初中英语写作常用句型【热门20篇】

Unlike Martin Luther King’s, my dreams are fair and plain, and there are

many of them. I have a dream from the first time I sit in a car—I want to

drive.

Driving is like running without foot, racing without strength. It’s the

most meaningful way to meet human being’s desire of “faster”. When driving, I

have to put all my spirit to. Operating a car at ease will cost years of

experience.

Driving will take me to my wanting destination, no matter it rains or snows

or winds. I never am afraid of shoes wet, umbrella broken or ears frozen. A car

is rather like a moving house, which protects me completely and helps me rush

directly to the aim hanging ahead. That suits my nature perfectly: love to take

risks conservatively. A smooth ride in a good car is an enjoyable satisfaction.

Seeing rows of trees moving backward rapidly, a feeling of stepping forward will

fill fully in my mind. With music hovering, breeze blowing, my soul flies in the

air.

I was always sick when took a ride of a car, especially when I was young.

Father told me that a driver would never have carsick. That may be one of the

important reasons for me to desire driving.

This summer I am going to learn driving and get my car license. The dream

with all my heart will follow the promise it had made.

In the past in the junior middle school time，I believe that everyone has a memorable teacher yourself。I also dont listed outside。 She is my teacher in charge——Miss He.Shes very beautiful and very kind to us. She has long hair and big eyes and she is 1.70 metres tall. In the second day, I had a bad illness。So take a week off to the teacher. After Miss He knows told I have a good for illness.A week later, back to school. Miss He find I talk to say I teach math, immediately to the mid-term exam, you have been away for a week of class. Your math foundation and thin. Meet dont understand in class and after class can come to me, also can turn to the math class representative for help, I have a greeting。In what the help of the teacher and theclassrepresentative, mid-term exam I had obvious increase in math. I never say thank you to the teacher, borrow the composition today say thank you. I wish the teacher everything goes well.

The story of a mans lifelong obsession with whales has won the ￡20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.

Leviathan, Or The Whale, traces British author Philip Hoares fascination with the marine mammal, which he calls "a living thing past our comprehension".

As he travels the world in pursuit of the creature, he compares his findings to Herman Melvilles Moby Dick. US journalist Jacob Weisberg, who led the panel, said Hoares passion for his subject was infectious. The authors prose "rises to the condition of literature", he added.

In explaining his fascination, Mr Hoare said: "This wonderful mysterious creature so elusive." "Theyre so under threat from climate change, from noise pollution," he went on.

的故事,一个人的终生痴迷鲸鱼赢得了￡20000年BBC塞缪尔·约翰逊非小说奖。

利维坦,或者是鲸鱼,英国作家菲利普·霍尔的痕迹对海洋哺乳动物,他称之为“生物经过我们的理解”。

他周游世界的生物,他将他的发现,赫尔曼·梅尔维尔的《白鲸记》。美国记者雅各布·韦斯伯格领导小组说,霍尔对他的主题是传染性的热情。作者的散文“上升到文学的条件”,他补充道。

在解释他的魅力,霍尔先生说:“这个奇妙的神秘生物那么难以捉摸。”“他们因此受到气候变化的威胁,从噪声污染,”他继续说道。

Thanksgiving Day is coming soon, it is on the fourth Thursday in December. Thanksgiving Day is very popular in western country, on that day, people will make a big turkey to eat. The day is to in honor of Indian people’s great kindness. A long time ago, some puritans took the boat May Flower to Americafor freedom, but they suffered from starvation and illness, the Indian people helped them, gave them food and treat them. The puritan planted something, they were eager to have good harvest, at last, they got it and felt very grateful to God and the Indian people, so they decided to make a day to remember this and show gratitude.

感恩节快到了，在十二月的第四个星期四。感恩节在西方国家很流行，在那一天，人们会做一个大火鸡吃。这一天是为了纪念印度人民的善良。很久以前，一些清教徒乘船可以花到美国的自由，但他们遭受饥饿和疾病，印第安人帮助了他们，给他们食物和对待他们。清教徒种植的东西，他们渴望有好的收获，最后，他们得到了它，觉得很感激上帝和印第安人，所以他们决定让一天记住和感恩。

[感恩节_初中英语作文

I like playing basketball .It’s very interesting . I often play it with my friends. It’s a team work.. Everyone needs to work together with others. (每个人都需要和别人合作). I can also make many new friends in the game. My favorite basketball player is Yao Ming. He is very tall and plays basketball very well. I want to play in NBA one day like him.

