2011春季口译二阶段口试备考口语话题

Directions: Talk on the following topic for at least 5 minutes. Be sure to make your point clear and supporting details adequate. You should also be ready to answer any questions raised by the examiners during your talk. You need to have your name and registration number recorded. Start your talk with “My name is ...” “My registration number is ...”

Read the following passages:

The banquet for Chinese billionaires held by two of the richest Americans, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett is dubbed by local media as the Hongmen Banquet, a historical anecdote indicating a feast or meeting set up as a trap for the invited.

Amid concerns that the hosts would pressure wealthy Chinese to donate to the Giving Pledge project they initiated in June to persuade US billionaires to leave most of their wealth to charity, only a small number of Chinese businessmen had accepted their invitations to the dinner as of last week, which created a stir over the willingness of China's rich to give their money away for a good cause. A fierce debate has been ignited on the merits and difficulty of philanthropy and charity for the country's newly wealthy.

Answer the following questions in your own words:

Why is the banquet considered as the Hongmen Banquet? What are the merits and difficulties of philanthropy and charity? People's view towards donation varies widely in western countries and in China. What might be the reasons?

Answer for your reference

The reason why the banquet is considered as the Hongmen Banquet is that all attendees are supposed to donate a large sum of their wealth to charity as the hosts of the banquet are Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who are the top philanthropists in the world. Both of the hosts have promised to give away their entire fortune after death, which is unthinkable in China, even for the country’s top billionaires.

As for philanthropy and charity, Chinese people think differently compared to people from western countries. In most cases, Chinese people pass on all the money and property which they have strived for in their entire life to their descendents. And their descendents will accept them as if it is meant to be. While in western countries, donating to charity is not uncommon from average families to rich people, and many of them donate out of religious reasons. In Bible, there’s a story about a rich man who wants to go to heaven after death. The God says it might be possible if a camel can pass through the eye of a needle. Death with huge fortune leaving behind is humiliating in the view of many westerners. That’s why they’re generous in donating.

Philanthropy and charity in China have seen fast development in recent years. They have helped an untold number of people by providing food, safe drinking water, and daily necessities to them. At the same time the mentality of benevolence has been extensively spread in our society. Despite the traditional way of passing down the fortune to one’s descendents, an increasing number of people are willing to help others by donating part of their wealth. The younger generations are doing better, and philanthropy and charity in China are bound to thrive in the future.