Pre-TOEFL Grammar & Writing Supplemental Materia - revised -

文語文（書き言葉）では、構文の崩れた文（形の整わない文）は非文（文法的に成立しない文）です。

 

・Sentence fragments （文の断片） 文語文には、主語(S)と述語動詞(V)が必要です。下線部は文の一部です。完全な文にするか、前後の文の一部にしましょう。

-        Bad: I like cute animals. For example, cats and rabbits.

Better: I like cute animals. For example, I like cats and rabbits.

Better: I like cute animals, such as cats and rabbits.

Better: I like cute animals like cats and rabbits.

 

-        Bad: I like cats. Because they are cute.

Better: I like cats because they are cute.

Better: I like cats. This (It) is because they are cute.

Better: I like cats. They are cute.

 

-        Bad: I like cats. Though they do not like me.

Better: I like cats though they do not like me. (Though they do not like me, I like cats.)

 

-        Bad: I take care of my pets well. So that they can live long.

Better: I take care of my pets well so that they can live long.

 

 

・Fused sentences (run-on sentences)  （無終止文）複数の文を接続詞や句読点なしで繋いだ文は、意味ごとに切り、文と文は適切な接続詞や接続詞の働きをするもので繋ぎましょう。

Bad: After school I went to see my grandmother she was sick in bed I greeted her then I served her dinner she said it was good.

Better: After school, I went to see my grandmother, who was sick in bed. I greeted her, and then I served her dinner. She said it was good.

 

 

・Comma splice （カンマ結合）カンマのみで文を繋いだ文です。2文に分けるか接続詞で繋ぎましょう。

-        Bad: The countryside provides plenty of nature and carefree people, this will nurture healthy and relaxed children.

Better: The countryside provides plenty of nature and carefree people. This will nurture healthy and relaxed children.

Better: The countryside provides plenty of nature and carefree people, and this will nurture healthy and relaxed children.

 

例外

Friendship is the most important in life, I think. （主節の挿入）

元の文は I think that friendship is the most important in life. ですが文中に挿入する際は接続詞thatは省略してカンマで挿入します。

The faster, the better. （慣用的な構文）よく使われる構文には接続詞なしで文を繋いだものがあります。

Writing for Academic Discuttion Is watching television useful or a waste of time？ - revised -

Is watching television useful or a waste of time in today’s world? (sociology)

 

 

☆Let’s think

1.       What are useful and enjoyable ways of spending time? What do you usually do when you have some free time and try not to waste it? Do you read, listen to music, watch a movie, work out, go for a walk, do something creative like painting, or chill out with your family or friends?

2.       Is watching TV as worth spending your precious time on as the activities you named above?

 

 

☆Ideas and Expressions

Watching television is useful.

1.     Watching big events on television, especially with family or friends, is enjoyable.

2.     TV-watching is useful for spending time with others because it is inclusive.

3.     Popular TV programs or ads provide conversation pieces, which are good icebreakers.

4.     TV shows show the norm, culture, language, or trend of the society in which they are made.

5.     Some special programs such as live broadcasts of sporting events, documentaries, and foreign language programs are hardly available elsewhere.

6.     One good thing about TV watching is that it allows you to learn things that you did not intend to.

7.     As long as you keep an eye on how you use it, TV can be an inexpensive, handy tool for fun or relaxation. In moderation, watching television poses no problem just as alcohol and gambling helps you enjoy life unless you get indulged in them too much.

 

TV watching is a waste of time.

1.     TV is addictive. It wastes away your time while you sit in front of the screen.

2.     It is a passive activity. You just sit and watch, while you should be doing something more important.

3.     Most of the time spent watching TV is spent watching TV advertisements, most of which are aimed to make you want needless goods or follow fashion trends obsessively.

4.     TV can make you narrow-minded or brainwashed, not aware of what is really going on in the world because it is sponsored by corporations and the government, which can manipulate the content.

5.     It is not a good information source anymore. The quality and quantity of information of most TV programs are inferior to those of other media. It is also neither new nor authentic. The information on the Internet is updated by the minute. Mainstream media often provide wrong information.

 

 

☆Sample Answers for Ideas and Expressions

Sample 1

【Main Idea】TV is useful because it is good for bonding and expanding your horizon.

【Supporting Details】TV is inclusive. Most programs can be shared by everyone, and so family and friends spend time together watching TV. It is especially useful when you spend time with someone you know little about. You just watch a show together, and in time you can laugh together or pick up a conversation piece from the content such as news or celebrity. If your guest says he watches only FoxNews, you could watch the ultra-right-wing show with him and learn what the Right have to say. Also, unlike online platforms, whose algorism customizes information you get according to your preferences, TV programs bring an unexpected encounter. By keeping TV on or zapping channels, you can come across interesting people, useful information, or moving stories, just like taking a walk in an unfamiliar neighborhood leads to spotting a lovely garden or sitting among strangers brings an eye-opening story.

