【每日乾貨】從托福閱讀長難句中悟托福寫作語言升華

托福寫作尤其是獨立寫作部分的考試對於語言能力的要求非常高，特別是在語言的多樣性與地道性方面。在筆者的教學過程中，發現學生們在寫句子時有如遇到洪水猛獸，不敢寫、不願寫、一寫就出錯的情況層出不窮。問及原因，大都是「想不出來好句子」、「單詞只會這一些」、「時間不夠，來不及考慮更多的變換」、「總覺得自己寫得對」、「怎麼寫都寫不出來，乾脆隨便從中文翻譯過來就行」等等。正是因為學生平日里並沒有意識去練句子的寫作、沒有對自己的作文進行潤色修改的過程、也沒有渠道或辦法去豐富自己的知識庫，所以才會出現這樣尷尬的局面。每位學生都知道，寫作是一項難提分、難拿高分的科目，而且需要平時的語言積累，可是幾乎沒有學生主動去找資料進行練習和補充。於是，筆者在總結寫作常用語言結構並進行大量的托福閱讀訓練之後，發現托福閱讀當中的長難句完全可以作為寫作部分語言訓練的好素材。

下面，筆者帶大家從一句托福閱讀長難句當中感受託福閱讀和寫作之間的聯繫：

Basic to any understanding of Canada in the 20 years after the Second World War is the countrys impressive population growth．

長難句翻譯：要理解二戰之後20年中的加拿大，就必須了解該國驚人的人口增長。

細看這個句子，我們不難發現其主幹結構：Basic … is the country』s impressive population growth. 很明顯，這個句子是倒裝句，形容詞開頭，主語在句末。這種情況的出現，一是為了強調開頭的形容詞，二是因為主語太長（有定語從句或長修飾詞修飾）。

而對於學習寫作課程的學生來講，對於倒裝句的理解僅限於否定詞放在句首，整個句子倒裝上面，他們不敢使用其他形式的倒裝句，也不願意冒寫錯的風險。但如果能夠借鑒托福閱讀中的長難句，學生在練習倒裝句或是改寫潤色自己作文的時候，就能夠依照模版進行練習。

比如，上面的長難句可以將名詞都換掉，改成下面的句子：

Basic to any understanding of the relevant knowledge used in

the assignment after class is the knowledge imparted by teachers in the class.

一旦有一個改寫的模版，學生們就很容易舉一反三，寫出高級句型。

這種倒裝句，除了basic之外，可以用任意一個形容詞進行改變，依然是形容詞加be動詞加主語的結構，為的是強調形容詞或避免頭重腳輕。相信大家都聽說過中文當中的「重要的是…」，「鮮為人知的是…」，「顯而易見的是…」等等這樣的句式，殊不知這樣的句子都是倒裝句。

下面，筆者利用一道寫作真題的首段舉例：

題目：People succeed because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success.

首段：

It is universally acknowledged that hard work is indispensable to success. Students study for years before they are admitted into top universities. Scientists toil for years before they make a major discovery. Self-made people work for years before they finally make a fortune. However,

less well-known is the role that luck plays in achieving one』s goal.

在上面的首段最後一句話中，應用了剛剛閱讀中的長難句句式（形容詞放句首的倒裝句），將前面的形容詞改為less well-known, 即「鮮為人知的」。顯而易見，在積累並熟悉閱讀長難句當中的經典句式之後，我們更容易寫出地道、流利、高級的好句子。

我們再看一句托福閱讀當中的長難句：

Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as 「silent」,the film has never been,in the full sense of the word, silent.

長難句翻譯：雖然我們習慣於將1927年以前的電影叫做「無聲電影」，但是就「無聲』』這個詞的完整意義上說，電影從未真正的無聲過。

分析這個句子，我們不難發現，主句是「the film has never been silent」, 而前半句「accustomed though we are to speaking of the films as silent」是一個不完全的倒裝句，原句應該是「although we are accustomed to speaking of the films as silent」。也就是說，如果用though引導讓步狀語從句，從句當中就可以倒裝。進一步補充，把though換成as, 也有同樣的作用。

比照這個長難句，我們也能夠自己寫出這樣的高級句型。

筆者利用一道寫作真題的一個主體段做示範：

題目：Parents should allow children to make decisions by themselves.

主體段：

First off, encouraging children to make their own decisions offers them opportunities to develop independence.

Accustomed though children are to turning to their parents for help once they have trouble doing something, they should not miss out on opportunities to grow up independently.

By making their own decisions, children will analyze the situations appropriately, seek out ways to solve the problems by themselves and learn to distinguish right from wrong—all these contribute to the independence of children in the near future. Last October, a piece of striking news appeared on the local newspaper, saying that a kid was left on the street for 4 hours, waiting for his parents to pick up him. When the police came up to him, he said he had no idea where to go because his parents』 phone was out of service and he had no one to turn to for help. To trace back causes, his parents were to blame. Every time the child had questions or problems, his parents required him to ask them first for solutions, never allowing him to make any decisions on his own. Therefore, the result of helping children do everything including making decisions is the inability of children to independently tackle problems when necessary.

從以上兩個例子當中，我們能夠清楚地看到，托福閱讀當中的長難句完全可以作為學生潤色寫作語言的橋樑，通過對長難句的分析和提煉，學生可以有效寫出仿寫句子，從而自己完成變通，在以後的作文當中習慣性地使用這樣的高級句型。