作者：武汉新航道北美考试院 托福写作组 陈亚男
参考图片
10月13日综合写作的主题中规中矩，属于托福综合写作话题中的次高频话题考古类。听力与阅读的关系也是最常规的理论反驳型，对于业已积累了相关的学科词汇类的考生，难度中等。这种对于历史地点成因的猜测，在考古类中频繁出现，比如18年1月6日曾经探讨过古代苏格兰一种建筑的作用，18年7月8日津巴布韦的一个遗址的意义，18年11月24日考察过安第斯山脉一处堡垒的作用。因此这类考古话题需要在平时训练的时候加以重视。对于考生备考，可以参考如下TPO话题进行相关反驳思路和词汇储备。
1）TPO 27：
阅读部分：Little Ice Age的成因猜测
1. 洋流影响
2. 火山爆发的灰尘遮挡太阳光
3. 人口减少导致森林变多导致气温下降
听力反驳：阅读的理由过时
1. 洋流仅仅会影响欧洲和北美。但是Little Ice Age也影响到了南半球。
2. 火山灰的影响会被人察觉到。
3. 人口迅速增长会导致森林砍伐，所以不会有足够时间增长。
2）TPO 5
阅读部分：对Massive stone buildings用途的猜想
1. 这些巨屋是单纯用来居住的。
2. 建筑是用来储存食物的。
3. 这些房屋是用来作祭司中心的。
听力反驳：关于巨屋用途的三个理论都不具有说服力
1. 巨屋中没有足够供应这么多的人吃饭的灶火。
2. 没有粮食的痕迹。
3. 巨屋中有建筑垃圾，不可能做祭祀使用。
题目解析：
10月13日的这道独立写作，是一道频繁出现的旧题（如2015年5月24日，2018年10月27日）。乍一看很贴近考生的生活，因此属于很容易有充分的理据去论证的一道题目。但事实上，友谊类的题目（托福独立写作中约占10%比例）由于题目中限制词的存在，需要留心才能写的更切题。比如这道题目，强调的是make new friends。如果选择1（运动对身体健康有好处），选择2（社区运动交到对未来有帮助的朋友），选择3（旅游放松身心），这些都可以说是跑题。
进一步的，在交新朋友的时候可以着重考虑对自己社交圈的扩大，友谊类话题经常可以用有更多沟通交流的机会，有共同兴趣爱好做切入点。文章结构分配上，三选一的题目，考生可以采取褒一贬二，即一个段落突出强调我方选择的优势，另两个段落分别论述其他两个选项与我方立场相形见绌的缺陷。
可参考如下范文：
Friendship, an essential element in people’s elation, has always been a great concern for those who newly attend a new school. Fortunately, as social animals, assorted activities render the new connections available. After a thorough consideration of the three options, I would recommend the participation of sports as the most optimal way to make new friends.
To start with, the involvement in sports teams serves as a wonderful vehicle for students to make new acquaintances. No matter it is a football team, the swimming association, or a youth league for volleyball, people’s passion towards the same sports bring and confine them in this pursuit. Therefore, it is likely that the participators always find the similarity to ice break and talk with. “Since when did you play it?”, “who is your favorite star?” Such common questions, right from the beginning, readily reveal a start-up for a friendship- even the shyest guy would not find bashful to be engaged in such topics. Moreover, taking part in the sports often means more exposure to each other. The longer time students devote to together, the more probable they would share and exchange the opinions. As a result, the mutual understanding is conducive to the consolidation of their bonds.
Admittedly, going on a tour serves as a good way to expand one’s social circle, exposing them to people normally dissimilar with students’ routine. Nevertheless, those new contact is a double-edged sword. While it seems to be quite fresh to get acquaint with, the diversified backgrounds, such as coming from different countries, speaking different languages, or attending different schools, etc., usually means that the deeper communication is hard to achieve due to the lack of familiarity. In this case, it is not uncommon to see that people who were rather close in the trips soon lose contact after several days, or weeks. On the contrary, students from the same schools who attend the same sports easily share and keep the relation in the regular meeting and training.
There is no denying that students joining the community’s activities, like serving food for the poor, assisting the elderly, can encounter people with benefaction. However, those activities normally last for short periods, representing that hardly can they spare long-lasting chances to stay with. Conversely, the larger amount of time together both on and off the sports court, the cheers from teammates when winning the champion, and the comfort in the confrontation of failures and low morale of a match, all contribute to solid contacts between students.
All in all, despite the various opportunities to establish friendship derived from community activities and travels, the participation in sports team, undoubtedly, lays the solid foundation for high school students to erect a new connection.
