初中英语写作常用句型(精彩20篇)

英语书面表达是体现个人水平的一个主要因素，也是各种考试考查的重要内容。怎样才能提高英语写作能力呢?方法是多种多样的，但最重要的是夯实学生的语言基本功，打好坚实的基础。语言的基本功在写作教学中体现为准确应用词汇和正确使用句型结构的能力，语句的组织衔接和谋篇布局的能力。在学生真正地掌握语汇用法的前提下，比较行之有效的方法是把句型教学放在写作情景中进行教授，培养学生的应用和运用能力。

在句型结构教学中，应尽多设计一些写作情景，使句型结构服务于教学，这样不仅提高了学生的写作兴趣，也加强了教学的目的性和针对性。为了提高写作能力和写作水平，本文主要归纳和总结了英语写作中常用的一些重点句型。希望能给同行们在教学中，学生在学习上有一些帮助。

以形式主语it引导的句型。

句型1.

It (so) happened(chanced) that +clause. = sb. happened /chanced to do sth. =sb.did sth. by chance. 如：

It happened that he was out when I got there. 当我到那儿时，碰巧他不在。=He happened to be out when I got there.= It chanced that he was out when I got there= He was out by chance when I got there.

句型2.

It seems that sb. do/ be doing/ have done/ had done= Sb. seems to do/ be doing/ have done/to be done/to have been done(还有动词appear等可这样使用)如:

It seemed that he had been to Beijing before.他好象以前去过北京。=He seemed to have been to Beijing before.

句型3.

It is / was+被强调的部分+that(who)+剩余的部分.如：

It wasn’t until he came back that I went to bed.直到他回来我才睡觉。(一定要注意被强调句型中的谓语动词否定的转移)。 It was because he was ill that he didn’t come to school today.只因为他有病了今天没有来上学。(只能用because而不能用for, as 或since)

It is I who am a student. 我确实是个学生。(句中am不能用are来代替。)

句型4.

It is high time (time/ about time)+ (that) 主语+should do / did+其它。(从句中的谓语动词用的是虚拟语气。)如:

It is high time that we should go / went home.我们该回家了。

句型5.

It is / was said ( reported…)+that+从句. 如：

It was said that he had read this novel.据说他读过这篇小说。=He was said to have read this novel.

句型6.

It is impossible / necessary/ strange…that clause.(从句中的谓语用should+do / should have done，其形式是虚拟语气。)如：

It is strange that he should have failed in this exam.真奇怪，他这次考试没有及格。

句型7.

It is + a pity/ a shame…that clause.(注意从句中的谓语动词用should do或should have done的形式，但should可以省略。)如：

He didn’t come back until the film ended. It was a pity that he should have missed this film. 他直到电影结束才回来。他没有看到这部电影真可惜。

句型8.

It is suggested / ordered/ commanded /…that +clause.(从句的谓语动词用should do, 但should可以省略。)如：

It is suggested that the meeting should be put off.有人建议推迟会议。

句型9.

It is/was+表示地点的名词+where+从句。(注意本句不是强调句型，而是以where引导的定语从句。)如：

It was this house where I was born.请比较：It was in this house that I was born.(后一句是强调句型。)

句型10.

It is / was +表示时间的名词+when+从句。(注意本句型也不是强调句型，而是以when引导的定语从句。)如：

It was 1999 when he came back from the United States. 请比较：It was in 1999 that he came back from the United States.

句型11.

It is well-known that+从句。如：

It is well-known that she is a learned woman.众所周知，她是个知识渊博的妇女。

句型12.

It is +段时间+since+主语+did. 请比较：

It was +段时间+since+主语+had done. 如：

It is five years since he left here.他已经离开这儿五年了。

It was five years since he left here.(同上)

注意下列句型的翻译:It is five years since he lived here.他从这儿搬走已经有五年了。

句型13.

It +谓语+段时间+before+主语+谓语.( before引导的是时间状语从句。) 如：

It wasn’t long before the people in that country rose up.没有多久那个国家的人民就起义了。

It will be three hours before he comes back.三个小时之后他才能回来。

句型14.

