期末考试英语记叙文写作指导(实用20篇)

It never be explained why so many students on campus cheat in their examinations nowadays, regardless of the danger that teachers find their secret, as it did in the case of the boy student in the cartoon/photo above. What is conveyed in the drawing is most thought-provoking and should arouse our social concern.

The implied meaning of the picture is worth discussing. Firstly, the youngs always become quite illogical when they try to descide what can be done and what can not be done. In the light of this statement, some students are often willing to sacrifice their credibility for the privillage of getting more points and being regarded as outstanding students. Furthermore, some one is afired that he can‘t pass the final exams leading to his degree, in the fruit of being absorbed into computer games or disappointment in love.

Consequently, only by cheating can they graduate and get the degree on time. Although many reasons share the problem of this drawing, one of them can be singled out for recognition: the conditions of our sociaty. Such is human nature, that we can‘t avoid being influenced by environment. In short, the root of cheating in examinations and credibilililess on campus is combinition of many factors.

There is no blinding at the fact that, in dealing with a challenge on such scale, some strong, effective and necessary counter-measures should be put on our agenda. To the begin with, a widespread education campaign should be launched to make students realize the importance of credibility. What‘s more, the government departments at different levels and related orgnizations should make joint efforts and coordination of programs to creat a more credit environment for us. Only by this package deal, can build up a harmonious and healthy sociaty.

[关于考试作弊问题的英语作文

当别人在一边天方夜谭时，有一个人不知不觉地走过去仔细聆听；当别人在夸夸其谈时，有一个人慢步轻声过去，跟他唱反调。走进教室里，你会看到一个思维活跃的人；走到操场上，你会发现一个引人注目的身影……这个人就是我，一块发光的石头！

我爱谈诗论经，却不爱“为赋新词强说愁”，我爱活蹦乱跳，却不爱调皮捣蛋。在同学眼中，我有很多角色：“开心果”、“多变猫”、“假小子”。这里的每一个“艺名”都是对我的褒扬。

“开心果”！因为我总爱搞笑，说话谈趣风声，即使再怎么压抑、苦闷的人，我一说话，她便笑逐颜开。课间几分钟，我会和同学们说说笑笑。因为有我。我们班的气氛才更加活跃！

“多变猫”！提起这个“艺名”，我自己都不好意思说。因为上语文课时，我总是默默无闻，手像千斤巨石。作文吧作文吧老师很无奈，多次教育我，但我从来没有按老师说的做。偶尔一次发言，还是被老师叫起。每次我的发言都是精彩绝伦，所谓“不鸣则已，一鸣惊人”。但是到了体育课上，就大变了。一会儿跑去踢球，一会儿又去打排球。根本不像课堂上那个“温顺猫”。于是，我便被称为“多变猫”。

“假小子”！我想你们也猜到了吧！这个名字，也源于体育课上的疯狂。同学们都认可我为“假小子”，这也让我哭笑不得。

虽然我爱玩，但成绩优异。我爱搬文弄墨，也爱谈吐不凡。我的文章内充满我的气宇轩昂，充满我的脱俗不凡。我不在乎外表的惊艳华贵，我坚信，即使再简单的装束也会使你与众不同，就像石头有了思想也会发光！于是我送自己一个艺名：“发光的石头”！

[小学生毕业考试作文写作

叙事作文来源于生活，但又高于生活，小编收集了2018年高考记叙文写作技巧：文章如溪水，欢迎阅读。

叙事作文又称记事作文，在作文类别里因为贴近生活实际，而被是认为是较简单的一种作文体裁，对于小学生来讲，叙事作文往往又与另一个词联系较紧密---“流水帐”，叙事作文写作技巧。作为教师，我常在学生习作中发现“流水帐”这类文章，统观原因就是因为学生在写这类文章时，过于偏向“叙”、“记”，光叙事情的顺序，记录每一个细节，而忽视了叙事作文中的“思”、“情”、“议”，这些文章的枝叶，光剩下一副骨架，自然文章也就成了干枯的秃树，吸引不了人了。

叙事作文来源于生活，但又高于生活，生活只记录了事情的发生、发展、结果，是一本“帐”。陆游说：“尔果欲学诗，功夫在诗外”。这诗外的功夫即是对生活的体验，感受和认识，也就是“思”、“议”、“情”，将你们思考到的，你的观点说出来，你对这件事的感情色彩，表达在你的文章中，这样，文章才会丰满，再大的树干也需要枝叶的铺盖，才会生机盎然。

叶圣陶先生说：“生活如泉源，文章如溪水，泉源丰富而不枯竭，溪水自然活泼地流个不竭”，对学生来讲，生活的经历不算是丰富，固定的生活模式容易让学生产生公式化的记忆，叙起事来自然也就成了“流水帐”。但孩子的生活细节是丰富的，他们在日常生活中，对事物有着不同于成人的观察范围、观察视角、观察兴趣，如果将这些详细的叙述出来，作文自然也就丰富了。

作为教师，帮助学生深挖叙事过程中的“思”、“议”、“情”等方面的内容，可以起到画龙点睛的作用。

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you have an email account. You may well have several – perhaps separate accounts for professional and personal contacts.

如果你正在阅读这篇文章，你肯定有一个或若干个甚至是不同帐号的私人或办公邮箱。

It’s easy to assume that we know how to use email effectively: it’s been around for long enough. But if you find yourself struggling to communicate effectively by email, these six tips should help:

邮件这样的沟通方式早已经渗入到了我们的生活工作中，因此可以说大多数人都能有效地使用邮件与他人交流。但如果你发现自己还没做得足够有效，我想以下这六点可以帮到你：

1. Start With an Appropriate Salutation

邮件开头称呼要恰当：

Some people jump straight into the text of an email without so much as a “hi”. It’s polite to add a salutation, just as you would with a letter. That might look like:

有些人写邮件不喜欢加称呼，甚至连简单的“你好”都忽略，直接开始正文内容。孰不知就像在传统的信件上一样，写上称呼是一种礼貌的象征。称呼可以这样写：

#Dear Sir/Madam 亲爱的先生/女士

#Dear Mr. Johnson 亲爱的约翰逊先生

#Hi Sue 苏，你好

#Hello Fred 你好，福瑞德

Your salutation needs to be appropriate. If you’re writing to a prospective employer, “Dear Mr. Johnson” is probably the best way to go. “Hi Bob” is going to look unprofessional.

