雅思写作的学术和艺术(2)

本文为51雅思网和北京新东方学校联合约稿作品，

其实，复杂的词汇是学生一时半时无法掌握的，反而是简单的单词怎样用好，成为英语写作考试教学初级的主要课题。如果用好简单的词汇，就可以逐步追求表达的准确和精确，使用复杂的词汇。可是一开始就鼓励学生背诵大量的词汇，既不现实，也对于考试于事无补。

比如我再举个例子，还是雅思考试的题目。

Computers are now widely used in education so the teachers are not as important as they were before computers were popular. Do you agree or disagree with this point?

范文
Compared with other human inventions and innovations, computers, the cold machines that are definitely devoid of soul, admittedly, have been playing a significant role in shaping and reflecting human life, study, and work patterns. Thus at one time the average public was flooded by the overwhelming written materials and advertisements advocating, or even exaggeratedly promoting, various computers and their affiliated software, making it hard for the people to distinguish the facts from fictions. Worst of all, some scholars and engineers even imprudently “forecast” that computers will finally replace or supersede teachers in education. On the strength of philosophical and scientific analysis in a far more profound and insightful way, I solemnly and firmly gainsay such a misguiding argument and put forward that never in history have any human made machines had superseded, in its strict sense, human beings, nor will they.

译文
和其它人类得发明革新相比，计算机，这种毫无灵魂的冰冷机器，诚然在塑造并反映人类工作，生活，和学习模式上起到重要得作用。因而，一度人们为潮水般的，大肆宣扬甚至是夸张促销计算机及其相关软件的书面材料和广告所包围，使得一般公众难辨真伪。更有甚者，某些学者和工程人员不负责任地鼓吹计算机最终会因其优越行而取代教授。根据深刻致密的哲学和科学分析，我坚定地，严肃地否定这种误导性的论点。我指出，历史上从来没有任何机器，从严格的字面意义上讲，曾经取代过人类。将来也不会。

讲解
这种文章，考生看到几乎没有不认识的单词，但是要是让考生写出这样的句子，笔者斗胆断言，实在是：“蜀道难，难于上青天”。为什么会有这种现象出现呢？别人写，考生认识，可是自己怎么也些不出来。什么原因呢？

道理非常简单：考生死记硬背单词的汉语意义，而不是在英语的文章中学习单词的用法和搭配。导致的后果就是写不出真正的文章。