Overview—Main Features 总览——突出特点
W e have seen already that identifying key features is necessary in order to score high in task achievement.However,there are what we call "main features".For example,if we were to look at the Earth from space,we would see lots of blue oceans,the green continents,and clouds moving quickly around the globe.An overview is just like this.We take a big step back and provide "overall" or "global" details about the chart.
我们已经认识到了发掘细节特点对于在任务完成度上得到高分是至关重要的。除此之外，突出特点的重要性也不容小觑。举个例子，如果我们从太空俯视地球，我们会看见大片蓝色的海、绿色的陆地以及全球周围快速移动的白云，这些突出的特点就类似于我们文章中的总览。只有抽身局外，才能总览全局，在写作中也是同样的道理。
An effective overview sets up the next paragraph to provide the smaller details.Usually an overview comes at the beginning of your writing after the introduction,but it can just as easily come anywhere in your composition.Let's take a look at what the band descriptors have to say about overviews.
一个好的总览段能够为接下来的细节描述段落奠定基础。总览通常位于开篇介绍之后，不过也可以灵活处理，写在文章中的任意部分。下面我们看看评分说明表中关于总览的说明：
1) No mention of an overview.
1） 没有总览——5分。
2) Presents an overview with appropriately presented information.
2） 总览中的信息以恰当的方式呈现——6分。
3) Presents a clear overview of main trends,difference,or stages.
3） 总览中清晰地体现了突出趋势、差别或阶段——7分。
From the band descriptors you will notice that there is no mention of an overview in task achievement for scores for five and less.This is simply because if a candidate does not include an overview,he will not score more than five.
从以上评分说明表中，大家会注意到，在5分和低于5分的范围，没有关于总览的说明。这仅仅是因为如果考生没写总览，分数根本达不到5分。
A clear overview is the best way to bump your score up to 6 and beyond in task achievement.What's great about overviews is that they are really simple to write.Overviews should come after the introduction and give a brief description of the main features before you break them down into key fea-tures.If you manage to get all the main features in your overview,but do not manage to describe them in detail,you are still likely to get a six just for identifying them.Let's look at three different examples of overviews from the earlier crime question:
写出清晰的总览是能够让你的任务完成度得分迅速增长到6分以上最合适的方法。这一点很容易做到。总览通常位于开篇介绍之后、细节描述之前，对突出特点进行说明。如果在总览部分你阐述了所有的突出特点，但没能做到在余下部分中把突出特点拆解成多个细节特点来描述，即使这样你的得分也仍然会在6分左右。我们看一下有关之前犯罪问题的三种不同的总览范例：
The line chart below shows the number of crimes in millions in the UK from 1970 to 2005.Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
The line chart shows the number of crimes in millions in the UK from 1970 to 2005.The three crimes are street robbery,burglary,and car theft.
The line chart shows levels of crime in the UK in millions from 1970 to 2005.From the chart we can see that levels of street robbery hardly changed,but burglary doubled,and car theft more than doubled.
Levels of crime in the UK are presented in the chart.It can be seen that between 1970 and 2005,levels of street robbery hardly changed,while burglary doubled,and car theft more than doubled.It can also be seen that both burglary and car theft peaked in 1995,and car theft is almost always double burglary.
It should be pretty obvious that the first example is not even an overview,it is copied from the question.The second is a good start at an overview.We can see that three of the main key points are mentioned,which is enough to score a six.To score a seven,as the last example does,all of the main points have to be mentioned and expanded a little connecting ideas.The last example mentions all five of the main points.It is important to remember that your overview should be general and not provide to many of the fine details.That can be done in the body of the answer.
第一个范例的内容显然是直接从题干中搬过来的，根本不算是总览。第二个范例写出了一个不错的总览，三个突出特点都提及了，基本可以达到6分的水平。如果想达到7分，就要像第三个范例一样，不仅提及所有突出特点，还适当地拓展相关观点。第三个范例一共介绍了五个突出特点。敲黑板、划重点：总览是宽泛的，不要涉及细节信息。细节信息在正文中展现。
Here is another example of an overview borrowed from the question about carbon dioxide production:
下面是围绕二氧化碳排放量的样题所写的范文：
The table below compares carbon dioxide (CO2) production by the five countries that produced the most carbon dioxide in 2006.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
Data regarding levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in five countries are shown in the chart.Figures are presented for total CO2emissions measured in million tonnes (m/t) for 2005 and 2006,CO2emissions per person for 2005,and percentage change between 2005 and 2006.
Broadly speaking,it can be seen that China has among the highest levels of total CO2,but low levels of CO2per person,and is increasing quickly.At the same time,America has similar total levels,higher emissions per individual,but is decreasing slowly.Russia and Japan don't show much change,but like China,India's total production is also increasing.
