Evelyn Wang， 來自Naperville， IL.

How Fast Fashion Became Faster — and Worse for the Earth

The spring dance is in two weeks， and my friend needs help choosing a dress. She beckons me to her phone where an endless mosaic of elegant dresses， not one over $20， dances before my eyes. After much deliberation， she settles on a glamorous sapphire gown with pleated details lining the bodice. Another two weeks later， the dress carpets the bottom of a landfill， worn only once.

Welcome to the world of fast fashion.

Fast fashion is a relatively recent phenomenon. During the 1990s， retailers began to introduce trendy， cheaply-priced， poorly-made clothes on a weekly basis， intending to match the breakneck pace at which fashion trends move. Style became cheap， convenient and consumable.

Fast fashion， however， is ultimately a privilege. It is a privilege to buy clothes solely for their style， and it is a privilege to ignore the environmental consequences of doing so. In reality， the aggressive cycle of consumption perpetuated by fast fashion means that the clothes we wear are now more likely than ever to end up as part of the 92 million tons of textile waste produced annually.

During the pandemic， as stores closed， consumers ditched fast fashion staples such as H&M and Zara， instead opting to order from e-commerce social media sensations such as Shein and Asos. (Shein is now valued at $100 billion， more than H&M and Zara combined.) These brands represent an escalation of both fast fashion and its environmental toll.

These fast fashion newcomers thrived during the pandemic because of their unique business models. They exist entirely online， allowing them to ship the thousands of new styles they release daily to consumers directly from their warehouses， avoiding supply chain snags and U.S. import duties in the process. Meanwhile， a reliance on cheap overseas labor and synthetic textiles keeps prices irresistibly low.

These practices， however， are hurting the Earth more than ever before. Because these retailers rely solely on international shipping to move their products， they only exacerbate the annual billion tons of greenhouse gasses released by shipping. Virtually all of these brands sell clothes that contain petroleum-based， resource-intensive synthetic fibers such as polyester and nylon. During their lifetime， these fibers are responsible for 35 percent of the microplastics contaminating our oceans and can subsequently take centuries to decompose in landfills.

Though fast fashion represents an understandably alluring combination of style and savings， now， more than ever， we simply cannot quantify the true cost of our clothing with a price tag. When consumers want to update their wardrobe， they can do so sustainably by thrifting， reworking old garments or researching environmentally-conscious brands.

For now， I’ll be at my next school dance rocking the same dress I did last year.

范文總結(jié)

紐約時報官方給出的評分標準中包含：Viewpoint?觀點、Evidence?證據(jù)、Analysis and Persuasion?分析與說服力、Language?語言、以及Guidelines?比賽準則。

本文的結(jié)構(gòu)十分清晰，完美滿足了各項評分標準中的要點，運用了個人的經(jīng)歷在首尾進行了呼應(yīng)。在論證方面，作者運用了數(shù)據(jù)，舉例，以及排比的寫作手法，深扣主題，使得整個文章保持連貫性。

其次，官方要求的文章話題是希望學(xué)生們深思熟慮過的，作者自身的故事是很好的切入點。加上所列的數(shù)據(jù)，以及快時尚中具體商家的例子也達到了官方要求的research研究的要求。最點睛的部分就是作者點出的解決方案，這巧妙地達到了官方rubric中a call to action的拿分點。

在寫這類文章時，很多同學(xué)會大篇幅地依賴research文章的信息，使得論點和論據(jù)達不到平衡。所以同學(xué)們要更加注意段落結(jié)構(gòu)，以及多加審視所運用的數(shù)據(jù)或者例子的必要性。