高校英语专业八级考试大纲写作部分规定：写作部分设一题，20分，要求能根据所给题目及要求撰写各类体裁的文章，文章长度约400个单词，能做到内容充实、语言通顺、用词恰当、表达得体。真题在Directions的最后会告知考生：“Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks”。考试时间45分钟。
就字数时间比来看，专八作文难度介于雅思和托福之间；就写作体裁来看，迄今为止，历年真题考的都是议论文；就出题形式来看，都是给出背景和题目的写作；就写作内容来看，考到的基本上都是考生比较熟悉的关于大学生的话题或社会常见话题。而且文章结构一律规定为三部分：introduction, body 和conclusion. 从这些方面看，专八写作对于学习英语专业达到三年或四年的学生来说并不是特别难的事。但每年仍有为数不少的考生失利，令人惋惜。
笔者认为，要考好专八作文，应从以下几个方面入手。
首先，必须对以上提到的对作文部分的要求做到充分了解，按照要求写作。有些同学由于轻视，只根据考试前自己看到的一些其他考试的英语写作模版(如大学英语六级或研究生入学考试英语写作模版)来对付八级，结果与考试要求的文章结构和字数不符，造成严重失分。
其次，必须在考前的一段时间做严格的限时应试练习，以保证在考场上时间比较紧张的情况下发挥出自己真正的水平。通过练习，主要是提高自己两个方面的素质：
一是进行逻辑思维的素质。与大学英语四、六级、考研以及专业四级考试不同，专八写作要求的字数更多，更体现思维的深度和广度，因此必须通过练习来促使自己提高逻辑思维的速度和质量。我固然会在课堂上教给大家一些常见的思维方法，如分类法、反证法、举例法、因果法等等，但更具体的素材需要大家平时去积累。其实如果没有考试，大家是会比较懒惰的，懒于去梳理自己的思维，形成比较成熟的观点。我们在这里且不多提考试的好处，关键的是我们可以以备考为契机，通过练习来提高思考的速度，并且更重要的是养成一种勤于思考、广泛涉猎的习惯，去关心家事、国事、天下事。这样考试的时候才会有话可说，字数才会够。
另外一个是应用英语语言的素质。有些同学不愁没话说，思维也很有广度和深度，但英语语言还是存在问题。这里面有一部分同学是重视不够，忽视了语法问题，出现了不少诸如单复数、冠词、词性等语法错误，甚至还有标点符号错误。而更多的同学是由于缺乏写作练习，在用词和造句方面做得不够好。作为代表我国英语技能教育最高水平的考试，专八肯定会比国内其他英语考试更加重视语言的质量。其实也很简单，就是用词和造句的准确性和多样性。这里的用词准确既包括词义准确，也包括搭配准确，还包括词语的感情色彩和正式程度的准确；造句的多样是指多种英语句式的灵活运用。这要求同学们平时一定要多做辨析词义、熟记搭配的工作，并且模仿优秀的文章进行写作。
除此之外，大家还可以通过多读优秀范文来提高写作水平，除了看一些专业八级考试的真题范文外，还可以看看TOFEL，GRE 或IELTS的范文。另外，也可以经常阅读一些英语报刊，关注一些时事的英文表达。
Nowadays，most universities require students to pay for their education，and the tuition fees have been staying so high that some families cannot afford them. What do you think of the phenomenon? Write an essay of about 400 words on the following topic：
Should Universities Charge High Tuition Fees?
In the first part of your essay you should state clearly your main argument, and in the second part you should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content，organization，grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
范文呈现
Should Universities Charge High Tuition Fees?
398 Nowadays, most universities require students to pay for their education, and the tuition fees have been staying very high. Some people take the development of the universities into consideration and support the high fees, while others think the high cost of university education is a heavy burden for many families. As far as I am concerned， universities are not institutions for profits, which should be places for excellent students to learn and further study equally, so they should not charge high tuition fees that some families cannot afford.
