英语说明文常见写作方法（汇集20篇）

People hold different views about X. Some people are of the opinion that 观点1, while others point out that 观点2. As far as I am concerned, the former/latter opinion holds more weight. For one thing, 论据1. For another, 论据2.

Last but not the least, 论据3.

To conclude, 总结观点. As a college student, I am supposed to 表决心. 或 From above, we can predict that 预测.

以说明为主是说明文与其他文体从表达方式上区别的标志。小编收集了说明文作文的写作方法，欢迎阅读。

说明文一般结构形式为：先对说明的对象作总的概括介绍，然后导入具体说明。

一、概括介绍的方式

1、概述式

开头用简洁的语言介绍事物的概况，给人以总体形象。如《故宫博物院》是这样开头的：

在北京的中心，有一座城中之城，这就是紫禁城。现在人们叫它故宫，也叫故宫博物院。紫禁城是明清两代的皇宫。是我国现存的最大最完整的古代宫殿建筑群，有五百多年了。

开头介绍了故宫博物院的地理位置、名称、性质和年代。通过概述的介绍，我们可以大致了解故宫博物院的概况。

2、描述式

开头描写事物的特征或状态，让读者有一个直观的总体认识。如《中国石拱桥》开头是这样描述的：

石拱桥的桥洞成弧形，就像虹。古代神话里说，雨后彩虹是“人间天上的桥”，通过彩虹就能上天。我国的诗人把拱桥比作虹，说拱桥是“卧虹”“飞虹”把水上拱桥形容为“长虹卧波”。

开头描述石拱桥的重要部位“桥洞”的状态特征，然后用神话传说和诗人对石拱桥的描述补充说明这一特征。

3、设问式

开头设问，能激发读者了解知识的欲望和兴趣，急切了解事物或事理。如《花儿为什么这样红》的第一段。由描述红花的鲜艳和美丽，自然提出“花儿为什么这样红”的问题，让人们随作者的具体解说了解其原因，探寻其知识。

4、定义式

开始对事物下定义，提示事物内涵(本质特征)和外延(包含的范围)，让人了解事物的本质。如《统筹方法》开篇是这样定义事物的：“统筹方法，是一种安排工作进程的数学方法，它的实用范围极其广泛。”

二、具体说明的结构思路

说明文的结构由事物的性质确定，一般来说，确定它的结构可从以下两个方面考虑：

1、按说明对象的自身条理性来安排结构

任何事物都有自身的条理规律，把握了这种规律并据此安排结构，能使说明的内容井然有序，条理清楚。一般来说，运动、变化、发展的事物，它的条理性表现在时序上，不同时间有不同的形态，说明时可按时间顺序安排结构。如《从甲骨文到缩微图书》，就是按时间顺序安排结构的，先写文字产生和出现书籍的雏形，再写正式的书籍，最后写现代的书籍，从而说明了书籍演变发展的过程。

处于静止状态的事物，如建筑群、名胜古迹、物品等，常常从空间位置上体现它的条理形。说明这类事物，宜按空间顺序，先表后里、先外后内进行说明。如《故宫博物院》说明一个古代建筑群，这个建筑群处在一定的空间方位上，排列有序，内部建筑有主有次。文章按照空间位置，先写外部城门，后写城内建筑，写内时先写主，后写次。整篇文章层次井然有序。

2、按人们对说明对象的认识规律安排结构

对读者陌生以及读者难以理解的说明对象，说明时常常由具体到抽象，由表面现象到内在事理。由个别推及一般。在具体说明中，宜先写状态，后写功用或成因，最后揭示性质特征。如《死海不死》是一篇事理性说明文，具体说明部分先说一种现象：传说约两千年前，罗马统帅狄杜把俘虏的奴隶投在死海里，但奴隶却安然无恙。然后解释原因，这是因为死海海水的咸度很高。接着进一步解说死海的成因，说明时先叙事，后说它是自然界变化的结果。这样说明，读者易于理解。

对读者并不陌生的事物或事理，说明时可先说一般，再叙说个别现象。这种写法宜先写性质特征，后写状态，人们可先获得事物或事理的总体认识，然后具体理解。如《苏州园林》，一般读者都知园林这一事物，但苏州园林与其他园林有所不同，因此，写作时宜先说出它与其它园林不同的性质特征，然后具体说它的形态。这种结构安排有利于读者尽快地认识事物。

说明文的结尾一般是自然结束，说明清楚了，文章就结束了。有的说明文最后再次归结特征，有利于读者区别事物。如《故宫博物院》最后写道：“站在景山的高处望故宫，重重殿宇，层层楼阁，道道宫墙，错综相连，而井然有序。这样宏伟的建筑群，这样和谐统一的布局，令人不能不惊叹。”结尾直接点出了故宫建筑群的特征：宏伟、和谐、统一。有的说明文，结尾作一些补充性的说明，或开拓读者的视野，或增强说明的准确、严密程度。如《看云识天气》结尾是这样写的：“在某些情况下，看云识天气往往要受到限制，因而，还是要依靠天气预报。”这一补充，比较全面地说明了“看云识天气”的作用，增强了说明的科学性。

在进行记叙文的写作时有哪些常用的写作方法呢？以下是小编整理的记叙文写作常见技法，欢迎参考阅读!

一、叙述的人称

叙述的人称，实质上是作者叙述时的观察点、立足点问题，也就是叙述一个人、一件事时，是以作者自己的角度来写，还是以他人的角度来写的问题。

第一人称：作者以“我”或“我们”的身份，叙述所历、所闻、所见，把人物经历、事件经过告诉读者，这便是第一人称的叙述。依据“我在事件叙述时地位的轻重，常常表现为：

1、“我”是见证人。如《孔乙已》中的“我”，《祝福》中的“我”，都是只起事件的见证人的作用。

2、“我”是重要人物。如《一件小事》中的“我”，《故乡》中的“我”。

3、“我”是主人公。如日记、书信、游记、自传体文章中的“我”，还有以第一人称叙述的某些小说、故事中的“我”。譬如，鲁迅不是狂人，但在写《狂人日记》时却用“我”来叙述，代替了“狂人”，有力地揭露了中国封建家族制度和吃人的旧礼教。

4、“我”是穿针引线的人物。

第一人称叙述的长处是有真实感，亲切自然。短处是受“我”的限制，不便于反映广阔的现实生活，很难反映“我”以外的人物的思想。

第二人称:作者用“你”、“你们”来叙述，是第二人称叙述。实用写作中很少用此人称，文学创作中有通篇为第一人称的。第三人称：作者站在第三者的立场，用叙述他人事情的口吻，把人物经历、事件经过告诉读者，这便是三人称的叙述。

其用法有：1、“他”。如“他既然这样完全失掉了理性，就发生了哪个疯子头脑里都不曾有过的一种奇想......”(《堂吉诃德》)

2、人名。如“一九四六年一月二十七日，周恩来同志从重庆回延安......”(《一次难忘的航行》)

3、指代。如“那些戴旧毡帽的，大清早摇船出来......”(《多收了三五斗》)第三人称叙述的长处是不受时间、空间限制，写作较自由、灵活，能把人和事直接展现在读者眼前。短处是没有第一人称叙述那样亲切自然。而且，掌握起来比第一人称叙述较为困难。

在写作中，还存在第一人称叙述和第三人称交替使用的情形。如鲁迅的小说《祝福》就用了两种人称来叙述。我们在使用两种人叙述事件时应注意：①不得频繁改换；②改换时要交代清楚，不能打断叙述线索。

写作时倒底是用第一个称还是用第三人称或第二人称叙述，应该从用哪一人称叙述来处理材料、表现主题最为有利的角度来考虑。而且，不管采用哪一种人称叙述，都必须事先确定好，并贯穿文章始终，做到人称一致。否则，叙述人称混乱，就会条理不清，影响中心思想或主题的表达。

二、叙述的方式叙述的方式主要有顺叙、倒叙、插叙、补叙。

顺叙：按照事情发生、发展的顺序来进行叙述。倒叙：把事件的结局或某个最突出的片断提在前边叙述，然后再从事件的开头进行叙述。使用倒叙应注意交代清楚，有必要的文字过渡，否则会影响表达效果。

插叙：指由于表达的需要，中断了原来的叙述而插入的另一段叙述。插叙与倒叙的区别在于：插叙只是顺叙中的一个片断，不是全文中心事件的一部分；而倒叙所叙的内容是整个事件中的一个组成部分或一个环节。

补叙：对前面的叙述加以补充、解释。补叙与插叙的不同在于：1、文字少，一般没有情节，前后不必有过渡文字；2、去掉补叙的文字，前后内容仍可以衔接起来。

三、叙述的要求

第一，线索清楚，要抓住主要线索叙述。

第二，“叙述六要素”应交代明白，一般要把时、地、人、事写清楚，有时可省略其中一、二个要素。

第三，详略得当。第四，要有波澜。因为“文似看山不喜平”、“文贵曲”。记叙文写作技法

写作包括两部分，一是要求在35分钟内写一篇150字左右的短文，二是要求在10分钟内写一个50--60字的便条。这两部分均为命题作文，作文内容与大学生的日常生活、学习都密切相关，另外也有社会热点问题，比如环保、旅游、健身等，题目理解起来都比较容易。

短文写作部分文体为议论文，一般采用三段式的结构，第一段为论点，第二段为论据，第三段为结论。最高要求为文章内容切题，思想表达清楚，论据充分，论证严密，基本无语言错误。要想写好一篇文章，应该注意一下写作步骤：

1.审题：作文评分的第一个要求就是内容切题，因此审题特别关键。专业四级作文都是命题作文，而且多有中文提示或提纲，所以你首先应了解命题的基本要求，理解题目的真正意图，然后确定提纲中的关键词及各要点间的逻辑，整理自己的思路，对自己所想到的内容进行组织和全面安排。尤其对要讨论的问题，该涉及的内容，所需的事实、例证、阐述、说明和总结等，在头脑中形成一个整体的构思。

2.组织段落：构思好之后，根据构思的提纲，运用选好的材料，恰当地运用连词，合理安排段落，使文章条理清楚、内容连贯。段落的组织主要是通过扩展句对主题句的支持或说明来进行的。各段的主题句在审题构思时就应基本形成，主题句确定下来，接着就是通过一系列的扩展句，来说明、论证或阐述主题句的思想。常见的段落展开方法有列举、举例、比较和对比、因果、叙述、归类、下定义等，考试时应灵活运用。

3.修改：也就是说要删除与主题不相干的内容，检查句子时态、语态等。特别应注意单词的正确拼写；字母大小写和标点符号；数的一致性（包括主语与谓语以及名词与其限定语的单复数一致性）；指代关系（包括指代的一致性和代词的选用）；动词形式（时态、语态、语气）等方面。

关于考试过程中短文写作的时间分配问题。我们知道，短文写作的时间为35分钟, 要力争写完写好, 这就要求考生做到有条不紊，忙而不乱，充分发挥自己应有的水平。建议按照如下的方案分配时间: 审题1～2分钟；组织素材, 细节和关键词: 4～5分钟；起草: 20～25分钟；修改定稿: 4～5分钟。

最后要说明的是，从某种意义上来说，专业四级考试作文有其固定的写作格式、结构，而对于固定的题型，有固定不变的表达法。因此，大家有理由相信只要训练方法得当，搞好写作是不难的。大家不妨试试多背范文和常用句型，包括各类型作文的开头、结尾句、中间展开、过渡句，以及比较、图表说明等的常用句型和表达法，然后自己多动笔写一写，只要按这样的方法进行练习，相信在一定时间内就可以在写作上取得满意的分数。因为是三段式作文，写作的时候一定注意第一段提出的论点要简洁明了，开门见山；第二段的论据要能充分说明论点，论证条理清楚；第三段的结论要水到渠成，切忌草率，严谨完整的结尾是取得高分的保证。

便条写作最主要的是注意格式正确，交待清楚，比如请柬、贺信、道歉函等，要注意称呼、正文、签名等的格式，一定要把相关的时间、地点、原因及主要事件内容交待清楚。

在任务驱动型作文的背景下，怎样才能把一个论题阐述深透呢?许多同学无从下手，所写的文章老是停留在肤浅的层面，得分不高，在此，介绍“巧设反方，探源究底”的方法，以供同学学习参考。

“巧设反方”就是在正面论述的基础之上，提出有可能出现的反方看法或观点，尽力预设，尽力设全，以体现你思维的周密性。

“探源究底”就是在预设反方的前提下，探究反方观点产生的根源以及错误的本质，甚至对反方观点进行有力的批驳，让它站不住脚，从而使自己的看法有理有力。

例如：

阅读下面的材料，根据要求写一篇不少于800字的文章。(60分)

不久前，某大学在临近期末时发生了这样一事：夜幕下，风雨中，一群大学生在校农场打着手电栽种油菜。校长对媒体说：“学生必须亲手碰到泥巴，才能知道什么是奋斗，什么是劳动。”农场劳动是该校的必修课，是“毕业通行证”。这种观点和做法得到了不少网民的支持。

然而也有人持不同意见：为挣学分冒雨挑灯夜战，是否有矫枉过正之嫌?还有人认为，大学生的首要任务是学习专业知识，此举有形式主义之嫌。

对于以上事件及不同观点，你怎么看?请表明你的态度，阐述你的看法。要求综合材料内容及含意，选好角度，确定立意，完成写作任务。

示范例文：

亲历劳动，方知奋斗

某高校开设种田必修课，学生夜里打手电种油菜，新闻一出，立刻引发热议，有支持者，也有反对者，更有抨击者，但无论何种反应都体现了大众对高校教育、对人才培养的一种关注、一种思索。

亲历劳动，方知奋斗。学校的良苦用心是值得大力称赞的。农场劳动，不单是一门必修课程，是毕业的通行证，更是一种观念、一种品质的培养。党的教育方针明确指出：教育必须与生产劳动相结合……未来世界的竞争是“人才素质”的竞争，而劳动素质又是人才素质中极其重要的一个方面。但令人叹息的是，有许多的网民，却反对高校的这种做法，质疑这种做法的真正意图，或许是因为他们觉得大学生的首要任务是学习专业知识，应该把时间更多地放在精进自己的专业水平上，不能也没有必要去做“普通农民”所做的“农活”，然而，这个理由不过只是个幌子，是个借口，何况精进专业知识，也不是“不问世事，一心只读圣贤书”就能达成的，再说，闭门苦读就一定能够学好专业知识吗?更深层的原因，恐怕是大众内心对“农”的鄙视，是自古以来就有的对“读书人”的崇敬与膜拜：认为田间劳作是没有文化修养或修养较低的农民干的，文化人，既然已经跳出农门，就不要也不必再碰农活了。他们主观上认为“读书人”与“农民”是截然不同的两种身份，而这种认识，又恰恰是长期以来由阶级的差距衍生出的优越感而催生的。

爱劳动，才会生活;学会劳动，才能学会生活。高校开展农场劳动必修课，不仅可行，更有深远意义。学生在学校，不仅要学会一些理论性的东西，还需进行各种各样的实践劳动，只有二者相结合，才能更好地提升学生的综合素质。农场劳动，除了能提高学生们的动手能力、实践能力，让学生更接地气，还能让学生在获得劳动的切身体验中，认识到粒粒皆辛苦，尊重劳动人民和劳动成果，更能让学生在艰苦环境的磨炼中，培养一种吃苦耐劳、艰苦奋斗的精神。事实上，人的很多优秀的品质，都可以在劳动中形成。

发扬光大该校的这一做法，或许我们可以有更好做法，加强宣传教育，提高学生积极主动参加劳动实践的意识，鼓励学生积极参加各种各样的社会实践活动，而不局限于田间劳作，更无需用“必修”的形式，来强制学生，为完成学分临时抱佛脚而在临近期末时连夜冒雨打手电种油菜。

