清华在线同等学力英语短文写作指导

The Concluding Paragraph

3．段与段之间的逻辑关系

由于短文写作的字数较少而表达的层次却比较丰富，因此短文各段之间的逻辑关系一定要明显地表现出来。主题句是段落写作的领衔句，而主题段是整个篇章的领衔段落。应该注意在每个段落结束的时候，引出下一段，或在下一段的开题句有一个承上启下的交代。如果没有这个逻辑上的联系，就会显得零散，无法构成篇章。多数情况下，段与段之间的逻辑关系也是靠过渡词和词组来实现的。这里不再一一列举。

上一章列举的写作手法，如时间顺序、空间顺序、递进顺序、主题顺序等几乎可以在所有文体中通用。即使在议论文中，也可以有说明过程的成分。近年来图表作文的趋势很猛，考生有必要练习和格外注意如何把一整套过程清楚地用文字表达出来。例如，在网上收发电子邮件，是再简单不过的事了，可是你能不能用很准确连贯的语言表达和描述出来呢?请阅读和分析下文，或许能得到点参考。

迄今为止，同等学力英语短文写作文体基本上都是小型议论文。考试中的图表作文虽然含有不同程度的说明成分，但文章的主体是议论，因此仍属议论文。虽然今后短文写作考试的基本文体仍将是议论文，但书信写作也在测试的范围内，考生对此应有充分准备。

六、热点话题和写作参考

从准备同等学力英语考试实际出发，要提高写作技能关键是靠练。讲太多的理论是没有用的。就像学游泳一样，只站在岸边讲理论谈方法是不够的，最终目的还是下水游。因此本章的重点其实是这最后一段。这里提供了一些样题的作文，虽不一定完善，但提供了一定的语料和写作思路，希望可以起到抛砖引玉的作用。

1. Annual Expenses on Learning English

It is well known that English learning is fairly important to the student, but also it is a money hunter. The Graph of Annual Expenses aims to show us the fact that daily study has constituted a yearly large sum of money. That is, students are, day by day, challenging the knowledge from a sea of reference hooks, cassette tapes, CDs and even VCD.

Buying books is always the biggest sum of a student’s expense, which has ranged from 10 to 60 RMB yuan during the latest decades. What’s more evident, it can be found in 1999 that VCD is beneficial for students to better their English. Perhaps VCD may help students to improve listening comprehension. Therefore, they have spent 50 RMB yuan to buy VCD.

No one can deny the fact that CDs have something to do with learning English. In most situations, they are helpful to improve our understanding of foreign cultures, which are often considered difficult and tedious for students to learn from the textbooks. Compared with this, listening tapes is rather boring, so in 1999 a student spent less than 20 RMB yuan to buy tapes.

However, much money does not mean obtaining a better acquisition of a foreign language. In a long run, I am determined to make full use of available tools to master English, and try to make all the books, CDs, VCDs well worth their expenses.

2. Dietary Changes and Health Care

As is shown in the graph, China’s food distribution has taken great changes from 1960′s to 1990′s. According to this statistics of cereals, vegetable, meat, and fruits, the number of those who eat rice, flour or vegetable has greatly decreased in the past four decades. In contrast of this the number of those who eat oil or meat has sharply increased. From such dietary changes, we can perceive the rapid improvement of our people’s living standard.

Why does this improvement occur? The direct reason is the fact that the Chinese people have attached much importance to their health care. Nationally, China’s economic growth is booming, and more people are getting richer. Individually, everyone’s consumption of food is increasingly varied. In particular, most people are reluctant to eat much vegetable, but much meat and oil in their diets.

In my view, the changes of China’s dietary distribution seem to be both positive and negative. The positive aspect is that China’s economical growth has given rise to the higher level of dietary standard, with most people living rich and happy. But the negative aspect is that, I’m afraid, less eating vegetable will lead to poorer health, such as lacking vitamin nutrients in one’s body. Therefore, we think it necessary for the Chinese to be aware of the balanced diets: both vegetable and meat, which may gain us healthier bodies in the new century.

3. Value of Knowledge

In the Information Age, public awareness of the value of knowledge critically affects the economic growth of a nation. The schematic diagram clearly shows how the value of knowledge evolved in China in the past 50 years.

The schematic diagram mainly consists of three parts. From 1950 to 1966, the curve was roughly a straight line slightly above zero, showing that China was a poorly-educated nation then. In 1966, the curve drastically dropped below zero, moving down hopelessly in the next 11 years. This period coincided with the “Culture Revolution”. Our society went mad then, books were burned, schools were closed and all kinds of academic activities were banned. Knowledge inflicted its masters nothing but disasters. Life was a nightmare for Chinese intellectuals, including famous scholars as well as common people who received higher education or whose profession had anything to do with knowledge. It was a time when ignorance was a virtue and knowledge was a crime. People tried desperately to be away from knowledge. As a result, China lagged farther behind the rapid progressing world. This was the darkest time in the history of New China. The curve returned to its original non-zero position around 1978 and moved up but slowly. From 1984 on, it has been shooting up. The open-up policy encourages people to study and to channel their knowledge to the market economy. Millions of Chinese are bettering off by means of’ their knowledge and more Chinese enjoy the fruits of knowledge and say goodbye for good to poverty that haunted them for generations.

As our world is rapidly advancing towards the Information Age, increasing number of people realize that knowledge is power and creativity is everything. Only when China becomes a better-educated nation, can it be a great nation with international prestige.

4. On Modesty

Modesty is one of the many qualities that cross-century young people should possess. It makes you foresee your imperfections. It gives you the impetus to go forward. Most important of all, it makes you accessible and creates favorable conditions for you in interpersonal contacts.

However, many young people do not seem to realize the importance of modesty. Some of them just feel satisfied with a little success, without the slightest desire to make further progress. Others have too high an opinion of themselves, totally ignoring other people’s suggestions and advice. Consequently, their immodesty often drives them up against the wall. Worst of all, immodesty takes many young people away from their colleagues and friends. Therefore they find fewer people with whom they can confide.

For you to be modest, the first thing to do is to have a full understanding of your deficiencies. No matter who you are and no matter how talented you are, you are unlikely to be all-powerful. In fact, you will always, in spite of your talents, find things about which you feel helpless. Besides, you should also admit other people’s strong points and try your best to learn from them. If you keep these two points in mind, you are on the right path to developing modesty.

As for me, I like running in the morning. And I have benefited a lot from it. It does a lot of good to my health. So I will persist in doing it in the future.

5. On Beijing’s Hosting of the Olympiad

With the successful application for the hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games, the city of Beijing is expected to have more rapid development in the next seven years. First, the urban construction work, including public utilities and environmental protection will make our life more comfortable. Second, the authorities are planning to build many stadiums and gymnasiums for practice and exercise. Third, our tourist industry will benefit from this occasion and our national economy will experience faster development. In addition, the improvement of the overall environment will certainly benefit many aspects of our life.

However, everything has two sides.  For one thing, Beijing is already a populous, even crowded city, with traffic jams here and there every day. With more and more people coming to Beijing, these problems will become more serious. For another, to host such international games, the authorities have to spend a lot of money on various constructions, but many people need to get the most essential material for everyday life if they do not have jobs.