高三英语应用文 写作训练（精彩20篇）

主语+谓语+介词+宾语

We all agreed on the terms.

He hates to argue with his wife about such small matters.

All these things are to be answered for.

主语+系动词+形容词

Good medicine tastes bitter to the mouth.

He was so tired that he fell asleep the moment he went to bed.

Your explanation sounds reasonable.

主语+谓语+直接宾语

I want your promise.

Have your fixed my watch?

This factory produces 1000 cars a week.

主语+谓语+间接宾语+直接宾语

He paid me a visit yesterday.

He owed me 50 yuan.

He wrote his family a letter yesterday.

主语+谓语+宾语+宾补 (to do)

I will get someone to repair the recorder for you.

I didn’t mean to hurt you.

He invited me to teach at a well-known university.

主语+谓语+宾语+宾补 (do)

I often hear her sing the song.

The boss made workers work 15 hours a day.

Don’t forget to have him come.

主语+谓语+现在分词

I heard her singing in the next room.

We could feel our heats beating fast.

Did you observe the birds flying around the trees?

主语+谓语+过去分词

I must have my watch repaired.

We must get he task finished on time.

Speak louder to make yourself understood by everybody.

主语+谓语+宾语(动名词)

I suggested putting off the meeting.

They all avoided mentioning the matter.

We can’t help laughing at the news.

主语+谓语+宾语(不定式)

I can’t afford to buy such a large house.

Don’t pretend to know what you don’t.

He feared to speak in her presence.

主语+谓语+宾语(名词/代词)+介词+宾语

Nothing can prevent us from going forward.

Thank you for your help.

He demanded an answer from me.

练习写好句子的方法一：合并句子

It was early in the morning. Mr. Smith was in his garden. He was watering flowers.

Early in the morning, Mr. Smith was watering flowers in his garden.

A girl was crossing a road. The girl was pretty. The road was wide.

A pretty girl was crossing a wide road.

首先，我讨厌英语高考试卷中最后一道试题被叫做“书面表达”，叫做“（英语）作文”难道有困难吗？如果说尽管是高考，实际写作情况算不上“作文”，那么，我们汉语考试中，小学生写的文章应该叫什么呢？叫“神马”吗？现代高考英语写作从本质上讲，写的水平大约也只能算是等于中国小学生汉语作文的水平。我们的孩子写作文，很难写出自由的、真实的内容来，高考英语作文从内容看、从形式看也是空空如也。如果持怀疑态度，你大可以看看高考以来英语作文的参考范文。正因为如此，我的学生在我的倡导下，开始了双腿走路的英语作文习练：也就是，作业本练习应试作文（100词左右的试卷末题“书面表达”）；日记本练习自由作文，无字数、题材、体裁限制，随便写。

一般而言，应试作文是“八股文”的翻版.每一种文体或题材内容都有相对固定的格式，也就是作文被“格式”化了，它是可以用来检阅学生英语习得的一些情况的。但是如同选择题的标准化一样，作文按照作文的“标准化”写作，根本就不如干脆考单句翻译或者句群翻译，免得徒有其名，未有其实。

下面是借用博友博文中的一个片段，对于其中的现象，不知你以为然否？华东师大的一位研究者曾经在中学做过一个简单的即兴调查：“作文写过自己妈妈的，请举手。”课堂上的学生几乎都举起了手。“文章里写自己生病，妈妈送去医院的，请举手。”多数又举起了手。“写去医院的时候，是半夜，天正下着大雨的，请举手。”举手的仍然是一大片。“写妈妈吃力地背着自己，身上被雨水淋透的，请举手。”下面不仅举起了一大片手，而且还有哄堂大笑。

如果是英语试卷，那么这个题目可能是这个样子的-----书面表达：人人都有自己的母亲，母亲是世界上最伟大的人。记得有一次，半夜里，天正下着大雨，我肚子疼得厉害，我母亲吃力的用自己肩，背着我冲向医院，她身上被雨水淋透了，我非常感动。请以John的名义，写一篇日记，字数100左右，参考词汇:XXX，注意，文章开头已经给出，不计入字数。

我想坚持让学生双腿走路。一方面，不瞄准应试，那是十分危险的；另一方面，坚持自由写作，“吾写吾心”会更好的锻炼学生的写作能力的。

Everyone has pressure, as long as you have things done or to heart, the pressure will go unnoticed in the attachment in the mans body, cause all sorts of "symptoms", for example: cant sleep, reduce appetite, or in a bad mood... And so on.

My pressure is not home after finish homework cant write, often busy to midnight; Dads pressure is accounting work done; Mothers pressure because he was a career woman, a candle burning at both ends and worry cant give attention to both family and work is good, and her sisters pressure is myopic degree increased very fast, it is difficult to control.

Pressure are not necessarily bad, there are also some is good. The rules in our class, for example: not diligent student didnt change class will not be able to finish homework, because of the pressure, a heartbreaker for these people, finally they decided to change my homework finished, also get real learning, no longer look for excuses to slack off. So the pressure is often motivates us go forward.

Large and small pressure exists in our life, we should be appropriate to adjust the mood, the pressure into power, so as to let the life become more colorful.

人人都有压力，只要有事情做不完或想不开时，压力就会神不知鬼不觉的附着在那个人的身上，引起各种“症状”，例如：睡不着觉、食欲降低或心情不好……等。

我的压力是补习回家后功课写不完，常常忙到三更半夜;爸爸的压力是会计工作做不完;妈妈的压力是因为他身为职业妇女，一只蜡烛两头烧，担心家庭跟工作没办法兼顾好，而姐姐的压力是近视的度数增加的非常快，很难控制。

压力不一定都是坏的，也有一些是好的。以我们班上的规定为例：不用功的学生没改完作业就不能下课，因为这个压力，让这些人伤透了脑筋，最后他们终于决定把作业改完，也获得真正的学习，不再找借口偷懒。所以压力常常会督促着我们勇往直前。

大大小小的压力存在我们的生活当中，我们应该适当的调适心情，把压力化为助力，这样才能让生活变得多采多姿。

就“说明对象”而言，英语说明文可分为对“客观具体事物”的说明和对“主观抽象观念”的说明两大类，比如：对“LASER（激光）”、“Computer Problem of Year XX（计算机XX年问题）”等等的说明都是对客观或者具体事物的说明，而“The Successful Interview（谈成功的面试）”、“How to Write Good English Composition（如何才能写好英语作文）” 等是对主观抽象观念的说明。对我们中学生朋友来说，在汉语说明文的教学中似乎比较侧重前者，即解释客观具体事物的说明文。但在英语说明文中，阐述和说明 “主观抽象观念”的说明文占了很大的比重，其中有些类似汉语中的议论文。但是无论是对“客观具体事物”的说明还是对“主观抽象观念”的阐述，英语说明文从结构上看大致可分为三个部分：第一部分一般是文章的第一段，提出文章的主题，也就是说，文章想要阐述、说明的主要内容；第二部分是文章的主体，可由若干个段落组成，对文章的主题进行展开说明；第三部分是结尾段，对文章的主题作归纳总结。从英语说明文的结构可以看出，要写好英语说明文的关键在于第二部分如何对文章主题进行展开说明。在英语中，常见的用来展开文章主题的方法有下列几种：

1.罗列法（listing）

在文章开始时提出需要说明的东西和观点，然后常用first，second，…and finally加以罗列说明。罗列法广泛地使用于各类指导性的说明文之中，下面这篇学生作文就是用罗列法写成的：

Early Rising

Early rising （早起） is helpful in more than one way. First， it helps to keep us fit （健康）。 We all need fresh air. But air is never so fresh as early in the morning. Besides， we can do good to our health from doing morning exercise （做早操）。

Secondly， early rising helps us in our studies. We learn more quickly in the morning， and find it easier to remember what we learn in the morning.

Thirdly， early rising enables （使能够） us to plan the work of the day. We cannot work well without a good plan. Just as the plan for the year should be made in the spring， so the plan for the day should be made in the morning.

Fourthly， early rising gives us enough time to get ready for our work， such as to wash our faces and hands and eat our breakfast properly.

Late risers may find it very difficult to form the habit of early rising. They ought to make special efforts to do so. As the English proverb says，“Early to bed and early to rise， makes a man healthy， wealthy and wise.”

罗列法经常用下列句式展开段落，我们可以注意模仿学习：

There are several good reasons why we should learn a foreign language. First of all， …Secondly， …And finally， …

We should try our best to plant more trees for several good reasons First of all， …Secondly， …And finally，

必须指出的是，有时罗列法并不一定有明确的first， second…等词，但文章还是以罗列论据展开的。

2.举例法（examples）

举例法是用具体的例子来说明我们要表达的意思，常用for example， for instance， still another example is…等词语引出。下面这篇学生作文就是用举例法写成的：

Recreation

It is impossible to keep in good health unless we take enough recreation （娱乐）。 The mind， too， needs change to make it fresh and vigorous （有活力的） There is much truth in the old saying， All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.“

There are many games which boys and girls can play after their school work is done， for instance， football， tennis， and kite-flying. Other examples of recreation are boating， fishing， gardening， cycling， walking， chess-playing， and reading. Persons who sit much at their business should take a kind of recreation that will supply their muscles （肌肉） with exercise. Those who spend most of their time in the open air and do manual work （体力活） should adopt （采纳） reading or some other quiet form of recreation.

Cycling is said to be an important means of recreation， but many persons foolishly tire out themselves by cycling too much. The same may be said in regard to football. Tennis is a pleasant form of recreation. Many persons take great delight in boating. Fishing requires much patience， and there is much danger of taking cold by sitting still on a cold day too long. A good brisk （轻松） walk is one of the finest forms of exercise. For persons engaged in outdoor labor， chess-playing is another excellent form of recreation.

