托福考试中的Paraphrasing

在托福口语和托福写作两个单项中，转述是一项非常重要的能力。即便考生的口语回答和写作文章的表述非常流畅，易于理解，且语法正确，如果其中有大量的内容来自于阅读材料、听力讲座、或者是题目原词，也有可能获得一个非常低的分数。

重复所看到和听到的单词是一个非常容易出现却很难自我意识到的问题。在一些非学术、相对日常的英语表达中，这种重复是可以的。但在学术考试，特别是语言考试中，这绝对不是一个“明智”的做法。从长远的角度来看，这种表达习惯很容易在大学里变成抄袭行为（Plagiarism and copying）。美国大学对这种行为有着非常严格的规定，一旦被判定为抄袭，就会出现成绩作废（fail in assignment），留校察看（academic probation），甚至是被校方开除（expulsion）。

所以，在备考托福时，南瓜君建议同学们一定要练习，并培养自己转述的能力。不仅要做到熟练，还要保证可以自然地融入自己的表达中。我们先用一个简单的例子来给各位同学们解释什么是Paraphrasing：

直接引用（direct speech）：John said, “I think the university’s new policy is a bad idea.”

间接引用（indirect speech）：John said that the university’s new policy was a bad idea.

转述（Paraphrasing）：John said that the changes the university made to their policy seemed like a mistake.

可见，转述不仅仅是使用不用的表达方式传递同样的信息，而是在充分理解了信息的基础上，用适合自己的，自己喜欢的语言进行信息的二次传递。所以，转述既体现了语言水平，也证明了考生充分理解了题目信息。

我们再来看一个例子：

在口语综合题task 2中，考生都需要先对阅读材料进行总结和转述。南瓜君以这篇passage为例，给大家示范了以下4种转述之后的表达方式：

Paraphrase 1:

The university will discontinue the sculpture program. Administrators say students simply don’t have much interest in sculpture anymore, and the one sculpture professor in the art department is about to retire anyway.

Paraphrase 2:

University officials have announced that the sculpture program will be cancelled. They cite declining student interest as one of the main reasons for the cancellation. Another issue is a lack of instructors; the only teacher of sculpture courses will be retiring shortly. Finally, the art department doesn’t have enough money for more sculpture classes.

Paraphrase 3:

The school’s sculpture classes are all about to be permanently removed from the art department’s offerings, as students are no longer interested in sculpture, the only sculpture professor is leaving, and there is not enough funding to keep offering these courses.

Paraphrase 4:

The art department at the university is getting more and more students, but at the same time, fewer and fewer students are enrolling in sculpture classes. Because students are no longer interested in sculpture and because the sculpture professor is retiring, school administrators decided to cancel the sculpture program.

转述的方式可以是多种多样的，但是南瓜君建议同学们记住2点Paraphrasing的原则：一是转述之后的内容宜短不宜长，二是尽可能少的使用原词。