It is +形容词(possible, impossible, necessary等) +for+ sb.+ to do. 如：

It is impossible for me to finish this work before tomorrow.我明天之前完成此工作是不可能的。

句型15.

It is +(心理品质方面的)形容词+of + sb. +to do.= 主语+ be +形容词+to do.(常用的形容词有：kind, stupid; foolish, good, wise等。)如：

It is kind of you to help me.=You are kind to help me.你真好给我提供了帮助。

I

consider my parents as the most important people in my life. This is not because

they’re wealthy or famous. Rather, what I value about most is the care and love

they show to me.

My

parents might work hard, but they’re always there for me. Whenever I get into

trouble and desperately need a hand, they come over first to support me and

encourage me. I grew up with their constant care and love. While they’re getting

older with grey hair and wrinkles, they never lose dignity in both life and

jobs.

From

my parents, I have learned that one person can really make a difference. I’ll

never forget their care and love. Gratefulness brings a great fullness to life.

I wish they could always be happy and healthy. It is high time we expressed our

gratitude to people we cherish!

We have enjoyable classes in the school.we would also have many kinds of

extra-curricular activities.We could go skating and swimming and join other

popular sports with teachers.Every year we would go camping with our classmates

at least twice.Students could help each other either in study or daily

life.Sometimes,when we were having a big problem and could not solve it by

ourselves,we would go to find our teachers.Teachers would listen to us patiently

and help us to solve the problem.The school should have a big garden so we can

plant flowers and take care of them.

Now many students of Grade 9 are under too much pressure. They always feel

too tired to listen to the teachers carefully in class.

It’s important for students to relax. Only in this way can they study well

and be healthy. Here are some different ways to relax themselves. For example,

they can try to have enough sleep,or they can listen to their favourite music

after class. They can also read some books or do some sports. For me, I often

hang out with my friends.

While you are studying, don’t forget to relax. You will study better after

a good rest.

难忘的回忆

Last summer holiday, I learned to swim. It was very unforgettable and interesting. I went to the swimming pool with my father. He taught me how to swim. At first, I was afraid of diving in the water. And I felt uncomfortable in the water. But father said it doesn’t matter and he would protect me. Then I began to swim, but I couldn’t swim forward at all. It made me upset. Then father told me how to move, how to stretch out my hands and legs. Slowly, I could move a little. In fact, it was not that easy. I learned it for almost half a month. I was excited when father told me I made it.

这篇内容是关于回忆的初中英语作文，讲述的是暑假去学游泳，我和爸爸去游泳池，他叫我怎么游的故事。

一、用于驳性和比较性论文

1. In general, I don’t agree with

2. In my opinion, this point of view doesn’t hold water。

3. The chief reason why… is that…

4.There is no true that…

5. It is not true that…

6. It can be easily denied than…

7. We have no reason to believe that…

8. What is more serious is that…

9. But it is pity that…

10. Besides, we should not neglect that…

11. But the problem is not so simple. Therefore…

12. Others may find this to be true, but I believer that…

13. Perhaps I was question why…

14. There is a certain amount of truth in this, but we still have a problem with regard to…

15. Though we are in basic agreement with…,but

16. What seems to be the trouble is…

17. Yet differences will be found, that’s why I feel that…

18. It would be reasonable to take the view that …, but it would be foolish to claim that…

19. There is in fact on reason for us so believe that…

20. What these people fail to consider is that…

21. It is one thing to insist that… , it is quite another to show that …

22. Wonderful as A is , however, it has its own disadvantages too。

23. The advantages of B are much greater than A。

24. A’s advantage sounds ridiculous when B’s advantages are taken into consideration。

When memory began for me, my grandfather was past sixty-a great tall man

with thick hair becoming gray. He had black eyes and a straight nose which ended

in a slightly flattened tip. Once he explained seriously to me that he got that

flattened tip as a small child when he fell down and stepped on his nose.

The little marks of laughter at the corners of his eyes were the prodnct of

a kindly and humorous nature. The years of work which had bent his shoulders had

never dulled his humour nor his love of a joke.

Everywhere he went, "Gramp" made friends easily. At the end of half an hour

you felt you had known him all your life. I soon learned that he hated to give

orders , but that when he had to, he tried to make his orders sound like

suggestions.