“民生在勤，勤则不匮”，无论时代如何变化，我们始终都要热爱劳动、崇尚劳动。

【点评】

本文在正面阐述了理由之后，先预设网民的不同观点与看法，然后，逐步探寻出产生这些看法的根源，有表面的原因，也有更深层次的原因。显示作者非一般的思维能力，文章也因此步入更高的档次。是一种不可多得的方法。

一、说明文的含义和分类

所谓说明文，就是以说明为主要表达方式来解说事物、阐明事理而给人以知识的文章，它通过对实体事物的解说，或对抽象整理的阐释，使人们对事物的形态、构造、性质、种类，成因、功能，关系或对事理的概念、特点、来源、演变、异同等有所认识，从而获得有关的知识。以说明为主是说明文与其他文体从表达方式上相区别的标志。

在各种文章样式中，说明文体是一种相对独立的类别。在人们的社会生活中，说明文越来超越显示出它的重要作用和实用价值。现实生活充分表明，说明文不是一种无足轻重的文章形式，而是运用范围极为广泛的常用文体，它与人们的生产、工作和生活的关系相当密切，而且由于社会生活的需要，说明文写作正在大量涌现。

关于说明文的分类，现在人们从不同的角度，根据各自的标准，对说明文有不同的分法。我们根据说明文的表现手法，大体上把它分为三类：一、阐释性说明文;二、述说性说明文;三、文艺性说明文。

从几个不同侧面来解说事物、阐释事理的说明文叫阐释性说明文。有关历史、地理、物理、化学、动物、植物、科学卫生、语言文艺等方面的知识性文字或教材、科学实验报告、器物使用说明等都属于这一类。

通过简述概况或情节来介绍事物的说明文叫述说性说明文。电影、电视剧各戏曲的剧情简介，小说和其它文学作品心的内容提要、连环画或某些摄影照片的解说词等都属于这一类。

运用形象化的手法来介绍事物、阐述事理的说明文叫文艺性说明文。这类说明文具有较多的文学色彩。知识小品(或叫科学小品)、名胜古迹、文物的说明简介等都属于这一类。

一般说来，前两类的写法比较平实，重在对事物或事理的条分缕析的解说。后一类的写法活动活泼，富有情趣，多采用文艺笔调。

二、 说明文的特点

说明文有如下特点：

1、 说明性

所谓说明性，是指说明文主要运用说明的表达方式，侧重对客观事物或事理作如实的介绍、简要的解说，力求使人有所知。就整个文体而言，说明文与记叙文、议论文的特点有显著的区别。记叙文记叙人物的活动，事情的经过，景物的状态，以及作者对人物、事件、景物的观感，主要用记叙和描写的表达方式，重在使人有所感;议论文通过逻辑论证形式，分析事物的本质、规律和特点，提出主张，发表见解，主要用议论的表达方式，重在使人有所悟;比如，同是写读书学习这件事，高尔基在《我的童年》里描述了一段读书的具体情景，把人物读书时的画面绘声绘色地表达出来了，这是记叙性的;毛泽东在《中国共产党在民族战争中的地位》里写了一节“学习”，论述了学习的重要性和学习的任务以及必须采取正确的学习态度等问题，阐述了观点，论证了事理，这是议论性的;《读书笔记》用简洁的文字介绍做读书笔记的几种常用方法：“第一种是在书上画记号”;“第二种方法是摘录，就是把书中的重点、重要的材料、精彩的句子或段落，抄录在笔记本上”;“第三种方法是写出全篇或全书的提要”;“还有一种是写心得体会(读后感)”;“除了上述方法之外，还可以使用卡片”。全文既没有具体描述，也没有分析论证，主要是运用了说清事理的表达方式，条分缕析地介绍了作读书笔记的具体方法，读后使人获得学习经验。这是说明性的。由于写作目的不同，由于表达内容的方式不同，文章的特点自然也就不同了。正如记叙文具有形象性、抒情性，议论文具有说理性、逻辑性一样，说明文具的说明性。当然，一篇说明文由于表达内容的需要，部分地使用记叙或议论的表达方式，也是常见现象，但是这只能说它含有记叙或议论的成分，并不会因此而改变它的说明性质。

2、 知识性

一般说来，记叙文、议论文都或多或少地含有各种知识，能给人以教益，但是在传授知识方面，都比不上说明文那样直接、集中和强烈。这是因为说明文写作，其直接目的就给人以知识或技能。说明文的内容以知识为核心，不管是哪一篇说明文，它的内容不外乎是自然科学知识，社会科学知识，人们日常生活、工作、学习所需要的知识，从宏观世界到微观世界，从基础学科到尖端科学，从奇妙的微生物到人类社会，从石器到电脑，从沙漠到海洋，从地层变化到天体运行，……漠漠宇宙，大千世界，无一不是说明文内容所涉足的领域，知识性是说明文写作的出发点，也是它的落脚点。

说明文既然要给人传授知识，就必须具有高度的科学性(包括阐释事理的合理性)。不管是对实体事物的说明，还是对非实体事物的说明，都必须如实地反映客观事物，做到内容真实可靠，反映准确恰当，解说清楚明白。如果说明文违反知识的科学性，则是一个致使的伤。说明文主要对客观事物或事理予以冷静地解说阐释，一般不需要带上强烈的感情色彩或表示作者的倾向，具有客观性的特点。

《辞海》是这样介绍银杏的：

银杏亦称“白果树”、“公孙树”。银杏科。落叶乔木。叶扇形。雌雄异株。种子椭圆形或倒卵形。系孑遗植物，我国普遍栽培;日本亦产生长较慢，寿命较长，可达千余年。种仁供食用，多食中毒，外种皮可提栲胶。木材浅黄色，细致，轻软，供建筑、家具，雕刻及其他工艺品用。又为庭园树、行道树。中医学上以种子入药，性平、味苦涩、有小毒。功能敛肺定喘，主治痰哮喘咳、遗精、带下、小便频数等症。种子含有氢氰酸、组氨酸、蛋白质等。

这段关于银杏的说明文只是对银杏的名称、特点、产地，用途等作客观的如实的介绍，全是解说式的语言，把它与郭沫若的散文《银杏》对比，其客观性就显而易见了。

3、 实用性

从说明文的社会功用看，它具有广泛的实用价值。诸如法律条文的撰写、典章制度的编纂，天文历法的修著，生产知识的记录，工作经验的介绍等等，从卷帙浩繁的百科条目到一种产品的使用说明，说明文的触角，探伸到社会生活、生产的各个领域，起着巨大的作用，成为人们交换思想、交流经验的工具，沟通文理学科的桥梁。

三、 说明文的写作

写说明文和写其它文章一样，必须明确写作意图，确立文章中心;充分占有材料，力求做到言之有物、言之有序。除了这些一般性的要求之外，说明文的写作还有如下要求：

(一) 抓住事物特征，把握说明中心

任何事物都具有自身的质的规定性，一个事物的特征是区别于其它事物的标志。写说明文只有抓住事物的特征，才能把被说明的事物准确清晰地介绍给读者，让人们对事物有确切的了解。事物往往有方面的特征，介绍事物时，不可能在一篇说明文里面面俱到;只能根据需要，一次谈一两个特征。因此，要写好说明文，还必须把握说明文的中心。如：《漫活圆周率》是一篇介绍数学基础的说明文。文章题为“漫话”，并没有漫无边际地随意堆砌关于圆周率的材料，而是围绕求出圆周率的更精确的数值这个中心，向人们介绍了古今中外数学家对圆周率的数值所做的贡献。

抓住事物特点，把握说明中心，这是写说明文的一个重要要求，要做到这一点，写作者必须在写作前对被 说明的事物作深入细致的研究。必须懂得只有熟悉被说明的事物，认识并掌握被说明事物本身的规律性，才能做到这一点。

(二) 针对具体情况，选好写作角度

写说明文也是要求有的放矢的。写什么、怎样写，要从读者的实际情况考虑，使文章具有针对性，切合读者的知识水平、职业特点和年龄大小。往往读者对象不同，写的角度也不同。如阐述吸烟有害的说明文很多，有的是针对老年人的，有的是对妇女而言的，的有是对青少年而言的，角度不同，说明的内容则各有侧重。《青少年吸烟害处大》这篇文章从青少年是国家的未来和希望的高度介绍吸烟对青少年的危害，突出分析青少年的生理特征，说明青少年接触毒性物质比成年人吸收快、排除慢、毒害大的情况，指出“吸烟对青少年是绝对有害而无一利的”。这样说明目的清楚，针对性强。

写说明文选取什么角度要依实际情况而定。比如，介绍牛的知识，如果是为饲养者写的，要侧重介绍牛的生活习惯和特性;如果是为使用者写的，要侧重介绍牛的功能和力气;如果是为兽医写的，则主要介绍它的身体构造;如果是为食用者写的，可以主要介绍它的营养价值。当然，作为科普知识介绍，不妨全面一点为好。

(三) 务求解说清楚、做到条理分明

写说明文的目的就是让人获得知识的技能，只有解说清楚，才能达到这个目的。说明说明，一说即明，如何解说清楚，要讲究说明的方法，注意结构的安排，着力语言的运用。关于说明的方法，这里就不详细介绍了。这里着重讲讲结构安排的条理性问题。

文章的条理性是客观事物、事理本身的特点、规律在文章结构上的反映。说明文解说事物、阐释事理要按其本身的条理来安排说明的次序，使之层次清楚，主次分明，安排说明文的结构首先要注意条理性。如何具体安排结构，不同类型的说明文有不同要求，介绍产品制作过程的说明文，往往按照产品生产工序来安排结构，如叶圣陶的《景泰蓝的制作》是一篇介绍手工工艺品景泰蓝的说明文。它按照制作工艺的程序，抓住“做胎”、“掐丝”、“涂色”、“烧制”、“打磨”五道关键工序依次作了详细具体的说明，全篇言之有序，给人的印象十分鲜明。这一类安排，以时间变化为序，着重写事物的过程。

(四)语言准确简明，文字通俗浅显

选用准确的语言，精当地解说事物的事理，是说明文语言的基本要求。说明文是以介绍知识性内容为主的，只有如实反映被说明内容的客观情况，才能保证知识的科学性。相反，语言不准确就会失去知识的科学性。

明代学者徐光启笔译古数学家欧几里得的《几何原理》，其中的一节：

凡论度必始于一体。自点引之而为线，自线广之而为面，自面积之而为体，各自三大纲。是心有长而无阔者谓之线，有长与阔而无厚者谓之面，长与阔厚俱全者谓之体。唯点无长阔厚薄，其间不能容，不可以数度，然线之两端即点，而线面体皆由此生。点虽不入于数，实为从数之本。

这节解说数学基本概念的说明文，把什么是点、线、面、体，点与数度的联系和区别作了确切的阐释，语言也很精当。

此外，在说明文中往往有些内容是带有专门化的科学知识，涉及一些专门名词和专业术语，在说明中特别要求把它们运用得准确无误，使读者便于领会。如：“航空”与“航天”是两个不同的概念，有篇文章作了这样的解说：“飞机在大气层内飞行，称为航空;卫星、飞船在大气层外飞行，称为航天。它们是采用不同的飞行器在不同的空间来完成飞行任务的”。这种解说是十分准确的，使人对什么叫“航空”、什么叫“航天”得到了科学的了解。

说明文的语言必须简要精当。看下面的这段文字：

“蝉的幼虫脱皮是从背上开始的。先出来的一层旧皮从背上裂开，露出淡绿色的蝉来。先出来的是头，接着是吸管和前腿，最后是后腿和折叠着翅膀，只留下尾边尖儿还在那层旧皮里。这时候，它腾起身子，往后翻下来，头部倒挂着，原来折叠着的翅膀打开了，竭力伸直。接着，用一种几乎看不清的动作尽力把身体翻上去，用前脚的爪子钩住那层旧皮。这个动作使它的尾巴尖儿从那层旧皮里完全脱出不了。那层旧皮就只剩下空壳，成了蝉蜕，。从开始到完全脱出来，大约要半个钟头。

这段文字不到二百个字，具体说明了蝉的幼虫脱皮的整个过程。用简明的语言把幼虫脱皮的复杂动作细致而真切地写出来了。文字不枝不蔓，语言富有表现力，给人很清晰的印象。、

说明文要介绍一些科学知识和一些内容，往往是一般人所不熟悉的内容人，要把专门化的科学知识解说清楚，让人易于了解，必须做到深入浅出，通俗易懂，生动活泼，富有趣味。如，《洲际导弹自述》是一篇介绍洲际导弹知识的科技小品。文章用拟人化手法把洲际导弹问世、分类、构造、特点及其威力和弱点都解说得十分清楚，文章把它赋予假定的人类行为，读起来生动风趣，易于理解。为了把说明文写得生动活泼、通俗易懂，人们常常运用各种修辞手法，增强文章的形象性、趣味性。

在说明文的写作中，应该注意克服几种常见的毛病。这就是：

第一，防止知识性的差错。如有篇写“牛”的习作这样写道：“牛有水牛、黄牛两种，牛是反刍动物，只吃青草，不必喂料。牛都两只角，体强力大，是世界各国普遍使用的耕作工具。”由于写作者对有关牛的知识了解不够，有些只是一知半解。所以写起来造成知识性的错误。世界上牛的品种不只水牛、黄牛两种，杂交品种的牛并不长角;除了青草外，还必须给牛喂其它饲料;世界上也不是普遍使用牛作为耕作工具，牛还有专供食用、奶用或运输用,甚至作为神物崇拜的。

第二避免文体性的错误。如有篇说明文题为《蚯蚓》，其中写道：“……别看这小动物不惹眼，它可天天在松土、干活，它不讲究吃穿，不讲究休息，不讲住的，不讲报酬，整天埋头苦干，为人们劳作耕地，让作物生长茂盛。我不禁想起我们的老师，他们也有蚯蚓精神。

我愿作一条辛勤劳动的蚯蚓。”

显而易见，这篇习作把一篇说明文写成了一篇借物咏志的抒情散文了。

第三，克服片面性的论述。如，有篇题为《青蛙》的知识小品，介绍青蛙时写道：“青蛙是两栖、变温的动物，营养价值很高，……”这样定是片面的，青蛙能捕捉害虫，有益于庄稼的生长，只写它营养价值高，不宣传要保护它，饲养它，必然会造成不良社会影响。片面性是不利普及科学知识的。

托物抒情或托物言志的文章，我们主要应该注意的是“物”与“情”的内在关系，而如何才能更好地把握呢？请随我们一起去学习托物言志作文写作方法吧！

【美文赏读】：石缝间的生命

林 希

石缝间倔强的生命，常使我感动得潸然泪下。

是那不定的风把那无人采撷的种子撒落到海角天涯。当它们不能再找到泥土，它们便把最后一线生的希望寄托在这一线石缝里。尽管它们也能从阳光中分享到温暖，从雨水里得到湿润，而惟有那一切生命赖以生存的土壤却要自己去寻找。它们面对着的现实该是多么严峻。

于是，大自然出现了惊人的奇迹，不毛的石缝间丛生出倔强的生命。

或者只就是一簇一簇无名的野草，春绿秋黄，岁岁枯荣。它们没有条件生长宽阔的叶子，因为他们寻找不到足以使草叶变得肥厚的营养，它们有的只是三两片长长的细瘦的薄叶，那细微的叶脉告知你生存该是多么艰难；更有的，它们就在一簇一簇瘦叶下又自己生长出根须，只为了少向母体吮吸一点乳汁，便自去寻找那不易被觉察到的石缝。这就是生命。如果这是一种本能，那么它正说明生命的本能是多么尊贵，生命有权自认为辉煌壮丽，生机竟是这样地不可扼制。

