第一篇文章给我们的第一印象是篇幅非常的长。之前我们的预测是6-8个回合的对话考5道题目，而现在发现篇幅远远超过了这个预测，题目却少了一道，这也给同学们在短时间内从大量信息中寻找答案制造了困难。不过如果大家再回过头仔细去看看我用下划线标示出来的这些内容，马上就可以发现这些部分就是4道题目的答案出处，而且每次答案的出现都伴随着一个问题。这首先就说明了一点，每每遇到问答的形式都是考官青睐的考点，而且考试的重点往往落在答语上。这一点和短对话中体现的原则不谋而合，而且短对话中的建议请求原则也和此处的情况及其相似。另外还有一个特点，大家观察后不难发现，并不是每一组问答都被作为考点，而作为考试重点的几组问题之间关联性是不大的。换句话来说，第一个问题考察了文章的main idea从第二个问题开始分别考察了new business strategy所呈现的3方面问题。其中每一个方面选择了一个最重要的问题来考察，这一点又和以往的passage考察方法很类似，特别是人物生平发展或者故事类的题目很相似，每一方面的内容只考察一道题目，而且出题的顺序和文章的顺序是一致的。
Conversation Two
W: Sir you’ve been using the online catalogue for quite a while Is there anything I can do to help you?
M: Well I’ve got to write a paper about Hollywood in the 30s and 40s and I’m really struggling. There are hundreds of books and I just don’t know where to begin.
W: Your topic sounds pretty big. Why don’t you narrow it down to something like…uh…the history of the studios during that time?
M: You know I was thinking about doing that but more that 30 books came up when I typed in“movie studios.”
W: You could cut that down even further by listing the specific years you want. Try adding“1930s”or“1940s”or maybe“Golden Age.”
M:“Golden Age”is a good idea. Let me type that in…Hey look just 6 books this time. That’s a lot better.
W: Oh…another thin you might consider…have you tried looking for any magazine or newspaper articles?
M: No I’ve only been searching for books.
W: Well you can look up magazine articles in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. And we do have the Los Angeles. Times available over there. You might go through their indexes to see if there’s anything you want.
M: Okay I think I’ll get started with these books and then I’ll go over the magazines.
W: If you need any help I’ll be over at the Reference Desk.
M: Great thanks a lot.
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
23. What is the man doing?
24. What does the librarian think of the topic the man is working on?
25. Where can the man find the relevant magazine articles?
从划线出我们再次发现，惊人的相似!问答式的考点，分层次的考察，建议请求的运用。特别明显的是对话的开头部分一直在纠缠如何narrow down topic所以只考察了一道题目，第二道题目直到对话的中后部才出现，因为两个人直到那时才从book转到magazine这个话题上来。此外，这两则对话还秉承了passage的一个重要的考场方式，就是在对话的开头部分一定会出题目。这一点的考察利用的是考生往往很难在一个段落刚开始的时候集中注意力，所以这时候考察的题目难度就显得很高。
综上所述，长对话并不可怕，它结合了短对话对问答句式，建议请求，和关键场景赐予的考察和长段子对文章层次和理解能力的要求。所以做这样的题目往往需要具备综合的素质，既要注意其中的细节，又要注意整体的把握，还要能够应付7道题目的题量，这比以往的四级题目对综合能力的要求显著提高了。建议考生在练习的时候可以先把短对话和长段子两部分分别练好，再寻找一些长对话题目进行综合练习。我们熟悉的雅思考试和托福考试的真题中都有大量的长对话题目可供大家参考。