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A-level General Paper
考试技能要求
Higher 1科目General Paper(下文简称GP)是JC(初院)的必学科目(除非你选择用Higher 2 的科目Knowledge & Inquiry 替代),可以看作是O水准英语作文与阅读卷的进阶版。
GP包含两张卷子:
Paper1是作文,分值50,时长1小时30分钟,从12 道作文题目中选择一道题作答。
Paper2是阅读,分值50,时长1小时30分钟,包含Short answer questions(简答题), Application Question(应用题)【分值:10m】,和Summary (总结)【分值:8m】。
分值分布:
Paper 1 Content 30 分,Language 20 分。(RI批改的标准)
Paper 2 Content 35分,Language 15分。
关于两张卷子的基本要求:
Paper1需要clarity of expression, maturity of thought (i.e. depth of analysis), relevance (i.e. address the topic and engage the question directly), scope, logic。除了语言的要求更重要的是对所提问话题的了解,不仅对知识面有要求,对论证的清晰和思辨深度广度也有要求。简洁明了的表述、严密有序的逻辑、对争议性话题的辩证、成熟思考——这些都是考官想要看到的。这需要我们进行热议话题的积累:不仅仅积累有效贴切的实例和道理论据,而更要深挖不同角度,质疑假定条件,让自己的论点更全面、更细致、更有力。
Paper 2考验我们的理解、分析文本材料的能力,而与O考不一样的是,我们需要对答案进行尽可能多的rephrase, 而不是directly quote from the passage。这对我们的词汇以及总体的语言应用能力有更高的要求。Application Question更强调contextual evaluation, 考验我们对某一特定社会环境的特点以及这些特点如何带来效应的洞察分析力。Summary要求我们对文本的结构和主要论点有一定的熟悉度并且化繁为简。而由于文本话题每年不同而且很难预测(并且我们没法避开不熟悉的话题),Paper2的不定性更大,对各个领域的常识和运用力的要求也更高。因此,有效并持续的积累也至关重要。
平时注意积累和归类
关于时事的积累应是平时的功夫,边读新闻就可以边归类、摘抄、思考。没有trivial的新闻和知识,只要能记住、并且会运用,就能在考试中帮到你。
比如说,2018 Harry Marries Meghan,皇室婚礼看起来像是八卦周边,但其实可以延伸到celebrities’ positive impacts这个话题,因为梅根王妃是一个activist(人道主义,女权)。时间也有symbolic meaning (根据时代杂志的社论),“the wedding of a senior member of the royal family to a divorcee whose mother is African-American and father is white embodied a modern Britain where race or background are no bar to even the most elite and traditional of institutions.”(即象征了一个种族不再被歧视的时代,从皇室做起)
总结例子并分类的同时我们可以开脑洞——话题延伸。
例如:2018 Elon Musk’s SpaceX pulled off a seemingly impossible feat--SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch展示的不仅是technological advancement,还可以展示Musk作为一个entrepreneur的enterprising spirits,和drive for innovation(which are crucial leadership qualities; also important for the progress of society),甚至可以用来论证人类对太空自古以来的向往和追求。
再举一个例子, 2018年的Thai Cave Rescue---the daring rescue mission to extricate 12 boys and their soccer coach from the treacherous confines of a flooded cave in Thailand,体现了social media的widespread positive influence (in communication, and social support),也体现了合作的精神(positive aspect of globalisation)。而2017/18的飓风(Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Maria)、大火(Califorlia wildfire)都可以证明气候的异常(从而说明环境保护的重要性,鉴于全球变暖会使气候恶化)
关于新闻/素材积累的推荐
世界新闻推荐:the Atlantic, the Economist
想要积累中国相关的例子(对于作文和阅读部分的application question都很有用)可以考虑阅读sixth tone(网址:http://www.sixthtone.com/),是有关中国社会各个方面的社论、新闻报道,内容很有意思,观点也比较客观。
关于亚洲(东南亚specifically)的新闻网站有:https://www.asiaone.com/;straits times;CNN Asia https://edition.cnn.com/asia;
(新加坡独立社论,新闻真实程度以及政治正确需考究)https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/;http://www.tremeritus.net/
亚洲历史、社会情况(侧重东南亚)的资源网,对学习H2 History、或者是做历史性的学术研究也很有帮助:https://asiasociety.org/
亚太地区in general:
The Diplomat《外交家》 https://thediplomat.com/
政治、外交方面:
Foreign Policy <外交政策>【杂志】https://foreignpolicy.com/
其他更注重议论/论证的网站:
Aeon.co【高质量!!文发经政史哲、数理化生、心理学、人类学、古典,应有尽有——(捂脸)本人沉迷了两年多】,
the Syndicate,
Longform.org ,
The Global Mail,
Nautilus (http://nautil.us/) 【科技、科研】.
