事件描寫（Describing Something That Happened）美文欣賞
It happened to be a beautiful summer afternoon, and Mr. Phillip
was taking a walk in the downtown area of Paris, capital of France.
When he turned to a street corner, he heard the voice of a lovely French singer coming from a nearby restaurant. The sweet music attracted him, so he went into the restaurant to hear it better.
Mr. Phillip sat down quietly at a table near the door. Noticing the waiter come over, he ordered a glass of French wine’
The waiter returned with the glass of wine and put it on the table. Mr. Phillip started drinking the wine slowly and watched the other people in the restaurant.
There were three customers sitting at a table near him. He could tell by their accents that one of them was an American, one an Englishman and the third man was a funny-looking stranger. The polite waiter served each of the three men a glass of beer. By chance, each glass had a fly in it.
Out of curiosity(好奇心), Mr. Phillip watched carefully what they were going to do. To his amusement, he found that each of them took quite a different attitude. The American picked up his glass, took a hard look at the fly, and then poured the fly and half of his beer on the floor. The Englishman looked into the glass, noticed the fly and reached for a spoon, with which he took the fly out of the beer and drank the rest of it. And the stranger noticed the fly in the beer, picked it with his fingers, squeezed(捏緊)it carefully in order to save every drop of the beer, and then drank it up. 這篇228字的短文講述了一個帶有滑稽色彩的小故事，在輕松的一笑之后，我們還應該看到它具有典型的“事件描寫”特征:
Who--Mr. Phillip and the other three;
When---a beautiful summer afternoon; Where---a restaurant in Paris;
What---something funny;
How---Mr. Phillip watched the three drinking beer.
其次，我們應該注意短文中用了基本上不重復的34個動詞和8個非謂語動詞，使得整個事件動靜結合，可讀性強。
同時，作者在描述三人對同一事件的處理上也各有不同，頗有民族特色。
另外，短文的結尾干凈利落，出乎意料，令人忍俊不禁的同時又很想知道：第三人是哪國人？
推薦背誦文段
常用表達法
1. 寫作技巧
1）敘述完整5個W（5 Ws）:
Who, What, When, Where, How,(Why)
2）描寫生動3要點（Vivid description）:
Using different verbs;
Using verbs;
Using proper prepositions.
3）寫好開頭與結尾（A good beginning and a good ending）
A good beginning---引人入勝
A good ending ---回味良久4）時態語態要貼切（Good tenses and proper voices）
2. 表達技巧
1)用好過渡詞，使文章前后連貫
(1) 表示時間過程的：
now, then, afterwards, five minutes later, soon, before long, after supper, to this day, just now, just then
（2）表示前因后果的：
because, because of, since, thanks to, so, as a result, thus ,therefore, luckily, unfortunately
（3）表示同等并列的：
and, also, as well as, and then
（4）表示解釋說明的：
that is to say, for example, and so on, such as, according to, for this reason
2)把握兩個原則，用好不同時態
（1）“一致”的原則：在同一時段中的動作、狀態等應該用同一種時態，形成一種并列結構。
誤：He had gone to the market, buys some flowers and then returned home.
正：He went to the market, bought some flowers and then returned home.
誤：He will go abroad after he finishes his high school education and studies there until he gets his doctor’s degree.
正：He will go abroad after he finishes his high school education and (will) study there until he gets his doctor’s degree.
（2）“呼應”的原則：在同一句話中或在同一段文段中，一般不能產生時態的“跳躍”，應形成一種呼應狀態。
誤：He said he has been there for three days and he will leave the next day.
正：He said he had been there for three days and he would leave the next day.
規則一：和一般過去時“呼應”的時態應該是過去完成時、過去將來時或過去進行時。
誤：He has lived in this old house since he had been a child and he would move into a new house soon. He works in an office not far from his new house.
正：He has lived (has been living)in this old house since he was a child and he will move into a new house soon. He works in an office not far from his new house.
規則二：和現在完成（進行）時“呼應”的時態不應該是過去完成時或過去將來時，反之亦然。
寫作練習
(NMET98)五月三日，你參觀了一個農場，請根據下列圖畫用英語寫一篇日記。
注意：1.日記須包括所有圖畫的內容，可以適當增減細節，使日記連貫；
2.詞數100左右。
習作點評
May 3rd suny
It’s a lovely day today! The students of our school visited the Red Star farm.
In the morning, we get together at the gate of the No.1 Middle School, then full of happy, we were singing and laughing on our way to the farm.
We walked and arrived at the farm nearly at noon, there we received a warm welcome. After that, the farmers guided us to see many kinds of vegetables, telling us a lot of knowledge about those plants, asking us to taste some fresh fruites.In the middle of the day, we had a picnic on the farm, talking with each other. Then we held a small party, singing and dancing with the beautiful music.
Time also flies quickly, we had to say goodbye to the farmers. Twilight was falling as we returned to our school.
Night is coming, I am still excited about the visit today, washing to have a second chance to visit the farm again.
日記格式；suny應為Sunny
farm也應大寫為Farm
記述過去，應為got
on our way 改為all the way更好
telling 與asking用得好
with 應為to
also多余
結尾較好。但有兩處不妥：1.washing似為wishing之誤 ；2.a second chance與 again意義重復。
參考范文
May 3 Sunday Fine
Today we visited a farm. Early in the morning we met at the school gate and went there together. The farm workers gave us a warm welcome. Then the head of the farm showed us around. How glad we were to see the crops and vegetables growing well! At noon we had a picnic lunch in the sun-shine. After a short rest, we had great fun singing and dancing, telling jokes or stories. Two of us even played a game of chess. The time passed quickly. Before we knew it, we had to say goodbye to the workers.