托福独立写作公共事务类 政府应当支持无实际用处的科学研究吗

托福独立写作是托福写作单项的第二个任务，通常要求考生对给定话题论点给出支持或反对的理由，或者是要求考生从可选范畴中选择自己认为比较合理或最佳选择，然后通过说理或事实举例证明自己的观点或选择是有说服力的。公共事务类是托福独立写作比较常见的一个考察话题领域，这类话题需要我们结合日常生活体验进行思维发散，同时参考一些高分范文。

Government should support scientific research even if the research does not have any practical use.

Scientific research can be divided into two types: basic and applied. The purpose of basic research is to yield knowledge, while the purpose of applied research is to yield something with practical value. It may be tempting to argue that governments should only fund applied research—it is the intuitively "practical" choice—but this would be a bad idea.

开头段作者直接给出观点：认为只支持有实际用处的研究不是一个好选择。

First, applied research rests upon the foundation erected by basic research. All of the knowledge and techniques used in applied research have their origins in basic research. All of the work going into understanding the larger universe, for example, currently has very little practical application—why do we need to know about celestial bodies and the like when it might be centuries before we ever travel to them? But when humankind finally devises the means to send those first interstellar explorers off into the stars, it'll be thanks to the centuries of basic research that came before. The needs of the future are difficult to forecast. Therefore we cannot rule out scientific undertakings which have no immediate practical value.

Second, even if the results of basic research are not immediately applicable, we can at least examine how the research is conducted to hone our methodologies. That way, when scientists are conducting applied research that utilizes related concepts or methods, there will be some previous record or procedure to refer to. At the very least, the techniques pioneered in basic research should be transferrable to applied research. For example, say in the course of basic research on a certain chemical compound it is shown that they can be synthesized more efficiently using X method. The compound itself may be relatively valueless, but scientists doing applied research may look at how this more efficient process was arrived at and formalize a way to find cheaper solutions to synthesizing commercial chemicals.

It is true that the government could be spending their money on research with more immediate practical benefits—its duty is, after all, ultimately to foster the wellbeing of its citizens, and practical research can aid in that endeavor in more concrete ways. But if the government foregoes supporting knowledge for the sake of knowledge, then who will pick up the slack? Applied research can lean on private funding, because it is by its very nature a commercial undertaking. But basic research? Aside from foundations and wealthy philanthropists with a predilection for science, there would be nobody to support the march of scientific progress. As human beings we are more than just creatures of comfort—we are also knowers, and so furthering our understanding of the world should also fall under the rubric of government responsibility.

中间三段主体段，作者分别从不同的角度对自己的观点展开论述。

We cannot know where a particular line of inquiry will take us before we have arrived—otherwise, the act of inquiring would be pointless. Thus governments should at least fund basic research "just in case" a useful discovery is made. We also do not have to arrive at a useful destination to benefit from the inquisitive journey—the actual process of investigating might teach us as much as the answer we finally stumble upon. This is another reason funding for basic research should be dismissed out of hand. And last but not least, the pursuit of knowledge is a fundamentally human endeavor. The government should support if it seeks to aid in the flourishing of its citizens, because few others will step up to fill that role.

最后一段点题，首尾呼应，也是对前文具体论据的进一步强调。

托福独立写作的考察模式对考生的观点阐述逻辑性提出了比较高的要求，在备考托福独立写作的过程中我们需要多参考优秀范文的写作思路、行文逻辑，并注意提炼其中亮眼表达，在自身练习过程中进行仿写，融会贯通实现托福写作水平的飞跃。