段落展开法I

1.段落的设计

段落需要事先设计好。首先要定下一个主题或一个中心意思，并用一句话表达出来(即主题句);其次，选择有助于阐述这一中心意思的例子或细节，把它们一一列出;最后，把这些细节按逻辑顺序排好，一个段落的初稿就这样设计出来了。

初学者最好先写一个提纲。比方说，要写一个关于集邮的段落，可以先写下这样一个中心句子：集邮是一个很有意思的业余爱好，然后列出下面几点：

(1)邮票上印有美丽的图案;

(2)邮票上印有历史人物的横行;

(3)每当收集到过去未见过的邮票时，我总是格外高兴;

(4)从收集的邮票里，我能学到不少知识。

当你重读以上写好的四点提纲时，也许会发现最后一点还是放在前面更合适。按照这个提纲，你可以写出下面的段落：

Philately is an interesting hobby. Every time I open my albums and look at the stamps Ive collected over the years, I learn something new. On many of them are printed drawings or pictures of rare birds, animals, trees or flowers. Under a magnifying glass they look very beautiful, and they help to increase my knowledge of nature. On other stamps there are portraits of historical figures, such as Qu Yuan and Dr. Sun Yatsen, George Washington and Chester W. Nimits. Whenever I see an unfamiliar name, I will try to find some information about the person by consulting an encyclopedia. In this way I have come to know something about quite a few people who are famous for one reason or another. Some of my friends and relatives who know I am interested in stamps often show me used envelopes. If I see a stamp which I have never seen before or I havent got yet, I will ask them to give it to me, and it seems that they are always kind enough to oblige me. It is always a delight to add a new stamp to my collection, and the more stamps I have, the more interested I am in philately.

--Student

2. 按时间展开

讲故事或追述往事时最简单、也最清楚的表达方式就是按事件发生的时间顺序来叙述。先发生的事情先讲，后发生的事情后讲。请看例文：

James Murray was born in Scotland in 1873, the son of a village tailor. He went to a parish school, but he left at 14 and he educated himself with pertinacity. He loved knowledge and he loved to impart it. He became a school master; he learned language after language and was alive to geology, archeology and phonetics, as well as to local politics. He had to leave Scotland because of the illness of his first wife, and he became a bank clerk in London. By sheer energy of scholarship, and without benefit of any university education, he made himself indispensable to the other remarkable philologists of his day. He returned to school-teaching and lived a 72-hour day for the rest of his life. For he invitation to edit what became the O. E. D. was one that he could not refuse. At first he combined it with his school work; later he moved to Oxford and dedicated himself to building the best sort of monument-best in that it was not a monument to something dead but rather to something living: the English language.

-- Christopher Ricks

3. 按过程展开

为了讲清楚如何做一件事情，我们通常按其步骤的先后顺序逐项说明。在这一类文章里常常用祈使句和不定代词你来表达。如果文章中的说明至今有效，须在行文中使用现在时。请看下面的例子：

Once you encounter a person who has stopped breathing, you should begin immediately to do mouth-to-mouth breathing. First, place the victim on his back and remove any foreign matter from his mouth with your fingers. Then tilt his head backwards, so that his chin is pointing up. Next, pull his mouth open and his jaw forward, pinch his nostrils shut to prevent the air which you blow into his mouth from escaping through his nose. Then place your mouth tightly over the victims. Blow into his mouth until you see his heart rise. Then turn your head to the side and listen for the outrush of air which indicates an air exchange. Repeat the process

--A handbook

4.按空间展开

我们有时需要对一个地方进行一番描述。不论我们要描述的是一个大国家还是一个小房间，我们都要先设计好描述的顺序。要作到这一点，就要先搞清楚所要描述的地方有哪些细节，它们之间的方位关系如何，从哪一个角度开始展开描述比较清楚等。对一个地方的描述最忌零散无章，使读者摸不着头脑。请看下例：

Mr. Cook, a renowned American historian, arranges the books on his bookshelves in a unique way. In the upper right hand corner, there are books about the development of the early colonies in New England and the War of Independence. Right under them can be found books on the slave trade, the plantation system and growth of the southern states. The left side of the shelf contains hundreds of books concerning subjects of the Westward Movement, Indian culture, the cowboys contributions to American society and the Gold Rush in California. From the description above, one can see that Mr. Cook regards his bookshelves as a map of the U.S. and arranges his history books accordingly. It is odd, but it is convenient.

--Student

5. 举例和归纳

通过举例来展开段落，可以使中心句的抽象意思具体化，给读者留下一个清晰、有趣、深刻和信服的印象。请看下例：

Whether you do or do not open a gift in the presence of the giver; whether you should or should not turn the plate over to look at the makers symbol on the back; whether you put your coat on before or after you leave the hosts house; whether you eat as quietly or noisily as possible; whether you carry on a conversation during a meal; whether you walk in front of or behind a seated person; whether it is a friendly or an offensive gesture to put your hand on the arm of the person with whom you are talking-these and a thousand other questions are matters of cultural definition. None of them is inherently right or wrong, and none is good or bad manners except as a society defines it so.