写作

现代通讯科技和媒体

母题1：People can perform everyday tasks, such as shopping and banking as well as business transactions, without meeting other people face-to-face. What are the effects of this on individuals and society as a whole? (050226, 070331)

解题：题目中的shopping，banking和business transactions涵盖了网络购物、电视购物、网络银行、手机银行、电话会议、视频会议等多种话题，使用分类法论述positive和 negative effects。其实题目就是要求我们讨论科技(现代信息技术和通讯科技)的利弊，或者说科技对个人及现代社会的积极影响和消极影响，因此，通过分析科技带来的积极和消极影响，找出跟这个题目有关的素材和观点，咱们就能掌握这个题目的写作，总的来说，科技的利弊如下：

利：第一，使工作，生活和学习变得方便快捷高效，省钱省时省力，促进商业交易和远程教育的发展;第二，获得各种各样的信息和资源;第三，现代通讯工具的社交功能和一些社交网站，使我们能够和亲人朋友随时保持联系，和任何地方的人进行交流，没有地域的限制;第四，娱乐性：通过手机，电脑看电影，看书和听音乐等

弊：过度依赖手机和互联网，沉迷于视频游戏和网络游戏等，会缺乏和亲人朋友面对面的交流和沟通，缺乏必要的社交技能，不知道如何与他人相处，疏远他人，导致一些心理问题，如孤立，抑郁和不爱社交;现代媒体上过多的暴力和色情信息可能会对青少年造成消极的影响;网络犯罪，电话诈骗等;电脑和手机的辐射会对人们的健康构成隐患，过多使用电脑会导致健康问题，缺乏体育锻炼;机器的使用造成失业率的上升

母题2：Many employees may work at home with the modern technology. Some people claim that it can benefit only the workers, not the employers. Do you agree or disagree? (050716, 091212)

解题：“在家上班”telecommute对于员工和雇主都有好处。

对员工的好处：第一，方便快捷高效，省时省力：可以把每天花在上下班路上的时间用在工作上，从而提高了工作效率。第二，省钱：雇员可以省去交通费用。第三，更好的平衡家庭和工作：雇员在家上班既可以工作，同时又可以兼顾家庭。比如可以照顾小孩等。

对雇主的好处：第一，省钱：可以节约成本，因为雇员在家上班，雇主不用花钱去租办公室，也不用支付水电等费用。第二，雇主能够得到大量的人才资源，没有地域的限制，因为他们可以雇佣其他地方的人来工作

母题3： Some people believe that time spent on television, video and computer games can be valuable for children. Others believe this has negative effects on a child. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. (080110)

解题：这道题要求讨论电视、视频和电脑游戏的好处与坏处。利：电视、录像和电脑游戏都对孩子的成长有好处，有助于开拓视野，增长见识，放松身心，而且电脑游戏能锻炼孩子的反应能力和协调合作能力，激发他们的想象力和创造力，对学生头脑和身体都有好处。

弊：电视、录像和电脑游戏都容易使孩子上瘾，浪费时间，学生长时间对着电脑或电视保持同一个姿势，注视屏幕，会导致很多健康问题，尤其是对视力影响很大。另外，电视、录像和电脑游戏中的色情和暴力信息会对未成年人产生不利影响。

　

　母题4：There are social, medical and technical problems associated with the use of mobile phones. What forms do they take? Do you agree that the problems outweigh the benefits of mobile phones? (060114)

解题：这道题目是手机类话题的经典题目，从社会、健康、科技三个角度来展开，相关的素材和观点可以从上面归纳的科技的利弊中进行选择。文章在正文段的写作中，可以采取让步论证的结构，先退一步承认反方观点，即手机有很多好处，简单论述，之后再过渡到论证个人观点，手机弊大于利，手机的问题可从以上提到的三方面展开。

子题：现代电子通讯工具和手段的利弊?科技改变人们的关系了吗，这个改变是好事还是坏事?电视的利弊?要不要鼓励儿童看电视?看电视和玩游戏对小孩、家庭和社会有什么影响，怎样解决?电脑不能帮助儿童学习，只会造成身心伤害，同意不同意?手机对于个人和社会的好处与坏处是什么?

