2017年1月SAT考试已经落下帷幕，本次考试是去年3月全球首考以来，亚太考区第一次完整重复北美题(写作除外)。这是CB的“优良传统”，这并不令人惊讶，只是开考才一年不到就发生，也太快了些。当然，写作题每次都是新题。

　　有些考生可能会觉得愤怒，有些还说要写信给CB抗议等等。这些情节在老SAT后期已经发生过，只是没有任何作用。CB依然会坚持在北美以外地区使用循环题(只有写作每次都换新题)。

　　但这不代表我们就完了，也不代表考试已经变成了纯粹看谁题库大。因为：

　　第一，至少目前，不可能每次考试都使用循环题，且不是每一套北美题都会泄露出来。

　　第二，即使题目循环，作文题每次还都是新的。前面靠背题做到1500甚至1600，作文来个5/5/5也是没用的。在更广阔的层面，SAT1600，托福85也是没用的。

　　所以，同学们正确的应对方式是两手抓：一方面继续老老实实加强内功，夯实基础，锻炼能力，以便随时应对新题;另一方面自然是多多搜集题目，尽可能搜集到并做完所有的真题，甚至是疑似真题，即使题目不对，精读过文章也好，以便搞定老题。

　　CB不会变，我们自己随机应变。

　　下面我们来具体回顾本次考试的阅读和写作部分的考情。

　　阅读部分

　　本次考试完整重复16年6月北美题(作文除外)。阅读部分文章如下：

　　第一篇小说，讲的是一个富家子弟败光家产，犯罪潜逃后隐匿于穷街陋巷的故事。故事脉络清晰，难度不大，词汇题考到style作动词的用法，答案call。

　　第二篇社科，说的是幂律分布，也就是所谓的长尾理论，以维基百科词条编辑为例，说明一个团体中，少数人做了大部分贡献。图表题几乎考出了数学题的感觉：average，median，mode同时出现。

　　第三篇科学双篇，说的是光子晶体photonic crystals。第一篇从生物学角度介绍photonic crystals的演化，第二篇讲的是photonic crystals在超高速计算机中的应用。本篇涉及概念比较陌生，又是不同角度的双篇，整体较难。

　　第四篇历史，选自Benjamin Franklin写给William Shirley的信，核心论点就是有名的no taxation without representation，北美人民在英国议会中没有自己的直接代表，就等于剥夺了他们作为英国公民的权利，这是不合法的。了解相关背景的同学读起来会很顺畅。

　　第五篇科学，讲的是一年生植物annuals和多年生植物perennials，很久以前古人选择了种植annuals获取粮食，但annuals有很多缺点，perennials则没有那些问题，应该成为更好的选择。图表是两种植物根系的对比。整体难度不大。

　　写作部分

　　一、试题原文

　　本次写作考题选自A New Wave of National Parks，作者Linda Moore，全文共10段，作者论点是We should do more to protect our oceans。

　　A New Wave of National Parks by LAURA BUSH

　　1、Our first national park was named not after a mountain or forest but for a mighty river: Yellowstone. For centuries the world's waters have connected us. Explorers, traders, scientists and fishermen have traveled our oceans and rivers in search of new resources and a greater understanding of the world. This Wednesday, as we mark World Oceans Day, we must intensify our efforts to better understand, manage and conserve our waters and marine habitats if they are to remain a vibrant source of life for future generations.

　　2、Great progress has been made in protecting our environment over the past several decades, but too little of that progress addresses 70% of the world's surface—our oceans. Less than one-half of 1% of the world's oceans are protected in ways that will ensure they stay wild. Too often overharvesting depletes what should be a lasting bounty of fish. In some parts of the oceans today up to 90% of large fish are gone from natural ecosystems.

　　3、Our oceans are also where much of our trash and pollution end up. Plastics and other pollutants difficult to break down are killing fish, turtles and birds. Currents in the Pacific have created a plastic garbage dump twice the size of Texas. A few years ago, I visited Midway Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and was shocked to find debris killing birds that could not distinguish between plastic refuse and squid.

　　4、We are at risk of permanently losing vital marine resources and harming our quality of life. Overfishing and degrading our ocean waters damages the habitats needed to sustain diverse marine populations. Perhaps the most vital function our oceans serve is that of climate regulator—they produce oxygen, reduce pollution, and remove carbon dioxide. If we don't protect our oceans, we could witness the destruction of some of the world's most beautiful and important natural resources.

　　5、Fortunately, Yellowstone offers a blueprint for protecting our oceans. President Ulysses S. Grant created Yellowstone National Park in 1872 at a time when large wild areas on the frontier were at risk. The founding of Yellowstone sparked a 50-year period during which many of the national parks we enjoy today were created. Our country began to see the value of setting aside large territories that would remain wild forever. Our national parks play an outsized role in maintaining healthy and diverse wildlife populations far beyond their boundaries. Many of the elk, deer and wolves seen throughout Western states trace their lineage to populations in Yellowstone.