One July morning, as he was leaving to go to the cornfield, he said :

"Edwin, you can pick up the potatoes in the field today if you want to do that.

" Then he drove away with his horses.

The day passed, and I did not have any desire to pick up potatoes. Evening

came and the potatoes were still in the field. Gramp, dusty and tired, led the

horses to get their drink.

"How many bags of potatoes were there?" Gramp inquired. "I dont know.

"

"How many potatoes did you pick up?"

"I didnt pick any. " "Not any! Why not?"

"You said I could pick, them up if I wanted to. You didnt say I had to.

"

In the next few minutes I learned a lesson I would not forget: when Gramp

said I could if I wanted to, he meant that I should want to.

Gram hated cruelty and injustice. The injustices of history, even those of

a thousand years before, angered her as much as the injustices of her own

day.

She also had a deep love of beauty. When she was almost seventy-five, and

had gone to live with one of her daughters, she spent a delightful morning

washing dishes because, as she said, the beautiful patterns on the dishes gave

her pleasure. The bird, the flowers, the clouds-all that was beautiful around

her- pleased her. She was like the father of the French painter, Millet, who

used to gather grass and show it to his son , saying , "See how beautif ul this

is ! "

In a pioneer society it is the harder qualities of mind and character that

are of value. The softer virtues are considered unnecessary. Men and women

struggling daily to earn a living are unable, even for a moment, to forget the

business of preserving their lives. Only unusual people, like my grandparents,

manage to keep the softer qualities in a world of daily struggle.

Such were the two people with whom I spent the months from June to

September in the wonderful days of summer and youth.

I have many teachers now and I love them all,but my favorate teacher,I think she is my english teachter mis/miss gao.

She is tall and thin,in my eyes she is most beautiful teacher woman in the world,I love her sweet smile and attractive.SoI always feel free in her class.

I like her class very much,she often tell us interesting stories in her class,and she teaches us to play english games and english songs,too.since she become my english teacher,I have madel a lot of progess.

I like english,I like my english teacher.

Such a movie called “Growing Pains” seems full of knowledge and experience.

So it does because all of us have growing pains and also growing gains in our

lives.

Growing up is not a very enjoyable time. It means I have to work hard in

studying and in family. There’s always so much homework given by teachers and so

many arguments between the parents and me. The time is fair, but it seems it

gives pains three quarters and only one quarter to gains.

But gains give me power and confidence. Successes and friendship make me

happy and enjoyable. We played with snow in the winter that seldom snows, we

flew kites in the night that usually belongs to homework, we ate several ice

creams that almost made us cold. We picked up leaven that no longer high up!

Although pains are always more than gains, I believe both of them make my

life more colorful.

What is happiness What is happiness? There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand peoples eyes. though everyone has different opinion about happiness .i will list some views about it.

In my class ,some students think putting heart on study is happiness,For they can earn much kownledge throngh it.Besides ,parentslove,which contains caring for their life、health would also make them feel happy.Howere some students think it is a hapiness when they get into trouble,someon ecan come out for help .Or correcting them when they made mistakes.

In my opinion,happiness is something which can be easy to get .when one need help,you can give he or her one hand on time ,you will feel happy.when we are walking on the street.i happen to listen my favorite songs.that wll make me happy.Do you agree with me ?

[幸福是什么初中作文英语精选

Great changes have taken place in China. Many new buildings have been built in cities初中生物, towns and villages.

The more cars we have, the more crowed the roads are. So the roads become wider and wider. Many overpasses (立交桥) have been built in big cities. Chinese people’s life is much better than ever before. We have Tv sets, washing machines, fridges, even computers, cars etc.

We’ll study harder and make our countrry stronger and more beautiful.

[祖国的变化初中英语优秀作文

i’m a tall and lively boy. i like playing basketball very much because it’s interesting. i like nba, too. there are many famous stars in it. such as alan, iveson, tim, donken, jordan, kobe, o’neal and so on. yao ming is in the nba, too. he’s chinese. he plays basketball well. he’s a center forward. he’s our pride. all the ball stars can jump, shoot and pour in the basket. so each game of the nba is wonderful. sometimes the players can perform miracles, i think.

this year’s champion is spur team. it’s one of the strongest contenders.

i like nba. i love basketball.