其它科技话题

题目：早期的科技比现代科技的影响更大，同意不同意?科技的发展使得我们吃的食物种类更多，质量也得到改善，讨论这个现象的优缺点?现代科技在娱乐中的应用使人们失去了创造力吗?科技造成环境污染，使我们的生活变得更加复杂，我们是否要告别科技，过简单的生活?是否应该空运水果蔬菜?飞机是20 世纪最伟大的发明吗?

例：食品安全

母题：Some people support the developments in agriculture such as factory farming and creations of new types of fruits and vegetables, while others oppose this view. Discuss both views and give your opinion. (080712)

解题：工厂化农业factory farming实现了高效率，高产值和高效益，尤其是提高了农产品的产量，但也产生了很多危害。比如大规模喷洒化学肥料chemical fertilizer和农药pesticide会造成环境污染，特别是污染土地资源和水资源，集中式养殖battery farming会侵害动物权利，也使得肉类安全受到威胁。转基因食品genetically modified food虽然改善了食物的品质，提高了食物的产量，但是破坏生态平衡，对人体健康构成潜在的威胁。

子题：长距离运输(空运)食品的好坏?科技改变食品的利弊?

阅读

How to increase sales

Published online: Nov 9th 2006

From The Economist print edition

How shops can exploit people’s herd mentality to increase sales

1. A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare—but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how “swarm intelligence” (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy.

2. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying.

3. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani’s supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too.

4. Mr Usmani’s “swarm-moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the “right” product—that is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring.

5. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so.

6. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales.

7. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm.

(644 words)

Questions 1-6

Complete the sentences below with words taken from the reading passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

1. Shopowners realize that the smell of _______________ can increase sales of food products.

2. In shops, products shelved at a more visible level sell better even if they are more _______________.

3. According to Mr. Usmani, with the use of “swarm intelligence” phenomenon, a new method can be applied to encourage _______________.

4. On the way to everyday items at the back of the store, shoppers might be tempted to buy _______________.

5. If the number of buyers shown on the _______________ is high, other customers tend to follow them.

6. Using the “swarm-moves” model, shopowners do not have to give customers _______________ to increase sales.

Questions 7-12

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? For questions 7-12 write

YES if the statement agrees with the information

NO if the statement contraicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage

7. Radio frequency identification technology has been installed experimentally in big supermarkets like Wal-Mart.

8. People tend to download more unknown songs than songs they are familiar with.

9. Songs ranked high by the number of times being downloaded are favored by customers.

10. People follow the others to the same extent whether it is convenient or not.

11. Items sold in some Japanese stores are simply chosen according to the sales data of other shops.

12. Swarm intelligence can also be observed in everyday life.

Answer keys:

1. 答案：(freshly baked) bread. (第1段第2行：Shoppers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they intended.)

2. 答案：expensive. (第1段第4行： Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors.)

3. 答案：impulse buying. (第2段第1句：At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon.)

4. 答案：other (tempting) goods/things/products. (第2段第2句：Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them.)

5. 答案：screen. (第3段第4行：As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too.)

6. 答案：discounts. (第4段第第1句：Mr Usmani’s “swarm-moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts.)

7. 答案：NO. (第4段第3、4句：The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America an Tesco in Britain are interestd in his workd, and testing will get under way in the spring. 短语 “get under way”的意思是“开始进行”，在Wal-Mart的试验要等到春天才开始)

8. 答案：NOT GIVEN. (在文中没有提及该信息)

9. 答案：YES。 (第5段第3句：The reseachers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they have been downloaded, they followed the crowd.)

10. 答案：NO。 (第5段最后两句：When the songs are not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. pronounced的词义是“显著的、明显的”)

11. 答案：YES。 (第6段第1句：In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies.)

