自2016年起，专八考试写作部分改为了命题+材料作文，材料的词数为500左右，材料可能是一篇完整的说明文、议论文，也可能是集合了关于某个话题或主题的各方观点，对考生的阅读理解及归纳能力提出了更高的要求。考生可以采取“简短概述材料—评论—总结”的写作模式。值得注意的是，在写作过程中，概述材料和进行评论缺一不可，而且概述材料不宜过长，否则将可能被扣分。
2016年3月19日专八开考，年前已经推送过专八阅读、听力、改错、翻译揭秘，错过的同学点这里：1. 听力新题型 2. 阅读新题型 3. 改错、翻译新题型
先为大家特奉独家压箱宝典——考前密押专八新题型写作10篇！这是目前市面上唯一的新题型押题作文，希望助广大考生一臂之力。不多说了，看官请看！
A Boston Globe editorial looked back on a hard year: “But it brought growth, too, and a deeper understanding of just how fragile life is, and how what we often take for granted—the kiss goodbye in the morning, the chat with a friend, the Saturday soccer game—is what matters most.” An observation from The Washington Post: “People seem to walk more slowly. They are off their brisk, self-important stride... Motorists are driving better. They lay off their horns. They don’t jump lights.” From The Dallas Morning News: “Americans are experiencing a sort of ‘cocooning of the heart’, cultural experts say. They’re using this time to reconnect with their families and friends.”
If Americans really were beginning to slow down, the contemporary simplicity movement would not be adding another meeting or two a month to our schedules. The antidote to a frenetic work life wouldn’t be something called “power leisure”.
The celebration of the new slowness may not reflect reality, but it surely does reflect some degree of yearning. Yet there may be a few bold steps we should take to get us on the path to fast-free living.
Backpacks. The task of slowing the country down must begin with efforts aimed at prevention. It should begin early, as an inspection of any schoolchild’s backpack will reveal. These encumbrances typically have a capacity of one and a half cubic feet and hold loads of forty pounds. The contents, unpacked and spread out like a GI’s battle kit, represent hyper-achievement in microcosm. A simple yet revolutionary reform would be to decree that the capacity of school backpacks be reduced by two thirds.
Drive-thru windows. The whole point of these amenities is speed, and without intervention drive-thru service will only get faster. According to The Futurist, McDonald’s will soon introduce e-mail billing at some of its drive-thru facilities in southern California. Other chains are experimenting with an E-Z Pass system, similar to the one used for bridge and highway tolls; a transponder in the car would permit purchases to be deducted automatically from prepaid accounts.
Electric light. Another issue related to biorhythms is the seemingly inexorable drift toward a 24/7 economy. The rule of thumb is that if anything can be done twenty-four hours a day, it will be; daycare centers and dentists’ offices are now open at midnight. Almost by definition, the maintenance of basic diurnal rhythms is essential to a humane way of life. Political arithmetic may forever doom a significant rise in the gasoline tax, but what about levying a ten-cent-a-watt tax on light bulbs? One happy consequence might be a shift back to daytime baseball.
Computer keyboards. Yes, computers have made many aspects of modern life more tolerable, enabling stupendous feats of calculation, storage, and management. But they are also an attractive nuisance, putting unimaginable amounts of sheer capability—to buy, to pry, to surf, to meddle—into the hands of people unaccustomed to its wise use. One way would be to decide that every computer must have two separate keyboards—one with all the vowels and the other with the consonants.
The measures outlined above would be a start. Should more impetus be needed, we could ban cup holders from cars, demand that breaking news be delivered only by mail, and add a ball and a strike to the standard at-bat. If Americans intend to take slowness seriously, they need to start picking up the pace.
本题探讨的是美国快节奏生活这一现象，属于社会生活类话题。要求简要概括所给材料中的观点，并发表自己的评论。在具体行文方面，考生可以开篇点题，简要概括材料中作者针对快节奏生活的观点。然后提出自己对这一问题的评论并给出充分的论据支撑。最后总结全文，重述论点。
Historian Stephen Kern once pointed out the nature of technology-induced revolution, asserting that its sole purpose is to alter notions of speed, distance, and the pace of social change. These words still mirror the life we are living now—a life that is not meant to slow down at all despite advice from social engineers and soul-cultivators.