In the first place, the high tuition fees make the families save money for the chil ??dren instead of consuming. A university student will need 12,000 yuan each year on average, which is almost the income of a couple who are wage earners. In other words, a family with an average income will spend their long-term hard-earned savings, or they will be indebted. What's worse, most families' incomes in our country are below the average level. The high fees make the people save money for the children's education even before they are born.
In the second place, the high tuition fees will deprive the children from poor fami ??lies of their right of education. Entering universities on their abilities is the only hope for the poor students to change their destiny. But the increasingly higher tuition fees make it impossible. The statistic shows that there were 60% ~ 70% students coming from the country areas when the charging system was not introduced. But now the percentage is only 30% or so. The universities will become the paradise of children from rich families, and the poor students will be forced to leave.
Finally, it will be much more difficult for the graduates to find jobs. Driven by the profits of high tuition fees, universities recruit more and more students year by year. The outcome of expansion leads to the low standard of enrollment and low quali ??ty of education. The supply exceeds demand ; there are not so many jobs for the graduates, so most of them can not find jobs when getting out of school.
All in all, high tuition fees in the universities will influence the development of the society and harm the interests of students. The universities should charge reasonable tuition fees, provide equal opportunities for students and take the responsibility of molding the future of our nation.
The government now encourages college graduates to work in villages as assistant village heads to improve and strengthen rural administration，as well as creating more jobs for those graduates. By now，there have been 78，000 graduate-turned-village-officials in China. However, there is an opinion that the rural areas are not a good buffer for graduate employment. Do you agree with this opinion? Write an essay of about 400 words on the following topic：
Can College Village Heads Plan Really Help?
In the first part of your essay you, should state clearly your main argument，and in the second part you should support your argument with appropriate details. In the last part you should bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or make a summary.
Marks will be awarded for content，organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a Loss of marks.
范文呈现
Can College Village Heads Plan Really Help?
448Due to the Grand College Enrollment Plan, the number of university graduates has been on the increase since the central government started implementing the plan.
Though the plan helps improve our national quality，it creates pressure for the job markets. With so many college students coming out at a time, many graduates have difficulties in finding suitable jobs. In order to create more jobs, the government encourages college graduates to work in villages of our country with a view that rural administration will be strengthened at the same time. As a result，tens of thousands of college graduates have been appointed as village officials in the rural areas. It appears that this plan helps alleviate the pressure caused by graduate employment，but I do not think the plan will work in the long run.
Firstly，after serving as village officials in the rural areas for two years, the majority of those college village officials will start to look for jobs in the job market again，aggravating the pressure of the job market. Some may argue that the number of those village officials who enter the job market again is balanced by the number of new college graduates who would be appointed as village officials. The truth is that while those students have spent two years in the rural areas，they do not gain enough experience in the corporate world and are likely to forget what they have learnt in college. In this sense, they are not guaranteed to find decent jobs again. Besides, when working in the rural areas,these students with higher degrees are respected by village people,and are likely to get accustomed to feeling superior to people around them. One can imagine they would probably be frustrated when they work with those who hold the same college degrees or even higher degrees.
Secondly，when the supply of college graduates and the demand of our society are unbalanced，the imbalance can be obtained by increasing available jobs or decreasing the supply of college graduates，which means the reduction of college enrollment. Given the fact that the economy slows down recently，it is difficult to create more jobs. While offering good terms for graduates such as well-paid salary and residential certificate guarantee, the government can create more jobs in the short term，but does not provide long-term remedy. In this sense, the plan does not solve the fundamental imbalance between the supply and the demand of college graduates.
In sum，the plan to encourage college graduates to work in the rural areas can only provide a temporary remedy for the job market. I think the government should recognize the fundamental imbalance and find the way back to elite education.
