高中英语说明文写作tornado精选20篇

As soon as everyone steps into junior middle schools, English plays an important role in our daily life. Whats more, with China entering the WTO, English has become the most popular foreign language in China. As a student, I think everyone should have a good knowledge of English. However, nowadays the majority of students have great difficulty in learning English. How does the problem come about? For me, I am into English. In my opinion, the reason is that a great many students have no interest and confidence in learning English.

So, I think it is important to develop an interest in English and to remember that patience is the key to learning English. Then try your best and take every chance to communicate with others in English. Besides, by listening to English tapes you may make great progress. I suggest buying some English magazines and newspapers, such as English Weekly, the best among them, which will help you a lot.

Do as I have said above, you will be successful sooner or later.

说明文用来解释或说明理论，方法，过程或某种抽象的情况。这里所说的说明文主要是根据具体图表所写的文章。文章只传达图表中的信息，不涉及观点问题，不需要以理服人。

按图表写作文，首先要读懂图表，理解其包含的信息。为此目的，应注意三点：第一是读懂标题，明白图表的目的;第二是研究图表主题，理解各项内容及其之间的联系;第三是注意图表的说明或图例，以免误解。总之，对图表的研究要仔细，理解和判断要准确，不能草率做出决定，以免在文章内容方面丢分。

读懂图表之后，立即思考文章应表达的内容。这里，我们应该明白两个制约因素：其一是作文写作时间只有二十多分钟，不可能长篇大论;其二是图表内容繁多，不可能一一说明，也不能写成枯燥无味的流水账。考虑取舍时，应注意总的趋势，概貌，相互关系，典型的例子或数据，抓住这些之后，其他的内容实际上也包含在其中，不必再提及。

文章的写法没有固定的模式，但因题材的限制，变化太大也不可能。第一段必须说明图表的性质与目的，没有这一点，文章的主题难以突出。自然段的划分以清楚明了为原则，例如第一段谈图表的目的，其余自然段应当以所谈要点划分，最后一段可谈自己的理解和看法(也可不谈)。写作时的关键是每个要点谈完后，应给出例证，把该说地说完，然后再进入下一要点，不能不顾文章条理，把想到的内容随便乱放。

在语言方式上，要注意句式的变化，尽量避免反复使用某一句型。再并列情况较多时，设法采用连结词或关系词将零散的内容串在一起，为文章的主题服务。全文的思路可以用主题句，自然段，逻辑词等手法表明，使读者感到作者的思路清晰，感到全文是个有机的整体。遇到众多雷同的词汇短语时，能变化的尽量变化，无力变化时可用句式变化弥补。

作文是六级考试的一个重要得分部分，可说起写作技巧，很多同学都会皱眉头，抱怨无话可写，内容平淡。下面是小编整理的六级写作的七大要点，欢迎阅读。

一、 长短句原则。

工作还得一张一弛呢，老让读者读长句，累死人!写一个短小精辟的句子，相反，却可以起到画龙点睛的作用。而且如果我们把短句放在段首或者段末，也可以揭示主题：As a creature, I eat; as a man, I read. Although one action is to meet the primary need of my body and the other is to satisfy the intellectual need of mind, they are in a way quite similar. 如此可见，长短句结合，抑扬顿挫，岂不爽哉?牢记!

强烈建议：在文章第一段(开头)用一长一短，且先长后短;在文章主体部分，要先用一个短句解释主要意思，然后在阐述几个要点的时候采用先短后长的句群形式，定会让主体部分妙笔生辉!文章结尾一般用一长一短就可以了。

二、 主题句原则。

国有其君，家有其主，文章也要有其主。否则会给人造成“群龙无首”之感!相信各位读过一些破烂文学，故意把主体隐藏在文章之内，结果造成我们稀里糊涂!不知所云!所以奉劝各位一定要写一个主题句，放在文章的开头(保险型)或者结尾，让读者一目了然，必会平安无事!

特别提示：隐藏主体句可是要冒险的!To begin with, you must work hard at your lessons and be fully prepared before the exam(主题句). Without sufficient preparation, you can hardly expect to answer all the questions correctly.

三、 一 二 三原则。

领导讲话总是第一部分、第一点、第二点、第三点、第二部分、第一点… 如此罗嗦。可毕竟还是条理清楚。考官们看文章也必然要通过这些关键性的“标签”来判定你的文章是否结构清楚，条理自然。破解方法很简单，只要把下面任何一组的词汇加入到你的几个要点前就清楚了。

1)first, second, third, last(不推荐，原因：俗)

2)firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally(不推荐，原因：俗)

3)the first, the second, the third, the last(不推荐，原因：俗)

4)in the first place, in the second place, in the third place, lastly(不推荐，原因：俗)

5)to begin with, then, furthermore, finally(强烈推荐)

6)to start with, next, in addition, finally(强烈推荐)

7)first and foremost, besides, last but not least(强烈推荐)

8)most important of all, moreover, finally

9)on the one hand, on the other hand(适用于两点的情况)

10)for one thing, for another thing(适用于两点的情况)

建议：不仅仅在写作中注意，平时说话的时候也应该条理清楚!

四、短语优先原则。

写作时，尤其是在考试时，如果使用短语，有两个好处：其一、用短语会使文章增加亮点，如果老师们看到你的文章太简单，看不到一个自己不认识的短语，必然会看你低一等。相反，如果发现亮点—精彩的短语，那么你的文章定会得高分了。

其二、关键时刻思维短路，只有凑字数，怎么办?用短语是一个办法!比如：I cannot bear it. 可以用短语表达：I cannot put up with it. I want it. 可以用短语表达：I am looking forward to it. 这样字数明显增加，表达也更准确。

五、多实少虚原则

原因很简单，写文章还是应该写一些实际的东西，不要空话连篇。这就要求一定要多用实词，少用虚词。我这里所说的虚词就是指那些比较大的词。

比如我们说一个很好的时候，不应该之说nice这样空洞的词，应该使用一些诸如generous, humorous, interesting, smart, gentle, warm-hearted, hospitable 之类的形象词。

再比如： 走出房间，general的词是：walk out of the room 但是小偷走出房间应该说：slip out of the room 小姐走出房间应该说：sail out of the room 小孩走出房间应该说：dance out of the room 老人走出房间应该说：stagger out of the room 所以多用实词，少用虚词，文章将会大放异彩!