还有:
https://www.intelligencesquared.com/
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-intelligent-content-2016-35-sites/
关于阅读社论和论文我想说...
“New ideas are often judged for how far they lie outside of the systems that scaffold our understanding of the world.”
我们常会遇到一些新奇的观点,与我们意见不一的看法。在阅读时我们的世界观有可能会被颠覆……Be open-minded!无论你觉得ideas如何不符合你的看法,勇敢地读下去,尝试理解,从新的角度看问题——展示给examiners你独立思考、批判性思考的能力——这也是学习GP带给我的最大收获,也是GP这门科目的意义所在。
积累自己的论点论据
除了读社论并且总结有用的例子和论点,还可以看关于直接就问题进行正反面分析/积极消极影响剖析的书籍/资源。
安利一本书(对debate的小伙伴应该也蛮有用):Pros and Cons: A Debaters Handbook.
网络资源,比如这些网站,涵盖了许多controversial/popular话题的对立论点,还有例子:
https://targetstudy.com/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-movies.html
https://www.procon.org/
https://idebate.org/debatabase
整合积累的重要性
整合之后可以draw on multiple examples to form a trend.常见的有terrorist attacks (Paris, Brussels,Nice,Berlin, Manchester, Bangladesh,),climate change/natural disaster(大火,飓风,台风,洪水,干旱, heatwave),shooting (Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, Chicago) , fake news (有很多),populism民粹主义、nationalism民族主义(Trump, Alternative for Germany (AfD),Freedom Party (FPÖ) in Austria, Marine Le Pen and her far-right National Front in France, Hungary: Viktor Orban, Poland: Law and Justice party), 大型疾病(Ebola, Zika,Dengue,HIV,Covid 19)
也可以考虑在网上直接搜topic-based的整合:
http://time.com/4607481/europe-terrorism-timeline-berlin-paris-nice-brussels/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36130006
平时的积累思考,可以培养出“见到新闻就知道用在什么essay topic里,见到essay 题目就知道该选什么例子”的能力。一个小贴士:新闻的分类、关键词搜索是很好的材料归类提示。例子:新闻:USA NFL players protest during national anthem关键词——体育,政治信息,social change, racial relations.
考前策略:整合例子
高效整合例子对用时事材料进行例证极为关键,可以直接查询网络上的新闻资源(chronological【时间顺序】以及topical【话题类】)的集合(近5年)。当然了,这些整理都不是详尽的事件解释,如果觉得某个例子很有趣/很关键的话,可以自己再细查(youtube视频;或者是读相关报道)。
比如说这些网站上就有类似的整理。
https://examsdaily.in/current-affairs-2018-monthly-pdf-download
https://testbook.com/blog/important-current-affairs-december-2018-capsule-pdf/
不过这两个网站都是印度的考试网站,所以政治类的新闻有很多是印度本土的。不过这也不妨碍拿去做例子。我一般是采用一些国际性的例子。
一些并非topic-based的时事盘点也很有用(一般是按年份):一般大的新闻组织都有类似的盘点(或者youtube视频也有)。
https://www.cfr.org/blog/ten-most-significant-world-events-2018
【cfr的总结侧重点是政治大事件】
https://www.thequint.com/news/world/major-events-of-2018-big-stories-world-this-year-look-back
【quint.com的总结很succinct】
https://www.thisisinsider.com/biggest-news-events-of-2018-photos-2018-12
【推荐insider.com的总结,里面有图片+相关articles的链接】
我记例子的比较喜欢先看synopsis,就是这些时事整理中的梗概,梗概的一些要点(时间地点人物基本经过)一般就是GP文章举例时需要涵盖的、展示你对时事熟悉程度的关键点。但光有基本了解是不够的——老师需要知道这个例子如何对你所讨论的话题和你所提出的论点提供正面支持或者反面论述,因此我们需要对事件的某些层面/某个细节有深刻的探究,以所写作文的关键词、所提出论点的关键点作为剖析事例时强调的侧重点。所以我看完synopsis后会去看actual articles,不仅是当时的事件报道(factual-based)去抓更多details,还有社论(opnion-based)去了解事件所引发的社会反响与讨论。通常,简述事件的impacts(比如说死了多少人,社会动乱之类的)可以拿来有效论证观点(cause-effect)。
接着我会把这个事件归类到不同的考试话题中(topics),比如,
2017/8的事件#MeToo 既可以是social media的影响(positive influence-- calling for social change, as it exposes deep-seated issues in the society: the entrenched power imbalance between males and females which makes females vulnerable to sexual harassment).而去细细了解整个movement(我记得当时看了大概20篇社论,还有其他相关报道,话题延伸涉及到校园内的sexual assault,美国大学处理这些事情的policy【一些不合理的地方】,甚至是女教授abuse男学生而引发的讨论),我们还可以再举MeToo为例子的时候提出其不那么正面的影响,从而提供balanced argument,nuance 我们的viewpoint:比如说,MeToo 的发起者和主要传播者是年轻一辈的女性,而她们的story-sharing (which they perceive to be empowering)过于强调她们的悲惨(victimhood),而网络文化的传播鼓励或者说是煽动了这种风气,以至于事件变得有oppression olympics(比谁更惨)的负面倾向。而不少的年长女性很不赞成:“One potential generational divide reared its head early on, with some older feminists decrying what they saw as a focus on victimhood.(BBC)”这从侧面反映了social media的impact:echo chamber -- widens social division.这些大家不寻常能想到的层面在细查articles之后就能看到:比如说,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-inevitable-unintended-consequences-of-metoo/2018/12/04/9c7e0418-f80e-11e8-8d64-4e79db33382f_story.html