我喜欢打篮球。它非常有趣。我经常玩它与我的朋友们。这是一个团队的工作..每个人都需要与其他人一起工作。 （每个人都需要和别人合作）。我还可以在游戏中交到很多新朋友。我最喜欢的篮球运动员是姚明。他非常高，篮球打得非常好。我想在NBA玩上一天像他一样。

[关于我的爱好初中英语作文

材料作文，是根据所给材料和要求来完成写作的一种作文形式。与其他类型的作文题相比，材料作文在审题、构思、立意等方面均有一定难度，加强材料作文的审题、立意训练，对同学们应对中考作文，无疑是有帮助的。 根据材料呈现中心内容的深浅，我们将其分为明确、隐晦、多元三种类别。下面我们结合2008年部分地区中考材料作文题，对明确、隐晦、多元三类作文材料审题立意方法分别进行讲解。

1.因果推断法。材料作文，从呈现形式上看，一般由材料（故事、情景设置或图画等）和写作要求两个部分组成。有的材料作文题，材料的主旨和要求是很明确的。请看2008年浙江绍兴中考作文题： 仔细阅读下面文字，完成作文。 情景：小文远离父母在外地读中学，汶川特大地震发生后，他想把由父母替他储蓄的500元压岁钱捐给灾区。小文知道自己的家境并不富裕，但他觉得必须说服父母取出这笔钱，献出他的爱心。 尝试：请你以小文的身份，给父母写一封信，表达这种心愿。 这道作文题的材料是预设的生活场景：小文欲将父母替自己储蓄的500元压岁钱捐给灾区。文题要求以小文的身份写信给他的父母，说服家境并不富裕的父母将此钱捐出。虽然上面这道作文题题意和要求很明确，但是如何准确立意，还是值得思考的。在这里，我们可采用“因果推断法”，即由材料的结果找出原因，最终得出材料的中心。写信的结果是要说服父母将钱捐出，用什么理由（原因）说服父母，让他们心动呢？这很关键。因为涉及到文章的立意问题。有同学从灾难的严重，到灾民的无助；从抗震的艰辛，到救灾的感人等；结合自己家境的实际情况，从现状分析入手，陈述自己作出此举的理由，其立意显然胜人一筹。

2.提炼话题法。材料作文的材料，有的主旨是很鲜明的，有的则比较隐晦，这类隐晦的材料作文审题立意比较费力。下面我们来看2008年安徽芜湖中考作文题： 阅读下面的诗句，按照要求作文。 我不去想是否能够成功/既然选择了远方/便只顾风雨兼程/我不去想未来是平坦还是泥泞/只要热爱生命/一切，都在意料之中 要求：请你结合诗句的内容，选取自己感受最深的一点，自拟题目，写一篇不少于500字的文章。你可以抒发感情，可以发表看法，也可以讲述故事；文中不要出现真实的地名、校名、人名。 这个题目中的材料选自现代著名诗人汪国真的《热爱生命》，给同学们以美的享受，但诗的主旨比较隐晦，为审题设置了一定的障碍。写作的前提是你要读懂材料，然后根据要求，选择其中感受最深的一点立意构思。通过阅读，我们可概括出这首诗的内涵：人生要有目标，虽然路上注定有坎坷和荆棘，但只要坚持，只要努力奋斗，风雨过后必能见到彩虹。对此，我们可提炼出“目标”“理想”“坚持”等话题，写自己在学习、生活中遭遇困难以及自己如何定下目标，坚定不移地走下去，最终取得成功的故事；也可结合生活中典型人物的事例，发表“不经风雨，怎见彩虹”的感想；等等。

