海培之声～Voice of Haipei (4)

　　This is the 4th reading from Haipei's “Voice of Haipei”. In this series our English teachers will read to you a selection of the following material: an excerpt or the full text of a piece of well-recognized writing (literary or academic), a response to an IELTS, TOEFL, or SAT question (to give you an example of a high-scoring answer), or an original piece of the teacher's own production. We hope that by listening, your interest in reading further or finding other pieces by the same author will be spurred and that your teachers will play a part in this. Remember, especially for our younger learners, lending an eager ear to the input and reading critically and analytically are effective ways to improve your communicative abilities. You will thus be enriched, empowered, and enlightened.

　　This 4th reading is done by Ben in response to three related Part Three IELTS questions on the subject of clothing. Ben recorded these in front of his class with just a few seconds thinking time to give an idea of an authentic native speakers' response. Even for him it is stressful and difficult so don't be deterred if you find these types of test questions difficult. Just remember that by listening to examples like this (paying attention to pronunciation, word stress and intonation) and then recording your own attempts (listening critically to your own grammar, pronunciation, word stress and intonation) you can improve your IELTS score and your ability to speak with native-level English.

　　Questions:

　　1. Are designer clothes worth their high price?

　　2. Do you think students should wear a uniform in school?

　　3. Should people who work in a company wear business clothes? 　　 　　

　　 　　 　　 　　 　　 　　 　　 　　                                                                                       　                   　　　　

　　Ben has been teaching English for over ten years in the UK, South Korea and China. He is also a yet-to-be-published author, currently working on his second novel.