阅读量:
词汇的意义有褒贬。在写作中,“褒”与“贬”可能被冠以bigger 的名称,即“正评价”和“负评价”。我们在议论一件事情的时候,总是依赖这些正评价和负评价让读者知道我们的立场和态度的。
在雅思写作中,比如我们觉得“消费者追求知名品牌不是一件好事情”,我们可能会说“知名品牌是会误导人的”;比如我们“不同意把钱花在探索宇宙上”, 我们可能会说“宇宙探索就是浪费人力物力和时间”;再比如我们觉得“有能耐比有心愿重要”,我们可能会说“能耐是实实在在的,是有产出的,而心愿是空洞的,于是往往也是无效的”。
我们把刚才用来表态的词剔出来看看:“误导”、“浪费”、“实实在在的”、“有产出的”、“空洞的”、“无效的”。我们发现我们下意识地用到了“正评价” 和“负评价”来让读者明白我们对事物 的态度和看法。
那么,重点来了,我们其实可以有意识地用“正 / 负评价”去引导我们的读者“买我们的账”,明白我们的立场, 让我们的论证更清晰明确。那么如何做到“有意识地用”呢?首先,我们要知道写作时主要依赖(但是不限于)的正负评价词是动词和形容词。回看刚才的“误导”和“浪费”就很有可能在英语表达时被选用对应的动词的形式,“实实在在的”、“有产出的”、“空洞的”、“无效的” 就很有可能在英语表达时被选用对应的形容词的形式。
道理就是很简单,我们看两个例子来诠释一下上面的道理。
例一:
When there is no specific dress code, employees wear whatever makes them comfortable. As they feel comfortable, they work with their best state. As a result, their work performance is likely to be high. However, while a worker may be comfortable in the clothes of his or her free choice, his or her peers may be uncomfortable seeing him or her because the clothes may be inappropriate for the workplace. For example, a dress that is too feminine may be delightful for the female who wears it, but it is harassing for the colleagues of the opposite sex. In this case, while this female may perform well as she is pleased, the harassed coworkers do not, and the performance of the whole staff is compromised.
段落中的正评价词(comfortable、best state)明显比负评价词(uncomfortable、i n a p p r o p r i a t e 、t oo 、h a r a s s i n g 、compromised)少,于是读者就可以明确的感知到作者的态度是“我觉得不 OK”。
例二:
Health problems are the chief disadvantage. They may happen to both infants and the women. Because of the age, older women are at greater risk of having medical conditions when they bear a baby. This is because the decrease of the body's function with the increase of age renders women less robust. Meanwhile, the mother's poor health is unfavorable to the baby’s growth in the womb. For example, many babies suffer from malnutrition. 段落中只出现了负评价 词(at greater risk of、render、less robust、unfavorable、suffer from、malnutrition)于是论证的内容就明确地对应了讨论 disadvantage,作者的写作意图便一目了然。
当然,还有更多的例子可以被展示, 但是万变不离“正 / 负评价”之宗,在培养起“故意”使用正 / 负评价词的习惯之后,首先,我们就知道就准备雅思写作而言,我们应该在新航道《雅思真词汇》一书中首先找到那些词汇抓紧记忆和练习它们的语用了。或者,也许我应该直说:请首先抓紧记忆和练习那些有正负评价意义的(主要但不限于)动词和形容词。下一步就是在一些比较基础的常见的词汇的基础上“升级”到不那么常用的 bigger 的词汇并且巩固对那些 bigger 词汇的认识和习惯性使用了。
更多雅思考试干货敬请关注新航道雅思考试频道
下载新航道APP,屠鸭快一步