本人认为作文最重要的两点就是：
1.不跑题，逻辑严密
2.例子用的好 i.e.用历史和文学，尽量不要用个人例子

这两点做到10分肯定有了。根据个人经验，用词难度和语法并不是特别重要。本人大概call time之前5分钟就把两页都写满了，结果我本来以为可以另外要纸写的，后来监考的告诉我我只有两页＝ ＝ 所以最后的conclusion各种悲剧。。不过还是12，可见结论并不是特别重要。。

我觉得例子的准备非常重要，是拿高分的关键。我觉得大家可以选2－3自己看过的名著，2－3个重要的历史事件，然后考试前一个月开始准备。

小tip：尽量选择theme特别多的书，就是考什么题都能扯到的书，下面会讲哪些书特别推荐使用。

格式如下：
名著
title:
author:
characters:
events:
themes:

历史事件

title:
characters:
events:
themes:

总之就是按照这个模板来准备。建议大家先brainstorm一个很长的list，把自己知道的书/历史事件都写上去，然后看看自己哪个记得的最多，然后挑选2－3个细心准备。按照上面的模板，开上wikipedia，写完，打印，平时带着背～其实如果自己平时就对这个书印象比较深的话，例子准备根本花不了多少时间，3－4个小时足够。

下面贡献一下我自己准备的模板的里面的两个，文学是the great gatsby，历史是the french revolution.

Title: The GreatGatsby
Author: Scott F.Fitzgerald
Characters: NickCarraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Bachanan, Jordan Baker, GeorgeWilson, Myrtle Wilson
Events:
1) Tom having an affair with Myrtle and Daisy putsup with it
2) Tom breaking Myrtle’s nose
3) The mysterious past of Gatsby
4) The lies of Gatsby (attended Oxford, son of arich family
5) Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship five years agoin Chicago
6) Daisy meeting Gatsby in his mansion and getsemotional over his material success
7) Daisy hesitant in leaving with Gatsby and waversbetween the two men
8) Wilson shoots Gatsby dead after inquiring aboutthe yellow Rolls Royce, which Daisy and Gatsby drove.
9) No one attends Gatsby’s funeral except for Nickand a few others. Wolfsheim, Tom and Daisy didn’t show up.
Themes:
1) the illusion of the American Dream, materialsuccess VS. morality, decayed social
2) and moral values (cynicism, greed, empty pursuitof happiness),
3) old money VS. new rich (taste, elegance,subtlety, and the other socially insensible, vulgar, etc.)
4) probation leads to underground trading
5) a dream ruined by materialism
6) the irreversibility of time
7) kind, human qualities leading to disaster(Gatsby taking the blame of killing Myrtle for Daisy and ends up gettingkilled)

Title: The FrenchRevolution (1789 – 1799) 
Characters: LouisXVI, Marie-Antoinette, Maximilien Robespierre, Napoleon Bonaparte, 
Events: 

1) Estates-General of 1789: three estates (the clergy, the nobility, and the rest of France)
2) The Tennis Court Oath
3) Women’s March on Versailles: protesting against the economic burdens they faced,esp. bread shortages. 7000 women marched to Versailles with weapons, persuaded the king to relocate to Paris and to legitimize the Nationl Assembly
4) Declaration of the Rights of Man and of theCitizen
5) The execution of King Louis XVI: In the Brunswick Manifesto, the Imperial and Prussian armies threatened retaliation on the French population if it were to resist their advance or the reinstatement ofthe monarchy. This among other things made Louis appear to be conspiring with the enemies ofFrance. 17 January 1793 saw Louis condemned to death for "conspiracy against the public liberty and the general safety" by a close majority inConvention. The former Louis XVI, now simply named Citoyen Louis Capet(Citizen Louis Capet), was executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793 on the Placede la Révolution. Royalty across Europe was horrified and many heretoforeneutral countries soon joined the war against revolutionary France.
6) The rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins, The Committee of Public Safety/The Reign of Terror (1793-1794):
The Committee first attempted to set the price for onlya limited number of grain products but, by September 1793, it expanded the"maximum" to cover all foodstuffs and a long list of other goods.[64] Widespread shortages andfamine ensued. The Committee reacted by sending dragoons into the countryside to arrest farmers and seize crops. This temporarily solved the problem in Paris,but the rest of the country suffered. The Committee of Public Safety came under the control of Maximilien Robespierre, a lawyer, and the Jacobins unleashed the Reign ofTerror (1793–1794). According to archival records, at least 16,594 people diedunder the guillotine or otherwise after accusations of counter-revolutionaryactivities.
7) Napoleon’s First French Empire
8) The Second Empire (Napoleon III from 1852-1870)
Themes
1) Overthrow of monarchy: à establishedprinciples of equality, citizenship and inalienable rights
2) Causes ofthe French Revolution:hunger/malnutrition, huge national debts from the American Revolutionary War;the indifference of the aristocracy, Marie-Antoinette, the rise ofEnlightenment ideals
3) The dangerof democratic dictatorship: goodthing turned bad (the Committee of Public Safety)
4) Peopleseizing opportunities: NapoleonBonaparte

我考试前因为时间不够，准备了3个文学例子和2个历史例子；幸好最后考的题目比较简单，是问你是不是应该easily trust others or should we be more suspicious even if they seem trustworthy.* S' I8 G' v# |: ?8 i

我用的三个例子是:
太相信daisy对他的爱，太相信她的品格，最后导致了他confront tom，还有他自己的死。
2. pride and prejudice中，elizabeth 太相信wickham的英俊外表，导致他对darcy的偏见，被骗还差点错过自己的真爱。
the french revolution，法国民众太相信jacobins和maximilien robespierre的liberty口号，导致最后的reign of terror，以自由之名而进行的屠杀就是建立在民众对于所谓民主的过于信任。