3.择一而作法。有的材料作文的材料内涵很丰富，其作文立意可以是多元的，我们可从中多角度提炼观点。请看2008年湖北黄冈中考作文题之一的作文材料： 薛谭跟秦青学唱歌，还没有把秦青的技艺学完，就自以为都学到手了，便向老师告辞回家。秦青也没有阻拦他，在城外的大道旁给他饯行。这时候秦青抚摩着拍板，慷慨激昂地高唱起来，声音振动了林间的树木，反激出的回声挡住了天上的行云。 薛谭便急忙向老师道歉，要求回去继续学习，从此以后，他一辈子再也不敢说回家的话。 材料是在讲述“薛谭学讴”的故事，其内涵丰富，角度多元。我们在阅读的过程中，要对材料认真分析，找准材料揭示寓义的角度，审出材料的写作指向，从而确定写作主题。我们可采用“择一而作”法，从材料的不同角度切入，选择最适合自己的一个角度来构思立意。如可从薛谭的角度构思，提炼出“持之以恒”“知错能改”等主题；可从秦青的角度构思，提炼出“言传不如身教”“因材施教”等主题。 总之，写材料作文，应注意以下几个方面：首先要读懂材料。因为材料作文的“材料”是命题的载体，读懂材料，才能为写作打好基础。其次，要明确要求。材料作文的写作要求是写作的限制性条件，这些要求包括文体要求、篇幅要求、拟题要求等。只有明确了这些要求，写作时才不会开“无轨电车”。第三，要写出新意，也就是要在“新”字上入手，可在角度的选择、文章的立意、表现方法的运用、篇章的布局上下工夫。

Every year, the thing I expect the most is the Spring Festival. My parents

work far from home and they come back one or two times a year. The Spring

Festival is the time they come home. Every time they come back, they bring mangy

things to me. When I was little, they bought me toys, new clothes and shoes.

Now, they often buy me books. They say more reading is good for me. They hope I

can learn more. The time spend with them is always happy but short. They only

have half a month at home. I hope they can stay at home longer.

the mid-autumn or moon festival is one rich in poetic(诗意的) significance. ancient legends(古代的传说) that became interwoven with this festival‘s celebration further contribute to the warm regard in which it has always been held by the chinese people. according to the lunar calendar(农历)， the seventh， eighth， and ninth months constitute the autumn season. mid-autumn festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month， precisely in the middle of this season， when the heat of the summer has given way to cool autumn weather， marked by blue skies and gentle breezes. on this day the moon is at its greatest distance from the earth; at no other time is it so luminous. then， as the chinese say， “the moon is perfectly round.” in the villages the heavy work involved in the summer harvest has already been completed but the autumn harvest has not yet arrived.

the actual origins of the mid-autumn festival are still very unclear. the earliest records are from the time of the great han dynasty emperor wu di (156-87 b.c.)， who initiated celebrations lasting three days， including banquets and “viewing the moon” evenings on the toad terrace. we know that people during the jin dynasty (265-420 a.d.) continued the custom of mid-autumn festival celebrations， and similar accounts have come down to us from the time of the tang dynasty. during the ming dynasty (1368-1644) houses and gardens were decorated with numerous lanterns and the sound of gongs and drums filled the air.(qiewo.com)

moon cakes came on sale shortly before festival time. in the past， one could get some cakes shaped like pagodas， others like a horse and rider， fish or animals. still others were decorated with the images of rabbits， flowers， or goddesses. there were a myriad of different fillings available： sugar， melon seeds， almonds， orange peel， sweetened cassia blossom， or bits of ham and preserved beef. the cakes are of the northern and southern styles， but the latter (also called guangdong-style) are the most popular and are available throughout the country.

the round shape of cakes just symbolizes not only the moon but also the unity of the family. therefore the mid-autumn festival is actually a day for family reunion.

[初中生中秋节英语作文

We are always educated to be kind and helpful, so when we see others in

trouble, we should give them a hand. But nowadays, some the bad guys make use of

people’s kindness to do criminal things. Recently, an article about a father

called on people to help her sick daughter was widespread in Wechat. Most people

had transported to let more people know. But later the media exposed the fact

that the father was rich and he wrote this article just to catch more fans.

Until then people were angry as they were cheated. The public condemns the

cheating behavior. The warm hearts should not be used of. It needs to be

cautious when people see the information about asking for help.

Yesterday ,I went to a zoo with my parents .

When we got to the zoo, we climbed up a little hill first. We can see many kangaroos on the hill, I played with some kangaroos. Then, we went to a pond. I fished in the pond, and got a big fish and 2 small fishes. I was very happy at that time. After fishing, we walked on grass. There are many parrots on the grass. And we were surprised that one of them can speak English. I spoke to it, and it said ‘hello’ to me. That made a lot of fun for me.

In the afternoon, we went to see monkeys, pandas, snakes and big sharks. And I took many photos from them. I also rode a horse and painted a mask for fun.

