初中英语写作常用句型【最新20篇】

1、Thank you very much for ....

十分感谢...

2、Many thanks for your ...

非常感谢您...

3、Please accept my sincere appreciation for ...

请接受我对...真挚的感谢

4、I am truly grateful to you for ...

为了...，我真心感激您

5、It was good (thoughtful) of you ...

承蒙好意(关心)...

6、You were so kind to send ...

承蒙好意送来...

7、Thank you again for your wonderful hospitality and I am looking forward to seeing you soon.

再次感谢您的盛情款待，并期待不久见到您

8、I find an ordinary "thank-you" entirely inadequate to tell you how much...

我觉得一般的感谢的字眼完全不足以表达我对您多么地...

9、I sincerely appreciate ...

我衷心地感谢...

10、I wish to express my profound appreciation for ...

我对..深表谢意

11、Many thanks for you generous cooperation

would rather (not) do.

January 1st is New Year‘s Day. It‘s a great day for all the people throughout the world. As the saying goes, A good beginning is half the battle. So, many people go all out to celebrate the important day. On that day, I went to the Book City with my classmates. We bought a lot of useful reference books and interesting story books. I believe Knowledge is power. I hope I can learn a lot from these books and improve my study. In the evening, my family had a big dinner party. All the members in my family wished me a good luck in the new year.

In my hometown, the scenery is very beautiful, as I am so close to the nature, I can see the scenery clearly. The house I live in is in front of the mountain, so I can see the sunset every day, that is the scenery is like to appreciate most.

When the dusk comes, the sunset is going down the mountain, I will stand in my garden, watching the sunset going down.

The sunset will become more and more red as it goes down the mountain, when the dark comes, the sunset will disappear. I like to watch the sunset, I feel I am so close to the nature and I blend myself in it.

在我的家乡，景色非常的优美，由于我是如此的接近大自然，因此我能清楚地看到景色。我所住的房子就在山的前面，因此我能每天看到日落，那也是我最喜欢欣赏的风景。当黄昏到来的时候，太阳就会下山，我会站在花园前，看着日落下山。日落在下山的时候会变得越来越红，当天黑了，日落就会消失。我很喜欢看日落，我觉得自己是如此的接近大自然，也融进了大自然。

[初中英语作文：傍晚的景色

一、开头句型

1.As far as ...is concerned

2.It goes without saying that...

3.It can be said with certainty that...

4.As the proverb says，

5.It has to be noticed that...

6.It`s generally recognized that...

7.It`s likely that ...

8.It`s hardly that...

9.It’s hardly too much to say that...

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

11.There’s no denying the fact that...毫无疑问，无可否认

12.Nothing is more important than the fact that...

13.what’s far more important is that...

二、衔接句型

A case in point is ...

As is often the case...

As stated in the previous paragraph 如前段所述

But the problem is not so simple. Therefore 然而问题并非如此简单，所以……

But it’s a pity that...

For all that...In spite of the fact that...

Further, we hold opinion that...

However , the difficulty lies in...

Similarly, we should pay attention to...

not(that)...but(that)...不是，而是

In view of the present station.鉴于目前形势

As has been mentioned above...

In this respect, we may as well (say) 从这个角度上我们可以说

However, we have to look at the other side of the coin, that is... 然而我们还得看到事物的另一方面，即 …

三、结尾句型

I will conclude by saying...

Therefore, we have the reason to believe that...

All things considered,总而言之

It may be safely said that...

Therefore, in my opinion, it’s more advisable...

From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the conclusion that….

The data/statistics/figures lead us to the conclusion that….

It can be concluded from the discussion that...从中我们可以得出这样的结论

From my point of view, it would be better if...在我看来……也许更好

四、举例句型

Let’s take...to illustrate this.试举例以兹证明

let’s take the above chart as an example to illustrate this.

Here is one more example.

Take … for example.

The same is true of….

This offers a typical instance of….

We may quote a common example of….

Just think of….