称呼必须恰当。若邮件对象是你未来的上司，“亲爱的约翰先生”这样的称呼应该为最得体的。像“你好，鲍勃”更适用于随意的场合。

But don’t assume that formality is always the right answer. If you’re writing to a friend of a friend, using “Dear” plus their surname is going to seem oddly stilted.

那么，是不是正式的用语就万能呢?绝对不是。若你给你朋友的朋友写邮件，那用“亲爱的+姓”就显得异常别扭。

If in doubt, “Dear [first name]” will usually work just fine.

当你判断不出哪种场合该用什么称呼合适，你可以使用“亲爱的+名”来应付所有情况。

2. Get Straight to the Point

直奔主题

Your correspondent won’t want to wade through paragraphs of waffle – so get straight to the point. If you’re writing to someone out of the blue, don’t give them your life story before you make a request.

相信阅读你邮件的人不会愿意仔细浏览你那空洞无聊的长篇大论，所以你需要直奔主题。如果你想写封邮件安慰某个心灵受伤的朋友，开头先把你的建议亮出来，然后再用你的亲身经历来辅助说明。

Getting straight to the point might mean that the first line of your email (after the salutation) looks something like this:

直奔主题意味着邮件内容的第一行应该是这样：

#I’m working on an article about Acme Widgets for XYZ publication, and wondered if you had a few minutes to answer the following three questions.

我现在正在写一篇要交给某某出版社关于极致控件的文章，不知道您有没有时间回答3个问题呢?

#Could you supply me with a quote for the following project?

可否对下面的设计项目进行引证?

#I’d like to discuss the revisions with you. Would Tuesday at 2pm be a good time?

我想和你谈谈修订的事。这周二下午两点您有空吗?

#I’ve attached the documents you requested at our meeting yesterday.

昨天会议上您要求的文件已附上，请查收。

You may well need to include more details, but if you put the important point up front, your email is more likely to get a timely response. If your question comes too far down, the recipient may not even realise that you need a reply.

当然，你需要再增加更多的细节内容。若将邮件重点放到内容的开头，你将收到更加及时的回复信息。如果你的问题在邮件后头，收信人可能都不会意识到你在等他回复。

3. Keep it Short

内容言简意赅

try to keep your email as short as possible. Make the paragraphs short, too – long paragraphs can be difficult to read and take in.

尽可能将你的邮件内容写得简单明了。文章太长不易阅读和吸收。

Do make sure you give enough information for your correspondent to be able to make a decision, if that’s required. You might find that it’s best to offer this as an attachment – you’ll have more flexibility over formatting, and your correspondent can print out the attachment easily.

若对方需要通过你的邮件来做决策，那你一定要在邮件中将相关信息写完整。为了能更灵活地排版，你可以把这些信息作成附件形式，以方便对方将其打印出来。

4. Use Numbered Points

将内容编号

If you’ve got several questions or points to make, it’s very helpful to number them. This makes it easy for the other person to respond to each one, especially if some just require a yes/no response or a single word answer. For instance:

对于那些为了咨询或提供各种问题的邮件，最好将问题一点一点的列举出来，以便于他人对每个问题作答，尤其当某些人更倾向于对问题只回答“是”和“否”的时候。例如：

#Could you let me know:

能否告知：

#1. How much it would cost for the website design

1. 网站设计费用

#2. How much for the website design plus a tri-fold brochure

2. 网页设计加一份三页宣传册的费用

#3. Whether you could complete #2 by the end of April

3. 您能否在四月底完成第二点所述工作?

It’s also useful to list your questions or points as bullets in this way; if you write a single paragraph, some of your questions might get missed.

将你的问题或观点用图标的方式罗列出来是很实用的，倘若你用一段话将几个点全部涵盖，那对方有可能会漏看其中的几点。

5. Re-read and Use Spell-Check

重新阅读一遍，校对拼写错误

A typo or spelling mistake can turn one word into an entirely different one. If you’re using email in a professional capacity, that mistake could be embarrassing – or even offensive. It might alter the whole meaning of your email: a missing “not”, for instance, could potentially cause problems.

排版或拼写错误有时能导致对一个单词的误解。尤其当你用邮件来沟通专业性内容时，这样的错误就很尴尬，甚至有些失礼。它可能改变你整个邮件的意思。比如：少写了个“不”，就可能会引起某些问题。

Spell-check should help you avoid any silly mistakes – but use your eyes and brain too. There are plenty of words that spell-check won’t pick up. If you’re emailing from a device with predictive text and an auto-correct feature, make sure you always re-read what you’ve typed.

因此检查拼写将避免你犯这些低级错误，但这里强调——不仅仅用眼睛检查，还得用大脑思考。有些错误不一定能轻易检查出来。如果你的邮件系统有字句联想功能和自动纠错功能，一定要把写出来的内容再通读检查一遍。

6. Make Your Signature Useful

充分利用邮件签名

Do you have an email signature? (That’s the text that appears automatically at the bottom of your email.) Some people don’t use one at all; others have a funny quote or favorite saying.

