我需要勇气用英语怎么说【汇编20篇】

我渐渐的长大，同时也渐渐的明白生命的无穷力量。有时生命的力量弱小之极，但有时生命的力量也会强大无比。故此，我们要学会弱小而又强大的生命。

中央科教频道《自然传奇》里讲到;非洲草原上的食草动物的幼仔必须在出生后几分钟内学会走动、奔跑，不然就会成为一切肉食动物的盘中餐。

适才出生不久的动物幼仔会在妈妈细心温柔的鼓励下慢慢用其羸弱的小腿支撑起弱小的躯体，然后学会走动、奔跑，妈妈此刻则全神贯注的关注身边草丛里有没有虎视眈眈的嗜血如命的猛兽，以备不防。

我曾听说过这样一则故事;在一个美丽宁静的清晨，在大草原的一端，狮子妈妈告诫小狮子;‘孩子，你如果跑不过羚羊群里跑的最慢的羚羊，你就会被饿死。’

草原的另外一端，羚羊妈妈也在告诫小羚羊;‘孩子，如果你跑不过狮群里跑的最快的那只狮子，你的命运将会死亡。’

于是，在广袤无垠的草原上的同一时间，同一片蓝天下，小狮子和小羚羊同时在练习奔跑。

听完这则故事，我觉得生命是顽强的，为了生命的延续，我们总是拼尽全力。就是动植物都能坚强的活下去，我们人类又有什么不能呢﹖

在家闲来无事百度了下“勇气”二字的含义。一是指拥有勇往直前的气魄，即不逃避;二是指拥有敢想敢干毫不畏惧的气概，即不退缩。 I have nothing to do with the word "courage" at home.The first is to have the courage to go forward, that is, not escape; the second is to have the spirit that dares to dare to do, that is, not shrinking.

“勇气”二字要是安放在我身上，绝对是不合身。女孩嘛~总是怕这怕那的，有时还会大惊小怪“啊，啊”的叫几声。尤其是我，极其害怕动物，任何活的动物。所以，更害怕蜈蚣这类毒物了。

小时候跟着奶奶一起在乡下住，但我却一点儿也不野，是一个实在的乖小女孩。一天傍晚回家，看见平时粗声粗气的奶奶此时却躺在床上，一只手臂包裹着厚厚的纱布。看到这场景，我瞬间就哭成了泪人。才知道，原来奶奶的手被一只很大很大的蜈蚣咬伤了。看着奶奶鼓鼓地手，本来平时应该是敲在我的头上的手，现在却软软的垂放在床上。我不禁“怒”从中来，誓要把那个“凶手”伸之以法，就地处决，为我奶奶伸张正义。

机会终于来了。那是一个午后，我正蹲在门口玩几根草玩得不亦乐乎。忽然看见门缝里有一个长长的东西正慢慢地伸出来。我知道，那就是我等待已久地“仇人”。我连忙从井边拾起一块砖头，紧紧地拿在手上，继续蹲在原位，身子有点微微发抖，眼睛却死死地盯着那个“仇人”，蓄势待发。一见那身影完全暴露在我面前，我赶忙拿起砖头一拍，哈哈，死了!又多拍了几下，直到它扁了我才停下。这时，我的脚已经软了一半了。

可那蜈蚣即使死了，我也不敢对它的尸体如何。我高兴地喊奶奶来看，奶奶惊讶地看着我手中的砖头，问我：“你平时见到一只蟑螂都要绕路走，怎么敢打死蜈蚣啦?不怕被咬啊!”我骄傲地挥了挥手里的砖头，说：“奶奶，我这是给你报仇啊，我不怕。”奶奶嘿嘿地笑着，拿起扫把一挥就把蜈蚣扫到草堆里去了。说：“啊妹真勇敢啊!都能保护奶奶了。”

是啊，只要有勇气，哪怕是面对再恐惧的东西，也不会退缩、逃避。有了勇气，再付之以行动，就能进化成勇敢了。

电视剧《将军》的主题曲中有一句歌词：“人生只要有勇气，天下无敌。”

做任何事都需要十足的勇气，没有勇气就克服不了困难，小编收集了关于生活需要勇气的段落，欢迎阅读。

1、每个生命都一样，但是，生命的价值取决于自己。哪怕你没有强健的体魄，只要你有勇气，敢于面对生活，生命的价值就会大大提高。

2、我们不是全能也不是常胜将军，所以要有不被胜利冲昏头脑的勇气，也要有从失败中崛起的勇气。要培养迎难而上的勇气。这种勇气不是一时之勇和一己之勇，它是内在的和智慧的综合素质，能量力、能坚持、能忍耐。勇气也需要大智慧，有勇无谋、有勇无德、有勇无信就不是我们所说的勇气了，最终会因无谋、无德、无信而遭遇失败的。

3、为了开阔眼界、适应社会、增强自身竞争力，我们必须去做一些不喜欢的事，在这一过程中，本身不爱折腾的人便会觉得痛苦和疲惫，特别是为了一个不是自己选择的目标，我们并不想那样，却不得不努力去做到，究竟为了什么 久而久之，怕是连当事人自己也难以记起，到底是怎样失去做普通人的勇气的。

4、俗话说：“狭路相逢勇者胜”，可见，勇气这样的话人们是极为敬重的。人生分两类，一类为无勇气的人，他们遇事退缩，不敢面对困难，逃避它，更别说挑战了，连看都不敢看一眼，一类为有勇气的人，和没有勇气的人相比，他们有着坚强的意志，遇到失败和挫折从不气馁，反而越战越勇，胜利早晚是属于他们的。

