「幫助別人」題很多人寫得像國小作文——I am a helpful person. I always help others. 這是 Band 5。真正拿高分的版本會有具體場景、小衝突、意外的 reflection。本篇用一個夜市的場景示範。
題卡
Describe a time when you helped someone.
You should say:
- who you helped
- what the situation was
- how you helped them
and explain how you felt about it.
You will have to talk about the topic for 1 to 2 minutes.
POWER 準備筆記
- P — 誰？An elderly tourist, probably Japanese（陌生人 = 比較新鮮）
- O — 什麼時候？A Friday evening at Raohe Night Market（場景具體）
- W — 發生什麼？She'd lost her travel group and didn't speak Mandarin
- E — 感覺？Awkward at first, then genuinely moved（矛盾情緒 = 真實感）
- R — 反省？It reminded me how small a kind act can feel to the giver but how large to the receiver
這題避免兩個雷：(1) 幫助的規模不要誇張（別寫你救了誰命）——小事比較可信；(2) 感受要有「層次」，不要只有 I felt happy。
完整範文（305 字）
¹ I'd like to talk about a small incident that happened about six months ago, on a Friday evening at Raohe Night Market here in Taipei. ² It was packed, as it usually is, and I was just browsing the food stalls on my way home from work.
³ I noticed an elderly woman — probably in her late seventies, clearly a tourist from Japan — standing next to a bubble-tea stand looking genuinely panicked. ⁴ She was holding out her phone and trying to show it to the vendor, but the vendor was busy and couldn't really understand what she wanted. ⁵ When I walked over, it turned out she'd got separated from her tour group about twenty minutes earlier and didn't have any Mandarin or English to ask for help.
⁶ Honestly, I was a bit hesitant at first — my Japanese is very basic, really just a few phrases from watching anime — but I could see she was close to tears, so I thought I'd at least try. ⁷ I used a translation app on my phone to work out where her hotel was, walked her to the nearest MRT station, and made sure she got on the right train before I went home myself. ⁸ It probably took me about thirty minutes, which made me late for dinner.
⁹ What struck me afterwards wasn't really pride — it was more how easy it had been. ¹⁰ For her it might have been the most stressful moment of the whole trip; for me it was half an hour of my evening. ¹¹ I think it reminded me that the cost of helping is usually much smaller than the difference it makes, and since that evening I've tried to be a bit less quick to "keep walking" when I notice someone struggling.
句句中文解析
- 句 1-2 (場景定位)：Raohe Night Market, Friday evening, packed — 台灣在地感 + 擁擠感。
- 句 3-5 (情境層層推進)：late seventies, Japan, genuinely panicked, got separated... twenty minutes earlier — 年齡／國籍／時間／情緒四個具體維度。
- 句 6 (自我揭露的真實感)：I was a bit hesitant at first — 承認不是立刻英雄式出手，反而更可信。
- 句 7 (行動具體)：translation app, walked her to the nearest MRT station, made sure she got on the right train — 三個具體動作，每個都有畫面。
- 句 8 (小代價)：made me late for dinner — 小細節顯示真實性。
- 句 9-10 (R 升級的核心)：wasn't really pride... For her it might have been... for me it was — 對比結構把「幫助」重新 framing。
- 句 11 (抽象 reflection + 行為改變)：the cost of helping is usually much smaller than the difference it makes — 從一次事件 generalise 到一個原則，這是 Band 7+ 必備的 zoom-out 動作。
四項 Band 7+ 證據
- Fluency & Coherence：時間順序清楚（注意到 → 走過去 → 了解情況 → 行動 → 感想），轉折自然（Honestly, What struck me afterwards wasn't...）。
- Lexical Resource：packed, hesitant, close to tears, keep walking, the cost of helping — 口語化但精準，沒有作文味。
- Grammatical Range：過去完成（she'd got separated）、模態（probably in her late seventies, might have been）、比較結構（much smaller than, a bit less quick to）。
- Pronunciation：在 genuinely panicked, close to tears 這種情緒詞上用語調升降，會很自然帶出情緒層次。
替代 hook
- I'm going to talk about a pretty small thing, actually — the kind of thing that probably doesn't even count as "helping" in the heroic sense...（走謙虛路線）
- Instead of picking something dramatic, I want to describe a moment at a night market that I still think about...
- The time that comes to mind first is one where I almost didn't stop — which is probably why I remember it...（用「差點沒幫」製造張力）