如何提高托福写作能力
关于托福考试，专家发现很多在中国人眼中写作水平良好、用词也相对比较准确的同学，在国际性托福考试写作部分中成绩却并不如人意。究其原因，一是表达不符合英语思维;二是对西方文化知之甚少，导致无话可说。
那么，在托福写作中取得高分的奥妙是什么呢?大家可以想想看，如果我们作为考官，看见两份由国外的考生所完成的中文写作，一份语言平平，通篇没有亮点之处。而另一篇则是妙语连珠，恰当地使用了几句成语，我们会认为哪一位考生的中文能力更有说服力呢?答案是不言而喻的。
被中国人称为“西方成语”的“英语习语”向来被看作是西方文化的代表之一。它以其精练、短小、幽默、风趣且富于哲理性的特征而广泛地被英、美国家的人们所接受并被广泛应用于人们的日常生活交际、报刊、杂志以及电视广播媒体之中。作为传承、记载文化与语言的基本工具之一，它在英、美国家人们的日常生活中起着举足轻重的作用。在英语行文中适当地使用习语不但可以避免千篇一律的表达，而且可以成为考官加分的重要因素。
那么，作为中国学生，怎样通过学习习语来提高自己的英语写作呢?
要多看原版英语报刊文章。比如在英国著名媒体Guardian中曾经发表过一篇文章US envoy to Iraq: 'We have opened the Pandora's box' 中的第一句话〝The US ambassador to Baghdad conceded yesterday that the Iraq invasion had opened a Pandora's box' of sectarian conflicts which could lead to a regional war.〞很多同学可能看过后不知道这句话究竟是什么意思。是美国大使承认侵略伊拉克的行为打开了一个什么样的盒子吗?显然是不对的。其实，Pandora's box'这个短语是一个英语传统习语，Pandora 原是希腊神话传说中从天宫下凡的人类第一个女性，Pandora’s box 之意表面上看来是贵重之物，而骨子里却是祸害，其含义为“万恶之源”、“造成极大混乱”。所以这句话的意思可以理解为：驻扎巴格达的.美国大使昨日承认由美国发动的伊拉克战争造成了当地的宗教斗争。如果每天可以阅读一两篇原版的英语报刊文章，遇到类似于这样不会的习语查查字典，再整理到自己的笔记本里，这样的效果是非常好的。如果写作文的时候能加上这样一句，可以给文章增色不少。
拓展阅读：托福鉴赏范文：alone or a group
Some students prefer to study alone. Others prefer to study with a group of students. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
Study habits are a very individual thing. Some people like to study alone, while others like to study with a group. Personally, I would rather study alone, but I can see advantages to both ways.
It can be very helpful to study with other students. For one thing, you can exchange information about the topic. Not everyone is going to hear everything the teacher says in class. Comparing notes is a good way to be sure you get what you missed. You can also discuss various aspects of the topic. Other students can bring a different perspective to the discussion. They can point out things you may not have thought of, and help you make your arguments clearer.
Studying with other students can also help keep you focused on studying. If you’re in a study group, you have to be at a particular place to study at a particular time. This is good discipline. The group reviews all the material available and then begins studying. There’s not a lot of wasted time, if things work the way they should.
Of course, it doesn’t help if you’re in a study group that doesn’t take studying seriously. Then you’d be much better of studying by yourself. If you’re trying to study with friends and all they want to do is talk about other things, you’d get more done going somewhere to study by yourself. Being with people who don’t want to study can mean you’ll be constantly distracted. There’ll be a lot of interruptions, and you won’t gain much hearing their points of view on a study subject.
Finally, whether you study alone or in a group depend a lot on your own study habits and on your personality. If you need absolute quiet to study, then you’re better off alone. If you’re a very social person, then you’re better off studying alone, too: you’ll be too tempted to socialize instead of studying. This is the reason I prefer studying alone. When I’m with other people, I want to play, I don’t want to work.