5、树，砍断枝条还能再生;草，烧了还能再长。悬崖上的一棵松树茁壮生长着，不需要谁来施肥，也不需要谁来灌溉。一粒种子，可以掀翻压着它的石块。顽强地向上生长……植物是那么珍惜生命，不放弃一点生存的机会，它们凭着勇气克服重重困难，努力的生长，尽管它们也许长得并不茂盛，但这种毅力和勇气不得不让我佩服。

6、什么是勇气?勇气就是古希腊英雄泅渡海峡时坚定的意志;勇气就是古罗马角斗士与猛兽博斗时大无畏的精神;勇气就是被围困三载的莫斯科城人民不屈的信念;勇气就是“海空战士”王伟同志为国捐躯的豪情……

7、生活中，挫折同样是我们每个人的一生中共同经历的。就拿这次考试来说吧，成绩一出来，我所有的希望全都化为泡影了，不敢去想妈妈对我鼓励的承诺，更不敢去面对每日为我备付辛苦父母的那双充满期待而又失望的双眼，但我鼓励自己既然已经失败，就要有勇气去面对，只有找出原因、改进方法，就会有希望的“失败是成功之母!”

8、生活需要勇气，有了它，就能超越一切得到成功。勇气是处于逆境中的光芒，是通往天堂的必经之路。我们要相信有一扇门关上，必有另一扇门为你打开，而打开这扇门所需的钥匙，就是：勇气。

9、生活是七色板，其中蕴含着追梦的艰辛，成功的喜悦，挫折的痛苦，孤独的寂寞等等。此时，你需要周围甜蜜的微笑，听听旁边温馨的话语，更需要你有勇气的去面对。

10、不同的人，面对艰难困苦，态度和结果是很不一样的。有的人在重压下一蹶不振，把艰难困苦作为怨天尤人的理由。有的人面对不幸、痛苦，怀着这样的信念：伟大的心胸应该表现出这样的气概，他们用笑脸来迎接悲惨的厄运，用自信用勇气来应付一切的不幸。洪战辉，一个响亮的名字，一个从困苦中崛起的新时代强者。

11、布鲁诺是勇敢的，因为他拥有为真理献身的勇气;贝多芬是勇敢的，因为他拥有挑战命运的勇气;屈原是勇敢的，因为他拥有为国投江的勇气;戚继光是勇敢的，因为他拥有上阵杀敌的勇气。

12、成功与幸福都是种感觉，人活着一定程度上为了感觉。走在前面不一定比落在后面的幸福和成功。面对丰富多彩的物质生活，我们必须懂得取舍。有的人贪大求全，什么都不放弃，最终就像猴子拣芝麻一样什么都没留下。精致的选择才会有精致的人生。有目标才有方向，才会奋力一搏。

13、厄运和不幸的降临，并不是意味着一事无成，造成一事无成的原因在于自己缺少勇气，在厄运面前退缩了。

14、面对挫折时，用勇气去战胜挫折这是失败的终点，也将会是辉煌的起点。无论是个人还是整个民族，告诉他们：“雨后的彩虹，必然预示着灿烂的明天。”

15、面对一些在自己想象中不可能完成的事情，只要鼓起勇气去尝试，勇敢地战胜自己，就一定会获得成功，这是我这次游泳的最大收获。

16、人生不是没有成功，而是缺少足够的勇气，只要我们敢于冒险，只要我们敢于行动，只要我们敢于拼搏，那么胜利的旗帜就在向我们飘摇了!最后让我们一起畅想那首动听的歌——《勇气》。

17、人生的道路并不是一帆风顺的。人们难免会碰钉子，碰钉子之后，就会产生紧张消极，烦躁，伤心，气愤等心理反应。其实挫折也是我们生活的一部分，我们遇到的挫折有很多，例如：同学关系不融恰，父母的态度简单粗暴，与父母之间存在代沟等等，都可能对我们的成长造成不利影响，但是最重要的是需要我们有勇气去面对挫折，把挫折做为磨练我们人生的宝贵经历和财富。

18、如果说生活中的困难与挫折是一把锁，那么勇气就是打开这把锁的钥匙;勇气是光明的使者，它能将人从黑暗的泥沼中拉出，帮助我们战胜困难，开创自己的一片新天地。

19、我们歌颂勇气，赞美勇气，同时我们真诚的呼唤勇气。老人被歹徒刺伤，围观者无一上前救助;小孩溺于水中，周围的人却视而不见;居民楼失火，旁观者指指点点，却都不上前帮忙……这些事实让我们痛心于人性的冷酷，勇气的沦丧。但，我坚信，只要有人存在，勇气之花便不会枯萎。听，向王伟同志学习的号角不是正在响起吗?!

20、不光是轰轰烈烈的大事需要勇气，日常小事中也蕴含着勇气。坦白的承认自己错误，这是需要勇气的;向师长提出不同的意见，这是需要勇气的;走上讲台毛遂自荐，这是需要勇气的;甚至独自走一段黑路，独自完成老师交给的任务……这些都是需要勇气的。

21、贝多芬曾经失聪，无声的世界弥漫着绝望悲痛，面对命运的挫折，他选择了用勇气去不懈地战斗，在抗击厄运中，悲壮激越的《命运》交响曲，奏响了他命运的最强音。

22、“爱真的需要勇气来面对流言蜚语只要你一个眼神肯定我的爱就有意义”，的确，爱真的需要勇气，而往往我们却缺少这份勇气。在广袤的天空下，人来人往，每个人都着自己的故事，或凄美，或幸福，或悲凉，或……但能让人肯定的就是，他们其实都是在寻找着本该属于自己的勇气。