可以看出，举例法和罗列法有时可以结合使用：即用罗列法来列出例子，用例子充实罗列的说明。

3.比较法（comparison and contrast）

比较法是对两个对象进行比较，从而进行说明的写作手法。比较法又可细分为比较相同点（comparison）和比较不同点（contrast）两种方法，比如：

From Paragraph to Essay

Although they are different in length （长度）， the paragraph and the essay are quite similar in structure （结构）。 For example， the paragraph starts with either a topic sentence （主题句） or a topic introducer followed by a topic sentence. In the essay， the first paragraph sets up the topic focus （主题所在） Next， the sentences in the body of a paragraph develop the topic sentence. Similarly， the body of an essay consists of a number of paragraphs that discuss and support the ideas given in the introductory （引导的） paragraph. Finally， a concluding sentence （结束句） ——whether a restatement， conclusion， or observation——ends the paragraph. The essay， too， has a concluding paragraph which ends the essay logically and satisfactorily. Although there are some exceptions （例外）， most well written expository （说明文的） paragraphs and essays are similar in structure.

可以看出，在比较相同点的时候，常用到similarly，also，too，in the same case，in spite of the difference等这样的词语。

European Football and American Football

Although European football is the parent of American football， the two games show several major differences. European football， sometimes called association football or soccer， is played in 80 countries， making it the most widely played sport in the world. American football， on the other hand， is popular only in North America （the United States and Canada）。 Soccer is played by eleven players with a round ball. Football， also played by eleven players in somewhat different positions （位置） on the field， is played with an elongated （拉长的） round ball. Soccer has little body contact （接触） between players and therefore needs no special protective equipment. Football， in which players make the greatest use of body contact to stop a running ball-carrier and his teammates， needs special protective equipment. In soccer， the ball is advanced toward the goal by kicking it or by butting （顶） it with the head. In American football， on the other hand， the ball is passed from hand to hand or carried in the hands across the opponents （对手） goal. These are just a few of the features which distinguish （区别） association and American football.

这是一篇用比较不同点的手法写的说明文。从文章中可以看出：however，on the other hand，in contrast，but，nevertheless等表示转折的词语常用来引导对不同点的比较。

4.定义法（definition）

定义法也是英语说明文中常用的写作手法，特别是在对具体事物概念进行说明时经常使用。定义法的基本要素是定义句。英语中常见定义句的模式是：

被定义对象is所属类别+限制性定语

可以看出，定义句中限制性定语越详细，定义就越精确，比如：

A bat is a small mouse-like animal that flies at night and feeds on（以……为食品）fruit and insects but is not a bird.

其实，在英—英词典中，对英语单词的英文解释就是定义法的典型例子。比如，看看Longman词典对student和teacher的定义是很有意思的：A student is a person who is studying at a place of education or training. A teacher is a person who gives knowledge or skill to sb. as a profession （专业）。

5.顺序法（sequence of time， space and process）

顺序法是指按时间、空间或过程的顺序进行说明的一种写作手法。比如按照时间顺序介绍一个科学家的生平，用空间顺序阐述逐渐开发西部的重要意义，用过程顺序法解释葡萄酒的生产过程等等。

下面这篇学生作文就是用顺序法写成的：

Coal

Coal underwent （经受） many changes before it became the bright， brittle （脆的）， black substance which we now use. During ancient times （在上古时代）， when the earth enjoyed a very warm and wet climate， the land was covered with large forests and big plants. As time went on， the ground changed and began to sink （下沉） a little. These very large numbers of trees and vegetables received a deposit （沉淀） of sand and clay. This layer of sand and clay pressed upon the layer beneath and prevented it from contact with air. These trees and plants received the pres sure and changed its appearance.

Generations after generations （几世纪后）， as the ground kept gradually sinking， another layer of sand and clay was again deposited （积聚） above the layers already formed. A great pressure was thus exerted （作用） and the peat （泥煤） was changed into the black and brittle substance which is known as coal.

Coal is a kind of mineral which is formed by nature as above stated. It is an important industrial material and is chiefly used as fuel. It is very valuable in the industrial world. The place where coal deposit is called a coal mine （煤矿）。 In China， coal mines are largely found in the north-west part of the country. Shanxi is a famous province for producing coal. It has the most coal of China.

6.分类法（classification）

分类法是将写作对象进行分类说明的一种写作手法。比如：著名的英国哲学家弗朗西斯·培根（Francis Bacon）在其脍炙人口的《谈读书》（Of Studies）一文中就用到了分类法：

Some books are to be tasted， others to be swallowed， and some few to be chewed and digested， that is， some books are to be read only in parts， others to be read， but not curiously， and some few to be read wholly， and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy， and extracts made of them by others； but that would be only in the less important arguments， and the meaner sort of books…

参考译文：书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。换言之，有只须读其部分者，有只须大体涉猎者，少数则须全读，读时须全神贯注，孜孜不倦。书亦可请人代读，取其所需摘要，但只限题材较次或价值不高者……

——转摘自《英汉翻译教程》（张培基等）

可见，如果能够根据具体情况，选用合适的写作手法，就可为文章增添无穷的魅力。

除了上述提到的6种展开英语说明文主题的写作方法之外，还有因果法、归纳法等其他方法。但相比之下，对于中学生来说，上述6种方法是首先值得掌握的。另外必须指出的是：在一篇文章中往往是以一种写作手法为主，同时辅以其他写作手法。有时，甚至会几种写作手法混用而不分主次。因此，必须根据具体情况，选用合适的展开主题的写作手法，才能写出优秀的英语说明文。

I’m Liu Yuan jiao. I am very happy to say something here. At this time, I’ d like to talk about my hobby.

我是刘元角。我说的东西在这里很开心。在这个时候，我想谈谈我的爱好。

I have many hobby. First, I like playing games.

我有许多的爱好。首先，我喜欢玩游戏。

Computer games are cool. I like CS best. I could play it all day.

电脑游戏很酷。我喜欢CS最好。我可以玩一整天。

Second, I like sports. I love playing football with friends. Swimmin in the sea is my favorite. And l like to draw pictures ai home. I often read comics on the bedin the evening. It’s my secrot pleas don’t tell my parents, I like music. I like singing. I often sing songs. Of course, I learn English everyday. As you konw, English is used everywhere in the world. So l learn English very well someday. Then l can talk about the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games with them. It’s my colorful dream in the English world

第二，我喜欢运动。我喜欢和朋友一起踢足球。在海里游泳是我最喜欢的。我喜欢画画，艾家。我经常在晚上看漫画的副官。这是我的秘密请不要告诉我的父母，我喜欢音乐。我喜欢唱歌。我经常唱的歌曲。当然，我每天都学习英语。你知道，英语是用来在世界各地。我学习英语有一天很好。然后我可以谈广州2010亚运会与他们。这是我在英语世界的五彩缤纷的梦

The saying that practice makes perfect means that after you have plenty of practice in what you are doing, you will be perfect in it. He who practices a lot will master the skill more quickly than he who seldom or hardly practices.

For example, when we learn English, we have to learn grammar, words, expressions and so on. The most important thing may be how to put what we have learned into practice. If you only learn the grammar rules by heart and dont do enough exercises, it is certain that you cant understand them perfectly. But if you practice a lot, maybe you will understand them more deeply and you can find some good methods of applying them. Memorizing English words whenever time permits,we can easily memorize them and can even find a way to memorize them more quickly.

There is another example. A famous singer can sing very welt. Of course, his talent is very important, but practice is necessary. It is necessary to practice to make the singer sing better and better.

It is evident that practice is important for everybody. If you want to improve your study and work, you should remember that practice makes perfect.

1．阅读下面的文字，按要求作文。

小提琴演奏的名曲是和谐的，画家创作的山水画是和谐的，大自然创造的生机勃勃的四季是和谐的，充满温馨和爱意的家庭是和谐的，人与人、人与自然彼此尊重相互关爱的关系和氛围是和谐的……对此，你一定有自己的生活体验和感受，请以“和谐”为话题写一篇，立意自定，文体自选，题目自拟，不少于800字。

【思路点拨】

“和谐”，意思是配合得适当和匀称，它可以指艺术，可以指自然，也可以指人类社会。这些方面，话题的导语已经给我们作了较为明确的提示。写作时可就此联系自己的生活体验和感受写和谐，比如：可以写个人之间、群体（同学、朋友、师生、长幼）之间的相处；可以写日常生活中种种和谐或不和谐的现象或事件……想得宽广，思维灵活，理解深刻，写出的才有深度。

2．阅读下面的文字，按要求作文。

（1）科学家发现：北极上空出现臭氧层空洞，强烈的紫外线可能击毙所有生命。

（2）据一项资料统计，我们这个世界，是一个化学合成物质的世界。你看，“吃”化学添加剂，“穿”化学纤维，“用”合成塑料，“化学”与“合成”充斥整个世界：化学农药、化学食品、合成肥料、合成树脂……而电视、汽车这类工业文明的产物，简直就是一堆“化学”与“合成”。

（3）尼尔群岛荒凉的沙滩上，四处都有散乱的雏鸥残骸、不能孵化的鸥蛋和遗弃的鸥巢；卡特加特海峡的安霍尔特岛，四处漂荡着海豹的尸体……

请以“地球家园”为话题写一篇。

一位富翁和他儿子爱好收藏画，他们收藏了从毕加索到拉费奥等很多艺术品。常常他俩坐在一起欣赏着大师的作品。

when the vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. he was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. the father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

当越战爆发的时候，儿子投入了战争。他非常勇敢，在一次作战中因为抢救战友而牺牲了。父亲接到了通知，深深地哀恸他唯一的儿子。

about a month later, just before christmas, there was a knock at the door. a young man stood there with a large package in his hands. he said "sir, you dont

know me, but i am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. he saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the

heart and he died instantly. he often talked about you and your love for art.’’ the young man held out his package. "i know this isnt much. im really not a great artist, but i think your son would have wanted you to have this." the father opened the package. it was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man.

he stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. the father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes swelled up

with tears. he thanks the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. "oh no, sir, i could never repay what you son did for me. its a gift.

