托福综合写作答题技巧——4月国外考试教学研讨

　　托福写作部分是由综合写作和独立写作两个部分组成的：综合写作是对考生综合能力的考察考试过程中考生们需要先读一篇文章，再听一篇听力，最后将所读和所听内容进行汇总和改写，编辑成一篇文章；独立写作重在考查考生们逻辑清晰度和写作语言能力。与雅思不同，托福考试中两部分的分值是相同，考官在改分是都是以5分制给考生的两篇作文打分，换算成30分为满分的分数后再取平均值，有时则会根据当场考试的学生情况的不同，略高或略低于平均值。中国考生备考过程中普遍存在一个误区，即考生们比起综合写作明显更加重视独立写作。其实这种想法是错误且有害的，综合写作因为对语言的考察比较少，所以对于英语输入能力比输出能力强的中国考生而言是能帮忙提分。现在我们来看看怎么写出一篇高分甚至满分的综合写作作文。

　　首先在做题之前，我们先看一下综合写作的写作说明：

　　Direction：You will read a passage about an academic topic and listen to a lecture about the same topic and you will listen to a lecture about the same topic. Then you will write a response to a question that asks you about the relationship between the lecture you heard and the reading passage. You should allow 3minutes to read the passage. Then listen to the lecture. Then allow 20 minutes to plan and write your response.

　　从上面的要求中，我们可以了解到综合写作的考试流程和考试时间。首先会有3分钟的时间读阅读文章，听一篇和阅读文章息息相关的听力讲座，并在20分钟的时间内完成写作。在中国大陆的考试中综合写作中阅读和听力一定会有着相同的话题，两者之间的关系绝大部分情况下都是相互反驳，偶尔可能是相互支持的也有可能是阅读中提出问题，听力中给予解答，但是需要注意的是后两种综合写作几乎是百年不见的，所以笔者建议考试时间很近的考生可以放弃完全支持型和原因措施型综合写作的准备。在阅读上述要求时我们不难总结出，在写作的时候，考生们需要写出阅读中的内容，听力中的内容和两者之间的关系。那么这3个内容又是孰轻孰重呢？就让我们来简单看下综合写作的评分标准吧：

　　1， you should successfully selects the information from the lecture;

　　你需要成功地总结出听力中的信息点；

　　2， coherently and accurately presents this information in relation to the relevant information presented in the reading passage;

　　连贯且正确地将听力中的信息点和阅读进行比较；

　　3， there can be language errors that do not result in inaccurate and imprecise information of content and connections.

　　允许少量的语言错误。

　　根据评分标准第一句，我们可以得出结论：考生们的首要任务是完成听力文本的归总和改写，事实上对听力文本的还原度越高考生所拿到的分数就越高。根据评分标准第二句，我们可以得知，将在每段话中点出阅读和听力之间的关系是非常必要的。而从评分标准第三句中，我们可以得到的信息是语言并不是重点。需要注意的是，在评分标准中我们并没有找到类似于"selects the information from the reading passage"的语言，即是说考生们并不需要对阅读内容进行详细地阐述。

　　在学习综合写作的过程中，我们需要掌握三项技能：记笔记（note-taking），总结（summarizing），改写（synthesizing）。

　　Note-taking记笔记：

　　很多考生们提笔记则色变，他们认为笔记是综合写作中一个不可攻克的碉堡，练了很长时间可能还是无法顺利记下听力中的信息点。笔者认为原因有三点：1，笔记记得太慢，很多同学听听力时听懂了单词就会激动地一丝不苟一字不落地将单词写下，造成很多时间的浪费和信息点的遗漏；2，心理素质不强，在听综合写作的过程中我们必然会遭遇到一些听不懂的单词，一旦出现这种情况，很多考生们就会紧张不知所措并搜肠刮肚地搜索这个单词的意思，浪费很多时间，遗漏很多信息。3，题目专业性较强，综合写作是学术性的写作练习，涉及的材料可能是文科可能是理科，可能是说天文类的文章也可能是讨论氢气燃料的文章，在做综合写作的过程中，考生们很有可能会遇到自己所不熟悉的科目，慌了神傻了眼，本来可以看懂听懂的也变得看不懂听不懂了。

　　面对这些问题，我的建议有：

　　1， 结构式笔记法： 在考完口语之后，考写作之前的1分钟里，抓紧时间将草稿纸对折，并做上记号（如在两边最上面写上"听力L""阅读R"，下面依次写上1,2,3并留下空格）。

　　2， 在记阅读笔记时，考生们切记三点：一，以词为单位（一句话听完再记笔记，不仅容易遗忘，还会漏听之后的信息点；单词以记缩写符号为主，中文英文单词为辅，总而言之，怎么快怎么来）  二，尽量简单，不需要记太多的内容，最好不超过15个字（刚刚已经提过了，阅读中的细节信息点是不需要写入作文中的，且在写作时阅读文章会再一次出现在屏幕上，所以阅读不需要做过多的笔记）  三，观点是重点（细节不会考到，观点可以推导出听力观点，减轻听力负担）。

　　3， 在记听力笔记是，也要记三点：1，以词为单位  二，尽量记详细（听力只会出现一次，且是作文时的主要内容，听力很重要故要记详细）  三，细节是重点（不需要记观点，因为观点可以通过阅读推断出来）。

　　我们一起来看下TPO9的综合写作：

　　Reading

　　Car manufacturers and governments have been eagerly seeking a replacement for the automobile's main source of power, the internal-combustion engine. By far the most promising alternative source of energy for cars is the hydrogen-based fuel-cell engine, which uses hydrogen to create electricity that, in turn, powers the car. Fuel-cell engines have several advantages over internal-combustion engines and will probably soon replace them.