六、 多变句式原则。

1)加法(串联)都希望写下很长的句子，像个老外似的，可就是怕写错，怎么办，最保险的写长句的方法就是这些，可以在任何句子之间加and, 但最好是前后的句子又先后关系或者并列关系。比如说：I enjoy music and he is fond of playing guitar. 如果是二者并列的，我们可以用一个超级句式：Not only the fur coat is soft, but it is also warm. 其它的短语可以用：besides, furthermore, likewise, moreover

2)转折(拐弯抹角)批评某人缺点的时候，我们总习惯先拐弯抹角说说他的优点，然后转入正题，再说缺点，这种方式虽然阴险了点，可毕竟还比较容易让人接受。所以呢，我们说话的时候，只要在要点之前先来点废话，注意二者之间用个专这次就够了。The car was quite old, yet it was in excellent condition. The coat was thin, but it was warm. 更多的短语：despite that, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, notwithstanding

3)因果(so, so, so)昨天在街上我看到了一个女孩，然后我主动搭讪，然后我们去咖啡厅，然后我们认识了，然后我们成为了朋友…可见，讲故事的时候我们总要追求先后顺序，先什么，后什么，所以然后这个词就变得很常见了。其实这个词表示的是先后或因果关系!The snow began to fall, so we went home. 更多短语：then, therefore, consequently, accordingly, hence, as a result, for this reason, so that

4)失衡句(头重脚轻，或者头轻脚重)有些人脑袋大，身体小，或者有些人脑袋小，身体大，虽然我们不希望长成这个样子，可如果真的是这样了，也就必然会吸引别人的注意力。文章中如果出现这样的句子，就更会让考官看到你的句子与众不同。其实就是主语从句，表语从句，宾语从句的变形。举例：This is what I can do. Whether he can go with us or not is not sure. 同样主语、宾语、表语可以改成如下的复杂成分：When to go, Why he goes away…

5)附加(多此一举)如果有了老婆，总会遇到这样的情况，当你再讲某个人的时候，她会插一句说，我昨天见过他;或者说，就是某某某，如果把老婆的话插入到我们的话里面，那就是定语从句和同位语从句或者是插入语。The man whom you met yesterday is a friend of mine. I don’t enjoy that book you are reading. Mr liu, our oral English teacher, is easy-going. 其实很简单，同位语--要解释的东西删除后不影响整个句子的构成;定语从句—借用之前的关键词并且用其重新组成一个句子插入其中，但是whom or that 关键词必须要紧跟在先行词之前。

6)排比(排山倒海句)文学作品中最吸引人的地方莫过于此，如果非要让你的文章更加精彩的话，那么我希望你引用一个个的排比句，一个个得对偶句，一个个的不定式，一个个地词，一个个的短语，如此表达将会使文章有排山倒海之势!Whether your tastes are modern or traditional, sophisticated or simple, there is plenty in London for you. Nowadays, energy can be obtained through various sources such as oil, coal, natural gas, solar heat, the wind and ocean tides. We have got to study hard, to enlarge our scope of knowledge, to realize our potentials and to pay for our life. (气势恢宏) 要想写出如此气势恢宏的句子非用排比不可!

七、挑战极限原则。

既然十挑战极限，必然是比较难的，但是并非不可攀!原理：在学生的文章中，很少发现诸如独立主格的句子，其实也很简单，只要花上5分钟的时间看看就可以领会，它就是分词的一种特殊形式，分词要求主语一致，而独立主格则不然。比如：The weather being fine, a large number of people went to climb the Western Hills. Africa is the second largest continent, its size being about three times that of China. 如果你可以写出这样的句子，不得高分才怪!

Dear Mum and Dad,

Time flies! Ive been here for nearly a year. Im very pleased to find that our school is really a good one. The students in our school work hard at their lessons. They take an active part in activities that help to improve their qualities and health. They are friendly to each other and always ready to help each other.

The teachers here all enjoy their work and they love their students. They work hard and do what they can do to help their students. And the students respect their teachers. They get on well with each other. The students in our school try their best to kkp the school yard clean and tidy. They never throw waste about nor pick the flowers.

In a word, I am deeply impressed by the harmonious atmosphere in this school. I love my new school.

Yours,

Tom

亲爱的妈妈和爸爸，

时光飞逝！我来这儿已经快一年了。我很高兴发现我们学校真是一个好的学校。我们学校的学生在功课上努力工作。他们积极参加活动，帮助提高他们的素质和健康。他们彼此友好，随时准备互相帮助。

这里的老师们都喜欢他们的工作，他们喜欢他们的学生。他们努力工作，尽他们所能做的来帮助他们的学生。和学生尊重他们的老师。他们相处得很好。我们学校的学生尽力北校园干净整洁。他们从不乱扔垃圾，也不摘花。

一句话，我对这所学校的和谐氛围印象深刻。我爱我的新学校。

一、什么是说明文？

说明文是以说明为主要表达方式来解说事物、阐明事理而给人知识的文章体裁。说明文实用性很强，它包括广告、说明书、提要、提示、规则、章程、解说词、科学小品等。

二、说明文分类

按照不同的标准，说明文可分不同的类别：

依据说明对象与说明目的的不同，把说明文分为事物说明文和事理说明文两大类。事物说明文的说明对象是具体事物。通过对具体事物的形状、构造、性质、特点、用途等作客观而准确的说明，使读者了解、认识这个或这类事物,例如：《中国石拱桥》、《苏州园林》等。事理说明文的说明对象是某个抽象事理。将抽象事理的成因、关系、原理等说清楚，使读者明白这个事理“为什么是这样”是其主要目的，例如《大自然的语言》、《奇妙的克隆》等。 根据说明语言的不同特色，把说明文分为平实的说明文和生动的说明文两种。

根据说明文的体系不同，还可以分为自然科学类和社会科学类。

三、说明文的特点

以说明为主的表达方式是说明文与其他文体的主要区别。在各种文章样式中，说明文体是一种客观的说明事物,阐明事理的一种文体。说明文的特点是“说”，而且具有一定的知识性。这种知识，或者来自有关科学研究资料，或者是亲身实践、调查、考察的所得，都具有严格的科学性。

说明文的语言特点

准确、简洁、平实是说明文语言的主要特点。当然，说明文的语言风格也是多种多样、各有特色的，有的以平实见长，有的以生动活泼见长。以此为据，可概括为平实说明和生动说明两种方式。一般来说，以说明事物为主的说明文，重在抓住事物的特点，用简明的语言平实地加以说明。而科学小品，讲究趣味性、文艺性，须要作必要的生动、形象的说明。

四、说明文的顺序

1.时间顺序。时间顺序是文章常见的记叙、说明顺序之一。 即按照事理发展过程的先后来介绍某一事物的说明顺序。凡是事物的发展变化都离不开时间，如说明生产技术、产品制作、工作方法、历史发展、文字演变、人物成长、动植物生长等等，都应以时间为序。 时间顺序在文章中使用恰当就可以起到画龙点睛的效果，说明清楚，使读者一目了然，所以在文章时间顺序也是一种独特技巧。 2.空间顺序。空间顺序。即是按事物空间结构的顺序来说明 ，或从外到内，或从上到下，或从整体到局部来加以介绍，这种说明顺序有利于全面说明事物各方面的特征。一般说明某一静态实体（如建筑物等），常用这种顺序。；《故宫博物馆》按照先总后分的顺序，先概括说明故宫建筑物的总体特征，然后再具体介绍太和门、太和殿、中和殿、保和殿、乾清宫……御花园，而在介绍每一座建筑物的时候，则又按照先外后内、先上后下的顺序。

