Teenage Problems

Reading 1

It was Saturday again. Grace and Karen disliked Saturdays. That was another thing the twins had in common. They shared the same clothes and tied their hair in the same manner.In fact, it was hard for their classmates and teachers to tell the difference between them sometimes.

Unlike their classmates, they had to get up early at seven every Saturday to prepare for their lessons. Grace had to attend the art lesson and Karen had to attend her ballet（芭蕾）lesson.“How I wish I could do something different today,”said the twins with one voice.All at once, an idea came to Grace and Karen at the same time.“Would you like to be me for a day?”they asked each other. It seemed like a wonderful plan to them. After giving each other a description of their own friends, Grace put on Karen’s ballet dress while Karen put Grace’s brushes and paints into her bag.Then they left for their classes.

When the art lesson started, Karen was lost. Unlike Grace, Karen was poor at drawing.When the art lesson finally ended,Karen didn’t dare（敢）to hand in her work.

At the same time, Grace was struggling（掙扎）in the ballet class as well. As she had no idea about the dance steps,she had to follow her classmates blindly.As a result,she kept knocking into them. Their ballet teacher became impatient with her,“Karen, you should remember the basic steps.You can’t depend on copying what others are doing.”

When Karen and Grace got home, they were tired. They decided that they would never try to be someone else. It seemed that the grass was not always greener on the other side of the fence.

Task

If you have the chance,would you like to be someone else for a day?Why or why not?

Writing 1

假設你是李華，你以前的同學楊林向你抱怨英語太難學了，他上次的英語考試又不及格。請你給他寫封郵件，給他一些鼓勵和建議。

原文呈現

Dear Yang Lin,

Sorry to hear that you failed in English exam again! Many students have the same problem.

首段語言過于簡潔，未能表達出對楊林考試不及格的同情與理解，不能引起楊林的情感共鳴。

I’d like to share what I do to learn English well with you. Maybe you can try some of my ideas. It’s necessary to listen carefully in class. After class, I go over what I have learned in class as often as possible. If I have problems, I usually ask my teachers for help.

給出的建議部分句式結構較單一,缺乏必要的過渡和連貫，給出的建議不夠具體，缺少針對性。

Keep trying, and make better progress in your English!

通過祈使句給予鼓勵，力度稍有不足。

Yours truly,

Li Hua

升格展示

Dear Yang Lin,

I’m sorry to hear that you failed in English exam again and I can understand your feelings. Many students have the same problem, so you are not alone.Now I’m writing to give you some advice.

First, you should listen attentively in class and take notes. If you have any problem, turn to your teacher. Besides, a large vocabulary is a must, which can help you read more smoothly. Last but not least, I suggest you read some English stories for it can help develop your thinking.

As the saying goes,“Practice makes perfect.”I believe you can make progress in English as long as you put time and efforts into it.

Best wishes!

Yours sincere,

Li Hua

綜合點評

本篇書面表達屬于應用文，要求小作者給初中同學楊林寫一封建議信，對他上次英語考試不及格表示理解，給出學習英語的建議并進行鼓勵。升格后的作文第一段情感自然，過渡句合理。第二段是文章的主體部分, first, besides 以及last but not least 使建議層次分明，邏輯清晰，要點齊全。第三段結尾巧用諺語“Practice makes perfect.”以及as long as和make progress in 等進行鼓勵，表達期待。總體來看，文章主題明確，結構緊湊，語句連貫，表達清晰。