写作遭遇政府类话题？别慌，看这里！

托福写作还很多题目中都涉及到政府，这不是为难人么？

今天，我们再从ACT考试的角度来了解“写作时碰上了政府类话题，该如何作答”。

相信奋斗在各类语言考试前线的小伙伴们，往往在拿到一道政府类话题时，都会觉得想哭。毕竟，宝宝们平时不谈论如此沉重、深刻、复杂的话题啊。我懂，因为往往经我手修改后的政府类 essays，基本都成了这个样子……

▲某宝宝的 ACT 写作：Solving the Society’s Problems

宝宝别哭，耐心看完这篇福利贴，以后再拿到政府政治类话题，估计你得忍不住偷笑了。这次，我们先以ACT写作话题为例，给大家派福利。

政府的定义

要写好政府类话题，首先当然要知道“政府”是谁。但在课堂上，当我问大家这个名词的定义时，99%的宝宝们都以为我的大律师思维又发作了。于是他们纷纷面露难色，然后就告诉我一些隐约记得的政治书上的“标准化”答案。

关于政府的定义，我不建议大家用 textbooks 或者 dictionaries 上的定义，毕竟我们不是写说明文。在这里，我提供一个三观很正的 tip 给大家，作为一个思考角度：

“The government is the representative of the best interests of its people.” 

政府就是人民最大利益的代表者。

至于要怎么 paraphrase 或 interpret 这个 tip，就留给宝宝们自由发挥了。

知道我套路的宝宝们都明白，到了这个时候，只要涉及 definition / description / interpretation，我都会建议大家参考大师们的思路和语言。在微课中，有句话我几乎每次都讲（不是故意的，是真的有感而发）：

Learn from the masterpieces to become the masters ourselves.

今天给大家摘选两个关于美国历史的 excerpts from the masterpieces，一起学习下。内容来源：SAT II U.S. History, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates（SAT2 美国历史学习材料中关于 Abraham Lincoln和 Stephen Douglas 之间的七个政治辩论）

In 1858, one of the most important figures in U.S. history appeared on the national political scene. Abraham Lincoln, a self-educated Illinois lawyer, had served one term in the House of Representatives, but until now he had not been a nationally known figure. He returned to politics over the question of slavery, which he opposed,standing plainly that “no man is good enough to govern another without that other’s consent.” At the Republican convention of 1858, Lincoln gave one of the most famous speeches of his career. 

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.

Lincoln said that Douglas' public indifference to slavery would result in the expansion of slavery because it would mold public sentiment to accept slavery. As Lincoln said,

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who molds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.

学习思路

Abraham Lincoln 当时作为 Republican candidate for the Senate（代表共和党的国会候选议员）与 incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas（代表民主党的当时在任国会议员）之间针锋相对的进行了7次关于 slavery 的辩论。

其中，Lincoln（后来的美国第16任总统）提出的对于政府及 public sentiment（公众情绪）的定位和理解很值得我们思考。平时遇到的政府类话题，我们基本上都可以尝试考虑下某个 measure or policy 对于公众的影响，以及是否符合 the general public 的诉求和利益，从而展开论述。

政府和个人

知道政府是谁后，我们要解决的第二个问题就是政府和公民个人之间的关系，到底是公民依赖政府去解决问题，还是政府需要公民的个人贡献？如果是 shared responsibilities，那怎么去 justify 我们的 argument？

套路又来了，学完 Lincoln 的演讲，下一个学习的 master 是充满传奇／故事的 JFK 总统。

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In 1961, John F. Kennedy sworn in as the 35th president of the U.S. In his inaugural address, he famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”He asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the “common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.”

The President wished:

to discuss a topic on which too often ignorance abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived—yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace ... I speak of peace because of the new face of war… in an age when a singular nuclear weapon contains ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied forces in the Second World War ... an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and air and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn ... I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men ... world peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor—it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance ... our problems are man-made—therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants.

学习思路

President Kennedy 的名言 “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” 估计宝宝们都已经烂熟于心了，是时候在考场中灵活运用了。对于公民 or 个人对于公共事务和重要问题的作用，JFK总统也给了我们一个很好的论证角度—our problems are man-made—therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants.

宝宝们有没有一种阔然开朗的感觉？是不是想看看在真题中怎么运用？下面提供两道 ACT essay prompts 给大家练练手！

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1）关于联邦政府的讨论：

2）关于避免武装冲突的讨论：