On the Importance of a Name

According to the Bible, it is the almighty God who gave names to everything he created: "he named the light ‘Day' and the darkness ‘Night'". In fact, a name is a word or phrase that man uses to denote and identify a specific person, place or thing. There is no inexorable correlation between the sign and "the signified". For this reason, some claim that names are not so vital as they are supposed to be. However, I am fully convinced that they are of great importance.

Take the name of a person as an example. It is known to all that a person's name is divided into two parts: given name and surname. The given name is the name our parents assign us. We ourselves might change it later in our life. Usually, when a name is given, it contains a lot of information. Say, "li" in the name of some Chinese females shows that we wish them to "beautiful" while "wei" in the names of some males reveals that we expect them to be "great" in their future life.

As to the surname or family name, it is even more important, so important that some people may sacrifice their life for it. Originally, man had no such a name. But ever since a certain name was given, each member of the family carries it wherever he goes. Rather than merely a sign, it is the root from which we can trace back to our ancestor, the tie that helps bind us to other members of the same clan, the dignity most people hope to live for.

Apart from the name of a person, that of a place or thing is also significant in that it embodies history and culture. All in all, though names are assigned artificially, man is not free when giving names. But God is.

作文作為四六級考試中最大的一塊主觀題，對考生來說是重要的。和以前一樣，現在作文沿襲固有的出題風格，四級偏重于校園生活，六級摻入初步的分析方式。另外，考生應該注意以下一些方面。

由于作文采用先掃描，然后在電腦前閱卷，所以在閱卷教師主觀判卷過程中，作文的框架和書寫的整潔程度對分值段的評定起著較重要的作用。黑色水筆作答，這樣可以顯影更加清晰。涂改液，對答題紙的折疊，和使用其他顏色的水筆都有可能對掃描效果造成負面影響。格式上，這里推薦用齊頭式，這樣會讓卷面看上去更整潔。另外，字寫得大且端正，可顯得文章清楚，也可以彌補字寫得不好的缺點。齊頭式，要求所有段落的首行，都在左邊頂格，段落中間空行。

構思簡單，少犯錯誤。外語考試的作文，考查的目標不是考生的思維水平或邏輯分析能力，而是考核語言表達能力。所以建議采取的措施是，簡化自己的思維和分析。也就是，如何降低自己的思維水平，來迎合自己有限的語言狀況。語言上，關鍵在于變化，變化不分難易，只要有變化就行。變化分為詞的變化、句的變化。在用詞上，同一文章中，相同意義的詞要爭取不斷的用近義詞替換。

廣大考生可以靈活運用寫作套路，比如上課時候學的一些經典句型或結構。現在的作文大多還是提綱式的文章，可以把提綱變為中心句放在每段的開頭，后面加上由邏輯詞鏈接的分支觀點。這就是所謂的老路新走，不變應萬變。

本次四、六級考試出題方式仍然借用國內外成熟穩健的出題模式。四、六級考試，作為國際上認可度最高的中國英語(論壇)考試之一，其改革使之更為科學，更貼近現實語言學習情況。只要學員掌握好英語學習的基礎，適當應用考試技能，就一定能考出更好的成績。

總的來說，大學英語四、六級考試，作為中國人自己的英語語言測試，其科學性和權威性，目前在國內是難以被替代的。隨著英語全球化發展，外資的不斷引入和對外交流的不斷擴大，在激烈的就業競爭中，四、六級分數的高低，對大多數畢業生的求職有著不可替代的重要作用。四、六級的作用和影響將在較長時間內難以動搖。