英语专业八级写作如何选择恰当的词
遣词造句是写文章的基础，词对于一篇文章来讲，就好象砖头和房子的关系一样，尽管小，但其作用不容忽视的。
(一) 选择恰当的词 说话行文都得注意用词。说话时或在写作的初期阶段，我们对词的选择基本上是无意识的，往往是随手拈来，只要能表达意思就行。但是，要想出一篇好的文章，就要在不同风格的文章中选用不同种类的词。
要想用词正确，除了需要弄明白词的本义和隐含意义外，还需要了解词在文章中可能给读者留下的印象等问题。按照《高等学校英语专业高年级英语教学大纲》的要求，英语专业第四学年本科生最少应该认知9000~12000个英语单词，在写作时应该知道怎样从自己掌握的词汇里选择出正确的词来表达自己的意思。当然，在他们的文章中仍然有一些词不达意的地方，会出现一些用错的词汇，但在更多的时候，他们所选用的词汇并非全错只是不太确切，不太符合英美人土的用词习惯，或者是使用了已经过时的词。因此，学生在扩大词汇量的同时，还应该掌握一些用词的知识和基本原则。
总的来讲，“恰如其分”是选词的最高原则。也就是说，“要在恰当的地方用恰当的词。” 另外，选词的时候要注意选择确切的词(Choosing for ExactWords)。一个词往往有两层意思，即词的本义和词的隐含意义。词的本义是一个词最基本的、最直接的字面意义，而一个词的隐含意义则是这个词所传递的一种感觉态度以及可能使人产生的某种联想，是词的“言外之意”。英语里有许多不同的词可以用来表达同一个意思，它们被当作同义词来使用要选择合适的词，不仅需要准确地了解一个词的字面意义，而且还要知道其隐含意义。一本好的词典会详尽解释一个词的字面意义，但不可能详尽地说明一个词的隐含意义。因此，要准确地捕捉一个词的隐含意义。要靠自己在乎时的学习和阅读中积累和体会。
(二) 区分笼统词和具体词 从意义上来看，词可以从最笼统到最具体。几乎每个东西都可以进行不同程度的分类，从最笼统至最具体。如果一个人在动，你可以笼统地说 "He moves"，更具体一点"He walks"，更具体一点"He struts"。
一个具体、实义名词所表述的东西往往非常生动形象，它好像就在你面前，仿佛可以看到、触到、尝到、嗅到或者听到。笼统或抽象名词通常是用来表示一种情绪 (love)，一种状态(misery)，一种思想(democracy)，一种理论(evolution)，一门学科(biology)或泛指一类事物 (creature，plant，organism)。笼统或抽象的词还可以将许多特别的、具体的东西综合起来给人一种总体印象，用来泛指一类事物，它们往往是看不见、摸不着的。一篇好文章需要笼统和具体词并用。过多地使用或滥用笼统词，会使文章枯燥无味，晦涩难懂。完全使用具体词，又可能会使读者难以抓住文章的观点。学生开始用英语写作时，由于词汇量有限，有时只好使用笼统抽象的词汇。但随着词汇量的增加，就要逐步纠正这种做法。学会用具体的词来描写具体的事物和具体的情节，学会根据具体情况选用具体的词如stroll，stride，drag，shuffle，slouch，totter, sway,hobble，lurch，limp，plod，wander, saunter, loiter等，来代替笼统词walk。
(三)适当使用习语 英语习语，是英语语言国家的人常用来表达思想的语言方式。许多习语无法用语法规则来解释，也难以从字面上猜出意思。习语是英语词汇的核心，其表现力丰富、生动，能给文章增添光彩。
(四)避免使用行话及矫饰词
行话即专业术语，多用于专业性强的文章中，在普通文章里很少见，因为这类词容易令句子显得晦涩、不流畅，况且，八级写作很少会出现专业性极强的题目，为此，我们在写一般的文章时，应该尽量避免，尤其是在可以使用其它的词来表达的情况下，更不要用专业术语。请看下面的例句：
When l asked my parents if I could use the car, the feedback was negative.