3.逻辑顺序。逻辑顺序即按照事物、事理的内在逻辑关系，或由个别到一般，或由具体到抽象，或由主要到次要，或由现象到本质，或由原因到结果等等一一介绍说明。逻辑顺序主要分成12种——从原因到结果、从主要到次要、从整体到部分、从概括到具体、从现象到本质、从具体到一般、从结果到原因、从次要到主要、从部分到整体、从具体到概括、从本质到现象、从一般到具体。不管是实体的事物，如山川、江河、花草、树木、器物等，还是抽象的事理，如思想、观点、概念、原理、技术等，都适用于以逻辑顺序来说明凡是阐述事物、事理间的各种因果关系或其他逻辑关系，按逻辑顺序写作最为适宜。

五、说明文的结构

说明文的结构一般有两种：总分式，事物说明文常用的结构形式：（1）总——分，如《苏州园林》（先总体的概括，再分说。结尾没有总结性的语言），（2）总——分——总，如《故宫博物院》；递进式，各层之间的关系是由浅入深、由表及里、由现象到本质。各层之间的关系为递进关系。如《向沙漠进军》。

六、说明文常用的说明方法

(1)下定义。用简明的语言指出被说明对象的本质特征。从而更科学、更本质、更概括地揭示事物的特征/事理。下定义能准确揭示事物的本质，是科技说明文常用的方法。

(2)分类别。把被说明对象按一定的标准分成不同的类别，一类一类地加以说明，叫分类别。如《食物从何处来》把生物获得食物的途径和方法划分为"自养"和"异养"两类，然后分别说明。

(3)举例子。举出实例进行说明，使内容具体化，叫举例子。《中国石拱桥》通过介绍赵州桥和芦沟桥，使人们具体了解中国石拱桥的特点，用的就是举例子的说明方法。

(4)列数字。用准确的数据说明事物的某些方面，这种方法叫列数字。如"笔全长13.5厘米，笔身约占3/5，笔帽约占2/5。顶端的活动小枢纽能自由伸出和缩进，像个乌**，长0.7厘米，笔挂长3.9厘米。"(《我的圆珠笔》)

(5)作比较。就是通过比较说明事物和事理。例如《苏州园林》中，用苏州园林建筑的不对称与我国古代宫殿和近代的一般住房的对称进行比较，突出苏州园林的自然之美。

(6)打比方。说明某些抽象的或者是人们比较陌生的事物，可以用具体的或者大家已经熟悉的事物和它比较，使读者通过比较得到具体而鲜明的印象。"石拱桥的桥洞成弧形，就像虹。"形象准确地说明了石拱桥的外形特征，这句话就用了打比方的说明方法。

(7)画图表。为了把复杂的事物说清楚，还可以采用图表法，来弥补单用文字表达的缺欠，对有些事物解说更直接、更具体。使读者直观，一目了然地了解事物的特征。

(8)引资料。资料的范围很广，可以是经典著作，名家名言，公式定律，典故谚语等。

(9)摹状貌。为了使被说明对象更形象、具体，可以进行状貌摹写，这种说明方法叫摹状貌。（和描写要区分开，两者虽一样，不过是在不同的文体中的。）

(10)作诠释。 从一个侧面，就事物的某一个特点做些解释，这种方法叫诠释法。

七、简单说明文的写作方法

1、必须抓住特征。所谓特征，就是指事物所具有的独特的地方。任何事物都有各自的特征，这也是它区别于其它事物的主要标志《活板》介绍我国古代的印刷术，就当时说："活板"这种印刷术的主要特征是"活"。因而文章在介绍中自始至终抓住了这个特征，把活板的印刷历史、制作方法和使用方法，介绍得十分清楚，使读者有了确切的了解。能不能抓住事物的特征，主要取决于作者对事物有没有细致的观察和深入的研究。

2、合理安排顺序。事物大多是具有复杂性的，必须从多方面去介绍，才能讲清楚它的特征。依据事物本身固有的条理，是将说明文写得条理清楚的根本保证。事物本身固有的条理顺序，一般说来，有以下几种：

(1)空间顺序。是指按照物品的空间方位进行说明。或由远及近，由近及远;或由内到外，由外到内;或由上到下，由下到上;或由前到后，由后到前等等。说明物品的形状、构造，一般采用这种顺序。

(2)时间顺序。是指按照时间发展的先后进行说明，先发生的先说，后发生的后说。说明事物发展变化的过程，往往采用这种顺序。如《看云识天气》中有一段描写天气的变化，由晴转阴，由阴转雨(雪)有时间先后的顺序，天空的云随着这个时间的推移，也变化着不同的形态：卷云--卷层云--雨层云。就是按时间先后的顺序写的。

(3)逻辑顺序。是指按照事物内部的联系和人们认识事物的规律来安排说明的顺序。由

整体到部分，由主要到次要，由浅入深，由简到繁，由具体到抽象，由现象到本质等，因此，说明文作者在考虑文章思路时也必须符合这些认识规律，才能使自己的文章正确地反映人们对客观世界的认识过程，同时又能适应读者的接受能力和欣赏习惯。如《大自然的语言》说明物候现象来临的因素，共写了三段：第一段说，"首先是纬度"，第二段指出，"经度的差异是影响物候第二个因素"，第三段指出，"影响物候的第三个因素是高下的差异"。这个层次顺序的安排，就是由主次决定的。

3、选择说明方法。说明事物的方法很多，我们选择什么样的说明方法要根据自己的文章而定，因为运用一些说明方法的目的，是为了更正确地说明事物。

4、语言描述准确。说明文的语言，和其它文体一样，都讲究用词准确，表述明白，这是写好各类文体章的基本要求。但是，说明文作为一种独立的文体，对文章的语言又有自己的特殊要求。说明文是以介绍知识为主的一种文体，无论是解说事物，还是阐明事理，都必须讲究科学性，按照客观事物的本来面目，老老实实地说清它们各自的特点和本质，既不允许虚构夸大，哗众取宠，也不允许艰深晦涩，佶屈聱牙。这样，说明文的语言就应该简洁明了，质朴无华，也就是语言要"平实"。

Love me, love my dog. ----St. Bernard 爱屋及乌。下面是小编整理的一些高中英语作文好句摘抄，欢迎查阅，谢谢。

1.Life is a school and we are here to learn.

生活是一所学校，我们都在这里学习。

2.Life is a path winding in the mountain, bumpy and zigzagging

生活是蜿蜒在山中的小径，坎坷不平。

3.Life is a never - ending road, I walk, walk, keep walking.

人生是一条没有尽头的路，我走着，走着，不断地走着。

4.The home is where the heart is. The heart is where you are.

心在哪里，家就在哪里。你在哪里，我的心就在哪里。

5.The course of true love never did run smooth. ---Shakespeare

真诚的爱情永不是走一条平坦的道路的。

6.Without music, life is a journey through a desert.

没有音乐，生命就如荒漠之旅。

7.Life is a line segment, the intersection after the separation.

人生就是线段，交集后分离。

8.Life is a sail trip full of chances and challenges.

人生的航行充满了机遇与挑战。

9.Life is a lane but it is a rotative course.