你设置过邮件签名吗(它将会在你每次邮件内容的下方自动生成)?有些人从来都没有使用过它，但我们也看过一些非常有意思和哲理的签名。

Whether you’re using email for professional or personal reasons, make your signature useful for both you and your recipient. That might mean:

无论你是为了工作还是私人聊天，加注签名对你和邮件接收者都有好处，因为这意味着可以：

Giving the link to your website

加上你的网页链接

Including your work address and/or phone number

写上你的工作地址或电话号码

Adding links to your social media accounts

注上你的社会媒体工具帐号(例如博客，微博，论坛)

Putting in a line to promote your recent book / blog / product

宣传你最新的书籍，博文或产品

If your email provider allows it, you may even want to create several signatures to use for different purposes (e.g. one for emailing friends, one for new business contacts).

有些邮箱甚至还提供用户根据不同目的设计不同签名的服务(比如：一个对朋友使用，一个对新结识的企业伙伴使用)。

导语：在为期一周的国庆假期生活中我们的身边一定会发生那么一两件或有趣或难忘的事情，各个学校的老师应该也会布置上一篇以“国庆见闻”为主题的作文让小朋友们来写，那怎么样才能把这篇作文写好呢?下面和小编一起来看看吧！

一、什么是见闻

在写作之前，我们要先明确到底什么才是见闻。顾名思义，见闻其实指的就是自己的所见所闻所思所感。国庆见闻就是指在国庆期间，自己的身边发生了什么事情，或自己听说了什么事情，自己对这些事情又有着什么样的思考和感悟。比如说去旅游所看见的景色，回老家所经历事情，国庆外出期间大街上的小事和节日的整体气氛等等，这些都可以写。但需要注意的是，所写的事情必须都是自己亲身参与的，这样才符合见闻的写作要求。

二、见闻写作要点

1、时间要点明：文章所叙述的事情发生时间必须是国庆期间的，很多同学在写作时容易忽略时间直接写内容，文章最后也没有点题，这样就不符合“国庆”这个时间限制的要求。

2、过程要交代完整并突出重点：把一件事情写完整，文章中就必须要具备六要素：时间、地点、人物、起因、经过(高潮)、结果(结局)。其中最为重要的就是后三个要素。通常，每件事情发生都是有原因，发展过程和结果的，就好像我们在看电视的时候，总在在开始之前交代好这件事情发生的原因是什么，最激烈，最吸引人的情节，以及最后的结果是什么。而在这三要素中，原因和结果可以稍微交代一下，中间的高潮部分才是读者最想看，也是最感兴趣的部分，所以写作选择切入口时要小而细致。另一方面，国庆所经历过的事情活很多，写完整并不代表你要将“吃喝拉撒”什么都写了，不然就会让读者感觉很乏味无趣。正确的写法是恰当地选择其中的一件小事写，同时放大事情切入点，无论是一句话，一个眼神、一个动作、一个细微的事情都可以成为你这篇文章的亮点，都可以成为你重点描写的对象，使之贯穿全文，文章自然就不会成为流水账，反而变得集中而又灵活有趣了。

如： ① 喝结婚酒——新郎发开门红时，怎么折腾新郎的或抢新娘的时候发生的事情 ;② 游景点——将你觉得最有趣或者最美的景色进行描写，而其他普通的景色略过 ;③ 去逛街——看见让你印象最深刻的事情; ④ 坐公车——一个小小的故事情节中人物的某个动作或者表情 。

3、运用各种修辞手法、幽默的语言来增加文章的生动性。“公园里有很多树”和“公园里长着很多高大茂密的树，这些树就像战士一样守卫着公园”两个句子相比，明显后面的句子更长同时写得更好，这就是修辞的魅力。再比如说看到别的小朋友随地扔香蕉皮，我上前去说“你怎么能随地扔香蕉皮呢?”和“大哥哥，你的香蕉皮掉到地上了，你把它扔到这里，那边的垃圾桶会很伤心的。”这两个句子相比，依然是后面的句子略胜一筹，所以在写作文时一定要注意“遣词造句”。

国庆见闻作文具体提纲如下：

初一上学期飞快地溜走了，我期末考试完踏出校门的那一刻，感觉压在心中的一块儿石头落了地。但仔细一想，我还是有一些小遗憾在身。

就拿数学来说吧，那试卷的大题都需要我们深入思考，倒数第二道大题是先找出规律，然后再算得数。这是一道很平常的算术题，而我就在算法这“跳坑”了，一出考场信心满满，可到估分时就傻了眼。我心里很后悔，后悔没有更加认真仔细的做题，从而宝贵的“四分”从我笔尖上擦肩而过，如果就因为这“四分”与年级前100名隔开距离了呢？

再比如我的语文，那份试卷上有两个猜字谜的题。第一个是：家中有一口；第二个是：十个哥哥，我一看是这种题，就有点不知所措，第一道题我就开始从“问”、“回”类似的字想，虽然我觉得不可能，但是也不知从何字去想。第一场下了后，我们都开始纷纷议论这道题，我们的答案各不相同，讨论了好久才知道，答案原来是“豪”和“克”。我又一想，真是这样，我也不知考试时是怎么想的，为什么就没有想到呢？我这“两分”丢的心甘情愿，也为我以后学习敲响了警钟。

这次期末考试说明，我还有很大的进步空间，需要我趁寒假的机会弥补我的不足之处。

马上就要期末考试了，同学们正埋头争分夺秒地苦读呢!平时刻苦练习就为这份试卷啊！

发卷子啦！同学们奋笔疾书，纸与笔摩擦的大调不愧为一首不错的奏鸣曲。我拿到试卷就把试卷从头到尾看了一遍，开始细细地做起来。呵！这些基础题太简单了，对我来说就是“小菜一碟，小事一桩”嘛！

