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  • Good morning. Good morning. My name is Michelle Ho.

  • Can you tell me your full name please?

  • My name is Sin Yuk Cheung Issac.

  • Can I check your identification?

  • Of course.

  • That's fine, thank you. Thank you.

  • Now in this first part, I'd like to ask you some more questions about yourself, OK?

  • OK.

  • Can you describe the area where you live to me?

  • Well I live in Hong Kong, to be specific in Tseun Wan, which is a residential district

  • with little commercial elements in it and it is quite a nice community to live in.

  • What jobs do people in your town do?

  • Well mostly people in my town are

  • teachers, lawyers and doctors.

  • How has your town or city changed over the last 20 years?

  • Well to say that my town has developed, really developed a lot and and many old

  • buildings were torn down and I was kind of sad about it because I lived in my

  • district like for my entire life and but there are some great features about the

  • new buildings like the new malls, and the new shops and new places to hang with my

  • friends, so there is benefits ... and there are benefits and some disadvantages, yeah.

  • Do you think it is better to live in the centre of town or outside in the country?

  • Well I believe that living inside the town is much better than living in the

  • countryside because it gets more convenient to travel to different places

  • around the city and living in countryside often have some undesirable

  • pests, so I don't like pests so much, so I like to prefer staying in city.

  • Now, let's go on to reading. Do you enjoy reading?

  • Well I enjoy reading, and I read

  • a lot of books, especially those ... those fictions, because I find that when I'm

  • reading I can immense (immerse) myself into a different world and I can really dump

  • away all those troubles in my real life.

  • What sort of things do you like to read?

  • Well I like reading fictions as it

  • provides you with a completely new world, especially those science fiction ... science

  • fiction novels, which gives you chance to like to flow through space and to explore

  • the universe and something like that.

  • Tell me something about your favourite book.

  • Well my favourite book is actually not a science fiction novel. It is a kind of

  • political novel. It is the 1984 by George Orwell, and, and it is quite

  • shocking.

  • After I read it, about how a régime can monitor the people, and what's more

  • shocking is that many governments, even the those governments that claim to be

  • free, also uses such method to control the people, so that the horror it depicts in

  • the novel is kind of ... kind of reflected in the real society nowadays, so it really

  • influences me the most, yeah.

  • What are the advantages of reading instead of watching television or going

  • to the cinema?

  • Well I think the major advantage over, of books over movie and TV shows is that it

  • gives you the

  • space to imagine as the TV, both TV and films would limit your imagination by

  • showing the images the director wants you to see but when the writer creates a world

  • and with his words, his or her words, you can imagine

  • according to his or her words, and also adding to your own personal experience,

  • so I think this is the magnificent ... magnificent point of reading books.

  • Now, let's talk about transport. How did you come here today?

  • Well I come here ... I came here today by MTR.

  • What is public transport like in your town?

  • Well, the major public transport in my country is the railway, the underground

  • railway, and also buses and they are quite convenient

  • unlike most countries, because Hong Kong is a small city and ... but the traffic

  • demand is high, so they often have a tight (frequent) schedule so it won't take long for

  • people to wait for the transportation.

  • OK. Now I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about this for one to

  • two minutes.

  • You will have one minute to prepare.

  • Do you understand?

  • Yes.

  • Here is a pencil and paper for writing notes,

  • and here is your topic.

  • Please do not write anything on the topic paper.

  • I'd let you to talk about an exciting experience.

  • Alright? Remember, you have one to two minutes for this,

  • so don't worry if I stop you.

  • I'll tell you when the time is up.

  • Can you start speaking now please?

