作者：北美考试院 托福写作组 崔国花
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2019.05.04 托福综合写作真题 |
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Integrated Writing Task |
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阅读部分：防治外来海星入侵的三种举措 1、使用只杀海星的化学药剂； 2、使用寄生虫； 3、在海水中加入化学物质，海星会被船的管道泵入而传播到其他地方。
听力反驳：这三个举措都没有效果 1、化学物质也会杀死本地海星； 2、寄生虫对雄性海星无效； 3、海星可以通过其他多种方式传播。 |
在青年节这一天，ETS对中国考生非常温柔，给出了一道高频综合写作话题：减少某个动物数量的方式。动植物数量的增减，是综合写作频繁出现的主题，有多道TPO题目都涉及相关考点：TPO10、15、17、23、48，都和本期考题有相似之处。因此，TPO仍然是考生备战综合写作的重要资料。
Keywords: population, pesticides, chemicals, the spread of, habitat, parasite, host, predator
可以类比下列这些TPO的综合写作。
TPO15 Cane Toad Spreading
阅读部分：
总观点：外来物种cane toads在澳大利亚泛滥，三个举措可以减少它们的数量
• National fence to isolate the invaded area
• Captured and destroyed by volunteers
• Disease-causing virus to control the population
听力反驳：
总观点：三个方法都没用
• 幼小的cane toads和toad eggs一般都在水中，所以建立围栏也防止不了它们顺着水流传播到未入侵区域；
• 未受训练的volunteers可能会危害到长相类似frogs，其中一些本地frogs是濒危动物；
• virus可能会被研究人员或宠物收集人带到中南美洲，杀死当地的cane toads，危害当地的生态系统。
TPO26 Zebra Mussel Spreading CANNOT Be Stopped
阅读部分：
总观点：无法阻止zebra mussels入侵北美，并对当地淡水鱼造成威胁。理由如下：
• zebra mussel会进入船只的ballast water，由欧洲传到北美；
• zebra mussel在新的栖息地没有predator；
• zebra mussel会和淡水鱼抢食物（plankton）。
听力反驳：
Zebra mussel的传播是可控的，而且该物种对淡水鱼并不一定有严重影响。
• 船只可以在海上把ballast water排空，重新灌入海水。海水会杀死zebra mussel；
• 当zebra mussel刚到达一个地区时，它们确实是没有捕食者。但是在欧洲，水鸟（aquatic birds）很快就开始改变饮食习惯，开始捕食zebra mussel；
• zebra mussel可能威胁部分以plankton为食的淡水鱼，但同时又能造福另一些淡水鱼。这是因为zebra mussel会产生一种营养物质，在湖水或河水底部的淡水鱼食用这些物质，因此这类鱼的数量及鱼的总量都会增长。
本题虽然和5月4日的真题叙述方向相反，但是思路和高频词很有参考价值。
有一些观点是动植物数量变化中非常常见的：如物理隔离、化学药剂、人工/天敌捕捉等。考生需要掌握以下高频词汇：
² 杀虫剂/有毒物质（pesticides/ toxin）
² 病毒（virus, bacteria）
² 隔离/迁徙/引入（isolate/ migrate/ immigrate）
² 捕食关系（prey, predator, hunting）
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2019.05.04托福独立写作真题 |
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Independent Writing Task |
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Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
The most important goal of education is to teach people how to educate themselves.
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题目解析：
5月4日的独立写作是一道非常友好的题目。教育类话题是很多考生熟悉和擅长的领域，而且本题中有一个很好的突破口——词most。当题目中出现了词时，赞同的写法一般比较困难。这是因为在30分钟内，很难在400词左右的文章中体现出某个选项优于同类所有其他选项。因此，一般来说，题干中有词时，反对的观点会更好展开。
段落安排可以采取两种形式：，可以举三个反例，完成一个一边倒的文章；第二，如果只能想到两个反例，或是如本题这样，题干中给的选项也有极大的重要性，那么可以安排一个让步段和两个反驳段，构成一篇文章。
请参考如下范文：
Education is one of the most effective and accessible ways to guarantee social mobility and personal well-being. Therefore, people have been delving increasingly deeper in both schooling and parenting, in hope of perfecting education system. The strange part of such devotion is that the majority of essays and speeches on this area is about learning ability, as if it were the ultimate goal of education. Personally, however, I believe educators should give higher priorities on mental growth.
Admittedly, self-learning ability is vital in one’s life, especially for adults who have few chances to be a full-time student. Some people insist that it is indispensable for one to acquire the skills to keep searching information and updating his or her knowledge, because we are living in a fast-paced society where numerous existing jobs are and will be replaced by new ones sooner or later. Under such circumstance, those who are capable to educate themselves are more likely to secure a brighter career life.
However, the ability of educating oneself is not the panacea for all social and individual issues. After all, human beings are social creatures supporting and relying on each other. Therefore, education has higher goals: character building. Today, Internet and jet aircrafts have closely connected people around the world in an unprecedented way. Consequently, people from different cultures are more likely to be exposed to each other. If one is taught to be empathetic and concerned about others, especially the least advantaged ones, greater missions can be achieved. For instance, people in developed countries set a number of programs to help women and children in impoverished areas. It is not self-learning ability but ethics that drive the former to spare time and effort for the latter’s good. To conclude, compared with competitive learners, moral citizens are more beneficial to society.
Furthermore, nurturing curiosity is also essential for one’s future development. Some teachers and parents focus so much on what a kid has or hasn’t acquired that they pay little attention on what drives that kid to learn. In the long run, students will gradually be bored with schoolwork. Worse, once there are no exams nor assigned tasks, people with fewer willingness to explore the world will stop learning, whether they are equipped with strong self-educating abilities or not. Gradually, such employees get consumed in their work while having no interest or passion in other fields. On the contrary, however, those who are eager to probe the new territories will have fun in study, work, and daily life. Even if some of them find it difficult to learn by themselves, they could turn to online and offline courses or study groups, which are prevalent in modern society.
Education should focus more on people instead of pieces of knowledge. If a school gives higher priority to the preparation for future workers rather than cultivation of responsible citizens, it is confusing the means of education with the ends of this undertaking.