【Counterargument-treatment】It is true that there are better tools for intellectual activities than TV. However, bounty of life comes not only from intellectual development and calculated benefits but also from spiritual development and more, and a most valuable thing is often found in something seemingly wasteful.

【Conclusion】Therefore, I think it is narrow-minded to decide that watching TV is good for nothing.

(221 words)

 

Sample 2

【Main Idea】I totally agree with Liam. Television is not useful because it is addictive.

【Supporting Details】For many people, the act of watching television itself is the objective. When they have some free time, they automatically turn on television without selecting programs and keep it on. Even when they select a program, in a few minutes, they get hypnotized and keep staring at the screen for hours while remembering little of the content.

【Counterargument-treatment】Conscious use can help avoid such behavior, and we can make our lives richer by watching television because there are plenty of pretty good contents on television as Emma says. But the problem is that we tend to get addicted to spending time as a couch-potato and start believing that we are doing something productive by watching television, when in fact we are fed with garbage most of the time that is provided for free to make us watch advertisements, which in fact the industry calls the actual content. Instead, we should be doing something more productive or memorable like reading a book, listening to music, or talking with someone.

【Conclusion】Therefore, it can even be said that television is detrimental to our lives. (194 words)             

 

 

Write your response in 10 minutes. Show each other your responses. Write down questions or suggestions to each other’s response.

 

 

                                                   DRAFT

 

 

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

 

 

Writing for Academic Discussion Does technology help us understand ourselves better? - revised -

Lesson 22   Does technology help us understand ourselves better, or does it hinder our self-awareness?

 

 

☆Let’s Think

1.        What does “to understand ourselves” mean?

Note: To understand ourselves may mean to understand what is a human as well as what kind of person you are. It could also mean where we come from, where we are, and what is important in life.

 

2.        How do we understand ourselves? Does technology help us do it?

Note: To understand ourselves, we need to be objective, compare ourselves with others, and have plenty of information.

 

 

☆Hints for Points

Technology helps us understand ourselves better:

1.        Information about us is collected by technology. Thanks to the advancement of technology, we now have very accurate information about the history of the earth and life. Studies of humanities are also helped by technology like DNA analysis.

 

2.        Watching the world and people leads to understanding of ourselves. The media, especially social media, provide us with abundant information about the world and people. You can also have insights about humans. For example, videos show us we humans can be both brave and cowardly, angelic and evil.

 

3.        Interaction with other people helps us understand ourselves, and technology increases the opportunity to interact with others. For example, by communicating with others through social media, you can learn what kind of person you are.

 

4.        Technology helps find individual properties. For example, DNA analysis shows you what kind of people you are related to, what kind of property your body has, and whether the risk of your having a particular disease is high or not.

 

Technology hinders our self-awareness:

1.        Technology deals with matter, the physical side of the world, so it can tell us only about our physical aspect.

 

2.        The smartphone does not tell you what kind of person you really are. Apps can tell you what type of personality you have, but this categorization does not lead to real understanding of yourself..

 

3.        Information gained through technology might be distracting us from self-reflection. We think we have understood ourselves by watching news and Twitter feeds and do not explore ourselves more deeply. For example, technology told us that we had conquered nature, when we were actually disrupting nature by technology and we are now getting backlash from nature.

 

4.        Social media can distort our image of ourselves. It is easy to wear a persona online and we can believe it our real character. Also, when we should be satisfied with life just by being alive, many of us suffer from the gap between what we think we should be and what we actually are by comparing ourselves with others, even though those others might be making themselves look better than they really are.

 

 

☆Sample Answer for Ideas and Expressions

【Thesis】I think that technology helps us understand ourselves with a reservation, sine it prevents us from delving into our own being in the real world.

【Supporting Details】Technological development has helped us collect information to understand humans such as where in the universe we are and what we are made of and how our body works. Now we know that we live on a planet that is circling around the sun in our solar system which is a tiny part of the galaxy, which is a tiny part of an ever-expanding space. It has shown that the first human was in Africa and that all humans are brothers and sisters. It has also been finding out what is in our cells and atoms, and we all know that we are made up of the same elements as we find in the outer space.

【Reservation】However, technology can only investigate the materialistic side of humans or quantify the working of our mind and society. It cannot help us organically learn about people and society. To learn ourselves, we need to actually live in this world and interact with other humans and nature, but we are increasingly living individually in the virtual world and are getting out of touch. Our memory and wisdom as human race passed down among us are now being lost as we lose face-to-face communication and read books less often, absorbed in information coming from online platforms, which can be useless, meaningless, or deceptive.

【Conclusion】Since what makes up humans is our mind rather than our body and our mind is degenerating due to technology, we might be losing insight into ourselves now. (268 words)

                                                              

 

 

Write your response in 10 minutes. Show each other your responses. Write down questions or suggestions to each other’s response.

 

 

                                                   DRAFT