生命是单行道，但是一个循环的过程。

10.A man has choice to begin love, but not to end it. ----Bohn

一个人开始去爱上谁的时候，他可以有所选择，但当他要结束爱情的时候，他可没有选择了。

11.A happy family life is a wonderful asset for any one.

快乐的家庭生活对每个人都是很大的一笔财富。

12.Life is a maze and love is a riddle.

生活是座迷宫，爱情是个谜。

13.Life is a mystery to solve not a problem to resolve.

生命是一个等待你去理解的神秘事物，而不是等待你去解决的问题。

14.Where love fails, we espy all faults. ---Ray

在爱情丧失的地方，我们就察见所有的缺点了。

15.When work is a pleasure, life is a joy!

当工作是一种乐趣时，生活才是一种享受。

16.The kiss of life is a love poem.

吻是恋爱生活上的一首诗。

17.Senile idiots: What we call life is a - and - ten - cent store romance.

我们所谓的人生只是一篇廉价物品商店里听来的传奇故事。

18.Point to Ponder: Life is a test and a trust.

思考重点：人生是考验，也是受托。

19.Love me, love my dog. ----St. Bernard

爱屋及乌。

20.Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy.

和它交朋友结为盟友，而不是成为敌人。

21.Life is a tragedy full of joy.

人生是一场充满快乐的悲剧。

22.Life is a verb not a noun.

生命是个动词，不是名词。

23.Love can turn the cottage into a golden palace.

爱情可化陋室为宫殿。

24.Maybe our life is a cup of water.

也许生活本来就是一杯水。

25.Peel a fig for your friend, a peach for your enemy.

给朋友剥个无花果，给坏蛋抛只大坏桃。

26.One love expels another. ---Lyly

一个爱情驱除另一个爱情。

27.Love cannot be compelled. ----Chaucer

爱情不能被强迫。

28.Love laughs at locksmiths. ----Colman

爱情嘲笑锁匠。

29.Love makes the world go round. ----Dickens

爱能使世界转动。

30.Life is a journey to experience to learn and to enjoy.

生活是不断经历学习和享受的旅程。

31.Never explain: our friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe it anyway.

永远不要解释：你的朋友不需要它，而你的敌人无论如何都不会相信它。

32.My life is a straight line, turning only for you.

我的人生是一条直线, 转弯只是为了你。

33.Love me little, love me long. ----John Heywood

爱不贵亲密，而贵长久。

34.Life is a vulgar flare amid the cool radiance.

生命只是惨淡的星光里的平凡的一闪。

35.Life is a whistle-stop between eternities.

人生只是永恒中的一刹那而已。

36.life to learn to enjoy: enjoy working happy laughter, enjoy friends, enjoy the warmth of family, enjoy the joy to create, enjoy the sweet fruit.

生活中要学会享受：享受工作的欢快，享受朋友的笑声，享受家人的温馨，享受创造的快慰，享受果实的甜美。

37.Love and a cough cannot be hid.

爱情与咳嗽不能隐匿。

38.Love and friendship make a home to its name. A sweet home is the ritght place for hearts to have a good rest.

屋若有爱长驻，有友情为贵宾，就是真正的家，甜蜜的家。因为在那，心灵可以得到休息。

39.Marry in haste, and repent at leisure. ----Ray

草率成婚，后悔莫及。

40.Love asks faith, and faith asks firmness. ----Herber

爱情要求忠诚，而忠诚则要求坚定。

41.Good self-esteem is necessary for good relationships.

自尊才会有好人缘。

42.Life is a continuous course of death and revival.

生命是连续不断的死亡与复活。

43.I know someone in the world is waiting for me, although I`ve no idea of who he is. But I feel happy every day for this.

我知道这世上有人在等我，但我不知道我在等谁，为了这个，我每天都非常快乐。

44.Life is a test and this world a place of trial.

人生是一种考验，而这个世界就是考场。

45.life is a song, sing the life rhythm and melody; Life is a road, extend the footprint of the life and hope; Life is a cup of wine, full of life and mellow sorrow; Life is a mass of linen, interweaving the trouble with life and happy; Life is a picture, and describes the life experience of red, green, blue; Life is a fire, burning vision of life and to dream.

生活是一首歌，吟唱着人生的节奏和旋律;生活是一条路，延伸着人生的足迹和希望;生活是一杯酒，饱含着人生的清醇与忧愁;生活是一团麻，交织着人生的烦恼与快乐;生活是一幅画，描绘着人生经历的红绿蓝;生活是一团火，燃烧着人生的憧憬和梦想。

46.Life is a short journey from birth to death.

从生到死，生命是个简短的旅程。

47.Love begets love. ---Herrick

爱产生爱。

48.Life is a flower of which love is the honey.

人生是花朵，爱情如蜜甜。

49.Faults are thick where love is thin. ----Howell

嘲情义淡，样样不顺眼。

50.For if dreams go. Life is a barren field. Frozen with snow.

如果梦想消失了, 生活就变成了积满冰雪的不毛之地。

51.Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes!

人生就是一连串的你好再见!

52.Whom we love best to them we can say least. ----Ray

对我们最爱的人，我们能说的话最少。

53.With the friends there are always laughs and shared happy moments, the friends are like the small drops of water of the morning dew, where the heart is it and freshens up.

总是能与朋友一齐笑和分享快乐时光的朋友，就像心里面一小滴清晨的露水，可以使人精神饱满。

54.Life is a journey that is meant to be experienced in full.

生活是一次旅行，人们应该完整地体验它。

55.Life is a interwoven by struggles between Love and Fear.

人的一生就是在爱与恐惧之间挣扎时交织出的画面。

56.Life is a gift we and everyday.

生活是一份我们每日都收到的礼物。

57.Life is a flower, and love is the honey of the flower.

人生是花，而爱便是花的蜜。

58.I love you not for who you are, but for who I am before you

我爱你不是因为你是谁，而是我在你面前可以是谁。

59.Life is a bridge of sighs across the flood of tears.

生活是跨越泪河的叹息之桥。

60.Life is a battle from cradle to grave .

人生是从摇篮到坟墓的一场搏斗。

61.life four DaLe: youth, entrepreneurial success, family and harmonious, the neighborhood. Life four big and sad: disease, swayed by lost, repeat it, nothing at all.

人生四大乐：青春活力，创业有成，家庭和顺，邻里和谐。人生四大悲：病魔缠身，患得患失，重蹈覆辙，一事无成。

62.In a sense, life is a succession of meeting with many individuals.

在某种意义上，生命是与许多人接触的延续。

63.if you want to go famous, then we have slowly sleep; If you want to go long wisdom, then we have slowly proud. If you want to slow down the aging, then you will have to hurry up learning; If you want to slow down, so you must hurry out step.

如果你想快点成名，那么就得慢点睡觉;如果你想快点长智，那么就得慢点骄傲。如果你想慢点老化，那么你就得快点学习;如果你想慢点淘汰，那么就得快点迈步。

64.Life is a do - it - yourself project. Be ambitious and just do it.