When we back home, it almost got drak. But I’m very happy, because I had a good time at the zoo that day

Directions：For this part you are allowed thirty minutes to write a composition on the topic Which Mode of Travel Do You like？ You should write noless than 150 words and base your composition on the outline （given in Chinese） below：

1. 有的人喜欢参加旅行社旅游（package tours）

2. 有的人喜欢自己独立行动（travelling on one’s own）

3. 比较这两种旅游方式，我喜欢的是……

范文：

With the general standard of living improvingand the working week becoming shorter，more andmore people are able to make a holiday trip toplaces of interest. While many like to joinpackage tours fro convenience，I prefer to traveln my own.

I like travelling on may own not only because it costs much less but because it gives a great degree of independence and freedom. Travelling on my own，I’m my own boss；and can decide when to start on my way，where to linger a little longer and which spot can be skipped over to save energy or time for another spot. I can always adjust my plan. On the contrary，in a package tour you’re deprived of as much freedom as in a military base. At the sound of the whistle，you have to jump up from a sound sleep and，with heavy-lidded eyes，hurry to the gathering place where you are collected and counted to board a coach. At the sight of the little flag waving，you must immediately take yourself away from the scenes you are marveling at and follow the guide whose sole interest is to cover all spots according to him strict schedule，regardless of the weather or your health condition.

True，you may encounter inconveniences if you travel individually，for instance，getting accommodations for the night and finding a place for meals. But nothing can be compared with the freedom which is vital to a person who takes a holiday trip mainly to escape from constraints of his routine life.

[初中英语作文说说你喜欢哪种方式的旅行

I am already 18 years old,but the memory of my childhood is still like an unforgettable sweet dream.

One day,all my family went to climb a mountain.There father told my elder sister and me that the first one to get to the top of the mountain would be given a toy.Hearing this,we began to run up.At first I kept ahead,but a few minutes later my sister was ahead of me.However,I didnt give up.That toy attracted me to run forward,In the end I reached the top first.

On the top we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and had a picnic.At dusk,we went down the mountain happily.I was the happiest one,because I not only got a toy train but also knew that one shouldnt give up readily.

常用的写作方法有：比喻、拟人、夸张、排比、对偶、反复、设问、反问。除此之外，课文里还涉及到的有对比、借代、引用、双关、反语、顶针和呼告等。

写作手法，是人们在写作过程中运用语言文字表现文章内容的基本形式。如开头的方法、过渡的方法、结尾的方法。写作方法还因问题不同有所不同：记叙的方法、说明的方法、议论的方法、描写的方法、抒情的方法等。写作手法属于艺术表现手法(即：艺术手法和表现手法，也含表达手法(技巧))，常见的有：夸张，对比，比喻，拟人，悬念，照应，联想，想象，抑扬结合、点面结合、动静结合、叙议结合、情景交融、衬托对比、伏笔照应、托物言志、白描细描、铺垫悬念、正面侧面比喻象征、借古讽今、卒章显志、承上启下、开门见山，烘托、渲染、动静相衬、虚实相生，实写与虚写，托物寓意、咏物抒情等。

1、比喻：根据事物的相似点，用具体的、浅显、熟知的事物来说明抽象的、深奥的、生疏的事物，即打比方。作用：能将表达的内容说得生动具体形象，给人以鲜明深刻的印象，用浅显常见的事物对深奥生疏事物解说、帮助人深入理解。比喻的三种类型：明喻、暗喻和借喻。

2、拟人：把物当作人来写，赋予物以人的言行或思想感情，用描写人的词来描写物。作用：使具体事物人格化，语言生动形象。

3、夸张：对事物的性质、特征等故意地夸张或缩小。作用：揭示事物本质，烘托气氛，加强渲染力，引起联想效果。

4、排比：把结构相同或相似、语气一致、意思相关联的三个以上的句子或成分排列在一起。作用：增强语言气势，加强表达效果。

5、对偶：字数相等，结构形式相同，意义对称的一对短语或句子，表达两个相对或相近的意思。作用：整齐匀称，节奏感强，高度概括、易于记忆，有音乐美感。如：墙上芦苇，头重脚轻根底浅;山间竹笋，嘴尖皮厚腹中空。