（1）以单数名词或代词，动词不定式短语作主语时，谓语动词要用单数;主语为复数时，谓语用复数，例如：

He goes to school early every morning.

The children are playing outside.

To work hard is necessary for a student.

（2）由and或both……and连接的并列成分作主语时，谓语动词用复数。例如：

Both he and I are right.

Mr Black and Mrs Black have a son called Tom.

但并列主语如果指的是同一人，同一事物或同一概念，谓语动词用单数。例如：

His teacher and friend is a beautiful girl.

The poet and writer has come.

（3）由and连接的并列单数主语之前如果分别由each, every修饰时，其谓语动词要用单数形式。例如：

In our country every boy and every girl has the right to receive education.

Each man and each woman is asked to help.

（4）主语是单数时，尽管后面跟有 but ,except, besides, with 等介词短语，谓语动词仍用单数。例如：

The teacher with his students is going to visit the museum.

Nobody but two boys was late for class.

Bread and butter is a daily food in the west.

（5） 一些只有复数形式的名词，如people, police, cattle, clothes等作主语时，谓语动词要用复数。例如：

A lot of people are dancing outside.

The police are looking for lost boy.

（6）由each, some, any, no, every 构成的复合代词作主语时，谓语动词都用单数。例如：

Is everybody ready?

Somebody is using the phone.

（7）有两部分构成的物体的名词，如glasses, shoes, trousers, chopsticks, scissors 等作主语时，谓语动词用复数。例如：

Where are my shoes? I can’t find them.

Your trousers are dirty. You’d better change them.

如果这类名词前用了a pair of等，则往往用作单数，谓语动词的单复数形式往往取决于pair的单复数形式。例如：

Here are some new pairs of shoes.

My new pair of socks is on the bed.

Nowadays,the whales is in danger.Because many countries kill them for different use,they are dying out.To protect our earth and ocean,especially the diversity of creatures.we must realize that we should take effective measures to protect them.If the whales died out,it would have an important influence on other animals in the sea.Also,the environment will be changed.I sincerely hope that we can make our effort to save them!

如今,鲸鱼是处于危险之中。因为许多国家杀死他们不同的使用,它们灭绝。为了保护我们的地球和海洋,特别是生物的多样性。我们必须意识到我们应该采取有效措施去保护他们。如果鲸鱼灭绝了,它会对其他动物产生重要的影响。此外,环境将被改变。我真诚地希望我们可以使我们的努力拯救他们!

下面是语文迷为大家整理的常用的英语短语集锦，希望对大家写英语作文有所帮助。

一、动词+介词

1.look at…看…， look like … 看上去像……， look after …照料…

2.listen to…听…… 3.welcome to…欢迎到……

4.say hello to …向……问好 5.speak to…对……说话

此类短语相当于及物动词，其后必须带宾语，但宾语无论是名词还是代词，都要放在介词之后。

二、动词+副词

“动词+副词”所构成的短语义分为两类：

A.动词(vt.)+副词

1.put on 穿上 2.take off脱下 3.write down记下

此类短语可以带宾语，宾语若是名词，放在副词前后皆可;宾语若是人称代词，只能放在副词前面。

B.动词(vi)+副词。

1.come on赶快 2.get up起床 3.go home回家

4.come in进来 5.sit down坐下 6.stand up起立

此类短语属于不及物动词，不可以带宾语。

三、其它类动词词组

1.close the door 2.1ook the same 3.go to work/class 4.be ill 5.have a look/seat 6.have supper 7.1ook young 8.go shopping 9.watch TV/games 10. play games

[介词短语聚焦]

