众所周知，2018年第一场
Task 1: Why are people unable to save money? What do you think is the biggest challenge and how to solve this challenge?
这道题所关注的其实是一个常见的问题：平时没办法存钱。这个问题说道最根本就是收支不平衡(赚的钱太少花的钱太多)。
难点在于不仅要用英语很好的把这个症结概括出来，还需要对症下药：一方面要增加收入，另一方面还需要想办法把钱花在刀刃上。相应的，我们需要有具体的例子和细节来帮助充实我们回答。
这里一个好办法是通过投资来增加收入并拓宽收入渠道( 关键字invest和diversify)，另一个方面就是要克制不理智消费(impulse purchase) 也就是学会在最有意义的地方花钱。这里涉及到一个比较有意思的心理学词汇：delayed gratification，中文叫做延迟满足、延迟享受，也就是不要冲动消费，把钱花在能带来长久享受的事情上比如读书课旅行：这些事情同时非常的易于计划，因此容易控制支出。这样一来我们可以同时改善收入和支出，达到能省下钱的目的。
I think the biggest challenge people face here is how to balance their income and expenses: there are too many things they want to buy but they usually only have very limited ways to make money. I think to solve this challenge we have to tackle both income and expense problems. Firstly, people need to learn to invest and diversify their income. For example, they can find a financial advisor to help them invest a certain percentage of their monthly income to grow their net worth. Secondly, people need to curb their urges and learn to focus on delayed gratifications such as books, sports, and traveling which can bring long lasting satisfactions and can be easily managed by budgeting. This way they can also avoid some unnecessary impulse purchases.
Sample response
Saving money is becoming increasingly hard for us; the most remarkable reason is that there are more temptations in our society. Each season or each new year, there will be more beautiful clothes and shoes, more delicious foods and restaurants, more spectacular watches and cars and so on. Whenever a new commodity is launched, people tend to experience it and buy it, then money is spent. Personally, the effective way to save money is to curb your desire. Curbing your desire on the new commodities, not spending money at will. Buying items is based on the necessary need, not on new experience. As long as your current items can satisfy your need, you just don' buy new things, then money will be saved.
Task 2: Home teaching is a teaching method that hires private teachers/tutors to teach children at home. Do you agree or disagree with this method?
本题的关注点是在家接受教育而不是去学校。这个话题本身是非常有争议性比较难考虑的，这个时候可以从批判的角度来思考究竟在家和在学校受教育有哪些不同。首当其冲能想到的就是在家少了很多朋友并且不能参加团队体育运动，这就提供不够了一个否定此种教育方法的切入点。下一步，学校的所有科目想在家完成肯定需要不止一个老师，由此显而易见的带来消费问题：相对于免费的公立教育，聘请好几个家庭教师肯定会更贵，这有明显的财务负担。由此我们可以总结两个非常利于阐述的论点批评此种教育方式。
I do not agree with the method of home teaching, for 2 reasons. My first reason is that home teaching does not offer some of the most crucial things needed for child development. For example, it is a lot more difficult for home schooled kids to find a group of good friends; they also don’t have many opportunities to play team sports which are incredibly important for character development and social skills. My second reason is that home teaching can be very expensive. Normal schools offer a bunch of learning subjects, but hiring just one private teacher to cover all of them at home is unrealistic. So, the family would have to hire a bunch of teachers and that can be significantly more expensive than going to free public schools or even some private schools, not to mention the difficulty of finding these qualified teachers.
Sample response
I don' think the homeschooling is an appropriate choice, because it deprives the chances for students to have interactions with each other and the interactions can be of great significance.
Studying in school, students can study together, play games together, do sports in groups and so on.Through these interactions, students will learn how to negotiate with others, how to cooperate with others. The sense of team work is very crucial for the development of students. However, studying inside the house, facing the screen, students can't obtain such interactions with others. Then they may not well adapt themselves to the society when they are grown-up.