高校英语专业八级考试大纲写作部分规定：写作部分设一题，20分，要求能根据所给题目及要求撰写各类体裁的文章，文章长度约400个单词，能做到内容充实、语言通顺、用词恰当、表达得体。真题在Directions的最后会告知考生：“Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks”。考试时间45分钟。
就字数时间比来看，专八作文难度介于雅思和托福之间;就写作体裁来看，迄今为止，历年真题考的都是议论文;就出题形式来看，都是给出背景和题目的写作;就写作内容来看，考到的基本上都是考生比较熟悉的关于大学生的`话题或社会常见话题。而且文章结构一律规定为三部分：introduction, body 和conclusion. 从这些方面看，专八写作对于学习英语专业达到三年或四年的学生来说并不是特别难的事。但每年仍有为数不少的考生失利，令人惋惜。
笔者认为，要考好专八作文，应从以下几个方面入手。
首先，必须对以上提到的对作文部分的要求做到充分了解，按照要求写作。有些同学由于轻视，只根据考试前自己看到的一些其他考试的英语写作模版(如大学英语六级或研究生入学考试英语写作模版)来对付八级，结果与考试要求的文章结构和字数不符，造成严重失分。
其次，必须在考前的一段时间做严格的限时应试练习，以保证在考场上时间比较紧张的情况下发挥出自己真正的水平。通过练习，主要是提高自己两个方面的素质：
一是进行逻辑思维的素质。与大学英语四、六级、考研以及专业四级考试不同，专八写作要求的字数更多，更体现思维的深度和广度，因此必须通过练习来促使自己提高逻辑思维的速度和质量。我固然会在课堂上教给大家一些常见的思维方法，如分类法、反证法、举例法、因果法等等，但更具体的素材需要大家平时去积累。其实如果没有考试，大家是会比较懒惰的，懒于去梳理自己的思维，形成比较成熟的观点。我们在这里且不多提考试的好处，关键的是我们可以以备考为契机，通过练习来提高思考的速度，并且更重要的是养成一种勤于思考、广泛涉猎的习惯，去关心家事、国事、天下事。这样考试的时候才会有话可说，字数才会够。
另外一个是应用英语语言的素质。有些同学不愁没话说，思维也很有广度和深度，但英语语言还是存在问题。这里面有一部分同学是重视不够，忽视了语法问题，出现了不少诸如单复数、冠词、词性等语法错误，甚至还有标点符号错误。而更多的同学是由于缺乏写作练习，在用词和造句方面做得不够好。作为代表我国英语技能教育最高水平的考试，专八肯定会比国内其他英语考试更加重视语言的质量。其实也很简单，就是用词和造句的准确性和多样性。这里的用词准确既包括词义准确，也包括搭配准确，还包括词语的感情色彩和正式程度的准确;造句的多样是指多种英语句式的灵活运用。这要求同学们平时一定要多做辨析词义、熟记搭配的工作，并且模仿优秀的文章进行写作。
除此之外，大家还可以通过多读优秀范文来提高写作水平，除了看一些专八的真题范文外，还可以看看TOFEL，GRE 或IELTS的范文。另外，也可以经常阅读一些英语报刊，关注一些时事的英文表达。
Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
The twentieth century has brought with it many advances. With those advances, human lives have changed dramatically. In some ways life is worse, but mostly it is better. Changes in food preparation methods, for example, have improved our lives greatly.
The convenience of preparing food today is amazing. Even stoves have gotten too slow for us. Microwave cooking is much easier. We can press a few buttons and a meal is completely cooked in just a short time. People used to spend hours preparing an oven-cooked meal, and now they can use that time for other, better things. Plus, there are all kinds of portable, prepackaged foods we can buy. Heat them in the office microwave, and lunch at work is quick and easy.
Food preparation today allows for more variety. With refrigerators and freezers, we can preserve a lot of different foods in our homes. Since technology makes cooking so much faster, people are willing to make several dishes for even a small meal. Parents are more likely to let children be picky, now that they can easily heat them up some prepackaged macaroni and cheese on the side. Needless to say, adults living in the same house may have very different eating habits as well. If they don’t want to cook a lot of different dishes, it’s common now to eat out at restaurants several times a week.
Healthful eating is also easier than ever now. When people cook, they use new fat substitutes and cooking sprays to cut fat and calories. This reduces the risk of heart disease and high cholesterol. Additionally, we can buy fruits and vegetable fresh, frozen or canned. They are easy to prepare, so many of us eat more of those nutritious items daily. A hundred years ago, you couldn’t imagine the process of taking some frozen fruit and ice from the freezer, adding some low-fat yogurt from a plastic cup and some juice from a can in the refrigerator, and whipping up a low-fat smoothie in the blender!
Our lifestyle is fast, but people still like good food. What new food preparation technology has given us is more choices. Today, we can prepare food that is more convenient, healthier, and of greater variety than ever before in history.
Some people are committed to their dreams and work hard to achieve their goals．What is guiding them is a kind of illusion．Some people think that illusion is good for success while others argue that it is not so good because it may get people unrealistic．As far as I am concerned，illusion is necessary in our life only if it is encouraging and realistic．
There are several reasons．First of all，there is power in illusion．The illusion can lead people to the path they want to go on and it gives us passion．We need to live each moment wholeheartedly，with all our senses so that we can find pleasure in the fragrance of backyard garden，the crayoned picture of a six－year－old，and the enchanting beauty of a rainbow．The illusion can be enthusiastic love of life that puts sparkle in our eyes，a lilt in our steps and smoothes the wrinkles from our souls．
Secondly，we are born with wide－eyed，enthusiastic wonder as anyone knows who has ever seen an infant’s delight at the jingle of keys or the scurrying of a beetle．It is this childlike wonder and illusion that gives enthusiastic people such a youthful air，no matter how old they are．For example，the famous cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. Music，for him，was an elixir that made life a never－ending adventure．As author and poet Samuel once wrote，“Years wrinkle the skin，but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
Lastly，people with illusions also love what they do，regardless of money or power or title．If we cannot do what we love as a full－time career，we can as do a part－time vocation，like the head of state who paints，the nun who runs marathons and the executive who handcrafts furniture．We cannot afford to waste tears and energy and time on “might－have－beens”．We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what－can－be”．
To sum up，God gives each bird its food，but he does not throw it into its nest．Wherever you want to go，just cherish your precious illusion and let your dream be realized．