五、常用于引言段的句型

1. Some people think that …. To be frank, I can not agree with their opinion for the reasons below.

2. For years, … has been seen as …, but things are quite different now.

3. I believe the title statement is valid because….

4. I cannot entirely agree with the idea that …. I believe….

5. My argument for this view goes as follows.

6. Along with the development of…, more and more….

7. There is a long-running debate as to whether….

8. It is commonly/generally/widely/ believed /held/accepted/recognized that….

9. As far as I am concerned, I completely agree with the former/ the latter.

10. Before giving my opinion, I think it is essential to look at the argument of both sides.

六、表示比较和对比的常用句型和表达法

1. A is completely / totally / entirely different from B.

2. A and B are different in some/every way / respect / aspect.

3. A and B differ in….

4. A differs from B in….

5. The difference between A and B is/lies in/exists in….

6. Compared with/In contrast to/Unlike A, B….

7. A…, on the other hand,/in contrast,/while/whereas B….

8. While it is generally believed that A …, I believe B….

9. Despite their similarities, A and B are also different.

10. Both A and B …. However, A…; on the other hand, B….

11. The most striking difference is that A…, while B….

七、演绎法常用的句型

1. There are several reasons for…, but in general, they come down to three major ones.

2. There are many factors that may account for…, but the following are the most typical ones.

3. Many ways can contribute to solving this problem, but the following ones may be most effective.

4. Generally, the advantages can be listed as follows.

5. The reasons are as follows.

八、因果推理法常用句型

1. Because/Since we read the book, we have learned a lot.

2. If we read the book, we would learn a lot.

3. We read the book; as a result / therefore / thus / hence / consequently / for this reason / because of this, we’ve learned a lot.

4. As a result of /Because of/Due to/Owing to reading the book, we’ve learned a lot.

5. The cause of/reason for/overweight is eating too much.

6. Overweight is caused by/due to/because of eating too much.

7. The effect/consequence/result of eating too much is overweight.

8. Eating too much causes/results in/leads to overweight.

1. 6月2日下午，我正乘火车从上海到沈阳回家的途中。

On the afternoon of July 2nd, I was traveling from Shanghai back to Shenyang by train.

2. 一大早，我们就出发了。

Early in the morning, we set out.

3. 明天上午8：00我们在学校门口集中。

We will meet at the school gate at 8:00 tomorrow morning.

4. 前几天，我和同学骑车进城。

The other day my classmates and I went to town together by bike.

5. 过去，我的家乡是个美丽的地方。

In the past / Some years ago, my hometown used to be a beautiful place.

6. 上学期，我参加了地理小组的研究性学习。我们研究的课题是：环境污染与环境保护。

Last term I took part in a geography research study group.

Our topic was environmental pollution and protection.

7. 今天下午，在我去看电影的路上，我看见一个箱子从一辆自行车上掉下来。

This afternoon, on my way to the cinema, I saw a case fall off a man’s bike.

8. 两星期前，我正在街上行走，当时我看见了你们的诱人的广告，于是我停下脚步走进了你们的商店。

Two weeks ago, I was walking along the street

when I saw your attractive advertisement and I stopped into your shop.

9. 昨天晚上大约九点钟，我正在忙于准备明天的测验，这是忽然吵闹声传进我的房间。

About 9 o’clock yesterday evening, I was busy preparing for my tomorrow’s test

when suddenly loud noises came into my room.

10. 昨天下午我去越秀公园，碰巧我看见一件动人的事。

Yesterday afternoon I went to . It happened that I saw a touching event.

11. 当我听到北京申办2008年奥运会竞标成功时我非常激动。

I was very excited when I heard that Beijing won the bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.

12. 吵闹声如此大事我无法继续学习。

The noise was so loud that I couldn’t go on studying.

13. 我将在农村度过这个暑假。在农村，我可以享受舒适和宁静的生活。

I will spend this summer holiday in the countryside.

I can enjoy a comfortable and quiet life there.

14.我认为该是我们认识到保护环境的重要性和采取行动的时候了。

I think it is time for us to realize the importance of

protecting the environment and to do something about it.

15. 我希望政府应该尽快采取措施解决这个问题。

I hope the government should take measures

to solve this problem as soon as possible.

16. 我认为学校应该鼓励学生课余多参加体育活动。这样，学生可以更健康，更有活力。

I think the school should encourage the students

to do more exercise after class. This way, they may be healthier and more energetic.

