AP美国历史备考系列--如何攻下"论述题"

AP U.S.history美国历史考试的第二部分SectionII也就是多数考生最头疼的历史小论文部分，Section II一共的时间要求是1小时30分钟。其中第1题是一个材料题（Document-Based Question)，建议用时55分钟，第2题是两个论述题（LongEssay Question)，考生仅需任选其一作答，建议答题时间为35分钟。

AP美国历史考试满分为5分，各题型占分比例参见College Board官方评分标准的下图：

这次我先来谈一下如何攻克最后的论述题（Long Essay Question)部分。

这道题长什么样子呢？官方考试指南（Course and exam description)中给出的样题如下：

Question 1. Some historians have arguedthat the American Revolution was not revolutionary in nature. Support, modifyor refute this interpretation, providing specific evidence to justify youranswer.

Question 2. Some historians have arguedthat the New Deal was ultimately conservative in nature. Support, modify orrefute this interpretation, providing specific evidence to justify your answer.

首先先来研究一下这类题目的要求，2016年真题考题要求如下：

简单分析一下这4个要求：

1. 题目要求在开头段或结尾段中明确文章的论点，论点需要是一个在历史上站得住脚的论断，并覆盖题目中问题提到的所有方面内容。

这里需要强调的是文章的观点并没有对错之分，关键需要能够切合问题提出明确的逻辑清晰的论断，官方样题给出的两个题目都是非常直接的选择，support, modify or refute, 但是真题当中还有比这个更复杂的问法。例如2016年的这道题：

这种就需要考生根据问题总结出相关的具体观点，只照抄题目不行的呦！

2. 运用历史思考的能力支持和发展观点

官方考试指南中有对历史思考能力要求的详细解释，在这里简单概括一下4个基本要求：解读历史材料的能力，对历史事件在空间时间上进行横向对比联系的能力，按时间顺序或年代划分进行推理思考的能力，提炼并支持历史观点的能力。

3. 用具体的证据和例子证明观点

这个确实需要背，没存货真写不出来，具体的时间地点人物事件等等，不能乱编，不能有史实错误。另外就是例子不是放在那里就行了，需要合理的证明观点。

4. 体现综合运用史实的能力，需要将观点与以下两个要素其中之一进行联系和分析：

A. 一个不同的历史阶段，时代或地区的发展情况

B. 和本篇论文主题不相关的历史主题，如政治，经济，社会，文化，思想史。

这里就体现了在时间空间上横向对比联系的能力，比如美国独立战争的时代，也可以对比联系到那个年代的中国还处于清朝乾隆年间，在满世界帝制的汹涌浪潮之下，美国算是一个奇葩的存在。

明确了题目要求后，来举一个例子说一下如何写这样一篇小论文。

这次就以相对比较基础的官方指南里的样题为例，其中第一个题是：

Some historians have argued that theAmerican Revolution was not revolutionary in nature.Support,modify or refutethis interpretation, providing specific evidence to justify your answer.

第一步 审题和构思

建议用5-10分钟进行

需要明确这里的Support,modify, refute到底指的是什么？对于这个题，你可以选的观点有:

l  Not revolutionary

l  Revolutionary

l  Both or neither

很多同学的问题是不知道如何下笔，这么大一话题从何说起，话说美国建国史大神Gordon S. Wood就这个话题写了厚厚一本675页的书。。。

给大家一个有效的写作思路，也可以应用到其他历史小论文写作中。

这个论述题Long Essay Question重点考察的是Argumentation and patterns of continuity and change over time. 也就是说这个历史事件所带来的持续性影响和对社会各方面所造成的变化是论述的重点。建议重点从以上的5个方面来思考，政府，经济，种族，社会阶层，性别（这里通常讨论的是对女性的影响），因为这些是美国历史中重点研究的部分。把上面的表格填起来，核心思路就都有了。