约一个月之后，正好是圣诞节前，门上传来敲门声。一位年轻人站在那里，手里拿着一个很大的包裹。他说道：“先生，你不认识我，我就是你儿子为了救我而牺牲的那个战士。那天他救了很多人，当他背着我走向安全地带的时候，一颗子弹击中了他的心脏，他顿时就牺牲了。他常常说起你和你对艺术的爱好，”年轻人举起他的包裹，“我知道这不算什么，我是真的不怎样的艺术家，但我想你儿子会要你保留这幅画的。”父亲打开了包裹，是他儿子的一幅肖像画，是这年轻人画的。他惊奇地注视着画中那士兵是如何捕捉到他儿子的个性的。父亲如此地被画里的眼睛吸引，他自己的眼睛也充满了泪水。他谢了那年轻人并提议买下这幅画。“噢，不要钱，先生，我永远不能偿还你儿子给我做的一切。这是礼物。”

the father hung the portrait over his mantle. every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

父亲把这肖像画挂在壁炉架上，每次有客人来他家拜访，他总是在给他们看他收藏的许多名作之前，先带他们看儿子的肖像。

the man died a few months later. there was to be a great auction of his great works of art. many people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and

having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. on the platform sat the portrait of his son. the auctioneer pounded his gavel, "we will start with this portrait of the son. who will bid for this picture?

富翁在几个月之后死了。他的伟大收藏也将要被拍卖掉。许多人聚集着，为能一睹这些伟大的收藏以及能从他的收藏里买一个加入自己的收藏品这一机会而激动不已。在讲台上安置着那儿子的肖像画

there was silence. then a ! voice in the back of the room shouted "we want to see the famous paintings. skip this one."

场面非常安静。这时有一个声音在厅堂的后面叫道：“我们要看名画，跳过这一幅。”

but the auctioneer persisted, "will someone bid for this painting? who will start the bidding? $100, $200?"

但拍卖经纪人坚持着：“有没有人投这幅画的标?谁先开始?一百，两百?

another voice shouted angrily, "we didnt come here to see this painting. we came to see the van gohs, the rembrandts. get on with the real bids".

另外一个声音高喊着，非常愤怒：“我们不是来这里看这幅画的，我们是来看梵高的画，看伦伯朗的画的。快进入真正的竞标吧。”

but still the auctioneer continued, "the son! the son! who will take the son?" finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. it was the longtime

gardener of the man and his son. "ill give you $10 for the painting." being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

但拍卖经纪人依旧继续着：“儿子，儿子，谁要这儿子?”终于，一个声音从厅堂的深处传来：“我出十块钱要这画。”因为穷，这是他力所能及的价钱。

"we have $10, who will bid $20??"

"give it to him for $10. lets see the masters".

”

"$10 is the bid, wont someone bid $20?"

“有人标了十块，有谁肯标二十的吗?”

“十块给他吧，让我们看名作。

“标价十块，没有人标二十的吗?”

the crowd was becoming angry. they didnt want the picture of the son. they wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

the auctioneer pounded his gavel. "going once, twice, sold for $10!"

a man sitting in the second row shouted, "now lets get on with the collection!

the auctioneer laid down his gavel "im sorry, the auction is over".

”

"what about the paintings?"

人群开始愤怒起来。他们不想要这儿子的画。他们要收藏的是更值得投资的东西。

拍卖经纪人敲打着槌子：“一次竞标，两次竞标，十块得标!”

一位坐在第二排的人喊道：“现在让我们开始进入收藏品的竞标。”

那拍卖经纪人放下他的槌子说：“很抱歉，竞标已经结束了。”

“那些收藏品怎么办?”

"im sorry, when i was called to conduct this auction, i was told of a secret stipulation in the will. i was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this

time. only the painting of the son would be auctioned. whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. the man who took the son, gets everything!"

“对不起，当我被叫来负责这场拍卖的时候，我被告知那人的遗嘱中有秘密的约定，一直到现在我是不允许暴露这个秘密的。只有儿子这幅画是要拍卖的。谁买了这幅画谁就继承整个遗产，包括这幅画。那个男人拿了儿子肖像，得到了一切。”

god gave his son 2000 years ago to die on the cruel cross. much like the auctioneer, his message today is "the son, the son, wholl take the son?" because, you see, whoever takes the son gets everything.

上帝在2000年以前给他的儿子在残酷的十字架上受死。和这经纪人非常相似，他今天的福音是：“儿子，儿子，谁承受这个儿子?”因为，你看，谁接纳儿子谁就获得一切。

Mountain is located in the hometown of the green, green and lovely; Home of the water is so clear, clear and moving; People of hometown is so industrious, make people always remember them.

In my hometown, there is a rising mountain - xuefeng mountain.

The xuefeng mountain overlapping peaks overlapping ailian, rolling, like a dragon lying there, and like a giant, stands in the mountains, the kindness of looking down on the earth. Every morning, a grey morning mist is like the light smoke curling, wrapped around the top of the mountain, as if it did anything wrong, ashamed to show up. Xuefeng mountain more than one mountain, big, small, long, short, horizontal, straight, equal a than a high.

Here not only has a materialist magnificent xuefeng mountain, and winding ruanjiang.

The long river is like a horse green giant silks and satins, the depths of the mountains in the distance has been spread to my feet. Its a beautiful ruanjiang! Clear, green, quiet, fascinating, and far to see it is so green, green like a jade ribbon; It is as close to the qing, the qing could see the fish and shrimp, a recently night that curved crescent reflected on the "silk", is so beautiful, gentle and charming.

Here in addition to the lakes and mountains, and simple and hardworking people.

Every morning, when you walk the street, you will find the hardworking farmers uncle early came to the farmers market, threaten, want every passer-by to taste the joy of harvest. Now, in this small town, high-rise buildings have been built building, built the highway... There is also a solved the food problem of the worlds great man - the father of hybrid rice "yuan longping".

I love my lovely hometown - an giang, because beauty more beautiful mountain American water here!

家乡的山是那样绿，绿得可爱;家乡的水是那样清，清得动人;家乡的人们是那样勤劳，使人永远记得他们。

在我的家乡，有一座拔地而起的山——雪峰山。

这座雪峰山峰峦迭嶂、连绵起伏，像一条青龙卧在那里，又恰似一个巨人，矗立在万山之中，盛情的俯视着大地。每天清晨，灰蒙蒙的晨雾似袅袅的轻烟，缠绕在山顶，仿佛它做错了什么事，羞于露面。雪峰山不止一座山，大的、小的、长的、短的、横的、直的都有，争雄似的一座比一座高。

这里不仅有唯物雄壮的雪峰山，还有蜿蜒曲折的沅江。

这悠悠江水仿佛是一匹翠绿的巨幅绸缎，从远处高山深处一直铺到我的脚下。这沅江真美呀!清澈、碧绿、恬静，令人神往，远看它是那样的绿，绿的像一条翡翠的绸带;近看是那样清，清的可以看见江底的鱼虾，夜晚那弯弯的月牙倒映在“绸带”上，是那样美丽、温柔、迷人。

这儿除了湖光山色，还有勤劳朴实的人们。

每天清晨，当你漫步大街时，你就会发现勤劳的农民伯伯早早来到农贸市场，吆喝着，想让每一位路人尝尝秋收的喜悦。如今，在这个小镇上，已经建起了一座座高楼大厦，建起了高速公路……这里还有一位解决了世界上粮食问题的伟人——杂交水稻之父——“袁隆平”。

我爱我可爱的家乡——安江，因为这里山美水美人更美!

When I was seven,I started learning English.I played games and sang English songs with other children.Sometimes,I watched English cartoons.Its funny.Then I discovered the beauty of the language,and began my colorful dream in the English world.

I hope I can travel around the world someday.I want to go to America to visit Washington,because my cousin is over there.Of course,I want to go to London too,because England is where English language developed.If I can ride my bike in Cambridge University,I will be very happy.

I hope I can speak English with everyone in the world.Also Ill introduce China to them,such as the Great Wall,and the gardens in Suzhou.I will teaching people of the world about the beautiful language of our country.

I like the English language.To learn English is wonderful.I once wanted to be an English teacher.I also like Chinese literature.When I was really young, I was able to remember lots of poems.I also wanted to be a teacher of Chinese.Now I think that both of my dreams can come true:I will be able to use English to teach foreign friends Chinese and share Chinese culture with them.So that more and more people will be able to get to know the 5000 years history culture,and the prosperity of our great China.

My future is not a dream.I am confident that it will come true.

[高三英语作文:I love English

英语写作过程中我们经常会用到一些短语，下面请看语文迷整理的高级英语短语，希望对你有帮助。

1. feel frustrated (挫折的)/ discouraged

2. a precious (宝贵的) experience

3. raise / arouse the awareness of …

4. acquire knowledge and skills学习知识和技能

5. a growing /increasing tendency

6. have a desire for sth / to do sth

7. put sth into practice

8. be closely related to…与…息息相关

9. be essential to sb 对某人来说必不可少

10. in a society with more competitions and challenges / in a competitive society

11. be keen on… 热衷于…

12. broaden one’s horizons开阔眼界

13. a large variety of / a wide range of …

14. make one’s dream come true

15. lay a solid/firm/stable foundation for/in…为…/在…方面打下坚实的基础

16. listen to teachers attentively

17. make a practical plan

18. motivate sb to do sth

19. bury oneself into study埋头学习

20. our determination and efforts

21. express my gratitude to her sincerely

22. be strict with sb in sth

23. achieve the final victory

24. encounter/face some difficulties

25. neglect the disadvantages

26. With the great efforts we’ve made, …

27. enhance/improve his ability of singing

28. be optimistic about

29. hold the strong belief that…

30. I’m confident / I’m convinced that…

31. with iron will and perseverance

32. pursue one’s dream 追逐梦想

33. arouse one’s passion for…唤起对…的热情

34. resist the temptation of good food

35. change one’s original mind

36. spare no effort to do sth 不遗余力做…

37. redouble one’s effort 加倍努力

38. leave a deep impression on sb

39. turn to sb for help / advice

40. relieve/lessen/reduce/ease one’s burden

41. with time going by=as time goes by

42. cherish/treasure/value our lives

43. vary from person to person

44. a boarding school 寄宿制学校

45. What surprised me most was that…

46. cause severe consequences(后果)

47. pay their tuition/school fees/schooling

48. physically and mentally

49. Some in favor of it think that…., while others are against it, holding the opinion that…

50. Success stems from hard work as it can help us accomplish the goal we’re striving for.

51. establish a special fund to help the poor

52. its negative aspect/impact is also obvious.

