我们经常说阅写不分家，在这句话背后隐藏的一个原理其实是No input, no output, 没有输入，就没有输出。很多考生都能很清楚地意识到自己在雅思写作上的问题，无非就是想不到论据、素材枯竭、语言平淡、论证不充分等等，但就是找不到改变这些状态的方法。其实，考生们不必去苦苦搜寻市面上各类雅思写作的参考书籍，因为这不仅仅是一笔经济上的开销，关键质量还参差不齐，未必能学到有价值的信息。

 

那么，这个input到底去哪里找呢？笔者认为，在考生们天天用于练习的剑桥系列真题中，每个Test中的阅读文章就是一个非常好的学习资源。这些阅读文章是native speaker创作的，里面无论是内容，还是观点，还是语言，都非常有学习价值，对考生的雅思写作其实是有很大的指导和启发作用的。

 

接下来，朗阁老师就为大家选取五篇雅思阅读文章，来具体分析一下这些阅读文章对考生们的雅思写作到底有哪些帮助。

 

文章选取的分别是：

剑4T2P1 Lost for Words

剑5T3P1 Early Childhood Education

剑6T2P1 Advantages of public transport

剑6T2P2 Greying population stays in the pink

剑5T1P3 The truth about the environment

 

一、素材：

笔者在教学中发现，很大一部分考生非常头疼的一个问题在于无法做到侃侃而谈，整篇文章都是表面化的一些论调，没有实质性的论据。其实这是没有输入input的明显表现。雅思考试的话题覆盖面还是非常广的，但考生由于年龄、生活圈子、学习广度和深度等多方面的影响，无法对很多话题有很深入的见解，造成文章内容看起来很干，表面上看上去还是在谈论该话题的，实则根本没有有用的论证和信息传递。

 

关于这一点，很多考生都很无奈。考生固定思维认为对于这些话题的陌生是特别正常的，因为之前根本没有去思考这些问题，表现出来的状态是要么被动学习、要么直接放弃。所以，素材积累的多少是写作能否顺利进行的步。那么，除了依赖写作老师，考生们现在还可以依赖的就是你的剑桥系列阅读文章。当然，考生需要对雅思写作考查的话题范围非常清楚，这样才能筛选出哪些阅读文章对自己的写作是有帮助的，换句话说，哪些阅读文章里的内容我是可以借鉴、并用在自己的文章里的。

 

下面，我们一起来看一下从以上几篇雅思阅读文章中摘录下来的、可以在文章中作为论据来使用的一些内容。当然，在此要提醒考生的是，我们不需要去背，只要了解并熟悉即可，把自己的知识面打开，知识库拓宽，考试过程中仍然是可以传递这些信息的。

 

剑4T2P1 --Lost for Words

这篇文章谈论的话题是Many minority languages are on the danger list, 分析了此现象的原因，并提到了一些改变这一问题可以采用的方法。

 

关于此现象的原因Reasons, 大家可以学习以下几条：

1. In the Native American Navajo nation, which sprawls across four states in the American south-west, the native language is dying. Most of its speakers are middle-aged or elderly. Although many students take classes in Navajo, the schools are run in English. Street signs, supermarket ods and even their own newspaper are all in English.

 

2. Half of the world’s 6800 languages are likely to vanish within two generations – that’s one language lost every ten days.

 

3. Isolation breeds linguistic diversity: as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people.

 

4. What makes a language endangered is not just the number of speakers, but how old they are. If it is spoken by children it is relatively safe. The critically endangered languages are those that are only spoken by the elderly.

 

5. Why do people reject the language of their parents? It begins with a crisis of confidence, when a small community finds itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, people lose faith in their culture. When the nest generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be included into the old traditions.

 

6. Quite often, vernments try to kill off a minority language by banning its use in public or discouraging its use in schools, all to promote national unity.

 

7. But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the Linguistics department at the University of Chica, argues that the deadliest weapon is not vernment policy but economic globalization. Native Americans have not lost pride in their language, but they have had to adapt to socio-economic pressures. They cannot refuse to speak English if most commercial activity is in English.

 

8. Language is also intimately bound up with culture, so it may be difficult to preserve one without the other. If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something. Moreover, the loss of diversity may also deprive us of different ways of looking at the world.