人生是一个自助的工程, 要雄心壮志并努力去做。

65.Life is a dream of a little less inconstant.

人生是一场稍稍不那么无常的梦而已。

66.Life is a festival only to the wise.

生活只是聪明人的喜庆日。

67.have a heart of spring, ecstatic to in full bloom; Again the sea, the mind can open; Good, play to have womb agile; The eyes have god, the look line to sharp; Arm strength, make moves to the punch; With rhythm, steps are to light.

心里有春天，心花才能怒放;胸中有大海，胸怀才能开阔;腹中有良策，处事才能利落;眼睛有炯神，目光才能敏锐;臂膀有力量，出手才有重拳;脚步有节奏，步履才能轻盈。

68.Home is where I can shut the door and be by myself.

家就是一个我能关起门来独处的地方。

69.If life is a Series, what season are you in right now?

如果生命是一个连续剧, 你现在是哪一个阶段呢?

70.If life is a quilt, then love should be a thread.

假如生活就像一床被子, 那么爱就是其中的线。

71.Life is a chain of moments of enjoyments; not only about survival.

生活是一串快乐时光，我们不仅仅是为了生存而生存。

72.Life is a chess game while happiness is devotion.

人生就是一盘棋，而幸福就是投入。

73.Every day of thy life is a leaf in thy history.

生命中的一天就是你历史上的一页。

74.dont part with your illusions. when they are gone you may still exist， but you have ceased to live.

不要放弃你的幻想。当幻想没有了以后，你还可以生存，但是你虽生犹死。

75.Don`t waste your time on a man/woman,who isn`t willing to waste their time on you.

不要为那些不愿在你身上花费时间的人而浪费你的时间。

76.Don`t listen to what other say about you, lead you own life.

不要听别人怎么说你，走自己的路。

77.Because life is a kind of freehand brushwork, casual like.

因为人生就是一种写意，随意就好。

78.Life is a process of survival, with all the process of competition.

人生的生存过程, 也是一个充满各种竞争的过程。

79.Life is a pure flame and an invisible sun within us.

生命是一束纯净的火焰，我们依靠自己内心看不见的太阳而生存。

80.Life is a road impassability one - way traffic, you can turn.

生活不是单行线，此路不通，你可以转弯。

81.Without respect, love cannot go far. ----A. Dumas

倘不互相尊敬，爱亦难久持。

82.Any field of life is a cloth woven with countless separate loops.

生命的任何领域都是由数不清的独立的回路编织而成的。

83.not afraid, afraid he far short; Slow, afraid often stood; Are not afraid of poverty, afraid loc lazy; Not afraid, afraid his opponent fierce fibrillation.

不怕路远，就怕志短;不怕缓慢，就怕常站;不怕贫穷，就怕惰懒;不怕对手悍，就怕自己颤。

1)Some(people)argue/claim/believe/hold that……But others set(put)forth a different argument about/oppositive views on the matter in question.

(e.g. Some claim that setting off firecrackers is a good practice of celebrating the Spring Festival.……But others put forth opposite views on the problem.)

2)Some(people)advocate/endorse/favor/are for(或oppose/object to/are against)……Yet others stick to/hold on to/cling to the opposite views/argument/points.

(e.g. Some advocate changes intended to modernize the building code.……Yet others hold on to the opposite views.)

3)To some peoples mind/From some peoples point of view/In the eye(s)o f some people，the matter in question is/seems/should be/means……But to othersmind/from others point of view/in otherseyes，it is just/quite the other way around/contrary/opposite(或the opposite/reverse is the case/true.)

(e.g. To some peoples mind，reading should be done in a selective way.……But to others‘，it is just the other way around.)

4)Some(people)respond/react to……by……But others behave/act in the other direction/in the opposite way.

(e.g. Some people respond to failure by remaining inactive or avoiding it……But others behave in the opposite way.)

5)Some take the view that……And/But on the other hand，others argue for the opposite view that……

(e.g. Some are of the view that institutions mould characters.……And on the other hand，others argue for the opposite view that characters transform institutions.)

Nowadays, there are more and more students becoming short-sighted. Some students get short-sightedness when they are little. There are fifteen students wearing glasses in my class. Being short-sighted is common among students, even in primary school. That is too serious. Therefore, we should protect our eyes carefully. When we are reading and writing, we should keep a standard posture. Besides, we should not watch TV or play computer for too long. They are bad for our eyes. And, we should do eyes exercises regularly. A good rest is also important to our eyes. In all, eyes are the windows of our mind. We should keep it healthy.

every one has a dream. i have a dream, too. i have a dream that one day i could become a math teacher.

i love math very much, because i think math is quite useful. its useful when people are buying things. its useful when students are learning subjects like physics and chemitry. and its useful when scientists are doing experiments. teachers can not only help students to learn things but also teach the students to apply what they learn into practice.

therefore, i hope to be a math teacher in the future. i want to help more students learn math.

Early in the morning, I opened my computer and read the news.

There was the news about a driver had the heart disease attack when he was driving the bus, there were more than 40 people in the bus.

The driver stopped the bus off the road and then stopped his breath.

I was so touched by the driver, in the emergency situation, he considered the passengers’ lives in the first place.

It is his sense of responsibility that makes him to do it. The driver sets the good example to the public, he shows the importance of responsibility.

No matter what we do, we should not forget about taking our responsibility. If people don’t take their own responsibility, then things will be out of order, the world will be in the mess. Responsibility always comes first.

一大早，我就打开电脑看新闻。有一则消息是关于一个司机在开车时心脏病发作，车上有超过40个人。

司机把车开在了路边，然后停止了呼吸。我被这位司机感动，在紧急的情况下，他把乘客的生命放在第一位。

正是他的责任感让他这样做。司机给大众树立了好榜样，他展示了责任的重要性。无论我们做什么，都不应该忘记履行我们的职责。如果人们不这样做，事情就会出乱，世界就会陷入混乱。责任大于山。

[高中英语作文：责任大于山

所谓散文，从广义说，是与诗歌、小说、戏剧相并列的一种文体；从狭义说，是一种自由、灵活，短小精悍，表现真人真事真实感情的文体。感情充沛没有感情就不称其为散文。散文对作者主观感情的要求是所有文体中仅次于诗歌的。散文一般的写作规律是：对事物、人生、景物突然有了感悟，感悟深入升华，敷衍成文。这感悟就是散文的意味之本，是散文的中心立意。可是要表现这样的中心立意，就是抒情。所以好的散文，记叙、议论都带有强烈的感情，字里行间都渗透着感情。以下是高中散文写作基础知识，欢迎阅读。

一、精于立意

散文的立意其实就是散文的感悟，有感悟才有散文的写作。散文的立意要求独特，就是说作者的感悟是体现作者的独特情志、独特感受、独特体验的感悟，是他人所不能产生的精神产生。依靠对生活的深入观察、感受、理解。散文立意只要从生活实际出发，凭着鲜明的感受，敏锐的观察能力，同人民同时代共同跳动的脉搏，深厚的感情，丰富的想象，深沉的思索，就会感到我们生活中洋溢着的是诗意。这诗意，是使我们心灵受到触动的东西，使我们眼睛豁然开朗的东西，思想突然升华的东西，感情更为纯洁的东西，它就是诗的灵感。我们要为自己的散文立意去努力捕捉这各心灵的颤动，思想的闪光点。

