http://www.bagu.cc/
在填写西方国家寄过来的一些申请表格的时候，我们有时会碰到这样的栏目，就是要求你写一篇几百字的关于你曾经遇到过的一个道德的两难境地的短文，其用意是考察你的英文写作能力和道德水平。这样的文章要求故事具有典型意义，布局谋篇合理，文字言简意赅。
这是我几年前为一位在职人士代写的文章，因为她先前写的东西不行。这种做法不足同学们仿效，但是它说明用英语进行精准和得体的写作对非本族的英语学习者来讲是不太容易的事，需要我们作出艰苦的训练。她的故事这是一个真实的故事。
这样的文章其一般结构如下：
分为3个部分：
1. 第一部分：开头段。告诉读者你的道德两难境地是什么。
2. 第二部分：中心部分。叙述你的道德两难境地的整个故事。
1）基本事实；2）你面临的2个或多个选择；3）你的内心深处的挣扎；4）你最终的选择；5）作出这个选择的原因；6）作出选择后如释负重的感觉。
3. 第三部分：结尾段。照应开头，谈谈你事后的思考，相信你的选择是正确的。
I am a government employee. I lead a tranquil but busy life every day, without having to go off the normal track. But one day I suddenly was faced with an ethical dilemma. It compelled me to make a hard choice.
On August 8, 2001, one of the farmers in my mother’s home village in Danzhou in northwestern Hainan’s mountainous areas was beaten to coma by a mob of his fellow villagers due to a debt dispute. He was rushed to a hospital in Haikou where I work in the Department of Agriculture of the Hainan Provincial Government.
The farmer, who is the creditor in this bloody conflict, still has remained in a coma at the moment when I am writing this article. His family has already paid over RMB250,000 to the hospital for his medical treatment, which is a huge sum of money for a poor peasant family. The victim’s illiterate wife, thinking that I could do something for her in this tragic event as I worked in a government department, came to me for help.
Hearing her account of her husband’s miserable experience, I had a deep sympathy for her and her family. But I felt rather hard pressed, for the time she ventured to seek my help was when I was most busy. Apart from performing my duties in the government agency, I was handling materials for applying for a British Chevening scholarship, and I was attending an intensive IELTS course for an impending IELTS test. But at last I decided to help her.
On the following days, taking half a day’s leave if on weekdays, I made a trip to the victim’s village to investigate the case, took her to the offices of many local officials of various ranks for the disclosure of the truth of the case, wrote many documents for appealing to the local county government where she lived, and helped her employ a lawyer for a lawsuit. All this took up much of my precious time. But thinking of the poor woman’s mournful facial expressions, I believed that as I offered her my timely help I will not feel conscience-stricken over this matter in my later years of life.
Most of us lead a common life. But in this routine style of life, we may occasionally meet with various unexpected encounters concerning either ourselves or others or both. In some of the encounters, we may have to make a choice between two ethically related alternatives. Mine is such a case. I firmly believe that I made a right choice.