第二步 列提纲

建议使用经典5段式安排文章段落，开头段，中间3个分论点，结尾段，时间来不及的话结尾段不写也没关系，所以一般都是在开头段提出观点。

我的观点是The American Revolution was not revolutionary in nature. 以这个为例列下提纲重点。

Introduction + thesis statement

Not revolutionary

Paragraph 1

Political structure stayed the same: samecolonial elites controlled the government. 在这里可以联系一下Frenchrevolution or Russian revolution, 这才是彻头彻尾的革命好嘛。

Paragraph 2

Economy and class: same landowning elites,tensions with backcountry farmers，举例Shays’ Rebellion (“你们到底和英国国王有神马区别？！”）

Paragraph 3

Women and slaves: same situation. 独立宣言“All menare created equal”真的是只有men, 并是白的，其他人都靠边站好嘛!

Conclusion

第三步 写

The Declaration of Independence, 1776marked America as a very different place from anywhere else in the world atthat period of time, because it set out to get rid of the King and to be anrepublic while almost all the other countries in the world were either empiresor controlled by empires. It turned out that America, even lacking a real army,beat the odds and won the revolution from the most powerful empire at thattime. Admittedly, America went down to a revolutionary path and set an exampleto the world that how democracy took over monarchy . However, as manyhistorians argued, the American Revolution was not revolutionary in nature. TheAmerican society remained the same in different aspects, such as the social, political,economic structure of the former colonies.

In the first place, the composition ofthose that dominated the political structure of the country remained the samewith the former colonies. Unlike the French Revolution or Russian Revolutionlater in which the mass revolted against monarchy, the American Revolution wasbasically a revolt by colonial elites against the elites in England. Thoseindividuals who were wealthy, powerful and influential before the revolutionwere still the most powerful and influential figures in the American society,such as George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Furthermore,  America finally got rid of the British Kingwho were so far away on the other side of the world that the Kind had left thecolonial government mostly for self-rule and in their request for independence,America carried to maturity a liberal,democratic movement that had been gainingforce for years.

Secondly, the American Revolutionmaintained commercial or economic power for those landowning elites. Thetensions between elites and backcountry farmers actually gradually increased.For example, Shays’ Rebellion(1786-1787) happened in Massachusetts becausestruggling farmers, many of whom were veterans of the American Revolution, weretroubled by several governmental actions, such as taxes. The farmers were notable to pay those taxes and were losing their farms to banks. Those farmers,led by Daniel Shays, protested and responded to a perceived injustice as theyhad a decade earlier when under British rule.

Thirdly, the situation for women and slavesdid not get much better either. Even though the Declaration of Independencestated that “all men are created equal”, the men in the Declaration were infact literary. American society at that time were still strictly patriarchal.Women did not have equal rights with men, such as voting, owning properties.Also, the revolution did not change the plight of most slaves either. Due tothe great compromise of Constitution, a slave was counted as 3/5 vote andslaves did not have equal rights as American citizens until much later in thecountry’s history. The condition of vast majority of southern slaves remainedunchanged after the revolution.

The American Revolution did create thebiggest republic among all those empires in 18^th century, but it isstill considered as conservative in nature because it did not uproot the corepolitical, economic and social structures of American society, which remainedpretty much the same with the former colonies.

补充建议

1. 官方考试指南中并没有字数要求，个人觉得怎么也得有500字才能说清楚吧。

2. 不需要高大上的语法词汇，清晰表达就好，官方评分标准中也明确了语法和拼写错误在不影响理解的情况下也不扣分。

3. 有些模板句式不建议使用，如:

Throughout history........范围太大，不准确；

it is inevitable that......并不准确，因为多数历史事件都是由于人的选择才发生，Choice does matter!

4. 用第三人称写作

5. 重点中的重点是，对基本史实的理解和分析。如果还不知道14th Amendment, 15^th Amendment是什么，我只能说，请走好！或者可以来上美国历史课补一下哦！

Reference

AP U.S.history course and exam description 2015

AP U.S.history 2016 free response questions

Khan Academy U.S.history course

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