1、做任何事都需要十足的勇气，没有勇气就克服不了困难，没有勇气就改正不了错误，没有勇气就取得不了成功。在我们的学习、生活、工作中，勇气是至关重要的。

2、曾经很多时候，我在自欺欺人里好想告诉自己，我是幸福的。可是事实告诉我，我是不幸福的。当我看到人家很幸福的时候，我真的很想有一种勇气去追随这份幸福，可是这份幸福离我真的好遥远，遥远的我自己也不知道那道边在哪里。

3、“我们都需要勇气去相信会在一起”，这是我最喜欢的一句，它让我有了更多等待的勇气，也许真会那样，坚持着，幸福终将来到，但……我怕另一个结果，那也正是我最不想的，当初的一切一切，只不过是人生当中美丽的瞬间，此时，眼泪又将再一次的落下……

4、爱，需要勇气，需要有勇气跨越时间与空间的距离，往往爱情使人忘记时间，时间也使人淡忘爱情。她害怕分离，想到倘若再牵不到他的手，她的心就会很痛，很痛。只是这份爱需要她付出太大的勇气，曾经在他的眼中寻找到了坚持与鼓励，但某个时候她却发觉，在他开始飘忽的眼神里，勇气似乎已在岁月流逝中渐渐的消散，以至于她不知道自己还有多大的勇气去坚持，坚持彼此之间的爱情。她不知道，缘分依旧，而爱情是不是还一如昨天。爱情如美丽的梦幻，却要面对无奈的现实，没有他温暖坚实的臂膀，她不知道自己还有没有勇气来承担未来。

5、爱一个人，原来需要很大的勇气，需要有勇气相信时间可以磨损感情，却不可以磨损爱。爱，原来需要勇气去相信彼此会在一起。

6、擦擦眼角的泪水，我知道我需要勇气。也许暂时把你忘记，没有那么容易。但我会克服所有的障碍，知道我再次拥有了幸福的勇气。

7、多年以后，当自己回想起年轻时发生的故事，又是否还会用当初的那份感觉呢?等待的美，就在于它的那份执着，重要的是那个过程，去寻找到属于自己的勇气，或许一切的一切，即将迎刃而解。

8、人生无论做什么事情的时候，需要的就是勇气。争取也是种勇气，放弃也是种勇气。在所有的波澜不惊里，需要的是享受宁静的一份勇气;在所有的波澜壮阔里，需要的是一份处乱不惊的勇气。

9、曾经，我自己一遍遍的提醒自己，要有坦然面对这一切的勇气。可是这个勇气和我有点远，远的真见不到边了。生活是需要尊重的，人生是需要勇气的，或许我被郁闷久了，连什么是尊重，连什么是勇气都不知道了。

10、人生有时需要的就是极致，太多的纷杂里有太多的热闹，有时想借助太多的外力来改变记忆，来抹去那段不开心的曾经。可是，这样的勇气真的不是人人具备的，那是一种撕心裂肺的痛定之后的决绝。

11、如今，我终于有勇气，潇洒的和我所有的过往说声再见了。这声再见说的是那样地沉重和困难，但是我还是会说了，也是人生一种极致的勇气。

12、生活就好比是战场，敌人就是生活中的不顺心，不如意的事。你如果有了勇气，那还怕什么!上去就应把这些原来认为不可能的，都通通化成可能。让你的成功与胜利，立得住脚，站的住根，让成功就在失败后面来吧!我的世界中也有失败，不过它，已经让我克服了……

13、抬头与低头，是人生的两种姿态。抬头需要底气，低头需要勇气。抬头，就是要有一种永不服输的精神。只有昂首前行，相信自己，不退缩，不逃避，不懈怠，不轻言放弃，坚持到最后，才有资格迈进成功的大门。低头，不是谦卑，而是平和;不是怯懦，而是宽容。能抬头是勇者无畏，敢低头是大智若愚。

14、我们的生活也需要勇气。当遇到难题时，要拿出能解决它的勇气。在遇到困难时，要拿出能克服它的勇气。当受到挫折时，要拿出站起来的勇气。在尝到成功时，要拿出更加努力的勇气。

15、勇气是成功的保证，每当面临抉择，许多人会犹豫不决，也会因此错过瞬息即逝的机会。但如果拥有当机立断的魄力与勇气，机会就不会溜走。

16、多一点勇气，去行走，哪怕失去了依靠，哪怕没有了爱情，哪怕全世界都抛弃了我，我依旧不放弃我自己。

17、给自己一些勇气，重拾以前的记忆，美好的，失落的，去一片片拾起，记忆的碎片里，光阴总是刻画了无法比拟的岁月沉淀，五彩斑斓，晶莹漫天。给自己一些勇气，扎实的踏下每一个脚印，陷入土地的印迹不仅是岁月的留痕，更是一个航标，引导以后的你去追寻。给自己一些勇气，眺望未来的希望，做好一个个规划的起始，更完美的走好每一步，使得自己的人生旅途充满爱的足迹。

18、每当我听到梁静茹的那首歌——《勇气》，我就会想很多，会把生活与爱衔接。就像歌词里说的“爱真的需要勇气，来面对流言蜚语……”生活不也如是么，它更加需要勇气来提拔，并且不是一瞬间的动作，而是长时间的提炼!

19、每个人都有过往，有的过往还真如锈迹一样斑驳，深深地烙在了生命里。当要忘记一段过往的时候，需要的不仅是时间，更是一份敢于超越自己的勇气。

20、人，需要勇气与毅力，因为那是实现自我的条件，也需要爱心与乐观，因为那是完成自我的前提，更需要坚持与执着，因为那也是实现生命价值的必须。

Its beyond reproach that we will come across all kinds of difficulties and

challenges in our life time .Some will be subjected to frequent sadness .Some

will lose their way to move on .Thus,only when we equip ourselves with hope and

courage can we finally succeed in the uncertain future.

