托福写作进阶小组手——经济学人

　　很多伙伴在大量的积累托福词汇及阅读写作素材后，发现作文以及不够出众，心中郁闷不已。今天课窝网分享关于如何通过经济学人进一步提高自己的文笔，脱颖而出。

　　以Academic Writing 为例，一篇漂亮的文章至少要做到以下几点：句式丰富多变，长短句灵活应用，用词准确出彩，论点丰富，论证有力，逻辑严谨。而经济学人就满足这种“漂亮”文章的标准，是非常好的阅读和模仿素材。

　　好的文章是模仿出来的，要学会模仿阅读时遇到的优美的词汇用法、句型结构、巧妙的比喻、幽默的风格等等，慢慢化为自己的熟练表达。

　　比如很多人习作中出现的一个问题是句式单一，用词平庸。我们可以学习一下经济学人文章的写法，增加语言的张力。举个例子，下面的这一段节选自的经济学人文章The enemy within:

　　EMPLOYEES are often said to be a company’s biggest resource. It is equally true that they are its biggest liability.Scarcely a week goes by withouta companyfalling victim toemployees-turned-enemies-or-embarrassments. On July 20th Ashley Madison, a website for married people looking tohave an affair, announced that it had been hacked. Noel Biderman, the company’s chief executive, says that he thinks the attack was “an inside job”. On July 6th HSBC fired a group of employeeswhen it emerged thatthey had filmed themselves engaged inan “ISIS-style mock beheading” of an Asian colleague dressed in an orange jumpsuit.

　　The most familiar type of enemy within is thefraudster. The Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister organisation of The Economist, conducts a regular poll of senior executives on the subject of fraud committed by insiders. In 2013 the poll discovered that about 70% of companies had suffered from at least one instance of fraud,up from61% in the previous survey. Fraud is often petty: a survey of British employees for YouGov in 2010 found that a quarter of staffeligible forexpenses admitted to inflating claims. But fraud can also be moreaudaciousand more harmful: think of former employeessetting uprivals using stolen technology andpurloinedclient lists.

　　从上面的文章中我们可以学到什么？

　　4个写作时可以用上的句式：

　　1....are often said to...it is equally true that...

　　2.Scarcely a week/month/year goes by without...

　　3....when it emerged that...

　　4.discovered that about 70% ...up from 61%...

　　10个词汇和短语：

　　1.liability

　　2.fall victim to

　　3.have an affair

　　4.behead

　　5.fraudster

　　6.eligible for

　　7.inflate (to make a number or price higher than it should be)

　　8.audacious

　　9.set up

　　10.purloin

　　这仅仅是两小段而已，整篇文章能学到的东西更多。你可以有意识地将上面学到的单词和句式应用到你的写作中去，比如第一个句型"...are often said to...it is equally true that..."可以用来说明事物具有两面性，这个句式不知道比那句蹩脚的 "there are advantages and disadvantages..." 要高到哪里去了。

　　这样短小精悍，用词惊艳的短句。没事把这些句子读一读，学习其中的好词好句，并将它们运用到写作中去，相信你会有很大的收获。

　　写作中容易出现的另外一个问题是：文章空洞无物，整篇文章翻来覆去都是在表达同一个意思，而且论证不够有力，缺乏逻辑性，这样的文章即使辞藻再华丽也是没有灵魂的。怎样让文章有内容有灵魂？看看经济学人是怎么做的：

　　经济学人的文章除了出色的语言表达技巧之外，最大的亮点其实它能够提出一套解决方案。怎么理解？举个例子，比如美国发生了严重的枪击案，其他的报刊一般这样报道：美国又发生枪击案了，这次又造成了多少伤亡，凶手是什么什么背景，末了可能还会吐槽下枪支制度不合理，发几张照片煽煽情。

　　如果换做是经济学人的话，它除了报道基本新闻事实之外还会提出一个解决方案：大家别忙着悲伤了，冷静一下，既然现在已经发生枪击案了，为了防止悲剧再次发生，我们需要 a.修改枪支管理法律 b.个人要加强枪支安全意识 c.回收部分管制枪支 d...... 有理有据地跟你摆事实，讲道理。而我们要学习的就是经济学人对新闻事件的解读分析思路，关注从新闻推断事物的逻辑过程，从而提高在写作时发散论点的能力以及论证的力度。

　　The weaker sex 这篇文章就很好地体现了从发现问题到提出解决方案的过程。文章的背景是富裕国家男孩的表现正在落后于女孩。我们来看看经济学人是怎样分析问题提出解决方案的：

　　1. What can be done? Part of the solution lies in a change in cultural attitudes.解决方案1

　　2. Policymakers also need to lend a hand, because foolish laws are making the problem worse.解决方案2

　　3. Even more important than scrapping foolish policies is retooling the educational system, which was designed in an age when most men worked with their muscles.解决方案3

　　4. More generally, schools need to become more boy-friendly.解决方案4

　　四个段落总起句提出了四种解决方案，并在每一段详细展开，论点发散充分，论证过程也非常有力度，整个解决问题的思路非常清晰。写作的时候多体会这种发现问题-解决问题的思路，像经济学人一样去论证你的观点。

　　以上就是小编为大家介绍的关于托福写作进阶之经济学人的思维备考建议。更多托福阅读技巧、托福口语话题等问题，可以咨询我们。