17. 现在越来越多的家庭拥有自己的小汽车。对于有私家车的家庭来说上班或带小孩上学都十分方便。

Now more and more families have their own cars.

It’s very convenient for the people who have their own cars

to go to work or to take their children to school.

改写，就是把原有的一篇文章改变形式、长短的一种写作类型。下面是英语写作基础改写病句的技巧，欢迎参考阅读！

改写，包括改写、缩写、扩写、写摘要等多种形式：或改头换面，或削足适履，或海阔天空，或归纳总括，让你有足够的内容、机会和样式适应要求，施展才华。

改写是用不同形式表达同一内容的方法，使之成为与原文意思相同而表现方式、文体不同的作品。改写可以变换文章的人称、顺序，可以改变原文的体裁、结构，可以灵活运用自己的语言，尽可能用多种方法来表达、替换原文语句的内容。比如，我们可以把对话改写成散文，可以把记叙文变成通讯报导、新闻特写，反之亦然。

缩写是根据词数、字数的要求对原文加以压缩、概括，从而达到缩短篇幅、简化内容、突出中心等目的的写作形式。简言之，缩写是原文的“高度浓缩”。缩写时要忠实于原文，保留原文体裁、题材、主要内容、主要思想、结构顺序、语言风格、人称视角和表现方法等；既要使篇幅缩短，结构紧凑，又要使内容简明扼要，重点突出；不能对原文加入个人的认识、体会或对原文进行评论，也不能加入原文中没有的内容。

扩写则与缩写相反，是把篇幅短小的内容扩展成为篇幅较长的文章。扩写时，可以施展个人的想像力，在不离原文核心内容的前提下海阔天空，任意发挥，从而使细节更加充实、生动，使情节更加具有感染力，使解释、说明、论证更加充分有力。

摘要是一篇文章或一本书的梗概，多指论文或报告内容的提要。一些期刊、杂志上论文的“提要”、“摘要”，某些报纸、杂志在一篇文章前面写的“编者按”，一本书的前言等均属此列。写摘要就是简明扼要地向读者介绍一篇文章，一本书，一篇论文或一个报告的主要内容，使读者用较少的时间阅读后，能了解文章或书的来龙去脉。摘要可以改变体裁。写摘要时，笔者可以用原文的人称、语气、也可以用第三人称，即笔者的语气，但是不能改变原文的事实和观点，也不能丢掉原文的要点，应写成连贯的文章而不能写成提纲。

总之，改写、缩写、扩写、摘要都是对原有的文章进行适合某种需要的裁剪或放大，选取原文的精要而和盘托出，对其要点和实质容不得偷换和贪污。这些写作形式对学习写作的学生来说，是一种练习综合分析、归纳概括能力的好方法；对成人来说，是工作中的很好的帮手。

一个作家可以把一本小说改写成剧本，把一则简短的消息扩展为一部短篇或长篇小说；一名记者可以把一段会谈改写成一篇通讯报导或特写；一个编辑可以把收到的稿件根据版面大小或缩或扩写成适当的文章；我们在听领导人、某方面的专家做报告时要作点笔记，然后写出摘要文章；我们写成一篇论文后，可以给它写一段简短的摘要，等等。这些都是人们在生活、工作中必不可少的书面表达形式。所以，学会这些写作技巧，能使我们适应各方面的需要。

I really had a busy and happy winter holiday. I did my homework and helped my parents with the housework every day. I like drawing so much that I spent lots of time drawing pictures and read books about drawing every day. I sometimes went to the library to read books and surfed the internet.During the Spring Festival, i visited my grandparents, friends and relatives. We really had a great time together. I prepared for the new lessons and read English,too. I really enjoyed my winter holiday.

我寒假过得很忙很快乐。我每天做作业并帮助父母做家务。我是如此喜欢画画以致于我每天花大量的时间画画和看绘画方面的书籍。我有时去图书馆看书和上网。春节期间我去拜访我的祖父母和亲朋好友。我们一起很愉快。我也准备新课程和读英语。我非常喜欢我的寒假。

以下是为大家整理的关于以中国的环境污染为话题的初中英语作文的文章，希望大家能够喜欢！

Directions:For this part， you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic:

Pollution: An Increasing Concern in China You should write at least120 words following the outline below in Chinese.

