2016年10月1日
SAT写作考试真题作文题目为“Read，Kids， Read” ，与我们在强化阶段讲的“Why literature matters”十分相近，主题都是劝说年轻人不应该失去阅读兴趣，应该多读书。相对来说，这篇文章的难度较低，既没有帕特农神庙那么多生词，也没有National Service 中一些难理解的句子。而且同学们在学完“Why literature matters”之后再接触这篇文章，心里应该有底儿很多，套路相近。下面我们就来具体的分析一下这篇文章的思路以及可以选取的点。
【SAT写作真题题目分析】
首先，文章以personal anecdote开篇，讲自己会忘记侄子的生日，但是不会忘记督促他们读书，这里第三段的一个But，明显是转折关系，他对于琐事不上心的态度与对于读书认真执着的态度形成鲜明对比，也就是第二个可分析的点contrast。同时，在第三段中，steady，relentless，incessantly，以及第四段的crestfallen都体现了作者用词的高端，可以作为diction分析。接下来，作者在第四段对比着(contrast)引用了大量statistics来说明年轻人阅读量下降的现象，为了让人们意识到这一现象的严重性，第五段中运用了metaphor的手法，将Professional writers arguing for vigorous reading比喻成恐龙在祈求最后一口呼吸，让人们意识到再不注意这一现象，阅读有可能就像恐龙一样在人间灭绝了。接下来，七，八段作者运用了quotation，result from study 来证明阅读的好处。作者在第九段给出了Emory University 的神经系统科学家的报告，说明阅读对于大脑有好处，紧接着，作者在第十段运用了counterargument的手法，先是给出一些专家对于这个报告的实验方法抱有怀疑态度，然后又通过analogy，rhetorical question，quotations等消除了这种怀疑，证明了阅读的好处。最后一段，作者重述观点。
Adapted from Frank Bruni，“Read，Kids，Read”，New York Times.
主旨：The main claim is encouraging people value reading
于全文解析如下：
As an uncle I’m inconsistent about too many things.
Birthdays, for example. My nephew Mark had one on Sunday, and I didn’t remember — and send a text — until 10 p.m., by which point he was asleep.
But about books, I’m steady. Relentless. I’m incessantly asking my nephews and nieces what they’re reading and why they’re not reading more. I’m reliably hurling novels at them, and also at friends’ kids. I may well be responsible for 10 percent of all sales of “The Fault in Our Stars,” a teenage love story to be released as a movie next month. Never have I spent money with fewer regrets, because I believe in reading — not just in its power to transport but in its power to transform.
【功能】用故事引出主旨，表明作者对书籍阅读的态度，并启发读者思考
【策略】personal example，diction，tone，ethos
【解析】作者在开篇通过个人经历作为事例来说明自己对孩子阅读书籍的支持，并用幽默的语气来表明自己的态度和观点。
So I was crestfallen on Monday, when a new report by Common Sense Media came out. It showed that 30 years ago, only 8 percent of 13-year-olds and 9 percent of 17-year-olds said that they “hardly ever” or never read for pleasure. Today, 22 percent of 13-year-olds and 27 percent of 17-year-olds say that. Fewer than 20 percent of 17-year-olds now read for pleasure “almost every day.” Back in 1984, 31 percent did. What a marked and depressing change.
【功能】进一步说明现在的阅读状况
【策略】statistics from credible source
【解析】作者用可靠的数据有力证明了孩子对阅读兴趣下降的大趋势。
I know, I know: This sounds like a fogy’s crotchety lament. Or, worse, like self-interest. Professional writers arguing for vigorous reading are dinosaurs begging for a last breath. We’re panhandlers with a better vocabulary.
【功能】让步
【策略】pathos，analogy
【解析】作者用承认自己守旧诉诸于情感，并用生动的类比来说明方向观点。
参考范文：Read, Kids, Read
The vicissitude of history never fails to amaze us with all the changes it has brought to human life. If we trace back to see what has been changed since human civilization, seldom can we see anything that remains intact, with only one exception- the importance of reading. Despite the fact that reading has never dropped from our top priorities, few people keep the habit of it. As a reaction to such pathetic phenomenon, writer Frank Bruni draws people’s attention back to reading and encourages people to value it. Strategies he employs include contrast, credible reference and tactic reasoning that appeal to people’s emotion and agreement.
One impressive feature of this article is Bruni’s contrast at the very beginning to introduce his topic, with the next paragraphs addressing its benefits. He compares things that he always ignores such as nephew’s birthday and niece’s school production with things he never fails to overlook -reading. For the majority of people, especially teenagers, birthday party and school performance are events that family members should remember. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the author. Reading at this point, readers are left a bit disappointed at the author and tend to pay more attention to what he wants to convey next. At the cusp of people’s attention, author Bruni brings about something that deserves greater emphasis- reading: “I’m incessantly asking my nephews and nieces what they’re reading and why they’re not reading more.” Thus the readers start to realize how justifiable the author is-as nothing like a birthday party or a performance in school is comparable with the importance of reading. With the utilization of this contrast, the author successfully draws the attention from the readers and lays a solid foundation for his later argument.
Aside from this, the author’s careful choice of evidence adds credibility to the article. He cites properly a report by Common Sense Media, claiming that three is a sharp decline in the percentage of teenagers read for fun “fewer than 20 percent of 17-year-olds now read for pleasure”. At the same time, however, the number of the young who hardly ever read or never read for pleasure elevates from “only 8 percent of 13-year-olds and 9 percent of 17-year-olds” 30 years ago to “22 percent of 13-year-olds and 27 percent of 17-year-olds “ today. This worrisome report indicates that the young no longer read as much as they used to. Linked with the previous paragraphs, the author urges the reader to weight the disadvantage of such trend and possibly spurs some kind of response. Besides, the inclusion of an authoritative agency backs up Bruni’s point, makes the work of Bruni believable and credible.
The most exquisite technique of the passage, however, is its elaborate reasoning. From paragraph 8 to 15, the author lists all the possible benefits of reading to add weight to the persuasiveness of the article. He starts from how reading benefit the brain in paragraph 8, that interviews indicate a symbiotic relationship between reading and intelligence. Paragraph 9 follows with a benefit to the qualities required to success, because those people who read are more adept at “ reading people” and “sizing up the social whirl around them”. If these benefits are not enough, in paragraph 10, 11, 12 and 13, the author compares reading with exposure to technological devices to indicate how reading would benefit the spirit. One obvious benefit reading offers to the spirit is that reading smoothens people “with thoughts less jumbled, moods less jangled”. The other benefit to spirit is that reading grants people “the ability to focus and concentrate”, which becomes a social corrective to “metabolism and sensory overload of digital technology”, because those who indulge themselves in technology requires something to force them to be focused and have delayed gratification. Finally, in paragraph 14 and 15, Bruni talks about the joy of reading: as the connection reading can provide to people is not anything like watching a movie is able to offer. In order to prove the zealous love people possess for reading, he sites the line from the protagonist in a famous love story that “You read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” People love reading want to share the zeal for it, because only those who read can feel the same addiction. All these are connected well to elaborate the value of reading to not only people’s brain and success, but also spirit and gratification. The combination of all these paragraphs provides the readers with a chance to see the well-rounded and multi-layer benefits of reading, surely help the reader to deliver his idea.
All in all, the evidence and source make the reader’s idea worthy of recognition, and the tactical reasoning appeals to people’s emotion and trust. These writing techniques contribute to a well-structured and compelling argument that reading deserves more attention and emphasis.