【新旧ACT写作对比】新ACT写作带来全新挑战

2015年09月17日16:36 来源：小站整理: 参与（0）阅读（2807）

摘要：小编今天将讲解新旧ACT写作对比，新的ACT写作给考生们带来了一个全新的挑战。

以往的ACT写作测试要求学生在30分钟内就一个prompt写一篇议论文。举个例子，以往的ACT会像下面这样出一个prompt让考生作答：

Some high schools are structured like colleges in that each student chooses a focus of study as a freshman or sophomore. Students may choose business, fine arts, medicine, communication, or a host of other topics of study and then receive a specialized diploma reflecting the discipline they have studied. Some educators, parents, and students feel that having a focused area of study gives students an edge over students in a traditional high school setting because students aren’t wasting their time studying information they will not use in their future careers. Others suggest that freshman and sophomores are too young to know which discipline they would like to pursue for the rest of their lives. Some people are also concerned that a narrow academic focus does not make for a well-rounded citizen. In your opinion, should schools offer specialized diplomas based on one focused area of study?

In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two perspectives provided, or present a different point of view on the topic. Support your position with specific evidence and examples.

很明显，以上这个ACT写作测试prompt给到考生的写作指示很少。这个prompt只是设置了一个话题，考生或多或少可以说是能写任何他们想写的，只要他们的写的内容扣题并且引用了明确的证据以及例子。这样，ACT的写作测试就缺少了对文本分析的考察，而学生的文本分析能力是大学学习中重要的一环，这就导致了很多学校认为ACT写作成绩的参考价值很小。为了解决这一问题，ACT对其写作测试做了改变，以此来更好地匹配美国高校招生官们评估申请时所需要衡量的标准。

让我们来看下新ACT 写作测试的变化吧，以下题为例：

Intelligent Machines

Many of the goods and services we depend on daily are now supplied by intelligent, automated machines rather than human beings. Robots build cars and other goods on assembly lines, where once there were human workers. Many of our phone conversations are now conducted not with people but with sophisticated technologies. We can now buy goods at a variety of stores without the help of a human cashier. Automation is generally seen as a sign of progress, but what is lost when we replace humans with machines? Given the accelerating variety and prevalence of intelligence machines, it is worth examining the implications and meanings of their presence in our lives.

Read carefully and consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about the increasing presence of intelligent machines.

Perspective One: What we lose with the replacement of people by machines is some part of our own humanity. Even our mundane daily encounters no longer require from us basic courtesy, respect, and tolerance for other people.

Perspective Two: Machines are good at low-skill, repetitive jobs, and at high-speed, extremely precise jobs. In both cases they work better than humans. This efficiency leads to a more prosperous and progressive world for everyone.

Perspective Three: Intelligent machines challenge our long-standing ideas about what humans are or can be. This is good because it pushes both humans and machines toward new, unimagined possibilities.

Essay Task

Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on the increase presence of intelligent machines. In your essay, be sure to:

· analyze and evaluate the perspectives given

· state and develop your own perspective on the issue

· explain the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of the others, in partial agreement, or wholly different. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

新的ACT写作测试要求学生在50分钟里完成三个任务：

· 根据给出的各观点进行分析以及评价;

· 陈述以及展开自己就这个话题的观点;

· 解释自己的观点以及prompt里给出的观点间的联系;

新的ACT写作测试通过让考生完成以上三个任务来考察他们的文本分析能力、引证能力以及其他大学学习的必需技能。这样的话，也就是意味着考生将不再能够仅根据自己想到的论点来展开写作，而是必须使用prompt中给出的材料加以分析以作答，然后再表达自己的观点。就是这样，新的ACT写作测试给考生们带来了一个全新的挑战。