Issue 29

　　"Imaginative works such as novels, plays, films, fairy tales, and legends present a more accurate and meaningful picture of human experience than do factual accounts. Because the creators of fiction shape and focus reality rather than report on it literally, their creations have a more lasting significance."

　　Do imaginative works hold more lasting significance than factual accounts, for the reasons the speaker cites? To some extent the speaker overstates fiction's comparative significance.

　　这篇文章是大部分肯定原题的观点，但也指出了不能过分夸大文学性作品的作用。

　　On balance, however, I tend to agree with the speaker. By recounting various dimensions of the human experience, a fictional work can add meaning to and appreciation of the times in which the work is set. Even \where\ a fictional work amounts to pure fantasy, with no historical context, it can still hold more lasting significance than a factual account. Examples from literature and film serve to illustrate these points.

　　第一段照例抓住主旨陈明小说等文学表现形式在记录人类历史经验方面的重大艺术性作用，在这一方面远优于事实性的平白记载。

　　好词好句：dimensions of the human experience, add meaning to and appreciation of the times in which the work is set注意介词的搭配hold more lasting significance Examples from…serve to illustrate these points.

　　I concede that most fictional works rely on historical settings for plot, thematic, and character development. By informing us about underlying political, economic, and social conditions, factual accounts provide a frame of reference needed to understand and appreciate imaginative works. Fact is the basis for fiction, and fiction is no substitute for fact.

　　学习一下这种两事物之间相辅相成的表达法。

　　I would also concede that factual accounts are more "accurate" than fictional ones--insofar as they are more objective. But this does not mean that factual accounts provide a "more meaningful picture of the human experience." To the contrary, only imaginative works can bring an historical period alive by way of creative tools such as imagery and point of view. And, only imaginative works can provide meaning to historical events--through the use of devices such as symbolism and metaphor.

　　这一段是先承认factual accounts的必要性，但在最好一句来个迂回战略，重申imaginative works对史记的独特作用，而这一点是前者所无法替代的。紧接着下一段就是惯常地举例说明了。

　　Several examples from literature serve to illustrate this point. Twain's novels afford us a sense of how 19th-Century Missouri would have appeared through the eyes of 10-year old boys. Melville's "Billy Budd" gives the reader certain insights \into\ what travel on the high seas might have been like in earlier centuries, through the eyes of a crewman. And the epic poems "Beowulf" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" provide glimpses of the relationships between warriors and their kings in medieval times. Bare facts about these historical eras are easily forgettable, whereas creative stories and portrayals such as the ones mentioned above can be quite memorable indeed. In other words, what truly last are our impressions of what life must have been like in certain places, at certain times, and under certain conditions.

　　这三个certain的排比非常有力，值得学习哦！Only imaginative works can provide such lasting impressions.

　　这一段作者通过Marktwain等大师的不朽作品阐述了imaginative works真的比bare facts要有意义得多。

　　Examples of important films underscore the point that creative accounts of the human experience hold more lasting significance than bare factual accounts这一段虽说是起到顺承作用，但是个人认为有repetition的感觉. Consider four of our most memorable and influential films: Citizen Kane, Schindkr5 LaSt, The Wizard of O~ and Star Wars. Did Welles' fictional portrayal of publisher William Randolph Hearst or Spielberg's fictional portrayal of a Jewish sympathizer during the holocaust provide a more "meaningful picture of human experience" than a history textbook? Did these accounts help give "shape and focus" to reality more so than newsreels alone could? If so, will these works hold more "lasting significance" than bare factual accounts of the same persons and events? I think anyone who has seen these films would answer all three questions affirmatively. Or consider The Wizard of O~ and Star Wars. Both films, and the novels from which they were adapted, are pure fantasy. Yet both teem with symbolism and metaphor relating to life's journey, the human spirit, and our hopes, dreams and ambitions--in short, the human experience. Therein lies the reason for their lasting significance.

　　这一段作者是从films的角度论证观点。穷举了n个可能我们中文认识但一提到英文翻译则死菜的名字。

　　In sum, without prior factual accounts fictional works set in historical periods lose much of their meaning. Yet only through the exercise of artistic license can we convey human experience in all its dimensions, and thereby fully understand and appreciate life in other times and places.这一句实在漂亮。And it is human experience, and not bare facts and figures, that endures in our minds and souls.

　　最后一段总结的十分好。大家尤其应该学习他的复杂句。

　　这篇文章个人认为应该>=5, <=5.5，为什么会上不了6分呢？我觉得是因为作者在狂举例子的同时，忽略了一些必要的理论性的句子。看看angei评的ets 6分范文就比较得出啦。

　　但是能够写成这样已经不错了。因为论艺术文学这种东西，如果非内行都不太可能说出一些道道来。唯有通过举实例来补救罗！这一点大家不妨模仿一下。