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在TOEFL作文的文章结构上，笔者强烈建议考生们不要独辟蹊径，而应该采用最稳妥的文章结构。虽然我们有三种不同题型的文章，但写起文章来结构相差不多，对于对比选择类、评价观点类和自选论述类三种都能适用的文章结构为五段式：
在此结构基础上，我们根据实际需要做两种处理：
请看范文一
Topic: Should the money invested into a university library be used to buy books or to buy computers? What do you think? Why?
With the introduction of computers to the modern world, books, the traditional medium, are more and more challenged. Libraries often face the dilemma of whether to invest on computers or on books. With all aspects carefully considered, I think to invest on computers would be a better choice. When equipped with computers, a library may run more efficiently than ever. Students or faculties may get useful information as fast as the computer can. A student may find it easier to type in only a key word and get the desired results, which, if done with books, may well need a long time scanning among many related books; A （a） researcher may feel it more convenient to find an article on those CD series than in a paper book. With the development of computer technology, such as the increase of CPU rate, memory, or embedding of cache on the main-board, the efficiency of data retrieval can only be accelerated, whereas a man’s reading speed is normally limited to some extent.
The efficiency of getting information is the readers’ major concern.While for the librarians, what they care most is how to store as much as possible information within limited space.
A computer has a large storage capacity. When a book with 750, 000 Chinese characters is stored as electronic text, it only take （takes） about 1M bytes on the hard disk. When stored on a normal CD with 640MB capacity, when these CDs are packed in locks, much precious space will be spared for other uses.
Unlike a book, a mortal physical medium, a computer may keep all data on its disk safe and sound. It is very easy for us to copy, backup, or transfer those data to recordable CDs or other recording materials.
The last but not the least, Internet may provide these computers with more capabilities of future information exchanges.
Books, certainly, have their own merits. People have enough reasons to cherish this traditional medium. Books are easy to carry, more affordable and conveniently read without extra consumption of any other type of energy. However, for a modern library, computers, equipped with much more important merits like high efficiency large capacity, durability and Internet accessibility, can be more reasonably treated as a wiser choice.
这是一篇得到满分的作文，第三段是一个比较漂亮的过渡段，它把第一个优点和第二个优点有机地联系到了一起。这种写法使文章显得结构清晰、过渡自然。考生们在写中文作文时对于这种手法应该不会陌生，它在英文中也有用武之地，是一种使文章显现“well developed”的绝佳手法。
倒数第二段主要做让步或对反面观点进行评论，最后一段只做正面总结。
对于对比选择类、评价观点类两种题型，我们在文中必须要对自己所选观点的反面观点或其他选择做出论述，否则分数不会高于4分。因为只有对可能的选择或对立的观点都进行论述，才能表现出作者思维缜密、论述透彻。由于文章中间段落主要用来支持自己的立场， 所以要等到末尾段才能针对对立观点进行论述。（还有另外一种可能,考生可以在第二段就将其他选择或反面立场加以论述。） 论述其他选择或反面立场时，往往要先认可对方的一部分优点，之后再提其缺点。这样的文字积累起来也不少，不如从末段分出，成为倒数第二段。请参照下例，体会这种结构。
Topic: Traveling is more important than reading books in order to understand the people and the world. Do you agree or disagree with the statement. Use specific reasons to support your answer.
Do you know the most popular pastime in the world is reading? Now there’re various kinds of books available and we can learn lots of things from them. Books become the main source of knowledge we obtain. There’re about three advantages in reading as follows:
First, books provide us with various aspects of knowledge. We can learn physics, chemistry, mathematics and philosophy etc. from books. These are all necessary for us. Without the scientific knowledge, a person will probably not know how to operate a washing machine and how to use a computer. Without all this knowledge, a person can’t live a better life in the modern world.
Second, reading makes us understand the world more. If we have one month and one thousand dollars, we can only travel to one or two places to learn how people live there. But how many books can we buy with the money and how many books can we finish in one month? All these books may contain information about dozens of places, we can learn more by reading than by traveling.
Third, reading is the most romantic and the safest kind of traveling. By reading, we can travel to the North Pole without having to endure the freezing cold; we can also go to the desert without having to fear the threat of thirst. We can also go back to the ancient times to have a look at the people’s life without any difficulty.
Of course, traveling gives us direct experiences. It’s much more exciting and active than reading. It’s necessary for a person to expand his horizon. When you have a chance or enough money and time, you can travel around the world, it will make your life more pleasant and make you have a deep understanding about the people and the world.
But as students, we don’t have enough time and money to travel around; and studying is the most important thing for us to do. So why not read as many books as possible when we are young? This way we can get enough knowledge to serve the people and the society better. Anyway we will have enough chances to travel later.