托福獨立寫作的常見Q&A及應(yīng)對之策

　　托福獨立寫作題目相對而言比較多，經(jīng)典文庫中共計185個，但是每年ETS也會研發(fā)出新題，即使是在老題的基礎(chǔ)做些許的改動，母題的數(shù)量也使得“將所有題目寫一遍”這一任務(wù)變成mission impossible，而且即使做到了，也是一件投資回報率極低的行為，就算考試的時候出現(xiàn)了原題，估計也不可能回憶所有之前寫的細節(jié)內(nèi)容。所以針對獨立寫作部分的備考我們要更多的總結(jié)規(guī)律，通過總結(jié)來節(jié)省備考時間。TOEFL獨立寫作常見FAQ整理如下：

　　三選一題型如何處理

　　很多同學不知道三選一的文章結(jié)構(gòu)應(yīng)該如何處理。這里其實三選一并不復(fù)雜，只需要熟記兩個注意點就可以輕松應(yīng)付：一是三者都要提及;二是并沒有唯一的正確結(jié)構(gòu)，結(jié)構(gòu)應(yīng)該根據(jù)題目靈活的選擇。我們來看一道例題。

　　Essay Topic

　　Which one is the most important for teacher of high school?

　　1. The ability to help students plan for their future;

　　2. The ability to find the students who need help most and help them;

　　3. Teach students how to learn outside the classroom.

　　就這道題來講，題型基本結(jié)構(gòu)的選擇有兩種：三項能力都重要，但是第一項最重要;或者，第一項是重要的，而第二項和第三項是不重要的。其他的文章結(jié)構(gòu)都是這兩種的變體。我們拿第二種結(jié)構(gòu)舉例：

　　總論點：規(guī)劃未來能力最重要(vs.發(fā)現(xiàn)需要幫助的同學&教會自學)

　　主體段1：學生最需要規(guī)劃，而只有老師有能力提供

　　主體段2：發(fā)現(xiàn)需要幫助的能力不重要，因為學生自己會來找

　　主體段3：課外自學不重要，高中生沒有課外時間

　　The ability to help student with planning their future is definitely the most important capability for high school teachers.

　　To begin with, high school students are in desperate need for guidance about their future, and teachers are the only competent candidate to provide it. I know this from my personal experience. When I was in high school, a great portion of my classmates’ only goal is to reach for the minimum requirement for graduation, and to be able to get an offer from a middle-ranged college in the US, as all 15-year-old boys are profoundly addicted to either computer games or love affairs. Because of our immature mind, we had no idea regarding the choice of universities, or the selection of a future career path. What made matters worse is that our high school teachers provided us with virtually zero guidance concerning our college applications, not because they lack of the intention, but simply because they know nothing about it. Consequently, the vast majority of our parents had to hire an outside agency that specializes in the college application process which costs tons of money. Later we realized that this is an utter mistake, for what they did was simply giving us the timeline of the application process, translating our personal statements and recommendation letters from Chinese into English, and finally mailing out all our materials to the US. All of these simple tasks could be performed by ourselves, and these misfortunes surely could have been avoided if we had the luck to meet more competent teachers, with the ability to warn students and their parents about the black-hearted agencies and lay out lucid plans for students’ future.

　　The capability to find the students who need assistance most and help them, on the other hand, is not that imperative. The reason for this is quite simple, since high school students would come to teachers voluntarily if they are in serious trouble. In other words, many times students don’t want to be bothered by a teacher who treats them like a baby-sitter. As for the “help” part, I firmly hold the faith that all teachers are already equipped with the willingness to solve student’s problem gladly, using their prehistoric powers, no matter how difficult the situation can be. So the willingness to help students should be the minimum standard to be qualified as a teacher.

　　Similarly, the skill to teach students how to learn outside the classroom is completely unnecessary. For one, most high school students have no time outside their classrooms at all, as all their spare time is already occupied by cram school or by extracurricular activities. Even in the rare circumstance that some students may have free time, parents could always play the part of their instructor on how to self-study.

　　本篇文章在結(jié)構(gòu)的處理上，做到了清晰、簡單。第一個主體段在證明第一項能力是非常必要的。第二、三主體段在分別證明第二、三項能力是不重要的。整個段落結(jié)構(gòu)很明確。這樣會更容易獲得高分。大家要注意避免結(jié)構(gòu)過于復(fù)雜和混亂。　　

　　如何豐富整篇文章的結(jié)構(gòu)?

　　先說答案：另外一個大家經(jīng)常會有疑惑的問題就是：我的三個主體段全部都是講故事，好像手法太單一了，會不會被扣分?如何豐富?答案是：有可能;以及，偶爾的使用純解釋型段落。眾所周知，TOEFL寫作中展開手法有兩種，exemplification和explanation。例證顯然是二者中更簡單的一個。因此，大部分同學都更傾向于使用例證。因為它更容易快速上手，并且大家可以通過舉例來展開具體化的細節(jié)，從而獲得高分。但注意，如果三個主體段全部是講故事展開，未免會有語言太差的嫌疑。因此，除了例證，我們文章中最好可以稍微涉及到一些說理部分。

　　舉例和說理分別的優(yōu)勢?