  • So, I would say the most exciting experience

  • in my life was last summer when I had my graduation trip in Taiwan, and what

  • happened exactly is that I rent a bike in the city in Taiwan from the hotel and

  • I was planning to ... to watch the sunset in the ... in the coast line and after I

  • I left ... when I left the park, it was already ... and it was already night, so everything

  • was dark, and as I was riding a bike, so I have to use the road with heavy

  • traffics, and there are a lot of motorbikes in Taiwan, so I accidentally

  • crashed into one of the motorbikes and I got slightly injured and then I was

  • received ... I was received (picked up) by a house owner nearby and he invited me into his

  • house and he treated me well, and but when I want to get back to the hotel, I find out

  • that I forgot my way and I'd even forgot the name of the hotel, so I don't know what to do

  • I was desperate, by then, but the house owner was great enough to ask around, to tell,

  • to call each hotel and find out whether my friend is in the hotel or not,

  • and by some miracle, he found where my hotel is, and he personally drive me,

  • drove me back to the hotel.

  • Thank you. Would you like to do this again?

  • Well, I don't think I would like to crash my bike again, especially it's not mine.

  • I rent it. And, but if any of the bad things ever happen again, I was ... I would be happy

  • to be ... to be received by such ... hospitable person and that was quite an

  • exciting and unforgetting (unforgettable) experience.

  • Thank you. Can I take the paper and pencil back please?

  • Thank you.

  • We've been talking about an exciting experience in your life.

  • Now I'd like to discuss with you one or two more general questions relating to this topic.

  • First, let's consider taking risks.

  • What risks should people try to avoid?

  • Well, I think that those risk which would

  • endanger lives should be avoided, like the new sports currently, the "parkour",

  • which some may play normally in parks using park benches or wall or short walls

  • to play parkour, but some people may be too dangerous and they play on the

  • rooftops and they took selfies on a rooftop which is quite a dangerous thing,

  • considering that not only you will fall off the building and die,

  • you could also injure someone who is walking below on the streets, so taking ...

  • it is important for you to consider your own safety as well as other's safety in

  • carrying dangerous actions, yeah.

  • So do you think the government should set up some legislation to

  • prevent people from taking such risks?

  • Well I think that is quite hard for the government is set up a legis ... to set up

  • legislation to forbid people from committing (undertaking) dangerous acts because

  • everyone has their right to do whatever they want as long as it is not

  • doing harm to others but they can do things to harm themselves and they can

  • say that this is their human right, and you can't violate it.

  • Do you think people take fewer risks as they grow older?

  • Well, I believe that is ... that is right, because as a person gets older he or she

  • knows more about the world, and maybe they have a lot more detachment (attachments), like to

  • attach to their partners, to their families, to their children, and they have too much

  • responsibility in their hands, they can't take risks no more so they will tend to

  • be more conservative when they get older.

  • Now let's move on to adventure.

  • How important is it to have adventures in our lives?

  • Well having adventure in

  • our lives is so important because it not only ... get you out of your comfort zone,

  • you get to ... you get to know yourself ... you get to discover

  • yourself in a different aspect from what you have already empowered (envisaged) and

  • you've got (get) to explore your potentials to a certain extent that you may

  • actually acquire new skills, and also not the most important thing about having

  • adventure is to be exciting about your life instead of like working like robot

  • every day, and be really a human.

  • Do you think people in your country are adventurous?

  • Well, I say the people in my country are not quite adventurous. They tend to be

  • more conservative and careful about their moves (actions) because what they

  • really ... what they really hope for is a house, a car, a family, that's all they want,

  • they don't want any surprises, and even the word "surprises" sometimes (is) negative in

  • Chinese. So I would say they don't like adventures.

  • What do people learn about themselves from having adventures?

  • Well personally, I learned, what I learned from adventures that I find out

  • that I have certain skills like when I got lost in Taiwan I find out that my

  • some people do not trust other people easily but when their ... the house owner

  • received me, I was, I have complete faith in him, so I find out that I can be

  • confident with someone I don't know. I can be comfortable with total strangers.

  • So this is my kind of power in ... after having adventures.

  • Thank you. That's the end of the speaking test.

Good morning. Good morning. My name is Michelle Ho.

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