到了作文难关，我把注意力全部转到这些语句上来了，恨不得把每一句话都嚼出水来。作文要求是些我学会了什么，我马上想到了向妈妈学习的本领—炒饭。于是把这件事情写了下来，把人物语言、动作刻画得生动有趣。停奏！要交卷了，我把试卷交了上去，心里的一块石头总是落地了。

可是，一波未平，又起一波。马上面临的就是困难的数学考试了，我告诉自己：不要紧张，相信自己一定能行的！

我的笔在试卷上“沙沙”作响。时间过得飞快，等我检查好试卷，只剩下最后三分钟了。我环顾四周，同学们有的长长地叹了口气，如释重负；有的眉头紧锁，显得无可奈何；有的将试卷翻了一遍，检查是否落题忘做……

紧张的考试终于结束了，我们都长长地舒了口气。至于结果如何，那并不重要，尽力了就好了。

找寻回家的路

清脆的车铃声划破了乡间小道的宁静，我和妈妈骑着自行车，行走在前往外婆家的路上。

眼前的景物历历在目，可是我却记不起去外婆家的路了。唉，算一算，我已经有五六年没有在外婆家过上一个像样的端午节了。很多次是因为要上课而没有时间去。这一次，端午节能放假了，我终于可以回外婆家过端午节了。

好不容易跟着妈妈走完了那条印象模糊的山路，眼前出现了一座熟悉的房子。我下了车，轻轻叩了叩有些陈旧的门。

“哟，小妹回来啦!”和蔼慈祥的外婆亲热地叫着我的小名，“你可真是难得回来一次呀!”

跨进四四方方的庭院里，一阵清香扑面而来。我仔细地寻找，原来每扇门前都挂好了艾叶和菖蒲。我贪婪地吸吮着这股药香，虽然城里也会象征性地挂上一两束，到底也没有乡下的这味儿浓啊!

我正沉浸在醉人的香气里，妈妈就唤我到厨房里来。到那一看，桌子上放着一盘系着五色丝线的大棕子。

“吃吧，这可是我亲手做的哦!”外婆有些得意地说。

我解开一个粽子，咬了一口，棕叶的清香和红枣的甜味，让人唇齿生香。这味道，我遗忘了多少年?超市里出售的包装好的粽子，怎么有手工制作的这样可口，又怎么会有这般情谊绵长?

可是一连好几年我都吃着那样不完美的粽子呀!

我从前的端午节是怎样过的呢?我不过是随便吃几个超市里卖的粽子就完事了。

其他的节日又怎么样呢?答案让我羞愧不已：中秋节，我只关心月饼好不好吃;清明节，我没有为已故的长辈扫过一次墓;甚至在除夕，我认为春节联欢晚会没有意思，赖在电脑前看好莱坞大片去了。

与此形成鲜明的对比的是，一到圣诞节的时候。我和同学们就忙着互赠贺卡，祝福“圣诞快乐”。

我再也不敢想下去，起身走出了屋外。

是不是嘴里充满巧克力的美味，就忘记了中秋美酒的醇香?是不是随着欧美电影的风行，就遗忘了“国粹”京剧的魅力?是不是唱着英文歌曲，就不知道《茉莉花》的旋律。传统文化正随着外来文化的冲击而渐渐不被人喜欢——然而，我们的灵魂的家在哪儿?

传统文化才是我们真正的精神家园。回家吧，我对自己说。

我找到外婆：“外婆，给我唱首童谣吧!”

外婆有些惊讶，但随即就用苍老古朴的歌声唱了起来。

听着童谣，我感觉自己真的回家了。

来吧，我们，一起寻找回家的路。

时间过得就是快呀，一眨眼，一个学期就飞过去了。

今天是早期六，新的一年又过去了四天，在过三天，我们就要期末考试了。整整三天时间啊！一晃眼就要过去。我要好好安排这三天时间，复习语文，复习数学……

复习语文，我要做几张卷子，背一背还不熟练的课文，特别是古诗，还要写几篇日记，最重要的是要把以前做过的题，有错误的地方再复习、再练一练、再看一看……

复习数学，要写几张卷子，多练一练应用题，也要做几道奥数题，学会脑筋急转弯，最重要的，是要学会用画图的方法，来帮助解答应用题，在有加、减、乘、除的算式中，我要有脱式方法，一步一步写清楚。

我还要加强体育锻炼，有时间就到黑大去滑冰，或者到理工去游泳，或者到生态园去打冰滑梯……

哈哈！三天呀三天，被我安排得满满的！

Prepare for the Final Exam

The final exam is around the corner. All students are working hard to prepare for it. So am I. Doing well in final exam is important, because it reflects how much I learn in school. It’s a good way to test it. Besides, the New Year is coming. I could have a happy holiday and New Year if I got high scores. Now, I get up half an hour earlier than before. I need more time to review. At night, I finish my homework and then do some readings of Chinese and English. I must work harder to get high scores in the final exam.

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. 上升增长

1.add up to 增加了eg. The total amount of  added up to 14 billion pounds in 1994. 2. to jump to / to soar to 一跃达到/ 猛增到

eg. The total working days lost soared to 10 million in 1979.

3.an increase of aboutpercent as compared with 与相比大约增加了

eg. In August as many as 39 car accidents were reported, indicating an increase of about 79% as compared with the number of January.

4.to experience an increase/incline 有了增长

eg. Tobacco consumption is experiencing an incline.

二. 下降，减少

1.to sink/drop/reduce to 减少到

eg. The rate of strikes sank/dropped to the lowest point in 1979.