 

关于此现象的解决方案Possible Solutions, 大家可以参考以下几条：

1. The key to fostering diversity is for people to learn their ancestral tongue, as well as the dominant language.

 

2. Most of these languages will not survive without a large degree of bilingualism. In New Zealand, classes for children have slowed the erosion of Maori and rekindled interest in the language.

 

3. Preservation can bring a language back from the dead. There are examples of languages that have survived in written form and then been revived by later generations.

 

剑5T3P1 -- Early Childhood Education

这篇文章谈论的是*的早期教育问题，也是当下非常热点的一个话题。具体来看，该文章强调了*早期教育的重要性、经历过的失败、原因、以及新的发现。

 

关于*早期教育的重要性，以下几点事实都能强有力地*：

1. A 13-year study of early childhood development at Harvard University has shown that, by the age of three, most children have the potential to understand about 1000 words – most of the language they will use in ordinary conversation for the rest of their lives.

 

2. Furthermore, research has shown that while every child is born with a natural curiosity, it can be suppressed dramatically during the second and third years of life.

 

3. Researchers claim that the human personality is formed during the first two years of life, and during the first three years children learn the basic skills they will use in all their later learning both at home and at school.

 

4. By the age of three, the children in the programme were significantly more advanced in language development than their peers, had made greater strides in problem solving and other intellectual skills, and were further along in social development.

 

5. The average child on the programme was performing at the level of the top 15 to 20 per cent of their peers in such things as auditory comprehension, verbal ability and language ability.

 

6. Many children who entered it at the age of three were already behind their peers in language and measurable intelligence.

 

关于家长在*早期教育中的作用，可以参见以下的说明：

1. Despite substantial funding, results have been disappointing. It is thought that there are two explanations for this. First,… . Second, the parents were not involved.

 

2. As a result of the growing research evidence of the importance of the first three years of a child’s life and the disappointing results from ‘Headstart’, a pilot program was launched in Missouri in the US that focused on parents as the child’s first teachers.

 

3. The program was predicted on research showing that working with the family, rather than bypassing the parents, is the most effective way of helping children get off to the best possible start in life.

 

剑6T2P1 -- Advantages of public transport

这篇文章谈到的是公共交通的好处，那么非常明显，我们可以从中获取到的信息就是雅思写作中关于解决交通拥挤、建立完善的公共交通体系的原因。

 

1. A new study conducted for the World Bank by Murdoch University’s Institute for Science and Technology Policy has demonstrated that public transport is more efficient than cars.

 

2. Professor Peter Newman, ISTP Director, pointed out that these more efficient cities were able to put the difference into attracting industry and jobs or creating a better place to live.

 

3. Train and cars initially allowed people to live at greater distances without taking longer to reach their destination. However, public infrastructure did not keep pace with urban sprawl, causing massive congestion problems which now make commuting times far higher.

 

4. In cities that developed later, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank discouraged the building of public transport and people have been forced to rely on cars – creating the massive traffic jams that characterize those cities.

 

5. The auto-dependent city model is inefficient and grossly inadequate in economic as well as environmental terms.

 

6. In Stockholm, car use has actually fallen in recent years as the city has become larger and wealthier.

 

7. The population and job density of cities rose or remained constant in the 1980s after decades of decline. The explanation for this seems to be that it is valuable to place people working in related fields together. The new world will largely depend on human creativity, and creativity flourishes where people come together face-to-face.

 

剑6T2P2 -- Greying population stays in the pink

老年人话题也是雅思写作常考的话题，我们在雅思写作中通常写到的理念是老年人是弱势群体，需要各方的关注和帮助，然而这篇文章给了我们完全不同的一种看法，Greying population stays in the pink, 我们的老年人目前好着呢！

 

以下是可以*老年人相当健康或者说越来越健康的一些事实依据：

1. The results of a 14-year study to be announced later this month reveal that the diseases associated with old age afflicting fewer and fewer people and when they do strike, it is much later in life.

 

2. Researchers, now analyzing the results of data gathered in 1994, say arthritis, high blood pressure and circulation problems – the major medical complaints in the age group – are troubling a smaller proportion every year.

 

3. The data confirms that the rate at which these diseases are declining continues to accelerate. Other diseases of old age – dementia, stroke, arteriosclerosis and emphysema – are also troubling fewer and fewer people.