　　One of the main problems with the internal-combustion engine is that it relies on petroleum, either in the form of gasoline or diesel fuel. Petroleum is a finite resource; someday, we will run out of oil. The hydrogen needed for fuel-cell engines cannot easily be depleted. Hydrogen can be derived from various plentiful sources, including natural gas and even water. The fact that fuel-cell engines utilize easily available, renewable resources makes them particularly attractive.

　　Second, hydrogen-based fuel cells are attractive because they will solve many of the world's pollution problems. An unavoidable by-product of burning oil is carbon dioxide, and carbon dioxide harms the environment. On the other hand, the only byproduct of fuel-cell engines is water.

　　Third, fuel-cell engines will soon be economically competitive because people will spend less money to operate a fuel-cell engine than they will to operate an internal-combustion engine. This is true for one simple reason: a fuel-cell automobile is nearly twice as efficient in using its fuel as an automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine is. In other words, the fuel-cell powered car requires only half the fuel energy that the internal-combustion powered car does to go the same distance.

　　Listening

　　Professor:

　　The reading is correct in pointing out the problems associated with oil-powered cars. Yes, oil is a finite resource, and yes, burning oil harms the environment. However, the reading is way too optimistic in its assessment of hydrogen-based fuel-cell engines. Hydrogen is not the solution to these problems.

　　First, hydrogen is not as easily available as the passage indicates. Although it's present in common substances like water, it's not directly useable in that form. For using a fuel-cell engine, hydrogen must first be obtained in a pure liquid state. This pure liquid hydrogen is a highly artificial substance. It's technologically very difficult to produce and store liquid hydrogen. For example, it must be kept very very cold at minus 253 degrees Celsius. Imagine the elaborate cooling technology that's required for that! So hydrogen is not such a practical and easily available substance, is it?

　　Second, using hydrogen would not solve the pollution problems associated with cars. Why? Producing pure hydrogen creates a lot of pollution. To get pure hydrogen from water or natural gas, you have to use a purification process that requires lots of energy that's obtained by burning coal or oil. And burning coal and oil creates lots of pollution. So although the cars would not pollute, the factories that generated the hydrogen for the cars would pollute.

　　Third, there won't necessarily be any cost savings when you consider how expensive it is to manufacture the fuel-cell engine. That's because fuel-cell engines require components made of platinum, a very rare and expensive metal. Without the platinum components in the engine, the hydrogen doesn't undergo the chemical reaction that produces the electricity to power the automobile. All the efforts to replace platinum with a cheaper material have so far been unsuccessful.

　　一般同学的笔记是这样的：

　　如图：这种笔记没结构，关系混乱，还容易漏观点

　　结构式笔记是这样的：

　　（后者比起前者就要清楚明白很多了）

　　Summarizing 归总：

　　在写作时总结阅读听力内容时主要需要两步：1，筛掉不重要信息（eliminate unnecessary information） 2，找出两者的因果关系（combine into a sentence）

　　表示因果类的逻辑关系词有： 

　　还是以TPO9为例：

　　阅读一：The hydrogen fuel is easily available.

　　听力一：The fuel cannot be simply generated and stored.

　　阅读二：Hydrogen-based fuel cells will solve the world pollution problems.

　　听力二：The fuel cannot solve the pollution problem, in that it requires energy made from coal and oil and the pollutant provided during the process of ethanol produce is as much as that of combustion fuel.

　　阅读三：The ethanol fuel will soon be economically competitive.

　　听力三：The fuel will not be cheap, because an essential component that ethanol produce requires is rare and expensive.

　　Synthesizing 改写：

　　所谓的改写即是将刚刚通过归总整理出来的6句话编辑成三大段话，也就是说我们需要去将阅读听力中的信息点连到一起去（connect the information from both sources）。在改写的过程中，考生们可以编辑自己的一套模板,如：

　　Contrary to the belief in the passage that___, the professor asserts that____.

　　The author of the passage points out that___, while the lecture notes that___.

　　According to the reading, ____. The passage's point is different from the professor, which states that____.

　　或者是：

　　According to the lecture,____; this contradicts the points in the reading that____.

　　The professor argues that____. This is different from the reading, which states that____.

　　The teacher says that____. However, this is not what the reading states; it says that_____.

　　进而将我们上文所整理出来的六句话，选择性地填到空格中，并添加上听力中的其他细节信息点，这样一篇质量较高的综合写作就完成了。