2.to experience a decrease/decline 有了减少

eg. Tobacco consumption is experiencing a decrease. 注意：

修饰上升/减少的副词有：

rapidly slowly dramatically respectively 表达上升/减少的最后状态的词有：

the highest peak the lowest point 10 million 10%

一. 心理

古人云，不战而屈人之兵，很大程度上取决于心理因素。随着四六级考试改革的深入，会有，更新，更难的题目，包括作文题目出现，这样就要求我们有处惊不变的能力。即使是出现某种没有预料到的题型，考生也应该及时调整心态、从容不迫地应答。事实上，历史经验证明：题目要求越是高，难度越是大，考生的发挥余地也就越大。挑战和机遇是成正相关的。

二. 评分

知己知彼，百战不怠。熟悉老师的评分习惯，对于考生正常、甚至是超常发挥自身水平也十分有益。正常情况下，阅卷老师要领会贯彻考试规定的评分原则，依照文章的结构和语言水平进行评分。然而，除此以外，有“两个基本点”我们也需要给予足够的重视——闪光点和语法点。在一篇出类拔萃的范文中，我们往往可以看到像提问法、谚语总结法、从句、并列句、理由段公式、理由词汇、路线句型、插入语、名词化、和被动语态等等闪光点;而在一篇低分例文中，基本的语言错误则多得数不胜数。

三. 休息

考试迫在眉睫时，同学们往往容易进入一种临考状态。这种状态比较突出的表现是夜不能寐。尤其是在专业课和全国四六级考试纷至沓来的时候，很多同学更是发扬连续作战的精神，通宵达旦，头悬梁、锥刺骨。其实这对于像四六级考试这样的高强度考试而言是有百害而无一益的。道理很简单，四六级考试对于一个学生来说，不仅是一次英语水平的综合测试，也是一种意志力、甚至是体力的考验。没有良好的休息作为后盾，考生很难笑到最后。所以，保证充足的睡眠是最基本也是首要的应试技巧。

四. 营养

无庸置疑，营养的摄入在最后关头也是异常重要的一环。在保证充分睡眠的同时，食物是另一个“工夫在诗外”的客观因素。尤其是参加四级考试的同学，早餐一定要定时定量，不可或缺。一般来说，类似奶酪苏这样的奶制品外加一杯热牛奶或者热巧克力已经足以提供整个半天考试所需的热量，当然，这也因人而异。有些体质虚弱的同学也可以考虑服用一些如西洋参、鸡精这样的营养品。不过，安眠药等有副作用的药物一定要慎用，否则过犹不及。

五. 审题

磨刀不误砍柴工。在落笔前花两三分钟时间进行构思，既有利于理清行文思路、也避免了差之毫厘、失之千里的遗憾。尤其是在应对图表类作文时，我们更是要看清图表，牢牢把握各个数据的变化和相互关系，才能够下笔。否则张冠李戴，即使文章本身再不同凡响、语惊四座，也只会竹篮打水、甚至起到适得其反的效果。

六. 卷面

对于像作文这样的主观题而言，考生与阅卷老师从来就犹如搏弈，无形中彼此互动、相互影响。一个考生可以做的，首先是通过卷面给阅卷老师下意识地传达个人信息。用笔的颜色(深蓝色使人心情放松愉快)、粗细(粗线条给人以安全感)，整齐划一的格式(段首或一律顶格或一律空两格)，明了的段落感(每段空一行)，清晰的字数感(一行以十字为宜)，工整的字迹都会给任何阅读者留下深刻的正面印象，从而使考生先发制人、取得先机。

七. 结构

有始有终、首尾照应，是任何一篇好文章的基本标准之一，也是两大评分原则之一。如果说广大考生已经给第一段以足够重视的话，那么是不是大多数考生都意识到了理由段的条理和最后一段的呼应在全文中所具有的不可忽视的地位了呢?其实，要写好理由段，我们只需要注意表示启承转合的衔接词即可。而要写好结尾，最好的方法莫过于温故而知新，回顾第一段的大致内容了。

八. 表达

言之无文，行而不远。语言作为评分原则中的基本要素之一，在四六级作文评分的整个过程中具有决定性作用。有评分老师甚至断言：“It is not what you say, it is the way that you say it.”(重要的并不在于考生写了些什么，而在于考生是怎么表达的。)虽然这种说法本身似乎有失偏颇，可是参加过国际标准化英语考试的同学应该也听说过那么一句话，叫做：“Give the monkey exactly what he wants.”(给阅卷老师最想要的。)，不是吗?譬如同样是描述数据，一些同学拘泥于图表本身，动辄按部就班地引用图表上现成的数字和年代，其实这都是图表作文的忌讳。聪明的同学引而不用，他们常喜欢用倍数、分数、小数、百分比、或者一些动词(double / triple / quadruple)来表现极端数据，动态数据以及他们的相异之处。

九. 检查

行百里者半九十。一篇成功的作文少不了反复推敲、一再修改。然而，由于考试时间和条件等诸多因素的限制，考生绝对需要慎重对待作文的检查和修改。这里，我不得不提考生检查作文时的三大“通病”，即，数字数、孤芳自赏、和做结构与内容上的修改。我们必须明确：考试作文的润色和修改只需要达到三个目的即可：1. 拼写正确，看文章中是否有汉字、多余符号、糊乱涂改、划线、和错别字;2. 搭配正确;和3. 语法正确，特别是人称、时态、和单复数的三一致。

鲁迅先生说过，世界上本没有路，走的人多了也就成了路。我们要善于在学习实践中发现、总结和运用规律，这样才能够在复习迎考的过程中事半功倍，百尺竿头、更进一步。路漫漫其修远兮，愿以此文抛砖引玉。

