说说英语写作中的“套话”.doc

说说英语写作中的“套话” ; 想写这篇文章,是因为在评改作文的时候,笔者总是看到一些考生在文章的开头使用“It goes without saying that …”或“There’s no denying the fact that …”等套话。还有一些考生使用更长、更复杂的套话,比如,仿照《独立宣言》的首句,写成:“We hold these truth to be self-evident that …”或者仿照简·奥斯丁在小说《傲慢与偏见》中的写法,写成:“It is a truth universally acknowledged that …”笔者经常想,这种只占字数、不表达思想的句子在作文中出现,考官会怎么看?他们会觉得考生的写作水平高吗?考生当然也很无奈:要完成一篇250~300个词的英文文章,如果不写这些套话,要写够字数,还不能写得太简单,那都写什么呀?; 看来,问题不在于该不该写这些套话,而在于如果不写套话,那么考生该用什么来取代它们,以使作文简练、流畅而不装腔作势。下面笔者列出几种套话写作的处理方法,和大家共享。; 方法一:宁写一词、不写一句; 这种方法主要用于替换引言套句。具体的办法是将主题句前面的“It goes without saying that …”“There’s no denying the fact that…”等引言套句换成一个副词,直接引出主题句。比如,考生写一篇关于“互联网”的文章,一般都会习惯性地用引言套句引出主题句,写成:“It goes without saying that the Internet has offered people a way to communicate.”(句子1)还有些担心字数不够的考生甚至把上述句子扩充为:“I’m quite certain that a growing of number of people, youngsters in particular, would agree that the Internet has offered people a way to communicate.”坦率地讲,在最初用英文写作时,笔者也经常用这样的句子,而且每次用心中都会感到一种巨大的“成就感”。但你对英文写作熟悉了之后,就会慢慢发现,上述句子中的“I’m quite certain that a growing number of people, youngsters in particular, would agree that”(句子2)除了占用了你策划主题句的时间,实在没有什么实用价值。; 相反,如果写作时不写这样的套句,而直接用副词引出主题句,则不光观点鲜明、结构简练,还能让考官一眼看到主题。以上句为例,我们不如干脆写成:“Undeniably, the Internet has offered people a way to communicate.”(句子3)这岂不更为简练?所以,考生与其花时间去背诵和主题无关的引言,还不如把精力放在主题句本身的锤炼上,完善结构,增加修辞,把主题句写精致。比如上面的句子,我们可以进一步改写成:“Undeniably, the Internet has revolutionized the ways people communicate.”(句子4)大家可以对比一下句子2和句子4,显然句子4的结构和修辞更有英语(论坛)的韵味。; 类似的替换写法很多,以下是一些常用的替换写法,大家可以参考:; 1. “It is an indisputable fact that …”换成“Undeniably, …”; 2. “We hold it truth to be self-evident that …”换成“Evidently, …”; 3. “There’s no denying the fact that …”换成“Undeniably, …”; 4. “It is a well-known fact that …”换成“Not surprisingly, …”; 5. “Even more worrying is the fact that …”换成“Even more disturbingly, …”; 6. “It is obviously that …”换成“Obviously, …”; 7. “It is vitally important tha”t换成“More importantly, …”; 方法二:巧用结构,替换空话; 诸如“with the development of our society”这样的句子可能是中国考生最爱写的一类套话了。考生通常会把这类套话安排在主题