除了social media,Metoo也可以是larger social issue的例子:gender, feminism。
再举一个归类的例子,2017 的The Rohingya Crisis.
可以作为讨论humanitarian crisis (other related topics such as a nation’s international responsibility)的材料,也可以作为racial tension (to the extreme)或者是 incapable/bad government (unable to secure its people’s safety/ even actively persecute minority group, causing social instability and political crisis)的例子。甚至可以用来讨论political leaders incapable of navigating the muddy waters of racial politics (昂山素季作为领袖的失败)。To add nuances to the argument, perhaps: 可以讨论leaders are often constrained by the complex webs of interests and entrenched power structures, so even if they want to implement certain policies, they are unable to as doing so would upend the current power structures and cause even more chaos.这样就可以显示出你的understanding of the larger picture: history is not shaped by players only; it is often charted by other influences (i.e. domestic contexts; global contexts).
例子的记背&运用
我还有一些小建议:
1. 时间广度:优先选择最新的时事进行例证。不过有时候才用不同时间点的例子去展示一个trend,或者是pattern,能显示出你的博学。politics和social issues可以采用China Study、History(尤其是Southeast Asian History非常有用)的例子来证明。没有学这两科的小伙伴可以找学的同学要notes看一看哦,或者是找他们讨论一下
在这里安利一个超级棒的网站:https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/2017-events
包含了时事盘点(而且是topic-based的!不仅有politics和social还涉及了:Health, Science and Environment),还有历史事件的解释(对学历史的同学也很有用)。
2. 地域广度:最好涵盖不同国家、不同地区的例子。亚洲、欧洲、非洲、美洲最好才全文中都出现过(demanding, but entirely possible),尤其当文章涉及全球都受影响的话题(如果不是 “in your society”的问题)。就算某个问题(比如说gun control)在某国家不是特别严重,可以采用“反面例证”--例子之间的对比可以更好地证明观点(guns allowed-- not safe; guns controlled-- safe)【顺便给一个例子:Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida/2018】。
再给一个例子(climate change: causing/exacerbating wildfires):show global trend-- In the western United States, Canada and Alaska, wildfires scorched millions of acres in a devastating wildfire season (only 2015 had worse wildfires). Fires also raged across Chile, South Africa, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand.
3. 串联例子:similiar events to show a trend.(有点类似时间广度)。比如说讨论leaders’ capability 的题目可以用Trump做irresponsible leader(in light of his refusal to see the larger picture of global cooperation in service of solving common problems and dealing with threats),他的“American First”政策在G7 峰会,NATO峰会都有证明。所以这两个例子可以一起使用(用likewise, similarly, yet again做连词)。
4. add value:不只为举例子而举例子-- 用例子进行有效论证,并且挖掘新的层面、提出新观点。一种方式是draw on global trends 去说明why your argument/observation is ever more relevant/ pertinent to the world today, 另一种是analyse from different perspectives(provide insights, but not at the expense of coherent argument--也就是添加不同的观点,但不推翻主要的argument)
5. 对例子进行修整:当作练笔方式对例子材料进行改写/refine,保证直接可用。
6. 看“大盘点”的limitations &怎么办?——盘点中很少涉及的有科技、环境、文化、艺术类议题,可以去major news sites直接读相关articles。
另一种积累学习的途径
看范文——可以说是我考前的“佛脚”。
如何读范文?摘抄好词好句,记论点例子,研究写作手法。
从别人的佳作中maximise your own learning,根据别人的论点增加自己的examples和evaluation,加深对话题不同层面不同角度的理解。
考前策略:研究文题
最有效的针对性复习无疑是直接拿past-year papers或者是topic-based题目清单进行清扫式复习。RI有topic-based的学习packages,我一般会拿着上面的question list一道道题思考(或者是写essay plan)然后有针对性的找例子,然后修整。如果学校没有发package,可以考虑找别的学校的小伙伴要package来参考,或者是找老师要A考past-year papers(10年的)然后自己分类。
一个小小的分类参考:Media & Social Issues,Science & Tech,politics and governance, environment(也算是social?) 以及arts & entertainment .