　　6、In the early 1970s, the U.S. established a modest program to conserve some of its most important marine areas, called the National Marine Sanctuary System. In June 2006 and again in January 2009, the U.S. expanded the concept of parkland and wilderness preserves in the sea when President Bush designated four marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean.

　　7、The first of these, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, encompasses a 100-mile wide area of nearly pristine habitat northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, and was named a Unesco World Heritage site in 2010. A second area, the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, includes the world's deepest canyon and is home to some of the oldest and most resilient forms of life on the on the planet. The other two monuments are the Pacific Remote Islands dispersed throughout the Pacific Ocean and the Rose Atoll in American Samoa.

　　8、These four monuments cover more than 330,000 square miles and add up to the largest fully protected marine area in the world, larger than all of our national parks and wildlife refuges combined. They support vast numbers of fish, breathtakingly beautiful coral habitat, and a remarkable abundance of sharks—often seen as markers of an ecosystem’s health.

　　9、In the coming years, protecting our oceans will be even more important. Nearly half of the world’s population lives within 60 miles of an ocean, and that percentage will rise as more people settle in coastal communities. Today there are few waters outside the reach of human exploitation. Our wild ocean frontiers are disappearing and, like we did with Yellowstone, it is up to us to conserve the most important wild areas that remain. Doing so will preserve something that is all too easy to destroy but impossible to replace: natural, undisturbed incubators of life.

　　二、文章分析

　　P1：开门见山，通过介绍黄石国家公园引出主论点：we must better understand, manage and conserve our waters and marine habitats。

　　这一段和官方样题Let There Be Dark第一段简直神似，我把原文贴在下面：

　　At my family’s cabin on a Minnesota lake, I knew woods so dark that my hands disappeared before my eyes. I knew night skies in which meteors left smoky trails across sugary spreads of stars. But now, when 8 of 10 children born in the United States will never know a sky dark enough for the Milky Way, I worry we are rapidly losing night’s natural darkness before realizing its worth. This winter solstice, as we cheer the days’ gradual movement back toward light, let us also remember the irreplaceable value of darkness.

　　P2：通过海洋和陆地保护的对比突出too little progress has been made in protecting our oceans，之后用鱼类被过度捕捞作为证据支持。

　　P3：继续给证据，海洋垃圾和污染威胁海洋生物和鸟类生存。

　　P4：讲如果不保护海洋将会造成的严重后果：permanently losing vital marine resources and harming our quality of life。

　　P5：给出solution，建造国家公园，但不要误解为国家公园保护海洋，注意第一句里的blueprint蓝图，意思基本上是国家公园对陆地动物的保护为我们保护海洋指明了方向。段落中给出的证据也只是支持黄石国家公园有利于园内和园外很大范围内的动物，如elk, deer and wolves。

　　P6：这段才提到美国模仿陆地上的国家公园在海洋里设置类似保护项目，如the National Marine Sanctuary System和four marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean。

　　P7：具体介绍上一段最后说的那四个marine national monuments，基本上只是说了下名字，没有太有价值的信息。

　　P8：继续介绍四个marine national monuments，细说其好处和价值，如为鱼类和珊瑚提供保护，用证据支持其有效性，从而支持作者主论点。

　　P9：重申主题，强调今后保护海洋的重要性，又给出了最后一条理由：越来越多人会生活中靠近海洋的地区，而作为natural, undisturbed incubators of life的海洋却每况愈下。

　　三、写作思路(仅供参考)

　　P2

　　contrast：通过海洋和陆地保护的对比突出too little progress has been made in protecting our oceans。

　　P3

　　evidence：海洋垃圾和污染威胁海洋生物和鸟类生存。

　　contrast：Currents in the Pacific have created a plastic garbage dump twice the size of Texas.这个对比突出了塑料垃圾污染的海域面积之大。

　　P4

　　word choice：We are at risk of permanently losing vital marine resources and harming our quality of life.

　　… we could witness the destruction of some of the world's most beautiful and important natural resources.

　　以上两句中的permanently，vital，destruction和most beautiful and important都突出了不保护海洋的可怕后果。

　　P6-8

　　reasoning：P6提出海洋保护项目作为解决方案，P7具体介绍其中四个marine national monuments，P8给出证据细说它们的好处和价值，三段紧密联系，层层推进。

　　P9

　　appeal to emotion：Doing so will preserve something that is all too easy to destroy but impossible to replace: natural, undisturbed incubators of life.这句中的too easy to destroy but impossible to replace能给读者以震慑，使其产生一种恐惧，不再会觉得海洋不就是一大坨水么这样的无所谓的态度。展开的时候还可以说能让读者意识到原来海洋和石油一样是不可再生的宝贵资源。

　　注：这段其实也可以写contrast和word choice，只不过因为之前P234已经选过，所以选择appeal to emotion。