朗阁海外考试研究中心 李怡静
托福写作尤其是独立写作部分的考试对于语言能力的要求非常高，特别是在语言的多样性与地道性方面。在笔者的教学过程中，发现学生们在写句子时有如遇到洪水猛兽，不敢写、不愿写、一写就出错的情况层出不穷。问及原因，大都是“想不出来好句子”、“单词只会这一些”、“时间不够，来不及考虑更多的变换”、“总觉得自己写得对”、“怎么写都写不出来，干脆随便从中文翻译过来就行”等等。正是因为学生平日里并没有意识去练句子的写作、没有对自己的作文进行润色修改的过程、也没有渠道或办法去丰富自己的知识库，所以才会出现这样尴尬的局面。每位学生都知道，写作是一项难提分、难拿高分的科目，而且需要平时的语言积累，可是几乎没有学生主动去找资料进行练习和补充。于是，笔者在总结写作常用语言结构并进行大量的托福阅读训练之后，发现托福阅读当中的长难句完全可以作为写作部分语言训练的好素材。
下面，笔者带大家从一句托福阅读长难句当中感受托福阅读和写作之间的联系：
Basic to any understanding of Canada in the 20 years after the Second World War is the country's impressive population growth．
长难句翻译：要理解二战之后20年中的加拿大，就必须了解该国惊人的人口增长。
细看这个句子，我们不难发现其主干结构：Basic … is the country’s impressive population growth. 很明显，这个句子是倒装句，形容词开头，主语在句末。这种情况的出现，一是为了强调开头的形容词，二是因为主语太长（有定语从句或长修饰词修饰）。
而对于学习写作课程的学生来讲，对于倒装句的理解仅限于否定词放在句首，整个句子倒装上面，他们不敢使用其他形式的倒装句，也不愿意冒写错的风险。但如果能够借鉴托福阅读中的长难句，学生在练习倒装句或是改写润色自己作文的时候，就能够依照模版进行练习。
比如，上面的长难句可以将名词都换掉，改成下面的句子：
Basic to any understanding of the relevant knowledge used in the assignment after class is the knowledge imparted by teachers in the class.
一旦有一个改写的模版，学生们就很容易举一反三，写出高级句型。
这种倒装句，除了basic之外，可以用任意一个形容词进行改变，依然是形容词加be动词加主语的结构，为的是强调形容词或避免头重脚轻。相信大家都听说过中文当中的“重要的是…”，“鲜为人知的是…”，“显而易见的是…”等等这样的句式，殊不知这样的句子都是倒装句。
下面，笔者利用一道写作真题的首段举例：
题目：People succeed because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success.
首段：
It is universally acknowledged that hard work is indispensable to success. Students study for years before they are admitted into top universities. Scientists toil for years before they make a major discovery. Self-made people work for years before they finally make a fortune. However, less well-known is the role that luck plays in achieving one’s goal.
在上面的首段最后一句话中，应用了刚刚阅读中的长难句句式（形容词放句首的倒装句），将前面的形容词改为less well-known, 即“鲜为人知的”。显而易见，在积累并熟悉阅读长难句当中的经典句式之后，我们更容易写出地道、流利、高级的好句子。
我们再看一句托福阅读当中的长难句：
Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent”, the film has never been, in the full sense of the word, silent.
长难句翻译：虽然我们习惯于将1927年以前的电影叫做“无声电影”，但是就“无声’’这个词的完整意义上说，电影从未真正的无声过。
分析这个句子，我们不难发现，主句是“the film has never been silent”, 而前半句“accustomed though we are to speaking of the films as silent”是一个不完全的倒装句，原句应该是“although we are accustomed to speaking of the films as silent”。也就是说，如果用though引导让步状语从句，从句当中就可以倒装。进一步补充，把though换成as, 也有同样的作用。
比照这个长难句，我们也能够自己写出这样的高级句型。
笔者利用一道写作真题的一个主体段做示范：
题目：Parents should allow children to make decisions by themselves.
主体段：
First off, encouraging children to make their own decisions offers them opportunities to develop independence. Accustomed though children are to turning to their parents for help once they have trouble doing something, they should not miss out on opportunities to grow up independently. By making their own decisions, children will analyze the situations appropriately, seek out ways to solve the problems by themselves and learn to distinguish right from wrong—all these contribute to the independence of children in the near future. Last October, a piece of striking news appeared on the local newspaper, saying that a kid was left on the street for 4 hours, waiting for his parents to pick up him. When the police came up to him, he said he had no idea where to go because his parents’ phone was out of service and he had no one to turn to for help. To trace back causes, his parents were to blame. Every time the child had questions or problems, his parents required him to ask them first for solutions, never allowing him to make any decisions on his own. Therefore, the result of helping children do everything including making decisions is the inability of children to independently tackle problems when necessary.
从以上两个例子当中，我们能够清楚地看到，托福阅读当中的长难句完全可以作为学生润色写作语言的桥梁，通过对长难句的分析和提炼，学生可以有效写出仿写句子，从而自己完成变通，在以后的作文当中习惯性地使用这样的高级句型。
网友评论