容易混淆的詞匯

考生由于對形似、意近的詞辨別不清，不知道他們各自的具體用法，而在托福寫作中出現(xiàn)失誤。比如，有的詞雖然意思相同，但他們表達同一個意思的程度是不同的;有的英語單詞的漢語意思相同，但他們所限定修飾的詞、使用的范圍或者連接的成分是不同的;有的單詞的文體風格不同，有正式和非正式之分。

要注意自己寫文章的總體風格，在正式文體中避免使用非正式的語言。鑒于選詞的難度，考生應在平時注意多查詞典，注意其中所舉得例句，在看英語材料時留心寫作詞匯的具體使用環(huán)境，并摘錄一些自己能看明白但說不出的表達。

1、Original: Bill Gates gives a definite answer that college education does count.

Revised: Bill Gates gave a definitive answer: college education does count.

Definite意思是“明確的”、“一定的”，指意思明確，不會誤解;definitive也是“明確”的意思，但往往指“權威性、最后決定的”。此話出自比爾·蓋茨之口，體現(xiàn)權威性，故將definite改為definitive。

2、Original: …people may attend a university or college for various reasons...

Revised: …people attend university or college for a multitude of reasons...

此處將various改為短語a multitude of更為正式，體現(xiàn)人們讀大學的原因很多。

3、Original: The kinds of education that we got on school are formal and intense ones...

Revised: The kinds of education that we receive at school is formal and of tentimes very intense.

不必用kinds of education，直接用education(教育)即可;“受教育”不同get，改為receive;“在學校”不必用at school;把one去掉，用oftentimes very intense指出學校教育常常是非常嚴格的。

4、Original: They can foster their interests in some fields to make life more colorful and meaningful.

Revised: They can even pick up hobbies to make life more colorful and enjoyable.

Foster their interests是“培養(yǎng)興趣”，此處用pick up hobbies(開始各種各樣的興趣)更為合適;不同的興趣是我們生活的調味劑，使我們的生活多姿多彩，樂趣無窮，把meaningful換成enjoyable，與colorful搭配更合適。

5、Original: Needless to say, more employment means more income and less idle life, so that people can enjoy a better life and make investment in their future.

Revised: Needless to say, more employment means income and less idle time, so that people can enjoy a better life and invest in their own futures.

把idle life改為idle time更為合適，表示“閑散時間”;make investment可改為動詞invest，與and前的動詞enjoy詞性一致;人們各自有自己的未來，故將in their future改為in their own futures。

6、Original: Another important factor that contributes to the extension of life expectancy is the development of medical science.

Revised: Another imortant factor that contributes to the rise in life expectancy is the development of medical science.

“人的壽命的延長”可以表示為life extension，但是如果用life expectancy，則要用the increast of 或the rise in life expectancy。

7、Original: the growth of life span.

Revised: the rise in/increase of life span.

Life span意思是“壽命”，growth指“生長，增長”，“壽命的延長”用growth不合適，life span“壽命的延長”可以用rise in/increase of/extension of.

8、Original: energy saving

Revised: energy efficiency

Energy saving一般作定語，此處名詞短語“節(jié)能”最好用energy efficiency。

9、Original: with the increasing complicatedness of the job profile

Revised: with the increasing complexity of the modern jor profile

Complicatedness意思是“錯綜復雜”，但是這種錯綜復雜是有邏輯的;complexity也是“復雜”的意思，但這種復雜是雜亂無辜的，現(xiàn)代的工作情況用complexity較為合適。

10、Original: Such experience will difinitely be helpful in children's later life.

Revised: Such experience will benefit them later in life.

Helpful是“提供幫助”的意思，而benefit是“使…受益”。這里作者想說的是孩子將來的人生會受益于這樣的經歷，用benefit合適，因為這樣的經歷不一定能對孩子將來的人生提供什么具體的幫助。

11、Original: In my submission, people should sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing.

Revised: Because of these circumstances, I believe it is inevitable that people must do what they don't enjoy doing.

In one's submission雖然也可以表示某人所持的觀點，但是這是一種非常formal(正式)的表述，用在這里和整體文章的風格不太相符。

12、Original: For no one can promise what will happen in the future, if you don't save some money, an emergency will probably make you a cat on a hot brick.

Revised: Because no one can predict the future, if you don't save money an unforeseen emergency can be financially crippling.

Promise的意思是“承諾、允諾”，用在這里不合適，作者要說的是沒有人能與之未來發(fā)生的事，應該用predit。還有，作者在這里用了一個慣用語a cat on a hot brick，這又有一個錯誤。第一，這個表述本身有錯誤，正確的應該是like a cat on hot bricks。第二，這個慣用語的意思是“忐忑不安，如熱鍋上的螞蟻“，用在這里意思也不太合適。