8日托福写作真题

2014年2月28日托福写作真题
智课网整理
综合写作：
粉红色的希利尔湖（Pink Lake Hillier）
阅读：
希利尔湖（Lake Hillier）最大的特点是肉眼看上去呈现粉红色（pink to human eyes）。

过去对此有三种解释：
1) 水底土壤和视觉角度Soil beneath the water and the angle of vision
人们认为是由于希利尔湖（Lake Hillier）湖底的土壤呈现粉红色所以湖面看上去是粉红色。

2) 苏打石Nahcolite
希利尔湖（Lake Hillier）呈现粉红色是因为湖水中含有呈现粉红色的金属（metal）苏打石（nahcolite）。

3) 藻类植物Algae
最后一种解释是水中的藻类Algae分泌两种物质，这两种物质分别呈现红色和黄色（red and yellow），混合在一起呈现粉红色。

讲座：教授反驳以上三种原因：
1) 如果你用透明玻璃杯从希利尔湖（Lake Hillier）中取一杯水（a glass of water）观察，你就会发现没有土壤的水也呈现粉红色，无论你从哪个角度看，仍然是粉红色，因此解释一不准确。

2) 苏打石（Nahcolite）本身是白色并不是粉红色，需要与其他化学物质发生反应才能呈现粉红色，而在希利尔湖（Lake Hillier）里没有发现任何可与苏打石（Nahcolite）发生反应呈现粉红色的那些物质。

因此解释二不准确。

3) 如果希利尔湖（Lake Hillier）的粉红色来自于湖中藻类植物（Algae），那么湖水颜色的深度（intensity of pink）会随着藻类植物繁殖季节的更替而变化。

但是希利尔湖（Lake Hillier）的粉红色深度四季不变，因此不是藻类植物的原因。

独立写作：
Nowadays people are more than willing to help the people who they don’t know (For example, giving food and clothes to the people who need them) than they were in the past.
As society develops and civilization moves forward, one would expect to see more and more acts of kindness between strangers. We would all like to think that people are growing more compassionate as humanity advances. However, this is not the reality we live in. Compared to the past, I think today’s people are less willing to hel p people they don’t know.
Firstly, more and more people live in big cities nowadays. Big cities train us to stop seeing others as human beings. We encounter hundreds of people just taking the subway in the morning to work or school. Most of them just fade into the background. Others may stand out as obstacles: the person who doesn’t let you pass on the escalator, or the beggar who asks you for money every time you’re walking home tired from work. Most of the time we are desensitized to those around us. As a result, fewer and fewer people are willing to help strangers. Secondly, people have to work harder for less money nowadays, so they’re much less willing to part with their hard-earned cash. For one thing, there’s the recent economic recession—a lot of people were recently laid off their jobs. Those that could find jobs often had to settle for menial work outside of their preferred fields. So when people struggling to make ends meet are asked to help others, they may react negatively. In fact, I often see people lashing out at beggars on the streets. “I earned my money. Go work for yours!” This type of harsh mentality probably stems from the financial difficulties people have been facing lately. Granted, sometimes people today do demonstrate kindness towards others. However, this is only really prevalent in smaller communities where people are more familiar with each other. For instance, the other day, I forgot to bring my wallet while grocery shopping, and the owner of the store told me I could just pay her back later. I am a regular customer at the store; if I were a stranger, I wouldn’t have gotten the same treatment, since no store owner would trust a complete stranger to pay them back later.
People today are desensitized to others. Due to recent econ omic troubles, they’re also more likely to be only looking after their own interests. Small acts of kindness may still be found here and there, but only if people are at least somewhat acquainted. (403)。