Forrest Gump showed so great courage in the movie that he touched me a lot

. For one thing,no matter when and where Jenny got into trouble ,Forrest Gump

would bring her out of it without thinking how dangerous the situation would be

.Maybe we should all fell ashamed that we love ourselves more than we love love

,but Forrest showed great courage in love .For another,Forrest gump risked his

life to save Bubba in the war.Its courage that helped Forrest gain a series of

honor after war .Forrest Gump is beautiful for his perseverance and touches

others with his courage.

A person cant do without courage in terms of love and friendship ,let alone

life . A weak person may avoid the difficulties ,but a person with courage will

face up to it head-on. Therefore,letequip ourselves with great courage.

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

“别说你一无所有。因为，你至少还有勇气活下去。”这句话是着名科学家霍金说的。人总是需要勇敢面对某些人与事物。鼓起勇气法征服，往往迎刃而解。是的，我们的确需要勇气！

《这个世界差点没有噢吧吗》讲述的是一个真实的事件：炎炎夏日，噢吧吗的父亲带着一家人来酒吧消暑。在这片种族歧视还存在着的领土上，一位白人醉汉朝笑并辱骂噢吧吗一家为“野猪群”。在这种情况下，噢吧吗的父亲并没有与其产生争执，而是心平气和地与其讲起一番理来，这醉汉最后竟惭愧地拿出钱来向噢吧吗的父亲赔礼道歉~~~噢吧吗的父亲面对白人醉汉，面对种族歧视没有退缩，勇气使他克服了这一切困难。

“有心杀贼，无力回天，死得其所，快哉！快哉！”这一短语是戊戌六君子中谭嗣同临死前所吟诵的。从公车上书到百日维新最后到断头台！谭嗣同似乎不知道什么是死。当康有为梁启超在为“留得清山在，不怕没柴烧”逃往国外时，他却甘愿为这场变法抛头颅洒热血，甘愿做第一位为变法流血牺牲的人。面对强权压迫，面对死亡威胁谭嗣同从不低头。无所畏惧的他终将为这场变法而流芳百世，他那十分的勇气也终将成为他孤傲的精神品质！

湖北荆州长江大学，又一次成为人们谈论的焦点。“大学生救小学生，老人救大学生。”在这场救生命与死亡拼搏的过程中，长江大学大一的三位学生用自己花季般的生命挽回了两位小学生稚嫩的生命。当面对死亡的威胁，面对暗涌的恐惧时。是勇气使他们奋不顾身，是勇气使他们成为又一位英雄典范！

​导语：动物是自然资源，在整个历史过程中，人类一直在糟蹋着这种资源。下面是yuwenmi小编为大家整理的优秀英语作文，欢迎阅读与借鉴，谢谢!

Animals are natural resources that people have wasted all through our history. Animals have been killed for their fur and feathers, for food, for sport, and simply because they were in the way. Thousands of kinds of animals have disappeared from the earth forever. Hundreds more are on the danger list today. About 170 kinds in the United States alone are considered in danger.

Why should people care? Because we need animals, and because once they are gone, there will never be any more.Animals are more than just beautiful or interesting. They are more than just a source of food. Every animal has its place in the balance of nature. Destroying one kind of animal can create many problems. For example, when farmers killed large numbers of hawks, the farmers stores of corn and grain were destroyed by rats and mice. Why? Because hawks eat rats and mice, with no hawks to keep down their numbers, the rats and mice multiplied quickly.

Luckily, some people are working to help save the animals. Some groups raise money to let people know about the problem. And they try to get the governments to pass laws protecting animals in danger. Quite a few countries have passed laws. These laws forbid the killing of any animal or planton the danger list. Slowly, the number of some animals in danger is growing.

【参考译文】

动物需要人类的保护

动物是自然资源，在整个历史过程中，人类一直在糟蹋着这种资源。人们杀死动物 ，获得它们的皮毛，把它们当作食物或运动方式，或者只是因为它们碍事。成千上万种动物 已经从这个地球上永远地消失了。现在另外上百种动物 也上了濒危动物 名单。仅荚国大概就有170种被认为处于危险当中。

为什么人们应该感到担忧呢?因为我们需要动物 ，因为它们一旦消失，就永远不会再出现。动物 不仅仅是漂亮或有趣。它们不仅仅是人类的食物来源。在维持自然平衡中，每种动物 都有其作用。毁灭某种动物 会导致许多问题。比如，农民们如果杀死为数众多的鹰，他们谷物和粮食的仓库就会受到老鼠和田鼠的破坏。 为什么?因为鹰吃鼠类，没有鹰控制它们的数量，鼠类就会迅速繁殖。

幸运的是，有些人正在努力帮助拯救这些动物 。有些组织筹钱以便人们了解这一问题。他们也努力使政府通过保护 濒危动物 的法律。很多国家已经通过了法律。这些法律禁止杀害濒危名单上的动植物。某些濒危动物 的数目正在慢慢地不断上升。

导语：只要我们敢梦想，并不被自己所阻，一切都有可能——梦想无止境。下面是yuwenmi小编为大家整理的优秀英语作文素材，欢迎阅读与借鉴，谢谢!

1. You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

你可能不能控制所有发生在你身上的事，但是你可以决定不被它们所累。

2. Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.

每件事都会变，问题在于前进还是后退。

3. Be the heroine of your life, not the victim.

做人生的主角，而不是受害者。

4. We spend most of our lives cutting down our ambitions because the world has told us to think small. Dreams express what your soul is telling you, so as crazy as your dream might seem—even to you—I dont care: You have to let that out.

