Hi Brad,

It’s good to hear from you again. I find that I’m not good at writing compositions. It’s hard for me to prepare the form of a composition and organize sentences. ①Could you tell me how to deal with this problem? I would really appreciate if you offer me some good methods.

Best wishes,

                                                                      Cindy

Hi Cindy,

A composition is really a story and any story is told to an audience. There is a form for this and it is in three parts. First, tell them(the audience) what you are going to tell them. Then tell them, and finally tell them what you told them. Parts one and three are short and most of the information is in part two. It works like this.

Let’s say you are asked to write a 200-word composition about your visit to the Great Wall. You would begin with an opening sentence or two saying something like “The Great Wall of China is a national ②landmark that is famous around the world. I visited it last summer and I want to tell you about it.” That uses about 25 words to tell them what you are going to tell them.

The second part would be about 150 words and would contain information about the Great Wall such as how long it is, when it was built, who built it and why, the fact that it is one of the seven wonders of the world and you would talk about how you felt and what you thought when you visited this national treasure. This is telling them.

Finally, you would use about another 25 words to say something like “That was my first visit to the Great Wall and it was a very emotional experience to actually touch something so old and famous. ③每个中国人至少参观长城一次.I plan to go back whenever I can.” Here, you are telling them what you told them in the story and wrapping it all up into a neat package. This formula(惯例)works for both compositions and speeches and I think you will find it helps to organize your thoughts. I hope it’s helpful.

Best wishes,

                                                                 Brad Franklin

1.将文中①处的画线部分翻译成汉语：                                             .

2.(A) 试写出文中②处画线部分landmark的汉语意思：            .

(B)下面有四个在文中出现的单词，请找出画线部分发音哪个与众不同?                .

A. work            B. word            C. information            D. world

3.将文中③处的汉语翻译成英语：                                                 .

4.从文中找出适当的词组填空：How I wish to get a letter from you soon!

How I wish to _________  _________ you soon!

5.用英语回答问题：What’s the main idea of the passage?                                .

Dear Addie,
Greetings from New Jersey, how is New Zealand? I’m very excited to have you as my pen pal. I guess it’s my turn to tell you about myself.
First off, I live with my parents, two sisters, and our pet dog Brighty. Our town is called Whippangong. It is only about a half-hour away from New York City. My oldest sister, Ingrid, just turned 17, that means she now has a drive’s license. She drives us to the mall. Do you have a mall near you in Te Awamutu? My other sister is 11 and her name is Lucy. I guess I would say that she is my best friend. We still fight, though. She rides horses and takes lessons every Saturday morning. I have to go with her sometimes, and that is truly the most boring thing in the world. Do you like horses?
I take tap dancing classes. I like to practice in the food store. The sound of my feet stepping on the hard floors echoes(发出回声). I play scores in the fall; I’m on the swim team during the summer. I like swim, but I am really looking forward to diving this year. Next year I will start music lessons in school. I think I am going to play the piano.
Our house has eight rooms and a small backyard where every year we try to grow vegetables. We mostly get zucchini because the rabbits eat everything else. I guess rabbits don’t like zucchini. I have a bike and mum allows me to ride up and down our street, but nowhere else. I hope that I will get to ride it to school someday. Right now I ride the crowed and yucky bus.
Well, that is enough about me for now. I look forward to hearing from you again soon. I hope your surfing lessons went well. And I hope your mum does let you learn to play the drums.
Write soon
Love,
Jessica
【小题1】 In this letter, Jessica doesn’t talk about     .