或者就是一团一团小小的山花，大多又都是那苦苦的蒲公英。它们的茎叶里涌动着苦味的乳白色的浆汁，它们的根须在春天被人们挖去作野菜。而石缝间的蒲公英，却远不似田野上的同宗生长得那样茁壮。它们因山风的凶狂而不能长成高高的躯干，它们因山石的贫瘠而不能拥有众多的叶片，它们的茎显得坚韧而苍老，它们的叶因枯萎而失去光泽；只有它们的根竟似那柔韧而又强固的筋条，似那柔中有刚的藤蔓，深埋在石缝间狭隘的间隙里。生命就是这样地被环境规定着，又被环境改变着，适者生存的规律尽管无情，但一切的适者都是战胜环境的强者，生命现象告诉你，生命就是拼搏。

如果石缝间只有这些小花小草，也许还只能引起人们的哀怜；而最为令人赞叹的，是在那石岩的缝隙间，还生长着参天的松柏，雄伟苍劲，巍峨挺拔。它们使高山有了灵气，使一切的生命在它们的面前显得苍白逊色。它们的躯干就是这样顽强地从石缝间生长出来，扭曲地、旋转地，每一寸树衣上都结着伤疤。向上，向上，向上是多么地艰难。每生长一寸都要经过几度寒暑，几度春秋。然而它们终于长成了高树，伸展开了繁茂的枝干，团簇着永不凋落的针叶。它们耸立在悬崖断壁上，耸立在高山峻岭的峰巅，只有那盘结在石崖上的树根在无声地向你述说，它们的生长是一次多么艰苦的拼搏。那粗如巨蟒，细如草蛇的树根，盘根错节，从一个石缝间扎进去，又从另一个石缝间钻出来，于是沿着无情的青石，它们延伸过去，像犀利的鹰爪抓住了它栖身的岩石。有时，一株松柏，它的根须竟要爬满半壁山崖，似把累累的山石用一根粗粗的缆绳紧紧地缚住，由此，它们才能迎击狂风暴雨的侵袭，它们才终于在不属于自己的生存空间为自己占有了一片天地。

如果一切的生命都不屑于去石缝间寻求立足的天地，那么，世界上就会有一大片一大片的地方成为永远的死寂，飞鸟无处栖身，一切借花草树木赖以生存的生命就要绝迹，那里便会沦为永无开化之日的永远的黑暗。如果一切的生命都只贪恋于黑黝黝的沃土，它们又如何完备自己驾驭环境的能力，又如何使自己在一代一代的繁衍中变得愈加坚强呢？

世界就是如此奇妙。试想，那石缝间的野草，一旦将它们的草子撒落到肥沃的大地上，它们一定会比未经过风雨考验的娇嫩的种子具有更为旺盛的生机，长得更显繁茂；试想，那石缝间的蒲公英，一旦它们的种子，撑着团团的絮伞，随风飘向湿润的乡野，它们一定会比其他的花卉生长得茁壮，更能经暑耐寒；至于那顽强的松柏，它本来就是生命的崇高体现，是毅力和意志最完美的象征，它给一切的生命以鼓舞，以榜样。

愿一切生命不致因飘落在石缝间而凄凄切切。愿一切生命都敢于去寻求最艰苦的环境。生命正是要在最困厄的境遇中发现自己，认识自己，从而才能锤炼自己，成长自己，直到最后完成自己，升华自己。

石缝间顽强的生命，它既是生物学的，又是哲学的，是生物学和哲学的统一。它又是美学的，作为一种美学现象，它展现给你的不仅是装点荒山秃岭的层层葱绿，它更向你揭示出美的、壮丽的心灵世界。

石缝间顽强的生命，它具有如此震摄人们心灵的情感力量，它使我们赖以生存的这个星球变得神奇辉煌。

名师赏读：

大自然并非对每个生命都施以恩惠。有时，有些生命所面对的生存环境是异常艰难窘迫的，而能在这种种困境中顽强生存的生命，自有其震撼人心的力量。石缝间的生命，就是这样震撼了“我”。这篇托物言志的散文，通过对“撒落到天涯海角”的石缝间的生命的描述，赞美了石缝间的生命的那种倔强和崇高的品格，阐述了生命的内涵就是拼搏，启示我们：要做驾驭生活的强者。

【名师辅导】：融情入旨 情深意浓

1．明确概念内涵。写借景抒情或托物言志的作文，首先要明白什么是“借景抒情”，什么是“托物言志”。“借景抒情”是指借助于描绘景物而抒发感情，感情寓于写景之中。“托物言志”是指通过描写客观事物，寄托、传达作者的某种感情、抱负和志趣。

2．选准写作对象。春、夏、秋、冬四季的变化，花草树木的繁茂和衰败，日月星辰的时空转换，江河湖海的变幻莫测，都能引发我们无穷的想象。要善于发现捕捉其中触动自己心灵的“亮点”，写出自己真切的感受。写景的文章，写的是景，抒的是情，把自己的情，自己的感受融入所描绘的景色中去，情景交融，这景，才是美丽的景，鲜活的景。

3．学会化大为小。贾平凹从一块丑陋的石头，看出了那种“不屈于误解、寂寞的生存的伟大”，揭示了我们在人才观的世俗偏见，于是他的《丑石》便有了个性化的感悟，有了非凡的影响。如果我们能把这种充满生命智慧的独特感悟表现在我们的作文中，何愁写不出具有丰厚文化意蕴的美文佳作?

4.掌握构思流程。“事—感—悟”是托物言志类作文的三步构思流程。没有触点（事或景），情感是无论如何也调动不起来的；没有了感情，也就少了悟性，悟不出事物所蕴含的社会意义。所以要升华议论，点明题旨，就必须在鲜明地描绘“触物”后，顺势抖出题旨。热爱生活，坦然面对生活，及时捕捉自己生命世界里的灵光，你就能迅速将感受美升华为思想美。

【佳作展示】：因为有了期盼

张宇

我，是一颗木槿的种子。和所有的种子一样，我期待着自己能够早日发芽、开花，尽管生长在重重叠叠的岩层中，我也有这样的期盼。

岩层的环境十分恶劣，阴冷而黑暗。这里的种子并不只我一个，有的和我一样年轻，有的却已变成空壳。小泽和我一般大，他是一颗松树的种子。开始时，他和我一样，期待着发芽，他总是喜欢跟我讲松树的故事，讲松树的高大伟岸，他的脸庞总会在这时闪耀出别样的光芒。我坚信，他会变成一棵松树。

然而，漫长的等待消磨了他的耐心，他开始变得不爱说话。最后，他无力地告诉我：“放弃吧！这里是被大地遗忘的角落，我们是不会发芽的。”我轻轻摇了摇头。我是不会放弃的，因为我有了期盼，我忘不了，忘不了母亲临终的叮嘱和不甘。她告诉过我，一定要出去。

日子一天天过去。一天，岩层正在嘲笑我们弱小的时候，我清楚地看见，他那夸张放大的嘴角破了一个洞。然后，一缕细微的阳光轻轻洒在我的身上，很舒服，像母亲的手一样。我知道，层层的岩石也抵挡不住岁月的侵蚀，他风化了，老了；而我，正年轻。

我每天拼命地吸收阳光，我对自己说：“你是最顽强的木槿，插地就生，你会成功的。”慢慢地，我的身体发生了微妙的变化，我知道，我要发芽了。

这一夜，我彻夜未眠，因为我知道，当明天第一缕晨曦洒向大地时，我就会发芽。这一刻，终于来临，我蓄积了自己所有的力量，破壳而出。破壳的喜悦让我泪流满面。我奋力向上生长，因为我想冲出岩层。时间很快便过去了，在冲出岩层的那一刻，我看见，角落里的小泽竟变成了空壳。外面的世界无限美好，我看见：

明亮的春日里/各色的花儿竞相开放/牧笛声悠扬、清脆/一群小鸟愉快地冲向天空……

而今，我已是一株开了花的木槿，因为有了期盼，我积蓄力量，不轻言放弃，终于完成了种子到花的蜕变。

学习与借鉴

选材新颖，视角独特。考生以一颗木槿种子的口吻，叙写了“我”如何克服岩层的阻碍，由种子变成花的过程，巧妙地运用象征的手法阐释了作文的主题：只有坚持不懈地期盼并毫不放弃，才能获得最后的成功。

语言生动，富含哲思。比如：“你是最顽强的木槿，插地就生，你会成功的。”“我知道，层层的岩石也抵挡不住岁月的侵蚀，他风化了，老了；而我，正年轻。”这些语句蕴含着深刻的人生哲理，极富感染力。

结构严谨，首尾点题。首段开篇点题自然，交代了生存环境的恶劣，结尾用“而今，我已是一株开了花的木槿，因为有了期盼，我积蓄力量，不轻言放弃，我终于完成了种子到花的蜕变。”作结，给人以深刻的启迪。

【积累素材】：托物言志类作文开头结尾赏析

1．开头：当我还是一粒种子的时候，阳光在我耳边呢喃，风儿在我身旁絮语，我仿佛听到一个声音：外面的天地很广阔，而你，会成为那精彩的一株小草……

结尾：幽暗的峡谷，我傲然绽放，听风儿在低低吟唱。我终于完成了一株草的使命，并为这世界献上我的花朵。编织一个只属于我的美丽童话。如果有来生，我还要做一株草，一株小小的会做梦的草。

【赏析】开头和结尾具有童话色彩，语言优美富有诗情画意。

2．开头：我是一只来自尘世的飞蛾，在一阵青草味中，睁开了自己紧闭的双眼。

结尾：向梦想飞翔，即使我已不再存在。那向着光明永不放弃的精神成就了我们飞蛾光辉的形象。

【赏析】人们常说“飞蛾扑火，自取灭亡”，本文作者反其道而行之，把自己想象成一只铺扑火的、追求光明的飞蛾，想象奇特。结尾点出了飞蛾扑火的精神所在——向着光明永不放弃。

3．开头：你是那样的渺小，令人瞧不上眼，可每当我看见你从墙缝、瓦砾、屋脊，甚至在坚硬的石板缝里钻出来的时候，就不能不为你那顽强的生命力所折服，直到从内心感到敬佩而发出由衷的赞叹！

结尾：我赞美野草，我更要赞美那些具有坚强意志的人。

【赏析】文章开头描写野草的生长环境—墙缝、瓦砾、屋脊、石板缝，文章结尾物人合一，直接赞美并点题。

由于人们生活经历、知识状况不同，对事物的看法存在差异，抒发出来的感情必然也不一样，下面抒情作文的写作方法，仅供参考。

借景抒情是一种常用的写作方法，其特点是寓情于景，情景交融，它是通过对景物的描写来抒发自己的感情。例如《第一场雪》里说：“荷！好大的雪啊！山川、树木、房屋、全都罩上一层厚的雪，万里江山变马了粉妆玉砌的世界。”字里行间流露出作者对大雪的喜爱。

尽管如此，由于人们生活经历、知识状况不同，对事物的看法存在差异，抒发出来的感情必然也不一样，因此根据具体情况，联系自己的实际，有的放矢，才能借助于景色描写，抒发出自己的真实感来。

下面的故事对我们很有启发：

从前，有一个秀才与县官、财主一起饮酒。这时外面正下着大雪，秀才 提议吟诗助兴，谁如果接不上，就罚酒三杯。秀才先吟第一句：“大雪纷纷落地。”县官想自己的转：一切都是皇上给的，感激之情油然而生，便接口吟道：“一片皇家瑞气。”财主想显示一下自己的财富，接下去吟了第三句：“再下三年何妨？”正在此时，一个又冻又饿的农民正好从屋前走过，听到这话心想，下三年岂不要把我饿死？就气愤地说：“真是吃饱放屁！”话虽粗俗，但却在理。

面对同一雪景，四个人由于经历、处境不同，抒发的感情也就截然不同，但是他们抒发的感情却是十分真实可信的，都符合各自的身份。

读后感属于议论文的范畴，但又不同于一般的议论文。

一般议论文，要求观点明确，论据典型，论证严密;而读后感最突出的特点是“读”和“感”的紧密结合。“读”，指读了何人、何文，文中有何事、何观点;“感”，是指读后有何感受。“读”是“感”的基础，“感”是“读”的升华。就所读作品而言，“读”是“即”—对所读内容和感发点作必要的交代;“感”是“离”—根据感发点进行联想，谈感受。“感”是“读”互相作用，不可脱节。

“读”和“感”的结合，一般采用两种形式：一是边述读(交代所读内容)边发感;二是先述读后发感。原则上讲，先述读后发感的形式比较好把握，适合初学写读后感的同学选用。

要写好读后感，除掌握以上基本的文体知识外，还必须把握以下几个写作步骤：

一、研读原文。

只有研读好原文，才能对原文的内容和主旨有深刻全面的理解和把握，才能从中有所感悟，这是写好读后感的基础。

二、确立感发点。感发点是读后感的中心论点，又是文章的“入手处”。

一篇文，一本书，一部影视片，一出戏剧，内容有简有繁，线索有多有少，人物有主有次，观点有深有浅，写读后感不可能面面俱到。那么，怎样确立感发点呢?方法很简单。我们研读某篇作品后，必然会受到启发，有所感悟，而我们受启发最大、感悟最深的那一点(或几点)，就可以确立为“感发点”。例如：写人为主的记叙文，感发点往往是人物最突出的精神、思想、品格等特点或最有价值的言论、行动。写事为主的记叙文，感发点往往是事件中所包含的意义、所反映的某种问题或普遍性的规律。议论文的感发点，一般是所读议论文的中心论点或分论点。其他文体感发点的确立的与此大同小异，不一一赘述。

三、述读与发感。

述读，指对所读文章的出处、篇名、作者、感发点等方面的交代，目的是使读者明白这篇读后感的由来，要发什么感。这些交代是必不可少的，否则，就会让读者不明白你的“感”由何而发。发感，是在述读和感发点的基础上，展开联想与引申，联系实际进行发挥，这是文章的主体部分。

联想与引申的原则是，要围绕感发点，要与原文材料有密切的联系。对联系的内容和实际还要进行必要的分析、议论或抒情，这样“感”才会深刻。这也是展开读后感主体部分最主要的方法。

另外，在论证感发点的过程中，要注意把两种论据紧密结合起来，一是所读原文的材料，二是联想和引申的材料。

四、读后感的结尾

结尾可概括中心，总结全文，或提出问题，发表看法，发人深思。“文无定则”，内容决定形式，采用什么形式结尾，要根据读后感的类型而定。

教学课件是辅助教学的多媒体教具，是现代教育技术发展的产物，具有很强的时代特点，也是教育现代化的标志之一。下面是小编整理的英语写作基础教程课件，希望对你有帮助。

一、课程教学目标

本课程为高等学校英语专业课程体系中一门英语专业知识课程，属专业必修课性质。通过本课程的教学，使学生能正确理解和掌握英语写作的基础知识和技巧，例如词汇的恰当用法、英语成分与各类型结构的多样化运用等，并能按照不同要求正确书写便条、信函和通知等应用文，缩写课文内容，组织提纲并根据提纲书写短文（150单词左右），正确使用标点符号。

二、先修课的要求

本课程面向英语专业一年级学生，学生应具备基本英语写作能力，达到英语专业入学时的各项要求。

三、教学环节、内容及学时分配

Unit 1:正确用词

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

通过举例及练习提升学生对词汇的敏感度，学会如何正确运用词汇；写便条。

【本章重点及难点】

辨析词汇不同侧面的意义，如：denotative & connotative meanings; affective & collocative meanings.