我们一生中的大部分时间都在缩小壮志雄心，因为这个世界告诉我们别想的太大。梦想表现了灵魂告诉你的事，所以即使你的梦想对你自己来说也是天方夜谭，也没有关系：你必须释放自己的梦想。

5. As long as we dare to dream and dont get in the way of ourselves, anything is possible--theres truly no end to where our dreams can take us.

只要我们敢梦想，并不被自己所阻，一切都有可能——梦想无止境。

6. You have to speak your dream out loud.

你要大声说出自己的梦想。正能量

7. Its not about how to achieve your dreams. Its about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the dreams will come to you.

如何实现梦想并不是关键，关键在于如何生活。如果你将自己的生活带入正确方向，梦想终会实现。

8. If you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.

如果你听不见内心真实的声音，你一生的时间都会花在别人要求你做的事情上。

9. When youre always trying to conform to the norm, you lose your uniqueness, which can be the foundation for your greatness.

当你总是想依循旧例时，你就失去了自己的独特之处，而独特就是成就你伟大的基础。

10. Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage, you cannot practice any of the other virtues consistently.

勇气是所有品质中最重要的。因为没有勇气，你就无法去保持其他的品质了。

导语：有了勇气，我才能够站在舞台上，秀出我那优美的舞姿以下是小编为大家整理分享的生活需要勇气的作文550字，欢迎阅读参考。 第1篇生活需要勇气作文550字

是呀！在生活中处处都需要勇气，勇气也无处不在。例如5。12汶川大地震，有许多本来已经成功逃生的人，却又鼓起勇气，重新冲回那些摇摇欲坠，随时都有可能坍塌的为危楼，矮墙等危险地区去救其他的人。结果几乎都是牺牲了自己，救出了别人。他们真是令人敬佩呀。他们这一种舍己为人的精神和勇气值得我们敬佩。

在这一次大地震中，有许多的幸存者们都被废墟给掩埋了。可是，他们却凭着顽强的毅力活了下来。是什么让他们有这么大的毅力。是勇气！是勇气让他们如此勇敢的面对死神。是勇气让他们创造了一个又一个的生命奇迹：不吃不喝的度过了101小时，103小时，136小时157小时，203小时。勇气，有多么大的力量呀！又有许多被埋的幸存者临危不惧，如那个可乐男孩的一句叔叔，我要喝可乐逗乐了整个为这场大灾难而感到悲伤的中国；敬礼男孩的一个敬礼，也体现出了人们的勇敢。正是这种勇气，鼓励着去与死神一争高低，坚强的活下去。

在这一场大灾难过后，有许许多多的灾区同胞们失去了亲人，朋友。一个个原本幸福的家庭变得支离破碎。数二十多万幸存下来的灾区同胞们无家可归，只好和家人们生活在一个小小的帐篷里。面对着生活上的困难，他们用生活的勇气解决，努力建造更加美好的明天！

生活需要勇气！ 第2篇生活需要勇气作文550字

有些事情从旁观的角度来看，似乎很容易。但是真正实践起来，又是另一回事。因为你先得战胜自己的慌张与怯懦。那次学骑自行车的经历，就让我深切地体会到了这一点。

那天，刚学自行车时，爷爷是一百个不放心。他不是在前面扶着车把，就是在后面捉住车车屁股，寸步不离的跟着。他跑呀跑呀，累得满头大汗，我呢，看到爷爷这个样子，就更害怕了，生怕摔个鼻青脸肿。

爷爷累得气喘吁吁，挺不住了你笨到家了，自己练吧！说吧，坐在树荫下休息了。我气得一肚子火：你说我笨，我就骑给你看看，不信学不会！

于是我自己摸索起来，渐渐地，我摸到了一些门道：车把要平，目视前方，两脚别忘蹬上车练习前，我心里像十五只吊桶打水七上八下。嘿，管他三七二十一，先上车再说谁知，刚上车就扭起了八字舞，由于重心不稳，我重重地摔了下来，脚背磕青了一块，疼得眼泪多流了出来。我忍着痛爬起来，站直，上车，坐正。掌稳车把眼看前方一次次排除险情，我终于控制住车子了。

爷爷见了高高的竖起大拇指，一个劲得喊了不起呀！你真棒！

骑在自行车上，风迎面吹来，身边的书刷刷地向后倒去我忽然想起一位大作家说过的话：世界上最困难的莫过于战胜自己。我很高兴因为我战胜自我，我尝到了成功的滋味。生活需要勇气。这就是我的感悟。

[生活需要勇气的作文550字

生活需要阳光的普照，生活需要雨露的滋润，生活绿色的装点，生活需要勇气的支撑!

人生之路曲曲折折，难免遇到坎坷。在困难面前有两种人，因此有了两种不同的选择。一种人选择鼓足勇气，勇往直前;另一种人则是逃避，则是放弃!

可以说我是第二种人，面对生活我不勇敢，面对困难我不坚强。我总是逃避，每一次累了，伤心了，委屈了……的时候我总是想一个人躲起来。我曾最想拥有的是一个角落，一个我足以蹲下的角落。每当我难过，伤心的时候可以让我蹲下，靠着墙享受一个人的时间同时也为自己“疗伤”。暗黄的灯光照着我，角落旁印出我的影子。但是却不觉得孤单，于是我起名为“影子”。我想成为一片影子，只想躲藏在自己的影子下不受到伤害!

我是极度渴望成功的人，我付出了全部的努力。为了梦想我放弃了玩耍，为了梦想我放弃了懒惰，为了梦想我放弃了原本属于我的自由!可是期末成绩犹如晴天霹雳，给我致命的一击。我输了，没有达到自己的目标，没有保住该在的位置，没有……连续的失败我咬着牙挺过来了，我渴望着这一次可以成功，可以向所有人证明我自己!终究天不如人愿，我依旧考差了!这一次怎么也鼓不起勇气，我伤心，我难过，我气馁。最终我选择了逃避与放弃!我始终不肯再翻开书本看一眼，我害怕，我认定自己失败了。我一个人跑到了丽江，我去躲开伤害，我去“疗伤”，我去找寻属于自己的位置!

