TOEFL TPO -1 Writing Task 1 Sample: Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how to address the specific challenges discussed in the reading passage.
Historical user samples and AI evaluation results from an older TOEFL format.
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Older TOEFL Format
This task is from a previous version of the TOEFL exam. The current TOEFL has a different structure. These archived samples remain available as a reference for practice.
Task Overview
Reading Passage
The Erie Canal, built in the early nineteenth century, is an artificial waterway over 300 miles long. It connects the Hudson River north of New York City to the interior of the United States. The canal opened up water transport from much of the Midwest all the way to the East Coast of the United States. However, before its construction, many critics doubted that the proiect would be successful. There seemed to be too many challenges. The first challenge was the local terrain and landscape. The canal had to be dug out and built through areas that would make construction difficult. There were many forests, and clearing a channel through a forest required a slow process of using saws to cut down trees and then axes to chop out the tree stumps and roots that remained. In addition, another challenge was that the canal would also pass through wetlands, in which workers might fall ill from malaria, a disease caused by mosquitoes. The second challenge was a lack of workers. The entire United States at that time had a relatively small population. The massive construction of a canal would require many thousands of workers, which opponents of the canal said the country would not be able to supply. Finally, critics argued that the Erie Canal would not yield enough benefits to justify its high cost. The main purpose of the canal was to facilitate commerce between the coast and the interior of the United States. However, at the time there were simply not very many people who lived or wanted to settle in the Midwest, so there wasn't that much in the way of goods produced there to be sent back to the coast.
Question
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how to address the specific challenges discussed in the reading passage.
User Samples & Evaluation Results
User Sample
The author of the article presents several challenges of building the Erie Canal, while the lecturer claims that this construction was successful and all these challenges had been overcome. Firstly, the reading suggests that the local terrain and landscape made it difficult to construct the canal, and that workers would suffer from malaria caused by mosquitoes. However, the lecturer mentions that this difficulty was solved by the invention of new devices to pull the stumps and roots out of the ground, thus reducing the amount of manual labor. Additionally, she points out that the potential danger of malaria was not a problem as workers waited until winter when mosquitoes were not active, eliminating the possibility of falling ill. Secondly, the passage proposes that a shortage of workers was also a challenge. The lecturer, on the other hand, explains that thousands of immigrants were moving to United States at that time. These people all wanted jobs and were willing to engage in the construction of the canal. As a result, workforce was sufficient to build the canal. Lastly, the reading states that the high cost of canal construction could not be justified by the benefits it would yield because not very many people wanted to settle in the Midwest. Nevertheless, the lecturer points out that the reason why people did not want to live in Midwest was that it was difficult to get there. However, after the construction of the Erie Canal, this situation has been changed. A trip that used to take six weeks only takes six days, and the transportation that used to take one hundred dollars on land only takes ten dollars by water way.
Evaluation Result
1.子项得分 任务完成度: 5 组织: 4 连贯性和衔接: 4 语言使用: 4
2.预估分数
27. 3.任务完成度
这篇文章在任务完成度方面表现优秀，很好地回答了问题。你成功地总结了听力材料中的观点，并解释了如何克服阅读材料中提到的具体挑战。为了进一步提高，可以尝试更深入地讨论每个挑战及其解决方案。
示例1： 原文：These people all wanted jobs and were willing to engage in the construction of the canal. 修改：These immigrants were eager to find employment opportunities and proved to be a valuable workforce for the canal's construction, contributing significantly to its completion.
示例2： 原文：A trip that used to take six weeks only takes six days, and the transportation that used to take one hundred dollars on land only takes ten dollars by water way. 修改：The Erie Canal dramatically reduced travel time from six weeks to just six days, and it also significantly decreased transportation costs from $100 by land to a mere $10 via waterways.
4.文章结构与组织 文章的结构和组织方面表现良好，包括引言、正文和结论。每段都集中讨论一个特定的观点和支持细节。但是，可以进一步改进段落之间的过渡，使文章更加流畅。
建议1：在引言部分，可以更明确地指出文章将讨论的三个挑战。 示例：The author of the article presents three main challenges of building the Erie Canal, while the lecturer claims that this construction was successful and all these challenges had been overcome.
建议2：在正文部分，可以使用过渡词或短语来更清晰地连接段落和观点。 示例：Firstly, regarding the local terrain and landscape challenge, the lecturer mentions that... Secondly, in terms of the worker shortage issue, the lecturer explains that... Lastly, concerning the high cost and limited benefits argument, the lecturer points out that...
5. 语法批改
The author of the article presents several challenges of building the Erie Canal, while the lecturer claims that this construction was successful and all these challenges had been overcome.
Firstly, the reading suggests that the local terrain and landscape made it difficult to construct the canal, and that workers would suffer from malaria caused by mosquitoes. However, the lecturer mentions that this difficulty was solved by the invention of new devices to pull the stumps and roots out of the ground, thus reducing the amount of manual labor. Additionally, she points out that the potential danger of malaria was not a problem as workers waited until winter when mosquitoes were not active, eliminating the possibility of falling ill.
Secondly, the passage proposes that a shortage of workers was also a challenge. The lecturer, on the other hand, explains that thousands of immigrants were moving to United Statesto the United States(Determiners preceding geographical terms) at that time. These people all wanted jobs and were willing to engage in the construction of the canal. As a result, workforcethe workforce(This rule identifies whether the article 'the' is missing in a sentence.) was sufficient to build the canal.
