【CET-6縮寫和摘要寫作】The “Generation Gap”
Directions: Write a summary of the following passage in less than 150 words.
The “Generation Gap”
One of the most widely discussed and controversial problems of recent years has centered on what has come to be called the “generation gap”. Because of differences in dress, life styles, and attitudes, many young people have decided that adults represent an “establishment” that they are prepared to reject or perhaps even tear down, many adults have decided that young people are self-indulgent, mindlessly rebellious, and dangerous to the American society.
This is a problem that public opinion polls and psychological analysis of trends in American society can at least put into perspective. The surveys show that there are indeed a number of sharp differences of opinion between many young people and many older people, on all kinds of topics ranging from military policies to issues of race and poverty and the nature of the college curriculum. But the evidence seems to indicate that these differences represent more of an “education gap” than a “generation gap”. As a 1971 report of the Census Bureau made clear, there has been a tremendous boom in education in the United States. In a mere three decades beginning in 1940, the number of young Americans with college degrees almost tripled, going from 6 to 16 percent；the number with at least a year of college more than doubled, going from 13 to 31 percent；the number with high school diplomas rose from 38 to 75 percent.
These figures mean that today's young people, on the average, have had far more formal education than their parents. In fact nearly two--thirds of today's college students have fathers who never went to college. And many research studies have shown that people who have attended college tend to have different opinions from noncollege people on such questions as politics, sexual behavior, child-rearing practices, religion, and relations among ethnic and racial groups；they also tend to be more concerned about the general welfare of society than about their own personal advancement. In the opinion of some psychologists who have studied the so-called generation gap, today’s young people often seem threatening to their elders in part because they have more education and have developed the kinds of attitudes that increased education generally fosters.
Surveys have also shown that the “gap”, whatever its cause, is not nearly so large as some of the militant young people and more conservative adults often assume--or as even an objective observer might gather from some of the news events reported on television and in the newspapers. Careful psychological surveys made in 1965 and 1968 showed that only about 2 to l0 percent of all college students took active part in the various campus protests of those years, with the lower figure holding for such abstract issues as educational reform and the higher figure for more personal issues such as dormitory rules and standards of dress. A public opinion survey of Americans aged fifteen to twenty-one, made at the end of 1970, showed that 66 percent did not have trouble communicating with their parents, 73 percent agreed with their parents' values and ideals, and 84 percent were satisfied with the kind of education they had received up to that point. Quite clearly, the American youth movement, if thought of as a highly militant attack on the Establishment and its ideas, is not nearly so large as its own leaders and the adults who oppose it often believe. Moreover, a study of history and of current trends in other nations shows that differences between young people and their eiders have existed many times before and exist today in many other parts of the world, including Mexico, France, Japan, and Russia.
【範文】
The “Generation Gap”
According to polls① and psychological surveys②, there are sharply different opinions between the old and the young, but the “generation gap” should be more properly termed③ the “education gap”.
Because of the development of education, today’s young people have far more formal education than their parents. People who have attended college tend to have different opinions from non-college people. As a result, they differ from their elders on questions of politics, religion④, sexual behavior, etc.
Surveys have also shown the gap is not so large as some people assumed. Only a small number of young people are anti-establishment while the majorities⑤ still share their parents' values. Moreover, the gap is not a unique contemporary⑥ American phenomenon； it has existed before and today in many other countries.
【註釋】
①polls: 民意測驗
②psychological surveys: 心理調查
③termed: 稱為
④religion: 宗教, 宗教信仰
⑤majorities: 大多數
⑥contemporary: 同時代的，當今的
【簡評】
這是一篇摘要作文。將一篇文章或一本書的要點摘錄編寫成的短文就是摘要 (summary)。
我們在寫摘要時，應當注意以下幾方面：①摘要寫作要忠實於原文，不應加入縮寫者個人的任何觀點，而且要按原文的行文次序排列內容，客觀地再現原文的主要論點和事實。②摘要是原文主要觀點的提煉，因此，應該抓住下列幾方面：文章主題句(thesis statement)，段落主題句(topic sentence)，重要觀點和結論，重要事件和人物等。③一篇好的摘要應表達思想清楚完整、組織結構清晰嚴密。不能簡單地羅列文章的要點, 而應該在它們之間加入連接詞語，使得摘要全文緊湊連貫，成為一個統一的整體。④摘要的語言特點是簡潔明瞭，準確流暢。考生可以藉助於各式詞組、從句、分詞和不定式短語去濃縮文章。摘要的長短視原文的長度和題目要求而定。
此篇範文嚴格遵循摘要作文的要求和規範展開。文章首段開宗明義，指出老年人和年輕人的觀念大不相同，但將“generation gap”稱為“education gap”更為合適。第二段承接上文，用舉例法加以說明。第三段提出代溝沒有人們想象的那麼大，而且代溝問題並非美國獨有，它也存在於其它國家。本文中心突出，主題明確。連接詞語的合理運用，使全文緊湊連貫，渾然一體。
資料來源：新大學英語四、六級考點透視叢書：六級寫作/李華田主編，武漢大學出版社，2006