【教学内容】

1. Denotation and connotation

2. Attitude and collocation

3. False friends

4. Subject-verb agreement

5. Note-writing

5. Follow-up exercises

Unit 2:恰当用词

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

学会鉴别不同文体，即正式、常用、口语和俚语，并根据不同文体使用恰当的词汇；写较为正式的便条。

【本章重点及难点】

避免中式英语

【教学内容】

1.Various styles in English

2. Chinglish

3. Writing notes to older people, strangers and business clients

5. Follow-up exercises

Unit 3:简洁精确用词

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

纠正学生习作中常见的冗余用词，帮助学生建立分类记忆词汇的习惯从而精确用词；写正式通知。

【本章重点及难点】

提高学生对词汇细微差别的敏感度，尤其是名、动、形容词，培养良好的词汇学习的习惯。

【教学内容】

1. Conciseness

2. Preciseness

3. Effectiveness

4. Modifiers and related problems

5. Informal notice

Unit 4：基本句型

【学时】 3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

通过例句比较，使学生理解并学会选择恰当的词汇作主语，避免动词的名词化倾向；明确主语通常的位置及主语后置时的影响；总结何种情况下使用主动语态或被动语态的原则；归纳一般现在时的较特殊用法及单句中时态的匹配；掌握虚拟语气的常见用法；学写正式通知。

【本章重点难点】

构建最基本句子框架；句中词序的变化对语意重心的影响。

【教学内容】

1. Subject and its position

2. Active voice & passive voice

3. Tense and sequence of tenses

5. Mood

6. Extended notice

7. Follow-up exercises

Unit 5:基本句型的扩展（一）

【学时】 3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

使学生掌握扩展基本句型的方式之一：增添修饰成分，并会正确使用七种类型的修饰语；正确使用定语从句达到强调作用；为段落缩写。

【本章重点难点】

使用修饰语扩展句子，以及修饰语的顺序。

【教学内容】

1. Attributes

2. Relative clauses

3. Incomplete sentences

4. Word order

5. Precis for short paragragh

6. Follow-up exercises

Unit 6基本句型的扩展（二）

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

学会使用分词和独立主格结构来扩展句子；为较长篇章写缩写。

【本章重点难点】

复杂分词结构的使用；学会在两个或以上的动词中正确选择用作分词结构的动词；避免悬垂修饰语、连写句、连串句。

【教学内容】

1. Participles

2. Absolutes

3. Comma-split sentences

4. Fused sentences

5. Precis for longer articles

6. Follow-up exercises

Unit 7连接句子的方法之一：并列

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

了解并列在单词、词组、从句和句子这四个层面的使用；学会不同类型连接词的用法；掌握并列句的具体用法和功能，以及更为复杂的并列句的使用，例如并列词的重复或缺失、用分号连接的并列句和有插入结构的并列句。

【本章重点难点】

如何正确应用并列句；错误的并列。

【教学内容】

1. Coordinate structures

2. Coordination at the sentence level

3. Functions of coordinate sentences

4. Advanced usages of coordinate sentences

5. Lack of unity & faulty parallelism

6. Follow-up exercises

Unit 8连接句子的方法之二：从属

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

辨析并列句与从属句在表达语意上的区别；正确使用名词性从句，定语从句和状语从句；理解从属句的两大功能；学写提纲。

【本章重点难点】

从属句的有效使用；从属句与并列句的选用原则。

【教学内容】

1.Subordination vs.coordination

2.Types of subordination

3.Functions of subordination

4.Effective use of subordination

5.Misplaced modifiers

6.Basic format of a short composition

7.Follow-up exercises

Unit 9句子多样化

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

使学生理解句子多样化的重要性，并从句子长度、句子结构、语意重心和句子开头这四个方面达到句子多样化的目的；正确使用倒装，避免逐字翻译；学写短文开头。

【本章重点难点】

达到句子多样化的方法；如何通过重新排序和特殊结构达到强调的目的。

【教学内容】

1. Ways to achieve sentence variety

2. Inversion & word-for-word translation

3. Introduction of a short paragraph

4. Follow-up exercises

Unit 10标点符号

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

理解常用标点符号的功能和用法；学写短文结尾。

【本章重点难点】

标点的用法；插入语的三种不同标点组合的区别。

【教学内容】

1.Functions of punctuation

2. How to end a sentence

3. How to join sentences of equal weight

4. How to punctuate within a sentence

5. The conclusion of a short composition

四、教学策略与方法建议

本课程采用课堂讲授和写作实践相结合的教学方式。课堂讲授使用多媒体教学，由教师讲解写作技巧引导学生发现使用规律，结合小组活动和个人训练等各种形式提高学生的写作学习热情。在课外布置适量的写作任务，及时操练和巩固所学的写作知识和写作技巧，加强对语言的实际运用能力。

五、教材与学习资源

本课程教材为邹申主编的《写作教程（第一册）》，上海：上海外语教育出版社，2005。

书写求职应聘信的技巧：

1、表现自我的个性及特质——建议使用积极正面的陈述方式。

2、文章不可冗长——控制在总共四段、每段五行以内。

3、前瞻性的气魄——具有勇于突破与开创气质的人是外商公司的最爱。因此并不需要对之前辞职的原委做太多的解释。

4、少用第一人称——为了避免流于自大与主观的缺点，尽量少用第一人称。

求职应聘信中的主要内容：

第一、说明你从何处得知这个工作机会

这是最基本的部份。一般来说会将媒体广告的名称改用别的字体书写或用底线加以标记。

第二、自己的学历、工作经历。

这是为了补充简历介绍的缺点，更具体的介绍自己的特点、能力。

第三、自己的工作能力能够胜任这份工作

这里要重点写，自己可以根据求才广告的内容，将自己的能力及特点体现出来。但不要太过吹嘘，这样到面试时一样会被否认掉。

第四、最后的感谢语

在最后的一段要写对公司或面试官的感谢语，体现你的真诚与修养。让面试官和招聘公司对你留下好的印象。

第一部分写明你要申请的职位和你是如何得知该职位的招聘信息的。

第二部分说明你如何满足公司的要求，陈述个人技能和个性特征。

第三部分表明你希望迅速得到回音，并标明与你联系的最佳方式。

第四部分感谢对方阅读并考虑你的应聘。每封求职信应以针对适合雇主而精心设计，以此表明你明白该公司的需要。

求职信还应包括与你所取得的成果及解决的问题的事例，这些事例与你所申请的工作类型相关。

求职信应是寄给有职位的某一特定的人，使用高档纸书写，仔细校对，避免打字或语法方面的错误，要自存副本档案。

说起智能手机，那可是家喻户晓。智能手机为我们的生活提供了便利，既然它做出了这么大的贡献，那我就为大家介绍一下手机的特点以及功能和保养方法。

华为智能手机使用方法如下：

1、提升通话音质

分享一个能瞬间提升通话音质的小技巧给大家，如果你平常不注意，应该忽略掉了这个好用的小功能。在EMUI  5.0的“通话>>更多>>设置”里，可以看到“虚拟高清通话”功能，默认是关闭的，这里我们把它开启，你再试试打电话，你会有所发现的! 华为智能手机使用方法

2、熄屏快呼

华为手机支持在熄屏状态下快速发起呼叫，呼叫结束后停留在锁屏界面，平衡用户快速呼叫的需求及用户隐身数据的保护的要求。这意味着，在熄屏情况下，按音量下键语音输入联系人，系统可以自动呼出电话。要是你有设置锁屏，呼叫结束后停留在锁屏界面，可以最大程度保证隐私。

3、 指关节启用应用或分屏

在华为手机上，指关节可以派上大用场，截屏或者启动应用完全可以靠指关节来解决。华为手机配有指关节双击截屏、指关节手势分屏和画字母启动应用的小功能。具体来说，如果你要截取一部分的图像，只需要用指关节在屏幕上圈出待截取部分，就可以获得图像;如果你想在熄屛时想要快速启动应用，就可以用指关节画出应用的代表字母;如果你想分屏就更简单了，指关节一划，立马一块屏幕当两块用。

4、指纹解锁不同空间

女朋友动不动就要检查手机，尤其在来姨妈的时候，哦，MY  GOD，此时她就是个战斗机女魔头，你无论怎么样都是错的。死活就要看你手机，不给她看就废了。给她看，发现和别的女的聊天，就更废了。EMUI5.0的这个功能很好用，设置不同的指纹来解锁不同的空间。再配合双应用的功能，小号用来和妹纸聊天，大号用来和男生聊天，怎么样，是不是很机智。(这是善意的谎言，只是为了不让来姨妈的女朋友爆发而已，不要真的去乱聊哦)

5、内存占用和耗电

是不是发现手机用了一段时间后运存越来越少，因为手机经过了一段时间的使用后，我们会安装很多软件，而且安卓的后台很多软件并不是真正意义上的休眠，它会时常因为我们的操作被唤醒。如果可以减少软件间的关联唤醒，我觉得可以减少一部分的资源被占用。

议论文是人们表达情感的一种方式，也是人们从事政治、经济、文化活动不可缺少的工具。下面是小编整理的有关议论文的写作方法以供大家学习。 有关议论文的写作方法(一)

一、议论文的结构合体

议论文,分析事实,论证道理,当然要遵循一定的思维规律;这种思维规律反映在文章的外部形态上,就是具有一定体式的文章的结构。怎样写议论文才算“合体”呢?

一是根据议论问题的一般思维模式,应当是按“提出问题、分析问题、解决问题”( 或曰“引论”、“本论”、“结论”) 三大块构成。“提出问题 ”即在议论文开头一般要鲜明地提出中心论点,“分析问题”即在文章的中间要围绕中心论点展开分析论证,“解决问题”即在文章的结尾部分或者得出综合性结论, 或者提出前瞻性希望等。这一点,众所周知,兹不赘述。

二是分析问题即本论部分,要按一定的向度分层展开论述。所谓“向度”即论述展开的方向。这个“向度”有四个: 是什么,为什么,怎么样,何果。一般情况下, 一篇中学生议论文作文,其本论部分只要从这四个向度中选择一个或者两个展开即可。但无论是从哪个向度展开, 其分论点之间都要形成一定的联系。一般来说,有并列式、递进式和对照式三种。

所谓并列式,就是围绕中心从同一个向度列出几个分论点,逐一论证。如果仅仅围绕一个向度写,那么几个分论点之间的关系大多是并列关系 。

递进式同并列式结构相比,除了论点之间的意义联系不同以外,其段落的结构模式与并列式相同,就不再说了。

所谓对照式,就是从论题的正反两个方面入手,进行正反对比论证得出结论。其优点是结构简洁,论证充分,容易上手。最简单的对照式是在提出观点后，一段从正面论证观点,一段从反面论证观点,最后得出结论。还有一种对照式结构是在正面进行论述或者摆出论据后,紧接着用转折或者假设的方式从反面展开论述。

二、思路入格

议论文是论述问题的,当然要有一定的思路,即议论文各部分之间要有必然的内在联系。我们知道,议论文是论证问题的,你在提出议论文论点后,就要摆事实,讲道理,让你提出的论点令人信服地确立起来。因此,中心论点和各分论点之间就应当是因果联系,即中心论点是“果”,分论点是“因”。这个因果联系就是议论文的思路之“格”。

作为一个高中生的议论文作文,最起码要做到在中心论点和各分论点之间 ,论点和论据之间要有一定的因果联系。

学生提出中心论点后,只要围绕中心论点问一个“为什么”,就能找到提出分论点的方向。如中心论点是“只有坚守,才能使人的思想品德升华,才能成就一番事业”。稍加分析,就可发现这个观点是在说“坚守”的重要性,于是,分论点就要回答“为什么坚守很重要”这个问题。那么就可从“为什么”和“何果”这两个向度来立分论点。如“坚守是一种执着,使绝望变成希望”,“坚守是一种信念,使普通变得高尚”,“坚守是一种职责,使平凡变得伟大”。如果我们要检验这三个分论点和中心论点之间有没有必然的内在联系的话,只需在这三个分论点之前加上“因为”,在“坚守很重要”之前加上“所以”,再连起来念一下即可。

同样,分论点和议论文的论据之间,也应当是因果联系。如在“坚守是一种职责,使平凡变得伟大”这个分论点后面,就可这样展开论述:“边防战士的坚守,使国家安定祥和;人民教师的坚守,使桃李满天下;白衣天使的坚守,使病魔为之屈服。”又如在“自由是思想的漫飞”这个分论点下可以这样展开论述:“行动可以受制于客观现实,思想却永远享受绝对的自由。有了这份思想的自由,才有了集豪放与浪漫于一身的诗仙李白;才有了身陷囹圄还在感叹‘故国不堪回首月明中’的落魄后主李煜;才有了向往‘面朝大海,春暖花开’的天才诗人海子。总之,因为这份思想的自由,社会才会在其牵引之下不断地进步,才会创造出一个个永载史册的人类奇迹。”

三、粘连有术

一篇像样的议论文,除了议论文的结构合体、思路入格外,还有更重要的一个方面,就是对论点的恰当阐述和对论据的中肯分析;没有这样的阐述和分析,议论文论点论据就不能粘连起来,而这个粘连是有“术”的。

(一) 观点+过渡+事例+分析

这个步骤中最重要的是“过渡”和“分析”。所谓“过渡”就是要在观点和事例之间,用适当的词句来勾连,以接通文气,使观点和议论文材料在语言形式上畅通无阻。所谓“分析”,就是事例叙述完之后,还必须对事例进行适当的分析评论,指出其本质特点,使事例和论点在内容上联结在一起。

(二) 观点+过渡+论据+分析+归纳

这种议论文论证方式就是在第一种的基础上加了一个“归纳”。所谓归纳,就是从多个事例中提炼出必然性的东西。既然要从多个事例中提炼,那么,“论据”部分,就应是两个或三个以上。

即“演绎推理法”。前面的分析归纳是从个别到一般,而演绎推理法是从一般到个别,用普遍性的真理(论据)来证明特殊的论点的方法。

如果完成了以上三步走,大概就能写出像样的议论文了。 有关议论文的写作方法(二)

议论文是人们表达情感的一种方式，也是人们从事政治、经济、文化活动不可缺少的工具。为了让学生有效地掌握议论文的写作方法：

一、拓宽思路

议论文写作因其理性思维的特点，决定了它的说理性和严肃性。在教学中，如果只按固定的程式讲解，容易给人以刻板、呆滞的感觉，学生学起来也会感觉枯燥乏味，情思阻塞。老师应引导学生进入真情实感的艺术境地，感受思辨的魅力，活跃他们的思维，激发他们的兴趣，让学生认识到，感情要抒发，如何抒发，在学生有了这种欲望和热情后，教师再将学生的思维引导到议论文教学中，就能收到事半功倍的效果。

二、学有目标

学习议论文写作，学生感到有两难：一是审题难，二是确立论点难。而这两难却又是议论文写作的关键环节。教师应重视审题和确立论点的教学，力求从理论上讲深讲透。但单纯从理论角度讲和作一般性的分析归纳，学生仍难以真正把握要领。为此，在教学中可依据不同的情况，寻找侧重点，从多个角度并采用多种方法对一个主旨进行分析、归纳以化难为易。

(一)认真阅读材料，准确把握旨意。审题是作文的关键，审题是否正确关系到写作的成败。就命题作文而言，学生基本上能够把握，难于把握的是自由命题作文的审题。自由命题作文是给一段材料或一个寓言、一段名言，要求学生根据内容自拟题目的一种作文方式。很多学生对这种作文方式，乍一看，似乎并不难，一旦动笔，一般对材料包含的意义又难以准确把握。教师可结合实例，针对情况，要求学生再反复阅读材料，多加训练。

(二)分析、思考、比较，选择论述的最佳角度。论点是作文的核心，是文章的灵魂和统帅，是选择论据、组织论证的中心线。一个内容丰富的论题，从不同角度往往可以衍生出几个相近或截然不同的论点，这也是一个不易把握的难点，需要教师多加指点。在教学中，让学生通过课堂讨论的方式对某个论题进行分析，可以从不同角度取舍得出多个论点。教师可引导学生经过对论点进行反复比较，从多个角度、多个层议论，使文章既具普遍性，又有深刻性。