6、反复：为了强调某个意思，某种感情，有意重复某个词语或句子。反复的种类：连续反复和间隔反复。连续反复中间无其他词语间隔。间隔反复中间有其他的词语。

7、设问：为了引起别人的注意，故意先提出问题，然后自己回答。作用：

提醒人们思考，有的为了突出某些内容。

8、反问：无疑无问，用疑问形式表达确定的意思，用肯定形式反问表否

定,用否定形式反问表肯定。

9、引用：引用现成的话来提高语言表达效果，分直接引用和间接引用两种。

10、借代：用相关的事物代替所要表达的事物。借代种类：特征代事物、具体代抽象、部分代替整体。

11、反语：用与本意相反的词语或句子表达本意，以按说反话的方式加强

表达效果。有的讽刺揭露，有的表示亲密友好的感情。

这些修辞中，考查的最多的是比喻。不要把有“像”、“好像”的句子都看成比喻句。多数情况下，‘像“、“好象”、“仿佛”表示比喻，但是要注意以下几种情况不是比喻：

(1)表示比较的。如：他长得很像他哥哥。

(2)表示推测、揣度的。如：他刚才好像出去了。

(3)表示例举。如：本次考试很多同学的进步很大，像张昊、李疏桐等等。

(4)表示想象。如：闭了眼，树上仿佛已经满是桃儿、杏儿、梨儿。

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

Today, I saw a very delIcIous strawberry In Taobao network. My fIrst tIme wIth my own favourIte people to share. He lIkes It very much, but he has not eaten thIs kInd of strawberry. The flavor of the strawberry Is mIlk. He felt very strange. So he wanted to try the strawberry. And the prIce Is not expensIve, there are 5 yuan of red packet. I thInk It Is worth It. So , I am goIng to buy hIm a box of strawberrIes . A total of 5 pounds of strawberrIes . I thInk he must be very happy when he receIved It ! WIll feel very happy , very pleasant surprIse ! I thInk , to spend a lIttle money to gIve theIr favorIte people a surprIse, thIs Is a very good thIng. However, strawberrIes must be fInIshed as soon as possIble. 5 pounds of strawberrIes a total of about 100 , to see the sIze of strawberry and Its weIght. Strawberry Is a perIshable food, so It must be put In the refrIgerator. But In the refrIgerator can not be stored for a long tIme.

译文：今天，我在淘宝网看到很美味的草莓。我第一时间跟我自己最爱的人分享了。他很喜欢。可是他没有吃过这种草莓。这种草莓的味道是牛奶味的。他觉得这很奇怪。所以他想尝尝这种草莓。而且价格也不昂贵，还有5元的红包。我觉得很值得。所以，我打算给他买一箱的草莓。一共是5斤的草莓。我想他收到的时候一定会很开心吧。一定会感觉到很幸福，很惊喜吧！我觉得，花费一点点的钱就可以给自己最爱的人一个惊喜，这是很美好的事情。不过，草莓一定要尽快的吃完。5斤的草莓一共是100个左右，要看草莓的大小和它的重量。草莓是易腐蚀的食品，所以要放进冰箱里。但是在冰箱里的草莓也不能保存很长一段时间。

[初中英语作文之草莓

英语写作中有不少短语和表达大家会经常用到，下面我们就总结了100条常用的短语和表达句子，希望能给大家一些参考。

1. 经济的快速发展 the rapiddevelopment of economy

2.人民生活水平的显著提高/稳步增长theremarkableimprovement/ steady growth ofpeople’s livingstandard

3.先进的科学技术advanced science and technology

4.面临新的机遇和挑战 be faced with new opportunities and challenges

5.人们普遍认为 It is commonly believed/ recognized that…

6.社会发展的必然结果 the inevitable result of social development

7.引起了广泛的公众关注 arouse wide public concern/ draw publicattention

8.不可否认 Itis undeniable that…/ There is no denying that…

9.热烈的讨论/争论 a heated discussion/ debate

10.有争议性的问题 a controversialissue

11.完全不同的观点 a totally different argument

12.一些人 …而另外一些人 … Some people… while others…

13. 就我而言/ 就个人而言 As far as I am concerned, / Personally,

14.就…达到绝对的一致 reach an absolute consensus on…

15.有充分的理由支持 be supported by sound reasons

16.双方的论点 argument on both sides

17.发挥着日益重要的作用 play an increasingly important role in…

18.对…必不可少 be indispensableto …

19.正如谚语所说 As the proverb goes:

