Part I Writing (30 minutes)

　　Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Popularity of Micro-message based on the statistics provided in the chart below. Please give a brief description of the chart first and then make comments on it. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

　　參考范文：

　　Popularity of Micro-message

　　Micro-message, also called Weixin, is a chat software for mobile phones which enables users to communicate with each other through voice messages, videos, pictures and texts for free. Since it was launched in January 2011, it took more than a year to draw 100 million users. By September 2012, the number of users doubled and it hit 300 million in January 2013.

　　Why does Weixin become so popular in such a short time? Firstly, most mobile phones lack the function of voicemail, Weixin's voice message function overcomes this obstacle. Secondly, typing Chinese characters is a troublesome process since users have to type Pinyin from the Roman alphabet and then choose the Chinese character from a list of options. What’s more, Weixin can help users save money cost on making voice phone calls.

　　All in all, Weixin, a popular smartphone application which combines messaging with social networking tools, has became a trend for its convenience and low cost.

　　【點評】

　　本文談論的是微信。作為一款流行的智能手機軟件，微信廣受用戶歡迎。第一段介紹了微信的用途及客戶數(shù)量增長的情況;第二段列舉了微信流行的三個原因;第三段進行了總結(jié)。

　　第一段中doubled和hit都用于描述數(shù)字的增長，意思分別為“翻倍”和“突破”;第二段中overcomes this obstacle意為“克服這一障礙”，意即普通手機不能發(fā)送語音郵件這一缺陷，troublesome process意為“令人厭煩的過程”;第三段中smartphone application意為“智能手機應用程序”。