 

即便老年人的状态和多年前相比好了很多，我们仍然需要关注到的是这一现象背后的原因。以下两点就是我们考生可以写在作文中的老年人越来越健康的原因在哪里：

1. Clearly, certain diseases are beating a retreat in the face of medical advances.

 

2. But there may be other contributing factors. Improvements in childhood nutrition in the first quarter of the twentieth century, for example, gave today’s elderly people a better start in life than their predecessors.

 

在这篇阅读文章中，也相当赞地提出了一些如何让老年人*持健康状态的方法，考生们可以学习：

1. The increasing self-reliance of many elderly people is probably linked to a massive increase in the use of simple home medical aids. For instance, the use of raised toilet seats has more than doubled since the start of the study, and the use of bath seats has grown by more than 50%. The group found that those elderly people who were able to retain a sense of independence were more likely to stay healthy in old age.

 

2. Maintaining a level of daily physical activity may help mental functioning, says Carl Cotman, a neuroscientist at the University of California at Irvine. Cotman believes this hormone, which keeps neurons functioning, may prevent the brains of active humans from deteriorating.

 

3. A social epidemiologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, found a connection between self-esteem and stress in people over 70. In laboratory simulations of challenging activities such as driving, those who felt in control of their lives pumped out lower level of stress hormones such as cortisol. Chronically high levels of these hormones have been linked to heart disease.

 

4. Seeman found that elderly people who felt emotionally isolated maintained higher levels of stress hormones even when asleep.

 

剑5T1P3 -- The truth about the environment

环境问题一直是雅思考试各个科目都很爱考查的话题，剑5的这篇文章帮助大家剖析了环境的一些真相。我们发现，其实环境并没有我们想象的那么糟糕。同时，作者也分析了为何大家会误解环境问题的几点原因。

 

The truth about the environment – environmental pollution

1. For many environmentalists, the world seems to be getting worse. They have developed a hit-list of our main fears: that natural resources are running out; that the population is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat; that species are becoming extinct in vast numbers, and that the planet’s air and water are becoming ever more polluted.

 

The truth about the environment – the disjunction between perception and reality

1. Scientific funding es mainly to areas with many problems.

 

2. Environmental groups need to be noticed by the mass media. They also need to keep the money rolling in.

 

3. A third source of confusion is the attitude of the media. People are clearly more curious about bad news than od. Newspapers and broadcasters are there to provide what the public wants.

 

4. The fourth factor is poor individual perception. People worry that the endless rise in the amount of stuff everyone throws away will cause the world to run out of places to dispose of wastes.

 

从以上的分析，我们可以有几点启发：

1. 我们曾经固化持有的观点，其实和实际情况是有偏差的，所以考生们在写作时，可以持有看似“另类”的观点，但关键是要有十足的理由去说服*。

 

2. 大家在学习这些素材或者说论据时，一定要注意不是去背诵或者记忆，而是去了解这些信息，大脑中获取了这些信息，转化到作文中其实是不难的。

 

二、论证方法之引证

笔者在阅读这些文章时，发现引用一些名人、学者、教授以及一些组织的言论或者研究结果来行文是这些阅读文章的一大特色。那么，考生是否记得我们雅思写作中有一种论证方法叫引证，引用*的言论来帮助自己论证自己的观点也是非常好用的一种论证手法。

 

笔者整理了这几篇阅读文章中收集到的一些引证的内容，大家需要学习的是加粗部分的语言表达。

1. Only 250 languages have more than a million speakers, and at least 3000 have fewer than 2500.（用数据说话）

 

2. A 13-year study of early childhood development at Harvard University has shown that, by the age of three, most children have the potential to understand about 1000 words – most of the language they will use in ordinary conversation for the rest of their lives.

 

3. Furthermore, research has shown that while every child is born with a natural curiosity, it can be suppressed dramatically during the second and third years of life.

 

4. Researchers claim that the human personality is formed during the first two years of life, and during the first three years children learn the basic skills they will use in all their later learning both at home and at school.

 

5. There is growing evidence in New Zealand that children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are arriving at school less well developed and that our school system tends to perpetuate that disadvantage.

 

6. A new study conducted for the World Bank by Murdoch University’s Institute for Science and Technology Policy has demonstrated that public transport is more efficient than cars.

