要提高写作能力，掌握足够的单词、词组和句型是至关重要的。有的考生认为通过机械记忆《大纲》上的词汇表，认为只要记熟上面的五千多个词汇就万事大吉，就能下笔成章了。这种方法是不可取的。

语言的学习离不开语境。在某种语境中学习语言，不仅有助于学习者记忆语料，更重要的是能够帮助他们了解和掌握词汇的各种变化、惯用法、相互关联、各种修辞和特殊用法等。阅读则是学习者熟悉英语语境的主要方法之一。

学习者可以从众多的原汁原味的阅读材料吸取语言素材，再通过记忆、运用(口语、写作等)内化成自己的语言。比如，在冲刺阶段，考生通过做模拟题的方式，从一篇文章及语境中学到许多有用的词组和表达法。 ①Invention and innovation have been quintessentially American puisuits from the earliest days of the republic. BenjaminFranklin was a world-famous scientist and inventor. Cyrus McCormick and his harvester, Samuel F.B. Morse and the telegraph, Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone—the 19th century produced a string of inventors and their world-changing creations. And then there was the greatest of them all, Thomas Alva Edisonl. He came up with the crucial devices that would give birth to three enduring American industries: electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures.

②Much of the world we live in today is a legacy of Edison and of his devotion to science and innovation. Edison taught us to invent, and for decades we were the best in the world. But today, more than 160 years after Edison’s birth, America is losing its scientific edge. A landmark report released in May by the National Science Board lays out the numbers: while U.S. investment in R&D as a share of total GDP has remained relatively constant since the mid-1980s at 2.7%, the federal share of R&D has been consistently declining—even as Asian nations like Japan and South Korea have rapidly increased that ratio. At the same time, American students seem to be losing interest in science. Only about one-third of U.S. bachelor’s degrees are in science or engineering now, compared with 63% in Japan and 53% in China.

③It’s ironic that nowhere is America’s position in science and technology more threatened than in the industry that Edison essentially invented: energy. Clean power could be to the 21st century what aeronautics and the computer were to the 20th, but the U.S. is already falling behind. Meanwhile, Congress remains largely paralyzed. Though in May the House of Representatives was finally able to pass the $86 billion America Competes Reauthorization Act, which would double the budgets of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Energy Department’s Office of Science, the bill’s fate is cloudy in the deadlocked Senate. “At this rate…we’ll be buying most of our wind generators and photovoltaic panels from other countries,” former NSF head Arden L. Bement said at a congressional hearing recently. “That’s what keeps me awake something at night.”

④Some erosion of the U.S.’s scientific dominance is inevitable in a globalized world and might not even be a bad thing. Tomorrow’s innovators could arise in Shanghai or Seoul or Bangalore. And Edison would counsel against panic—as he put it once, “Whatever setbacks America has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation.” But the U.S. will inevitably decline unless we invest in the education and research necessary to maintain the American edge. The next generation of Edisons could be waiting. But unless we move quickly, they won’t have the tools they need to thrive.

这篇文章选自2010年7月5日Time(美国时代周刊)，原汁原味，同时更是考研英语篇章语料出题来源之一。这样选材的文章，都是考生平时吸收语言材料的理想选择。

比如，句式方面我们可以学习到：

It’s ironic that…具有讽刺意义的事情是…… 这个句式用在写作中可以表达出另一种相反的例证，是很好的提出相反意义论据的句型。

Whatever setbacks America has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation.(不论美国遇到什么挫折困难，克服之后他都会成为一个更加坚强和繁荣的国度。)这个句型多么简洁好用!可用在表达“无论……,结果都会是更……。”意义的时侯。我们在写考研作文的时候，常要用到这样积极表达正面意义的句型。

还有最后两句话中都出现了“unless”这个连接词。在考研英语作文部分，如果你能正确和恰当的使用这个连接词，来构成一个复合句。你的作文结构将显得很“高级”和英语逻辑感很地道。But the U.S. will inevitably decline unless we invest in the education and research necessary to maintain the American edge. . But unless we move quickly, they won’t have the tools they need to thrive.

除此之外，文章中其他黑体字部分都是很好很地道的词组和搭配等，不仅值得记忆，考生更应当通过造句等方式学着使用。

为了学习写作而进行的阅读，在选材是要遵循两个原则： 其一，语言是比较简练的，易于模仿和记忆。其二，内容与人们的日常工作、学习、生活有较密切的联系，这样易于把相关的表达方式应用到考试的写作当中去。