跟经济学人学雅思写作

　　针对复习过多时的雅思考生来说，在大量阅读，强化语法的基础上，相信你现在写作时已经能够做到少犯或不犯语法错误，写出来的英文还算凑合了。

　　这个时候如果需要进一步提高文笔应该怎么做?可以采用精读经济学人以及使用英英词典和搭配词典的方法。以Academic Writing为例，一篇漂亮的文章至少要做到以下几点：句式丰富多变，长短句灵活应用，用词准确出彩，论点丰富，论证有力，逻辑严谨。

　　而经济学人就满足这种“漂亮”文章的标准，是非常好的阅读和模仿素材。好的文章是模仿出来的，要学会模仿阅读时遇到的优美的词汇用法、句型结构、巧妙的比喻、幽默的风格等等，慢慢化为自己的熟练表达。

　　比如很多人习作中出现的一个问题是句式单一，用词平庸。我们可以学习一下经济学人文章的写法，增加语言的张力。举个例子，下面的这一段节选自上周的经济学人文章The enemy within:

　　EMPLOYEES are often said to be a company’s biggest resource. It is equallytrue that they are its biggest liability. Scarcely a week goes by without acompany falling victim to employees-turned-enemies-or-embarrassments. On July20th Ashley Madison, a website for married people looking to have an affair,announced that it had been hacked. Noel Biderman, the company’s chief executive,says that he thinks the attack was “an inside job”. On July 6th HSBC fired agroup of employees when it emerged that they had filmed themselves engaged inan“ISIS-style mock beheading” of an Asian colleague dressed in an orangejumpsuit.

　　The most familiar type of enemy within is the fraudster. The EconomistIntelligence Unit, a sister organisation of The Economist, conducts a regularpoll of senior executives on the subject of fraud committed by insiders. In 2013the poll discovered that about 70% of companies had suffered from at least oneinstance of fraud, up from 61% in the previous survey. Fraud is often petty: asurvey of British employees for YouGov in 2010 found that a quarter of staffeligible for expenses admitted to inflating claims. But fraud can also be moreaudacious and more harmful: think of former employees setting up rivals usingstolen technology and purloined client lists.

　　从上面的文章中我们可以学到什么?

　　四个写作时可以用上的句式：

　　1....are often said to...it is equally true that...

　　2.Scarcely a week/month/year goes by without...

　　3....when it emerged that...

　　4.discovered that about 70% ...up from 61%...

　　10个词汇和短语：

　　1.liability

　　2.fall victim to

　　3.have an affair

　　4.behead

　　5.fraudster

　　6.eligible for

　　7.inflate (to make a number or price higher than it should be)

　　8.audacious

　　9.set up

　　10.purloin

　　这仅仅是两小段而已，整篇文章能学到的东西更多。你可以有意识地将上面学到的单词和句式应用到你的写作中去，比如第一个句型"...are oftensaid to...it is equally true that..."可以用来说明事物具有两面性，这个句式不知道比那句蹩脚的 "there areadvantages and disadvantages..." 要高到哪里去了。