Lastly, the reading states that the high cost of canal construction could not be justified by the benefits it would yield because not very many people wanted to settle in the Midwest. Nevertheless, the lecturer points out that the reason why people did not want to live in Midwestthe Midwest(This rule identifies whether the article 'the' is missing in a sentence.) was that it was difficult to get there. However, after the construction of the Erie Canal, this situation has been changed. A trip that used to take six weeks only takes six days, and the transportation that used to take one hundred dollars on land only takes ten dollars by water waywaterway(park way (parkway)).
Section Title: 6.文章修订
The author of the article presents several challenges of building the Erie Canal, while the lecturer claims that this construction was successful and all these challenges had been overcome.
Firstly, the reading suggests that the local terrain and landscape made it difficult to construct the canal, and that workers would suffer from malaria caused by mosquitoes. However, the lecturer mentions that this difficulty was solved by the invention of new devices to pull the stumps and roots out of the ground, thus reducing the amount of manual labor. Additionally, she points out that the potential danger of malaria was not a problem as workers waited until winter when mosquitoes were not active, eliminating the possibility of falling ill.
Secondly, the passage proposes that a shortage of workers was also a challenge. The lecturer, on the other hand, explains that thousands of immigrants were moving to United States at that time. These people all wanted jobs and were willing to engage in the construction of the canal. As a result, workforce was sufficient to build the canal.
Lastly, the reading states that the high cost of canal construction could not be justified by the benefits it would yield because not very many people wanted to settle in the Midwest. Nevertheless, the lecturer points out that the reason why people did not want to live in Midwest was that it was difficult to get there. However, after the construction of Erie Canal, this situation has been changed. A trip that used to take six weeks only takes six days now and transportation costs have significantly reduced from one hundred dollars on land to merely ten dollars by waterway. (279 words)
Revised essay: Section Title: 7.文章批改
The author of the article presents several challenges of building the Erie Canal, while the lecturer claims that this construction was successful and all these challenges had been overcome.
Firstly, the reading suggests that the local terrain and landscape made it difficult to construct the canal, and that workers would suffer from malaria caused by mosquitoes. However, the lecturer mentions that this difficulty was solved by the invention of new devices to pull the stumps and roots out of the ground, ground (revised for clarity), thus reducing the amount of manual labor. Additionally, she points out that the potential danger of malaria was not a problem as workers waited until winter when mosquitoes were not active, active (revised for better flow), eliminating the possibility of falling ill.
Secondly, the passage proposes that a shortage of workers was also a challenge. The lecturer, on the other hand, explains that thousands of immigrants were moving to United States at that time. These people all wanted jobs and were willing to engage in the construction of the canal. canal (revised for conciseness). As a result, workforce was sufficient to build the canal.
Lastly, the reading states that the high cost of canal construction could not be justified by the its benefits it would yield because not very many people wanted to settle in the Midwest. Nevertheless, the lecturer points out that the reason why people did not want to live in Midwest was that it was difficult to get there. there (revised for better flow). However, after the construction of the Erie Canal, Canal (removed "the" for consistency), this situation has been changed. A trip that used to take six weeks only takes six days, and the days now (revised for clarity) and transportation that used to take costs significantly reduced from one hundred dollars on land only takes merely ten dollars by water way.waterway (revised for better flow).
8. Mind Map
9. Keywords
| Word | Phonetic Symbol | Part of Speech | English Definition | Simplified Chinese Translation | Sample Sentence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| terrain | /təˈreɪn/ | noun | a stretch of land, especially with regard to its physical features | 地形，地势 | The terrain made it difficult to construct the canal. |
| malaria | /məˈlɛriə/ | noun | a disease caused by a plasmodium parasite, transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes | 疟疾，瘧疾 ｜ Workers would suffer from malaria caused by mosquitoes. | |
| manual labor | /ˈmanjʊəl ˈleɪbər/ ｜noun｜ work done by hand, not by machines｜体力劳动｜ New devices reduced the amount of manual labor needed for construction. | ||||
| immigrant | /ˈɪmɪgrənt/ ｜noun｜ a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country｜移民｜ Thousands of immigrants were willing to engage in the construction of the canal. | ||||
| workforce | /ˈwɜrkfɔrs/ ｜noun｜ all the people working or available to work, as in a nation, company, industry, or on a project｜劳动力，员工总数｜ The workforce was sufficient to build the canal. | ||||
| justify | /ˈdʒʌstɪfaɪ/ ｜verb｜ show or prove to be right or reasonable｜证明...有理，为...辩护｜ The high cost of canal construction could not be justified by the benefits it would yield. | ||||
| Midwest | /ˈmɪdˈwɛst/ ｜noun｜ a region in the north-central United States｜美国中西部地区｜ Not many people wanted to settle in the Midwest. | ||||
| transportation | /ˌtrænspərˈteɪʃən/ ｜noun｜ the action of transporting someone or something or the process of being transported｜运输，运送，交通工具｜ Transportation costs have significantly reduced after the construction of Erie Canal. | ||||
| waterway | /ˈwɔtərweɪ/ ｜noun｜ a river, canal, or other route for travel by water｜水路，航道｜ The trip now only takes six days and costs ten dollars by waterway. | ||||
| settlement | /ˈsɛtlmənt/ ｜noun｜ a place, typically one that has hitherto been uninhabited, where people establish a community | 定居点，殖民地 | The construction of Erie Canal encouraged more people to settle in the Midwest. |
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