12月3日亚太新SAT考试写作真题回顾

本次亚太新SAT考试写作阅读文章题目为“Americans’ Future Has to Be Multilingual”，作者Linda Moore，2012年8月31日发表于www.washdiplomat.com。未经出题方改动的原文字数为792。学生反应读懂这篇文章比较简单，没有出现太多生词，而且结构上非常清晰，具体是什么呢？坦途SAT考试网为大家分享。

写作原文：

Americans’ Future Has to Be Multilingual

by Linda Moore

P1 We Americans must confront a stark disadvantage we face when it comes to the global economy. Some eight in 10 Americans speakonly English, and the number of schools teaching a foreign language is indecline, according to a new study by the Council on Foreign Relations. But theopposite is true among our economic competitors.

P2 While some 200 million Chinese students arelearning English, only 24,000 Americans are studying Chinese, U.S. Departmentof Education statistics say. Foreign language degrees account for only 1percent of all U.S. undergraduate degrees. And fewer than 2 percent of U.S.undergraduates study abroad in a given year, the Education Department says.

P3 Our nation is largely monolingual but isentering an increasingly multilingual world. More than half of European Unioncitizens speak a language other than their mother tongue, and more than aquarter speak at least three languages. This is because additional languagesare studied in European primary and secondary schools, and are taken up byEuropean college students in much larger numbers than in the United States.

P4 The Council on Foreign Relations-sponsored taskforce report, headed by former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein andformer Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, concluded: "Education failure puts the United States' future economic prosperity, globalposition, and physical safety at risk." It warned that the country"will not be able to keep pace — much less lead — globally unless it movesto fix the problems it has allowed to fester for too long."

P5 For decades, our children were deprived of bilingualor multilingual education out of a mistaken belief that it took time away fromother subjects, hindering students' academic development. But recent researchhas shown that learning another language is a wise investment, rather than awaste. Research from the University of Georgia found that bilingual schoolchildren perform better on standardized tests including the Scholastic AptitudeTest (SAT) than their monolingual peers. A George Mason University studydiscovered that younger students who had enrolled in a second languageimmersion program outperformed those who did not in coursework, aswell as on standardized tests, throughout their scholastic careers.

P6 Educators now conclude that learning additionallanguages improves one's ability to focus, plan and solve problems. Among otherbenefits, this means that such students are better able to move efficientlyfrom one subject to another. The D.C.-based Center for Applied Linguistics hasascertained that the earlier we learn a foreign language, the greater thebenefits. Moreover, these benefits can last a lifetime. Learning anotherlanguage can help people stave off the effects of aging,including preventing the onset of dementia and other age-related conditionslike Alzheimer's, according to research done by University of Californianeuroscientists.

P7 The benefits of learning a new language gobeyond the classroom. When students graduate, being fluent in a second languageimproves their career prospects. The Bureau of LaborStatistics reports that a number of emerging occupations need workers whocan speak and write in more than one language. A Universityof Floridastudy revealed that in large, linguistically diverse cities suchas Miami and San Antonio, the ability to speak a second language translatesinto more than $7,000 of increased annual income. We want our students to haveaccess to these opportunities and more.

P8 The economic importance of being bilingual ishighlighted by the fact that 31 percent of company executives can speak atleast two languages, according to international executive search firm.

P9 Using multilingualism, we are expanding thescope of children's learning at a time when public policy limits schoolaccountability to math and reading. Most policymakers want their children tohave global skill sets but do not encourage this in our public schools.

P10 Other countries have learned this lesson andhave made the necessary commitments to teach their students additionallanguages. Their students' exposure to additional languages is payingdividends. I would like to see the U.S. Department of Education encourage localeducation authorities to invest in bilingual and multilingual education. Giventhe global competition for good jobs, this is not a luxury, but a necessity. Itwill help our children, and our nation, to succeed in the economy of tomorrow.

此次写作语言比较简单。基本运用的是事实性论证方式，文章大量使用informative facts的写作手法。考生可以从contrast,authoritativeness, statistics, examples, appeal to emotion等常见角度论证。