英文日记和汉语日记一样，是用来记叙一天中所发生的有意义的事情或对将来的打算等。以下是小编整理的英语日记写作的格式，欢迎阅读！

日记可分为记事、议论、描写及抒情等。记事型是用英语记述当天自己生活学习中发生的事情。议论型是对生活中的某一事情或情况现象谈自己的看法，发表议论。描写型或抒情型，则是对某人物事物的特征做细致的描述，或针对某事物抒发自己的感情。

1、格式：

一般是在左上角记上当天日期，星期，时间的排列法与书信一致，星期写在日期之后；右上角写上当天的天气情况，表示天气情况的词一般是形容词，如：fine（晴朗的），cold（寒冷的），snowy（下雪），sunny（阳光充足的），rainy（下雨的），cloudy（阴天的）等。日记的小标题写在下一行，也可省略不写。

2、时态：

写日记的时间一般是在下午、晚上，有时也可以在第二天补写，因此，日记中所记述的事情通常发生在过去，常用一般过去时；但当记述天气、描写景色或展望未来时，可以用一般现在时或一般将来时。

写法大致和写汉语日记相同，都是在正文之前有日期、星期几及当天的天气情况。注意内容表达要清楚连贯、准确。

扩展阅读：

日期格式用月日年（美式）或日月年（英式）都可以

1. 年、月、日都写时，通常以月、日、年为顺序，月份可以缩写，日和年用逗号隔开，例如：december 18, xx或者dec. 18, xx。

2. 如果要写星期，星期要紧挨日期，它既可以放在日期前面，也可以放在日期后面，星期也可以省略不写。星期和日期之间不用标点，但要空一格，星期也可缩写，例如：thursday dec. 18, xx或dec.18，xx thursday

3. 天气情况必不可少，天气一般用一个形容词如:sunny, fine, rainy, snowy等表示。天气通常位于日记的右上角。

有一个晶莹透亮的球体，给予了人类森林、大海与山川，让人类与天上的飞禽、地上的走兽、海里的小鱼小虾为伴。这颗星球就是我们的地球母亲。

几千年来，历史长河滚滚流淌，地球母亲一直用她那甘甜的雨水哺育着我们。可不知收敛的人们却置优雅的环境于不顾，随意糟蹋着母亲的身体，用黑水墨池染黑了母亲的皮肤，用白色垃圾蒙蔽了母亲的双眼，用过度开采掏空了母亲的身体。地球母亲终于生病了，到鬼门关走了一遭，现在她的身体还发着烧呢!

我常常幻想：如果我有一只马良神笔及配套的橡皮擦，我一定要把污染空气、浑浊压抑、诱发疾病的雾霾擦掉，画上天高云淡、鸟语花香;我一定要将导致树木枯萎、湖泊酸化、鱼类死亡的酸雨擦掉，画上绿意盎然、碧波荡漾;我一定要将汽车尾气、工业废气、塑料垃圾擦掉，画上节能环保可再生的新资源。

我常常幻想：如果我有菩萨净瓶中那样神奇的水，我一定要将它往海里点上一点，让海洋重回清澈;我一定要将它往湖里滴上一滴，让湖水中的垃圾烟消云散;我一定要将它往被滥砍乱伐的树桩上喷上一喷，让树木起死回生。

可幻想终归是幻想，保护环境终究要回到现实，从身边的小事做起。只要我们不再滥砍乱伐，少使用一次性筷子，多多植树造林，地球母亲就会再次长出浓密的头发;只要我们不再乱排乱放，低碳出行，不断净化废水废气，地球母亲就会重换新颜;只要我们不再乱扔垃圾，少使用一次性塑料产品，主动做到垃圾分类处置，地球母亲的眼睛就会重放光明。

人类啊，让我们及时行动起来亡羊补牢吧!让我们一起努力，一起保护环境，还鸟儿一片绿林，还鱼儿一汪清澈，还地球母亲一个健康的身体吧!

When you need a lot of money, you first thing you do is to borrow money from your friend, while doing this sometimes may do harm to your friendship. First, your friends may not have too much money at hand, he or she maybe suffer from the lack of cash flow at that moment. Everyone has their own worries, when you borrow money, they always have to struggle for a while, their hesitations make you begin to doubt your friendship is true or whether your friends treat your as real one. Second, most people cant return the money in time, because they have all kinds of difficulties, this will make your friends in a awkward situation. They are considering whether to ask you return the money, if they do, this will make you embarrassed; If they dont, they will lack of money. So it is better not to borrow money from your friend.

当你需要很多钱的时候，你第一件事做的就是向你朋友借钱，然而这样做有时候会伤害你的友谊。第一，你的朋友也许没有很多的钱在手上，他或她可能遭遇着流动资金的不足。每个人都有他们自己的担忧，当你借钱的时候，他们总要挣扎一会，他们的犹豫让你开始怀疑你们之间的友谊是否真实或者你的朋友是否把你真当朋友。第二，大部分人不能及时还钱，因为他们有各种各样的困难，这会让你朋友出于尴尬的境地。他们考虑着是否叫你还钱，他们叫了，会让你尴尬;如果不叫，他们就缺钱。所以最好不要向你的朋友借钱。

1)结构2)内容要点 3)语言(词组搭配、句型、句式变化、过渡词)看结构和内容要点定分数档，看语言给成绩。这是中考英语阅卷的潜规则。 三段四步法——中考英语满分杀手锏 知己知彼，方能百战不殆，既然中考阅卷流程和内部标准已经明朗化，相对的策略也就顺利成章的形成了。现在和大家分享，笔者教学和阅卷过程中总结创立的写作满分秘诀。

1 “三段”(三个段落)——针对的阅卷老师先看文章结构和内容要点，让阅卷老师不得不给你定位一类文。 中高考情景是作文，无论是那种文体，都可以用三段法来表示。这个方法的起源是来自美国的“高考”SAT考试，(SAT是美国或它国学生想要申请美国大学必须参加的考试，故被叫过美国的高考)。 我们管这样的文章叫做HamburgerWriting(汉堡写作)

顾名思义，就是无论是记叙文、还是议论文、或者08年中考以及09一模西城的夹叙夹议文章，都可以通用。简单解释如下：

(一)师法生活

生活是写作的源泉，丰富多采的大自然和人类社会，不仅为我们提供了取之不尽的写作材料，而且为我们提供了生动鲜活的关于写作形式与写作技巧的深刻启示。例如，巧合与悬念，往往是某些生活事件展示在人们面前时固有形式或“手法”;对比与映衬，常常是构成大自然优美景观及“艺术”美感的重要因素和“手段”;“人有悲欢离合，月有阴睛圆缺”，人生和自然的规律中寓含着曲折美、变化美、节奏美;“蝉鸣林逾静，鸟鸣山更幽”，常见的景象中包含着动与静相反相成的艺术辨证法则……因此，我们学习写作技巧，必须首先向生活学习。只有勤于观察生活，深入体验生活，才能使自己的写作技巧真正得到提高。

(二)阅读、借鉴

即从古今中外的优秀文章(以及音乐、绘画等艺术形式)中汲取营养。凡优秀的文章，内容和形式的完美程度都较高，其写作技巧往往是娴熟而又富于创造性。多读优秀的文章，在注意思想内容的同时，注意其写作技巧，看作者是运用哪些来表现思想内容，实现写作意图的，并且分析这些写作手法的具体运用情况及其所取得的写作效果。在此基础上，还应结合实际(写作者自身的思想和艺术修养的实际与题材和表现对象的实际)进一步思考，看哪些手法可以“拿来”，经过改造为我所用。这样，久而久之，潜移默化，自己的写作技巧，自然会有所提高。

(三)经常练笔

这是具有本质意义的技巧“操作训练”。清人唐彪写道：“谚云，‘读十篇不如做一篇’。盖常作则机关熟，题虽甚难，为之亦易;不常做，则理路生，题虽甚易，为之则难。沈虹野云：‘文章硬涩由于不熟，不熟由于不多做。’信哉言乎!”多写才能熟，熟才能生巧，这是不可更易的规律，任何企图改变或超越这一规律的人，永远也掌握不了写作技巧，永远也写不出好文章。只有经常写，反复写，才可能在写作者身上固定下一个写作技巧的“概括化系统”，一个“自动化的”写作“行动方式”。懂得了这一点，我们就会懂得那些语言艺术大师们为什么谆谆劝诫“我们大家都应该写、写、写，写得尽量多”了。

写作技巧的掌握是有一个过程的。这个过程可以分为两个阶段。一是“技能”阶段，一是“熟练”阶段。“技能”阶段，是无法之中求有法，能过观察、体验、多读、多写，学习并掌握了一些写作的基本手法，且能将它们运用于写作实践。这是掌握写作技巧的第一阶段。“熟练”阶段，是有法之中求变化。在第一阶段的基础上，进而掌握了包括写作的辨证艺术在内的多种写作手法，并能将它们纯熟自如、富于创造性地运用于写作实践。这是掌握写作技巧的第二阶段。古人说：“学诗当识活法。”“所谓活法者，规矩具备，而能出于规矩之外;变化不测，而亦不背规矩也。”识得“活法”，并能运用“活法”是掌握写作技巧第二阶段的重要标志。

掌握写作技巧，对写作具有重要的意义，任何否定写作技巧在写作中的客观作用的观点无疑是错误的。但是，我们也不能把技巧绝对化，走到唯技巧论的极端。因为，决定文章价值的主要因素，还是内容，脱离了丰富而深刻的内容，文章的审美价值乃至艺术性，也就不复存在了。这一点，尤其应该引起初学写作者的重视。

1 天空没有翅膀的痕迹，而鸟儿已飞过

there are no trails of the wings in the sky, while the birds has flied away。

2 没有谁对不起谁，只有谁不懂得珍惜谁。

no one indebted for others,while many people dont know how to cherish others。

3 我的世界不允许你的消失，不管结局是否完美。

no matter the ending is perfect or not, you cannot disappear from my world。

4 凋谢是真实的 盛开只是一种过去

fading is true while flowering is past。

5 为什么幸福总是擦肩而过，偶尔想你的时候…。就让…。回忆来陪我。

why i have never catched the happiness? whenever i want you ,i will be accompanyed by the memory of.。。

6 如果你为着错过夕阳而哭泣，那么你就要错群星了

if you weeped for the missing sunset,you would miss all the shining stars

7 如果只是遇见，不能停留，不如不遇见

if we can only encounter each other rather than stay with each other,then i wish we had never encountered 。

8 宁愿笑著流泪，也不哭著说后悔 心碎了，还需再补吗？

i would like weeping with the smile rather than repenting with the cry,when my heart is broken ,is it needed to fix?