1. 中国的污染的现状

2. 造成污染的原因

3. 解决的办法

Pollution: An Increasing Concern in China

It is reported that ten big cities in China are being ranked among the top twenty cities with the highest pollution index in the world. This means it is high time we did something to bring the situation under control.Many factors are contributing to the deteriorating situation: industrial wastes pumped into the air， the lakes and rivers; a increasing number of automobiles crowding into the streets; the widespread use of plastic bags etc.

To my view， stiffer laws and regulations must be implemented to check pollution. Industries that release wastes without permission should be heavily fined. Cars should be equipped to minimize the exhaust they release into the air. And the use of plastic bags and disposable meal boxes should be banned. What’s more， the media should play an important role in implanting a sense of environmental consciousness into people’s mind. If everybody works toward a common goal of making the environment better， we can create a cleaner and lovelier world for us and for the coming generation.

每次我放学回家，都会看见几个小孩坐在马路旁边乞讨。我不知道他们的父母是谁。他们多么狠心呀!他们差不多跟我一样大作文 你也可以投稿，也是上学的年龄了，但是他们不能。似乎没有人关心他们。我多么希望他们的父母能带他们回家啊。如果他们的父母真是穷得不能送他们去学校，那么我希望整个社会能够伸出援助之手。他们可以求助于希望工程呀。

Every time I come home from school, I see several children sitting beside the road and begging. I don’t know where their parents are. How coldhearted they are! Every time I will think so. Those children are just of the same age with me. It’s the age for school. But they can’t. It seems that no one cares for them. How I hope that their parents come and bring them home. If their parents are really too poor to send them to school, then I hope the whole society will help. They can go to the Hope Project.

When winter comes, the topic of haze will never be ignored. When it comes,

many pictures will be showed. People make fun of these pictures and they

actually laugh at themselves, living with these poison air. Even in the daytime,

people can’t see their faces beyond 10 meters. Many schools choose to stop the

class and let the students stay at home. It is obvious that haze is a great

threat to people’s health. This new type of destruction is the result of

polluted environment. Businessmen chase for the profit and take the cost of

polluting the environment. Now their offspring have to suffer from it. It is

never too late to do something to protect our earth.

Water is very important to us. If you don’t have water for three days, you

will die. We can use water for flowers, swimming, washing and many different

things. We use it to cook, make electricity, put out fires and so on. We use

millions of liters of water every day.

Do you know how does the water come to your home? It travels through water

pipes. Some are long and wide but some are short and narrow. Then the water

travels through the water pipes to the reservoirs. Then it travels through the

water pipes to the river and to the special factories (we call water plants)

that purify the water. When the water is purified, we can drink it. Please don’t

leave garbage in the water on which we line, and keep the water clean.

在考研英语的小作文部分，历年考试大纲中都会列出多种应用文类型，投诉信、建议信、申请信、求职信、辞职信、求助信、感谢信、号召信、邀请信、道歉信等等，但是考生们回到具体的实践写作中，翻阅近几年考研英语真题试卷，常常发现这些归为一大类，终究是书信形式。既然书信写作如此重要，下面就为各位考生带来书信写作的攻克大招，让写作变得无比简单。

一、书信写作总体概述

1.首段

1)问候收信人

例：Dear Sir/Madam

2)解释来信原因

例：I’m writing for ……

2.中间段落

1)阅读题干要求，从中寻找名词或动词

例：Write a letter of application according to the following situation. You saw an advertisement in this morning’s newspaper .A company need’s a secretary and you are interested. Write an application letter to that company.

2)注意题目文字暗示，把名词具体化，把动词近义词化。

例：I am pleased to discover from Beijing Youth that your company is calling for a secretary……

3.结尾段落

例：I would appreciate your assistance in this matter. If you have any question , please don’t hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at...Look forward to your reply.

