托福寫作素材：政府類
Norway has the highest standard of living in the world and Niger the lowest, according to the UN's Human Development Index. The index takes into account life expectancy and education as well as income per person. South Africa's AIDS epidemic has left it in 120th place in the rankings, despite its relatively high income. The country has fallen 35 places since 1990.
原來所謂的HDI就指的是human development index，這個指數(shù)綜合了一個國家人民的壽命，受教育程度以及人均收入這些因素。上圖排在首位的是挪威，毋庸置疑人家的日子過得瀟灑;咱們大中國排在了85位，仍需努力啊;排在最后的是尼日爾，那么為什么這個國家這么悲催呢，請看報道：
Niger is once again in the grip of a food crisis, if not a full-blown famine. The distress sales of livestock, the heavy migration and the deprivation the country suffered in the early 1970s have all revisited it again this year. Niger is, by the reckoning of the UN’s Human Development Index, the poorest place on earth. Most of its inhabitants eke out a living growing subsistence crops on small plots of dusty, infertile land. Despite this agricultural bias, the drought-stricken country cannot feed itself, even in good years. An estimated 2.5m people out of a total of 17m have no secure source of food. When harvests fail, which they do almost annually, that number shoots up. In 2012, when the worst of the recent food crises ravaged the Sahel region, almost a quarter of Niger’s population was said to be going hungry, prompting desperate relief campaigns by international donors.
看完第一句話咱們就明白了，尼日爾在鬧饑荒呀，in the grip of 就是被控制的意思，尼日爾現(xiàn)在整個國家都在被饑荒虐了，家畜不好賣，大量的人口遷移。尼日爾的人民只能在灰常貧瘠的土地上種植口糧強維持生計。eke out a living 就是勉強度日的意思，用來形容保守貧窮折磨的人們再合適不過了。在這個旱災多發(fā)的國家，即使在good years豐年，人們也沒有足夠的食物。尼日爾17oo萬人口中就有250萬人沒有固定的食物來源啊，也就是說這些人吃了上頓沒有下頓。那么在災年的時候，這個沒飯吃的人就更多了。這可謂是饑餓肆虐。food crises ravaged the Sahel region...ravage 就是表達蹂躪，毀壞的意思，那我們這個用法就可以總結成： 災難+ravage+地區(qū)。下面我們接著看一下尼日爾的人民是處在怎樣一個水深火熱的情況中的：
HAOWA was already struggling to feed five children before she gave birth to triplets in the Gabi region of southern Niger 19 months ago. Now, when her babies scream for food she often finds herself helpless. “If they cry and I have nothing to give them, then I must let them cry,” she says, cradling two infants who bear the hallmarks of malnutrition. Their hair is yellowing, their bellies are distended and their expressions glazed. They lack the energy to shake the flies from their faces. It is a dismal but depressingly common picture in west Africa’s largest country.
看完這段話第一個趕腳就是當?shù)氐暮⒆犹啾屏?，營養(yǎng)不良，肚子腫脹，雙眼無神，餓到連把臉上的蒼蠅趕走的力氣都沒有了。但是話說食物這么少，為什么媽媽還要生那么多孩子呢。文章中說這位媽媽本來養(yǎng)活五個孩子就已經很勉強了，然后這位媽媽又生了三個孩子，這不就是add salt on the injuries,雪上加霜嘛，我們繼續(xù)看：
This perpetual food crisis is compounded by doggedly high fertility rates. With an average of 7.6 children per woman, Niger has the world’s highest rates. Poverty, ignorance and poor access to contraception are contributing factors, as are cultural issues like competition between wives. Men in Niger tend to be polygamous, and local doctors note that their spouses often try to prove their value by outdoing each other in child births. This contributes to Niger having the highest population growth rate on earth. At current projections, the number of inhabitants will more than triple between now and 2050 to 55m.
尼日爾居高不下的人口出生率也是導致漫長饑荒的重要因素。doggedly 表示頑強地，那么doggedly high 就是指居高不下的。尼日爾平均每個女人生7.6個孩子，這是世界上最高的人口出生率。貧窮加上對避孕的無知已經缺少避孕的途徑導致了尼日爾的人口出生率極其地高。然而另一個文化層面的因素我們也不能或略，就是妻子之間的競爭。尼日爾是一夫多妻制。也就是多個女人天天圍著同一個男人轉。那么如何使自己在丈夫的其他老婆中勝出呢，這么女人們就靠多生孩子來證明自己的價值，按照這個速度發(fā)展，到2050年尼日爾的人口就會增長到5500萬。一幅肉少狼多的畫面，有木有太美不忍直視了都。
說了這么多，那么這些信息我們要如何與托福寫作結合起來了?相信很多殺托族們都知道獨立寫作有一類出現(xiàn)頻率很高的題目，那就是關于government該做什么或者做什么比較好的題目，請看能夠高度總結這類題目的一道題：Is it more important for government to provide money for the things that are beautiful than things that are practical.，題目中出現(xiàn)的兩個比較的對象是beautiful things 和practical things，這是十分抽象的兩個概念，需要我們將抽象具體化。我們都知道beautiful things就是漂亮的事物，就是為了迎合人們內心的美感，說白了就是供人欣賞，那么什么人才會閑著沒事去欣賞某種食物呢，肯定不是我們之前提的這些餓著肚子的尼日爾人民呀，人餓著肚子的時候頭暈眼花四肢無力，哪來什么閑情逸致來欣賞beautiful things呢，于是乎，對于像尼日爾這樣的額國家來說，政府更加應該做的就是做一些實事來緩解人民疾苦呀，結合上面的素材，我們來敲一下這個段子：
When we think about those poverty-stricken countries, a image of people living in a destitute and dismal life floods into our mind. There are myriads of examples available globally which can shed light on the fact that the miserable life makes people suffer deeply. Niger is, by the reckoning of the UN’s Human Development Index, the poorest place on earth, once again in the grip of a food crisis. Most of its inhabitants eke out a living growing subsistence crops on small plots of dusty and infertile land, as a result of which, the drought-ridden country cannot feed itself even in good years, precipitating the famine to cyclopean dimensions. Moreover, this perpetual food crisis is also compounded by doggedly high fertility rates owing to the local cultural issue making women endeavor to prove themselves by outdoing each other in child births. This gloomy living situation can be best portrayed by the depressingly common picture. The infants, all too often, bear the hallmarks of malnutrition. Their hair is yellowing; their bellies are distended; their expressions are glazed and they even lack the energy to shake the flies from their faces. As a result, their death is brewing. Under such circumstances, in no way should the local government close its eyes to the pliant of its people insomuch as nothing can be achieved unless the government relieve the sparse food supplies. It is a sure bet that there is no better way to augment people’s living condition for those backward countries than to be bound up in practical things.
托福寫作話題材料：政府類滿分素材重要表達
in the grip of 受控制
eke out a living 勉強維持生計
food crisis 糧食危機
bear the hallmark 呈現(xiàn)特征
be compounded by 雪上加霜
polygamous 一夫多妻的
poverty-stricken 貧困的
destitute 貧困的
myriads of 大量的
drought-ridden 受干旱困擾
close its eyes to 置之不理