To write an effective introduction and overview,just imagine that the examiner is blind and cannot see the table or graph.What you are writing is designed to help the examiner understand the graph without seeing it.
要想写出一段好的开篇和总览，你就想象考官是个盲人，他们看不见试卷上的图表。如果你的总览能让考官在不看图表的情况下就明白这个图表的内容，你就成功了。
WORD COUNT BOX
词数计算表
All candidates know that word count is important for their score.All candidates also know that their composition should be 150 words long at the mini-mum.Some candidates may also know that while 150 words in the official minimum,it is only word counts under 140 words that will be penalized.Here are the broad penalties for word counts:
众所周知，词数会影响得分，写作任务一的词数要求下限是150 词，这是雅思官方要求的，不过通常低于140词才会开始扣分。下面是具体词数对应的扣分额度：
Under 140-1 低于140词 扣1分
Under 100-2 低于100词 扣2分
Under 50-3 低于50词 扣3分
Candidates understand this pretty well,but what they don't realise is that there is a whole bunch of very common mistakes that reduce their word count even further:
考生对这个规定都非常了解，不过部分考生会无意识地犯一系列错误导致实际词数远少于他们认为的词数：
Copying the Language from the Question
从题干中照搬词句
Take a look at this question and candidate response:
看看下面这个题目和考生的答案：
The charts below show the percentage of boys and girls age 5-14 years old who took part in organised cultural activities and sport in Australia in 2003.
In the diagrams,we can see the percentage of boys and girls aged (8) five to fourteen years old taking part in organised cultural activities and sport in Australia in 2003.(19)
The parts of the question that have been copied have been struck through and you can see a number at the end of each.That number represents how many words have been deducted.This candidate has a total of 27 words deducted.If she had written 150 words,this word count would get reduced to 123 words and one TA mark would be deducted.
这个答案中与题干重复的词句都被划掉了，被划掉部分的词数在句尾标示出来了，这就是考官在计算词数时无效的部分。这名考生一共被减去了27 个词。如果她的总词数正好是 150 词，只剩 123 个词，那么在任务完成度这一评分标准上是会被扣分的。
To the candidate's credit she has changed some of the language and grammar in the question:
值得表扬的是她尝试对一些词汇和语法进行了改变：
5-14 five to fourteen
Who took part taking part
These changes are not enough to improve the score however,and the problem is that too much of the original question has been copied from the question.The rule of thumb to remember is:
但是这些改变还不足以提高分数，因为从题干中搬过来的词句太多了。大家需要记住一条经验法则：
DO NOT COPY ANY CHUNKS OF LANGUAGE LONGER THAN 7 WORDS.
不要照搬题干中长度超过7个词的词句。
Here are a couple of examples:
示例如下：
1) The diagram below shows the percentage of boys and girls that took part…(8 words)
2) 5-14-year-old boys and girls who took part in organised cultural activities and sport in 2003 in Australia.(9 words)
Rearranging the words in the question like switching "in Australia" and "in 2003" is a really poor way to rephrase the question,and will more than likely frustrate the poor examiner as he/she has to check and double-check the wording of the question.The number one best thing to do is to rephrase the question IN YOUR OWN WORDS using a minimum of input from the question,for example:
把题干中部分词汇例如 “in Australia” 和 “in 2003” 的位置进行调整并不是一个高招，很大程度上会适得其反地引起考官的反感，因为他/她需要一遍又一遍地去拿你的答案和题干核对。最好的办法是用“你自己的语言” 来对题干进行重新措辞，尽可能少地使用题干中的词句，例如：
Looking at the bar charts provided,the proportion of Australian boys and girls who were aged five to fourteen taking part in cultural activities and sport is shown for 2003.
The sentences above make enough changes to the original question that there are no long chunks of language to be cut out.Admittedly,there are some unavoidable phrases which the candidate has to use,but these are below seven words.The examiner is looking for your flexibility to rephrase the provided language.There are other ways that candidates can lose out on word count.Check out the Lexical Resource section for more on this.
以上例句在题干的基础上做了大量改变，没有大块照搬将被删去的词句。当然，还是会有少量短语不可避免地与题干重复，但这些都不足7个词，是允许的。考官希望看到的是考生在题干基础上对语言进行重组的能力。除此之外，考生还可能犯其他错误导致在词数上丢分，具体将在接下来的词汇丰富度这一章节中讲到。
The most critical thing to remember is that losing just one mark in TA really can be the difference between an overall score of 7 that sends you to a great university in another country,and the 6.5 that sends you to a really crappy university in China.
考生们需要记住很关键的一点：如果你在 “任务完成度” 这一维度失掉1分，可能你的总分就从7分掉到了6.5分，这就意味着国外理想大学和国内普通大学的差别。