite handicraft is paper-cut.

Paper-cut is one of the most popular Chinese traditional decorative handicrafts and it has existed for thousands of years. The invention of paper provided possibilities for paper-cut’s appearance, development and popularization. Chinese folk paper-cut products used to be created by intelligent workingwomen as paper-cut requires highly skilled techniques. In the past, women would be judged upon their ability to shape and cut paper. I know my grandmother is very skilled at paper-folding and paper-cutting.

There are two ways of paper-cut: scissor-cutting and knife-cutting. These two different ways of cutting make two different kinds of styles.

Scissor-cutting is to cut paper by scissors. After cutting, people glue several paper-cuts (usually less than 8) together, and then they use a very sharp scissor to do a final cutting to finish a perfect product. However, knife-cutting is to fold paper to several layers first, then place papers on a soft surface, and slowly engrave it using a knife. Compared with scissor-cutting, knife-cutting is able to achieve more pieces of paper-cut through one process.

Sometimes, artists first fold the paper and then cut it. In this way, a symmetrical （对称的）design is revealed when they unfold it. The designs are always meaningful. People use ancient and modern characters, propitious（吉利的）animals, precious flowers and plants as patterns to create massive products. They have marvelous modeling and exquisite cutting which can express joyful and happy feelings incisively.

Besides, paper-cut is extremely popular during the Spring Festival. We buy paper-cuts as ornaments, and we usually stick them on windows or doors. In China, offering red paper-cuts to someone means we wish them prosperity and health, and also represents good luck.

★ 环境

An environmental problem
Describe an environmental problem.
You should say:
what the environmental problem is
what caused the problem
what kind of consequences this problem would lead to
and explain how serious this environmental problem is.

Talking about an environmental problem, I want to talk about global warming.

Global warming is the rising average temperature of Earth''s atmosphere and oceans since the late 19th century. This results in an increased emission of greenhouse gases（温室效应）. Because of the carbon dioxide and industrial pollution in recent years, global warming has made the ice in the Arctic melt at an extremely fast speed. Lots of animals living in Arctic are facing horrifying extinction. A new scientific research report predicts that the frozen sea areas in the Arctic Circle will be completely gone by the summer 2040 due to the impact of global warming resulting from gas emissions.

I saw a PSA (Public Service Advertisement) on TV the other day. It opens with two polar bear standing on a thin chunk of floating ice looking at the sky desperately. Their home the Arctic is melting because of global warming. Their helpless look can be seen through their eyes straight away. The PSA ends with the voice-over from two little kids,” Polar bears live in Arctic on the ice, but the ice is melting because of global warming. Some bears have to swim so far that they drowned. Several decades later, they could be gone. Grown-ups should do something right now. Please help them!”

For the very first time in my life, I was shocked. I found that little kids’ voice was so powerful and inspirational.  I think now it is time for us to do whatever it takes to control the gas emissions and deal with global warming before it gets too late.

★ 服装

A Traditional item of clothing
Describe a traditional item of clothing.
You should say:
what the item is
who usually wears this traditional item of clothing
    how popular it is
and explain why you think it is special.