二、善于构思

构思是写作者对生活素材进行去粗取精、去伪存真、由此及彼、由表及里的加工、提炼的过程。如何寻找线索：散文的材料是很散的，每一个材料都是一颗珍珠，但这些珍珠互相之间有内在联系，我们要寻找一根线，用笔作针，将这些散落的珍珠穿起来，成为一串光彩夺目的珠圈、项链。

哪些东西可以作为线索：（六种常用的线索）一是感情线索。我们的感情在生活中发生变化，如由厌恶到喜爱，或从厌恶到喜欢，就可以用这条感情的线索把一些似乎没有关联的材料联结起来。如杨朔的荔枝蜜。二是事物线索。把发生在不同地点、不同时间、不同情况下的事件组合在一起。许多托物咏志的散文就是以物为线索的。三是人物线索。如写某一个人物在不同时间、不同地点的活动，可以用这个人物作为线索串连起来，也可以用另一个人物把不同时间、不同地点、不同人物、不同内容的事物串连起来。这个人物还可以是写作者本人我。四是思绪线索。如面对某一事物、景物沉思暇想，通过联想和想象，把有关的材料组织在一起，表达原定的主题思想。五是景物线索。通过景物描写，在写景中融进写作者的思想感情。六是行动线索。如游记以游程行踪为线索。

三、创造意境

散文的意境是情与景的交融，是意与境的统一，是作者浸透了时代精神的主观感情、意志与自然环境和社会环境的统一。散文的这种意境，应是诗的意境，即所谓诗情画意。散文应该创造出一种淡雅、闲静、情景交融的意境。巧于布局：不少散文的布局都要巧设文眼，开头往往似谈家常，结尾则加以深化，画龙点睛，并且首尾呼应，通体一贯，有机结合。明于断续：散文要散得起来，除了选材要有技巧之外，就是在叙写上要注意断续的技巧。是于断续，才能使散文的行文上挥洒自如。

四、感情具体

散文以感悟为灵魂，但感情是什么，得在文章中说明白。有些散文含蓄，不明说感，但文章中的景致、人物、事件均可以指向感悟。感悟的清楚明白如同记叙文的主题一样，要明白畅晓，让人觉得可喜，引人思考，同时要清楚的出现在文章中。散文和记叙文的最大区别：散文中所写的人生、自然、事件、景物等，都从自身感悟出发，是作者对事物特殊意义和美的发现。这种发现是知觉、思维、感觉的综合思维结果，体现了作者的深思妙悟，是散文的情、理、意、味。而记叙文是记录生活中的人和事，并不从作者的感悟出发。

散文的取材十分广泛，人间万像、宇宙万物、各色人等、宏观微观无不涉及，而这些材料一旦出现在文章中，就立即刻上了作者的主观感悟，代表着作者的人生经验、观点感受。所以，同样的材料，不同的作者所看到的内涵是不同的。这里，我们把散文的取材叫形，把作者的感悟叫神。

散文的文体特点就是：形散神聚。即所有的材料经过作者巧妙的构思联想，这些看似无关联或关联不紧密的材料（形散），但它们都指向同一主旨。这就是散文形散神聚的好处，可以让文章活泼灵动，变化多端散文的写法较其他文体更活泼自由，不拘一格。常见的方式是抒情，即使是记叙，也是带有强烈感***彩的。散文常把记叙、抒情、议论等融为一体，夹叙夹议。散文的结构追求自然而然的境界。在材料选取上，一般运用联想手法。

总体来看，抒情的散文有时气势磅礴，有时低吟轻唱；记叙的散文如诗如画，曲径通幽；议论的散文情真意切，精彩纷呈......但是不管作者怎样安排文字，怎样组织材料，归根结底还是为了表达他对人生或自然的特殊感悟。入笔细微，以小见大。一般的散文写作，我们可以从细小的方面入笔，做到以少胜多，以小见大。实际上，生活中的一件小事，一涕一笑；事物中的一枚叶片、一粒沙土......都可以体现出大的主题。对于一个有心人来说，这些小的事物同样可以写出好的文章。夹叙夹议，感情真实。不论何种感情，都要真实的表现出作者的状况。散文因为有对生活和事物的感悟，就得有夹叙夹议的的表达方式。

散文具有记叙、议论、抒情三种功能，与此相应，散文可分为记叙性散文、抒情性散文和议论性散文三种。

⒈记叙散文

以记叙人物、事件、景物为主的散文，称为记叙散文。

记叙散文叙事较完整，写人人物形象鲜明，描写景物倾注作者的情感。这类散文与短篇小说相似，但又有明显的区别。就叙事而言，散文所述的事件不要求情节完整，更不追求曲折变化，而小说对叙事的要求要较散文高得多；另外，散文在叙事的时候需要饱蘸情感，小说的情感则主要由人物体现出来，不须作者明确抒发。就写人而言，小说要求努力塑造典型人物形象，典型人物是作者虚构出来的。而散文中的人物则是在真人真事的基础上，进行某些剪裁加工，注重对人物进行写意式的描绘。

根据该类散文内容的侧重点不同，又可将它区分为记事散文和写人散文。

偏重于记事的散文以事件发展为线索，偏重对事件的叙述。它可以是一个有头有尾的故事，如许地山的落花生，也可以是几个片断的剪辑，如鲁迅的从百草园到三味书屋。在叙事中倾注作者真挚的感情，这是与小说叙事最显著的区别。

偏重于记人的散文，全篇以人物为中心。它往往抓住人物的性格特征作粗线条勾勒，偏重表现人物的基本气质、性格和精神面貌，如鲁迅藤野先生。人物形象是否真实是它与小说的区别。

另外，这类散文中还有一种偏重于描写景物的一类，这种散文描写一地的景物，除一些风土志以外，主要是游记性散文。它的内容十分广泛，山川景色、风俗民情、名胜古迹都属记游范围。游记散文最主要的特点是：作品所描写的景物必须完全真实，不允许夸饰和虚构；但又不是照相似的实录，而是作者融情于物，达到情景交融。

⒉抒情性散文

主要用以抒发作者主观情感的散文叫抒情散文。

富有情感是所有散文的共同特征，但与其他散文相比，抒情散文情感更强想象更丰富，语言更具有诗意

抒情散文主要用象征、比兴、拟人等方法，通过对外在形象的描绘来传达作者的情思，因此借景抒情和托物言志是这类散文最常用的手法。而直抒胸臆的方法，在文章中可以出现，但通篇用此一法者并不多见。

托物言志式散文，即象征性散文，作者将情感融于某个具有象征意义的具体事物，借助象形联想或意蕴联想把主观情感表现出来。如杨朔的多数散文，矛盾的白杨礼赞等。

借景抒情的散文，将感情寓于景物之中，赋景物以生命，明写景，暗写情，做到情景交融，情景相生。如朱自清的荷塘月色、刘白羽的日出等。

⒊议论性散文

以发表议论为主的散文称为议论散文。

它与抒情散文一样注重情感的抒发，不同的是议论散文重于理智，抒情散文重于感情。

它又不同于一般的议论文，用事实和逻辑来说理，而主要用文学形象来说话，是一种文艺性的议论文。

它既有生动的形象，又有严密的逻辑；既要以情动人，又要以理服人；融形、情、理于一炉，合政论与文艺于一体。鲁迅先生的杂文、陶铸的松树的风格等都是典型的议论散文。

对比观点题型

（1） 要求论述两个对立的观点并给出自己的看法。

1． 有一些人认为......