Riding on the frantic Roller Coaster, we sometimes knowingly or negligently miss the main aim of our life. Home-cooked comfort food gives way to fast food served in McDonald’s; a nice scroll over the shops on weekends yields to on-line shopping; a little chat over a cup of coffee with our friends seems like a luxury we cannot afford. All these scenes are nothing but a snapshot of our head-spinning life, yet we are so meddled in it that we lose the perspective of where we are heading for.
It’s time to halt our frenetic chase after the meaningless “hyper-power” in every walk of our life. After all, life is not simply a tally of the gold mines we spend our whole life painstakingly digging, but rather a heaven that can be seen simply through a wild flower. For that enlightenment, we need to slow down and take a deep breath in this roaring world. The option is yours!
The numbers suggest that despite rapid urbanisation, the pull of the countryside remains strong. Many of the journeys involve mingong, or peasant workers, as the nearly 300m migrants from the countryside who work in urban areas, are often snootily called. Their families are often divided. Children and parents stay in the villages, because a fragmented social-security system makes it difficult for migrants to enjoy subsidised education and health care in the cities. Many migrants think it a good idea that some relatives remain: the stay-behinds can help retain land-use rights which might come in handy for the migrants if urban work dries up. The authorities themselves are keen for migrants to keep this backstop.
But migration patterns are changing. Wang Kan of the China Institute of Industrial Relations says that, during Chunyun, trips between provinces have been declining. This is because migrants are often working closer to home, thanks to the relocation of some industries away from the coast to inland provinces where labour is cheaper. “We can see the emergence of more regional hubs,” says Mr. Wang. No longer is the Chunyun rush so concentrated in the biggest and wealthiest cities.
Analysing Chunyun data is difficult. Xiaohui Liang of Renmin University says that companies have recently begun providing private long-distance coach transport for their workers. These trips do not get counted in official statistics. Other workers, he says, get counted twice if they go by train to a regional hub and from there continue by bus to their hometowns. A single worker doing this in both directions would account for four Chunyun journeys.
The growth of an urban middle class further complicates the picture. Journeys made by holiday tourists, with no rural reunion in mind, are on the rise. Researchers had long felt it safe to assume that trips taken on pricey high-speed trains were made by such travellers. But according to Mr. Wang, migrant workers are increasingly opting for the speed and comfort of the more expensive trains. This, he says, suggests that the purchasing power of migrants is on the rise. Some are even heading back to their villages in newly bought cars (perhaps with paying passengers to offset some of the cost).
One source of data on this year’s travel rush is Alibaba, an e-commerce firm which has analysed the sale of train tickets through Alitrip, its online travel business. In a new trend this year, the company says, some families are migrating in reverse for their holiday reunions. Alibaba says there has been a “tremendous increase” in the number of elderly parents travelling from their rural homes to industrial centres, such as the southern city of Guangzhou, to spend the festival with their children. That implies that some migrants are now proud enough of their new urban homes to begin showing off.
The peasant workers contribute most to Chunyun as they work in economically vibrant cities while leaving their families behind. Moreover, journeys made by holiday tourists are increasing. However, the relocation of some industries from coastal cities to inland provinces helps ease the flow. Furthermore, the elderly parents travel from the countryside to the cities to reunite with their children. This reverse route also helps slow down the frantic Chunyun.
In my opinion, fruit of urbanization though Chunyun appears to be, it embodies the familial value we have been cherishing for centuries. In spite of the higher travel costs, the expected extravagant spending on gifts and other festival items and the bumpy road back home in terms of several pratfalls in securing a train ticket, most Chinese people choose to drop any business at hand just to desperately go back home in hope of celebrating the most solemn festival with their families. The hubbub on the crowded and often suffocating coaches and trains can never quench their burning nostalgia for long-departed homes. Their pampering spending on their families mirrors a champion of love even though the money may well be earned painstakingly through travail over many furiously sleepless nights in sweatshops.
In China whose social welfare epitomizes its fair coverage of every citizen, some systems such as Hukou and the soaring housing prices in cities have successfully shunned migrant workers from settling in their workplaces, thus resulting in this gushing rush. So a generously defined social welfare system might be a panacea for this swelling in travel, or Chunyun is doomed a chronic fight-or-flight issue.
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