从新概念英语看写作用词的多样性
中国雅思考生在写作中的误区之一是为了向考官显示自己单词量大而故意选择用一些难度很大的偏词甚至怪词。这样做很多情况下不仅没有起到提高写作成绩的作用，反而因为使用的单词难度太大或者这个单词和文章其他部分反差太大而对写作成绩产生负面影响。其实要想达到显示自己单词量的目的，我们可以在思路上参考一下新概念英语的一些课文。

The plane was late and detectives were waiting at the airport all morning. They were expecting a valuable parcel of diamond. …To their surprise, the precious parcel was full of stones and sand.
(NCE II. 7) 飞机晚点了，侦探们整个上午都在机场等候。他们在等一包来自南非的珍贵的钻石。…让他们惊讶的是这个珍贵的包裹装满了沙子和石头。

英文单词的使用强调“Diversity”即多样性，要求同一段中表示相同的含义尽量多的用不同的词，尽量避免重复用词。上面这段选自新概念英语第二册的课文中我们可以看到作者在第一句话和第二句话都用到了“等候”这个词，但是在英文中分别用wait 和 expect 表示。另外，在表示“珍贵的”这个意思的时候在第二句和最后一句中分别用了valuable 和 precious这两个词。此外在新概念二册第十课Not for Jazz这篇课文的开头部分 We have an old musical instrument. It is called a clavichord. It was made in Germany in 1681. Our clavichord is kept in the living room. It has belonged to my family for a long time. The instrument was bought by my grandfather many years ago. Recently, it was damaged by a visitor. … … 这段文字中表示古钢琴这个含义作者分别用了“old musical instrument, clavichord, it, the instrument, our clavichord”等五种说法。充分体现了英语用词得多样性。

新概念三册中这样的句子也并不少见，例如：新三第一课第一段中
Pumas are large catlike animals which are found in America. When reports came into London Zoo that a wild puma had been spotted forty five miles south of London, they were not taken seriously. However, ……, for the description given by people who claimed to have seen the puma were extraordinarily similar. 这段话中三句话分别用find, spot, 以及see表示“发现”的意思。
或者这篇文章的第二段，The hunt for the puma began in a small village where a woman picking blackberries saw a large cat…… The search proved difficult for…… The hunt went on for several weeks……这三句话表示“搜寻，寻找”用到了“hunt”与“search”两个词。

要在雅思作文中表现自己的单词量，考生们应该注意灵活使用这个规律。有些词虽然看上去很专业，很大，但是如果反复出现的话也给人“原来你就会这一个词啊!”的印象。例如表示全球变暖可以用global warming，下面这段话除了表现不出作者的单词量外还显得异常的嗦，
Nowadays, global warming has become a world concern. People have different ideas of the role of individuals in solving global warming. Some believe that only the government should be responsible for global warming while others hold that individuals can make their own contribution to solving global warming. Personally, I think global warming can be solved by individuals.
这样的段落就算其他的词用得再好分数也不会太高。正确的做法是可以把反复出现的词灵活地用代词或者同义词进行替换，尽量用不同的单词表示相同的意思，这样可以显示出自己的单词量大而且理解英语的行文方式。例如上段话可以修改为：
Nowadays, global warming has become a world concern. People have different ideas of the role of individuals in solving this problem. Some believe that only the government should be responsible for it while others hold that individuals can make their own contribution to solving this issue. Personally, I think the heating up of the earth cannot be solved without individuals.
这段话中分别用“this problem, it, this issue, the heating up of the earth”来代替global warming，显得语言非常有节奏感、用词丰富且很自然。