听力部分：
本期考题考察的是一个常见话题，属于在托福综合写作考试中的生物类话题，主要考察一种鲸鱼whale (South Residential Orcas) 数量下降。海洋动物类话题一般大部分学生们都不陌生，如果对这类话题有进一步兴趣，也可以在TPO里练习，如TPO10, TPO15, TPO17, TPO23和TPO48，都是动物数量上升或下降的题型。
Keywords:whale，chemical，noise，bacteria
TPO17
阅读部分：
总观点：美国鸟数量减少的原因。
1.人口增长和居住地的扩张导致鸟栖息地减少，从而鸟的数量减少；
2. 农业活动的增加也会导致鸟在农村的栖息地的减少；
3. 农药使用的增加导致鸟吃了有毒的农产品而死掉。
听力反驳：
总论点：这些原因没有说服力
1. 城市的扩张给鸟提供了更大的栖息地，居民都在抱怨鸟日益增多这个问题，实际上是一些鸟的数量在减少，但另一些鸟的数量在增加；
2. 农产品的增加不是依靠农业用地的扩张，而是引进了新的更多样化的农产品。
3. 毒性更弱的杀虫剂被引用和抗虫作物被引进，这些抗虫作物对鸟没有伤害。
写作思路：
这道独立写作题是一道新题，但是对于政府资金的分配题目在以前就考过，比如政府要不要资助艺术家，或者政府是应该建实用的建筑还是美的大楼等等，这也说明这是一道高频的话题。针对这道三选一的题，首先建议看看谁离开的政府的资助是无法生存下去的，只有老年人，其他都有方法度过难关
文章结构：
议论文的标准结构，总分总。主体段为一段支持两段驳斥反方，段先写出老年人的无助和其他两类人对比。第二段驳斥反方，加一个例子进一步解释，第三段继续驳斥反方，通过两个理由，然后小结。
Undoubtedly, it is the government’s responsibility to subsidizes those who are poverty-stricken or are in urgent need, for example, the elder lacking the ability to work, young parents with kids, or temporarily unemployed people. In terms of the priority in financial support, it pays to give precedence to those old people over the others.
To begin with, the old, who are unable to work and over 70 years old, will face more challenges and difficulties with the lack of financial support from the government. 【中心句】To be specific, due to their advanced age, they neither enter the job market to seek a new job nor continue their former job career to receive a regular income.【否定平列】 In this case, their lives will become a nightmare or even chaos since both the necessities of daily life and various kinds of bills from hospital or landlord are not affordable for them. In contrast, the young couple with children and the jobless people are still possible to seek a job and support their family or their own lives if they keep hunting and adapt themselves to fierce job market accordingly, which can not be seen in those old people.
Secondly, the young parents with children should not be given the priority, compared with the old people, as under the heavy burden of family financial pressure, they are hopefully motivated to either acquire the up-to-the-minute knowledge or update their professional skills in order to survive by landing a well-paid job. 【中心句】Therefore, they are able to provide their family members with better material life and their kids with excellent education resources. Take my older brother as an example. After getting married and becoming a father with two kids, he found it difficult to make both ends meet if holding down his current job as a real estate agent. As a result, he attended the online school to enhance this profession skills and sharpen his communication skills, with the purpose to close the business deal with his client successfully. It is this valuable experience that not only improves his marketable skills but also helps him climb the corporate ladder.【强调句型】
Finally, those lose their job temporally are the last one to be allowed to enlist the financial support from the government because they are often insured by the former companies and therefore endowed with the financial insurance to cover this whole issue under the protection of law.【中心句】 Hence, the unemployment are less likely to ruin their normal lives permanently. In addition, these people are often provided free training courses, which are organized by the government, to meet the current job market need, with the hope to land a new job more rapidly.
In conclusion, compared to those who still possess the ability to work, like young couples with kids or jobless people, government are supposed to finance the old people above the working age without second thought.
主题相关语料：
资助 subsidize
贫穷 poverty-stricken
优先考虑 give precedence to
收支相抵 make both ends meet
提高交流能力 sharpen his communication skills
成单 close the business deal with
获取经济支持 enlist the financial support from
毁掉正常生活 ruin their normal lives
找到新的工作 land a new job