4.署名

在文章右下角署名，一般格式为：Yours sincerely……

二、书信写作分类讲解(写作脉络)

1.投诉信

投诉信通常包括：说明投诉原因并表示遗憾，实事求是阐述问题发生的经过，指出问题引起的后果，提出批评及处理意见，督促对方采取措施，提出所希望的赔偿及补救方式。

2.建议信

建议信即写给某个组织或机构，就改进其服务质量提出建议忠告;或写给个人，就某一重大事件提出自己的看法、建议及观点。

3.道歉信

投诉信通常包括：表示歉意、阐明表示歉意的具体原因，提出补救办法，再次表示致歉，并希望得到谅解，提供合适的补救办法。(要注意语言的诚挚)

4.感谢信

感谢信中通常带有浓厚的感情色彩，是所有书信中最带有“人情味”的，该书信内容通常包括：表达感谢之情并说明原因--提及自己曾受到对方的帮助--再次感谢并表达回报愿望。

在2018考研的战场上，一分意味着上线与下线，一分意味着录取与非录取，所以，拼尽全力才有可能取得最终的胜利。预祝大家金榜题名，取得理想佳绩!

[考研英语书信写作方法

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

A few days ago, the movie Red Sea Operation was very hot and people were

very impressive about the policemen, who saved the citizens lives in a very

urgent situation, some even sacrificed their lives as the price. We live in a

peaceful country. This is because policemen protect us all the time, and they

are the great persons. March 14th is the policemens day, people make this day

for them and show respect. They deserve the publics praise. They sacrifice so

much, such as the time to accompany their families. Many childrens future dream

is to be a policeman, as this career brings the public hope and future.

一直都想写我的英语老师，只是因为觉得学习不好，颇感内疚，不好意思来写。用我妈妈的话来说，他就是一个小男孩，我应该叫哥哥的。

他说话的样子十分夸张。他跟我们说在另一所学校里做班主任时，他安排的座位非常合理，因此学生成绩提高很快。我当然理解他的自豪，但我也理解我的班主任为何不采用。因为丁老师谈建议时的神情就像一只狗伸着舌头，流着口水，教一只猫如何分配自己盘中的鱼。明明一张很英俊的脸，有棱有角，鼻梁挺直，眼睛凹下，嘴唇也很性感。你不知道呀!他生气时目光看向远方，深沉而坚定，加上魁梧的身材，就像一位年轻的法老，站在他的城墙上，指点江山。可是除了生气时像个男人外，其他时候就是个小男孩了，大笑起来嘴很夸张地向上翅起，就像卡通画，让所有的人都可以感受到他的快乐。若是说到什么好事，他就像大公鸡似的炫耀他的两根粗粗的眉毛向上飞扬，眼中不时闪着像星星一样的光点，还手舞足蹈的，唾沫横飞，经常唾到前排同学的脸上。被人夸奖的时候，又显得女里女气的，十分腼腆。每次开考前，他在教室门外，他的嘴角像一只红色的狐狸，在雪中伸着一只爪子，望着一只兔子。

英语老师姓丁，家在阳曲，可能地理位置有些偏辟，所以考出来不大容易。本来在另一所中学里教高中，后来考入我校，校长让他教初中。这让他十分失望，有时还在学生中露出了像李白一样怀才不遇的痛苦和颓唐。有时又高兴地告诉我们，我们是他教的第一拔学生!?

可能是刚刚带学生，他有年轻老师的激情，为我们自费复印英语资料，很喜欢在读英语课文时，一边作着奇里古怪的样子，一边发出奇里古怪的声音。有时上课，讲着讲着就讲起了自己的自传，于是常常在自我的唾沫星子中陶醉得难以自拔。上他的课让我感到十分的快乐和高兴，只是因为成绩不好而十分愧对他。不知为什么，我学也学不好，只能在每次考完试以后都躲着他。很亏心很愧疚地面对他对我的微笑，但他从来不说我不好，一次又一次地原谅我。

又一次，语文老师让我们以描写一位老师的神态特征为作业，到了下节课是英语。他进来十分讨好的让我们写他。回家后我写了两篇，有一篇是写他的，到了教室，临交作业时我又拿回了，结果我的另一篇得了第一，上课时他说已看过，可惜不是写他的。到后来越到中考我觉得愧对老师，现在考完了，我却一直想着他，想着欠他的一篇作文。

一.开头句型

1.As far as ...is concerned 就……而言

2.It goes without saying that... 不言而喻，...