“思考”是进行比较深刻、周到的思维活动。可以谈思考的重要作用，如思考可以领悟人生、洞察社会，获得心灵的自由；多思能使人摆脱浅薄，走向睿智；多思能举一反三，活学活用；多思是事业成功、是发明创造的前提等等。可以谈思考的方式方法。如发散思维、聚合思维、定向思维、顺向思维、逆向思维等等。还可以谈思考的条件。如放开眼界、敞开胸怀、对事物的客观把握等等。也可以记叙有关思考的故事、实事，如“竹林七贤”中的王戎是个善于思考的人。一次他同小伙伴外出，看到大路边的李子树上果实累累，其他儿童都去攀摘，只有王戎站立不动。有人问他为何不摘，他说如果路边树上的果子很甜。早被人摘光了。孩子们一尝，的确如此。这是小事。毛泽东善于思考中国的国情，活学活用马克思列宁主义，独创以农村包围城市的毛泽东思想。不思考有什么害处呢？“学而不思则罔”，这是孔子的话。不思考就会盲从，就会人云亦云，就会没有主见，就会把事情办砸。

When we attend university, the moment we choose our major, which most

probably means the job we will work on in the future. Some people choose to work

on what they like and give up doing something that is related to their major. A

girl made such decision. She learned music in the top university. After

graduated, she found that she liked to be away from the noisy city, so she chose

to run that farm his father left to her. It seemed so ridiculous for such an

excellent person to live the ordinary life. While to everybodys surprise, the

girl found her way to begin her new career. She fell in love with making all

kinds of desserts and she made this hobby famous. She posted the picture on the

Internet and became famous. She even showed on the TV. Sometimes choose another

life can be positive.

一、什么是自传

自传是叙述自己生平经历的文章。生平经历是指一个人生活的整

个过程。婴儿——幼儿——上学——现在

1、婴儿时期（吃、哭、爬、学说话、学走路……）

听妈妈说那时候的我是怎样的？（高、矮、胖、瘦、乖、闹、聪明……）例文欣赏

示例1：听妈妈说，小时候的我胖乎乎的，很聪明。刚到了九个月就会说话了，把妈妈叫得很开心；10个月就会学走路了，摇摇晃晃，东倒西歪但不让人扶。有一次从床上掉下来，至今胳膊上还留有伤疤；奶奶说我那时候特别乖巧，但也特别淘气。

特点：聪明、淘气

示例2：刚出生的我在医院里又哭又闹，说着平常人不懂的“外星球语”，让爸妈很苦恼，白天我咬着奶瓶呼呼大睡，晚上我就活跃起来，让大人抱着我到处去溜达，如果一松手，那哭声在你耳朵里徘徊，仿佛一栋楼都会震动起来！

特点：爱闹

2、幼儿时期

⑴、脑中充满疑问

“妈妈，天上的星星为什么会眨眼睛？”“妈妈，我的肚子为什么会饿？”“妈妈，为什么天上的月亮有时是圆的，有时是弯弯的？”⑵、探索世界

把家里的小闹钟、把我的玩具拆得七零八落

⑴、⑵表现出我很聪明

⑶、上幼儿园

哭着、喊着不肯上幼儿园这些表现出我又很淘气

例文欣赏

示例1：一眨眼的功夫，时间老人已把婴儿时期带走了，幼儿时期缓缓走来。妈妈和幼儿园的老师都说我好动。为此我觉得自己得了儿童多动症，其实我确实挺爱动的。在幼儿园里，我基本不会规规矩矩的坐上三分钟；就算坐在椅子上，也是东摇西摆。结果一次在课堂上“发挥”多动时，老师误以为我在吃东西，我的脸烧了又烧，简直就像一

只掉进油锅里的虾。

示例2：幼儿时期的我最爱跳舞。记得有一次，妈妈手机里传出了一阵响亮的歌声，在一旁搞东西的我听见了，便情不自禁的跳起来，屁股一扭一扭的，手也摆动起来，不时还走一下猫步，仿佛我已经沉浸在这欢乐地歌声里，无法自拔一样！一旁的妈妈鼓起掌来，笑着说：“看来我们家会有一位舞神了。”奶奶听后，大笑起来，家里充满了快乐的气氛。

3、我上学了

⑴、有了稳定的兴趣。如：①、爱上了学习②、迷上了阅读

⑵、进不了

⑶、交了很多朋友

例文欣赏

示例1：进入小学后，在优美的校园里，我感受到了学习的快乐，从此爱上了学习。现在，我是班里的学习委员、语文课代表。我的作文经常受到老师表扬，不仅在作文比赛上获过奖，还经常在一些刊物上发表呢！

示例2：八岁的我爱书如命。故事书、漫画书、作文书、科幻书、小说等等，不管什么书，我都一股脑儿拿起来就读。不管晚上作业有多少，事情有多忙，我都会挤出一点时间来看书。

我看书很着迷。我会随着书中的趣事哈哈大笑；也会为着书中令人落泪的悲惨故事而伤心痛哭；看到本领高超、助人为乐的人，我会产生敬佩之情；看到那些烧杀抢掠的恶人和那些贪赃枉法的坏人，我心中的愤怒油然而生……每当妈妈看见我忽而大笑、忽而大哭，忽而喜悦，又忽而愤怒时，总会无可奈何地叹息道：“这丫头，真是没办法！”

示例3：我进入了XX小学读书，在这座优美的校园里，我对学习有了比较大的变化，表现比较积极，一年级第一批就加入了少先队，四年级参加了鼓号队，曾经当过体育委员、语文课代表。在学习上能多看课外书籍，经常去剑英图书馆借书或去新华书店看书，同时注意积累好词好句，坚持每个星期写一扁日记，因此语文成绩比较理想，对作文比有兴趣，作文经常被老师表扬；数学成绩还算可以，但是英语一直是我的弱项，总感到压力好大。

示例4：我结交了很多朋友，他们也十分乐意和我交往，使我从交往中得到了许许多多的快乐。我对他人十分的诚实守信，从来不说恶意

的谎言，答应别人的事情绝对做到，因此，他们也很乐意跟我玩，和我谈心。我有时也会跟别人一起哈哈大笑或讲悄悄话，跟同学们打成一片，让我成为他们心目中的好朋友。有了他们我的生活充满了朝气，充满了快乐。我对人十分有礼貌，助人为乐也是我的本份，他人有困难，我一定会竭尽全力去帮助他。

