連貫性（coherence）

連貫性包括意連和形連兩個方面，前者指的是內(nèi)在的邏輯性，后者指的是使用轉換詞語。當然這兩者常常是不可分割的。只有形連而沒有意連，句子之間就沒有內(nèi)在的有機的聯(lián)系；反之，只有意連而沒有形連，有時行文就不夠流暢。

1）、意連

段落中句子的排列應遵循一定的次序，不能想到什么就寫什么。如果在下筆之前沒有構思，邊寫邊想，寫寫停停，那就寫不出一氣呵成的好文章來。下面介紹幾種常見的排列方式。

A．按時間先后排列（chronological arrangement）

We had a number of close calls that day. When we rose, it was obviously late and we had to hurry so as not to miss breakfast; we knew the dining room staff was strict about closing at nine o’clock. Then, when we had been driving in the desert for nearly two hours ----- it must have been close to noon ---- the heat nearly hid us in; the radiator boiled over and we had to use most of our drinking water to cool it down. By the time we reached the mountain, it was our o’clock and we were exhausted. Here, judgement ran out of us and we started the tough climb to the summit, not realizing that darkness came suddenly in the desert. Sure enough, by six we were struggling and Andrew very nearly went down a steep cliff, dragging Mohammed and me along with him. By nine, when the wind howled across the flat ledge of the summit, we knew as we shivered together for warmth that it had not been our lucky day.

本段從“rose”（起床）寫起，然后是吃早餐（“not to miss breakfast”, “closing at nine o’clock”），然后是“close to noon”，一直寫到這一天結束（“By nine--”）。

B. 按位置遠近排列（spatial arrangement）。例如：

From a distance, it looked like a skinny tube, but as we got closer, we could see it flesh out before our eyes. It was tubular, all right, but fatter than we could see from far away. Furthermore, we were also astonished to notice that the building was really in two parts: a pagoda sitting on top of a tubular one-story structure. Standing ten feet away, we could marvel at how much of the pagoda was made up of glass windows. Almost everything under the wonderful Chinese roof was made of glass, unlike the tube that it was sitting on, which only had four. Inside, the tube was gloomy, because of the lack of light. Then a steep, narrow staircase took us up inside the pagoda and the light changed dramatically. All those windows let in a flood of sunshine and we could see out for miles across the flat land.

本段的寫法是由遠及近，從遠處（“from a distance”）寫起，然后“get closer”，再到（“ten feet away”），最后是“inside the pagoda”……當然，按位置遠近來寫不等于都是由遠及近。根據(jù)需要，也可以由近及遠，由表及里等等。

C. 按邏輯關系排列（logical arrangement）

a. 按重要性順序排列（arrangement in order of importance）

If you work as a soda jerker, you will, of course, not need much skill in expressing yourself to be effective. If you work on a machine, your ability to express yourself will be of little importance. But as soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken or the written word. And the further away your job is from manual work, the larger the organization of which you are an employee, the more important it will be that you know how to convey your thoughts in writing or speaking. In the very large business organization, whether it is the government, the large corporation, or the Army, this ability to express oneself is perhaps the most important of all the skills a man can possess.

這一段談的是表達能力，它的重要性與職業(yè)，身份有關，從“not need much skill”或“of little importance”到“more important”，最后是“most important”。

b.由一般到特殊排列（general-to-specific arrangement）

If a reader is lost, it is generally because the writer has not been careful enough to keep him on the path. This carelessness can take any number of forms. Perhaps a sentence is so excessively cluttered that the reader, hacking his way through the verbiage, simply doesn’t know what it means. Perhaps a sentence has been so shoddily constructed that the reader could read it in any of several ways. Perhaps the writer has switched tenses, or has switched pronouns in mid-sentence, so the reader loses track of when the action took place or who is talking. Perhaps sentence B is not logical sequel to sentence A ---- the writer, in whose head the connection is clear, has not bothered to provide the missing link. Perhaps the writer has used an important word incorrectly by not taking the trouble to look it up. He may think that "sanguine" and "sanguinary" mean the same thing, but the difference is a bloody big one. The reader can only infer what the writer is trying to imply.