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

4.As the proverb says， 正如谚语所说的，

5.It has to be noticed that... 它必须注意到，...

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

7.Its likely that ... 这可能是因为...

8.Its hardly that... 这是很难的......

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

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

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

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

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

二.衔接句型

1.A case in point is ... 一个典型的例子是...

2.As is often the case...由于通常情况下...

3.As stated in the previous paragraph 如前段所述

4.But the problem is not so simple. Therefore 然而问题并非如此简单，所以……

5.But its a pity that... 但遗憾的是…

6.For all that...对于这一切...... In spite of the fact that...尽管事实......

7.Further, we hold opinion that... 此外，我们坚持认为，...

8.However , the difficulty lies in...然而，困难在于…

9.Similarly, we should pay attention to... 同样，我们要注意...

10.not(that)...but(that)...不是，而是

11.In view of the present station.鉴于目前形势

12.As has been mentioned above...正如上面所提到的…

13.In this respect, we may as well (say) 从这个角度上我们可以说

14.However, we have to look at the other side of the coin, that is... 然而我们还得看到事物的另一方面，即 …

三.结尾句型

1.I will conclude by saying... 最后我要说…

2.Therefore, we have the reason to believe that...因此，我们有理由相信…

3.All things considered,总而言之 It may be safely said that...它可以有把握地说......

4.Therefore, in my opinion, its more advisable...因此，在我看来，更可取的是…

5.From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the conclusion that….通过以上讨论，我们可以得出结论…

6.The data/statistics/figures lead us to the conclusion that….通过数据我们得到的结论是，....

7.It can be concluded from the discussion that...从中我们可以得出这样的结论

8.From my point of view, it would be better if...在我看来……也许更好

四.举例句型

1.Lets take...to illustrate this.2.lets take the above chart as an example to illustrate this.3. Here is one more example. 4.Take … for example. 5.The same is true of….6.This offers a typical instance of….7.We may quote a common example of….8.Just think of….

五.常用于引言段的句型

1. Some people think that …. 有些人认为…To be frank, I can not agree with their opinion for the reasons below. 坦率地说，我不能同意他们的意见，理由如下。

2. For years, … has been seen as …, but things are quite different now.多年来，……一直被视为……，但今天的情况有很大的不同。

3. I believe the title statement is valid because…. 我认为这个论点是正确的，因为…

4. I cannot entirely agree with the idea that ….我无法完全同意这一观点的… I believe….

5. My argument for this view goes as follows.我对这个问题的看法如下。

6. Along with the development of…, more and more….随着……的发展，越来越多…

7. There is a long-running debate as to whether….有一个长期运行的辩论，是否…

8. It is commonly/generally/widely/ believed /held/accepted/recognized that….它通常是认为…

9. As far as I am concerned, I completely agree with the former/ the latter.就我而言，我完全同意前者/后者。

10. Before giving my opinion, I think it is essential to look at the argument of both sides.在给出我的观点之前，我想有必要看看双方的论据。

六 表示比较和对比的常用句型和表达法

1. A is completely / totally / entirely different from B.2. A and B are different in some/every way / respect / aspect.3. A and B differ in…. 4. A differs from B in….5. The difference between A and B is/lies in/exists in….6. Compared with/In contrast to/Unlike A, B….7. A…, on the other hand,/in contrast,/while/whereas B….8. While it is generally believed that A …, I believe B….9. Despite their similarities, A and B are also different.10. Both A and B …. However, A…; on the other hand, B….11. The most striking difference is that A…, while B….