夕阳西下，丽江更美了。我在街上走着不知道要去哪里，忽然前方有一团黑黑的东西一蹦一跳的移动。由于好奇我加快脚步向它走去。我看清了，是一条狗，一条失去右腿的狗!看得出它移动得很艰难，它一定很痛苦。但是它依旧向着前方去了!我不知道它要去哪里，但是已经不重要了，不是吗?它的动作镇住了我!顿时我问我自己“我为什么要放弃，放弃自己，放弃梦，放弃未来?我有什么理由放弃?”

是的，连失去一条腿的狗都没有放弃。还有机会实现自己梦想的我放弃什么呢?我必须鼓足勇气，在生活之路上继续走下去。我必须拥有勇气去实践才会成功!于是，收拾行李回家。我不想向任何人解释我的“失踪”，也不需解释。我只需行动，用行动证明自己。我开始查缺补漏，我主动去找老师补课……两周过去了我有了明显的进步，过去我不会的“难题”现在都变成了小菜一碟。我跨出了自卑与逃避，虽然现在我只是一点小进步，但是我相信只要有勇气，只要有坚持我会成功的!

朋友们：学习如此，生活也不例外。生活需要勇气，需要永不放弃!只要有勇气，只要不放弃，我相信我们的生活将充满阳光!加油!

勇气，也是一种很强大的力量，但是，我偏偏没有勇气。每当遇到了困难，我总是没有勇气去面对。当我正想去面对的时候，最后都是会选择后退。有时我非常郁闷，难道，我真的不能改变吗？

记得有一次，又是一个阳光明媚的周末！这个周末，我可要好好放松一下！于是，妈妈决定带我到表哥家住两天！我一听，高兴得一蹦三尺高，你们不知道，表哥对我可好了，还经常偷偷藏零食给我吃呢！在去表哥家的路上，我的心情好极了，一路上，我哼着小调，心里还暗暗地想：也不知道，表哥这次会给我什么好吃的！

一切都在我的意料之外。一下车，表哥就故意装模做样的，用一只手拍了拍我的肩膀，我发现不对劲，就转过头，“啊——”竟然是螳螂！表哥看到了我的样子，简直快笑破了肚皮，他急忙把蹚螂拿走了。谁知道，表哥变脸比变天还快，一下子变得严肃了起来，说道：“表妹，你太胆小了，我一定要让你变得有勇气起来！”

时间过得真快，又是美好的一天！可是，我一起床，表哥就拉着我，跑到了附近的一个鬼屋。“这里可是专门让你能够有勇气的地方哦！”表哥笑着说。竟敢取笑我！于是，我鼓起了勇气，走了进去。刚开始，我连再往前走一步都不敢！我用双手捂住眼晴，不敢往前看。只听见，表哥又在外面取笑我了。我忍无可忍，张开眼晴，勇敢地往前走。其实，也没那么的可怕，我成功地走出了鬼屋。表哥看见了，连忙夸我说：“你太棒了！”我的心里也非常地开心。

世界上，没有什么事情是不可能的，只要你有勇气，你就一定可以成功的！

[生活需要勇气小学作文

如果前方有一座山岭，你是选择后退还是攀爬？如果前方有一条河流，你是选择却步还是趟过？如果前方有很多困难，你会选择投降还是挑战？当你在夜晚独自睡觉时，你是否有前行的道具——勇气？我会说：“我一定有。”

那天晚上，我们全家吃完饭，由于我第二天要早起，便只好孤独地守着家，而爸爸妈妈还有妹妹则高高兴兴地坐着车去逛街。原本热闹的家，顿时变得十分冷清，空荡荡的。

我在房间里做着作业，时间在我转动的笔尖上飞逝，转眼间，已到了七点。我收起作业，从冰箱里拿出一杯牛奶，悠闲地坐在沙发上边喝牛奶边看电视。

不知不觉中，时钟已指向了八点，我的心不知怎么地“怦怦怦”地跳，我拿起电话准备叫妈妈快点回来。平时按键按得很溜的我，不知怎么按“1”却按成了“3”，按“3”却按成了“7”，不知按了多少次，终于打通了。谁知，电话的另一边却传来了“你自己先睡吧，我们要逛到十点”的“指令”。这怎么可能呀，我可是最怕黑的，让我独自睡，简直比登天还难呀！妈妈也太狠了！

看着时钟已快到九点，我直奔厕所，以最快的速度洗漱完毕，便上床了。我鼓起勇气关了灯，瞬间，屋里一片漆黑，伸手不见五指。我凭着感觉，找到了床，连忙钻着被窝里，浑身发抖，身体缩成一团。

不一会儿，我就满头冒汗，只好探出头来，突然，窗帘被一阵风掀开，窗前传出“哗哗”的响声，令人毛骨悚然，我不禁又躲进被窝。这只是阵风而已，没什么可怕的，我都快上初中了，还怕什么！想着，我又凭着内心的勇气从被窝里钻了出来。

听，我的耳边传来了细微的脚步声，我的心不由地咯噔了一下。我起身，猫着腰，从门下的缝隙望去，在客厅过道上的灯光的照映下，地板上映着一个黑影。是谁？又是脚步声又是影子的，难道是小偷？我也没听见大门的动静呀！难道是鬼？我立马钻进了被窝，转眼又想，这世界上哪有鬼呀，这只不过是大人拿来吓唬小孩的，我怕什么呀！我静下心来，闭上眼睛，伴着“哗哗”声，我进了梦乡。