“介词+名词/代词”所构成的短语称为介词短语。现将Unitsl-16常用的介词短语按用法进行归类。

1.in+语言/颜色/衣帽等，表示使用某种语言或穿着……。

2.in + Row/ Team/ Class/ Grade等，表示“在……排/队/班级/年级”等。

3.in the morning/ afternoon/ evening/ 表示“在上午/下午/傍晚”等一段时间。

4.in the desk/ pencil-box/bedroom 等表示“在书桌/铅笔盒/卧室里”。

5.in the tree表示“在树上 (非树本身所有)”;on the tree表示“在树上(为树本身所有)”。

6.in the wall表示“在墙上(凹陷进去)”;on the wall表示“在墙上(指墙的表面)”。

7.at work(在工作)/at school(上学)/at home(在家)应注意此类短语中无the。

8.at + 时刻表示钟点。 9.like this/that表示方式，意为“像……这/那样”。

10.of短语表示所属关系。 11.behind/ beside/ near/ under+ 名词等，表示方位、处所。

12.from与to多表示方向，前者意为“从……”，后者意为“到……”。

另外，以下这些短语也必须掌握。如：on duty, after breakfast, at night, at the door, in the middle, in the sky, on one’s bike等。

[重点句型大回放]

1.I think…意为“我认为……”，是对某人或某事的看法或态度的一种句型。其否定式常用I don’t think…，

2.give sth. to sb./ give sb. sth. 意为“把……给……”，动词give之后可接双宾语，可用这两种句型;若指物的宾语是人称代词时，则只能用give it/ them to sb.

3.take sb./ sth. to…意为“把……(送)带到……”，后常接地点，也可接人。

4.One…, the other…/One is…and one is…意为“一个是……;另一个是……”，必须是两者中。

5.Let sb. do sth. 意为“让某人做某事”，人后应用不带to的动词不定式，其否定式为Don’t let sb，do sth.，或Let sb. not do sth. 另外，Let’s 与Let us的含义不完全相同，前者包括听者在内，后者不包括听者在内，

6.help sb. (to) do sth./help sb. with sth.意为“帮助某人做某事”，前者用不定式作宾补，后者用介词短语作宾补，二者可以互换. Help… out

7.What about…?/How about…?意为“……怎么样?”是用来询问或征求对方的观点、意见、看法等。about为介词，其后须接名词、代词或V-ing等形式。

8.It’s time to do…/ It’s time for sth. 意为“该做……的时间了”，其中to后须接原形动词，for后可接名词或V-ing形式。

9.like to do sth./like doing sth.意为“喜欢做某事”， 前一种句型侧重具体的一次性的动作;后一种句型侧重习惯性的动作，

10.ask sb.(not) to do sth. 意为“让某人(不要)做某事”，其中ask sb.后应接动词不定式，

11.show sb. sth. / show sth. to do. 意为“把某物给某人看”，该句型的用法同前面第2点。

12.introduce sb. to sb. 意为“把某人介绍给另一人”;introduce to sb.则是“向某人作介绍”。

[重点短语快速复习]

1.kinds of 各种各样的 2. either…or…或者……或者……，不是……就是……

3. neither…nor…既不……也不…… 4. Chinese tea without, anything in it 中国清茶

5. take a seat 就坐 6. home cooking 家常做法

7. be famous for 因……而著名 8. on ones way to在……途中

9. be sick/ill in hospital生病住院 10. at the end of在……的尽头，在……的末尾

11. wait for 等待 12. in time 及时

13. make one’s way to…往……(艰难地)走去

14. just then 正在那时 15. first of all 首先，第一

16. go wrong 走错路 17. be/get lost 迷路

18. make a noise 吵闹，喧哗 19. get on 上车

20. get off 下车 21. stand in line 站队

22. waiting room 候诊室，候车室 23. at the head of……在……的前头

24. laugh at 嘲笑 25. throw about 乱丢，抛散

26. in fact 实际上 27. at midnight 在半夜

28. have a good time=enjoy oneself玩得愉快

29. quarrel with sb. 和某人吵架 30. take one’s temperature 给某人体温

31. have/get a pain in…某处疼痛 32. have a headache 头痛

33. as soon as… 一……就…… 34. feel like doing sth. 想要干某事

35. stop…from doing sth. 阻止……干某事 36. fall asleep 入睡

37. again and again再三地，反复地 38. wake up 醒来，叫醒

39. instead of 代替 40. look over 检查

41. take exercise运动 42. had better(not) do sth. 最好(不要)干某事

43. at the weekend 在周末 44. on time 按时

45. out of从……向外 46. all by oneself 独立，单独

47. lots of=a lot of 许多 48. no longer/more=not…any longer/more 不再

49. get back 回来，取回 50. sooner or later迟早

51. run away 逃跑 52. eat up 吃光，吃完

53. run after 追赶 54. take sth. with sb. 某人随身带着某物

55. take(good) care of…=look after…(well) (好好)照顾，照料

56. think of 考虑到，想起 57. keep a diary 坚持写日记

常用英语短语

1. go to school 上学(用于专业的)go to the school 去学校(不一定是上学)