　　大家現(xiàn)在可以重新觀察一下范文三個主體段的展開手法。三個主體段一共444字。其中第一段259字，第二段116字，第三段69字。第一段的展開手法為例證(講故事)，第二、三段均為解釋。大家明顯感受到例證的優(yōu)勢即為能夠更輕松的展開出有效并具體化的細節(jié)，或俗稱“好湊字”。解釋的好處為語言簡練，表達效率高，文章的遞進性、節(jié)奏會更緊湊。

　　舉例和說理分別的劣勢?

　　例證在TOEFL寫作中并無太明顯的劣勢。解釋的劣勢就比較明顯了。同樣的一個分論點，有的同學用例證可以很輕松寫到200字，而解釋只能說到100字。有的同學可能有個刻板印象：講故事的語言通常比較簡單，句式單一，因此不容易得高分。注意，講故事語言和句式也是可以復(fù)雜的;或者大家可以選擇簡單但地道的表達，可同樣可以獲得滿分。

　　答題戰(zhàn)略、以及舉例和說理的優(yōu)劣小結(jié)

　　因此我們以后考場上的答題戰(zhàn)略很簡單。第一段為例證段落。目的為使勁湊字，盡量直接寫滿200字。第二、三段可以選擇簡短的小故事或者解釋性段落，分別寫到60～100字左右。這樣主體段已經(jīng)達到至少320字，再加上開頭結(jié)尾段，可以輕松滿足350字的字數(shù)要求。

　　如何練好說理?

　　說理對語言和句式的要求要明顯高于例證。因此一定要有扎實的基本功的支持才能夠?qū)懗銎恋恼f理段落。關(guān)于句式的練法，可以參考強化班上的句型基本構(gòu)成以及句型轉(zhuǎn)化練習。

　　如何練好例證?

　　例證的套路大家都很熟悉。很多同學的問題出在沒思路上。比如，一道題目問說：我們的閑錢應(yīng)該拿去旅游好，還是存到銀行好?有同學說，存起來更好，因為可以未雨綢繆。這是一個很好的分論點，那么如何以例證的方式來展開呢?有同學說可以使用反證法：我有一個朋友Foosen，他就不存錢，后來他就死的很慘。用此例來強調(diào)存錢的必要性。大部分同學都能夠想到這一步，問題會處在如何用故事來展開死的很慘，以及什么事情導(dǎo)致Foosen死的很慘。我們來看一篇范文：

　　To begin with, as a young man living in a big city, I need to start saving up from now on, because there are a lot of things in the future costing tons of money. Take my good friend Foosen for example. He is an optimistic guy who prefers to seize the day. He can spend all his salary within just two days either on luxuries or on trips. Before he was even 22, he already went around the whole Africa. Unfortunately, not everything goes according to plan. Last year during his trip to South Africa, he accidentally broke his leg and had to go through surgery. However, since he could not cover the expense, he had to call everybody to borrow money. It took so long for him to collect the money that the surgery was delayed. As a result, the recovery period for him was 2 months longer than everyone else’s. Now, this example might be a particular instance, and it is out of his expectation. Nonetheless, in today’ssociety, even the potential spending within our expectation is already quite worrying. For instance, in Beijing, if I wish to purchase a 30-squaremeter apartment, it would cost me over 3 million yuan; if I want to invite, say, 20 friends to my wedding, I would have to pay over 200,000 yuan; not to mention if I have a child and want to support his education, it would cost at least 50,000 yuan per year just for him to go to kindergarten. It aches mejust to look at these horrifying numbers. If I don’t save up for my future, there would be no future. (275 words)

　　故事描述了主人公Foosen，由于是樂天派并且堅持活在當下，進而展開月光、全世界各地旅游;到之后有一次意外摔斷腿，需要做手術(shù)，但沒有存錢，從而導(dǎo)致恢復(fù)期比普通人長了兩個月。大部分的同學就是這些故事的“細節(jié)”想不到，或者沒思路。如何解決?很簡單，就是多看。因為講故事并沒有一個明顯的模式或公式可以使用。According to a Personalized Education: Schooling for Tomorrow published by OECD in 2006, “Brains have the ability to generate rulesfrom examples. All that is needed, therefore, are the right examples – lotsand lots of them.”其實就是我們中學老師總說的那句話，“量的積累產(chǎn)生質(zhì)的飛躍。”大家想練好例證，只需要找到優(yōu)秀的講故事型范文，仿寫10篇左右，自然會掌握規(guī)律。