三、重视形象思维

议论文是一种论辩和说理的艺术，主要运用抽象的方法，通过说理辨析来阐明客观事物的本质、规律和内在联系。从议论文写作训练情况来看，学生说理能力较差，往往形成事例的简单堆砌，缺乏严密完整的议论，不具说服力和感染力，这也是教学中应该注意突破的一个难点。因此，教师要善于引导学生巧用形象思维的方法，运用比喻、类比等论证技巧，使抽象的道理能通过具体的形象展示出来。从而收到深入浅出、说理透彻、令人信服的效果。

目录

一、写自荐书的目的是什么？

二、自荐书的内容及注意事项

三、优秀自荐书范文

四、个人简历的格式及内容

五、如何使自荐信更具针对性和吸引力呢？

六、一点警示……

一、写自荐书的目的是什么？

这个问题谁都明白，就是得到你追求的那个职位，这是最终的目标。

要达这个最终目标，第一步是尽可能地使招聘单位对你产生注意，发生兴趣，这样你才可能顺利的进入面试。

要引起招聘单位的注意，自荐书中要有闪光点，比如：你的书法不错，你就充分展示你的书法水平；你的文章写得好，你就在介绍自己时充分表现你的文章；你的学历高，你就突出写明你所学的知识；你的专业正好与招聘职业相符，你就应该充分显示一下自己本专业上较深的造诣；假如你有丰富的社会阅历，你可以通过简要罗列，引起单位的兴趣；假如你是俊男或靓女，也可选取自己最可心的照片贴上去，甚至身高和体重，学生期间是否当过干部，是否党团员等等都可以成为亮点，都是你的资本。恰到好处的利用这些资本，就是求职的决窍，会利用这些资本宣传自己，推销自己的人才称得上是一个有经验的求职者。

求职应该明白，你想去的单位，应聘者决不可能只你一人，在众多的应聘者中，你能否不被筛选掉，获得面试机会，主要看专业对不对路，水平高低，但在同等条件下，自荐书写得如何就成为能否进入面试阶段的关键。所以，谁要拿写自荐书当儿戏，那最后被戏弄的肯定是他自己。

二、自荐书的内容及注意事项

在西方，自荐书和简历是一样重要的。而在我国，虽然有的雇主不要求写自荐书，有的猎头顾问或是企业招聘人员也没时间仔细阅读自荐书，但自荐书的作用还是不容小看。从最近网上的一份网上调查：“人事经理，您对自荐书的关注程度如何？”34%参与调查的人事经理表示非常重视自荐书、54%的人事经理表示将自荐书作为重要参考、只有11%的人事经理是根本不看自荐书。

那么该如何撰写出一份能让你脱颖而出的自荐书呢？

1、标准的自荐书内容：

一份标准的自荐书内容包括：

写自荐书的理由：从何处得悉招聘信息、你的申请目的、加入企业的原因，你要申请什么职位；

做自我介绍，说明你为什么适合申请的职位，提出你能为未来雇主做些什么，而不是他们为你做什么；

简明突出你的相关实力，即为什么你比别人更适合这个位置；

强调你所受过的培训、你的经历、技能和成就；

结尾段落中提出你的进一步行动请求，这里你可以建议如何进一步联络，留下可以随时联系到你的电话或地址。当然如果能对阅读者表示感谢，效果会更好，以我们的经验，现在许多公司招聘任务是十分繁重的，招聘人员每天要阅读大量的简历，一句关切的问候会给人留下很深的印象。

2、写自荐书的注意事项：

自荐书要短，但一定要引人入胜，记住你只有几秒钟吸引你的读者继续看下去。在自荐书中要重点突出你的背景材料中与未来雇主最有关系的内容。通常招聘人员对与其企业有关的信息是最敏感的了，所以你要把你与企业和职位之间最重要的信息表达清楚。

言简义赅，切忌面面俱到。自荐书的功用只是为你争取一个参加面试的机会，你不要以为凭一封自荐书就可以找到一份你满意的工作，而且这种错误的心态会使你写的自荐书罗罗嗦嗦。招聘人员工作量很大，时间宝贵，自荐书过长会使其效度大大降低，1992哈佛人力资源研究所的一份测试报告的数据也证明了这一点，即一封自荐书如果内容超过400个单词，则其效度只有25％，即阅读者只会留下对1／4内容的印象。

不宜有文字上的错讹。一份好的自荐书不仅能体现你清晰的思路和良好的表达能力，还能考察出你的性格特征和职业化程度。所以一定要注意措辞和语言，写完之后要通读几篇，精雕细琢，切忌有错字、别字、病句及文理欠通顺的现象发生。否则，就可能使自荐书"黯然无光"或是带来更为负面的影响。

切忌过分吹嘘。从自荐书中看到的不只是一个人的经历，还有品格。

针对性和个性化让你的自荐书从数百封的信件中"脱颖而出"。不少人事经理反映，现在自荐书中最常见的问题是"千人一面"。的确，网络给求职提供了更多的方便，但面对着互联网上成千上万的职位，有的求职者采用了"天女散花"式发自荐书的方式，事实上它的命中率很低，结果不仅是"广种薄收"都达不到，而是多以"广种无收"告终。原因很简单，这种千篇一律、没有任何针对性的自荐书，招聘人员看的太多了。此时，针对性已成为自荐书奏效与否的"生命线"。另外，个性化也很重要。有的自荐书没有任何豪言壮语，也没有使用任何华丽的词汇，却使人读来觉得亲切、自然、实实在在。

下面小编给大家推荐几个半命题作文写作的指导方法，欢迎阅读。

半命题作文，是指命题者只提供一个不完整的作文命题，由考生将题目缺略的部分补充完整后再进行写作的一种作文形式。半命题作文和命题作文一起，曾在相当长的一段历史时期内，扮演着我国中考考场作文的主要角色。随着材料作文和话题作文的流行，半命题作文一度退居于考场作文的一隅。然而近年来，随着中考形势的发展，半命题作文开始反弹，至2005年中考，全国各地作文命题中半命题作文的比重加大至25%左右，在命题作文、半命题作文、材料作文和话题作文这四大常见的考试作文样式中，半命题作文的地位已经仅次于话题作文。因此，对半命题作文，每一位中考考生都应给予足够的关注和重视。

(一)半命题作文的特点

半命题作文兼具命题作文和话题作文的优点，其开放性和限制性介于命题作文和话题作文之间。与限制过死的命题作文相比，半命题作文更多地尊重了考生的情感体验和自主选择的权力，为考生提供了更为广阔的思维空间，也给考生提供了更大的写作自由。

与过于灵活的话题作文相比，半命题作文在题目中设制了一定的限制，规定了大致的写作范围，因而写作的思维更为集中、更为明确、更易于考生操作。同时，多数半命题作文在题目中就隐藏着较为丰富的写作信息，考生只要用心思考，就不难写作。如2005年宁波卷文题二“____是一把双刃剑”，一看“双刃剑”这个词，考生马上可以断定：“双刃剑”应该是所写文章的“文眼”，写作时需运用辨证思维，从正反两个方面来写(审题);文章适合写议论文，写记叙文亦可(定体);既要写正面事例，也要写反面事例(选材);文章最好提出如何化“双刃剑”为“绕指柔”的见解(立意)。有的半命题作文，还直接给出了文章体裁。如2000年浙江题“我和____的故事”，命题者在提示语中明确规定考生写记叙文。这些或隐或显的信息暗示或提示，大大减轻了考生在拟题、定体、选材、立意等方面的思维负担。

然而，考生在半命题作文中拥有的“自由”只是一种“不完全自由”，因而这种作文形式也存在着一定的弊端。考生在补题、定体、选材、构思和立意时，均要受到一定限制，处理不当，“限制”往往会变成“桎梏”。譬如考生在补题时，若不独运匠心，便极易发生或拟题雷同，题材撞车;或题目空泛，大而无当;或填词随意，文不对题;或词性错误，语法不通等现象。对此类高发的“写作事故”，每一位考生朋友都应引起注意。

(二)半命题作文的补题类型

半命题作文的补题，要而言之，有两种类型：或命题中不作提示，由考生自由拟题，如2005年济南卷文题一“拥抱____”;或命题中列出几个词语，提供考生参考，如2004年河南卷文题一“我找回了____(自尊、自信、友谊、母爱等)”;总的来说，主要包括如下六种类型：

(1)补前半部分。如“____之乐”(2005年舟山卷文题二)、“____，触动了我的心灵”(2004年南昌题)、“____让我陶醉”(2004年盐城题)、“____需要我”(2004年北京题)、“____(懂得、学会)感谢”(2004年随州卷文题一)。

(2)补后半部分。如“十六岁，我多了一份____”(2005年温州题)、“家庭的____”(2005年重庆非课改区卷文题一)、“想起了 ____”(2005年金华卷文题二)、“精彩____”(2005年无锡题)、“学会____”(2005年兰州卷文题二)、“分享____” (2005年烟台题)。

(3)补中间部分。如“我与____(小草、春天、智者、母亲等)的对话”(2004年河南卷文题一)、“生活因____(音乐、读书、挫折、爱等)更精彩”(2003年湛江卷文题一)、“当____的时候”(2003年临沂卷文题一)、“发生在____的纠纷”(2001年广州题)、“我与 ____交朋友”(2000年北京宣武区题)。

(4)补前后两部分。如“____夸我____”(2004年宁德题)。

(5)补前、中或中、后部分。如“我想让____(自己、家庭、江河等)更____(成熟、和睦、洁净等)”(2000年北京海淀区题)。

(6)补正、副标题。如“请以‘——读xxx有感’为副标题，自拟题目，就自己读过的课外名著(或文章)谈一点体会和感想”(2003年无锡题)。

(三)、半命题作文的补题方法

补题是半命题作文至关重要的一步，补题质量的优劣直接影响到半命题作文水平的高低。具体来说，半命题作文的补题，应遵循如下几条原则：

(1)扬长避短，熟悉为先。

每个考生所擅长写作的文体往往是不同的，惟有扬长避短，方能奏凯考场。近年来各地的考场作文，对文体一般都不作限制，考生要充分利用这一点，补题时根据自己的文体特长，选填相宜的词语，将半命题化为自己最拿手文体的全命题来运营文思。

考场作文是一种“速成”作文，很难有充裕的时间来选材、构思。因此，考生在补题时，所选择的词语，应与自己平时库存较为丰富的生活经历相契合;所确定的内容，须是自己较为熟悉、感受较为深刻的生活事件或情感体验。因为只有写自己熟悉的人和事，才能有话可说、有情可抒、有感可发。如2001年河南题 “我深深感受到了____”，题目要求中列出的可供选填的词语有“成功的喜悦”、“失败的痛苦”、“集体的温暖”、“家庭的温馨”、“友谊的可贵、“诚实的可敬”、“虚伪的可鄙”等(也可不受以上词语限制，自行选词填补)，很显然，任何一位考生对上述诸种情感体验不可能有着同样程度的感知、拥有同样深刻的感受，这时他们就必须“趋熟避生”。

(2)创新求异，独树一帜。

为半命题作文补题，最易题目雷同、题材“撞车”，为避免这一点，考生在补题时，要充分运作求异思维。选词所表现的内容，最好是别人不曾经历过、不曾想到过、不曾抒写过，甚或根本遇不到、想不起、写不出的。为此，应尽量选择自己亲身经历过或是发生在自己身边的生活事件，尽量避开那些人人皆知的素材。如果考题没有强制一定要从提示语中选词，最好跳出提示，另选新词补题。如2004年河南卷文题一“我与____(小草、春天、智者、母亲等)的对话”，多数考生从提示语中选择“春天”、“智者”、“母亲”等词，但有一位考生却自出机杼，将文题补为“我和崇高的对话”，抒写自己一次真实而独特的心路历程，呼唤崇高人格的回归，充满情趣、理趣。

文有鲜腐之分，题有新俗之别。而题目的新俗在某种程度上决定着内容的鲜腐。半命题作文补题应打破惯有的思维定势，全方位、多角度地运动思维。思维发散得越开，联想和想像越奇特，则与其他考生的区分度就越高，内容就越新颖鲜活，文章就越能独树一帜。

(3)力避空泛，小处切入。

补题虚空浮泛、大而无当，是半命题作文又一高发的“写作事故”。中考作文，字数要求一般在600左右。要在如此短的篇幅中，写深写透一个主题，诚非易事。因此补题时就应“就实避空”，因为题目越空泛，相应地写作范围就越广，选材、组材的难度也就越大。半命题作文命题中设置的思维空白，为考生展开自由联想提供了一个广阔空间，可补入空白处的词语很多很多，一些考生往往就拿捏不准，如2005年无锡市作文题“精彩____(一幕、瞬间、人生等)”，按说以提示语中的“一幕”、“瞬间”入题，也非常不错，然而却有考生为了“创新”，将文题补成“精彩世界”、“精彩世纪”之类，范围越扩越大，文题越变越虚，最后写出来的文章大而空、虚而浮，事与愿违。

因此，要写好半命题作文，最好“小口径切入”，题目不要补得过大。如2005年济南卷文题一“拥抱____”，很多考生如此补题——“拥抱地球”、 “拥抱美德”、“拥抱生命”，等等。不是说这样的题目不可以写，而是说因为它们涵盖范围过大，写起来较难把握，容易流于泛泛而谈。如果将“地球”缩小为 “绿地”、将“美德”缩小为“宽容”、将“生命”缩小为“青春”之类，经营起来，可能难度会变得小一些。有一种以具体事物入题的补题方法，可有效地缩小写作范围。如2000年昆明题“我好想_____”，很多考生就采用此法，拟出了“我好想栽一棵苹果树”、“我好想去草原”、“我好想拥有一间书房”等范围具体的题目，降低了写作的难度系数。

(4)搭配得当，合乎逻辑。

选词补题，应注意词语之间搭配得当，合乎逻辑。首先，要合乎生活逻辑。如写作半命题作文“我第一次_____”，若补填“哭”、“淘气”、“做梦” 之类，就不符合生活事理。因为这些事情大都发生在人的婴幼儿时期，是难以界定“第一”的;而如果换成“领奖”、“说谎”、“远行”等词，则因为其在考生脑海留下的深刻印象，情理皆通。

其次，补题要前后照应，合乎题旨。如2001年唐山题“____谢谢你”，揣摩题旨，横线上所填内容当与“你”照应，应补填称呼或姓名，如“老师，谢谢你”、“对手，谢谢你”等。然而却有考生没有看出题目中的这种对应关系，填成了“辛苦了，谢谢你”、“再一次，谢谢你”等，明显与题旨相悖。相反，2005年厦门题“那一次，我读懂了____”，考场上一篇满分作文补的词语是“坦然”，文章写自己在与历经坎坷却豪迈依旧的大文豪李白、苏轼的对话中，领悟到笑对挫折的人生真谛。作者显然非常准确地破译出了命题者隐含在文题空白处的命题意图，所补词语，既切中题旨，又与文题中的修饰语“那一次”和动词谓语“读懂了”形成了和谐的搭配关系。

(5)思想健康，拓深主题。

中考作文，对文章思想的健康性和主题的深刻性也有着相当的要求。考生在文章中，应该尽量展现当代青年积极进取、昂然向上的精神风貌，唱响时代的主旋律。这里所说的思想健康，并不是要考生喊口号、说大话、唱高调，而是说文章所表现的内容，必须体现文化和文明的正确走向，符合健康的价值观和审美观，反映建设“和谐社会”的时代潮流，力避消极、颓废、暴力和享乐主义思想。如2005年深圳题“_____的味道”，应该说这是一个蕴涵很深的半命题，完全可以补出夺人眼球的好题目。然而令人遗憾的是，竟有考生补填“打麻将”、“抽烟”、“自杀”等词语，显而易见，这样的题目，内容是消极的，思想是不健康的，与正确的主题背道而驰，犯了方向性错误。

半命题作文题目补填的词语不同，主题揭示的深刻度也会有所不同。考生要想从作文考场上披锦而归，还必须学会开动真情和想像的钻头，向思维深处钻探、挖掘。大凡文章的主题，都可分为浅、中、深三个不同的层次，开挖时切忌浅尝辄止。仍以深圳题“_____的味道”为例，此文补题若停留在“物”的层次或 “感官”的层次，补填“西瓜”、“咖啡”、“冰激凌”之类，就滋味写滋味，必然俗气浅薄;若紧扣“味道”的涵义，往深处开掘，进入“事”的层次或“体悟” 的层次，补填“得奖”、“挨批”、“失败”等词，虽仍然平淡无奇，毕竟深刻多了;若再掘一锄，进入“情”的层次或“想像”的层次，补填“母爱”、“阳光”、“飞翔”等内容，兴许就能别开洞天，胜人一筹。

文题补写好了，文章也就变成命题作文了，这时同学们就可以按照命题作文的要求，动笔写作了。

导语：冰冻三尺，非一日之寒，练习英语写作也是一样，三天打鱼两天晒网是不行的，必须得持之以恒的练习，才会有进步。下面是yuwenmi小编为还在备考的同学整理的优秀英语素材，欢迎阅读与借鉴，谢谢!