4、现在的我

长大了、懂事了、学会承担了、有理想了。

例文欣赏

示例1：随着年龄的增长，我变得越来越懂事了。想起妈妈以前整天都为我操心，而我却总是惹她生气，我的心里真不是滋味。

星期五放学回到家，妈妈放下我的书包，就径直走进厨房准备做饭。我想：妈妈工作了一整天，已经很累了，又要去接我，回到家还要做饭，这多么不应该！想到这，我马上走进厨房。

“妈妈。”

“有什么事儿吗？”

“妈妈，您去休息吧，我帮您做饭。”

“不用了，你快去做作业吧，饭菜很快就好了。”

“妈妈，就让我为您做一顿饭吧，嗯？”

妈妈只好笑了笑，点了点头。

晚饭后，我又替妈妈把碗碟洗得干干净净，把家里打扫了一遍，最后还为妈妈捶背按摩。妈妈很高兴，对我说：“孩子，你长大了，懂事了，妈妈真高兴！”我听到这句话，心就像被浸在一罐世界上最甜的蜜糖里。

这就是12岁的我，懂事的我。

示例2：现在的我，会承担责任了；十二岁的我会像挤海棉一样挤时间了；十二岁的我，会自己面对困难了；十二岁的我，成熟了许多；十二岁的我已经长大了，一些鸡毛蒜皮的小事，我自己已经会应付了。面对十二岁的人生，我好像还有点混浊，但比起以前已经进步了许多。对于我来说，未来是一条坎坷的岔路，我一定要选择正确地道路，要一直努力认真的向前走。只要努力学习，就会考上重点大学。

二、行文线索

1、不懂事，爱哭、爱闹——有点听话——开始懂事

2、听话的乖孩子——爱学习的好学生——懂事、知道孝敬父母

3、淘气，耍小聪明——明白事理，大智慧

三、详略取舍

1、详写部分的选择：

⑴、记忆最深刻、最难忘的那段岁月

⑵、最能体现你这个人的特点

⑶、转变最大、成长最快的那段时期

2、其它部分可略写

四、开头和结尾

㈠、开头：

1、简要的介绍自己

2、对自己有一个粗略、整体的评价

例文欣赏

示例1：本人名叫陈思婷，属龙，2000年11月18日，伴随着一阵哭声，我从医院诞生了，胖乎乎的显得十分可爱，嫩滑的脸蛋上，有着一对小酒窝。长大后，我的皮肤黝黑，有人叫我“非洲黑珍珠”！我只好不好意思地笑纳！

示例2：2000年7月20日，随着一阵“哇哇”的哭声，一个可爱的婴儿来到了这个五彩缤纷的世界。从此，生活的大舞台上就有了我的小天地。我的小脚丫在小天地里任意的涂鸦，涂鸦成我难忘的昨天。㈡：结尾

1、对自己成长的总结

2、对未来的向往

例文欣赏

示例1：岁月如梭，整整12年过去了，我从不懂事的小孩子，变成了有志气的大姑娘，我希望，以后能改掉坏习惯，开心快乐地成长。示例2：比起小时的我确实是进步了很多，可是人生的道路是曲折而漫长的，学海无涯，我还有许多东西不懂，我想：只要有远大理想，带着顽强拼搏的意志和勇气走下去，就能够迈进成功的殿堂，就能对国家有贡献！

示例3：这就是我，一个有着多样性格的我。看完我的自传，你们喜欢我吗？

习作练习

我的自传

期末考试已经结束，成绩也已经公布。不能说考的前几名，但对于之前的来说，有很大进步。

其实我觉得考试之前最重要的就是自信。自信是现代人应当具有的一种生活态度，反过来说就是“信自”，简单的说就是相信自己。我们应该相信自己，假使你连自己都不相信，这个世界上还有什么值得你信任的呢？只有相信自己，才会建立起成功的信心。所以我认为相信自己是取得成功的基石。

但取得好成绩后，并不代表我们可以拒绝听取别人的意见。“走自己的路，让别人说去吧！”听起来固然很潇洒，但并没有人能够真正做到。诚然，我们应当坚持自己的信念，不为外人所干扰，这就要求我们要学会正确处理自己与听取别人意见的关系。

人生的道路十分漫长，前进中布满荆棘。我们总是面临着一次又一次的转折。如何迈好每一步都要我们自己作出抉择。没有人能够帮助别人，我们必须依靠自己，必须相信自己踏出的每一步都是正确的，从而无悔地走下去。“常问路的人不会迷失方向”，我们不能依靠他人，但我们可以征求他人的意见，寻找最好的办法。在成长的过程中，我们已经渐渐明白如何相信自己，正如听取别人善意的建议那样，我们走着自己的道路，接受别人理性的指正，道路似乎不再崎岖，我们仿佛可以看到彼岸的希望。

“相信一切人和怀疑一切人，其错误是一样的。”我们反对极端的想法，我们也拥有辨别是非的能力。正确地认识自己的位置和想法，仔细地思考他人的意见，将相信自己与听取别人的意见相结合起来，做到谨言慎行，坚实地迈出你人生的每一步，在不远处一定会有彩虹。

1. I would appreciate the privilege of an interview. I may be reached at the address given above，or by telephone at 32333416.

