写作：五十五分钟里的便条与短文
The writing paper has two parts and 55 minutes in total. Part 1 is a 便条 of about 80 characters worth 10 marks, where 称呼、正文、署名、日期 are separately marked. Part 2 is a 短文 of not fewer than 250 characters worth 30 marks. A candidate spends 32 minutes on the 便条, decorating it and rewriting the 正文 three times, and starts Part 2 with 23 minutes left. At the 9-minute mark the candidate has 120 characters of the 短文 on paper, has crossed out a character they could not write and left a blank, has used 因为…所以 three times, and has written 他跑的很快 where 得 is wanted. They still have the conclusion to write and are considering adding the idiom 一举两得 to raise the style mark.
1. With 9 minutes left, what should the candidate do first, and what should be dropped from the plan?
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Content first, decoration last. Nine minutes at normal handwriting speed is roughly 90–120 characters, which is exactly what is missing to reach 250. So the first move is to finish the argument and write a one-sentence conclusion, not to re-read page one.
Priority order:
- Write the missing conclusion - a 短文 without an ending loses 结构 marks that cost more than a missing idiom.
- Fill in or rephrase the blanked character (see next task).
- Fix the 跑的→跑得 slip if a line can be inserted cleanly; if not, leave it.
- Drop 一举两得. Bolting an idiom into the last line of a rushed essay usually produces a mismatch, and one idiom does not move the band; an uncompleted essay does.
Also drop any plan to rewrite Part 1. Those 10 marks are already banked. The candidate's real error was 32 minutes on an 80-character note - roughly 2.5 times what it deserves given the marks split 10:30.
2. The candidate cannot recall how to write a character in the middle of the 短文 and has left a blank. What are the options, ranked?
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Ranked best to worst:
- Rephrase around it. If the missing word is 蓝, write 那件深色的衣服; if it is 戴, write 头上那顶帽子. The examiner marks communication, and a paraphrase that keeps the sentence grammatical is invisible in the marking.
- Substitute a simpler synonym you can definitely write, as long as the sentence still means the same thing.
- Write the character in pinyin. This keeps the meaning readable but signals a spelling gap; it usually costs less than a blank because the sentence still parses.
- Leave a blank. Worst option - it breaks the sentence and is read as an unfinished script.
A blank in the middle of a sentence is far more damaging than a circumlocution, because the marker cannot reconstruct the meaning and the surrounding grammar looks broken. Practice the paraphrase habit on the ten or so characters you personally blank on (common culprits: 戴/带, 蓝/篮, 练/炼, 像/象).
3. The draft uses 因为…所以 three times and contains 他跑的很快. Explain what each costs and what the quick fix is, given the time left.
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因为…所以 three times in a 250-character essay reads as a template. The pattern is grammatical and not wrong, but repetition is scored under 语言表达/句式; markers look for variety. It costs at most a mark or two - not a disaster, but free to fix.
Cheap fixes that need no rewriting:
- Keep the first one, and turn the second into 由于…，… or 之所以…，是因为….
- Replace the third with a plain sequence: 结果…／因此….
- Alternatively delete the 所以 in one pair - 因为 alone at the head of a clause is fine in writing.
他跑的很快 is a different kind of error: 得 is the complement marker after a verb, so 跑得快. This is a 错别字/语法 point and is the sort of thing markers tick. Fix it if there is room to insert 得; do not rewrite the sentence around it with minutes to spare.
With 9 minutes left, do the 得 first (one character), the repeated 因为 second (two edits at most), and stop. Style polish beyond that risks leaving the essay unfinished.