在托福口语中，经常我们会用例子来支撑自己的观点。而在托福听力中，举例子是否也有同样的功能呢？答案是肯定的。接下来我们分别看看再对话和讲座中“举例子”是如何被用来出题的。

　　在对话中，学生经常会说说one of my classmate told me……或者是when I graduated from high school,I……在讲座中，老师讲到动物某个行为的时候还会列举了好多动物的行为，这些例子都很可能成为托福听力的高频考点。

　　比如：TPO 18的 conversation 1的第三题：

　　3.Why does the student mention hosting foreign-exchange students?

　　A.To explain his interest in a particular field of study

　　B.To explain why he is looking for a job so late in the semester

　　C.To explain why he would like to be an exchange student the following year

　　D.To explain how he learned his computer skills

　　这篇对话的主旨是一男生转学到新学校，询问兼职工作的事情。在老师询问学生，为何选择该校专业时，男生向老师阐述了自己的家庭和个人经历还解释自己对于所学专业的喜爱。

　　在这里，我们听力的是statement +example 这样的形式，特殊的在于：老师的提问引出了需要阐明的观点或者是态度，而学生通过例子来回答了老师的问题。这些考点主要根据说话人对于经历的回忆来说明自己的态度。

　　我们来看下对应的文本：

　　Professor: We do have a great program. Well how did you get interested in international studies?

　　Student: My family hosted a few foreign exchange students while I was growing up. Then I took part in an international summer program after I graduated from high school. I thought I really like meeting people from all over, getting to know them.

　　Professor: OH! Ok! And that led you to our program. …

　　在这里我们看到，老师提出问题，学生没有直接回答，而是回忆小时候的事情来阐述自己为什么选择 international study 这个专业来学习。也就是说，在对话中引出例子的主要意义在于解释说话人的观点，推动对话的进行。

　　那么在讲座中，例子是如何进行考察的呢？我们还是来看一个例子。比如TPO 24中的 lecture 4的第四题：

　　4.Why does the professor mention a bottle?

　　A.To illustrate the shape of the interior of a passage grave

　　B.To describe part of a Neolithic burial ceremony

　　C.To help explain how resonance is produced

　　D.To give an example of an artifact found in a Neolithic site

　　对应的原文是：

　　Michael:  How so?

　　Professor:  Well, first the echoes. When religious leaders started chanting with echoes bounced off the…(此处省略若干)… And another bit of physics I played here is something called Resonance. I know physics, but well I imagine you have all below near of top empty bottles and heard sounds it makes. And you probably notice that depending on its size--- each empty bottle plays one particular music note. Or it is the physics might put it, each bottle resonates at a particular frequency. Well, that's true of these chambers too.

　　从这个例子可以看出，学生提出疑问，老师先给出答案，接着提出例子 bottle 来详细阐释原理。这篇考古学讲座的主旨是：The sound effects that Neolithic people could experience in passage graves, 而从主旨的角度出发，那么这道题目答案就选出C。甚至夸张地来说，我们没有听到这个例子，也是可以直接选到C的，因为只有C选项中有resonance（声音共鸣，共振）是和主旨对应的。