2． 另一些人认为......

3． 我的看法

The topic of

①-----------------（主题）is becoming more and more popular recently. There are two sides of opinions about it. Some people say A is their favorite. They hold their view for the reason of

②-----------------（支持A的理由一）What is more,

③-------------理由二). Moreover,

④---------------(理由三).

While others think that B is a better choice in the following three reasons. Firstly,-----------------(支持B的理由一). Secondly (besides),

⑥------------------（理由二）. Thirdly (finally),

⑦------------------(理由三).

From my point of view, I think

⑧----------------（我的观点）. The reason is that

⑨--------------------(原因). As a matter of fact, there are some other reasons to explain my choice. For me, the former is surely a wise choice .

（2） 给出一个观点，要求考生反对这一观点

Some people believe that

①----------------（观点一）. For example, they think

②-----------------（举例说明）．And it will bring them

③-----------------(为他们带来的好处).

In my opinion, I never think this reason can be the point. For one thing,

④-------------(我不同意该看法的理由一). For another thing,

⑤-----------------(反对的理由之二)．

Form all what I have said, I agree to the thought that

⑥------------------(我对文章所讨论主题的看法)．

阐述主题题型

要求从一句话或一个主题出发，按照提纲的要求进行论述．

１． 阐述名言或主题所蕴涵的意义．

２． 分析并举例使其更充实．

The good old proverb ----------------（名言或谚语）reminds us that ----------------(释义). Indeed, we can learn many things form it.

First of all,-----------------(理由一). For example, -------------------(举例说明). Secondly,----------------(理由二). Another case is that ---------------(举例说明). Furthermore , ------------------(理由三)．

In my opinion, ----------------(我的观点). In short, whatever you do, please remember the say------A. If you understand it and apply it to your study or work, you”ll necessarily benefit a lot from it.

Six years old, my father and mother to play in Jinan.

Arrived in Jinan, my mother said to me: "Taishan in Jinan, we have to go to Mount Taishan?" I heard a surprise, the original world famous Taishan in Jinan! I quickly answered: "Yes, yes, we Go now.

We ride to the foot of Mount Tai. I look at the top of Mount Tai, how can not see the head, I am afraid of some. But my father said: "You want to see the beauty, it can only board the top of the mountain, infinite scenery in the Xianfeng it!" I listened, did not hesitate to climb to the top of the hill. Boarded the hillside, I am tired, legs a little soft, they would like to sit down and rest for a while, my father pointed to the front, I looked at it, was actually Nantianmen. Dad said to me: "In the myth, the East China Sea Dragon King is in this was beaten by this meal, after the Nantianmen, the scenery more beautiful." I heard, the spirit of the lifted, they summon the courage to continue climbing. After the Nantianmen, the distance has been carried out more than half of the. I and my father tired of panting, intends to sit on the stone steps for a while. My mother scolded: "This is not a place to rest, to rest back to the hotel lying, really unpromising." I heard, said to my father: "We are tired, we can not let the mother to let us fall." , And pulled me away, I think: see how my mother also trained us.

Finally boarded the top of the hill, looking around, I saw the clouds around the clouds, white clouds floating at my feet, I am intoxicated, as if to the Temple. In the distance, a mountain peak of the forest, the magnificent, pines and cypresses, lush, a good paradise on earth! As Dad said, infinite scenery in the Xianfeng ah!

Climbing is the will of the temper, is the embodiment of perseverance. The mountain so that I understand the "world is no trouble, as long as the climb" the truth.

[高中英语作文旅游

要求考生列举出解决问题的多种途径：

１．问题现状

２．怎样解决(解决方案的优缺点)

In recent days, we have to face I problem-----A, which is becoming more and more serious. First, ------------(说明Ａ的现状)．Second, ---------------(举例进一步说明现状) Confronted with A, we should take a series of effective measures to cope with the situation. For one thing, ---------------(解决方法一). For another -------------(解决方法二). Finally, --------------(解决方法三). Personally, I believe that -------------(我的解决方法). Consequently, Im confident that a bright future is awaiting us because --------------(带来的好处).

Dont drop than wood sent to mountain, changping bacc the exhaust and the sea. Life is easy to fight old heart not old, is the so-called: never too old to learn, learn seventy also too few. Brief is life, but should not be in a hurry traveler, and it should be: June struggle of passion, such as fire, forward steps if the river waves, in the mountain mountain, the water cut of water! When we failure on the way of life, see more Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, shi tiesheng, Helen Keller... They are art and literature have these, but unfortunately in life. They bowed their heads? The fall? Complain about? Give up?

"Ups and downs of life," "I see the road, I will search up and down", "spring breeze willow ten thousand, millions of shenzhou ShunYao" poets are all in the pursuit of exploration. Life, have their own value. If a person cant make my life brilliant, but also have no reason to make it dull; Life can be ordinary, but not vulgar, vice; Life doesnt care about how much tear, and the process of lies in the pursuit of perfection and excellence!

Life is more precious than time. Life, the most dazzling is career. Life, the most happy is struggle.

Everyone has a tomorrow, everyone has a next year. A foothold today, look forward to tomorrow, based on this year, next year.

I believe that no matter how bumpy the road in the future, as long as you seize today, sooner or later, will taste the sweetness of life in the struggle. Seize the moment in your life, rather than waste a year in January!

The pursuit of positive, one percent of the hope may also become a reality; Passive waiting, ninety-nine percent sure will be ruined!

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

There has been a long time for my family not to go out for the activity, because my father is busy all the time. But last week, my father finally finished his project, so that he could take a rest for some time.

My father advised us to go to the zoo, I was so excited, because I hadn’t seen many animals in my life.

In the zoo, there were so many people, it was so lively.

I saw the monkey, the giraffe and so on.

I saw these animals in the TV usually, but I saw them in front of me that day. The peacock impressed me so much, it looked homely when it laid down the ground, but when it stood up and opened the wings, it was so gorgeous. People said peacock was proud, indeed, it would not please people. I had a good time in the zoo.

