二、段落的过渡
硕士研究生入学考试要求考生的作文必须表达清楚, 语义连贯, 要做到这一点, 考生必须学会过渡词的使用。过渡词(Transitional Words)是一种关系指引词, 它是连接句与句, 段与段之间的纽带, 过渡词一般为副词或起副词作用的短语, 另外, 代词、 连词、上下文的同义词也可以起到过渡的作用。 在传统的汉语写作中, 人们讲究文章的起、承、 转、 合, 我们认为英语写作也应该如此, 而过渡词的作用正在于使文章更好地做到这一点。例如:
Smoking results in a series of negative effects. To begin with, it has been proved that poisonous nicotine contained in cigarettes can reduce your fitness. And what is worse, it can even cause lung cancer if you smoke constantly. That is why such warning as "smoking is harmful to our health" must be printed on the cover of the cigarette case in western countries. Furthermore, passive smoking occurs in your family members and other people as a result of your smoking at home or in public places. Consequently, their health will be unfavourably influenced. In addition, smoking adds to your financial difficulty if you happen to be short of money. Even if you are rich, you are encouraged to spend your money on valuable books, nutritious food, high-quality TV sets, etc., not on meaningless smoking. Therefore, giving up smoking is a good way to make you and your family happy.
根据在文章中的作用, 过渡词大致可以分为以下四类:
(1) 表达"启"的常用词语: 用于引导主题句, 或用于主题句的后面, 引导第一个发展句。
first(ly), at first, first of all, in the beginning, in the first place, at present, to begin with, currently, to start with, lately, for one thing, now, recently, on the one hand, in general, generally speaking, at present, in recent years, comparatively ( speaking) , nowadays, in general, in a sense, in a way, in my opinion, obviously, undoubtedly, 等。
(2) 表达"承"的过渡词语: 用于承接主题句或第一个(或前一个)发展句。
second(ly), third(ly), also/too, besides, in addition, furthermore, moreover, what is more, for another, for example, for instance, as an example, as another example, namely, then, in other words, in particular, in the same way, after that, afterwards, after a few days, after a while, from now on, later, just as, similarly, meanwhile, at the same time, by this time, soon, consequently, of course, for this purpose, equally important, what is more, what is worse, certainly, surely, obviously, especially, in particular, indeed, still, in fact, in plain terms, in practice, for the most part, no doubt等。
(3) 表达"转"的过渡词语: 用来表示不同或相反的情况。
after all, but, yet, however, nevertheless, nonetheless, conversely, though, although, despite, in spite of, on the contrary, in contrast, unlike, whereas, on the other hand, all the same(但是), unfortunately, still, in fact, as a matter of fact, in any case, at any rate(无论如何) , otherwise, or else, instead等。
(4) 表达"合"的过渡词语: 用于总结段落中上文的内容, 引导一个发展句或结论句, 也可以用于文章的最后一段。
finally, hence, in brief, in conclusion, in short, in summary, therefore, thus, to sum up, to conclude, to summarize, briefly, above all, as a consequence, as a result, for this reason, as has been noted , as I have said, at last, at length, by and large, consequently, eventually, accordingly, so, after all, in general, in a word, on the whole等。
(5) "启, 承, 转, 合"表达实例 (注: 本部分主要参考了李俊峰编著《大学英语写作讲座和练习》(中国和平出版社 1994一书)
- (启) In general/Generally speaking/On the whole, studying too hard my be harmful to students. (启)Lately/Currently/At present /Now/Recently, many teachers expect their pupils to do more work than they can handle. (承) Moreover/Also/Furthermore/Meanwhile/What is more, parents do not realize that pressing their children to study harder than called for can injure their health. ( 承 ) Certainly/In fact/Obviously/Of course, most parents know that growing boys and girls need relaxations as well as exercise. (转) Nevertheless/However/On the other hand/Unfortunately, many students have no choice but to burn the candle at both ends in order to get good grades and please their parents. But a physically weak or socially deprived child may not be able to keep up with such a hurried pace. (合) As a result/Consequently /Thus/Therefore/Hence/In brief/In conclusion, some students may very
possibly fail in school because of this pressure to study in excess of what is required. - Chinese differs from English in several ways. (启 ) In the first place/To begin with/First of all/To start with/First(ly), their word orders are different. (承) For instance/for example/As an example, in English, a common greeting is "How are you?". (转) Yet/But/However/Nevertheless, in Chinese, "You are how?" is correct. (承) Second(ly) /Also/Besides/Next/What is more/Furthermore/Moreover, in Chinese, our verbs do not have the past tense; Instead, we know the time from the adverb. In English, (转)however/on the other hand/nevertheless/yet, time is indicated by the tense. (承) In addition to/Besides/Apart from these problems, Chinese have many small differences. (承) For instance/ For example/As an example, Chinese does not distinguish between "he" and "she", nor is there a difference between "a" and "an" as there is in English. (合) Undoubtedly/Certainly/Indeed/Obviously/Thus/In short/In brief, it is these differences that make English difficult for the Chinese students to learn.