可改为：When l asked my parents if I could use the car, the answer was no.
(Or) When l asked my parents if I could use the car, they said not.
前后两种表达方式，孰优孰劣，一望便知。
另外一个问题就是矫饰词。这类词或词组太长、太夸张，使句子冗长繁琐空洞无物，因此在写作时也是应该避免的。例如：
Were it not for the lucrative financial rewards, she would have tendered her resignatioin.
可改为：Were it not for the money, she would have quit her job.
47 Folk Cultures
A folk culture is a small isolated, cohesive, conservative, nearly self-sufficient group that is homogeneous in custom and race with a strong family or clan structure and highly developed rituals. Order is maintained through sanctions based in the religion or family and interpersonal. Relationships are strong. Tradition is paramount, and change comes infrequently and slowly. There is relatively little division of labor into specialized duties. Rather, each person is expected to perform a great variety of tasks, though duties may differ between the sexes. Most goods are handmade and subsistence economy prevails. Individualism is weakly developed in folk cultures as are social classes. Unaltered folk cultures no longer exist in industrialized countries such as the United States and Canada. Perhaps the nearest modern equivalent in Anglo America is the Amish, a German American farming sect that largely renounces the products and labor saving devices of the industrial age. In Amish areas, horse drawn buggies still serve as a local transportation device and the faithful are not permitted to own automobiles. The Amish's central religious concept of Demut "humility", clearly reflects the weakness of individualism and social class so typical of folk cultures and there is a corresponding strength of Amish group identity. Rarely do the Amish marry outside their sect. The religion, a variety of the Mennonite faith, provides the principal mechanism for maintaining order.
By contrast a popular culture is a large heterogeneous group often highly individualistic and a pronounced many specialized professions. Secular institutions of control such as the police and army take the place of religion and family in maintaining order, and a money-based economy prevails. Because of these contrasts, "popular" may be viewed as clearly different from "folk". The popular is replacing the folk in industrialized countries and in many developing nations. Folk-made objects give way to their popular equivalent, usually because the popular item is more quickly or cheaply produced, is easier or time saving to use or leads more prestige to the owner.
42.Coal-fired power plants
The invention of the incandescent light bulb by Thomas A. Edison in 1879 created a demand for a cheap, readily available fuel with which to generate large amounts of electric power. Coal seemed to fit the bill, and it fueled the earliest power stations. (which were set up at the end of the nineteenth century by Edison himself). As more power plants were constructed throughout the country, the reliance on coal increased throughout the country, the reliance on coal increased. Since the First World War, coal-fired power plants had a combined in the United States each year. In 1986 such plants had a combined generating capacity of 289,000 megawatts and consumed 83 percent of the nearly 900 million tons of coal mined in the country that year. Given the uncertainty in the future growth of the nearly 900 million tons of coal mined in the country that year. Given the uncertainty in the future growth of nuclear power and in the supply of oil and natural gas, coal-fired power plants could well provide up to 70 percent of the electric power in the United States by the end of the century.
Yet, in spite of the fact that coal has long been a source of electricity and may remain on for many years(coal represents about 80 percent of United States fossil-fuel reserves), it has actually never been the most desirable fossil fuel for power plants. Coal contains less energy per unit of weight than weight than natural gas or oil; it is difficult to transport, and it is associated with a host of environmental issues, among them acid rain. Since the late 1960's problems of emission control and waste disposal have sharply reduced the appeal of coal-fired power plants. The cost of ameliorating these environment problems along with the rising cost of building a facility as large and complex as a coal-fired power plant, have also made such plants less attractive from a purely economic perspective.
Changes in the technological base of coal-fired power plants could restore their attractiveness, however. Whereas some of these changes are intended mainly to increase the productivity of existing plants, completely new technologies for burning coal cleanly are also being developed.
