On Doing Small Things
看早上四级作文，测下午六级命题
烈日炎炎，轰轰烈烈，2013年6月15日，小千万中国大学生参加的四六级考试今日开始。
上午的四级考试，最大的亮点之一，就是写作。亮点在于其命题形式：图画作文。
我在北京新东方的面授班（四级写作点睛班）上曾讲解图画作文，分析，在2012年6月16日，六级考察了图画作文，而当时，图画作文出现在六级也是第一次；目前，四级已经考察了图表作文，考研(微博)考的题，六级都没有考过；因此这么推论分析，也可能这次四级轮到图画作文了 —— 考研考过，六级考过，就剩你四级了！
图画的内容和构图不难：父亲和男孩子的对话，孩子说“ Dad，I am a bit worried about disposing of nuclear weapon. （爸爸，我有点担心清除核武器这个问题）”，父亲则回答“ If you can empty the dustbin, you can do anything. (如果你能把垃圾桶倒掉，你就能坐好任何事情)” ，说话间，手指着垃圾桶。
这幅图画和2012年6月的六级漫画作文非常相似，当时的图中，也是两人对话，女儿和父亲。父亲问女儿：“ Hi, sweetie, how was your school today ? (嘿，小甜心，你在今天在学校过得怎么样？)” 女儿非常冷漠的回答：“Dad, you can read all about it on my blogs. (爹哋，你自己可以在我的博客上读到所有内容)”，然后呢，女儿拔腿出门，留下父亲一脸惊愕。
说回这个四级的作文题。
作文的第一段，要进行简单描绘图画内容，这是必须的，也是题目中强制要求的（a brief description of the picture）。描述的时候，只要把父子两的对话移植到第一段，然后把父亲手指垃圾桶的动作描绘一下就可以了，非常简单。
作文的第二段，进行主旨提炼并且论述。这幅图画很容易看出主题，那就是做大事之前，要先做小事（一屋不扫，何以扫天下）,而且题目中其实早就已经透露了主题了 （express your views on the importance of doing small things before undertaking something big.）因此，第二段通篇论述小事做起的重要性就可以了。属于我在课堂上讲过的作文三大分类之“积极主题，论述意义”
作文第三段，总结，启发。这一段再次强调小事做起的意义，我们不能低估他的威力。文章最后可以以名人名言作为结尾。
请看范文：
We can see from the illustration there is a father talking to his son. Having heard his son’s words “Dad, I am a bit worried about disposing of nuclear weapons”, the father replies, “If you can empty the dustbin here, you can do anything”, pointing the garbage can beside him.
Funny and common as the conversation sounds, it reflects that the father intends to advise his son to do small things before undertaking the big. Unquestionably, doing small things is the first step of success and will lay root for doing something big. By doing something small, we are enabled to accumulate experience, master skills and train ourselves to be more patient. In other words, we can be well prepared for further challenges in the course of fulfilling small things. By contrast, those who set out to do something big will be constantly haunted by disappointment, frustrations or even failures. As when opportunity “something big” appears, they can hardly seize them because of the lack of experience and confidence stems from doing small things. Taking the picture presented above as a case in point, how can the little boy succeed in disposing of nuclear weapons if he even doesn’t know how to empty the dustbin?
From my perspective, under no circumstances should we undervalue the power of doing small things. Instead, we should regard small things as the source of experience, skills and the prerequisite of success. “Great achievement only belongs to those who can do small things perfectly.” Aristotle once said.