七 演绎法常用的句型

1. There are several reasons for…, but in general, they come down to three major ones.有几个原因……，但一般，他们可以归结为三个主要的。

2. There are many factors that may account for…, but the following are the most typical ones.有许多因素可能占...，但以下是最典型的。

3. Many ways can contribute to solving this problem, but the following ones may be most effective.有很多方法可以解决这个问题，但下面的可能是最有效的。

4. Generally, the advantages can be listed as follows.一般来说，这些优势可以列举如下。

5. The reasons are as follows.

八 因果推理法常用句型

1.Because/Since we read the book, we have learned a lot. 2. If we read the book, we would learn a lot. 3. We read the book; as a result / therefore / thus / hence / consequently / for this reason / because of this, weve learned a lot. 4. As a result of /Because of/Due to/Owing to reading the book, weve learned a lot. 由于阅读这本书，我们已经学到了很多。

5. The cause of/reason for/overweight is eating too much.6.Overweight is caused by/due to/because of eating too much.7. The effect/consequence/result of eating too much is overweight. 8. Eating too much causes/results in/leads to overweight. 吃太多导致超重。

The night of November 12th, 2010 was indeed a glorious night for our Chines, because the Opening Ceremony of Asian Games was held on Haixinsha Island in Guangzhou. Over 7000 people took part in it.

All of the performances were impressive, but the most interesting one was Sail on Cloud. During that programme, 180 performers were hung in the air to dance. How wonderful it was! Every audience burst out praise. I couldn’t help shouting. But it was a pity that I just watched it from TV. How I wish I were there!

My mother is thirty-four years old and does not look old. Melon seeds face a pair of watery eyes, tall tall, the body is not fat nor thin.

Mom loves me more attention to my study. Some time ago Galen English teacher told us there is a national English game, hope we can actively participate in, show yourself. I signed up for an English song contest. Big after that, my mother began to go online to find songs, lock the song after her mother to learn to sing their own, every day humming ah, after the concert began to teach me.

Mothers song for me is the English version of the Girl with Wings Wings. At that time and in the final review stage, immediately to test, my mother did not delay my review of the case every day out of an hour to help me practice singing, correct my pronunciation. I have successfully passed the preliminary round of the stadium, Jinzhou City, the semi-finals, entered the finals of the Liao Dynasty Division, if the Liao in the Division can take on the National Finals, and that I hope for a long time.

Mother is very honorable parents. Once, my grandmother was sick, slightly cerebral thrombosis was admitted to the hospital. This can be anxious mother, and she every day in the hospital care grandmother, wash her face to help her practice walking, busy outside. Grandmother came home after discharge, my mother and take the housework, laundry, cooking, mopping the land ... ... every year when the mother will not forget to give grandparents to buy some gifts. I want my mother as an example, but also a good boy to honor their parents.

Every summer, my mother always said he was fat, eat two meals a day, you know why she did so because she wanted to lose weight, wear fashion clothes, so that they become more beautiful.

This is my mother, sometimes gentle, sometimes severe, sometimes cute, I love my beautiful mom.

Our new English teacher is Mr. Smith. He wears a pair of thick glasses. He is very serious and strict to us. I never saw him smile until the Teachers’ Day. On the Teachers’ Day, my classmates and I planned to give him a special gift——a smile. So the naughty John pretended to have passed out in the classroom. When Mr. Smith came in, he was so scared that he held John in his arms right away. On the way to the hospital, John burst into laughter suddenly, which made the teacher confused. After we told him that it was only a joke, Mr. Smith laughed too. We were all pleased to see him smiling at last.

Our parents give us much love every day,so we should give them love,too.That was a holiday,I stayed at home alone.I made a dinner for my parents.Because I was only seven,the meal was really awful.But my mother never stopped saying,"Its very delicious!"She said she was very impressed.

How do you give your parents love?

what should we thank?

the thankful great universe provides the environment of existence for us and give us sunlight, air, water and everything in keeping with we existence of space, bring storm to let us accept to toughen for us, bring to us mysterious let us look for.

the thankful parents give us the life, make us feel the merriment of the human life, feel the genuine feeling of the human life, feel the comity of the human life, feel happiness of the human life, also feel hardships and pain and sufferings of the human life!

the thankful teacher works with diligence and without fatigue everyday of teach, give us knowledge ability, put on the wing which flies toward the ideal for us.

the thankful classmate and friend grows up road of, let i no longer standing alone in the itinerary of life; the with gratitude is frustrated and let us become in a time the failure stronger.

[感恩节英语作文写作