雅思作文考试,真正测试的是大家对英语文字的表达能力。
语法、词汇、句式、逻辑、结构这一切都是在为表达能力所服务。
所以,挑战你的是,面对一个概念,一组信息,几张图片,能够写出多么地道的表达。
同样在雅思小作文中,往往图中会出现许多数字,不少同学看到数字,就会词穷墨尽。
今天,我想介绍几个数字上的表达方式,推荐你能背一背,考试时或许能帮你一把。
直接使用数字
既然提到了,用文字来表达数字概念,那么第一个方法,自然是直接利用数字。
比如,请看这一道案例题。
图片主题是:weekly ice cream sales
图中三个类目是:blueberry, chocolate, vanilla
三类目对应的数字是:200, 600, 400,
如果我们用数字作为开头,看看应该如何正确的表达:
· 200 units of the ice cream sold weekly are blueberry flavored.
· 400 of the ice cream cups sold in the school were vanilla flavored.
· 600 units of chocolate flavored ice cream were sold.
换一种方法,图中有现实百分比,分别是33%,50%,17%
如果用百分比开头,又应该如何写呢?
· 50% of all ice cream sold were chocolate flavored.
· 33% of the ice cream sales were the vanilla flavored option.
· 17% of the school’s ice cream cup sales represented those flavored blueberry. Based on this data, the school should order this flavor the least for the following weeks, as it does not seem as popular with students, as the chocolate flavored one.
直接使用词组
再来看一则例子,也让我们换一种表达。
图片主题是:languages most studied
图中四个分类分别是:German, Spanish, English, French
图中对应的数字分别是:19%, 19%, 94%, 23%
如果我们用a开头的词组来表达,可以有几种表达方式呢?
a small number,
a huge number,
a minority,
a majority,
a small group,
a large group.
从六个词组中挑选三个,我们可以这么来表达:
· A small group shows to have taken interest in studying German, as well as, Spanish.
· A minority is shown to represent those studying German, Spanish and French.
· According to the Eurostat survey a very large number choose to study English. In fact, this number is larger than putting all the other top three languages together.
此外,还可以用介词of作为开头,此时存在两种意思,
第一种,of = taken from
第二种,of = out of the
我们以柱状图为例,看看第一种意思该如何表达:
· Of the survey conducted by Eurostat in 2015, English is the number one language studied in the world.
· Of the research made, people who studied English, at 94%, far outnumbered those who studied other languages, the next being only 23% which is French.
再以饼图为例,看看第一种意思该如何表达:
· Of the data gathered, chocolate shows as the best-selling flavor in the school.
· Of the totals derived, vanilla shows as the second most popular flavor to the students.
相同的图片,相同的介词,不一样的概念。看看第二种意思该如何表达:
· Of the total participants in the survey conducted by Eurostat in 2015, 94% study English.
· Of all the languages in the world, the most popular is English.
再以饼图为例,看看如何换一个意思来表达
· Of the total number of ice cream cups sold, 400 of them were vanilla.
· Of all the flavors of ice cream sold, chocolate is no doubt the best-seller.
总结
使用词组或者介词开头,来描述一组或一个数字时,一定要确认词组的明确意思。
弄不好很容易弄巧成拙。这也是我鼓励大家,阅读时,当你发现一些句子是用来表述数字的时候,最好是记录下来,并时不时去背一下。
心里没底时,就不要随意使用介词或词组。而相对容易的表达,你可以参照开头,我给你介绍“直接使用数字和百分比”的方法。多多练习,就能熟能生巧。
文中的例子,你都能一眼发现各自最明显的数据。遇到这类题目时,一定要从最明显的入口开始表述,然后再站在更高的高度上概述整体趋势,这一点也是小作文的写作技巧。
无论是什么写作技巧,只有学会以后不断练习,才能让你变的和过去不一样。
记住:Practice makes perfect.