MUST English Debating Team Participates in the 1st Supernovae Cup of English Debate Competition
“China should stop supporting North Korea”, “Whether the criminal can only hire the public prosecutor in prosecution”, “Should models be forbidden in fashion industry”...
On April 11-12, sponsored by Macau Foundation, MUST English Debating Team invited dozens of debaters from Sun Yat-sen University, Jinan University, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, the University of Hong Kong, University of Macau, Macao Polytechnic Institute, University of Saint Joseph to get together in MUST to participate in the 1st Supernovae Cup of English Debate Competition which received all participants’ praise.
MUST freshman Xu Mingcai, having taken part in all rounds of the debate, said that “the motions range very widely, involving political, legal, fashion and other fields. All participants spoke English in the whole process of the debate, which challenges greatly our English thinking ability, and speaking ability.” He felt he learned a lot and made obvious progress after joining the debating team, competing with debaters from different background and having idea collisions.
The "Supernova Cup English Debate" was held in the British Parliament type which is a common form most widely used in academic debate at present such as the World Universities Debating Championship and China’s FLTRP Cup National English Debating Championship. Different from the Mandarin debate which involves only two sides, the British Parliamentary debate consists of eight debaters and takes place between four teams: two on the Proposition and two on the Opposition; their roles are split into two categories, those for the Government including the Upper House and Lower House two Speakers each, and those for the Opposition including the Upper House and Lower House two Speakers each; the playing roles include Prime Minister, deputy Prime Minister, whip, etc. and each speaker will present a speech of 7 minutes, before the last time of any speech, the debater holding the floor may refute points of information. In order to strongly defend their won points within the limited time, all debaters may spare no efforts with brainstorming to compete collaboratively which makes the debate rather wonderful and fierce.
MUST English Debating Team finally won three Best Debater awards and all the teams successfully entered the semi-finals in this competition in which all debaters were still lost. English debating has not only showed debaters’ strict logic and critical thinking and sophisticated debating skills but also provided them an international platform for broadening horizon and social communication. The "Supernova Cup English Debate" invited students and friends cross straits and ended successfully. All members of MUST English Debating Team are very high spirited and look forward to making more remarkable achievements in the following competitions. Wish them the very best of success!