9 爱情是一个精心设计的谎言

love is a carefully designed lie。

10 当香烟爱上火柴时，就注定受到伤害

when a cigarette falls in love with a match,it is destined to be hurt。

11 人活着 总是要得罪一些人的 就要看那些人是否值得得罪

when alive ,we may probably offend some people.however, we must think about whether they are deserved offended。

12 命里有时终需有 命里无时莫强求

you will have it if it belongs to you,whereas you dont kveth for it if it doesnt appear in your life。

13 爱情就像一只蝴蝶，它喜欢飞到哪里，就把欢乐带到哪里。

love is like a butterfly. it goes where it pleases and it pleases where it goes。

14 永远不是一种距离，而是一种决定。

eternity is not a distance but a decision。

15 在回忆里继续梦幻不如在地狱里等待天堂

dreaming in the memory is not as good as waiting for the paradise in the hell。

16 哪里有真爱存在，哪里就有奇迹

where there is great love, there are always miracles。

17 每一个沐浴在爱河中的人都是诗人

at the touch of love everyone becomes a poet。

18 假如每次想起你我都会得到一朵鲜花，那么我将永远在花丛中徜徉。

if i had a single flower for every time i think about you, i could walk forever in my garden。

19 有了你，我迷失了自我；失去你，我多么希望自己再度迷失。

within you i lose myself, without you i find myself wanting to be lost again。

20 承诺常常很像蝴蝶，美丽的飞盘旋然后不见

promises are often like the butterfly, which disappear after beautiful hover。

[优美英语写作段落句子摘抄中英互译

Living without an aim is like sailing without a compass. This philosophical

wisdom by John Ruskin, one of the greatest British writers, tells us that goal

setting is extremely important in life.

Why is goal setting so important? The main importance of goal setting is

that it provides us with direction and purpose. When we have goals, we know what

we want to achieve so that we can focus our mindson a single worthwhile target

and avoid getting distracted easily. Personal goal setting also provides us with

motivation to achieve what we want to achieve.

Goal setting is of especial significance for todays students. A study

reveals that when students set goals, they learn the importance of taking

responsibility, of minimizing excuses and of helping others. Goal setting is a

lifelong skill that first helps students succeed in school and then later in

life.

Desert, rose water, cancer... With humans dont care for the environment, damage to the environment has a lot to do. Like a clear brook became black stink; Dense woods turned into bare land; A variety of animals also slowly become extinct. The earth mother is sick!

Fish said to the bird, "you know what? This small pools has been dead for more than a dozen fish!" , the bird said, "yeah! Dont fresh the air here, all want to put my stuffy dead!" .

Trees in the forest, said: "life now is very dangerous, or by some naughty children bend the branches up; or that has been cut off. In short is having a hard time."

Reptiles are also said: "ah! Our days sad ah, also is afraid of people eat, or in the zoo, or be in the circus show. Its really a terrible world!"

We these uncivilized habits will not only bad for plants, animals, also not be good to oneself. Some people just because of air pollution, some people get sick because of water pollution, and mother born child is abnormal, there are some men smoking lit trees, also caused the fire, forest were destroyed, ecological destruction. In this way, the earth slowly turned into a garbage dump in the universe.

The earth is our survival homeland, destroy the earths environment, is destroying our human oneself. So, we human beings should protect the environment. Protect the environment, our children to start small, put the rubbish into the dustbin, and sent him to the correct boxes. Hope everyone is less by car and more riding a bicycle, advocate green travel. Save water, reduce waste. Let the earth mothers illness get better gradually. Let the sky bluer, the water cleaner, the grass is greener and more colourful flower. Become the most beautiful and good earth!

The fish in the water is much more slowly, and thrive on the trees of the forest, the animals also have a happy home! This should be our beautiful home, changed the original bad habits, protect the environment.

沙漠、涨水、癌症……都是跟人类不爱护环境，破坏环境有很大的关系。像清澈的小河变成了乌黑发臭;茂密的树林变成了裸露的土地;一种种动物也慢慢灭绝了。地球妈妈生病了!

小鱼对小鸟说：“你知道吗?我们这个小水池已经死了十几条鱼了!”，小鸟说”对呀!这里的空气一点儿也不清新，都要把我闷死了!”。

树木们在森林里谈到：“现在的生活很危险，要不就是被一些顽皮的孩子把树枝弄弯;要不就是被人们砍伐掉。总之就是不好过。”

爬行动物们也说：“哎!我们的日子也难过呀，就怕被人们吃了，或被关进动物园里，或被放进马戏团里表演节目。这真是一个可怕的世界呀!”

我们这些不文明习惯不光会对植物、动物不好，对自己也没什么好处。有些人就是因为空气污染而死亡的，有些人因为水污染而得病，还有的妈妈生下来的孩子就是畸形的，还有一些男人吸烟把树木点燃，还引发大火，森林被烧毁、生态被破坏。就这样，地球慢慢变成了宇宙中的垃圾堆。

地球是我们生存的家园，破坏地球环境，就是破坏我们人类自己。所以，我们人类要保护环境。保护环境，我们小孩要从小事做起，把垃圾丢到垃圾箱里，还要把他送到正确的箱子里。希望每个人都少坐汽车，多骑自行车，倡导绿色出行。节约用水，减少浪费。让地球妈妈的病渐渐好起来。让天更蓝、水更清、草更绿、花更艳。变成最美好的地球!

水里的小鱼也慢慢多了，森林里的树木也旺盛起来了，动物们也有一个幸福的家园了!这应该才是我们美丽的家园，把原来的坏习惯改了，保护环境。

下面的材料旨在丰富学生在是非问题写作方面的思想和语言，考生在复习时可以先分类阅读这些篇章，然后尝试写相关方面的作文题。

对于素材中用黑体字的部分，特别建议你熟读，背诵，因为它们在语言和观点上都值得吸收。学习语言的人应该明白，表达能力和思想深度都靠日积月累，潜移默化。从某种意义上说，提高英语写作能力无捷径可走，你必须大段背诵英语文章才能逐渐形成语感和用英语进行表达的能力。这一关，没有任何人能代替你过。

因此，建议你下点苦功夫，把背单词的精神拿出来背诵文章。何况，并不是要求你背了之后永远牢记在心：你可以这个星期背，下个星期忘。这没有关系，相信你的大脑具有神奇的能力。背了工具箱里的文章后，你会惊讶的发现：I can think in English now！

1.?????? Proverbs

1. A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that individuality is the key to success.

2. The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one’s mind a pleasant place in which to spend one’s time.

3. Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.

4. The classroom--not the trench--is the frontier of freedom now and forevermore.

5. Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

6. It is the purpose of education to help us become autonomous, creative, inquiring people who have the will and intelligence to create our own destiny.

7. You see, real ongoing, lifelong education doesn’t answer questions; it provokes them.

8. People will pay more to be entertained than educated.

9.the most important function of education at any level is to develop the personality of the individual and the significance of his life to himself and to others. This is the basic architecture of a life; the rest is ornamentation and decoration of the structure.

10. The essence of our efforts to see that every child has a chance must be to assure each as equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different-to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind, and spirit he or she possesses.

11. A great teacher never strives to explain his vision-he simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself.

12. If you can read and don’, you are an illiterate by choice.

2. Damaging Research

A study by National Parent-Teacher Organization revealed that in the average American school, eighteen negatives are identified for every positive that is pointed out. The Wisconsin study revealed that when children enter the first grade, 80 percent of them feel pretty good themselves, but by the time they get to the sixth grade, only 10 percent of them have good self-images.

3. Education and Citizenship

An important aspect of education in the United States is the relationship between education and citizenship. Throughout its history this nation has emphasized public education as a means of transmitting democratic values, creating equality of opportunity, and preparing new generations of citizens to function in society. In addition, the schools have been expected to help shape society itself. During the 1950s, for example, efforts to combat racial segregation focused on the schools. Later, when the Soviet Union launched the first orbiting satellite, American schools and colleges came under intense pressure and were offered many incentives to improve their science and mathematics programs so that the nations would not fall behind the Soviet Union in scientific and technological capabilities.

Education is often viewed as a tool for solving social problems, especially social inequality. The schools, t is thought, can transform young people from vastly different backgrounds into competent, upwardly mobile adults. Yet these goals seem almost impossible to attain. In recent years, in fact, public education has been at the center of numerous controversies arising from the gap between the ideal and the reality. Part of the problem is that different groups in society have different have different expectations. Some feel that children should be taught basic job-related skills; still others believe education should not only prepare children to compete in society but also help them maintain their cultural identity (and, in the case of Hispanic children, their language). On the other hand, policymakers concerned with education emphasize the need to increase the level of student achievement and to improve parents in their children’s education.

Some reformers and critics have called attention to the need to link formal schooling with programs designed to address social problems. Sociologist Charles Moscos, for example, is a leader in the movement to expand programs like the Peace Corps, Vista, and Outward Bound into a system of voluntary national service. National service, as Moscos defines it, would entail “the full-time undertaking of public duties by young people whether as citizen soldiers or civilian servers-who are paid subsistence wages” and serve for at least one year. In return for this period of service, the volunteers would receive assistance in paying for college or other educational expenses.

Advocates of national service and school-to-work programs believe that education does not have to be confined to formal schooling. In devising strategies to provide opportunities for young people to serve their society, they emphasize the educational value of citizenship experiences gained outside the classroom. At this writing there is little indication that national service will become a new educational institution in the United States, although the concept is steadily gaining support among educators and social critics.

4. The Teacher’s Role

Given the undeniable importance of classroom experience, sociologists have done a considerable amount of research on what goes on in the classroom. Often they start from the premise that, along with the influence of peers, students’ experiences in the classroom are of central importance to their later development. One study examined the impact of a single first-grade teacher on her students’ subsequent adult status. The surprising results of this study have important implications. It is evident that good teachers can make a big difference in children’s lives, a fact that gives increased urgency to the need to improve the quality of primary-school teaching. The reforms carried out by educational leaders like James Comer suggest that when good teaching is combined with high levels of parental involvement the results can be even more dramatic.

