Lie To me: 雅思考场撒谎权威指导手册

I was chatting to a former IELTS examiner about things that stop students doing well on their speaking and writing tests and one thing he said was really interesting- ‘The speaking and writing tests are not lie detector tests.’

对于烤鸭的口语写作低分表现，考官直言：雅思口语写作考试，不是谎言检测!

What he means is that many students think that you have to tell the absolute truth. You don’t.

言下之意，是考试当中你没必要完全实话实说。

For example, a student in his class was asked to describe their favourite outfit during a practice exercise. The student said they couldn’t remember any details about their favourite outfit, so they stopped speaking after 10 seconds. When asked about this, the student explained that they really couldn’t remember anything, so there was nothing they could do. There was, lie!

You will never lose marks for being dishonest during the test, as long as your lies sound plausible and answer the question.

比如，在平时的练习中，当被问及你最喜欢的着装时，会有人会说不记得任何关于最喜欢的着装的细节，所以整个回答时间仅10s。而问及原因时，学生解释，他们确实是想不起来，所以实在是无能为力。此言差矣!

你绝不会因为撒谎而失分，只要你的谎话说得通并且切题。

For example, the student above could have simply invented their favourite outfit and then added imaginary details. In this way they would have been telling a story that is false, but they would get a much higher score for their answer because it was fully developed.

例如，上述的烤鸭完全可以简单的假想一套他们的最爱着装，然后加点细节。如此，即是是讲了一个虚假的故事，但是因为这是一个完整的答案，他们的得分会高得多。

Below are some other ways you can use lies to help you:

以下是一些有用的tips，教你在口语和写作task2中lie。

Part 1 Speaking

Most of these questions will be about you, so you shouldn’t really have to lie. However, there might be some things that you can’t remember. When this happens you can simply elaborate with a few things that might not be true.

For example, you might be asked to tell the examiner about your house. If you can’t remember the names of the rooms or the different furniture, simply tell them about rooms/furniture that you can remember, even if they are not actually in your home.

p1大体而言是围绕个人，所以一般不需要撒谎。但遇到一些你想不起来，说不出来的东西，Lie!

比如，要描述你的房子。要是你想不起各种家具的名称，那么，你就拣那些能说的，即使他们并不存在。

Part 2 Speaking

People often run out of things to say in this part and it is much easier if you can make things up.

You might have to describe your favourite book or the last movie you watched. If you can’t remember some of the details, don’t panic, simply add in false details. Don’t worry, the examiner is never going to stop you and tell you that it is untrue. It is much better to lie and keep talking, than hesitate or pause because you have nothing to talk about.

For example, I asked a student to talk about the last movie they saw. I don’t know why, but they said they couldn’t remember the last movie. I told them to just tell me about any movie they could remember. ‘Isn’t that telling lies?’ said the student. It doesn’t matter, it is a speaking test, not an honesty test.

p2，烤鸭常常在这部分无话可说，所以学会编造尤为重要。比如在描绘你最喜欢的书或者最近看到电影时，有些细节想不起来或不会说，莫慌!编就行了。因为lie and keep talking比hesitate and be honest要好得多。考官根本不care!

所以像你最近看的一部电影，本质上跟你最喜欢看的一步电影，在答题时，没有大的区别，一个素材都可以搞定。

Part 3 Speaking

This is probably the part that will help you the most because you will be asked questions that you might not know much about and the examiner also wants you to give fully developed, extended answers.

p3，可谓是最重要的用武之地了。因为你常常会碰上你不了解的问题。

If you know nothing about what the examiner is asking because you have no experience dealing with that topic, pretend you do. I was doing a speaking test today and I asked a student two questions:

Are police respected in your country?

Who is respected more, police or lawyers?

所以，如果遇上真是的毫不了解的话题，尽力地装吧。比如我问过学生这样的问题：

你的国家，警察受尊重么?

谁更受尊重，警察还是律师?

She had no idea how to answer these because she said she had never met a police officer or a lawyer in her entire life. Her answers were not so good because of this and her fluency really suffered. Instead she could have simply made up some stories or facts and told me what she thought. It would have been much better for her to speculate what people think of police and lawyers, than to stumble through her answers with mostly ‘ummms’ and ‘ahhhhs’.

Remember there is no right or wrong answer to these questions. The examiner is not testing your ability to give a ‘correct’ answer, they are testing your ability to communicate in English.

她的回答很糟，因为她说她一辈子还没有跟警察和律师打过交道。其实，她只需要作出一个较为明确的选择：yes or no, police or lawyer，然后讲点故事作为印证即可。这种答案比ummms’ and ‘ahhhhs’答案好太多。

所以，请记住：考官不是要做诚实测试，不是要你给出一个正确的答案，只是在测试你的语言而已。

Writing Task 2

Each of your main ideas in your essay should be supported by an example. This helps to fully develop your ideas and boosts your score. One of the complaints I hear from students is that they cannot think of examples. Again, make them up.

task2写作，重要的一点是你的主要观点最好有例证，可是想不到例证怎么办?还是编。

You have to be more careful with these because they really must sound plausible. I was teaching a student this technique and in their next essay about banning smoking in public places they said ‘92% of British people died from passive smoking last year.’ This is a made up example, but it is totally unbelievable. You should only use made up examples that make sense and actually help support your main idea.

但是要当心，编例子编故事的核心在于，要可信。比如要大家写一篇公共场所禁烟的文章，某个耿直的烤鸭编的例子‘92% of British people died from passive smoking last year.’显然过于惊悚。所以，编的尺度要把握得好，符合常识!

Won’t the examiner check?

No. The examiners won’t be taking out their phones and checking all of your facts. They are testing your ability to communicate in English, not how truthful you sound.

考官不会核对你的内容是否属实。

Should I lie as much as possible?

No. This is not what this guide is about. Telling the truth should always be your first option because it is much easier to talk about something that is real. However, if you are struggling to find an answer, don’t be afraid to make some details up

撒谎容易上瘾，请适度。毕竟讲真的比较自然而容易点。但永远要有撒谎的准备，尤其是用在添油加醋丰富细节上。