程曉
在上期的文章里,筆者和考生談到了考研英語必考話題之青年面對社會,本期我們一起來談?wù)効佳袑懽骼锏牧硪粋€熱門話題——科技與生活,這個話題也是四、六級寫作的熱門話題??v觀歷年的考研英語(一)、(二)和四、六級的寫作話題,考生可以發(fā)現(xiàn)“手機(jī)/網(wǎng)絡(luò)/搜索引擎”等元素頻繁出現(xiàn),這也是考試話題貼近生活的一個具體體現(xiàn)。
寫作思路指導(dǎo)
相信考生對這類話題都有自己比較熟悉的套路,但如何將套路處理得更好,同時加入一些新鮮元素呢?下面筆者就來提供一些建議。
首先,這類話題明顯是一個“兩面性”的問題??萍伎隙ńo生活帶來了各種好處,比如:手機(jī)和網(wǎng)絡(luò)讓人們可以方便地與外界溝通,可以放松休閑,可以輕松獲取各種信息,也能幫助工作學(xué)習(xí)。但同時科技帶來的問題也十分明顯,比如:手機(jī)和網(wǎng)絡(luò)成癮,忽視與身邊的人的交流,使人分心,剝奪了大量原本花在與親朋好友相處的時間,過度依賴網(wǎng)絡(luò)使人缺乏思辨能力,網(wǎng)絡(luò)虛假信息泛濫,人們生活“信息過載”反受拖累等。所以是否有比較好的套路能夠點出科技的兩面性,而不是一味地使用“on the one hand, … ; on the other hand …”來處理呢?答案是肯定的,筆者以右圖為例。
這幅圖明顯在告訴考生“過度依賴電子輸入的危害”,考生可以這樣點出電子產(chǎn)品的兩面性:
The rapid development and popularity of modern high-tech devices that have provided people with great convenience and dramatically improved work and study efficiency have also turned a huge number of modern people into a new type of illiterates called “slaves of digital products.”
現(xiàn)代高科技設(shè)備的快速發(fā)展和普及已經(jīng)為人們提供了極大的便利,并提高了工作和學(xué)習(xí)的效率,但這同樣也讓大量的現(xiàn)代人變成一種新型文盲,即所謂的“數(shù)碼產(chǎn)品的奴隸”。
考生可以發(fā)現(xiàn),這里使用了“A that have (has) done B have (has) done C”這樣一個句型,把數(shù)碼產(chǎn)品的“兩面性”交代清楚了。
A = The rapid development and popularity of modern high-tech devices
B = (have provided) people with great convenience and dramatically improved work and study efficiency
C = (have also turned) a huge number of modern people into a new type of illiterates called “slaves of digital products.”
考生們可以想想:是不是大多數(shù)科技類話題都可以這樣套用呢?布置一個小練習(xí):請試著寫一寫左下圖體現(xiàn)的兩面性。
點出兩面性之后,考生就可以進(jìn)一步展開“負(fù)面”性的內(nèi)容,因為這類主題畢竟還是要讓人們警惕“危害”的。就“提筆忘字”的主題而言,考生可以適當(dāng)放大,具體寫寫人們現(xiàn)在過度依賴科技的危害。
As a matter of fact, it is not difficult to find people who cannot write without the help of a spell checker or students who cannot remember basic knowledge and who constantly depend on a search engine.
事實上,不難發(fā)現(xiàn):如果沒有拼寫檢查系統(tǒng),有人就無法書寫;有學(xué)生無法記住一些基礎(chǔ)知識,不得不經(jīng)常依賴搜索引擎。
此外,考生在點出兩面性之前,可以交代一下這個現(xiàn)象發(fā)生的外部原因——社會背景。具體是什么背景呢?當(dāng)然是科技進(jìn)步!然后在把“具體危害”展開后,自然過渡到第三段寫“我們正確的做法是什么”,這樣文章就顯得十分流暢了。筆者繼續(xù)以“提筆忘字”這個主題為例寫第三段。
In my opinion, modern technology should be used responsibly/in a reasonable way. We created these machines and we are masters of them. Overdependence on technology only makes us less intelligent. In addition, as for us students, spelling words correctly is a basic skill for an educated person and one undoubtedly worth practicing frequently.
我認(rèn)為,應(yīng)該合理地使用現(xiàn)代科技。我們創(chuàng)造了那些機(jī)器,我們是它們的主人。對科技的過度依賴只會讓我們“智商”降低。另外,對于我們學(xué)生而言,正確拼寫是一個受過教育的人的基本技能,這毫無疑問值得經(jīng)常去練習(xí)。
大家可以看到,在提“正確的做法”的時候,考生應(yīng)該要“言之有物”,除了使用“理性使用”這種略為空洞的表達(dá),還需要說說“拼寫需要反復(fù)練習(xí)”。這樣才會顯得文章有血有肉,不全是“空話套話”。
寫作話題預(yù)測endprint
下面筆者給大家提供一篇考研英語(二)的預(yù)測題寫作范文作為參考。
范文
The pie chart illustrates the results of a survey on the age of people who read books on digital devices. As we can see from the chart, nearly 85% of e-reader users are people between the ages of 18 and 39, and people between the ages of 40 and 70 only account for about 15% of e-reader users.
In an age of rapid technological development and change, it is not surprising to find that most young people like using digital reading devices, while only a few elderly people use them. Why? The reasons are quite simple. Firstly, many elderly people lack understanding of modern high-tech devices, by which I mean that elderly people are not usually familiar with how to operate these devices. By comparison, young people are inherently more adaptable to the digital age. Secondly, compared with physical books, the merits of using digital reading devices such as portability and abundant free book resources are quite obvious. For people who can only spare a little time from their busy work or studies to read, an e-reader is undoubtedly the best option.
Accordingly, such a phenomenon is understandable and bound to continue in the future. However, it is also necessary for young people to control their time spent on digital devices, since overuse can be damaging to their physical health.
翻譯
圖中描繪出的是一項關(guān)于使用數(shù)字化閱讀方式的人的年齡的調(diào)查。從圖中我們可以看出,85%的數(shù)字閱讀用戶是18~39歲的人群,而年齡在40~70歲之間的數(shù)字閱讀用戶只占總?cè)藬?shù)的15%左右。
在一個技術(shù)快速發(fā)展和變化的時代,看到大多數(shù)年輕人使用數(shù)字閱讀設(shè)備,而只有少數(shù)老年人使用它們,這點不足為奇。為什么? 原因很簡單:首先,老年人對現(xiàn)代高科技設(shè)備不了解,我的意思是老年人通常對如何操作這些設(shè)備不熟悉。相比之下,年輕人天生就更適應(yīng)這個數(shù)字化時代。其次,與實體書相比,使用數(shù)字閱讀設(shè)備的優(yōu)點,比如便攜性、豐富的免費圖書資源,是相當(dāng)明顯的。對于只能從繁忙的工作或?qū)W習(xí)中抽出時間來閱讀的人來說,數(shù)字閱讀設(shè)備無疑是更好的選擇。
因此,這種現(xiàn)象是可以理解的,并且將來一定會持續(xù)下去。然而,年輕人也需要控制花在數(shù)字設(shè)備上的時間,因為過度使用這些設(shè)備會對身體健康造成傷害。
這期內(nèi)容就講到這里,希望對考生有所幫助。endprint