12. 答案：YES。 (最后一段最后一句：Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. home应该算是everyday life的一部分)

　　★ Rogue theory of smell gets a boost

Published online: 6 December 2006

Rogue theory of smell gets a boost

1. A controversial theory of how we smell, which claims that our fine sense of odour depends on quantum mechanics, has been given the thumbs up by a team of physicists.

2. Calculations by researchers at University College London (UCL) show that the idea that we smell odour molecules by sensing their molecular vibrations makes sense in terms of the physics involved.

3. That’s still some way from proving that the theory, proposed in the mid-1990s by biophysicist Luca Turin, is correct. But it should make other scientists take the idea more seriously.

4. "This is a big step forward," says Turin, who has now set up his own perfume company Flexitral in Virginia. He says that since he published his theory, "it has been ignored rather than criticized."

5. Most scientists have assumed that our sense of smell depends on receptors in the nose detecting the shape of incoming molecules, which triggers a signal to the brain. This molecular ’lock and key’ process is thought to lie behind a wide range of the body’s detection systems: it is how some parts of the immune system recognise invaders, for example, and how the tongue recognizes some tastes.

6. But Turin argued that smell doesn’t seem to fit this picture very well. Molecules that look almost identical can smell very different — such as alcohols, which smell like spirits, and thiols, which smell like rotten eggs. And molecules with very different structures can smell similar. Most strikingly, some molecules can smell different — to animals, if not necessarily to humans — simply because they contain different isotopes (atoms that are chemically identical but have a different mass).

7. Turin’s explanation for these smelly facts invokes the idea that the smell signal in olfactory receptor proteins is triggered not by an odour molecule’s shape, but by its vibrations, which can enourage an electron to jump between two parts of the receptor in a quantum-mechanical process called tunnelling. This electron movement could initiate the smell signal being sent to the brain.

8. This would explain why isotopes can smell different: their vibration frequencies are changed if the atoms are heavier. Turin’s mechanism, says Marshall Stoneham of the UCL team, is more like swipe-card identification than a key fitting a lock.

9. Vibration-assisted electron tunnelling can undoubtedly occur — it is used in an experimental technique for measuring molecular vibrations. "The question is whether this is possible in the nose," says Stoneham’s colleague, Andrew Horsfield.

10. Stoneham says that when he first heard about Turin’s idea, while Turin was himself based at UCL, "I didn’t believe it". But, he adds, "because it was an interesting idea, I thought I should prove it couldn’t work. I did some simple calculations, and only then began to feel Luca could be right." Now Stoneham and his co-workers have done the job more thoroughly, in a paper soon to be published in Physical Review Letters.

11. The UCL team calculated the rates of electron hopping in a nose receptor that has an odorant molecule bound to it. This rate depends on various properties of the biomolecular system that are not known, but the researchers could estimate these parameters based on typical values for molecules of this sort.

12. The key issue is whether the hopping rate with the odorant in place is significantly greater than that without it. The calculations show that it is — which means that odour identification in this way seems theoretically possible.

13. But Horsfield stresses that that’s different from a proof of Turin’s idea. "So far things look plausible, but we need proper experimental verification. We’re beginning to think about what experiments could be performed."

14. Meanwhile, Turin is pressing ahead with his hypothesis. "At Flexitral we have been designing odorants exclusively on the basis of their computed vibrations," he says. "Our success rate at odorant discovery is two orders of magnitude better than the competition." At the very least, he is putting his money where his nose is.

(668 words Nature)

　　Questions 1-4

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Please write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the writer

FALSE if the statement does not agree with the writer

NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage

1. The result of the study at UCL agrees with Turin’s theory.

2. The study at UCL could conclusively prove what Luca Turin has hypothesized.

3. Turin left his post at UCL and started his own business because his theory was ignored.

4. The molecules of alcohols and those of thiols look alike.

Questions 5-9

Complete the sentences below with words from the passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