关于押题
大概每个人都会这么做吧,毕竟内容太多了想要万全准备好是不太可能的。谨慎!可以参考近15-20年的考题范围进行重点话题估测,但最好还是不要忽略任何话题。可以侧重复习popular的话题。
研究文题的必要性
A考趋势:越来越niche,越来越specific的题目——broad,vague的题目越来越少。这要求我们在文中提供具体的例子,以应对不常见的题目。这种限定许多的题目诸如:
1. Consider the view that spoken language is more important than the written form. (2013)
2. ‘Nowadays, the pleasures of reading can never compete with the pleasures of visual entertainment.’ To what extent do you agree?
3. Assess the impact of foreign films or foreign TV programmes on the culture of your society.
4. ‘Films which have the greatest appeal are usually those which have the least value.’ By reference to specific examples, consider how far this is a fair assessment.
5. Is there any value in horror films and books?
6. ‘It is better to be an entertainment celebrity than a politician today.’ What is your view?
这种带有comparison/intersection between topics,或者是specific context(“your society”)的题目,要求我们在选择例子时精细具体,有针对性地进行论证。
一些有趣的opposition可以变成intersection:arts and sciences/tech----- e.g. digital arts (visual), cinematic technology (filmmaking: CGI, 3D).
越来越多此类niche题目的趋势也给我们准备、积累例子时给了一个实用的hint:可以尽可能地准备精细小话题的专门例子(niche examples for niche areas) 但也同时清楚这些小话题是归在什么大话题以下的(a subset/subtopic of…?)这样一来,我们积累的例子不仅可以应对“奇怪”的题目,对待宽泛、general的大话题也绰绰有余。
有些题目要求你对新加坡社会有基本了解:(回顾O考的社会学、地理课本)
How far do magazines or television programmes aimed at young people in Singapore have a positive effect?
‘With the emergenceof new media, there is a greater need for censorship.’ How true is this of your society?
构思写作与论证深度
不要“hijack”作文题目!一定要紧扣着题目进行论点的构建,不要偏题。
比如说这个题目:To what extent is sports an effective platform to build national identity?
可以acknowledge the many ways in which national identity can also be enhanced without sports such as local literature, food culture, heritage and monuments national / citizenship education to “show balance”(承认sports的局限性).
但不要把sports只当成一个point写(其他两/三个paragraphs写other ways of fostering national identity),因为这样就忽略了sports作为讨论中心的意义。
文章的主要内容应该是写how sports can create a sense of national belonging/pride/identity in people through different ways and in different dimensions (i.e. SHOW sports as a means to showcase desirable qualities (teamwork, resilience, determination, sportsmanship etc.) and the unique social, psychological and emotional dimensions demonstrated by sporting endeavours and events to cultivate loyalty to the nation-state.)
而讨论局限性也必须是紧密联系sports作为媒介/方法的局限性,而不是直接去讨论other ways.比如说sports as a medium to bond fellow citizens is ultimately short-lived and unsustainable, as the sense of camaraderie may only last within the sporting seasons. 或者Sports is a shallow/superficial way to forge common grounds, as the emphasis of collective, external goals is undercut by the lack of true understanding about respect and appreciation of differences among people.
如此一来,就可以给argument添加更多的nuance来体现我们思想的深度(well, critical thinking):nevertheless, in the globalised world nowadays where fragmented and divisive opinions abound, and ethno-religious differences are embroiled in heated debates advocating for a dangerous “us versus them” mentality, any possible way to build platforms of interaction for people to overcome racial and cultural barriers and form connections based on commonality is in dire need —especially in Singapore, where different races with different cultural practices and religious beliefs live side by side, and the fragile social fabric welcomes any effort to strengthen it. Thus, despite the arguably temporary effect of sports as an opportunity to bond, it is still effective and useful in the context of our society.
最后祝学弟学妹们学业进步,考试加油!