20.…也不例外 …be no exception

21.对…产生有利/不利的影响 exert positive/ negative effects on…

22.利远远大于弊 the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages。

23.导致，引起 lead to/ give rise to/ contribute to/ result in

24.复杂的社会现象 a complicated social phenomenon

25.责任感 / 成就感 sense of responsibility/ sense of achievement

26. 竞争与合作精神 sense of competition and cooperation

27. 开阔眼界 widen one’s horizon/ broaden one’s vision

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

29.经济/心理负担 financial burden / psychologicalburden

30.考虑到诸多因素 take many factors into account/ consideration

31. 从另一个角度 from another perspective

32.做出共同努力 make joint efforts

33. 对…有益 be beneficial / conducive to…

34.为社会做贡献 make contributions to the society

35.打下坚实的基础 lay a solid foundation for…

36.综合素质 comprehensivequality

37.无可非议 blameless / beyond reproach

38.加大了…的可能性 increase the chances of

39.致力于/ 投身于 be committed / devoted to…

40. 应当承认 Admittedly

41.不可推卸的义务 unshakable duty

42. 满足需求 satisfy/ meet the needs of…

43.可靠的信息源 a reliablesource of information

44.宝贵的自然资源 valuable natural resources

45.因特网 the Internet (一定要由冠词，字母I

46.方便快捷 convenient andefficient

47.在人类生活的方方面面 in all aspects of human life

48.环保(的) environmental protection /environmentallyfriendly

49.社会进步的体现 a symbol of society progress

50.科技的飞速更新 the ever-accelerated updating of scienceandtechnology

51.对这一问题持有不同态度 hold different attitudes towards this issue

52.支持前/后种观点的人 people / those in favor of theformer/latteropinion

53.有/ 提供如下理由/ 证据 have/ provide the followingreasons/evidence

54.在一定程度上 to some extent/ degree / in some way

55. 理论和实践相结合 integratetheory with practice

56. …必然趋势 an irresistible trend of…

57.日益激烈的社会竞争 the increasingly fierce social competition

58.眼前利益 immediate interest/ short-term interest

59.长远利益. interest in the long run

60.…有其自身的优缺点 … has its merits and demerits/ advantagesanddisadvantages

61.扬长避短 Exploit to the full one’s favorableconditions andavoidunfavorable ones

62.取其精髓，去其糟粕 Take the essence and discard the dregs。

63.对…有害 do harm to / be harmful to/ be detrimental to

64.交流思想/ 情感/ 信息 exchange ideas/ emotions/ information

65.跟上…的最新发展 keep pace with / catch up with/ keep abreastwiththe latest development of …

66.采取有效措施来… take effective measures to do sth。

67.…的健康发展 the healthy development of …

68.有利有弊 Every coin has its two sides。(不推荐用。。。) No gardenwithout weeds。

69.对…观点因人而异 Views on …vary from person to person。

70.重视 attach great importance to…

71.社会地位 social status

72.把时间和精力放在…上 focus time and energy on…

73.扩大知识面 expand one’s scopeof knowledge

74.身心两方面 both physically and mentally

75.有直接/间接关系 be directly / indirectly related to…

76. 提出折中提议 set forth a compromise proposal

77. 可以取代 “think”的词 believe, claim, hold the opinion/beliefthat

78.缓解压力/ 减轻负担 relievestress/ burden

79.优先考虑/发展… give (top) priority to sth。

80.与…比较 compared with…/ in comparison with

81. 相反 in contrast / on the contrary。

82.代替 replace/ substitute / take the place of 大写)

83.经不起推敲 cannot bear closer analysis / cannot hold water

84.提供就业机会 offer job opportunities

85. 社会进步的反映 mirror of social progress

86.毫无疑问 Undoubtedly, / There is no doubt that…

87.增进相互了解 enhance/ promote mutualunderstanding

88.充分利用 make full use of / take advantage of

89.承受更大的工作压力 suffer from heavier work pressure

90.保障社会的稳定和繁荣 guarantee the stability and prosperity ofoursociety

91.更多地强调 put more emphasis on…

92.适应社会发展 adapt oneself to the development of society

93.实现梦想 realize one’s dream/ make one’s dream come true

94. 主要理由列举如下 The main reasons are listed as follows:

95. 首先 First， Firstly， In the first place, To begin with

96.其次 Second, Secondly, In the second place

97. 再次 Besides，In addition, Additionally,Moreover,Furthermore

98. 最后 Finally, Last but not the least, Above all, Lastly,

99. 总而言之 All in all, To sum up, In summary, In a word,

100.我们还有很长的路要走 We still have a long way to go

Summer holiday is coming. How excited! I havemade a plan for my summer holiday. First of all, I will go to Hong Kong tovisit my aunt. And then I will stay with her for a while. As Hong Kong is the shoppingparadise, of course, I will ask my aunt to go shopping with me . I will also eatthe delicious food there. And then I will go home. I know that study comesfirst. So I will finish my homework first. After that I will go out play withmy friends. And then I will take a good rest to prepare for my coming back toschool.

