文書和考試寫作都可以模仿下文章開頭方式

9月的時候NYT 寫(xie) 了個(ge) 命題作文，要求專(zhuan) 欄作家們(men) What is school for？為(wei) 話題寫(xie) 文章。

因為(wei) 這個(ge) 話題的普世性，所以從(cong) 這個(ge) 專(zhuan) 題裏麵其實能提煉很多的考試相關(guan) 的語料。

但這次要總結的還不是考試語料的部分，而是從(cong) 這個(ge) 同一個(ge) 話題的文章裏麵，我們(men) 可以來綜述下文章開頭可以有的方式。

廣義(yi) 上來說開頭要作者三個(ge) 功能 1. 吸引讀者 2. 引入話題 3. 表明態度

對於(yu) 考試來說 1.吸引讀者 這個(ge) 部分可以忽略，因為(wei) 你的讀者一定會(hui) 讀你的文章。所以如果你是進來準備考試寫(xie) 作模範的，下麵的例子主要模仿2/3 部分就好。

但是NYT 文章畢竟還是消費級別的，所以需要做到內(nei) 容對於(yu) 讀者是有吸引力。一般吸引讀者的終極標準是讓內(nei) 容對於(yu) 讀者有“價(jia) 值”。製造“價(jia) 值”的方式一般是製造矛盾，打破讀者普遍已有的觀點，你想一下當你看到權威報紙發表的一篇文章的觀點有你已有的有不同的時候，你是不是去讀這篇文章的概率會(hui) 高很多。

所以開頭比較常見的一種方式是製造觀點矛盾，

比如

呈現格式

題目 ｜作者

文章開頭段落

#例子1

School Is for Social Mobility ｜ By John N. Friedman

America is often hailed as a land of opportunity, a place where all children, no matter their family background, have the chance to succeed. Data measuring how low-income children tend to fare in adulthood, however, suggest this may be more myth than reality.

Less than one in 13 children born into poverty in the United States will go on to hold a high-income job in adulthood; the odds are far longer for Black men born into poverty, at one in 40.

上麵這個(ge) 文章製造了一個(ge) 常識觀點（often）和數據顯示之間的矛盾

#例子2

School Is for Learning to Read ｜ By Emily Hanford

The most important thing schools can do is teach children how to read. If you can read, you can learn anything. If you can’t, almost everything in school is difficult. Word problems. Test directions. Biology homework. Everything comes back to reading.

But a lot of schools aren’t teaching children how to read. It came as a shock to Corinne Adams. “Public school should be this sacred trust between the community and the school,” she told me. “I’m going to give you my child, and you’re going to teach him how to read. And that shattered for me. That was broken.”

這個(ge) 文章製造了“學校能做的最重要的事情是教學生閱讀能力”和“學校教不好閱讀能力”之間的矛盾

#例子3

School Is for Connecting to Nature ｜ By Nicolette Sowder

Throughout the first five years of my older daughter’s life, I watched her dance through the clover, climb trees, puddle jump and play her way through the day. As she stood on the threshold to kindergarten, I pictured her stuck inside at a desk, cut off from her relationship to the wild, and my stomach sank. I believe that school is for nurturing children’s innate talents and helping them figure out where those gifts, necessarily diverse, fit in the whole. The school system, by contrast, tends to produce a monoculture. Despite the heroic efforts of many thoughtful, caring teachers, public school mostly prepares children to be obedient workers and fails millions of students who don’t fit the mold.

作者對於(yu) 學校的期待和學校的實際情況之間的矛盾

下麵這個(ge) 例子也是用觀點衝(chong) 突的方式引入文章，不同的是在大的框架上用了一個(ge) “設問”的結構

#例子4

School Is for Making Citizens ｜ By Heather C. McGhee and Victor Ray

Why do we have public schools? To make young people into educated, productive adults, of course. But public schools are also for making Americans. Thus, public education requires lessons about history — the American spirit and its civics — and also contact with and context about other Americans: who we are and what has made us.

由態度引申出來的是一種作者直接表達自己態度的文章開頭方式（一般這麽(me) 操作的文章都是作者態度本身比較標新立異的，所以大的範疇上其實也是製造矛盾）

比如

# 例子5

School Is for Wasting Time and Money ｜ By Bryan Caplan

I have deep doubts about the intellectual and social value of schooling. My argument in a nutshell: First, everyone leaves school eventually. Second, most of what you learn in school doesn’t matter after graduation. Third, human beings soon forget knowledge they rarely use.

