作者：武汉新航道北美考试院 托福写作组 叶晓轩

本期考题考察的话题属于托福综合写作考试中考察占比非常高的生物生态类话题，讨论的是转基因作物的优缺点。从另一种角度看，该材料讨论的也是一种新兴技术背后可能存在的好处和坏处，与某些科技类话题也有共通之处。

在TPO中不乏类似的题目适合作为本次综合写作话题的备考材料，从上述两种角度，比较具有代表性的有TPO 21, TPO 22, TPO 37, TPO46等。

Keywords: Genetic modification; environmental damage; nutrients; gene exchange.

可以类比下列这些TPO的综合写作。

TPO21 Genetic Modified Trees

阅读部分：

总观点：genetic modification可以培育出特别的树，在恶劣的环境下也能生存，并带来一些列好处。

•   Genetically modified trees are hardier than natural trees

•   Economic benefits form greater yields

•   Prevent overexploitation of wild trees

听力反驳：

总观点：确实有一些好处，但并不都像听起来那么美好。

•   在一些环境下Maybe resistant, 但不能在所有的环境中存活, 很多threatening condition下还是会灭绝。自然变异的个体存在各种各样的性状，某种灾难爆发时，适应的性状就会存活。而genetically modified trees基因都一样，一旦发生灾难它们的基因不能适应的话，就会团灭；

•   这种树有Hidden cost, 因为它们的种子很贵，并且买了种子不是一劳永逸，every time you plant you pay；

•   这些树会造成Damage to wild trees, 因为它们会grow aggressively, outcompete the wild trees for resources, 甚至把野生的树给crowd out了。

TPO46 Electronic medical record systems

阅读部分：

总观点：电子医疗记录相比于传统的纸质记录来说有诸多好处

•   在储存和运输这些记录的时候很省钱；

•   减少medical errors。纸质版的记录会有很多错误，如字迹潦草，有时候会造成严重的后果，但是电子记录都是机打不会有字迹不清的问题；

•   电子记录使得医生大量查阅资料成为可能。医生不需要浏览很多材料才能找到想要的信息，并且可以在任何地方查找资料。

听力反驳：

•   总论点：文章中提及的好处都uncertain

•   好处并没有阅读说的那么significant。纸质版还是会留着以备急用或者法律纠纷，所以采用电子版还是要保存纸质版，还是要花钱存放；

•   医生去检查病人的时候还是要用纸笔做笔记，然后由录入员二次录入，即使采用了电子记录，由笔迹潦草造成的错误还是会有。

•   接触所有的数据需要非常严格的权限以及审查，采用了电子记录后需要走很严格的法律流程才能查阅资料，有时候甚至需要获得病人的同意。

题目解析：

9月21日下午场的题目突破了托福独立写作传统的三大题型，为一道四选一的题目；所属话题则是非常高频、友好的个人生活-交友类话题。题中提到四个选项都是人们感到思乡时可能采取的应对措施，且这些措施每一个都有可取之处，因此考生可以根据个人对于这几个办法的理解和自己的经历来完成写作。

在分析题目时需要注意的是题目其中一个关键词提到的描述是the most effective way，在有限的考试时间内，考生可能难以想到某一个选项的三个不同优点去回应effective的要求。但当我们采用对方观点分析法来构思时，则能够比较巧妙地从四个选项分别下手找到着力点：阐述一个我方选项的优点回应effective，并选择其他选项的存在的问题进行描述，来论证它们不够effective。

进一步观察选项可以发现，选项1和4（做一些以前在家乡做的活动或吃一些让你想起家乡的食物vs.尝试一些当地特有的活动和食物）是有明显对应关系的，另两个选项也是如此。因此我们可以利用选项间的这个特点，将段落设计为：，我方选项为什么有效，以及相对应的选项为什么不那么有效（如交新朋友有效，联系家乡的人无效）；第二，另外两个选项为什么无效/不那么有效（如做以前的活动/吃家乡的食物、尝试当地特色活动/食物为什么无效）。

请参考如下范文：

With the advanced development of transportation and telecommunication, it is becoming much more common than before that people leave their hometown, either for a fortune or for a better understanding of the outside world. However, these fortune seekers and explorers may unavoidably feel homesick from time to time. Among all the four options offered to deal with this problem, I firmly believe that making new friends would serve as the most effective way to address it, as this is the only approach that deals with the root of this problem.

Primarily, making new friends responds to the source of homesickness. Why do people feel homesick? The answer lies in their social connections. They are deprived from genuine contacts with those familiar friends and families back in the hometown, rendering them helpless and uncomfortable in a dissimilar environment. Only by building fresh connections in the place they now live, and thus regaining face-to-face communications, could this issue get handled. As for maintaining contact with people from home, it is neither practical nor effective. Everyone has their own life. Closely keeping a distant relationship is much too time-consuming and tiresome, which results in that nobody could forever accompany one another, especially when they are far apart from each other. Even if they do manage to keep in constant touch with their old friends, the effect is generally quite limited, since people form home could barely know what is going on here in one’s daily life. What they can do is nothing but to say a bunch of soul-touching words, which actually does not make any difference.

Furthermore, the other two options, suggesting to get involved in certain kinds of activities, seem too partial and pale to me. First, about doing activities or eating food that reminds people of home. This would just worsen the situation rather than help with it. It would even lead to a stronger feeling of loneliness, since people could not see or touch or feel anything real in this process. The activities and food may even remind people of all those good memories, under the comparison of which, being captured in such a miserable mood, people would even feel more pitiful and pathetic for themselves. Second, trying special food or activities of local traditions indeed is a better choice, for it would interrupt with people’s indulgence in old memories. But as a matter of fact, at the end of the day, people still have to go home all alone with nobody to talk to, unless one or two friends are made during the activities or food exploration. Thus, it is not the activity or food, but the new connections obtained through these activities, that lift people out of homesickness. In brief, mere engagement in both of the two kinds of activities or food definitely would not change a thing at all.

Based on the above points, I strongly advocate that whoever feels homesick should try to make new friends instead of adopting the other three methods, Because this problem springs from the lack of direct social connections, while the other choices do not help cope with it.  

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