许多学生认为,动辄900-1000字的阅读文章对于只有150和250字的雅思作文借鉴意义不大,事实上,两者在主题、构思、句式、用词等方面有着很大的相似性。
1. 主题性
阅读文章和雅思写作题目涵盖的范围比较广,具有极强的主题性,其重合话题有:环境、社会、教育三大方面。阅读文章的内容能帮助考生更好地理解题目的文化背景,积累观点素材,在备考过程中,考生可以将这两项结合起来。
剑四test 2的reading passage 1“Lost for Words”极好的回答了雅思一道较难的文化类考题:what are the reasons for the loss of many cultures and languages? How to solve this problem?”
许多学生因为缺少对这一背景的了解而无从下手,我们完全可以看看这篇阅读文章提供了哪些素材:
1 “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。”
2 “…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…”
3 “Quite often, governments try to kill off a minority language by banning its use in public or discouraging its use in schools, all to promote national unity。”
4 “… They cannot refuse to speak English if most commercial activity is in English…”
这些都是十分准确而又全面的回答,说明了许多语言丧失的原因,甚至连语言丧失对于文化的连带影响也有所涉及:“Language is also intimately bound with culture, so it may be difficult to preserve one without the other。”
这篇文章在后文也对怎样解决这一问题做出了回答:“ …a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direst prediction from coming true….’apprentice’ programs have provided life support t several indigenous languages。”
值得注意的是,这篇阅读文章的结构是遵循“背景—原因—解决方式”的架构来安排的,对于写作结构也有很好的架构作用。