最近，在我的博客上有考生留言問我關于雅思聽力中的大小寫問題，到底什么時候要大寫，什么時候不用大寫，會不會因為沒有大寫而扣分？其實，國內很多烤鴨都有同樣的疑惑，為了求證，我這兩天專門給雅思官方（ESOL）發郵件，希望得到他們關于這個問題的解釋。以下是我發的郵件內容：

Dear Esol,

I am an IELTS teacher in China. Here I have a question regarding IELTS Listening. Many students are confused about the capital letter in Listening Test. When is it necessary to capitalize the first letter?
What is the safest way to deal with this "capital letter" problem? Say if we put the answer all in block letters, is it acceptable? Will the student be punished simply because he does not capitalize the initial letter?
I have checked the Past Sample Papers like Cambridge IELTS 4,5 & 6 and I found some answers which are in capital letters hard to explain. So please help clarify this question and I believe it is a very common question to Chinese students.

Thanks and best regards.

You Wenfeng

雅思官方很快作出了回復，以下是原文內容：

Thank you for contacting Cambridge ESOL. Please find below an update to your call:

Original Call Description:
IELTS Listening - use of capital letters

Logged on: 18/05/2009 at 16:20:19

Update:
Dear You Wenfeng,

Thank you for your enquiry. In IELTS listening candidates are allowed to write their answers in upper or lower case.

I hope that this is of assistance.

Kind Regards

Elizabeth Jones
ESOL Helpdesk
Cambridge ESOL Customer Services

所謂的 In IELTS listening candidates are allowed to write their answers in upper or lower case意思就是說不會因為大小寫而扣分。其實，可以看得出來，雅思官方改卷時還是很機動靈活的，不像一些老師所說的那么死板。當然，我建議烤鴨們該首字母大寫的盡量還是應該大寫，不過沒必要因為大小寫問題給自己太大的壓力