可以看到作者直接表明的自己的態度，但仔細看其實也有個(ge) 矛盾在，因為(wei) 作者的態度本身是對於(yu) 已有態度（the intellectual and social value of schooling）的一個(ge) 否定（doubt）

這種“開門見山，直抒胸臆”的文章開頭方式比較適合考試寫(xie) 作

矛盾當然不見的非得通過觀點的衝(chong) 突來製造，也可以根據時間的衝(chong) 突，比如下麵這個(ge)

# 例子6

School Is for Everyone ｜ By Anya Kamenetz

For the majority of human history, most people didn’t go to school. Formal education was a privilege for the Alexander the Greats of the world, who could hire Aristotles as private tutors.

Starting in the mid-19th century, the United States began to establish truly universal, compulsory education. It was a social compact: The state provides public schools that are free and open to all. And children, for most of their childhood, are required to receive an education. Today, nine out of 10 do so in public schools.

曆史上 vs. 後來，引入教育越來越大眾(zhong) 化的觀點。

製造矛盾的方式，也可以是通過故事

比如

# 例子7

School Is for Merit ｜ By Asra Q. Nomani

In 1982, as a 5-foot-0 teen at Morgantown High School in the foothills of West Virginia’s Appalachians, I stepped forward at our annual sports award ceremony to claim an honor: female athlete with the highest G.P.A. A boy named Michael Roh, who won the male athlete award, towered over me at 6-foot-6. He’d been my academic rival since middle school. But on this day, we both smiled. We had both ascended based on hard work and merit.

It was America’s public school system and its culture of meritocracy that allowed me, an immigrant girl from India who arrived at age 4 not knowing a word of English, to become a reporter for The Wall Street Journal at age 23. But now, as my high school classmates and I mark 40 years since graduation, a war on merit is raging. We can’t afford to lose this ideal. The price would be too steep for our nation’s competitive place in the world and, more important, for our nation’s kids, who thrive when they are challenged and motivated to work hard and aim high.

開頭的矛盾有兩(liang) 個(ge) 層次的製造，一個(ge) 是第一段故事裏的girl 和boy：是對手們(men) ，但是那天都很開心，因為(wei) 兩(liang) 人得憑著自己的能力接受肯定。

第二段矛盾繼續，開始說，這種每件事情都爭(zheng) 搶的心態，對於(yu) 社會(hui) 和國家來說也會(hui) 有負麵的效果。

# 例子8

School Is for Hope ｜ By Gabrielle Oliveira

It was a cold day in January 2019, and Heidi, who was 6 years old, was ready for her first day of school in the United States. Her father, Jorge, woke up early to help her with her hair and pack her lunch. Jorge and Heidi had migrated from Guatemala to the United States in 2018. (I am using their first names only because of their vulnerable and changing immigration status.) Upon arrival at the Mexico-U.S. border, they were separated. For more than two months Jorge was in Texas while his daughter was 1,700 miles away in New York City.

Like many immigrant parents, Jorge’s greatest goal is to provide a better life for Heidi. And like many immigrant parents, he believes that American schools promise Heidi the opportunity for that better life. For Jorge, after the hardship of the journey north and the trauma of family separation, school offers hope.

上麵的這個(ge) 開頭也是用故事引入，準確的說到不是引入了矛盾，更像是引入了衝(chong) 突，但寬泛意義(yi) 上來說，製造了一個(ge) 情緒上的矛盾

下麵這個(ge) 例子也是用故事的方式開頭，衝(chong) 突的製造沒有特別強烈，更多是時間上的對比。

# 例子9

School Is for Care ｜ By Jessica Grose

Kimberly Wilson’s TikTok videos often begin with the back of a little girl’s head. The child’s hair is matted, and Wilson, who works at Butcher-Greene Elementary in Grandview, Mo., begins to gently comb out the snarls. By the end of the videos, which tend to be just a minute or two long, the girl’s hair has been transformed into a beautiful braided style, often with colorful bows adorning it.

Wilson, who posts under the handle @ms.honey.vibes, is careful to obscure the children’s identities and never shares specific details of their struggles. Butcher-Greene is a Title I school, which means that it receives federal assistance because a high number of its students come from low-income families. Over 80 percent of its nearly 300 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

以上幾種方式核心點都是通過製造衝(chong) 突/矛盾，給讀者提供有價(jia) 值的信息。如果敘事能力強的可以模仿著故事開頭下（這種形式比較適合申請的文書(shu) ）；而對於(yu) 考試來說，比較好的就是上麵提到的一上來就拋出態度的方式：幹淨。