英语作文写作Summary方法大汇总

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to affirm that even though significant risk exists when confidential information is released to the press, this danger has remained unresolved by the courts.

The authors cite an example to prove this point. The CIA during the Reagan administration recognized Muhamar Quadaffi as a known terrorist and a potential threat to national security in a classified document. The Washington Post somehow had the document disclosed to them, and they soon published the information. Several months after the operation had been abandoned, the CIA found Quadaffi responsible for the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque. Military action had to be taken because of the earlier release of the classified document. The operation incurred military casualties.

The authors then offer a two-part solution: (1) make the publication of classified information a punishable offense, and (2) incorporate a \of ethics\ The paper ends by discussing how ethics are the responsibility of good journalism.

Conclusion

Elmo R. Zumwalt and James G. Zumwalt assert that the media are

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overpowered and the national security is underprotected. They believe that the government and the media must take steps to assure a disaster does not occur.

The first sentence of a summary

You are expected to identify the title of the text and the author in the first sentence, as well as the author’s thesis or controlling idea. A general format for the first sentence is as follows:

In the article {“title of Article,”}, {Author’s name} + {primary verb} + {main idea}. Example: In the article “How Children Fail,” John Holt argues that most children fail because they do not develop their full potential. The most commonly used primary verbs include: 1. claim

7. explain

8. describe 9. suggest 10. believe

2. recommend 3. argue 4. report

5. show

6. insist

Model Summaries of Articles Original passage The following passage was written by Marc Lacey and published in New York Times on November 12, 2004. Using a New Language in Africa to Save Dying Ones Swahili speakers wishing to use a “compyuta”—as computer is rendered in Swahili—have been out of luck when it comes to communicating in their tongue. * *

Computers, no matter how bulky their hard drives or sophisticated their software packages, have not yet mastered Swahili or hundreds of other indigenous African languages. But that may soon change. Across the continent, linguists are working with experts in information technology to make computers more accessible to Africans who happen not to know English, French, or the other major languages that have been programmed into the world’s desktops. There is economic reason for the outreach. Microsoft, which is working to incorporate Swahili into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, and other popular programs, sees a market for its software among the roughly 100 million Swahili speakers in East Africa. The same goes for Google, which last month launched www.google.co.ke, offering a Kenyan version in Swahili of the popular search engine. But the campaign to Africanize cyberspace is not all about the bottom line. There are hundreds of languages in Africa—some spoken only by a few dozen elders—and they are dying out at an alarming rate. The continent’s linguists see the computers as one important way of saving them. UNESCO estimates that 90 percent of the world’s 6,000 languages are not represented on the Internet and that one language disappears somewhere around the world every two weeks. (242 words) Summary * *

In the article “Using a New Language in Africa to Save Dying Ones”(New York Times, November 12, 2004), Marc Lacey reports that linguists and computer experts are working to develop computers that work in Swahili and other African languages, so that many Africans can use computers in their native languages. Economics is one reason for doing so. Computer companies such as Microsoft and Google see potentially huge market for their products in Africa. Another important reason is to save African languages that are in danger of dying out. (88 words)

Here is another model summary of a magazine article:

How to Heal a Hypochondriac By Michael D. Lemonick Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2003 It happens to every medical student sooner or later. You get a cough that persists for a while or feel a funny pain in the stomach or notice a tiny lump under the skin. Ordinarily, you would just ignore it — but now, armed with your rapidly growing store of medical knowledge, you can't help worrying. The cough could mean just a cold, but it could also be a sign of lung cancer. A twinge might be internal bleeding. The lump is probably a lymph node — but is it bigger than it should be? Could it be Hodgkin's disease? For doctors in training, nurses and medical journalists, hypochondria is an occupational hazard. The feeling usually passes after a while, leaving only a funny story to tell at a dinner party. But for the tens of thousands who suffer from true hypochondria, it's no joke. Hypochondriacs live in constant terror that they are dying of some awful disease, or even several awful diseases at once. Doctors can assure them that there's nothing wrong, but since the cough or the pain is real, the assurances fall on deaf ears. And because no physician or test can offer a 100% guarantee that one doesn't have cancer or multiple sclerosis or an ulcer, a hypochondriac always has fuel to feed his or her worst fears. Hypochondriacs don't harm just themselves; they clog the whole health-care system. Although they account for only about 6% of the patients who visit doctors every year, they tend to burden their physicians with frequent visits that take up inordinate amounts of time. According to one estimate, hypochondria racks up some $20 billion in wasted medical resources * *

in the U.S. alone. And the problem may be getting worse, thanks to the proliferation of medical information on the Internet. \Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, \diseases and new presentations of old diseases that they never even knew about before.\have taken to calling this phenomenon cyberchondria. Most physicians tend to think of hypochondriacs as nuisances — patients they are just as happy to lose. But a few clinicians, like Barsky and Columbia University neuropsychiatrist Dr. Brian Fallon, have begun to take the condition more seriously. \wrong with a hypochondriac,\thought, not of the body.%untreatable. That's something Fallon realized a little more than a decade ago. He was studying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) when he noticed it had a lot in common with hypochondria. \reassurance and a low tolerance for uncertainty.\could be treated with Prozac and similar drugs, and Fallon decided the medications might work for hypochondria as well. With only 57 subjects, the study was too small to be definitive, but it was certainly promising: about 75% of those who got the drug showed significant improvement. But so did many in the placebo group, which led Fallon to take an even closer look. His conclusion: hypochondriacs may actually represent three different groups whose problems look superficially similar. Those in the first really do have a variant of OCD. Those in the second have a problem more like depression, often triggered by something that makes them feel guilty — an affair, perhaps — or by a loss, like the death of a close relative. And the third group consists of people who somatize — which means they focus an inordinate amount of attention on their bodies. A pain that most people wouldn't even notice feels like a punch in the nose to those in this group. In all cases, though, the descent into hypochondria takes the form of a self-reinforcing spiral. You notice a symptom, decide it's unusual and begin exploring for more. Since we all have minor twinges from time to time, when you go looking for more, you find them. \your own mind that something's wrong,\you have the symptoms to prove to yourself that the doctor is mistaken. The key to treatment is disrupting the cycle. That can be tough, however, since doctors rarely tell hypochondriacs the truth about their disorder. When Fallon tried to recruit study subjects through their doctors, he got nowhere; physicians evidently didn't want to embarrass or anger their patients by suggesting they might be hypochondriacs. To avoid stigmatizing their patients, Fallon and Barsky avoid the H word altogether. Fallon calls it \Barsky, \Then he suggests that the patient do some psychological work, which he tells them is often helpful in such situations. His preferred technique is cognitive behavioral therapy, in which patients are trained to force their attention away from the symptoms. \significant, ignoring it can make it seem much less,\counter panicky thoughts with self-reassurance, reminding themselves, for example, that