新浪博客

雅思写作中的不熟悉的话题该如何应对（1）- Peer Pressure

2011-01-04 20:06阅读：

http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/u/1900311982

16/12 A类考题：Young people are often influenced in their behaviors and situations by others in the same age. This is called “peer pressures”. Do the disadvantages outweigh the advantages?

左传观点：雅思考试准备过程中，针对性阅读可以有效的增加考生对话题的熟悉度。

以本文为例，如果我们有充分时间准备的话，可以多花点时间来查找peer pressure的概念。
在GOOGLE中输入peer pressure，出现的第一个网页来自于WIKIPEDIA。
其中对peer pressure的定义是：Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group
in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms。我们可以理解为同辈压力。

再往下看，我们会发现部分语句可以直接用于我们的写作：
In young people Youth peer pressure is one of the most frequently referred to forms of peer pressure. It is particularly common because most youth spend large amounts of time in fixed groups (schools and subgroups within them) regardless of their opinion of those groups. In addition to this, they may lack the maturity to handle pressure from 'friends'. Also, young people are more willing to behave negatively towards those who are not members of their own peer groups. However, youth peer pressure can also have positive effects. For example, if one is involved with a group of people that are ambitious and working to succeed, one might feel pressured to follow suit to avoid feeling excluded from the group. Sometimes the child is pressuring themselves. They feel like they need to be in this group to be 'cool' or 'in.' Therefore, the youth would be pressured into improving themselves, bettering them in the long run. This is most commonly seen in youths that are active in sports or other extracurricular activities where conformity with one's peer group is strongest.

这段话讲的是同辈压力的利和弊，虽并未作出直接比较，但对启发我们写作的思考，例证很有意义。该如何使用呢？建议：先精读后再背诵。不一定非要背完全文，但部分有用的句子（如划线句子）还是值得背诵的。在这左传要再次推荐一个有用的网站：
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/language_tips/news/news_bilingual.html
都是短小精悍的中英文对照短文。英文字数两三百，非常适合阅读和记忆。

我记得那么清楚有什么用呢？
1 扩大知识面。细想一下，为什么很多学生觉得跟本地人会没什么话讲？两点原因，一是关注的话题不同，二是自己知道的不够。多记点东西，对口语和写作都有益处。
2 读完，背完后把原文自己的话表达出来，可以称之为 Reproduction 复述.
在这左传要建议大家随身携带一个小笔记本和笔，听到什么，看到什么，掏出家伙就记下来，没准哪天就用上了。或者，上网读新闻读得多的话，可以用微博来收集有用信息。可以参考我的微博：左传2011 http://t.sina.com.cn/1900311982

回到同辈压力这个话题上来，WIKIPEDIA还提到了Rish Behavior: Popular adolescents are more strongly associated with their peer groups in which they may together experiment with things like alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. 这就非常具体了。还有在Management,schools 里的Benign peer pressure. Benign, 良性的，读音比较特别，后面可以接 肿瘤 tumor. 这就是针对性阅读当中的词汇积累，我称之为 Topic-specific words. 不管在雅思口语或写作考试之中，话题相关的词汇都是考官着重考察的一点。

所以，我的观点是，在雅思考试准备时间充分的情况下，多花点时间收集口语和作文话题，多花点时间针对这些话题来收集资料和数据，肯定是能派上用场的。这些方法我看行，大家也试试看吧。



我的更多文章

下载客户端阅读体验更佳

APP专享