Because the role of the teacher is to change the learner in some way, the teacher-student relationship is an important part of education. Sociologists have pointed out that this relationship is asymmetrical or unbalanced, with the teacher being in a position of authority and the student having little choice but to passively absorb the information provided by the teacher. In other words, in conventional classrooms there is little opportunity for the students to become actively involved in the learning process. On the other hand, students often develop strategies for undercutting the teacher’s authority: mentally withdrawing, interrupting, and the like. Hence, much current research assumes that students and teachers influence each other instead of assuming that the influence is always in a single direction.

5. Education Philosophy

For the past fifty years our schools have operated on the theories of John Dewey (1859-1953), an American educator and writer. Dewey believed hat the school’s job was to enhance the natural development of the growing child, rather than to pour information, for which the child had no context, into him or her. In the Dewey system, the child becomes the active agent in his own education, rather than a passive receptacle for facts.

Consequently, American schools are very enthusiastic about teaching “life skills” –logical thinking, analysis, creative problem--solving. The actual content of the lessons is secondary to the process, which is supposed to train the child to be able to handle whatever life may present, including all the unknowns of the future. Students and teachers both regard pure memorization as an uncreative and somewhat vulgar.

In addition to “life skills”, schools are assigned to solve the ever growing stoke of social problems. Racism, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, drug use, reckless driving, and are just a few of the modern problems that have appeared on the school curriculum.

This all contributes to a high degree of social awareness in American youngsters.

6. Student Life

To the students, the most notable difference between elementary school and the higher levels is that in junior high they start “changing classes”. This means that rather than spending the day in one classroom, they switch classrooms to meet their different teachers. This gives them three or four minutes between classes in the hallways, where a great deal of the important social action of high school traditionally takes place. Students have lockers in these hallways, around which thy congregate.

Society in general does not take the business of studying very seriously. Schoolchildren have a great deal of free time, which they are encouraged to fill with extracurricular activities—sports, clubs, cheerleading, scouts—supposed to inculcate such qualities as leadership, sportsmanship, ability to organize, etc. those who don’t become engaged in such activities or have afterschool jobs have plenty of opportunity to “hang out”, listen to teenager music, and watch television.

Compared to other nations, American students do not have much homework. Studies also show that American parents have lower expectations for their children’s success in school than other nationalities do. (Historically, there has not been much correlation between American school success and success in later life.) “He’s just not a scholar”, the American parents might say, content that their son is on the swim team and doesn’t take drugs. (Some of the young do choose to study hard, for reason of their own, such as determining that the road to riches lies through Harvard Business School.)

What American schools do effectively teach is the competitive method. In innumerable ways children are pitted against each other—whether in classroom discussion, spelling bees, reading groups, or tests. Every classroom is expected to produce a scattering of A’s and F’s (teachers often grade A=excellent; B=good; C=average; D=poor; and F=failed). A teacher who gives all A’s looks too soft—so students are aware that they are competing for the limited number of top marks.

Foreign students sometimes don’t understand that copying from other people’s papers or from books is considered wrong and taken seriously. Here, it is important to show that you have done your own work and are displaying your own knowledge. It is more important than helping your friends to pass, whom we think do not deserve to pass unless they can provide their own answers. Group effort goes against the competitive grain, and American students do not study together as many Asians do. Many Asians in this country consider their group study habits a large contributor to their school success.

7. Adult Education

After complaining about many aspects of American life, a 40-year-old woman from Hong Kong concluded, “But where else could someone my age go back to school and get a degree in social work? Here you can change your whole life, start a new business, do what you really want to do.”

So at least to this person, school requirements weren’t inhibiting. And to millions of others, adult education is the path to a new career, or if not to a new career, to a new outlook. Schools generally encourage the older person who wants to start anew, and besides regular classes, schedule evening classes in special programs. Today there are so many people of retirement age in college that it is no longer remarkable.

8. Moral Relativism in American

Improving American education requires not doing new things but doing (and remembering) some good old things. At the time of our nation’s founding, Thomas Jefferson listed the requirements for a sound education in the Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia. In this landmark statement on American education, Jefferson wrote of the importance of education and writing, and of reading history, and geography. But he also emphasized the need “to instruct the mass of our citizens in these, their rights, interests, and duties, as men and citizens.” Jefferson believed education should aim at the improvement of both one’s “morals” and “faculties”. That has been the dominant view of the aims of American education for over two centuries. But a number of changes, most of them unsound, have diverted schools from these great pursuits. And the story of the loss of the school’s original moral mission explains a great deal.

Starting in the early seventies, “values clarification” programs started turning up in schools all over America. According to this philosophy, the schools were not to take part in their time-honored task of transmitting sound moral values; rather, they were to allow the child to “clarify” his own values (which adults, including parents, had no “rights” to criticize). The “values clarification” movement didn’t clarify values; it clarified wants and desires. This form of moral relativism said, in effect, that no set of values was right or wrong; everybody had an equal right to his own values; and all values were subjective, relative, and personal. This destructive view took hold with a vengeance.

In 1985 The York Times published an article quoting New York area educators, in slavish devotion to this new view, proclaiming, “They deliberately avoid trying to tell students what is ethically right and wrong.” The article told of one counseling session involving fifteen high school juniors and seniors. In the course of that session a student concluded that a fellow student had been foolish to return one thousand dollars she found in a purse at school. According to the article, when the youngsters asked the counselor’s opinion, “He told them he believed the girl had done the right thing, but that, of course, he would not try to force his values on them. ‘If I come from the position of what is wrong,’ he explained, ‘then I’m not their counselor.’”

Once upon a time, a counselor offered counselor, and he knew that an adult does not form character in the young by taking a stance of neutrality toward questions of right and wrong or by merely offering “choices” or “options”.

In response to the belief that adults and educators should teach children sound morals, one can expect from some quarters indignant objections (I’ve heard one version of it expressed countless times over the years): “Who are you to say what’s important?” or “Whose standards and judgments do we use?”

The correct response, it seems to me, is, is we ready to do away with standards and judgments? Is anyone going to argue seriously that a life of cheating and swindling is as worthy as a life of honest, hard work? Is anyone (with the exception of some literature professors at our elite universities) going to argue seriously the intellectual corollary, that a Marvel comic book is as good as Macbeth? Unless we are willing to embrace some pretty silly position, we’ve got to admit the need for moral and intellectual standards. The problem is that some people tend to regard anyone who would pronounce a definitive judgment as an unsophisticated Philistine or a closed-minded “elitist” trying to impose his view on everybody else.

The truth of the real world is that without standards and judgments, there can be no progress. Unless we are prepared to say irrational things—that nothing can be proven more valuable than anything else or that everything is equally worthless—we must ask the normative question. It may come, as a surprise to those who fell that to be “progressive” is to be value-neutral. But as Matthew Amold said, “the world is forwarded by having its attention fixed on the best things” and if the world can’t decide what the best things are, at least to some degree, then it follows that progress, and character, is in trouble. We shouldn’t be reluctant to declare that some things, some lives, books, ideas, and values are better than others. It is the responsibility of the schools to teach these better things.

At one time, we weren’t so reluctant to teach them. In the mid-nineteenth century, a diverse, widespread group of crusaders began to work for the public support of what was then called the “common school”, the forerunner of the public school. They were to be charged with the mission of school felt that the nation could fulfill its destiny only if every new generation was taught these values together in a common institution.

The leaders of the common school movement were mainly citizens who were prominent in their communities—businessmen, ministers, local civic and government officials. These people saw the schools as upholders of standards of individual morality and small incubators of civic and personal virtue; the founders of the public schools had faith that public education could teach good moral and civic character from a common ground of American values.

But in the past quarter century or so, some of the so-called experts became experts of value neutrality, and moral education was increasingly left in their hands. The commonsense view of parents and the publicthat schools should reinforce rather than undermine the values of home, family, and country, was increasingly rejected.

There are those today still that claim we are now too diverse a nation, that we consist of too many competing convictions and interests to instill common values. They are wrong. Of course we are a diverse people. We have always been a diverse people. And as Madison wrote in FederalistNo.10, the competing, balancing interests of a diverse people can help ensure the survival of liberty. But there are values that all American citizens share and that we should want all American students to know and to make their own: honesty, fairness, self-discipline, fidelity to task, friends, and family, personal responsibility, love of country, and belief in the principles of liberty, equality, and the freedom to practice one’s faith. The explicit teaching of these values is the legacy of the common schools, and it is a legacy to which we must return.

9. Schools Should Teach Values

People often said, “Yes, we should teach these values, but how do we teach them?” this question deserves a candid response, one that isn’t given often enough. It is by exposing our children to good character and inviting its imitation that we will transmit to them a moral foundation. This happens when teachers and principals, by their words and actions, embody sound convictions. As Oxford’s Mary Warnock has written, “You cannot teach morality without being committed to morality yourself; and you cannot be committed to morality yourself without holding that some things are right and others wrong.” The theologian Martin Buber wrote that the educator is distinguished from all other influences “by his will to take part in the stamping of character and by his consciousness that he represents in the eyes of the growing person a certain selection of what is, the selection of what is ‘right’, of what should be.” It is in this will, Buber says, in this clear standing for something, that the “vocation as an educator finds its fundamental expression.”

There is no escaping the fact that young people need as example principals and teachers who know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, and who themselves exemplify high moral purpose.

As Education Secretary, I visited a class at Waterbury Elementary School in Waterbury, Vermont, and asked the students, “Is this a good school?” They answered, “Yes, this is a good school.” I asked them, “Why?” Among other things, one eight-year-old said, “The principal Mr. Riegel, makes good rules and everybody obeys them.” So I said, “Give me an example.” And another answered, “You can’t climb on the pipes in the bathroom. We don’t climb on the pipes and the principal doesn’t either.”