這一段談的是a writer’s carelessness，先給出一個general statement作為主題句，然后通過5個 ＂perhaps＂加以例證。

c. 由特殊到一般排列（specific-to-general arrangement）

I do not understand why people confuse my Siamese cat, Prissy, with the one I had several years ago, Henry. The two cats are only alike in breed. Prissy, a quiet, feminine feline, loves me dearly but not possessively. She likes to keep her distance from people, exert her independence and is never so rude as to beg, lick, or sniff unceremoniously. Her usual posture is sitting upright, eyes closed, perfectly still. Prissy is a very proper cat. Henry, on the other hand, loved me dearly but possessively. He was my shadow from morning till night. He expected me to constantly entertain him. Henry never cared who saw him do anything, whether it was decorous or not, and he usually offended my friends in some way. The cat made himself quite comfortable, on the top of the television, across stranger’s feet or laps, in beds, drawers, sacks, closets, or nooks. The difference between them is imperceptible to strangers.

本段的主題句是段首句，它僅提出一個問題：為什么兩只貓會被搞混。然后對兩者進行比較，末句才下結論。

2）、形連

行文的邏輯性常常要靠適當?shù)霓D換詞語及其他手段來實現(xiàn)。請讀下面這一段文字并找出文中用以承上啟下的詞語：

Walter’s goal in life was to become a successful surgeon. First, though, he had to get through high school, so he concentrated all his efforts on his studies --- in particular, biology, chemistry, and math. Because he worked constantly on these subjects, Walter became proficient in them; however, Walter forgot that he needed to master other subjects besides those he had chosen. As a result, during his junior year of high school, Walter failed both English and Latin. Consequently, he had to repeat these subjects and he was almost unable to graduate on schedule. Finally, on June 6, Walter achieved the first step toward realizing his goal.

本文中起承上啟下的詞語有兩種，一種是轉換詞語（transitional words or phrases），另一種是起轉換作用的其他連接手段（linking devices）。前者依次有：first, though, so, in particular, and, because, however, besides, as a result, both…and, consequently, and, finally. 后者依次是：he, he, his, his, he, these, them, he, those, his, he, these, his. 本段中共有詞匯105個，所使用的轉換詞語及其他連接用語共26個詞，約占該段總詞匯量的四分之一。由此可見，掌握好transitions 不僅對行文的流（smoothness）有益，而且對于學生在半個小時內(nèi)寫足四級短文所要求的120個詞也是不無好處的。

一個段落里如果沒有transitions也就很難有coherence了.我們看下面一個例子： Speaking and writing are different in many ways. Speech depends on sounds. Writing uses written symbols. Speech developed about 500 000 years ago. Written language is a recent development. It was invented only about six thousand years ago. Speech is usually informal. The word choice of writing is often relatively formal. Pronunciation and accent often tell where the speaker is from. Pronunciation and accent are ignored in writing. A standard diction and spelling system prevails in the written language of most countries. Speech relies on gesture, loudness, and rise and fall of the voice. Writing lacks gesture, loudness and the rise and fall of the voice. Careful speakers and writers are aware of the differences.

本段中除了第6句開頭出現(xiàn)一個起過渡作用的＂it＂之外，沒有使用其他的過渡詞語.這樣，文中出現(xiàn)許多重復的詞語，全段讀起來也顯得生硬而不自然。如果加上必要的過渡詞語來修飾的話，這一段就成了下面一個流暢連貫的段落：

Speaking and writing are different in many ways. Speech depends on sounds; writing, on the other hand, uses written symbols. Speech was developed about 500 000 years ago, but written language is a recent development, invented only about six thousand years ago. Speech is usually informal, while the word choice of writing, by contrast, is often relatively formal. Although pronunciation and accent often tell where the speaker is from, they are ignored in wiring because a standard diction and spelling system prevails in most countries. Speech relies on gesture, loudness, and the rise and fall of the voice, but writing lacks these features. Careful speakers and writers are aware of the differences．

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