作者：北美考试院 托福写作组 李璕
TPO35 综合写作 Integrated Writing Task
阅读部分
中心观点：
书商Voynich发现了一本至今无人能识别破解的手稿。其来源引发三个猜测。
猜测1：
16世纪的一位物理学家兼植物学家Ascham可能是该手稿的作者，因为手稿对于植物的阐述与其作品A Little Herbal有相似之处。
猜测2：
手稿为一个叫Kelley，常假装有魔力的人所伪造。他可能把该手稿伪造成一本魔法书卖给有钱人。
猜测3：
书商Voynich自己伪造，以卖出高价获利。
听力反驳
中心观点：
阅读提到的三个人都不是该手稿作者。
理由1：
创作Voynich manuscript的人是由于所写内容太重要欲用密码加密，这不符合对Ascham其人的认识。Ascham只是一个普通科学家，所写书籍不涉及原创观点。例如，阅读中提及的A Little Herbal是基于众所周知的其他资源对一个普通植物进行的描述。
理由2：
伪造一本难懂的手稿需要大量耐心细心，而16世纪的人并不难愚弄。达到愚弄人卖出“魔法书”的目的，伪造一本更简单的书足矣。
理由3：
现代的溯源技术告诉我们手稿所用羊皮纸和墨水至少存在了400年。即使羊皮纸可以获取自其他早期手稿，获取400年前的墨水也不可能做到。
参考范文：
In the listening passage, the lecturer challenges the three possible origins of Voynich manuscript mentioned in the reading, asserting none of them is convincing.
Firstly, while the author claims that Ascham is a possible author of the manuscript, the lecturer doubts the information Ascham was trying to convey was so important as to use the special code to keep it secret. He points out that Ascham was just an ordinary scientist whose books did not cover original ideas. For example, “A little herbal” mentioned in the reading was a description on a common plant based on widely-known resources. Therefore, Ascham is unlikely to be the author.
Secondly, whereas the author argues that Kelly faked a book of magical secrets to sell it to the wealthy people, the lecturer holds an opposing view that faking such a manuscript requires a lot of care to make it look real. Considering people in the sixteenth century were easy to fool, Kelly would not have needed to put in so much effort to create it when a simpler book can meet his demands.
Lastly, contrary to the author’s belief that the bookseller Voynich faked the book himself, the lecturer contends modern methods for dating the manuscript demonstrate the vellum and ink used were both 400 years ago. Even if the vellum can be taken from some old manuscript, 400-hundred-year-old ink is impossible to get. The manuscript was created centuries before Voynich obtained it and therefore could not be created by him.
重点词汇与句型
英语高能高分·就上新航道 >><<
