Part C

Directions: This is a free talk practice that requires you and your partner to work very closely to understand American idioms or slangs, and more importantly, how and why they are most properly used. Don’t be rigid when you think it’s necessary to change some words to get the expressions flexible and like real. （把给出的间接引语改成直接引语）

Ask you partner how come the front door is open. And ask him/her whether he/she closed the door before you went shopping.

Tell your partner that you’re sure you did and you can’t understand it.

Tell your partner that frankly you smell a rat.

Tell your partner that you too and you’re convinced that something is definitely wrong here.

Now you tell your partner that you’d better call the police.

解析：

A：Hi, B. You know it’s so strange. How come the front door is open? Did you close the door before we went shopping?

B: Well, I sure did. But I don’t understand it.

A: Well, you know, B, frankly I smell a rat.

B: Well, me too. And I’m convinced that something is definitely wrong here.

A: We’d better call the police as soon as possible!

l 美国俚语：Smell a rat = something is wrong here

l 强调：俚语在口语中起着色彩的作用，使对话有乐趣；但比较容易记忆，也比较容易忘却。

第四部分 HOT TOPIC

VISA APPLICATION

http://dipan.kekenet.com/blog-911842-67362

Hot topic的提供是为了以后的交谈内容更加丰富，有利于发展对话。

在中国每年有成百上千的学子们在考了 TOEFL、GRE，费尽了千辛万苦拿到了美国大学的奖学金之后，都要面临最严酷的最后一关——签证。本书不想就签证的技术问题进行讲述，而想给大家展示在华美国人是如何看待这个问题的，希望大家能就此发表自己的一些看法或感受。下面是一个在中国学习的美国人对中国人申请美国签证的体会：

Visa Problems

Schools in the US are increasingly wary of Chinese students who come to the US to supposedly study one subject such as literature or history, and then the first chance they get they leave to do something more lucrative, such as try to start working in a company or change their major to business or economics. When a department recruits a student, they are making a big investment because they usually have to provide some sort of scholarship funds for the students they accept. Lots of foreign students, but Chinese students in particular, have a bad reputation for taking off after only one or two years of study. This really pisses off a lot of professors at schools. And now, faculty, particularly in the humanities, tries to assess how much of a risk it is to recruit a student from China. They want to, but a few bad apples have really caused a problem for the rest of the students who want to apply.

Another problem is that Chinese students tend to stay in the US after they are done. Usually students have a one-year practical training extension to their visa after they graduate. Then they are supposed to go back, unless a company is willing to sponsor them, which is very possible. If you are going into the US on a student visa, you cannot have the intent to immigrate. Even if you are engaged to an American and are going to the US, the worst thing to say when you get asked why you are going to the US is that you are going to see your fiancé. that is just asking for trouble.

The time one spends in the US as a student doesn’t count towards the five years or so that is required for naturalization. One sad phenomenon that I have seen is foreign graduate students who drift from one graduate program or one post-doc after another because they do not want to go back but cannot stay either. So they become “professional” graduate students. This happens particularly in the sciences where cheap graduate student labor is always needed. This is actually funny and sad. My friends and I sometimes joke that being a graduate student is the same as indentured servitude. American labs depend on cheap graduate student labor. That is why a lot of schools are now organizing graduate student unions to collectively lobby for better work benefits for graduate students.

Recently, the issue of giving amnesty to Mexicans who illegally stay in America has caused a lot of debate. The argument is that, well, these illegal immigrants are in the US anyway, so why not give them legal status. I don’t understand why only Mexicans should be given amnesty. If they get it, then all the other ethnic groups should be given amnesty as well. The reason, I think, is that the Republicans have been trying to cater to the Hispanic vote because they are becoming increasingly powerful as a minority lobbying-group. In Florida, where the president’s brother, Jeff, is governor, the Hispanic vote is particularly strong. So that’s why the Republicans are pushing to give illegal Mexican immigrants amnesty.

The US does not have an open door immigration policy. If people want to argue for an open door policy, let them do so. But, the point is, right now, the US has a system of quotas. So to say that having such a system is o.k. then to undermine it with amnesty just doesn’t make sense.

If people want to come to the US to make a better living for themselves, hell, why not let them come? As long as they are smart and hard working, who cares where they are from? I am tired of people complaining that foreigners are going to take jobs away from Americans. They are just lazy people who don’t want to compete anyway.

One thing I don’t like to see is people who come to the US just to have a baby. After the birth, they just go back to their country. This is really dishonest, and the US should change its policy in this case. What sense does it make for a foreigner to come, give birth to a child, and then raise the child so that he doesn’t speak English or know anything about American culture? They do this just to get the privilege of being an American citizen. A lot of European countries have changed their immigration rules so that these cases could not happen. Just being born in a country doesn’t mean that you are automatically a citizen. The same should be true for the US. These people have no interest in contributing to society. They just want to take advantage of a loophole and steal the rights of citizenship without having any responsibilities.

【On Your Own】

1. 回答问题：

How do you understand the strong “ties”? According to your understanding of American government’s law, do you think it is fair for every applicant to have short time interview?

2. Presentation 练习：

Talk with your partner about visa application: Ask him/her if he/she had this kind of experience.

Share with your partner your successful or failed visa application experience.