暑假即将来临。多么的兴奋啊！我已经为我的暑假制定了计划。首先，我会去香港拜访我的婶婶。之后我会和她呆一段时间。因为香港是购物天堂，当然我会叫我婶婶陪我一起去购物。我还要吃那里美味的食物。然后我就会回家。我知道学习是最重要的。所以回去之后我会先完成我的暑假作业。之后我就会和我的朋友出去玩。再之后我就会好好的休息来为回校做好准备。

Happy summer vacation is coming, von teacher (tutor) gave me an essay:

"summer fun".

Filed a summer vacation, I will be very excited, because the summer can be

more happy, in retrospect, they like the movie playback in my head.

Photos, I looked at my to hainan emerge previous scenario in your mind:

that day, we will go to hainan! I was excited and happy, can fly again! That

night we came to the resort yalong bay, sanya in hainan, by plane arrived at the

hotel cooked cooked.

The next day, I to the sun, against the wind and the beauty of the scenery

beautiful had a stretch. I observed a look, my dad is still sleeping, but I

cant wait to go to dinner to the beach. I call my father. After dinner, we came

to the seaside. Im more comfortable sea breeze, waves.

We begin our "engineering", I took a shovel to dig a small hole and then

just center, because the water of the sea fall to dig around for me. And get a

shovel to give him one layer built a wall, tired of the sand can be high. Very

tired ah, look at me "big project" my heart very happy.

Oh, what a wonderful memory. I found that life is not good thing is much,

but to myself.

My childhood was happy with my mothers love .In my young heart, my mother was strong and healthy and never got sick. She took me to the primary school and home every day. No matter when its rainy or windy.

But one day, after we got home from school, my mother went into the bedroom and stayed in bed. I didnt know what had happened.

I sat beside her , my mother said to me , "it doesnt matter , mum only has a headache . I will be all right after a while." Although mother said so, I found tears in her eyes because of pain, at that time I knew adults also got ill and cried. I decided I would take care of my mother from then on.

Actions speak louder than words.事实胜于雄辩。

It’s never too late to mend. 亡羊补牢。

Keep good men company and you shall be of the number.

近朱者赤，近墨者黑。

A good book is a good friend. 好书如挚友。

Nothing is impossible for a willing heart.

心之所愿，无所不成。

One today is worth two tomorrows.一个今天胜似两个明天。

Poverty is stranger to industry. 勤劳之人不受穷。

Genius is nothing but labor and diligence.

天才不过是勤奋而已。

A bird in the hand is worth than two in the bush.

一鸟在手胜过双鸟在林。

Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more.四个简短的词汇概括了成功秘诀：多一点点!

It is never too old to learn. 活到老，学到老。

From small beginning come great things.伟大始于渺小。

A good beginning is half done.良好的开端是成功的一半。

New wine in old bottles.旧瓶装新酒。

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

只会用功不玩耍，聪明孩子也变傻。

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

抱最好的愿望，做最坏的打算。

Good health is over wealth. 健康是最大的财富。

A fall into a pit，a gain in your wit.吃一堑，长一智。

Better late than never.迟做总比不做好;晚来总比不来好。

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

Birds of a feather flock together. 物以类聚，人以群分。

Complacency is the enemy of study.

学习的敌人是自己的满足。

Content is better than riches. 知足者常乐。

Books and friends should be few but good.

读书如交友，应求少而精。

All that ends well is well.结果好，就一切都好。

A close mouth catches no flies.病从口入。

By reading we enrich the mind， by conversation we

polish it.

读书使人充实，交谈使人精明。

Care and diligence bring luck. 谨慎和勤奋才能抓住机遇。

A good book is the best of friends， the same today and forever.

一本好书，相伴一生。

A young idler，an old beggar. 少壮不努力，老大徒伤悲。

Caution is the parent of safety.小心驶得万年船。

A miss is as good as a mile.失之毫厘，差之千里。

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. 一天一苹果，不用请医生。

Many hands make light work. 人多力量大。

All things are difficult before they are easy.

