托福写作的用词常见错误

 　　托福写作词汇常见错误主要是分为以六个类别做的整理：容易混淆的词汇、固定搭配问题、表达受中文影响的问题、动词形式不正确以及名词的单复数、冠词的使用及用词与文章风格不符等。

　　容易混淆的词汇

　　考生由于对形似、意近的词辨别不清，不知道他们各自的具体用法，而在托福写作中出现失误。比如，有的词虽然意思相同，但他们表达同一个意思的程度是不同的;有的英语单词的汉语意思相同，但他们所限定修饰的词、使用的范围或者连接的成分是不同的;有的单词的文体风格不同，有正式和非正式之分。

　　要注意自己写文章的总体风格，在正式文体中避免使用非正式的语言。鉴于选词的难度，考生应在平时注意多查词典，注意其中所举得例句，在看英语材料时留心写作词汇的具体使用环境，并摘录一些自己能看明白但说不出的表达。

　　1、Original: Bill Gates gives a definite answer that college education does count.

　　Revised: Bill Gates gave a definitive¹ answer: college education does count.

　　Definite意思是“明确的”、“一定的”，指意思明确，不会误解;definitive也是“明确”的意思，但往往指“权威性、最后决定的”。此话出自比尔·盖茨之口，体现权威性，故将definite改为definitive。

　　2、Original: …people may attend a university or college for various reasons...

　　Revised: …people attend university or college for a multitude of reasons...

　　此处将various改为短语a multitude of更为正式，体现人们读大学的原因很多。

　　3、Original: The kinds of education that we got on school are formal and intense ones...

　　Revised: The kinds of education that we receive at school is formal and of tentimes very intense.

　　不必用kinds of education，直接用education(教育)即可;“受教育”不同get，改为receive;“在学校”不必用at school;把one去掉，用oftentimes very intense指出学校教育常常是非常严格的。

　　4、Original: They can foster their interests in some fields to make life more colorful and meaningful.

　　Revised: They can even pick up hobbies to make life more colorful and enjoyable.

　　Foster their interests是“培养兴趣”，此处用pick up hobbies(开始各种各样的兴趣)更为合适;不同的兴趣是我们生活的调味剂，使我们的生活多姿多彩，乐趣无穷，把meaningful换成enjoyable，与colorful搭配更合适。

　　5、Original: Needless to say, more employment means more income and less idle life, so that people can enjoy a better life and make investment in their future.

　　Revised: Needless to say, more employment means income and less idle time, so that people can enjoy a better life and invest in their own futures².

　　把idle life改为idle time更为合适，表示“闲散时间”;make investment可改为动词invest，与and前的动词enjoy词性一致;人们各自有自己的未来，故将in their future改为in their own futures。

　　6、Original: Another important factor that contributes to the extension of life expectancy³ is the development of medical science.

　　Revised: Another imortant factor that contributes to the rise in life expectancy is the development of medical science.

　　“人的寿命的延长”可以表示为life extension，但是如果用life expectancy，则要用the increast of 或the rise in life expectancy。

　　7、Original: the growth of life span.

　　Revised: the rise in/increase of life span.

　　Life span意思是“寿命”，growth指“生长，增长”，“寿命的延长”用growth不合适，life span“寿命的延长”可以用rise in/increase of/extension of.

　　8、Original: energy saving

　　Revised: energy efficiency

　　Energy saving一般作定语，此处名词短语“节能”最好用energy efficiency。

　　9、Original: with the increasing complicatedness of the job profile

　　Revised: with the increasing complexity⁴ of the modern jor profile

　　Complicatedness意思是“错综复杂”，但是这种错综复杂是有逻辑的;complexity也是“复杂”的意思，但这种复杂是杂乱无辜的，现代的工作情况用complexity较为合适。

　　10、Original: Such experience will difinitely be helpful in children's later life.

　　Revised: Such experience will benefit them later in life.

　　Helpful是“提供帮助”的意思，而benefit是“使…受益”。这里作者想说的是孩子将来的人生会受益于这样的经历，用benefit合适，因为这样的经历不一定能对孩子将来的人生提供什么具体的帮助。

　　11、Original: In my submission⁵, people should sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing.

　　Revised: Because of these circumstances, I believe it is inevitable⁶ that people must do what they don't enjoy doing.

　　In one's submission虽然也可以表示某人所持的观点，但是这是一种非常formal(正式)的表述，用在这里和整体文章的风格不太相符。

　　12、Original: For no one can promise what will happen in the future, if you don't save some money, an emergency will probably make you a cat on a hot brick.

　　Revised: Because no one can predict the future, if you don't save money an unforeseen emergency can be financially crippling.

　　Promise的意思是“承诺、允诺”，用在这里不合适，作者要说的是没有人能与之未来发生的事，应该用predit。还有，作者在这里用了一个惯用语a cat on a hot brick，这又有一个错误。第一，这个表述本身有错误，正确的应该是like a cat on hot bricks。第二，这个惯用语的意思是“忐忑不安，如热锅上的蚂蚁“，用在这里意思也不太合适。

1 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。

2 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

3 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

4 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

5 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

6 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。