对于我的家人来说，我们已经有很长一段时间没有外出活动了，因为爸爸总是很忙。

但是上周，我的爸爸终于完成了他的项目，所以他能休息一段时间。爸爸建议我们去动物园，我很兴奋，因为我目前还没有看到过很多动物。在动物园里，有很多人，非常热闹。我看到了猴子，长颈鹿等等。我平常在电视上看到这些动物，但是那天我亲眼看到了。

孔雀给我的印象很深刻，在它躺在地上的时候，看起来很普通，但是当它站起来，打开翅膀，是那么的美丽。人们说孔雀是傲慢的，确实，它不会取悦人们。在动物园里我度过了一段美好的时光。

[高中英语作文：动物园一日游

There is a saying that man proposes, goddisposes, which means man plan the things and the rest of the outcome lies inthe luck.

This saying reflects the connection between hard-work and luck, whichis though sometimes we have worked so hard, luck occupies great position, theunexpected things happen and refrain us from succeeding.

In order to besuccessful, people work so hard, they believe they can achieve their goals, butlacking luck stops them achieving their goals.

So working hard doesn’t meanbringing people success directly, they just need to try more times, withoutluck, they still can make their goals. Luck can help people close to success,without hard-work, they can’t be successful. Hard-work and luck make peoplerealize their goals, but without luck, people still can make it by trying moretimes.

有一句话说谋事在人，成事在天，意思是人们计划事情，剩下的结果依赖于运气。这句话反应了努力和运气之间的联系，那就是虽然有时候我们很努力工作，但是运气也占据了很重要的位置，意外的事情会发生，阻挡人们成功。为了取得成功，人们努力工作，他们相信能达到目标，但是运气的缺失让他们无法达到自己的目标。因此努力并不意味着能直接给人们带来成功，他们需要多试几次，没有运气，人们仍然可以达到目标。运气帮助人们接近成功，没有努力付出，无法成功。努力和运气能让人们实现目标，但是没有运气，人们多尝试几次，也能终将办到。

[高中英语作文：努力和运气

英语写作的开头结尾是写作的重点。下面语文迷为大家带来了经典的句型，供大家阅读参考。

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

说明文，即用来解释或说明事物、理论、方法、过程或某种抽象概念的文章。以下是小编给大家整理的中学生说明文作文写作方法的内容，欢迎大家查看。

说明文，即用来解释或说明事物、理论、方法、过程或某种抽象概念的文章。说明文的基本目的就是说清楚。也就是说，要让人看了文章后对文章中解释或说明的对象有清晰明确的认识。这就决定了说明文的基本特征是客观和科学。

说明文首要的一点是明确说明的对象，然后用准确的语言，结合多种说明手法对之进行介绍和描述。常用的说明手法有下定义、分类别、作比较、引资料、举例子、列数字、画图表等。下定义，即给要说明的对象下一个明确的定义。如博物馆的定义就是征集、保藏、陈列和研究代表自然和人类的实物,并为公众提供知识、教育和欣赏的文化教育机构。分类别是将要说明的对象按照某种标准划分类别，以帮助读者对事物的理解。如电视机，可以分为彩色电视机和黑白电视机。作比较，即将这种事物与那种事物比较异同，从而更清楚地说明事物的特点。如将城市和乡村作比较，将大学和幼儿园作比较等。作比较的时候一定要注意比较的事物之间应当具有可比性，不能生拉硬扯，也不能不尊重客观事实，胡乱比较。为了说明某种事物的特点，有时候需要介绍它的背景、原理、历史等，这时就要用到引资料这种手法。比如我们要对长城进行说明，适当地引用一些历史文献，就更有助于今天的人们了解长城的历史，从而加深对长城中所蕴含的民族精神的认识。在复杂说明文中，列图表具有不可替代的优势。大量的数据、冗长的叙述、复杂的相互关系等，都可以通过图表得到直观的表达。

按说明的对象不同，说明文可分为事物说明文和事理说明文。前者着重在于说明的成因、构造、形状、用途等，后者则重在说明事理。这两类说明文常用的写作手法也有一定的区别。比如事物说明文重在说明事物的物理特征，常用的是下定义、分类别等说明手法，事理说明文重在说明事物的逻辑特征，地要用到引资料、作比较等说明手法。但时候，在同一篇文章中，几种说明手法都要用到，相辅相成，互为补充。

如何使说明文物理并重、形神兼备的呢?首要的一点是观察。说明文写作的前提是对要说明的事物非常熟悉。要做到这一点，就要养成认真观察、深入了解的习惯：

观察要有针对性。要带着问题观察，而不是走马观花、浮光掠影。最好能在观察前列出观察提纲，观察时要记笔记、画图标。要善于提出问题。

观察时要分清主次。这就要求我们注意观察的顺序。观察有概括性观察和特写性观察之分。前一种方法有助于抓住事物的概貌，后者则利于把握观察对象的细节和特征。由概括到特写、由全局到局部，是观察的一般原理。

观察重在事物的形。要想传神，写出事物的内涵、原理等，则需要有很好的查阅资料、作调查的能力。比如我们要写一篇文章来说明洛阳牡丹。在写好它的形状、颜色、品种之外，如果能够考察一下洛阳牡丹的来历、其中的牡丹名品在培育中的科学原理，这篇文章就会有说服力，使读者更深刻地认识到洛阳牡丹的文化特色。这就要求我们具备相当的知识积累、广阔的知识面和优秀的调查能力。作为小，应当从小注重积累知识和调查能力的训练。比如通过剪报、记笔记、上图书馆和阅览室等途径来有意识地训练自己。

写作说明文还要注意说明的顺序。有合理的顺序，文章才能条理清晰，让人看得明白。说明顺序一般有三种，即空间顺序、时间顺序、逻辑顺序。间顺序一般有从上到下、从左到右、从前到后、从远到近等。时间顺序一般有从古到今、从过去到现在等。 逻辑顺序有从现象到本质、从原因到结果、从主要到次要、从整体到部分、从概括到具体等。什么是合理的顺序呢?这要根据人们认识事物的过程以及说明对象本身的特征、规律而定。说明事物的形状、构造等，往往以空间为顺序;说明事物的成因、方法，往往以时间为顺序;说明事物的事理，往往以逻辑关系为顺序。

当然，大多数说明文会综合使用多种说明顺序。因此，在写作时，我们要合理地安排好说明顺序，理清说明文的结构层次。常用的结构层次有并列式、层进式和总分式三种。比如我们以“水”为题目进行写作，可以先写水的外形特征，再写水的分类，然后写水的用途，这是并列式的写作层次。我们也可以先写水的外形，再写水的成因，最后写水给人类带来的利与害，这是层进式的结构层次。先概括水的用途和特征，再一一细述，就是总分式。结构层次能力需发们在长期的写作过程中培养，现在就不一一细说了。

Favorite Spring Festival is the most important festival in China .Its to celebrate the lunar calendar s new year .

In the evening before the Spring Festival ,families get together and have a big meal .In many places people like to set off firecrackers .Dumplings are the most traditional food .

Children like the festival very much ,because they can have delicious food and wear new clothes .They can also get some money from their parents. This money is given to children for good luck .

People put New Year scrolls on the wall for good fortune .

The Spring Festival lasts about 15 days long .People visit relatives and friends with the words "Have all your wishes ". People enjoy the Spring Festival ,during this time they can have a good rest .