1. According to a recent survey, four million people die each year from diseases linked to smoking.

依照最近的一项调查，每年有4，000，000人死于与吸烟有关的疾病。

2. The latest surveys show that quite a few children have unpleasant associations with homework.

最近的调查显示相当多的孩子对家庭作业没什么好感。

3. No invention has received more praise and abuse than Internet.

没有一项发明像互联网一样同时受到如此多的赞扬和批评。

4. People seem to fail to take into account the fact that education does not end with graduation.

人们似乎忽视了教育不应该随着毕业而结束这一事实。

5. An increasing number of people are beginning to realize that education is not complete with graduation.

越来越多的人开始意识到教育不能随着毕业而结束。

6. When it comes to education, the majority of people believe that education is a lifetime study.

说到教育，大部分人认为其是一个终生的学习。

7. Many experts point out that physical exercise contributes directly to a persons physical fitness.

许多专家指出体育锻炼直接有助于身体健康。

8. Proper measures must be taken to limit the number of foreign tourists and the great efforts should be made to protect local environment and history from the harmful

effects of international tourism.

应该采取适当的措施限制外国旅游者的数量，努力保护当地环境和历史不受国际旅游业的不利影响。

9. An increasing number of experts believe that migrants will exert positive effects on construction of city. However, this opinion is now being questioned by more and more city residents, who complain that the migrants have brought many serious problems like crime and prostitution.

越来越多的专家相信移民对城市的建设起到积极作用。然而，越来越多的城市居民却怀疑这种说法，他们抱怨民工给城市带来了许多严重的问题，像犯罪和卖淫。

10. Many city residents complain that it is so few buses in their city that they have to spend much more time waiting for a bus, which is usually crowded with a large number of passengers.

许多市民抱怨城市的公交车太少，以至于他们要花很长时间等一辆公交车，而车上可能已满载乘客。

11. There is no denying the fact that air pollution is an extremely serious problem: the city authorities should take strong measures to deal with it.

无可否认，空气污染是一个极其严重的问题：城市当局应该采取有力措施来解决它。

12. An investigation shows that female workers tend to have a favorable attitude toward retirement.

一项调查显示妇女欢迎退休。

13. A proper part-time job does not occupy students too much time. In fact, it is unhealthy for them to spend all of time on their study. As an old saying goes: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

一份适当的业余工作并不会占用学生太多的时间，事实上，把全部的时间都用到学习上并不健康，正如那句老话：只工作，不玩耍，聪明的孩子会变傻。

14. Any government, which is blind to this point, may pay a heavy price.

任何政府忽视这一点都将付出巨大的代价。

15.Nowadays, many students always go into raptures at the mere mention of the coming life of high school or college they will begin. Unfortunately, for most young people, it is not pleasant experience on their first day on campus.

当前，一提到即将开始的学校生活，许多学生都会兴高采烈。然而，对多数年轻人来说，校园刚开始的日子并不是什么愉快的经历。

16. In view of the seriousness of this problem, effective measures should be taken before things get worse.

考虑到问题的严重性，在事态进一步恶化之前，必须采取有效的措施。

17. The majority of students believe that part-time job will provide them with more opportunities to develop their interpersonal skills, which may put them in a favorable position in the future job markets.

大部分学生相信业余工作会使他们有更多机会发展人际交往能力，而这对他们未来找工作是非常有好处的。

18. It is indisputable that there are millions of people who still have a miserable life and have to face the dangers of starvation and exposure.

无可争辩，现在有成千上万的人仍过着挨饿受冻的痛苦生活。

19. Although this view is wildly held, this is little evidence that education can be obtained at any age and at any place.

尽管这一观点被广泛接受，很少有证据表明教育能够在任何地点、任何年龄进行。

20. No one can deny the fact that a persons education is the most important aspect of his life.

没有人能否认：教育是人生最重要的一方面。

21. People equate success in life with the ability of operating computer.

人们把会使用计算机与人生成功相提并论。

22. In the last decades, advances in medical technology have made it possible for people to live longer than in the past.

在过去的几十年，先进的医疗技术已经使得人们比过去活的时间更长成为可能。

23. In fact, we have to admit the fact that the quality of life is as important as life itself.

事实上，我们必须承认生命的质量和生命本身一样重要。

24. We should spare no effort to beautify our environment.

我们应该不遗余力地美化我们的环境。

25. People believe that computer skills will enhance their job opportunities or promotion opportunities.

人们相信拥有计算机技术可以获得更多工作或提升的机会。

26. The information Ive collected over last few years leads me to believe that this knowledge may be less useful than most people think.

从这几年我搜集的信息来看，这些知识并没有人们想象的那么有用。

27. Now, it is generally accepted that no college or university can educate its students by the time they graduation.

现在，人们普遍认为没有一所大学能够在毕业时候教给学生所有的知识。

28. This is a matter of life and death--a matter no country can afford to ignore.

这是一个关系到生死的问题，任何国家都不能忽视。

29. For my part, I agree with the latter opinion for the following reasons:

我同意后者，有如下理由：

30. Before giving my opinion, I think it is important to look at the arguments on both sides.

在给出我的观点之前，我想看看双方的观点是重要的。

31. This view is now being questioned by more and more people.

这一观点正受到越来越多人的质疑。

32. Although many people claim that, along with the rapidly economic development, the number of people who use bicycle are decreasing and bicycle is bound to die out. The information Ive collected over the recent years leads me to believe that bicycle will continue to play extremely important roles in modern society.

尽管许多人认为随着经济的高速发展，用自行车的人数会减少，自行车可能会消亡， 然而，这几年我收集的一些信息让我相信自行车仍然会继续在现代社会发挥极其重要的作用。

33. Environmental experts point out that increasing pollution not only causes serious problems such as global warming but also could threaten to end human life on our planet.

环境学家指出：持续增加的污染不仅会导致像全球变暖这样严重的问题，而且还将威胁到人类在这个星球的生存。

34. In view of such serious situation, environmental tools of transportation like bicycle are more important than any time before.

考虑到这些严重的状况，我们比以往任何时候更需要像自行车这样的环保型交通工具。

35. Using bicycle contributes greatly to peoples physical fitness as well as easing traffic jams.

使用自行车有助于人们的身体健康，并极大地缓解了交通阻塞。

36. Despite many obvious advantages of bicycle, it is not without its problem.

尽管自行车有许多明显的优点，但是它也存在它的问题。

37. Bicycle cant be compared with other means of transportation like car and train for speed and comfort.

在速度和舒适度方面，自行车是无法和汽车、火车这样的交通工具相比的。

38. From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the conclusion that advantages of bicycle far outweigh its disadvantages and it will still play essential roles in modern society.

通过以上讨论，我们可以得出结论：自行车的优点远大于缺点，并且在现代社会它仍将发挥重要作用。

39. There is a general discussion these days over education in many colleges and institutes. One of the questions under debate is whether education is a lifetime study.

当前在高校和研究机构对教育存在着大量争论，其中一个问题就是教育是否是个终身学习的过程。

40. This issue has caused wide public concern.

这个问题已经引起了广泛关注。

41. It must be noted that learning must be done by a person himself.

必须指出学习只能靠自己。

42. A large number of people tend to live under the illusion that they had completed their education when they finished their schooling. Obviously, they seem to fail to take into account the basic fact that a persons education is a most important aspect of his life.

许多人存在这样的误解，认为离开学校就意味着结束了他们的教育。显然，他们忽视了教育是人生重要部分这一基本事实。

43. As for me, Im in favor of the opinion that education is not complete with graduation, for the following reasons:

就我而言，我同意教育不应该随着毕业而结束的观点，有以下原因：

44. It is commonly accepted that no college or university can educate its students by the time they graduate.

人们普遍认为高校是不可能在毕业的时候教会他们的学生所有知识的。

45. Even the best possible graduate needs to continue learning before she or he becomes an educated person.

即使最优秀的毕业生，要想成为一个博学的人也要不断地学习。

46. It is commonly thought that our society had dramatically changed by modern science and technology, and human had made extraordinary progress in knowledge and technology over the recent decades.

人们普遍认为我们的现代科技使我们的社会发生了巨大的变化，近几十年人类在科技方面取得了惊人的进步。

47. Now people in growing numbers are beginning to believe that learning new skills and knowledge contributes directly to enhancing their job opportunities or promotion opportunities.

现在越来越多的人开始相信学习新的技术和知识能直接帮助他们获得工作就会或提升的机会。

48. An investigation shows that many older people express a strong desire to continue studying in university or college.

一项调查显示许多老人都有到大学继续学习的愿望。

49. For the majority of people, reading or learning a new skill has become the focus of their lives and the source of their happiness and contentment after their retirement.

对大多数人来讲，退休以后，阅读或学习一项新技术已成为他们生活的中心和快乐的来源。

50. For people who want to adopt a healthy and meaningful life style, it is important to find time to learn certain new knowledge. Just as an old saying goes: it is never too late to learn.

对于那些想过上健康而有意义的生活的人们来说，找时间学习一些新知识是很重要的，正如那句老话：活到老，学到老。

51. There is a general debate on the campus today over the phenomenon of college or high school students doing a part-time job.

对于大学或高中生打工这一现象，校园里进行着广泛的争论。

52. By taking a major-related part-job, students can not only improve their academic studies, but gain much experience, experience they will never be able to get from the textbooks.

通过做一份和专业相关的工作，学生不仅能够提高他们的专业能力，而且能获得从课本上得不到的经验。

53. Although peoples lives have been dramatically changed over the last decades, it must be admitted that, shortage of funds is still the one of the biggest questions that students nowadays have to face because that tuition fees and prices of books are soaring by the day

近几十年，尽管人们的生活有了惊人的改变，但必须承认，由于学费和书费日益飞涨，资金短缺仍然是学生们面临的最大问题之一。

54. Consequently, the extra money obtained from part-time job will strongly support students to continue to their study life.

因此，业余工作挣来的钱将强有力地支持学生们继续他们的求学生活。

55. From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw a conclusion that part-time job can produce a far-reaching impact on students and they should be encouraged to take part-time job, which will benefit students and their family, even the society as a whole.

通过上面的讨论，我们不难得出结论：业余工作对学生们会产生深远的影响，我们应鼓励学生从事业余工作，这将有利于学生和他们的家庭，甚至整个社会。

56. These days, people in growing numbers are beginning to complain that work is more stressful and less leisurely than in past. Many experts point out that, along with the development of modern society, it is an inevitable result and there is no way to avoid it.

现在，越来越多的人们开始抱怨工作比以前更有压力。许多专家指出这是现代社会发展必然的结果，无法避免。

57. It is widely acknowledged that computer and other machines have become an indispensable part of our society, which make our life and work more comfortable and less

laborious.

人们普遍认为计算机和其他机器已经成为我们社会必不可少的一部分。 它们使我们的生活更舒适，减少了大量劳动。

58. At the same time, along with the benefits of such machines, employees must study knowledge involved in such machines so that they are able to control them.

同时，随着这些机器带给我们的好处，员工们也必须要学习与之相关的知识以便使用它们。

59. No one can deny the basic fact that it is impossible for average workers to master those high-technology skills easily.

没有人能否认这一基本事实：对于一般工人来讲，轻松掌握这些技术是不可能的。

60. In the second place, there seem to be too many people without job and not enough job position.

第二方面，失业的人似乎太多而又没有足够的工作岗位。

61. Millions of people have to spend more time and energy on studying new skills and technology so that they can keep a favorable position in job market.

成千上万的人们不得不花费更多的精力和时间学习新的技术和知识，使得他们在就业市场能保持优势。

62. According to a recent survey, a growing number of people express a strong desire to take another job or spend more time on their job in order to get more money to support their family.

根据最近的一项调查，越来越多的人表达了想从事另外的工作或加班以赚取更多的钱来补贴家用的强烈愿望。

63. From what has been discussed above, I am fully convinced that the leisure life-style is undergoing a decline with the progress of modern society, it is not necessary a bad thing.

通过以上讨论，我完全相信，随着现代社会的进步，幽闲的生活方式正在消失并不是件坏事。

64. The problem of international tourism has caused wide public concern over the recent years.

近些年，国际旅游的问题引起了广泛关注。

65. Many people believe that international tourism produce positive effects on economic growth and local government should be encouraged to promote international tourism.

许多人认为国际旅游对经济发展有积极作用，应鼓励地方政府发展国际旅游。

66. But what these people fail to see is that international tourism may bring about a disastrous impact on our environment and local history.

但是这些人忽视了国际旅游可能会给当地环境和历史造成的灾难性的影响。

67. As for me, Im firmly convinced that the number of foreign tourists should be limited, for the following reasons:

就我而言，我坚定地认为国外旅游者的数量应得到限制，理由如下：

68. In addition, in order to attract tourists, a lot of artificial facilities have been built, which have certain unfavorable effects on the environment.

另外，为了吸引旅游者，大量人工设施被修建，这对环境是不利的。

69. For lack of distinct culture, some places will not attract tourists any more. Consequently, the fast rise in number of foreign tourists may eventually lead to the decline of local tourism.

由于缺乏独特的文化，一些地方不再吸引旅游者。因此，国外旅游者数量的快速增加可能最终会导致当地旅游业的衰败。

70. There is a growing tendency for parents to ask their children to accept extra educational programs over the recent years.

近些年，父母要求他们的孩子接受额外的教育呈增长的势头。

71. This phenomenon has caused wide public concern in many places of world.

这一现象在全世界许多地方已引起了广泛关注。

72. Many parents believe that additional educational activities enjoy obvious advantage. By extra studies, they maintain, their children are able to obtain many kinds of practical skills and useful knowledge, which will put them in a beneficial position in the future job markets when they grow up.

许多家长相信额外的教育活动有许多优点，通过学习，他们的孩子可以获得很多实践技能和有用的知识，当他们长大后，这些对他们就业是大有好处的。

73. In the first place, extra studies bring about unhealthy impacts on physical growth of children. Educational experts point out that, it is equally important to take some sport activities instead of extra studies when children have spent the whole day in a boring classroom.

首先，额外的学习对孩子们的身体发育是不利的。教育专家指出，孩子们在枯燥的教室里呆了一整天后，从事一些体育活动，而不是额外的学习，是非常重要的。

74. Children are undergoing fast physical development; lack of physical exercise may produce disastrous influence on their later life.

孩子们正处于身体快速发育时期，缺乏体育锻炼可能会对他们未来的生活造成严重的影响。

75. In the second place, from psychological aspect, the majority of children seem to tend to have an unfavorable attitude toward additional educational activities.

第二，从心理上讲，大部分孩子似乎对额外的学习没有什么好感。

76. It is hard to imagine a student focusing their energy on textbook while other children are playing.

当别的孩子在玩耍的时候，很难想象一个学生能集中精力在课本上。

77. Moreover, children will have less time to play and communicate with their peers due to extra studies, consequently, it is difficult to develop and cultivate their character and interpersonal skills. They may become more solitary and even suffer from certain mental illness.