This example is probably too simple to please a lot of people who want to make the topic of moral education difficult, but there is something profound in the answer of those children, something education should pay more attention to. You can’t expect children to take messages about rules or morality seriously unless they see adults taking those rules seriously in their day-to-day affairs. Certain must be said, certain limits lay down, and certain examples set. There is no other way.

We should also do a better job at curriculum selection. The research shows that most “values education” exercises and separate courses in “moral reasoning” tend not to affect children’s behavior; if anything, they may leave children morally adrift. Where to turn? I believe our literature and our history are a rich quarry of moral literacy. We should mine that quarry. Children should have at their disposal a stock of examples illustrating what we believe to be right and wrong, good and bad—examples illustrating what are morally right and wrong can indeed be known and that there is a difference.

What kind of stories, historical events, and famous lives am I talking about? If we want our children to know about honesty, we should teach them about Abe Lincoln walking three miles to return six cents and conversely, about Aesop’s shepherd boy who cried wolf if we want them to know about courage, we should teach them about Joan of Arc, Horatius at the bridge, and Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. If we want them to know about persistence in the face of adversity, they should know about the voyages of Columbus and the character of Washington during the Civil War. And our youngest should be told about the Little Engine That Could. If we want them to know about respect for the law, they should understand why Socrates told Crito: “No, I must submit to the decree of Athens.” If we want our children to respect the rights of others, they should read the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’ “Letter from Birmingham jail.” From the Bible they should know about Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers, Jonathan’s friendship with David, the Good Samaritan’s kindness toward a stranger, and David’s cleverness and courage in facing Goliath.

These are only a few of the hundreds of examples we can call on. And we need not get into issues like nuclear war, abortion, creationism, or euthanasia. This may come as a disappointment to some people, but the fact is that the formation of character in young people is educationally a task different from, and prior to, the discussion of the great, difficult controversies of the day. First things come first. We should teach values the same way we teach other things: one step at a time. We should not use the fact that there are many difficult and controversial moral questions as an argument against basic instruction in the subject.

After all, we do not argue against teaching physics because laser physics is difficult, against teaching American history because there are heated disputes about the Founders’ intent. Every field has its complexities and its controversies. And every field has its basics, its fundamentals. So they are too with forming character and achieving moral literacy. As any parent knows, teaching character is a difficult task. But it is a crucial task, because we want our children to be healthy, happy, and successful but decent, strong, and good. None of this happens automatically; there is no genetic transmission of virtue. It takes the conscious, committed efforts of adults. It takes careful attention.

10. College Pressures

Mainly I try to remind that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns than they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They don not want to hear such liberating news. They want a map—right now – that they can follow unswervingly to career security, financial security, Social Security and, presumably, a prepaid grave.

What I wish for all students is some release from the clammy grip of the future. I wish them a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as instructive as victory and is not the end of the world.

My wish, of course, is na?ve. One of the national gods venerated in our media—the million-dollar athlete, the wealthy executive—and glorified in our praise of possessions. In the presence of such a potent state religion, the young are growing up old.

I see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It is easy to look around for villains—to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, and the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are no villains: only victims.

“In the late 1960s.” one dean told me. “The typical question that I got from students was ‘Why is there so much suffering in the world’ or ‘how I can make a contribution?’ Today it’s ‘Do you think it would look better for getting into law school if I did a double major in history and political science, or just majored in one of them?’” many other deans confirmed this pattern. One said: “They are trying to find an edge—the intangible something that will look better on paper if two students are about equal.”

Note the emphasis on looking better. The transcript has become a sacred document, the passport to security. How one appears on paper is more important than how one appears in person. A is for Admirable and B is for Borderline, even though, in Yale’s official system of grading, A means “excellent” and B means “very good.” Today, looking very good is no longer good enough, especially for students who hope to go on to law school or medical school. They know that entrance into the better schools will be an entrance into the better law firms and better medical practices where they will make a lot of money. They also know that the odds are harsh. Yale Law School, for instance, matriculates 170students from an applicant pool of 3,700; Harvard enrolls 550 from a pool of 7,000.

It’s all very well for those of us who write letters of recommendation for our students to stress the qualities of humanity that will make them good lawyers or doctors. And it’s nice to think that admission officers are ready reading our letters and looking for the extra dimension of commitment or concern. Still, it would be hard for a student not to visualize these officers shuffling so many transcripts studded with As that they regard a B as positively shameful.

The pressure is almost as heavy on students who just want to graduate and get a job. Long gone are the days of the “gentleman’s C.” when students journeyed through college with a certain relaxation, sampling a wide variety of courses-music, art, philosophy, classics, anthropology, poetry, religion—that would send them out as liberally educated men and women. If I were an employer I would rather employ graduates who have this range and curiosity than those who narrowly pursued safe subjects and high grades. I know countless students whose inquiring minds exhilarate me. I like to hear the play of their ideas. I do not know if they are getting As or Cs, and I do not care. I also like them as people. The country needs them, and they will find satisfying jobs. I tell them to relax. They cannot.

Nor can I blame them. They live in a brutal economy. Tuition, room, and board at most private colleges now come to at least $7,000, not counting books and fees. This might seem to suggest that the colleges are getting rich. But they are equally battered by inflation. Tuition covers only 60 percent of what it costs to educate a student, and ordinarily the remainder comes from what college receives in endowments, grants, and gifts. Now, the remainder keeps being swallowed by the cruel costs—higher every year—of just opening the doors. Heating oil is up. Insurance is up. Postage is up. Health-premium costs are up. Everything is up. Deficits are up. We are witnessing in American the creation of a brotherhood of paupers—colleges, parents, and students, joined by the common bond of debt.

Today it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part time at college and full time during the summer, to accrue $5,000 in loans after four years—loans that he must start to repay within one year after graduation. Exhorted at commencement to go forth into the world, he is already behind as he goes forth. How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? I have used “he,” incidentally, only for brevity. Women at Yale are under no less pressure to justify their expensive education to themselves, their parents, and society. In fact, they are probably under more pressure. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male jobs, society has not yet caught up with this fact.

Along with economic pressure goes parental pressure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined.

I see many students taking pre-medical courses with joyless tenacity. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know tem in other corners of their life as cheerful people.

“Do you want to medical school?” I asked them.

“I guess so,” they say, without conviction, or “Not really.”

“Then why are you going?”

“Well, my parents want me to be a doctor. They are paying all this money and …”

Poor students, poor parents, they are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt. The parents mean will; they are trying to steer their sons and draughts toward a secure future. But the sons and daughter want to major in history or classics or philosophy—subjects with no “practical” value. Where’s the payoff on the humanities? It’s not easy to persuade such loving parents that the humanities do indeed pay off. The intellectual faculties developed by studying subjects like history and classics—an ability to synthesize and relate, to weigh cause and effect, to see events in perspective—are just the faculties that make creative leaders in business or almost any general field. Still, many fathers would rather put their money on courses that point toward specific profession—courses that are pre-law, pre-medical, pre-business, or, as I sometimes heard it put, “pre-rich.”

But the pressure on students is severe. They are truly torn. One part of them feels obliged to fulfill their parents’ expectations; after all, their parents are older and presumably wiser. Another part tells them that the expectations that are right for their parents are not right for them.

I know a student who wants to be an artist. She is very obviously an artist and will be a good one—she has already had several modest local exhibits. Meanwhile she is growing as a well-round person and taking humanistic subjects that will enrich the inner resources out of which her art will grow. But her father is strongly opposed. He thinks that an artist is a “dumb” thing to be. The student vacillates and tries to please everybody. She keeps up with her art somewhat furtively and takes some of the “dumb” courses her father wants her to take—at least they are dumb courses for her. She is a free spirit on a campus of tense students—no small achievement in it—and she deserves to follow her muse.

Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they begin almost at the beginning of freshman year.

“I had a freshman student I’ll call Linda,” one dean told me, “who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I could not tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda.”

The story is almost funny—except that it is not. It is symptomatic of all the pressure put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doing better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they would sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the clacking of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due: “Will I get everything done?”

Probably they won’t. They will get blocked. They will sleep. They will oversleep. They will bug out.

Part of the problem is that they are expected to do. A professor will assign five page papers. Several students will start writing ten page papers to impress him. Then more students will write ten page papers, and a few will raise the ante to fifteen. Pity the poor student who is still just doing the assignment.

“Once you have twenty or thirty percent of the student population deliberately overexerting,” one dean points out, “It’s bad for everybody. When a teacher gets more and more effort from his class, the student who is doing normal work can be perceived as not doing well. The tactic work, psychologically.”

Why cannot the professor just cut back and not accept longer papers? He can, and he probably will. But by then the term will be half over and the damage done. Grade fever is highly contagious and not easily reversed. Besides, the professor’s main concern is with his course. He knows his students only in relation to the course and does not know that they are also overexerting in their other courses. Nor is it really his business. He did not sign up for dealing with the student as a whole person and with all the emotional baggage the student brought along from home. That’s what deans, masters, chaplains, and psychiatrists are for.

To some extent this is nothing new: a certain number of professors have always been self-contained islands of scholarship and shyness, more comfortable with books than with people. But the new pauperism has widened the gap still further, for professors who actually like to spend time with students do not have as much time to spend. They are also overexerting. If they are young, they are busy trying to publish in order not to perish, hanging by their figure nails onto a shrinking profession.

If they are old and tenured, they are buried under the duties of administering departments—as departmental chairmen or members of committees—that have been thinned out by the budgetary axe.

Ultimately it will be the students’ own business to break the circles in which they are trapped. They are too young to be prisoners of their parents’ dreams and their classmates’ fears. They must be jolted into believing into themselves as unique men and women who have the power to shape their own future.

“Violence is being done to the undergraduate experience,” says Carlos Hortas. “College should be open-ended: at the end it should open many, many roads. Instead, students are choosing their goal in advance, and their choices narrow as they go along. It’s almost as if they think that the country has been codified in the type of jobs that exist-that they’ve got to fit into certain slots. Therefore, fit into the best paying slot.”

“They ought to take chances. Not taking chances will lead to life of colorless mediocrity. They’ll be comfortable. But something in the spirit will be missing.”

I have painted too drab a portrait of today’s students, making them seem a solemn lot. That is only half of their story; if they were so dreary I wouldn’t so thoroughly enjoy their company. The other half is that they are easy to like. They are quick to laugh and to offer friendship. They are not introverts. They are usually kind and are more considerate of one another than any student generation I have known.