凡事总是由难而易。

As a man sows， so he shall reap.种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆。

Misfortunes never come alone/single.祸不单行。

A bad beginning makes a bad ending.不善始者不善终。

No news is good news. 没有消息就是好消息。

No pains， no gains. 没有付出就没有收获。

All that glitters is not gold. 闪光的不一定都是金子。

A sound mind in a sound body. 健全的精神寓于健康的身体。

Don’t put off till tomorrow what should be done today. 今日事，今日毕。

Early to bed andearly to rise makes a man healthy，

wealthy and wise.

早睡早起身体好。

East or west，home is best.东好西好，还是家里最好。

Diligence is the mother of success. 勤奋是成功之母。

Easier said than done. 说得容易，做得难。

Do as you would be done by. 己所不欲，勿施于人。

Eat to live，but not live to eat.

人吃饭是为了活着，但活着不是为了吃饭。

Life is not all roses. 人生并不是康庄大道。

Every little helps a mickle. 聚沙成塔，集腋成裘。

Fortune favors those who use their judgement. 机遇偏爱善断之人。

Every man has his faults.金无足赤，人无完人。

A candle lights others and consumes itself.蜡烛照亮别人，却毁灭了自己。

All roads lead to Rome. 条条大路通罗马。

Every man is the architect of his own fortune.自己的命运自己掌握。

Fact speak louder than words. 事实胜于雄辩。

God helps those who help themselves.自助者天助。

Good advice is beyond all price.忠告是无价宝。

He who does not advance loses ground.逆水行舟，不进则退。Knowledge makes humble， ignorance makes proud.

博学使人谦逊，无知使人骄傲。

Like father，like son.有其父必有其子。

Honesty is the best policy. 做人诚信为本。

Gold will not buy anything. 黄金并非万能。

Happiness takes no account of time. 欢乐不觉时光过。

Adversity leads to prosperity.穷则思变。

A friend is easier lost than found.得朋友难，失朋友易。

He is wise that is honest.诚实者最明智。

He laughs best who laughs last.谁笑到最后，谁笑得最好。

Kill two birds with one stone.一箭双雕。

Knowledge is power.知识就是力量。

Make hay while the sun shines.良机勿失。

Many heads are better than one.三个臭皮匠，赛过诸葛亮。

No rose without a thorn.没有不带刺的玫瑰。

Man proposes，God disposes. 谋事在人，成事在天。

No smoke without fire.无风不起浪。

Success belongs to the persevering. 坚持就是胜利。

The greatest talkers are always least doers.

语言的巨人总是行动的矮子。

Time and tide wait for no man. 时不我待。

Wise men love truth，whereas fools shun it.智者热爱真理，愚者回避真理

Practice makes perfect.熟能生巧。

Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.患难见真情。

Money isn’t everything.钱不是万能的。

Rome is not built in a day. 冰冻三尺，非一日之寒。

Sharpening your axe will not delay your jobof cutting

wood.磨刀不误砍柴功。

Will is power. 意志就是力量。

Seeing is believing.眼见为实。

Necessity is the mother of invention. 需要是发明的动力。

Truth never fears investigation.事实从来不怕调查。

Virtue is fairer far than beauty.美德远远胜过美貌。

Well begun is half done.好的开端是成功的一半。

Where there is life，there is hope.留得青山在，不怕没柴烧。

Never fish in trouble water.不要混水摸鱼。

Reading makes a full man.读书使人完善。

Speech is silver，silence is gold.能言是银，沉默是金。

You cannot burn the candle at both ends. 蜡烛不能两头点，精力不可过分耗。

You cannot eat your cake and have it.鱼与熊掌，不可得兼。

Time cures all things.时间是医治一切创伤的良药。

Where there is a will，there is a way.有志者事竟成。

Wisdom in the mind is better than money in the hand.

脑中有知识，胜过手中有金钱。

My friend is Mei. She’s a girl. She is my classmate.

Mei is tall and thin. She has two big eyes and long hair. She likes listening to music and reading books. Sometimes we listen to music together. She likes summer. Because she can swim in the summer holiday. She likes pink and white. She is in Class Four, Grade Six with me. She usually goes to school by motor cycle. Sometimes she goes to school on foot. We often go shopping together on the weekend.

We will be friends forever.