而且，由于要额外地学习，孩子们没有多少时间和同龄的孩子玩耍和交流，很难培养他们的个性和交际能力。他们可能变得孤僻甚至产生某些心理疾病。

78. From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the conclusion that, although extra studies indeed enjoy many obvious advantages, its disadvantages shouldnt be ignored and far outweigh its advantages. It is absurd to force children to take extra studies after school.

通过以上讨论，我们可以得出结论：尽管额外学习的确有很多优点，但它的缺点不可忽视，且远大于它的优点。因此，放学后强迫孩子额外学习是不明智的。

79. Any parents should place considerable emphasis on their children to keep the balance between play and study. As an old saying goes: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

任何家长都应非常重视保持孩子在学习与玩耍的平衡，正如那句老话：只工作，不玩耍，聪明的孩子会变傻。

80. There is a growing tendency for parent these days to stay at home to look after their children instead of returning to work earlier.

现在，父亲或母亲留在家里照顾他们的孩子而不愿过早返回工作岗位正成为增加的趋势。

81. Parents are firmly convinced that, to send their child to kindergartens or nursery schools will have an unfavorable influence on the growth of children.

父母们坚定地相信把孩子送到幼儿园对他们的成长不利。

82. However, this idea is now being questioned by more and more experts, who point out that it is unhealthy for children who always stay with their parents at home.

然而，这一想法正遭受越来越多的专家的质疑，他们指出，孩子总是呆在家里，和父母在一起，是不健康的。

83. Although parent would be able to devote much more time and energy to their children, it must be admitted that, parent has less experience and knowledge about how to educate and supervise children, when compared with professional teachers working in kindergartens or nursery schools.

尽管父母能在他们孩子身上投入更多时间和精力，但是必须承认，与工作在幼儿园的专职教师相比，他们在如何管理教育孩子方面缺乏知识和经验。

84. From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw a conclusion that, although the parents desire to look after children by themselves is understandable, its disadvantages far outweigh the advantages.

通过以上讨论，我们可以得出如下结论：尽管家长想亲自照看孩子的愿望是可以理解的，但是这样做的缺点远大于优点。

85. Parents should be encouraged to send their children to nursery schools, which will bring about profound impacts on children and families, and even the society as a whole.

应该鼓励父母将他们的孩子送到幼儿园，这将对孩子，家庭，甚至整个社会产生深远的影响。

86. Many leaders of government always go into raptures at the mere mention of artistic and cultural projects. They are forever talking about the nice parks, the smart sculptures in central city and the art galleries with various valuable rarities. Nothing, they maintain, is more essential than such projects in the economic growth.

只要一提起艺术和文化项目，一些政府领导就会兴奋不已，他们滔滔不绝地说着美丽的公园，城市中心漂亮的雕塑，还有满是稀世珍宝的艺术展览馆。他们认为在经济发展中，没有什么比这些艺术项目更重要了。

87. But is it really the case? The information Ive collected over last few years leads me to believe that artistic and cultural projects may be less useful than many governments think. In fact, basic infrastructure projects are playing extremely important role and should be given priority.

这是真的吗?这些年我收集的信息让我相信这些文化、艺术项目并没有许多政府想象的那么重要。事实上，基础设施建设非常重要，应该放在首位。

88. Those who are in favor of artistic and cultural projects advocate that cultural environment will attract more tourists, which will bring huge profits to local residents. Some people even equate the build of such projects with the improving of economic construction.

那些赞成建设文化艺术项目的人认为文化环境会吸引更多的游客，这将给当地居民带来巨大的利益。一些人甚至把建设文化艺术项目与发展经济建设等同起来。

89. Unfortunately, there is very few evidence that big companies are willing to invest a huge sums of money in a place without sufficient basic projects, such as supplies of electricity and water.

然而，很少有证据表明大公司愿意把巨额的资金投到一个连水电这些基础设施都不完善的地方去。

90. From what has been discussed above, it would be reasonable to believe that basic projects play far more important role than artistic and cultural projects in peoples life and economic growth.

通过以上讨论，我们有理由相信在人们的生活和经济发展方面，基础建设比艺术文化项目发挥更大的作用。

91. Those urban planners who are blind to this point will pay a heavy price, which they cannot afford it.

那些城市的规划者们如果忽视这一点，将会付出他们无法承受的代价。

92. There is a growing tendency these days for many people who live in rural areas to come into and work in city. This problem has caused wide public concern in most cities all over the world.

农民进城打工正成为增长的趋势，这一问题在世界上大部分城市已引起普遍关注。

93. An investigation shows that many emigrants think that working at city provide them with not only a higher salary but also the opportunity of learning new skills.

一项调查显示许多民工认为在城市打工不仅有较高的收入，而且能学到一些新技术。

94. It must be noted that improvement in agriculture seems to not be able to catch up with the increase in population of rural areas and there are millions of peasants who still live a miserable life and have to face the dangers of exposure and starvation.

必须指出，农业的发展似乎赶不上农村人口的增加，并且仍有成千上万的农民过着缺衣挨饿的贫寒生活。

95. Although rural emigrants contribute greatly to the economic growth of the cities, they may inevitably bring about many negative impacts.

尽管民工对城市的经济发展做出了巨大贡献，然而他们也不可避免的带来了一些负面影响。

96. Many sociologists point out that rural emigrants are putting pressure on population control and social order; that they are threatening to take already scarce city jobs; and that they have worsened traffic and public health problems.

许多社会学家指出民工正给人口控制和社会治安带来压力。他们正在威胁着本已萧条的工作市场，他们恶化了交通和公共卫生状况。

97. It is suggested that governments ought to make efforts to reduce the increasing gap between cities and countryside. They ought to set aside an appropriate fund for improvement of the standard of peasants lives. They ought to invite some experts in agriculture to share their experiences, information and knowledge with peasants, which will contribute directly to the economic growth of rural areas.

建议政府应该努力减少正在拉大的城乡差距。应该划拨适当的资金提高农民的生活水平;应该邀请农业专家向农民介绍他们的经验，知识和信息，这些将有助于发展农村经济。

98. In conclusion, we must take into account this problem rationally and place more emphases on peasants lives. Any government that is blind to this point will pay a heavy price.

总之，我们应理智考虑这一问题，重视农民的生活。任何政府忽视这一点都将付出巨大的代价。

99. Although many experts from universities and institutes consistently maintain that it is an inevitable part of an independent life, parents in growing numbers are starting to realize that people, including teachers and experts in education, should pay considerable attention to this problem.

尽管来自高校和研究院的许多专家坚持认为这是独立生活不可避免的一部分，然而越来越多的家长开始意识到包括教师和教育专家在内的人们应该认真对待这一问题。

100. As for me, it is essential to know, at first, what kind of problems young students possible would encounter on campus.

我认为，首先应看看学生们在校园可能遇到哪些问题。

121. on the one hand, it is indisputable that boarding schools are exerting a growing important effect, especially in last few years.

一方面，寄宿学校正在发挥越来越重要的作用，尤其是最近几年，这是无可争辩的。

122. students attend a boarding school would cultivate their independence as apart from their parents.

离开父母上寄宿学校的学生将会培养他们的独立性

123. whats more, living in school can save them a great deal of time on the way between home and school everyday, so they would be able to concentrate more time and energy on their academic work.

而且，生活在学校里能节省大量每天往返于学校和家的路上的时间，这会使他们有更多的时间和精力放在学习上。

124. on the other hand, the contribution of day schools cant be ignored.

另一方面，日制学校的贡献是不能忽视的。

125. due to high tuition fee, most of ordinary families cannot afford to send their children to boarding schools.

因为较高的学费，大部分普通家庭支付不起他们的孩子上寄宿学校的费用。

126. since it is unnecessary to consider students routinelife, day school can lay stress on teaching instead of other aspects, such as management of dormitory and cafeteria.

由于无需考虑学生的日常生活，日制学校可以将重点放在教学上而不是放在像宿舍和食堂管理这些方面。

127. furthermore, students living in their own home would have access to a comfortable life and have more opportunities to communicate with their parents, which have beneficial impact on development of their personal character.

而且，学生生活在自己家中，有舒适的生活，并有更多机会和父母交流，这对他们个性的培养是有利的。

128. from what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the conclusion that both of day schools and boarding schools are important to train young students for our society.

通过以上讨论，我们可以得出结论，寄宿学校和日制学校对我们社会培养年轻学生都是重要的。

129. there is much discussion over science and technology. one of the questions under debate is whether traditional technology and methods are bound to die out when a country begins to develop modern science and technology.

关于科学技术存在许多争论，其中一个问题是当国家发展现代科学技术时，传统的技术方法是否可能会消亡?

130. as for me, the declining of traditional technology and methods is not a bad thing; it is the natural result of progress of society.

我认为，传统技术方法的消亡不一定是坏事，这是社会进步的自然结果。

131. in the first place, some aspects of the traditional technology and methods are harmful and hampering the development of modern technology science.

首先，传统技术方法有些部分是有害的，并且会阻碍现代科技的发展。

132. although modern science and technology have proved that such methods are absurd, there are still millions of people use such methods in many remote places nowadays.

尽管现代科学技术已经证明了这些方法是愚昧的，然而在许多偏僻的地方，仍有成千上万的人们在使用这些方法。

133. in the second place, many values of traditional technology are out of date and should be replaced by modern science.

第二点，许多传统技术方法已经过时，应被现代科技所取代。

134. although many people tend to live under the illusion that traditional technology and methods are still playing extremely important role in peoples life, an increasingevidences show that it is less useful than many people think.

尽管许多人保持着传统观念，认为传统技术方法在人们生活中仍发挥着重要作用，但是越来越多的证据显示它并没有人们想象的有用。

135. from what has been discussed above, i firmly believe that time will prove that traditional technology and methods would die out with the development of modern science and technology. the maintenance of the traditionaltechnology and methods is futile.

通过以上讨论，我坚定地相信时间会证明传统技术方法将会随着现代技术的发展而消亡，坚持传统技术方法是徒劳的。

136. at the time when technology means ever more harmful carbon in the air we breathe, we need these forests now more than ever.

当技术的发展意味着我们会吸入更多有害气体时，我们比任何时候更需要森林。

137. nothing is more important than to receive education.

没有比接受教育更重要的事。

138. we cannot emphasize the importance of protecting our eyes too much.

我们再怎么强调保护眼睛的重要性也不为过。

139. there is no denying that the qualities of our living have gone from bad to worse.

无可否认，我们的生活品质已经每况愈下。

140. it is universally acknowledged that trees are

indispensable to us.

全世界都知道树木对我们是不可或缺的。

141. there is no doubt that our educational system leaves something to be desired.

毫无疑问，我们的教育制度令人不满意。

142. an advantage of using the solar energy is that it wont create any pollution.

使用太阳能的优点是它不会产生任何污染。

143. the reason why we have to grow trees is that they can supply fresh air for us.

我们必须种树的原因是它们能供应我们新鲜的空气。

144. so precious is time that we cant afford to waste it.

时间是如此珍贵，我们不能浪费它。

145. rich as our country is, the qualities of our living are by no means satisfactory.

虽然我们的国家很富有，但是我们的生活质量却令人很不满意。

146. the harder you work, the more progress you make.

你越努力，你越进步。

147. the more books we read, the more learned we become.

我们书读得越多，我们越有学问。

148. to average people, they often tend to live under the illusion that english often means a good opportunity for ones career, is this really the case?

对于一般人来说，他们常常以为掌握英语就意味着一份好的工作，然而这是真的吗?

149. by taking exercise, we can always stay healthy.

通过体育锻炼，我们能够始终保持健康。

150. listening to music enables us to feel relaxed.

听音乐能使我们放松。

151. on no account can we ignore the value of knowledge.

我们绝对不能忽视知识的价值。

152. it is time the authorities concerned took proper steps to solve the traffic problems.

该是有关当局采取适当的措施来解决交通问题的时候了。

153. those who violate traffic regulations should be punished.

违反交通规则的人应该受到处罚。

154. there is no one but longs to go to college.

人们都希望上大学。

155. since the examination is around the corner, i am compelled to give up doing sports.

既然考试迫在眉睫，我不得不放弃作运动。

156. it is conceivable that knowledge plays an important role in our life.

可想而知，知识在我们的一生中扮演一个重要的角色。

157. summer is sultry. thats the reason why i dont like it.

夏天很闷热，这就是我不喜欢它的原因。

158. the progress of the society is based on harmony.

社会的进步是以和谐为基础的。

159. we should bring home to people the value of working hard.

我们应该让人们知道努力的价值。

160. taking exercise is closely related to health.

作运动与健康息息相关。

161. we should get into the habit of keeping good hours.

我们应该养成早睡早起的习惯。

162. the condition of our traffic leaves much to be desired.

我们的交通状况令人不满意。

163. smoking has a great influence on our health.

抽烟对我们的健康有很大的影响。

164. reading does good to our mind.

读书对心灵有益。

165. overwork does harm to health.

工作过度对健康有害。

166. pollution poses a great threat to our existence.

污染对我们的生存造成巨大威胁。

167. 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。

168. weather a large family is a good thing or not is a very popular topic, which is often talked about not only by city residents but by farmers as well.

家庭人口多好还是家庭人口少好是一个非常通俗的主题，不仅是城里人，而且农民都经常讨论这个问题。

169. as is known to all, fake and inferior commodities harm the interests of consumers.

众所周知，假冒伪劣商品损害了消费者的利益。

170. today an increasing number of people have realized that law education is of great importance. in order to keep law and order, every one of us is supposed to get a law education.

现在，愈来愈多的人认识到法制教育的重要性。为了维护社会治安 ，我们每人都应该接受法制教育。

171. from what i have mentioned above, we can see clearly that violence on tv has great influence on youngsters behavior.

从上面我所提到的，我们可以清楚地看到，电视暴力对青少年的影响是极其深远的。

172. there are two reasons for the improvement in peoples living conditions. in the first place, we have been carrying out the reform and opening-up policy. secondly, there has been a rapid expansion of our national economy. furthermore, the birth rate has been put under control.

人民生活状况的改善原因有两点。首先，我们一直在贯彻执行改革开放政策。其次，国民经济正在迅速发展，而且出生率已经得到控制。

173. my suggestions to deal with the problem are as follows. to begin with, it is urgent to create nature reserves. secondly, certain rare wild animals that are going to be extinct should be collected, fed and reproduced artificially. finally, those who hunter them must be punished severely.

我对解决这个问题的建议如下：首先，迫在眉睫的是建立自然保护区。其次，有些濒临灭绝的珍稀野生动物应该收捕、人工喂养并繁殖。最后，对于捕猎珍稀野生动物的人必须严惩。

174. people differ in their attitudes towards failure. faced with it, some of them can stand up to it, draw useful lessons from it and try hard to fulfill what they are determined to do. others, however, lose heart and give in.

人们对失败持有不同的态度。面对失败，有人能够经得起考验，从失败中汲取教训，并努力去完成他们下定决心要做的事情。然而，另一些人却丧失信心并退却了。

175. it is desirable to build more hospitals, shopping centers, recreation centers, cinemas and other public facilities to meet the growing needs of people.

人们希望建立更多的医院、购物中心、娱乐中心、电影院和其他公用设施来满足人们日益增长的需求。

176. as a popular saying goes, "everything has two sides." now the public are benefiting more and more from scientific and technological inventions. on the other hand, the progress of science and technology is bringing us a lot of trouble. people in many countries are suffering from public hazards.

常言道：事情总是一分为二的。如今人们从科技发明中得到越来越多的好处。另一方面，科技进步也给我们带来了许多麻烦。现在许多国家 的人民饱受公害之苦。

177. lets take cars for example. they not only pollute the air in cities, but make them crowded. furthermore, they are responsible for a lot of traffic accidents. the noise made by cars disturbs the residents living on both sides of streets all day and night.

