描写文（Descriptive Essay）
（一）描写文是用生动而形象化的语言把人物，事件及环境具体刻划出来，如心理描写，动作描写，景色描写，场景描写等。有时候，描写文与记叙文会互相补充，使文章更多变化。
描写分两方面：
（I） 客观描写：将描写的对象如实地描绘，不带有感情成分，令读者有所知。所以在描写时，注意多用名词及动词，少用带有主观判断的形容词。
（II） 主观描写：着重感情色彩，以求把一种情绪或意境传神地表现出来。在用词时，可多选用感情色彩较重的形容词。
Example 1 （客观描写）：
It was a narrow room, with a rather high ceiling, and crowded from floor to ceiling with goodies. There were rows and rows of hams and sausages of all shapes and colors – white, yellow, red, and black; fat and lean and round and long – rows of canned preserves, cocoa and tea, bright translucent glass bottles of honey, marmalade, and jam; around bottles and slender bottles, filled with liqueurs and punch – all these things crowded every inch of the shelves from top to bottom.
Example 2 （主观描写）：
Whenever our children came to stay at my grandmother’s house, we were put to sleep in the sewing room, a bleak, shabby, utilitarian rectangle, more office than bedroom, more attic than office, that played to the hierarchy of chambers the role of poor relation. It was a room without pride: the old sewing machine, some cast-off chairs, a shapeless lamp, rolls of wrapping paper, piles of cardboard boxed that might someday come in handy, papers of pins, and remnants of a material united with the iron folding cots put out for our use and the bare floor boards to give an impression of intense and ruthless temporality. Thin white spreads, of the kind used in hospitals and charity institutions, and naked blinds at the windows reminded us of our orphaned condition and of the ephemeral character of our visit; there was nothing here to encourage us to consider this our home.
描写的方法：
（I） 白描（general description）：抓住描写对象的某些主要特征作概括的描绘勾勒。
（II） 细描（specific description）：着重细致刻划描写对象的典型特征。
Example 3 （白描）：
An old and popular New England tradition for resident and visitor alike, is relaxing walk through one of our historical cemeteries….
Haphazard rows of slate tablets give way in time to simple marble tablets bearing urn and willow motifs. The latter in turn lose popularity to marble gravestones of a variety of sizes and shapes and often arranged in groups or family plots. The heyday of ornate marble memorials lasted into the 1920s, when measured rows of uniformly sized granite blocks replaced them.
Example 4 （细描）：
The stones are marble, modernly glossy and simple, though I suppose that time will eventually reveal them as another fashion, dated and quaint. Now, the sod is still raw, the sutures of turf and unhealed, the earth still humped, the wreaths scarcely withered…I remember my grandfather’s funeral, the hurried cross of sand the minister drew on the coffin lid, the whine of the lowering straps, the lengthening, cleanly cut sides of clay, the thought of air, the lack of air forever in the close dark space lined with pink satin….
描写的对象：
（I） 人物描写：刻划人物的外貌及思想感情，而思想感情往往通过人物本身的言行举止表现出来。
（i） 外貌：对人物外表，包括容貌，神情，态度，手势，姿态，服饰等方面的描写。同时，肖像的描写并不是一次性的，注意人物经过时间的推移、环境的变迁，或与人接触后，可能对其外貌的转变。
（ii） 语言：人物的语言必须根据人物本身的性格及身份，写出人物说话时的特点，有能说善道的，有幽默风趣的，有沉默寡言的，并且配合说话时的精神状态及环境气氛，才能写出人物个性化的语言。
（iii） 行为：人物的行为是其性格的具体表现，所以，要选择最能反映人物性格的行为来描写。
（iv） 心理：刻划出人物在一定的环境下，围绕客观事物所产生的看法、联想、感觉，描绘人物的形象及思想，从而显示人物的内心世界，或根据时间发展，描写人物经历一连串事件后的心理转变。
（v） 角度：可从人物的正面或侧面加以描写，正面描写是直接描述人物的外貌，行为，心理活动；侧面描写则通过其它人物的描写来烘托主人翁的性格特质。
（II） 景物描写：描绘环境，情景，场面及自然现象等，通过景物的描写来表现人物的态度，及环境对人物的影响。情形就好象绘画一幅图画，将场景的位置及周围情况描绘出来，有时甚至提供这地方的地理概况，历史，经济，政治等资料。
（i） 景的描写：在处理空间次序上，可从一个现场观察者的视线，把由近到远，高到低，左到右，或前到后所见到的景象去描述。
（ii） 物的描写：可集中描写空间内某一对象，去表达它与人物的特定关系或在文中的意义，例如一幅人像画，可写出其绘画时间，形状大小，颜色用料，同时，更进一步，描述人像画与主人翁的关系，画中人物的转变，从而带出这幅画的重要性。
Example 5 （写景）：
A Walk on the Seashore
Not very far from my house lies seashore in the south. We can go there on foot in about ten minutes. In summer evenings when the sun is setting, my father likes to take me with my sisters to have a walk along the seashore. Though we do not like the loneliness of the place, we are glad to enjoy the coolness of sea breeze and the beautiful scenery of the nature.