第二天醒来，阳光洒满整间卧室，哈哈，勇气好可贵，我终于拥有了它。

美丽的前行属于坚强的人，坚强的人拥有勇气，勇气则使前行更美丽，因为，前行需要勇气！因为，成长需要勇气！

生活，真的真的，很需要勇气。

望着窗外的夜空，望着天上那少的可怜的星星……我能行吗？我能成为这璀璨的星星的其中的一员吗？

我坐在床边，想着明天的比赛。

“你能行的！”

“你肯定没问题！”爸妈的鼓励依稀回荡在耳中，可是我却没有勇气去面对场下的观众、评委。

明天就是歌唱比赛了。

我坐在床边，不想躺下睡觉，因为，我紧张，睡也睡不着。

但是，一晚上很快。因为害怕明天眼肿，就睡下了。

第二天早上7点多，老师就来给我画妆。她画的很细致，很投入。半个多小时，妆画好了，妈妈拿出为了我的比赛所准备的礼服，帮我穿好，走到镜子前。

头发换成了高挑的的发型，脸上涂着许多粉，眼睛周围画着眼影。红色的长裙礼服，白色的绒毛小披肩，肉色的长筒袜，再加上黑色稍带小跟的皮鞋。这还是我吗？我马上就要上台比赛了，我能成功吗？我能行吗？

外面裹上厚厚的衣服，我跟妈妈一起走出了家门，准备去参赛。

“妈妈，我不想参加了，我没有勇气上台。”我用微弱的声音说。

“不，你行的，在家练的很好了，你只要把你真实的水平发挥出来就行了。”妈妈不断的给我鼓励道。

我望着周围刚下过雪的一片白茫茫的景象，不期然竟在雪地里发现了一丛绿色！ “小草！”我喊道。

妈妈也走过来看，说：“它在寒冷的冬天都能勇敢的活下来，难道你没有上台的勇气吗？”

妈妈问道。

我凝视着那丛小草。

我有勇气吗？不，我应该有勇气！爸爸为了我的比赛，请老师、买卡拉OK机、买衣服，为了让我保护好嗓子，天天晚上给我熬梨汁、，妈妈不厌其烦地为我纠正每一个发音……忽然记起一句话，“表现勇敢则勇气来；往后退缩则恐惧来。”不，我不要退缩，我要有勇气，我要勇敢地走上台。我要像小草一样，在刺骨的寒风中傲然挺立，我要成功！

到了赛场，我不再畏惧，不再害怕……

“下面有请36号选项手上台！”

我接达话筒，说了一句：“谢谢！”然后，自信地走上台去。

聚光灯的强光打在我的脸上，这一刻永远刻在了心中。

一次比赛，使我多了一份勇气，多了一份信心，从此，我不再畏惧，不再胆怯，勇气，扎根在我的心里……生活，需要勇气。生命，因为有了勇气而光彩夺目！

“别说你一无所有。因为，你至少还有勇气活下去。”这句话是着名科学家霍金说的。人总是需要勇敢面对某些人与事物。鼓起勇气法征服，往往迎刃而解。是的，我们的确需要勇气！

《这个世界差点没有奥x马》讲述的是一个真实的事件：炎炎夏日，奥x马的父亲带着一家人来酒吧消暑。在这片种族歧视还存在着的领土上，一位白人醉汉朝笑并辱骂奥x马一家为“野猪群”。在这种情况下，奥x马的父亲并没有与其产生争执，而是心平气和地与其讲起一番理来，这醉汉最后竟惭愧地拿出钱来向奥x马的父亲赔礼道歉……奥x马的父亲面对白人醉汉，面对种族歧视没有退缩，勇气使他克服了这一切困难。

“有心杀贼，无力回天，死得其所，快哉！快哉！”这一短语是戊戌六君子中谭嗣同临死前所吟诵的。从公车上书到百日维新最后到断头台！谭嗣同似乎不知道什么是死。当康有为梁启超在为“留得清山在，不怕没柴烧”逃往国外时，他却甘愿为这场变法抛头颅洒热血，甘愿做第一位为变法流血牺牲的人。面对强权压迫，面对死亡威胁谭嗣同从不低头。无所畏惧的他终将为这场变法而流芳百世，他那十分的勇气也终将成为他孤傲的精神品质！

湖北荆州长江大学，又一次成为人们谈论的焦点。“大学生救小学生，老人救大学生。”在这场救生命与死亡拼搏的过程中，长江大学大一的三位学生用自己花季般的生命挽回了两位小学生稚嫩的生命。当面对死亡的威胁，面对暗涌的恐惧时。是勇气使他们奋不顾身，是勇气使他们成为又一位英雄典范！

勇气是力量眼，是希望：也是动力的源泉：更是精神的支柱，生命的脊梁！当一种种勇气出现时，我们终将会明白一个道理！我们需要勇气！

[需要勇气作文五篇

《生活需要勇气》生活需要勇气 走在每个路的角，与你擦肩而过的人是低头叹气，还是昂头飞奔。在人海中，今日受挫折明日振作后成功的人你认识几个？受到打击不敢再次抬头的人你又认识几个？这些人为什么而成功又为什么惨遭失败？对了，就是2个字：勇气一直支柱在雨天后织网，由于墙面湿滑空气潮湿而一次又一次掉下来。