5. The hypothesis that we smell by sensing the molecular vibration was made by ______.

6. Turin’s company is based in ______.

7. Most scientists believed that our nose works in the same way as our ______.

8. Different isotopes can smell different when ______ weigh differently.

9. According to Audrew Horsfield, it is still to be proved that ______ could really occur in human nose.

Question 10-12

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

10. What’s the name of the researcher who collaborated with Stoneham?

11. What is the next step of the UCL team’s study?

12. What is the theoretical basis in designing odorants in Turin’s company?

　　Answer Keys and Explanations

1. T 见第一段。“give sth the thumbs up”为“接受“的意思。

2. F 见第三段。“That’s still some way from proving that the theory, proposed in the mid-1990s by biophysicist Luca Turin, is correct.”意即“现在尚无法证实生物物理学家Luca在九十年代中期提出的理论是否正确。”

3. NG

4. T 见第六段“Molecules that look almost identical can smell very different — such as alcohols, which smell like spirits, and thiols, which smell like rotten eggs.”“identical”一词是“完全相同”的意思。这句话是说alcohols和thiols的分子结构看起来一样，但是它们的味道却相去甚远。

5. Luca Turin 文章第二，三和七段均可看出Luca的理论即人类的鼻子是通过感觉气味分子的震动来分辨气味的。

6. Virginia 见第四段。

7. tongue 见第五段“This molecular ’lock and key’ process is thought to lie behind a wide range of the body’s detection systems: it is how some parts of the immune system recognise invaders, for example, and how the tongue recognizes some tastes.”

8. the atoms 见第八段“This would explain why isotopes can smell different: their vibration frequencies are changed if the atoms are heavier.”

9. vibration-assisted electron tunneling 见第九段“"The question is whether this is possible in the nose," says Stoneham’s colleague, Andrew Horsfield.”句中的代词“this”指句首的“vibration-assisted electron tunneling”。

10. Andrew Horsfield 见第九段结尾。

11.proper experimental verification 见第十三段。

12.their computed vibrations 见第十四段。

　    口语

　    Party这一话题在雅思口语中看似不难，但是想要说好它也不是一件容易的事情。所以环球雅思老师为考生们具体来介绍一下应该如何去说好这个topic.

Cue Card

Describe an interesting party you have been to,

you should say：

What kind of party it was?

When and where it was held?

What were activities during the party?

And explain how you enjoyed the party.

分析：

Party有哪些?生日聚会，节日聚会如圣诞节、感恩节等，周年聚会如父母的结婚纪念日等，班级同学聚会等等。考生必须明确说明这个聚会的性质类型。其次要说明是在哪里、什么时候举行这个聚会的，不过要注意使用过去时，一两句话带过即可。重点需要描述的是聚会上有哪些活动，以及你为什么喜欢这个Party.有哪些活动，西方的聚会有时候可能会出现跳舞，常见的就是聊天、一些娱乐活动如牌类、享受美食等等。至于原因，如果考生不知道如何进行拓展的话，可以采取讲故事的方法，从Party背后的意义去说明为什么喜欢这个聚会。

范文：

Nowadays , young people like parties . Going to a party is fashionable thing. Also , the parties are usually interesting and enjoyable , especially the one I attended last year . It was a Christmas party . It was held in a large hall in our school on Christmas Eve. My classmates and I all went to the party . We enjoyed the great music and the excellent drinks and food which we prepared ourselves .We had a lot of fun at the party . Each of us bought a gift to the party .We each put our names on a slip of paper and then we drew lots to decide who would receive our individual gifts . I was delighted with my gift as I received a beautiful cup . We all enjoyed the party immensely, and it certainly helped develop our friendship , My beautiful cup will remind me of this very happy party.

Follow-up question:

Do you like to attend parties?

Yes, I like to attend parties because it gives me a chance to renew friendship as well as establish new contacts. Last September , a delegation of American students came to visit our school , As the host school ,our students organized a party to welcome the, During the party , we enjoyed the traditional Chinese entertainment performed by some talented students from our school . The American students spoke highly of the performances. We also enjoyed the excellent food .But more importantly, the party gave s an opportunity to get know each other in an informal way and to exchange some culture as well as more about another culture.

针对于Part3的深入性问题，考生们可以有意识地去准备一下，主要可以从考虑问题的思路和角度着手。