The beach is rather rough with many big and small stones on the surface. The sand is also very big in form and brown in color. At the time of low tide, we can see the reefs appearing out of the water. It is not fit for swimmers to come here to bathe, so it is quiet all over the year.
Moreover, when the tide is low, we may see some poor boys of the nearby villages. They carry bamboo baskets on their backs or under their arms. Running on the solitary beach, they are trying to pick up the small crabs among the rocks. They take them home for food or sell them for a little money.
On the sea, we can see the distant fishing boats sailing back to the harbour to anchor there at night. The setting sun looks like an immense yolk. The sky turns into orange red and the surface of the sea is glittering like a sheet of gold leaf. The waves beating at the rocks sound like music. After all, a walk on the seashore is always enjoyable.
分析如下：
（I） 第一段：鸟瞰（方位“我家”south；距离“步行”ten minutes；人物 my father, my sister and I；整体印象 （the beautiful scenery of the nature）
（II） 第二段：近景（the beach; the sand; the reefs）
（III） 第三段：人物（some poor boys of the nearby villages）
（IV） 第四段：远景（the distant fishing boats; the setting sun; the sky）
Example 6 （写人）：
Colan Hobart
She was ninety-two years old when I met her, a gentle, diminutive lady in European dress. Her face was deeply lined, and her coarse grey hair had yellowed with the years. She spoke softly in a quivering voice that was half English, half American. Her gnarled hands testified to the years of hard work on the farm in her homeland. Yet, in her dark eyes and in her gentle manner there was a childlike simplicity as she told me her tale. I thought “She has the wisdom that comes with years of experience, and the gentle purity of a child – a wonderful but strange combination of traits.” I knew that I would never forget her.
Her name was Colan Hobart. When she was a young woman, her homeland was invaded by foreign troops. She had been keeping house for her father, brothers, husband, and her two young children. One day she returned from the market and found the mutilated bodies of her father and one of her brothers on her doorstep. They were among the many victims of the war. Colan’s husband was much older than she, and he soon succumbed to the rigorous demands of fieldwork and mental strain, leaving Colan alone with her two small children. Many of the town’s people helped her, and she was able to produce enough on the small farm to feed her family. Shortly after the turn of the century, her daughter married and went to America. After a few years Colan’s daughter sent her some money to come to the United States. Colan had lived in the United States for thirty years.
As Colan told her story, her eyes became large with fears and her breath became rapid with excitement. Then she wept. After a short time, she sat silently with her head bowed. Suddenly, she rose from the chair, lifted her skirt to just above her ankles, and began to dance in short, jerky steps. She sang almost inaudibly in her native language, but I knew it was a children’s song. The simple melody and the simple dance steps were those of children all over the world. Her eyes shone with youthful gaiety, and her voice was light and happy.
Her grandson appeared at this time, spoke to her affectionately, and led her from the room.
分析如下：
（I） 第一段：老妇的年龄，国籍，外貌，性格。
（II） 第二段：老妇的身世，移民美国前的不幸经历。
（III） 第三、四段：苦尽甘来的今日，由细述往事时的表情与内心的变化来暗示。
Exercise:
(1) Describe your bedroom or classroom. (eg describe details from left to right or right to left / top to bottom or bottom to top / front to back or back to front)
(2) Describe one of your friends. (eg name, age, work, marriage, appearance, height, face, habit, interests… / how did you get to know him or her? / what kind of person is he or she? / what is his or her outstanding feature? / how does he or she deal with people? / why do you like him or her?)
(3) Describe the city in which you live. (eg name of the city, where is it? / what are its surroundings like? / what are its main characteristics – important buildings, places of historical interest? / how is the climate there? / how many inhabitants are there? / what amusement does it provide? / do you like it? Why or why not?)
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