The National College English Competition that Xia Xiaolan knew of usually held its preliminary round in April.
Both preliminary and second rounds were held at local universities.
The fact that this competition Xia Xiaolan was now participating in had brought contestants from all over Beijing showed how much importance the Ministry of Education attached to it.
“This shows you all carry a mission on your shoulders. The influence of this first competition is significant, and it will continue to be held annually.”
In Xia Xiaolan’s opinion, this was because “English” had officially become part of the college entrance examination last year, as a main subject for both arts and science tracks. The Ministry of Education organized this national competition for positive publicity and to motivate students to study English.
The Foreign Language Department’s supervising teacher warned everyone about competitors from Beijing Foreign Studies University. While their overall strength might not match Huaqing or Beijing University, in languages, they were top-tier nationally.
Specialists would certainly outperform non-specialists, but oddly, the Foreign Language University only had three finalists.
“That’s because their English majors didn’t register – this was also Professor Xu’s suggestion.”
Teacher Lin spoke cheerfully, showing great respect for Professor Xu.
Beijing Foreign Studies University now offers 28 different languages, English being just one of them. Apart from English majors, the three finalists were studying other languages – impressive and powerful, befitting their status as the leading language institution.
The two Foreign Language Department students from Huaqing University’s expressions changed.
Xia Xiaolan didn’t think much of it – each had its strengths. As a specialized language university, if their English majors had participated, what chance would other universities have?
This being the first competition, there was no prior experience.
In the future, the National College English Competition will be divided into four categories: A for graduate students, B for English majors (both undergraduate and vocational), C for non-English majors, and D for sports and medical students.
It made sense for professionals to compete against professionals, and amateurs against amateurs.
For now, various systems haven’t yet been perfected. While TOEFL became available in 1981, the CET-4 and CET-6 tests that would torment college students for years hadn’t appeared yet in 1985!
The finals were being held at Beijing Foreign Studies University, located on West Third Ring Road, less than 3 kilometers from Beijing Normal University. Xia Xiaolan couldn’t help asking Teacher Lin:
“Do you know if any Beijing Normal University students made it to the finals this year?”
Teacher Lin thought for a moment, uncertain:
“I think there’s one… Hey, Professor He, didn’t Beijing Normal have one student in the finals?”
Professor, He was the one who had given extra tutoring to Xia Xiaolan’s group of four.
He slowly pulled out a paper from his pocket, unfolded it, and looked, “Yes, one. Why suddenly ask about Beijing Normal?”
Professor He didn’t even consider such competitors worth noting.
With just one finalist, it couldn’t be Xia Ziyu or Wang Jianhua – Xia Xiaolan remembered neither had particularly good English grades. They took the college entrance exam in ’83 when English scores weren’t fully counted in the total.
“Nothing special, I just have a hometown friend at Beijing Normal.”
Xia Xiaolan gave Professor He a shy smile. Ji Jiangyuan was resting with his eyes closed, but his mind was racing. Xia Xiaolan’s question about Beijing Normal must have been concerning that annoying future brother-in-law who visited Huaqing – that Wang Jianhua.
Wang Jianhua was from Deputy Director Wang’s family in the Higher Education Department, and Director Wang had visited Huaqing University before.
The Wang family’s reputation wasn’t good – many in Beijing knew about the tutoring class incident.
He wanted to discuss it with Xia Xiaolan, but with things happening one after another, she had truly “drawn a clear line” with him, so Ji Jiangyuan couldn’t say anything now.
If it was that Wang Jianhua, he was indeed annoying.
Ji Jiangyuan didn’t understand why Wang Jianhua still dared to cause trouble when Xia Xiaolan was dating Zhou Cheng – Instructor Zhou didn’t seem easy to bully. Ji Jiangyuan disliked using “privilege” and “class” to divide people, but since some people did, he had to adapt. Given China’s circumstances, the Wang family couldn’t compare to the Zhou family – Ji Jiangyuan felt this deeply himself.
Ji Jiangyuan wanted to speak but realized that in Xia Xiaolan’s eyes, he might be as disliked as Wang Jianhua, so he continued pretending to sleep.
In Xia Xiaolan’s mind, Ji Jiangyuan was overthinking.
Her true hatred for Ji Ya – Ji Jiangyuan was just collateral damage, certainly ranking behind Wang Jianhua.
Wang Jianhua ranked after Xia Ziyu – the “murderer” was the truly unforgivable one. The school bus wobbled as it arrived at Beijing Foreign Studies University, not yet 8 AM.
Xia Xiaolan had breakfast with Teacher Lin and others.
None of this came out of their own pockets – the school covered everything. It made sense – if out-of-town students had to pay their way to Beijing for the finals, just the train tickets would scare many away, not to mention food and lodging expenses that average students couldn’t afford!
“The written test is from 9:00-10:30, followed by the oral test. You’ve practiced the oral test format repeatedly, just perform at your normal level.”
They had indeed practiced the oral test extensively.
It wasn’t complicated, divided into three parts. First was self-introduction in English, explaining why you like English and such, controlled to 3 minutes.
The second was story retelling – listen to an audio passage, get 1 minute to organize thoughts, then retell the story in your own way within 5 minutes.
Third was drawing a topic and expressing your views, like when Xia Xiaolan got environmental protection in the second round. Such topics appeared frequently, also with a 5-minute limit.
Each student’s oral test took about 15 minutes. With 200 students nationally, wouldn’t that take 3000 minutes or 50 hours?
The Ministry of Education was prepared. The written test ended at 10:30, and grading began immediately.
Only 20 contestants would advance to the oral portion.
The 180 eliminated contestants would all receive “third prize” in this competition.
For the remaining 20 contestants, television crews would record them, editing highlights for broadcast. Xia Xiaolan thought it was quite a spectacle, though the competition process was brutal.
She felt the 180 eliminated “third prize” winners would have basically zero chance of becoming exchange students abroad.
She had to make it to the oral test round.
Xia Xiaolan stretched her fingers, unsure about the written test’s difficulty. In her previous life’s college years, she’d only taken CET-4, later self-studying English for work, never taking IELTS or TOEFL, so she had no way to gauge her level.
Getting full marks in the college entrance exam in English didn’t count – it was too simple for Xia Xiaolan.