就拿汽车为例。汽车不仅污染城市空气，而且使城市拥挤不堪。此外，汽车造成许多交通事故。汽车所产生的噪音使居住在街道两旁的居民日夜不得安宁。

178. it is generally believed that the chief reason for the increase in population in developed countries is not so much the rise in birth rates as the decline in death rates as a result of the improvement in medical care.

普遍认为，在发达国家人口增长的主要原因与其说是出生率的上升，还不如说是由于医疗保健的改善使死亡率下降了。

179. there is no doubt that the increase in demand caused the rise in prices.

毫无疑问，需求的增长导致了价格的上涨。

180. additional social stresses may also occur because of the population explosion or problems arising from mass migration movements-themselves made relatively easy nowadays by modern means of transport.

由于人口的猛增或大量人口流动(现代交通工具使这种流动相对容易)引发的种种问题也会对社会造成新的压力。

☆定语和状语（时间、地点等）都属于附加成分，在基本句型中一般都不列出。

☆时态包含于句子中，任何句子都有时态。

1主语＋谓语(不及物动词)：S+V

It will rain tomorrow.

He often runs in the morning.

They cried.

Tom exercises every day.

2主语＋谓语(及物动词)＋宾语：S+V+O

I miss my mother very much.

She wants to go home now.

The English club is going to hold an English party.

They all love her.

3主语＋系动词＋表语：S+V+P

The music sounds wonderful.

The leaves have turned red.

She is a student.

We keep silent about that.

4主语＋谓语(及物动词)＋间接宾语（人）＋直接宾语（物）：S+V+IO+DO

The teacher gave a book to him.=The teacher gave him a book.

They told me an interesting story.

The waitress offered me a bottle of wine.

My father will buy me a bike.=My father will buy a bike for me.

Miss Smith teaches us English.

5主语＋谓语(及物动词)＋宾语＋宾语补足语：                                      S+V+O+C

They call me Xiao Wang.

I saw him swimming in the river.

We elected him monitor of the class.

一、调查报告的含义

调查报告又叫调查研究报告，应该说后者是它更准确的名称。因为它不仅是调查的产物，更是研究的产物。调查报告主要功能是搜集情况，并通过对调查所得情况的深入研究，提出一定的见解。因此调查报告是根据某一特定目的，运用辩证唯物论的观点，对某一事务或某一问题进行深入、细致、周密的调查研究和综合分析后，将这些调查和分析的结果系统地、如实地整理成书面文字的一种文体。像考察报告、调研报告及××调查等都是常见的调查报告体裁。

二、调查报告的特点

1、真实性。真实性是调查报告首要的、最大的特点。所谓真实性，就是尊重客观事实，靠事实说话。这一特点要求调研人员必须树立严谨的科学态度，认真求实的精神，彻底抛弃"假大空"的虚伪作风，不仅报喜，还要报忧，不仅要充分肯定工作成绩，还要准确反映工作中存在的问题。只有严谨的科学态度，才能写出真实可靠，对工作具有指导意义的调查报告。罗朝能罗朝能罗朝能

2、针对性。这是调查报告所具有的第二个显著特点，这是由具有很强的工作针对性所决定的。一般来说一项调查研究工作，特别是大型调查研究，要花费较大的时间、人力和物力，不是随意组织进行的，而是针对一些较为迫切的实际情况，解决某些实际问题而进行的。因此调查研究就具有很强的针对性，在调查报告的写作上，必须中心突出，明确提出所针对的问题，明确交待这一问题所获得的事实材料，分析出问题的症结所在，提出具体可行的建议和对策。罗朝能罗朝能

3、典型性。典型性是指在调查报告的写作过程中所采用的事实材料要具有代表性，以及所揭示的问题带有普遍性。这种典型特点在总结经验和反映典型事件的典型调查中表现的尤为突出。

4、系统性。调查报告的系统性或完整性是指由调查材料所得出的结论，必须是具有说服力，把被调查的情况完整地、系统地交待清楚。不能只摆出结论，而疏漏交待事实过程和必须的环节。因为这样的疏忽势必造成不严密、根据不足以及不足以令人信服的印象。这里所说的系统性和完整性，并不是要求在调查报告的写作过程中，事无巨细，面面俱到，而是抓住事物的本质和主要方面，写出结论的推理过程。

总的来说，调查报告就是论证系统，逻辑严密，摆事实，讲道理，具有强烈的说服力，从而使之成为科学决策的可靠资料。

三、调查报告的类型从内容性质分，调查报告有以下六种：

1、专题型调查报告。专题型调查报告，就是侧重某个问题进行较深入的调查后形成的报告，这类报告一般常常在标题上反映出来。它能及时揭露现实生活中的矛盾，反映群众的意见和要求，研究急需解决的具体的实际问题，并根据调查的结果提出处理意见，或者对策，或是建议。

2、综合型调查报告。它是以综合调查众多的对象及其基本情况为内容、作全面系统的调查和反映的报告。具有全面、系统、深入和篇幅较长的特点。它与专题调查报告的主要区别点就在于它的综合性上。它使读者可以从报告中看到事物的相对完整的“鸟瞰图。”罗朝能罗朝能。

3、理论研究型调查报告。这是以学术研究为目的而撰写的报告，它以收集、分类、整理资料并提出问题、报告结论为特点，大多发表在学术刊物上，或载于学术著作中。

4、实际建议型调查报告。这是由于实际工作需要而写的调查报告，其主要内容是为预测、决策、制定政策、处理问题等进行调查所获得的材料及有关的建议。

5、历史情况型调查报告。这是根据需要以历史情况为对象进行调查而形成的调查报告。它可以供人们了解某一事物或问题的历史资料和历史真相。

6、现实情况型调查报告。它是以正在发生、发展的一些现实生活为对象进行调查后所形成的调查报告。人们可以通过它了解和认识某些事物和问题的客观现实情况，以作为其它认识活动的依据或参考。

另外，有些调查报告可以是以上几种类型的结合形式。四、调查报告的写法不同类型的调查报告，具体内容有所不同。但基本写法是相通的。

调查报告的写作方法，一是熟悉调查报告的结构特点;二要把握调查报告的写作程序。

(一)调查报告的结构

一般来说，调查报告的内容大体有：标题、导语、概况介绍、资料统计、理性分析、总结和结论或对策、建议，以及所附的材料等。由此形成的调查报告结构，就包括标题、导语、正文、结尾和落款。

1、标题

调查报告的标题有单标题和双标题两类。所谓单标题，就是一个标题。其中又有公文式标题和文章式标题两种。公文标题为“事由+文种”构成，如《浙江省农村中学语文教学情况的调查报告》。文章式标题，如《××市的校办企业》;其二是标明作者通过调查所得到的观点的标题，如《调整教育政策，增加教育投入》。所谓双标题，就是两个标题，即一个正题、一个副题。如《为了造福子孙后代××县封山育林调查报告》。

2、导语

导语又称引言。它是调查报告的前言，简洁明了地介绍有关调查的情况，或提出全文的引子，为正文写作做好铺垫。常见的导语有： ①简介式导语。对调查的课题、对象、时间、地点、方式、经过等作简明的介绍; ②概括式导语。对调查报告的内容(包括课题、对象、调查内容、调查结果和分析的结论等)作概括的说明; ③交代式导语。即对课题产生的由来作简明的介绍和说明。

3、正文

正文是调查报告的主体。它对调查得来的事实和有关材料进行叙述，对所做出的分析、综合进行议论，对调查研究的结果和结论进行说明。正文的结构有不同的框架。 ①根据逻辑关系安排材料的框架有：纵式结构、横式结构、纵横式结构。这三种结构，以纵横式结构常为人们采用。 ②按照内容表达的层次组成的框架有：“情况成果问题建议”式结构，多用于反映基本情况的调查报告;“成果具体做法经验”式结构，多用于介绍经验的调查报告;“问题原因意见或建议”式结构，多用于揭露问题的调查报告;“事件过程事件性质结论处理意见”式结构，多用于揭示案件是非的调查报告。

4、结尾

结尾的内容大多是调查者对问题的看法和建议，这是分析问题和解决问题的必然结果。调查报告的结尾方式主要有补充式、深化式、建议式、激发式等。

5、落款

调查报告的落款要写明调查者单位名称和个人姓名，以及完稿时间。如果标题下面已注明调查者，则落款时可省略。

(二)调查报告的写作程序调查报告写作要经过以下五个程序：

1、确定主题

主题是调查报告的灵魂，对调查报告写作的成败具有决定性的意义。因此，确定主题要注意：

报告的主题应与调查主题一致;要根据调查和分析的结果，重新确定主题;主题宜小，且宜集中;与标题协调一致，避免文题不副。

2、取舍材料

对经过统计分析与理论分析所得到的系统的完整的"调查资料"，在组织调查报告时仍需精心选择，不可能也不必都写上报告，要注意取舍。如何选择材料呢? ①选取与主题有关的材料，去掉无关的，关系不大的，次要的，非本质的材料，使主题集中、鲜明、突出; ②注意材料点与面的结合，材料不仅要支持报告中某个观点，而且要相互支持，形成面上的“大气”; ③在现有有用的材料中，要比较、鉴别、精选材料，选择最好的材料来支持作者的意见，使每一材料以一当十。

3、布局和拟定提纲

这是调查报告构思中的一个关键环节。布局就是指调查报告的表现形式，它反映在提纲上就是文章的"骨架"。拟定提纲的过程实际上就是把调查材料进一步分类，构架的过程。构架的原则是："围绕主题，层层进逼，环环相扣"。提纲或骨架的特点是它的内在的逻辑性，要求必须纲目分明，层次分明。

调查报告的提纲有两种，一种是观点式提纲，即将调查者在调查研究中形成的观点按逻辑关系一一地列写出来。另一种是条目式提纲，即按层次意义表达上的章、节、目，逐一地一条条地写成提纲。也可以将这两种提纲结合起来制作提纲。

4、起草报告

这是调查报告写作的行文阶段。要根据已经确定的主题、选好的材料和写作提纲，有条不紊地行文。写作过程中，要从实际需要出发选用语言，灵活地划分段落。

在行文时要注意：①结构合理(标题、导语、正文、结尾、落款);②报告文字规范，具有审美性与可读性，如："制定优惠政策，引进急需人才"，"运用竞争机制，盘活现有人才"，(文章段落的条目观点);③通读易懂。注意对数字、图表、专业名词术语的使用，做到深入浅出，语言具有表现力，准确、鲜明、生动、朴实。

5、修改报告

报告起草好以后，要认真修改。主要是对报告的主题、材料、结构、语言文字和标点符号进行检查，加以增、删、改、调。在完成这些工作之后，才能定稿向上报送或发表。

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

写作是人类的一种特殊的，有目的的社会实践活动的记录，是为满足人类社会活动实践的需要学习社会知识的需要而产生的。以下是小编为大家整理有关考场写作的相关方法技巧，欢迎大家阅读!

考场作文的写作技巧方法

1、字数三四五

这个技巧说白了就是学习写短句。学了一段时间写作的孩子容易在作文中写长句，而长句写不好就变成病句。家长要提醒孩子注意控制每句话的字数，建议把十几个字几十个字的长句改成只有三四五个字的短句，孩子们会发现这样的作文有语感会舒服很多。

如某学生的原文：“高高的绿绿的草散发着诱人的清香。一根一根都看得那么清楚，很挺拔的样子。”经指导后改成：“草绿了，高了，散发着清香。一根一根，看得清清楚楚，很挺拔的样子。”是不是很有节奏感?

2、一秒钟的事写三百字

还是针对作文写不长的一种技巧训练：用三百字来描写1秒钟内发生的事。如关于破校运会跳高纪录瞬间的描写原本只有几十字：只见某某纵身一跳，一下子飞过横杆，新的校运会纪录诞生了!

怎么变成三百字?可以有条理地加上动作解剖：如何助跑、起跳、翻越、落地;加上联想：往届校运会有人挑战失败，平时如何一次次练习等等;还可以加上细节来充实，起跳前如何与同学们进行眼神交流，成功后同学如何向他祝贺……家长可以找一些1秒钟的素材让孩子进行写作练习，学会了这个技巧还怕考试写不出四五百字吗?

3、遇到“很”和“非常”想一想

对于文章写不长的孩子，可以训练的另一个技巧是：遇到“很”和“非常”想一想。看过无数学生习作，蒋老师发现出现频率最高的字眼包括“很，非常”，请家长提醒孩子，遇到要写这几个字时不要轻易下笔，停下来想一想，是不是非要出现这个字眼?

比如写热，别出现“很热”两个字，学会用其他的描写来体现热：骄阳似火，没有一丝风，树叶低垂毫无生气……文章自然就能写长。

4、环境里面有“真”“情”

到了五六年级孩子都要学习环境描写。如有的孩子会写：“早上天气还挺好的，放学回家时，却哗哗下起雨来。雨珠在下，泪珠在滴，老天也好像在为我哭泣。”

孩子能用环境衬托自己的心情首先要表扬。但是很多孩子只要一写环境，肯定就是小花微笑，小草点头、小鸟歌唱、小雨哭泣，成了套路，难道世界上只有小草、小鸟、小花吗?为什么不能写身边更真实的东西呢?云、雾、桌子，哪怕是电线杆都可以写，这个技巧是提醒孩子不仅要让人活在环境里，还要让人活在真实的环境里。

5、不用成语

作文为什么写不长?都是成语惹的祸!

不是说多用成语才显得有文采吗?其实不然，在“就是不用成语”写作技巧中，蒋老师指出：当作文中只会按照套路使用成语时，文章细节就没了，还不如让孩子老老实实把自己看到的感受都写出来。什么天高云淡、风和日丽、桃红柳绿、炯炯有神、心旷神怡……这些被用滥的成语还是少出现为妙。

比如，写春天别用“风和日丽”，而是这样写：“风儿拂过林梢，原本平静的湖面漾起了圈圈涟漪，湖边的柳树轻摇着身姿，我也忍不住张开双臂，任风抚过我的每一寸肌肤，暖暖的，痒痒的。”想办法用具体的句子替换掉别人用滥的成语，解决孩子作文写不长写不细的难题。

6、写说不单写“说”

让孩子比较以下三句话。

张三说：“……”;

张三无可奈何地说：“……”;

张三摊了摊手，一副无可奈何的样子：“……”

显然，让人物说话有多种方式，写语言可以不用出现“说”而是在语言前面加上动作和神态，通过一定的训练掌握这样的技巧让孩子的写作水平切实得到提升，让他们学会细节描写，不会仅干巴巴的地写“某某说”。

7、一段话里至少出现6个标点

很多孩子不会用标点，习作中常只有逗号句号逗号句号，甚至逗号都没有，把老师读到断气为止。针对这个现象，可以让孩子进行“一段话至少出现6种标点”的技巧训练。比如，。?!……：“”

这些标点你的作文中都有吗?没有的话请尝试用起来。经过几次训练后，你会发现孩子的惊人变化：意味深长的句子会写了、人物语言会加进去了，心理活动结合进去了，还会用反问句了，这些句子加进去后，文章当然生动起来。一位作家就曾用这种方法对自己作文写不好的孩子进行训练，收效明显，进步很快。

8、写外貌不用“有”

作文如何写外貌?孩子的作文里总会看到类似这样的名子：“XX可漂亮了，她有一头卷卷的黄头发，有一双乌黑的葡萄般的大眼睛，有一个高高的鼻子，还有一张樱桃小嘴。”

如果你试着让他们去掉文中的“有”，把文字重新串联一遍，会发现作文顺了很多。写上段文字的同学经蒋老师指导后修改如下：“XX可漂亮啦。一头卷卷的黄头发自然地披在肩上。她的眼睛太吸引人了，乌黑乌黑葡萄一般。高高的鼻子，和樱桃小嘴配合起来，有点混血的味道，同学们可喜欢她啦。”是不是读起来舒服多了?