【启德考培】在雅思备考的过程中，听说读写四门科目会分开学习，然而将这四项间的联系割裂开来是不明智的。官方在出题上有很多互通之处，若能善加利用这四门资源，融会贯通，能极大地提高效率，取得事半功倍的效果。本文小编将以雅思阅读和写作为例，对同学们如何在备考中就地取材提供一些启发。

我们先来看一道雅思大作文真题，在纸笔和机考中都有多次出现：

Some scientists claim that intelligent life forms may exist on other planets and we should send messages to the outer space, while others think that it may be too dangerous for people on the Earth. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

一些科学家声称，其它星球上可能存在智慧生命，我们应该向外太空发送信息，而另一些科学家则认为这对地球上的人来说可能太危险了。讨论双方观点并给出自己的想法。

很多同学考场上一碰到这题直接傻眼，知道雅思写作考题覆盖面很广，但连外星人都要考是着实没有心理准备。然而，这题真有如此令人意外吗？若做过剑九 Test1 Passage2 就不会有这种感觉。此阅读篇章的标题为：Is There Anybody Out There? —The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence，正是关于探索外星智慧生命的，跟那道写作题相关的部分至少有以下这些：

The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity - the same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilization on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if other civilizations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus, any other civilization that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilization will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilization may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we haven't yet discovered.

搜寻外星人的主要原因是基本的好奇心——与驱动所有纯科学的对自然界的好奇心相同。我们想知道自己在宇宙中是否孤独，如果条件合适生命是否会自然进化，或者地球是否有某种特殊性培育了这星球上的各种生命形式。对无线电信号的侦测将足以回答所有这些中最基本的问题。在此意义上说，SETI是纯科学机器中的另一个齿轮，不断地推动我们的知识领域向外扩张。然而，对别的地方是否存在生命感兴趣还有其它原因。例如，我们在地球上拥有文明的时间可能只有几千年，而过去几十年来核战争和污染的威胁告诉我们，人类的生存可能很脆弱。能再活两千年吗，还是会把自己消灭？由于像我们这种行星的寿命是几十亿年，可以预期如果其它文明真的存在于我们的星系中，它们的年龄将从零到几十亿年不等。因此平均而言，我们探寻到的任何其它文明都可能比自己古老得多。仅仅是这样一个文明的存在就会告诉我们长期生存是可能的，给我们一些乐观的理由。这更古老的文明甚至可能传授它们在应对生存威胁方面的经验，如核战争和全球污染，以及我们尚未发现的其它威胁。

There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilization. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilisation? Luckily, there is not urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away, so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. It’s not important, then, if there’s a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to replay, and perhaps carefully drafts a reply.

如果检测到来自外星文明的信号我们应该如何反应，这是一个相当大的争论。大家都同意我们不应立即回复。除了在短时间内如此长距离地发送回复是不切实际的之外，还有一系列道德问题，在做出任何回复之前，国际社会必须要解决。面对一个更优秀且更古老的文明，人类会面临文化冲击吗？幸运的是，这并不急。被搜索的恒星距离我们数百光年，它们的信号需要数百年才能到达我们，而我们的回复又需要几百年才能到达它们。因此，推迟几年或几十年并无关系，待人类讨论清楚是否要回复，或者仔细地起草一份答复。

有了以上这些信息，再结合个人想法，想要写出一篇内容充实且有一定思想深度的大作文就容易多了。这种阅读篇章和写作考题有密切关联的情况不在少数，也就是说雅思作文没思路去哪里找，阅读里就有大量现成可用的资源。大部分同学并没有太长时间和过多精力备考，把阅读材料作为写作的背景素材充分利用起来，以阅读带动写作，再用写作反哺阅读，无需舍近求远，何乐而不为。