28.Changing Roles of Public EducationOne of the most important social developments that helped to make possible a shift in thinking about the role of public education was the effect of the baby boom of the 1950's and 1960's on the schools. In the 1920's, but especially in the Depression conditions of the 1930's, the United States experienced a declining birth rate --- every thousand women aged fifteen to forty-four gave birth to about 118 live children in 1920, 89.2 in 1930, 75.8 in 1936, and 80 in 1940. With the growing prosperity brought on by the Second World War and the economic boom that followed it young people married and established households earlier and began to raise larger families than had their predecessors during the Depression. Birth rates rose to 102 per thousand in 1946,106.2 in 1950, and 118 in 1955. Although economics was probably the most important determinant, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom. The increased value placed on the idea of the family also helps to explain this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers began streaming into the first grade by the mid 1940's and became a flood by 1950. The public school system suddenly found itself overtaxed. While the number of schoolchildren rose because of wartime and postwar conditions, these same conditions made the schools even less prepared to cope with the food. The wartime economy meant that few new schools were built between 1940 and 1945. Moreover, during the war and in the boom times that followed, large numbers of teachers left their profession for better-paying jobs elsewhere in the economy.
Therefore in the 1950's and 1960's, the baby boom hit an antiquated and inadequate school system. Consequently, the " custodial rhetoric" of the 1930's and early 1940's no longer made sense that is, keeping youths aged sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in school could no longer be a high priority for an institution unable to find space and staff to teach younger children aged five to sixteen. With the baby boom, the focus of educators and of laymen interested in education inevitably turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic skills and discipline. The system no longer had much interest in offering nontraditional, new, and extra services to older youths.
26. International Business and Cross-cultural CommunicationThe increase in international business and in foreign investment has created a need for executives with knowledge of foreign languages and skills in cross-cultural communication. Americans, however, have not been well trained in either area and, consequently, have not enjoyed the same level of success in negotiation in an international arena as have their foreign counterparts.
Negotiating is the process of communicating back and forth for the purpose of reaching an agreement. It involves persuasion and compromise, but in order to participate in either one, the negotiators must understand the ways in which people are persuaded and how compromise is reached within the culture of the negotiation.
In many international business negotiations abroad, Americans are perceived as wealthy and impersonal. It often appears to the foreign negotiator that the American represents a large multi-million-dollar corporation that can afford to pay the price without bargaining further. The American negotiator's role becomes that of an impersonal purveyor of information and cash.
In studies of American negotiators abroad, several traits have been identified that may serve to confirm this stereotypical perception, while undermining the negotiator's position. Two traits in particular that cause cross-cultural misunderstanding are directness and impatience on the part of the American negotiator. Furthermore, American negotiators often insist on realizing short-term goals. Foreign negotiators, on the other hand, may value the relationship established between negotiators and may be willing to invest time in it for long-term benefits. In order to solidify the relationship, they may opt for indirect interactions without regard for the time involved in getting to know the other negotiator.
25. Movie MusicAccustomed 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. From the very beginning, music was regarded as an indispensable accompaniment; when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public film exhibition in the United States in February 1896, they were accompanied by piano improvisations on popular tunes. At first, the music played bore no special relationship to the films; an accompaniment of any kind was sufficient. Within a very short time, however, the incongruity of playing lively music to a solemn film became apparent, and film pianists began to take some care in matching their pieces to the mood of the film.
As movie theaters grew in number and importance, a violinist, and perhaps a cellist, would be added to the pianist in certain cases, and in the larger movie theaters small orchestras were formed. For a number of years the selection of music for each film program rested entirely in the hands of the conductor or leader of the orchestra, and very often the principal qualification for holding such a position was not skill or taste so much as the ownership of a large personal library of musical pieces. Since the conductor seldom saw the films until the night before they were to be shown(if indeed, the conductor was lucky enough to see them then), the musical arrangement was normally improvised in the greatest hurry.
