新聞題考生最常選「總統選舉」「戰爭」「地震」結果講得很表面。高分解法：選一個你個人有 stake 的小新聞——你親戚、你母校、你常去的店——細節密度立刻上來。
題目卡
Describe a piece of news that surprised you.
You should say:
- what the news was
- when you heard it
- how you heard about it
- and explain why it surprised you.
POWER 一分鐘筆記
| POWER | 關鍵字 | 中文註 | |-------|--------|--------| | People | childhood neighbour, Mr. Huang | 牽涉的人 | | Occasion | last December, my mum's phone call | 怎麼聽到 | | What | his small bookshop in Taitung closing after 38 years | 新聞核心 | | Emotion | first denial, then real grief | 情緒層次 | | Reflection | end of an era, drove down for last day | 你的回應 |
完整範答（298 字）
¹ A piece of news that genuinely surprised me last December was that Mr. Huang's small bookshop, on a quiet side-street in Taitung, was finally closing down after thirty-eight years of business. ² I heard about it from my mother, who called me on a Tuesday evening completely out of the blue, and the first thing she said was, "Hwa-Ji Bookshop is shutting at the end of the month."
³ I'm aware that, in the grand scheme of news stories, an independent bookshop closing isn't exactly earth-shaking. ⁴ But this particular shop was somewhere I'd spent practically every Saturday afternoon between the ages of seven and fifteen, and Mr. Huang had been the first adult outside my family who took my reading seriously. ⁵ He used to set aside specific titles for me under the counter, write little recommendation notes on torn pieces of brown paper, and let me sit on a stool reading whatever I wanted without ever pushing me to buy.
⁶ The reason the news surprised me wasn't really that bookshops are struggling — that's been true for years — it was that I'd somehow assumed his shop was immune. ⁷ He'd survived the rise of online retail, the pandemic, and at least two major rent hikes, so I'd quietly started to believe he was un-closeable.
⁸ I drove down the following weekend, partly to say goodbye and partly to buy whatever was left of his second-hand poetry section. ⁹ He recognised me immediately, even though I hadn't been back in nearly a decade, and we talked for about forty minutes. ¹⁰ It hadn't really hit me until then that some places, however permanent they feel, are quietly being held up by a single person — and when that person is tired, they end.
句句解析
- 句 1 (News specifics): "Mr. Huang's small bookshop... after thirty-eight years" — 名字 + 地點 + 年數，三項具體。
- 句 2 (How heard + 直接引語): "my mother, who called... and the first thing she said was..." — 關係子句 + 引述。
- 句 3 (Self-aware): "in the grand scheme of news stories, this isn't earth-shaking" — 預擋「這算什麼大新聞」批評。
- 句 4 (Personal stake): "the first adult outside my family who took my reading seriously" — 抽象關係描述。
- 句 5 (具體動作 — list): "set aside titles, write recommendation notes, let me sit on a stool" — 三動詞片語並列。
- 句 6 (Pivot — what surprised me): "wasn't really that bookshops are struggling — it was that I'd assumed his shop was immune" — not X but Y + past perfect。
- 句 7 (具體挑戰 list): "online retail, the pandemic, two rent hikes" — 三事件列舉，un-closeable 是創造性詞。
- 句 8 (回應行動): "partly to say goodbye and partly to buy..." — partly X and partly Y 平行。
- 句 9 (Past perfect): "even though I hadn't been back in nearly a decade" — past perfect。
- 句 10 (Philosophical landing): "some places, however permanent they feel, are quietly being held up by a single person" — however + adj 從句 + 被動 held up。
Band 7 評分證據
- Grammar: past perfect、被動 being held up、however + adj、not X it was Y 對比、relative clauses
- Lexical: grand scheme, earth-shaking, immune, un-closeable, rent hikes, held up
- Cohesion: 時間線 Tuesday evening / following weekend / nearly a decade
- Authenticity: 台東小書店、布告欄推薦——具體在地細節
3 個可替換 Hook
Hook A — 名人過世
A piece of news that genuinely shocked me was the death of Anthony Bourdain in June 2018. I heard about it through a push notification on my phone, of all places, while I was waiting for a coffee.
Hook B — 朋友的好消息
A piece of news that surprised me — in a good way for once — was that my best friend from high school had been accepted onto a PhD programme at Cambridge. I heard about it through a voice message at 2am her time, which she'd recorded the moment she opened the email.
Hook C — 政治 / 國家事件
The news that most surprised me in recent years was the moment Taiwan's same-sex marriage legislation actually passed in May 2019. I'd been following the campaign for years, and I'll admit I'd quietly accepted it probably wouldn't happen in this decade.
替換鐵律：新聞題的「驚訝」必須有理由——你以為什麼，結果發現什麼。沒有這個 gap，就不算 surprise。