 

7.According to Professor Newman, the larger Australian city of Melbourne is a rather unusual city in this sort of comparison.

 

8. A new study makes this point even more starkly.

 

9. The results of a 14-year study to be announced later this month reveal that the diseases associated with old age afflicting fewer and fewer people and when they do strike, it is much later in life.

 

10. In the last 14 years, the National Long-term Health Care Survey has gathered data on the health and lifestyles more than 20,000 men and women over 65.

 

11. Researchers, now analyzing the results of data gathered in 1994, say arthritis, high blood pressure and circulation problems – the major medical complaints in the age group – are troubling a smaller proportion every year.

 

12. The data confirms that the rate at which these diseases are declining continues to accelerate.

 

三、语言

谈完了内容，我们来谈谈语言。其实在这些native speaker写的文章中，我们可以悟出他们喜欢用什么样的词句、他们经常用的句型是什么样的。以下简单列出几类考生没有意识去用或者不太会用的几种表达，大家可以在文章中多多使用。

 

1. 副词开头

1). Not surprisingly, linguists doubt that any native speakers of Navajo will remain in a hundred years’ time.

 

2). Unquestionably, that’s a real need; but since parents don’t normally send children to pre-schools until the age of three, are we missing out on the most important years of all?

 

3). Clearly, certain diseases are beating a retreat in the face of medical advances.

 

2. 倒装句

Never before has the planet’s linguistic diversity shrunk at such a pace.

 

3. 强调句

It isnot necessarily these small languages that are about to disappear.

 

4. 插入语

1). The former US policy of running Indian reservation schools in English, for example, effectively put languages such as Navajo on the danger list.

 

2). But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the Linguistics department at the University of Chica, argues that the deadliest weapon is not vernment policy but economic globalization.

 

3). Newman, however, believes the study demonstrates that the auto-dependent city mode is inefficient and grossly inadequate in economic as well as environmental terms.

 

4). That, however, can lead to significant distortions of perception.

 

5). Improvements in childhood nutrition in the first quarter of the twentieth century, for example, gave today’s elderly people a better start in life than their predecessors.

 

5. 主语从句

1). It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do less will in our education system.

 

2).It is thought that there are two explanations for this.

 

3). It was once assumed that improvements in telecommunications would lead to more dispersal in the population as people were no longer forced into cities.

 

6. 介宾结构的宾语从句

1). The explosion in demand for accommodation in the inner suburbs of Melbourne suggests a recent change in many people’s preference as to where they live.

 

2). Newman believes one of the best studies on how cities built for cars might be converted to rail use is The Urban Village report, which used Melbourne as an example.

 

7. 同位语从句

There is a widespread belief that increasing wealth encourages people to live farther out where cars are the only viable transport.

 

8. 并列成分

并列成分是拉长句子的一个好方法，大家在写作中可以使用并列名词、并列形容词、并列动词短语、甚至并列从句。

 

1). This included both the public and private costs of building, maintaining and using a transport system.

 

2). Elderly people are growing healthier, happier and more independent.

 

3). Professor Peter Newman, ISTP Director, pointed out that these more efficient cities were able to put the difference into attracting industry and jobs or creating a better place to live.

 

4). They have developed a hit-list of our main fears: that natural resources are running out; that the population is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat; that species are becoming extinct in vast numbers, and that the planet’s air and water are becoming ever more polluted.

 

9. With/without结构

1). The study found that the Western Australian city of Perth is a od example of a city with minimal public transport.

 

2). In the UK, travel times to work had been stable for at least six centuries, with people avoiding situations that required them to spend more than half an hour travelling to work.

 

3). Train and cars initially allowed people to live at greater distances without taking longer to reach their destination.

 

以上的语言表达难度都不大，但却是在native speaker眼中地道、在考生心中想不到去用的一些表达。大家在阅读文章中有意识地去关注这些表达，看多了类似的表达方式，还是能在考试中游刃有余地使用起来的。

 

四、总结

本文只是挑选了一部分雅思阅读文章以及文章中一部分好的素材和语言，考生们在平时长期的备考过程中，完全可以花时间去研读这些文章，为自己的雅思写作积累地道、优质的input。

 

如果还有什么疑问，可以在线咨询我们的老师。