2. good way to 好方法

3. hate to do 讨厌没做过的事hate doing 讨厌做过的事

4. have a party for sb 举办谁的晚会

5. have a talk 听报告 谈一谈

6. have been doing 现在完成进行时eg : You have been talking You have been sleeping since

7. have been to …( 地方)……去过某过地方have gone to …(地方) 去了某地还没回来

8. have fun +doing 玩得高兴

9. have sth to do 有什么事要做

10. have to do sth 必须做某事

11. have trouble (problem) (in) doing sth 做什么事情有麻烦

12. have…time +doing

13. have…(时间)…off 放……假eg: I have month off 我请一个月得假

14. hear sb +do/doing 听见某人做某事/正在做某事

15. help a lot 很大用处

16. help sb with sth ones sth 帮助某人某事(某方面)help sb (to) do sth 帮助某人做某事

17. hope to do sth 希望做某事

18. How about(+doing) = What about(+doing)

19. how do you like = what do you think of 你对什么的看法

20. if : 是否=wether

21. eg: I dont know if (wether) I should go to the party 我不知道我是否应该去参加晚会

22. He dont know if (wether) we will arrive on time tomorrow morning 他不知道我们明天早上是否能准时到达

23. if :如果，假如(全部接一般时态)+条件语态从句

24. in ones opinion = sb think 某人认为

25. in some ways 在某些方面

26. in the end = finally(adv) 最后

以下是《九年级英语作文:我和哥哥的历险记》翻译。

It was sunny that day. Our parents were out, so there were only my brother and me at home. We were bored. So we decided to go boating. We played happily. But when we went to the middle of the river, the weather changed. It rained suddenly. We didn t bring umbrella and our boat was bamboo raft. As the rain was more and heavier, we were afraid to sink in the river. We tried our best to make our boat in shore. But our bamboo raft had more water on it. I was afraid to die. My brother was also very anxious. At that time, my mother came and she pulled us back to the ground. It was thrilling.

那是一个晴天。我们的父母都出去了，所以只有我和哥哥在家。我们很无聊。所以我们决定去划船。我们玩的很开心。但当我们走到河中央时，天气变了。突然下起雨来。我们没带伞，而且我们的船还竹排。由于雨越来越大，我们担心会沉到河里去。我们尽力使我们的船靠岸。但是竹筏上的水越来越多。我害怕死了。我哥哥也很着急。那时，我妈妈来了来了，她把我们拉回到地面。真的惊心动魄啊。

Matt gave us a class this afternoon, at the first part of the class, we saw a film. It was mainly about American football. After the film, we began t get to know the American football. It is similar to soccer, but it was much rougher. Players might get more easily. In another word, it was a game full of danger, they played just like fighting. One of the players just broke his leg during the match, and he would never play American football, because of his leg. What a pity! Matt told us that when he was in high school, he also take part in American football. He had broken his fingers for three times and his leg for once. Then I was puzzled, it was a very dangerous game, why was is popular?

一、注意审题

小作文的审题(即审读材料)很重要，决定着文章的成败。因为一个小作文的材料中，往往隐含了若干个写作要求，如不细心审读，抓不到这些隐含的要求，就很容易出现错误。例如：

一个孩子乘母亲不在，将家里的小闹钟拆了，母亲见后……

要求;根据上面的材料，展开想象，如果你是母亲，如何处置这个事情。请写出一个200字左右的处置过程。

这个小作文便隐含四个要求：(1)〝母亲见后〞，时间上必须要从母亲看见闹钟被拆之后写起;(2)〝如果你是母亲〞，行文中写作者必须是小孩的 母亲，必须以小孩子母亲的身份出现，不能这样写：〝如果我是这位母亲，我会这样处置……〞;(3)〝200字左右〞，字数限定在200字左右;(4)〝处 置过程〞，内容只能写处置的过程，而不能写结果和其他。

