北美考试院 托福写作组 张晟凯

解题思路：

此题是非常典型的听力完全反驳阅读的题型，只要能完整，准确地表达出听力反驳阅读的要点，即可得到高分。

本题考查的话题属于托福综合写作中占有一定比重的生物类话题，分析的是“美洲葬甲虫数量减少的原因”。在TPO中有大量的材料涉及到了生物类话题，如TPO 14，TPO 18，TPO 20，TPO 21，TPO 23 和TPO 26等，它们分别研究的是：树木回收性砍伐的好处、佛罗里达榧树的保护、大火给森林带来的损害、转基因树的好处、雪松数量减少、斑马贝的入侵等。考生可适度选择上述提到的TPO材料，熟悉相关话题，分析材料结构和写作结构。

可以类比TPO 23的综合写作。

TPO 23 综合写作

阅读部分：

Main idea: Scientists have advanced several hypotheses to explain the decline of population of the yellow cedar.

· The yellow cedar decline may be caused by insect parasites, specifically the cedar bark beetle.

· A second hypothesis attributes the decline to brown bears.

· Gradual changes of climate may be to blame.

听力反驳：

Main idea: We still do not know what is killing the yellow cedar. None of the explanations discussed in the reading is adequate.

· These healthy yellow cedars are generally much more resistant to insect infection than other tree species.

· Bears cannot be the reason for the decline, because islands cedars are decreasing without bears.

· Although the climate change may have made the cedar roots more sensitive than they used to be, this is not what killed them.

题目解析：

9月13日的独立写作是一道常规的观点对立题——“是否同意：大学教育对学生应当免费并由政府税收资助”。对于这类题型，我们能选择的观点是对立的，即“大学教育应当免费并由政府资助”和“大学教育不应该免费并由政府资助”。因此我们在选择观点后想出的分支理由往往是性的，即正方的理由并不能用来支持反方，这就与比较类题型的相对性理由作出了区别。

对于这道题，范文选择了正方观点——“大学教育应当免费并由政府资助”。理由也比较好想，一方面可以说大学教育免费后对于机会均等的重要性，另一方面可以说学生能把重心放在学业本身而不必担心高昂的学费。写完两个理由段之后还可以加一个欲扬先抑的让步段，即先承认这种做法对于政府而言是个额外的经济负担，但总的来说对于社会各方面都有明显的好处。

请参考如下范文：

Education, as is known to all, seems to be one of the most essential fields of a country. Representing the most advanced academic level, university education is attached great significance to by all governments around the world. Recently, a heated discussion about whether university education is supposed to be free and financially supported by government tax has arisen. As far as I am concerned, the answer is definitely positive.

Firstly, to abolish the tuition of university students is conducive to the equality of education. One of the most oft-cited issues nowadays is that students cannot acquire the same opportunities due to different family resources. There is no doubt that those students who have better financial conditions are able to easily pay for the expensive tuition of top universities such as Harvard and Stanford. Nevertheless, for those kids who come from poor families, it is obviously more difficult to get access to the colleges mentioned above no matter how excellent they are. Although there are several sorts of scholarships which may be financed by the government or huge corporations, chances are that many smart but poor students cannot satisfy the requirements since they have to spend most of their extracurricular time on making a living but not sports, art or some other areas. Therefore, if university education can be free, every gifted student can obtain equal opportunities to enter the famous universities without worries about money.

Secondly, free university education contributes to more students’ attention to learning itself. To state it more clearly, it is not uncommon that many students struggle to do some part-time jobs for the purpose of paying up for their loan. In that case, they fail to concentrate on their studies due to the distraction of those debts. Conversely, if college education can be all financially aided by government tax, things will be different. Take my brother Sam as an example, he became a freshman at a local college in my hometown last year. Fortunately for him, the local government finance the college, and students that year do not have to pay for the tuition. Without any financial burden, Sam can pay much more attention to studies and make an attempt to achieve better academic achievements thanks to the policy.

Admittedly, many people are likely to contend that it may be an extra cost for the government to pay for tuition. However, in my opinion, the benefits brought by these outstanding students graduating from universities are indeed enormous. Only by cultivating more talented people through free university education can various aspects of our society be improved.

To put it in a nutshell, I think it is greatly beneficial to make university education free. It is not only because of the equality of opportunities but also because students are capable of spending more time and energy on learning itself. I hope that every eminent student can attain the qualification to enter top-notch universities without worrying about tuition.