To help meet this difficulty, film distributing companies started the practice of publishing suggestions for musical accompaniments. In 1909, for example, the Edison Company began issuing with their films such indications of mood as " pleasant", "sad", "lively". The suggestions became more explicit, and so emerged the musical cue sheet containing indications of mood, the titles of suitable pieces of music, and precise directions to show where one piece led into the next.
Certain films had music especially composed for them. The most famous of these early special scores was that composed and arranged for D.W Griffith's film Birth of a Nation, which was released in 1915.
23 Ford Although Henry Ford's name is closely associated with the concept of mass production, he should receive equal credit for introducing labor practices as early as 1913 that would be considered advanced even by today's standards. Safety measures were improved, and the work day was reduced to eight hours, compared with the ten-or twelve-hour day common at the time. In order to accommodate the shorter work day, the entire factory was converted from two to three shifts.
In addition, sick leaves as well as improved medical care for those injured on the job were instituted. The Ford Motor Company was one of the first factories to develop a technical school to train specialized skilled laborers and an English language school for immigrants. Some efforts were even made to hire the handicapped and provide jobs for former convicts.
The most widely acclaimed innovation was the five-dollar-a-day minimum wage that was offered in order to recruit and retain the best mechanics and to discourage the growth of labor unions. Ford explained the new wage policy in terms of efficiency and profit sharing. He also mentioned the fact that his employees would be able to purchase the automobiles that they produced - in effect creating a market for the product. In order to qualify for the minimum wage, an employee had to establish a decent home and demonstrate good personal habits, including sobriety, thriftiness, industriousness, and dependability. Although some criticism was directed at Ford for involving himself too much in the personal lives of his employees, there can be no doubt that, at a time when immigrants were being taken advantage of in frightful ways, Henry Ford was helping many people to establish themselves in America.
标签：TEM-8 专八 写作
典典教你背单词：
单词听写
词义回想
查看单词
[??k?m?de?t]供给住宿;使适应;容纳;提供;顾及;调解
查看单词[?hændikæpt]残废的;有生理缺陷的
查看单词[θr?ft?n?s]节俭;繁荣
记住了accommodate[??k?m?de?t]
供给住宿;使适应;容纳;提供;顾及;调解
记住了handicapped[?hændikæpt]
残废的;有生理缺陷的
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节俭;繁荣
18.Modern American Universities
Before the 1850's, the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.
Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient name of university. In German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals. Between mid-century and the end of the 1800's, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced study. Some of them return to become presidents of venerable colleges-----Harvard, Yale, Columbia---and transform them into modern universities. The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students. The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars. Drilling and learning by rote were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professor's own research was presented in class. Graduate training leading to the Ph.D., an ancient German degree signifying the highest level of advanced scholarly attainment, was introduced. With the establishment of the seminar system, graduate student learned to question, analyze, and conduct their own research.
At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose their own course of study. The notion of major fields of study emerged. The new goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of the world. Paying close heed to the practical needs of society, the new universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering students being the most characteristic of the new regime. Students were also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.
regime
[re???i?m]
政体;政权;制度
记住了curriculum[k??r?kj?l?m]
全部课程;课程13 Skyscrapers and Environment In the late 1960's, many people in North America turned their attention to environmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were widely criticized. Ecologists pointed out that a cluster of tall buildings in a city often overburdens public transportation and parking lot capacities.
Skyscrapers are also lavish consumers, and wasters, of electric power. In one recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper office space in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by 120, 000 kilowatts-enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for a day.
Glass-walled skyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (or gain)through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times that through a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To lessen the strain on heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of skyscrapers have begun to use double-glazed panels of glass, and reflective glasses coated with silver or gold mirror films that reduce glare as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled skyscrapers raise the temperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring buildings.
Skyscrapers put a severe strain on a city's sanitation facilities, too. If fully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City would alone generate 2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year-as much as a city the size of Stanford, Connecticut , which has a population of more than 109, 000.
sewage
[?su??d?]
污水;污物