2. I would be glad to have a personal interview，and can provide references if needed。

3. Thank you for your consideration。

4. I welcome the opportunity to meet with you to further discuss my qualifications and your needs. Thank you for your time and consideration。

5. I have enclosed a resume as well as a brief sample of my writing for your review. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss further how I could contribute to your organization。

6. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to speaking with you。

7. The enclosed resume describes my qualifications for the position advertised. I would welcome the opportunity to personally discuss my qualifications with you at your convenience。

8. I would welcome the opportunity for a personal interview with you at your convenience。

9. I feel confident that given the opportunity，I can make an immediate contribution to Any Corporation. I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss your requirements. I will call your office on Friday，to schedule an appointment. Thank you for your consideration。

10. I look forward to speaking with you。

1。我会赞赏采访的特权。我在上面给出的地址可能达到,或者通过电话32333416。

2。我很高兴能有一个面试,如果需要,可以提供参考。

3。谢谢你的考虑。

4。我欢迎机会与您进一步讨论我的资格和您的需要。谢谢您的时间和考虑。

5。我随信附上了我的简历以及一个简短的示例编写为您的回顾。我期待着与你进一步讨论如何为您的组织。

6。感谢你关注这件事。我期待着与你说话。

7。附上的简历描述我的资格为广告位置。我会欢迎机会与您亲自谈论我的资格在您的便利。

8。我欢迎机会个人采访你在你方便的时候。

9。我有信心,有机会,我可以立即对任何公司的贡献。我很高兴能有机会与您会面,讨论您的需求。周五我将打电话给你的办公室,安排一个约会。谢谢你的考虑。

10。我期待着与你说话。

1) 主语+ cannot emphasize the importance of … too much.(再怎么强调……的重要性也不为过。)例如：We cannot emphasize the importance of protecting our eyes too much.

2)There is no need for sb to do sth. for sth.(某人没有必要做……)，例如：There is no need for you to bring more food. 不需你拿来更多的食物了。

3)By +doing…，主语can …. (借着……，……能够……)，例如：By taking exercise, we can always stay healthy. 借着做运动，我们能够始终保持健康。

4) … enable + sb.+ to + do…. (……使……能够……)，例如：Listening to music enables us to feel relaxed. 听音乐使我们能够感觉轻松。

5) On no account can we + do…. (我们绝对不能……)，例如：On no account can we ignore the value of knowledge.我们绝对不能忽略知识的价值。

6) What will happen to sb.? (某人将会怎样?), 例如：What will happen to the orphan? 那个孤儿将会怎样?

7)For the past + 时间，主语 + 现在完成式…. (过去……年来，……一直……)例如：For the past two years，I have been busy preparing for the examination. 过去两年来，我一直忙着准备考试。

8)It pays to + do….(……是值得的。)例如：It pays to help others. 帮助别人是值得的。

9)主语+ be based on….(以……为基础)，例如：The progress of thee society is based on harmony.社会的进步是以和谐为基础的。

10)主语 + do one’s best to do….(尽全力去……)，例如：We should do our best to achieve our goal in life.我们应尽全力去达成我们的人生目标

Though we are told that alcohol is dangerous, especially driving a car

after drinking alcohol, we can see the news about car accidents because of the

driver drinking alcohol everyday, still people ignore the danger of drinking

alcohol. Life is precious, no one will take responsibility of our lives except

ourselves. Drinking too much will do harm to our body, even if you don’t cherish

your life, while when you drive the car after drinking, you will take away other

people’s lives. That is unforgivable, people have a happy family, they die

because of your careless driving, and you will never have a chance to make up.

Our government is very strict to the driver, the law clearly claims that

drinking driver will be heavily punished. In order to make sure other people’s

safety, we should not drive the car after drinking alcohol, or we ask friends to

take us home.

下面是由语文迷网整理的三类英语作文开头句型，希望对你有帮助。

一、常规开头句型

1.As far as …is concerned 就……而言

2.It goes without saying that… 不言而喻，…

3.It can be said with certainty that… 可以肯定地说……

4.As the proverb says， 正如谚语所说的，

5.It has to be noticed that… 它必须注意到，…

6.Its generally recognized that… 它普遍认为…

7.Its likely that … 这可能是因为…

8.Its hardly that… 这是很难的……

9.Its hardly too much to say that… 它几乎没有太多的说…

10.What calls for special attention is that…需要特别注意的是

11.Theres no denying the fact that…毫无疑问，无可否认

12.Nothing is more important than the fact that… 没有什么比这更重要的是…

13.whats far more important is that… 更重要的是…

二、四级引出开头

1：It is well-known to us that……(我们都知道……)==As far as my knowledge is concerned, …( 就我所知…)

2：Recently the problem of…… has been brought into focus. ==Nowadays there is a growing concern over ……(最近……问题引起了关注)

3：Nowadays(overpopulation)has become a problem we have to face.(现今，人口过剩已成为我们不得不面对的问题)

4：Internet has been playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day life. It has brought a lot of benefits but has created some serious problems as well.(互联网已在我们的生活扮演着越来越重要的角色，它给我们带来了许多好处但也产生了一些严重的问题)

5：With the rapid development of science and technology，more and more people believe that……(随着科技的迅速发展，越来越多的人认为……)

6：It is a common belief that……==It is commonly believed that……(人们一般认为……)

7：A lot of people seem to think that……(很多人似乎认为……)

8:It is universally acknowledged that + 句子(全世界都知道...)

三、高考英语引出开头

Recently, the problem of … has aroused peoples concern. 最近,……问题已引起人们的关注.

The Internet has been playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day life. It has brought a lot of benefits but has created some serious problems as well.

互联网已在我们的生活中扮演着越来越重要的角色.它给我们带来了许多好处,但也产生了一些严重的问题.

Nowadays, (overpopulation) has become a problem we have to face.

如今,(人口过剩)已成为我们不得不面对的问题了.

It is commonly believed that … / It is a common belief that … 人们一般认为……

Many people insist that … 很多人坚持认为……

With the development of science and technology, more and more people believe that…

随着科技的发展,越来越多的人认为……

A lot of people seem to think that … 很多人似乎认为……