二、注意语言的简洁

这一点体现在两方面。其一，小作文字数一般是100┄300字，受篇幅限制，语言要求简洁明了。其二，如果是写应用文，则语言也一定要简洁，因为语言简洁是应用文写作的最基本要求。

三、力求结构完整

小作文是片断性作文，而非篇章。虽如此，但不能一味忽略结构的完整性。一篇小作文如果能够做到结构完整，则效果会更好。例如：

在你的身边有许多可亲可爱的事物，请你任选其中一种，以《我眼里的___________》为题写一篇200字左右的短文。

有位学生在叙写完一只小猫的伶俐乖巧后，篇末一句〝我非常喜爱我家的小猫〞独句成段，这样，既抒发了情感，又收束了全文，使短文结构完整，比那些一味描写小猫的文章要好得多了。

要做到结构完整，可运用以下的结构方式：前后照应式、篇末点题式、总分总式(包括总分式和分总式)等。

四、注意表达方式的运用

受文体的制约，一篇文章总以某种表达方式为主，同时兼用其他表达方式为主。小作文也应注意这一点。如江西省2002年中考语文小作文题为二选 一，(1)通过某一情景或场面，描写你最喜欢的色彩。(2)就你最喜欢的色彩，发表议论。无论选哪一题，或描写、或议论，总得以一种表达方式为主。但如果 能兼用其他表达方式，如兼用议论和抒情，表达自己对某种色彩的某中看法和喜爱之情，则能使短文大为增色。

A memorable event in the road I was growing up, there is one thing to make menever forget. Gone through that matter, I seem to grow up a lot. That was New Years Eve last year; the students send each other greeting cards. Cards with their own wishes and sent to good friends. I have also been infected by this atmosphereand ready to join the crowd, suddenly, I saw a student sitting there alone. That is not the famous "naughty King" Liu Kai do? But now, he seems like a changed man. How he got it? I looked at him puzzled. Suddenly, I wake up. Certainly because no one sent him a greeting card, and no one said to him words of wish I could not help feel sad for him. So I handed him a greeting card ,and said to him: “ happy holiday!" He looked at me then looked at the cards, said happily: “Thank you!" His eyes filled with happiness. He stood up and said: “I also have a beautiful card Looked at him, and I smiled. How important Group is !

Ching Ming festival is a traditional Chinese festival, has a history of two

thousand five hundred years; Its main traditional cultural activities are:

grave, outing, cockfighting, swing, play mat, pull hook, tug-of-war), etc. The

members (the grave), is very old. Tomb-sweeping day, as a traditional culture,

it is a full of mysterious colorific festival, on this day, the pedestrians on

the road are missing people who died, to express their respect and grief!

Ching Ming festival, in hainan many locals call it the "qingming festival".

Middle age the qingming festival is very important, if not as a legal holiday,

they will also take time to go home "qingming festival". This suggests that the

qingming festival has become a culture, become a man of the late express a way

of missing loved ones.

Qingming festival, is a kind of Chinese traditional culture recognition and

respect. Qingming festival is very important in the ancient tradition of a

festival, is also the most important festival of festivals, was the day of

ancestor worship and the grave. This grave, the shrine of the dead an activity.

The han nationality and some minority are mostly in the tombs. According to the

old tradition, the grave, people to carry goods such as especially fruit, paper

money to the grave, will be food for offering in the family tomb, then paper

incineration, new soil up to the grave, fold a few branches pale green branches

ed in the grave, and then salute kowtow worship, finally eat especially home.

The tang dynasty poet tu mus poem "qingming" : "rains fall heavily as qingming

comes, and passers-by with lowered spirits go. Restaurant where? Boy pointed

apricot blossom village." Write the tomb-sweeping day is special atmosphere.

Until today, tomb-sweeping day ancestor worship, mourning the late relatives

customs still prevail. And the more brought to the attention of the people.

Chinese is influenced by its culture, make clear the Chinese memorial

ancestors festival. Ancestor worship in qingming festival people are back, this

is a kind of culture, a kind of habit.

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”.

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