Nor are they so obsessed with their studies that they avoid sports and extracurricular activities. On the contrary, they juggle their crowded hours to play on a variety of teams, perform with musical and dramatic groups, and write for campus publications. But this in turn is one more cause of anxiety. There are too many choices. Academically, they have 1,300 courses to select from; outside class they have to decide how much spare time they can spare and how to spend it.

This means that they engage in fewer extracurricular pursuits than their predecessors did. If they want to row on the crew and play in the symphony they will eliminate one; in the ‘60s they would have done both. They also tend to choose activities that are self-limiting. Drama, for instance, is flourishing in all twelve of Yale’s residential colleges, as it never has before. Students hurl themselves into these productions—as actors, directors, carpenters, and technicians—with a dedication to create the best possible play, knowing that the day will come when the run will end and they can get back to their studies.

They also cannot afford to be the willing slave of organizations like the Yale Daily News. Last spring at the one-hundredth anniversary banquet of that paper—who’s past chairmen include such once and future kings as Potter Stewart, Kingman Brewster, and William F. Buckley, Jr.—much was made of the fact that the editorial staff used to be small and totally committed and that “newsies” routinely worked fifty hours a week. In effect they belonged to a club; Newsies is how they defined themselves at Yale. Today’s students will one or two articles a week, when he can, and he defines himself as a student. I’ve never heard the word Newsie except at the banquet.

If I have described the modern undergraduate primarily as a driven creature who is largely ignoring the blithe spirit inside who keeps trying to come out and play, it’s because that’s where the crunch is, not only at Yale but throughout American education. It’s why I think we should all be worried about the values that are nurturing a generation so fearful of risk and so goal-obsessed at such an early age.

I tell students that there is no one “right” way to get ahead—that each of them is a different person, starting from a different point and bound for a different destination. I tell neither them that change is a tonic and that all the slots are not codified nor the frontiers closed. One of my ways of telling them is to invite men and women who have achieved success outside the academic world to come and talk informally with my students during the year. They are heads of companies or ad agencies, editors of magazines, politicians, public officials, television magnates, labor leaders, business executives, Broadway products, artists, writers, economists, photographers, scientists, historians—a mixed bag of achievers.

I asked them to say a few words about how they got started. The students assume that they started in their present profession and knew all along that it was what they wanted to do. Luckily for me, most of them got into their field by a circuitous route, to their surprise, after many detours. The students are startled. They can hardly conceive of a career that was not pre-planned. They can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to nudge them down some unforeseen trail.

11. To Err Is Wrong

In the summer of 1979, Boston Red Sox first baseman Carl Yastrzemski became the fifteenth player in baseball history to reach the three thousand hit plateaus. This event drew a lot of media attention, and for about a week prior to the attainment of this goal, hundreds of reports covered Yaz’s every more. Finally, one reporter asked, “Hey Yaz, aren’t you afraid all of this attention will go to your head?” Yastrzemski replied, “I look at this way: in my career I’ve been up to bat over ten thousand times. That means I’ve been unsuccessful at the plate over seven thousand times. That fact alone keeps me from getting a swollen head.”?

Most people consider success and failure as opposites, but they are actually both products of the same process. As Yaz suggest, an activity that produces a hit may also produce a miss. It is the same with creative thinking; the same energy that generates good creative ideas also produces errors.

Many people, however, are not comfortable with errors. Our educational system, based on “the right answer” belief, cultivates our thinking in another, more conservative way. From an early age, we are taught that right answers are good and incorrect answers are bad. This value is deeply embedded in the incentive system used in most schools:

Right over 90% of the time = “A”

Right over 80% of the time = “B~”

Right over 70% of the time = “C~” Right over 60% of the time = “D~” Less than 60% correct, you fail.

From this we learn to be right as often as possible and to keep our mistakes to a minimum. We learn, in other words, that “to err is wrong.

Playing It Safe

With this kind of attitude, you aren’t going to be taking too many chances. If you learn that failing even a litter penalizes you (e.g., being wrong only 15% of the time garners you only a “B” performance), you learn not to make mistakes. And more important, you learn not to put yourself to situation where you might fall. This leads to conservative thought pattern designed to avoid the stigma our society puts on “failure”.

I have a friend who recently graduated from college with a Master’s degree in Journalism. For the last six month, she has been trying to find a job, but to no avail. I talked with her about situation, and realized that her problem is that she doesn’t know how to fail. She went through eighteen years of schooling to try any approaches where she might fail. She has been conditioned to believe that failure is bad in and of itself, rather than a potential stepping-stone to new ideas.

Look around. How many middle managers, housewives, administrators, teachers, and other people do you see who are to try anything new because of this failure? Most of us have learned not to make mistakes in public. As a result, we remove ourselves from many learning experience except for those occurring in the most private of circumstances.

Different Logic

From a practical point of view, “to err is wrong” makes sense. Our survival in the everyday world requires us to perform thousand of small tasks without failure. Think about it: you wouldn’t last very long if you were to step out in front of traffic or stick your hand a pot of boiling water. In addition, engineers whose bridges collapse, stock brokers who lose money for their clients, and copywriters whose ad campaigns decrease sales won’t keep their jobs very long.

Nevertheless, too great an adherence to the belief “to err is wrong” can greatly undermine your attempts to generate new ideas. If you are more concerned with producing right answers than generating original ideas, you’ll probably make uncritical use of the rules, formulae, and procedures used to obtain these right answers. By doing this, you’ll by-pass the germinal phase of the creative process, and thus spend litter time testing assumptions, challenging the rules, asking what-if questions, or just playing around with the problem. All of these techniques will produce some incorrect answers, but in the germinal phase errors are viewed as a necessary by-product of creative thinking. As Yaz would put it, “if you want the hits, be prepared for the misses.” That’s the way the game of life goes.

Errors as Stepping Stones

Whenever an error pops up, the usual response is “Jeez, another screw up, what went wrong this time?” the creative thinker, on the other hand, will realize the potential value of errors, and perhaps say something like, “Would you look at that! Where can it lead our thinking?” and then he or she will go on to use the error as a stepping stone to a new idea. As a matter of fact, the whole history of discovery is filed with people who used erroneous assumptions and failed ideas as stepping-stones to new ideas. Columbus thought he was finding a shorter route to India. Johannes Kepler stumbled on to the idea of interplanetary gravity because of assumptions that were right for the wrong reasons. And, Thomas Edison knew 1800 ways not to build a light bulb.

The following story about the automotive genius Charles Kettering exemplifies the spirit of working through erroneous assumptions to good ideas. In 1912, when the automobile industry was just beginning to grow, Kettering was interested in improving gasoline engine efficiency. The problem he faced was“knockthe phenomenon in which gasoline takes too long to burn in the cylinder-thereby reducing efficiency.

Kettering began searching for ways to eliminate the “knock.” He thought to him, “How can I get the gasoline to combust in the cylinder at an earlier time?” the key concept here is “early”. Searching for analogous situations, he looked around for models of “things that happen early.” He thought of historical models, physical models, and biological models. Finally, he remembered a particular plant, the trailing arbutus, which “happens early,” i.e., it blooms in the snow (“earlier” than other plants). One of this plant’s chief characteristics is its’ red leaves, which help the plant retain light at certain wavelengths. Kettering figured that it must be the red color, which made the trailing arbutus bloom earlier.

Now came the critical step in Kettering’s chain of thought. He asked himself, “How can I make the gasoline red?” perhaps I’ll put red dye in the gasoline—maybe that’ll make it combust earlier.” He looked around his workshop, and found that he didn’t have any red dye. But he did happen to have some iodine—perhaps that would do. He added the iodine to the gasoline and, lo and behold, the engine didn’t “knock”.

[英语作文写作的需要背诵的部分

一、写作常用谚语

1.A friend in need is a friend indeed.患难见真情。

2.Easier said than done.说来容易做时难。

3.Honesty is the best policy.诚实为上策。

4.One swallow does not make a summer.一燕不成夏。

5.To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.学而不思，犹如食而未化。

6.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.只工作不玩耍，聪明的孩子也变傻。

7.Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.早睡早起使人健康、富裕、聪明。

二、写作常用词组(政治类)

1.review the course of struggle回顾奋斗历程

2.integrate theory with practice把理论和实际结合起来

3.practice new policies实行新政策

4.urge governments of all countries to take action主张各国政府采取行动

5.enhance the rally power增强凝聚力

三、写作常用词组(经济类)

1.handicap( hamper ) the economic development阻碍经济发展

2.speed up efforts to加快努力

3.prepare oneself against possible risks加强风险防范

4.form/ pose a threat to…对……造成/构成威胁

5.deepen the reform深化改革

6.be accused of accepting bribes被指控接受贿赂

7.cause a loss to造成损失

8.accelerate the competition加快竞争步伐

9.occupy( take/ account for ) 10 percent of the market占领市场10%

10.list…as fundamental national policies把……列为基本国策

四、写作常用词组(文化类)

1.carry out mass activities on culture开展群众性文化活动

2.push forward human civilization推动人类文明进步

3.enter the new century with a brand-new colorful look以全新面貌进入新世纪

4.exchange visiting scholars互派访问学者

5.give a big push to the development of education有力地推动教育发展

6.hold an annual academic meeting举行每年一次学术会议

7.improve teaching and learning改进教学

五、写作常用词组(生态环保类)

1.prevent and control pollution防治污染

2.advocate green activities开展绿色活动

3.perfect the construction of urban infrastructure完善城市基础设施建设

4.implement strict vehicle emission standards实行严格机动车排放标准

5.participate in the reconstruction of the city参加城市重建

6.enjoy first-class protection of the State享受国家一级保护

7.result in a series of problems引发一系列问题

六、写作常用词组(人口类)

1.reflect people’s private lives反映人们私生活

2.undermine the authority of the older generation逐渐削弱长辈权威

3.damage the morality of human society损害人类社会道德观

4.respect and guarantee human rights尊重和保障人权

5.the population of urban residents rise by…城市人口比例上升

5.encourage the idea of “ civilized families”鼓励创建文明家庭