Describe an interesting conversation you had

這張題卡的準備方式

這張題卡（cue card）比幾乎任何其他題卡都更看重真正具體的回憶，因為「interesting」這個詞的分量很重：一段關於天氣的含糊閒聊，沒有多少可以描述的內容，而一次真正讓你驚訝、改變你想法，或教會你具體事物的對話，能為完整的2分鐘提供自然的素材。

有用的切入點，是和你日常圈子稍微有點距離的人聊的天，例如年長的親戚、旅途中的陌生人、背景不同的人。這類對話往往比和天天聊天的親近朋友閒聊，更容易找到清楚的「interesting」角度。

圍繞這次對話造成的轉變來組織回答。簡短交代你和誰說話、當時的情境；中段進入對話的實際內容，因為「interesting」需要在這裡拿出證據；最後具體說明事後留在你心裡的是什麼，而不是籠統的一句「it was really interesting」。

讓回答更出色的詞彙

1分鐘準備計畫

在1分鐘的準備時間裡，可以寫下：

• who: relationship or context
• setting: where and when
• topic: what was discussed, key moment
• why interesting: what it changed or taught you

範例回答

以下是這張題卡完整回答的一種寫法，用來示範結構和程度，不是要你照背。

I’d like to talk about a conversation I had with an elderly man sitting next to me on a long train journey about a year ago. It was a fairly chance encounter — we’d both been travelling for several hours and eventually struck up a conversation simply because the journey was so long and there wasn’t much else to do. He turned out to have worked as an engineer on several major construction projects decades ago, and once we got onto the topic of his career, he became remarkably candid about how different the industry used to be, describing decisions and risks that would never be allowed today. What made it genuinely interesting wasn’t just the historical detail, though that was fascinating in itself, but the way he talked about failure — he mentioned a project that had gone badly wrong early in his career and how it had completely changed his approach to his work afterwards, rather than damaging his confidence the way I assumed it would. That comment gave me a surprising amount of food for thought, because I’d always assumed a serious professional failure would be purely negative, whereas for him it clearly became the thing that shaped his entire later career for the better. We talked for probably an hour in total, and by the time the train arrived I felt like I’d genuinely broadened my perspective on how people actually relate to their own mistakes. It’s stuck in my mind since then, partly because it came from a complete stranger I’ll almost certainly never see again.

這張題卡的常見錯誤

• 選了沒有實質內容的對話，結果沒有任何具體的東西可以描述。
• 完全聚焦在對方是誰，而不是實際說了什麼。
• 忘了說明這次對話為什麼有趣，而不只是說它是關於什麼。
• 為了留時間給含糊、籠統的結論，而匆匆帶過情境和話題。