by Penelope Trunk

很多人都曾担心过面试时会碰到什么样的问题。未知的恐惧让他们忐忑不安。但事实上，面试的问题是可以预测的，意思就是说你完全可以就面试可能问到的问题准备好答案，但重点并不是让你去猜问题，而是要将自己的资料总结成几个谈话点，当你听到一个问题时，就可以选择用哪个谈话点来回答。

3. Neglecting talking points

无的放矢

When President Bush walks into a press conference, he doesn't worry what journalists are going to ask him because he already has the answers he's going to provide -- no matter what the questions are. Such answers are called talking points. 当布什总统来到新闻发布会上，他不会担心记者们会问什么样的问题，因为对这些问题，因为不管是什么问题他心中都已有了答案。 这样的回答称之为“谈话点”。

Politicians want to frame an issue, so they listen to a question and then decide which of their talking points they'll use to answer that question. In this way, each question they're asked is an opportunity to get their own points across. 政治家们喜欢给问题定“框框”，这样当听到了一个问题时，他们就选择一个“谈话点”来回答这个问题。每个问题都是一个表达自己观点的机会。

I once had a media trainer teach me how to stick to talking points, and it works for a wide range of situations -- including job interviews. 曾经有一位媒体培训老师教过我如何围绕谈话点谈话，这个办法在很多场合都管用——包括面试。

You control what five topics you want to discuss, so you should pick five things about yourself that you want to get across in an interview, and each point should come with some sort of story or example. You listen to each question and then figure out which point fits in well for a particular question. 你需要控制自己想讨论的五点主题。为此你要选择你想在面试中展示的关于自己的五个点，每个点都要配合一个故事或例子。 每次被问到一个问题时，都要想想那一点最适合用来回答。

You're not George W. Bush, though, so you can't totally ignore questions that don't have pat answers. But you'd be surprised how often you can answer an interview question with one of the five answers about yourself that you've prepared. This is a way to control an interview and make sure the focus is on your strengths. 不过，你可不是总统，所以，对于没准备过的问题，你不能避而不谈。但是，你至少会碰到五个点中的一个，这个几率会大大出乎你的预料。 这就是控制面试，确保面试集中在你的强项上的方法。

A great resource for helping you understand how to frame your answer for any question is the "The Complete Q & A Job Interview Book" by Jeffrey Allen. Jeffrey Allen写的《"The Complete Q & A Job Interview Book"》一书是教人们如何准备面试问题的好资料。(to be continued)

（感谢网友 hly_123 分享 英语点津 Annabel 编辑） 

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