可它还是要一次又一次地尝试，直至成功为止，这仰仗的是什么？是勇气，一种不被逆境所打倒的勇气带领着它在挫折面前奋勇前进。一个成功的商人，背后都有许许多多的血泪史，而他们为什么没有屈服呢？这是一种勇气在支撑着他们向一切希望的光芒靠近并利用这一光芒让自己得到成功，勇气是通往幸福的康庄大道上的路标，没有它是找不到沙漠里的绿洲的。就拿盲人来说吧。有的因为自己看不见而失望，懊恼，埋怨别人，认为自己的生活中只能拥有黑暗。他们丧失了勇气，结果得到的，也真的只是一片黑暗。

而有的人却不同，他们虽然像一张有污点的纸，不过，他们看到的不是那一点黑点而是那张纸的大部分白色，他们不认为自己只能拥有黑暗，而为了他们还拥有耳朵鼻子而感到庆幸，并充分利用他们，他的还超越了正常人。海伦*凯乐就是一个典型的例子，她是一个盲聋哑人，按道理说，她有90%的希望成为一个低智商的人，可是她的勇气带着她超越了一切的困难成为了一个著名的女作家。

像她易雷的人才真正的获得了生命的色彩。勇气，勇气，勇气！唯有它才使生命之血具有鲜红的色彩！生活需要勇气，有了它，就能超越一切得到成功。勇气是处于逆境中的光芒，是通往天堂的必经之路。我们要相信有一扇门关上，必有另一扇门为你打开，而打开这扇门所需的钥匙，就是：勇气。

6分钟的短片，先是调皮有趣，但看着看着，我就泪眼朦胧！

《小鸟比得》讲述了一只饥饿的小矶比得正准备像往常一样吃掉妈妈为他找到的食物，却被妈妈无情地推走——让它自己去觅食。饥饿的小比得无奈，只好开始了人生第一次尝试——独自去觅食。不料，却意外遭遇大风浪，它几乎毫无还击的能力，受到了巨大的惊吓。此后，只见风浪稍微露个头，小比得就马上躲起来，真所谓“一朝被蛇咬，十年怕草绳”。后来，小比得在遇到小伙伴之后，学会模仿，大胆地在水中尝试睁开眼睛，看到了焕然一新的美丽景色——原来，海里面尽是食物！小比得好像瞬间长大，不再害怕！同样的体型，同样肆虐的风浪，它视而不惊，得瑟开心地到处蹦跶，它努力地学习觅食本领，上岸下水，无所不能，甚至还能觅食给妈妈吃。看着孩子一点一滴的变化，妈妈开心地笑了！

看完之后，让我想起自己生活中的一件事。那次，学校德育处陈主任叫我准备“国旗下讲话”稿件，我又惊又喜，心里犹豫不决，迟迟不能做定夺：“我必须抓住这次机会，好好锻炼自己呀！”但一想到偌大的场面，我又退缩了：“我们全校可是有两千多个学生和一百多位老师哦，如果读得不好，那岂不是丢脸丢到家了”。

晚上回到家，倚在窗前，以往“国旗下”讲话的哥哥姐姐们那昂首挺胸，激情澎湃的镜头在我的脑海中回旋，那样的清晰。是呀！他们敢，我为什么不敢呢？第二天，我转身跟陈主任说：“主任，我行！”

写稿、修改、反复对着镜子练习读稿……我似乎看到自己在国旗下热情洋溢的演讲！终于等来了第十八周星期一，那天早上，暖和的冬阳照得同学们个个红光满面，精神抖擞；各班队伍井然有序；白里间绿的校服看起来是那么和谐向上……啊，一切是那样的庄严！好像我从来还没有一次这样认真地关注升旗仪式！我的手怎么啦？手心全是汗！我发觉我的脚在发抖。“不行，我得冷静下来。”当主持人大声宣布“国旗下讲话”的时候，我的心因为我攥紧拳头才平静下来。我对自己说：“别怕！上！只要有勇气上台就是最棒的！”

“大家早上好！我是505班的陈欢琳……”当响亮清脆的声音回旋在校园里时，台下响起了一片排山倒海的掌声，啊，我想比得看到水中一切一样，我成功了！

是呀，雄鹰的展翅高飞何尝不是起始于一点点的尝试，小比得的得瑟开心地到处蹦跶也是通过尝试、躲闪、再尝试、再躲闪……成长必定充满了痛苦的磨练，只有我们敢于走出自己的舒适区，勇敢面对未来的生活，我们才有机会变得羽翼丰满，进退自如。

没有勇气什么都做不成。如果没有勇气，成龙不会拍出那么多武打片;如果没有勇气，那些现在红得发紫的明星也不会有那么大的成就。做什么事情都需要勇气，成长，也一样。

我们都很勇敢?是的。如果我们不勇敢，怎么可能脱离妈妈温暖的羊水来到这个美好而又残酷的世界。没有勇气，我们不可能经历无数的挫折，然后长大。做什么事情都需要勇气，成长，也一样。

勇敢其实并不难。经常会有这种话语：“你真胆小。”“你要勇敢!”“…………”但是你要知道，你是勇敢的，至少，你也勇敢过。做什么事情都需要勇气，成长，也一样。

听到这些话语，你会很郁闷吧?其实并不需要郁闷。只要你知道：“我是勇敢的!”其实你本来就很勇敢。其他人也是这样。所以你不要嘲笑别人不勇敢。大家都是勇敢的。做什么事情都需要勇气，成长，也一样。

第一次上台演讲，第一次表演节目，第一次当着很多人的面发表对另一个人的看法……人生中有很多第一次，这些第一次中，你都会觉得自己并不勇敢。其实你是勇敢的。做什么事情都需要勇气，成长，也一样。

挫折是必须面对的，成长中必定有挫折。不经过风风雨雨，没有挫折的磨练，你必定不会成功。而面队这些挫折时，需要勇敢。你可以不勇敢，但是你不能永远不勇敢。做什么事情都需要勇气，成长，也一样。

做什么事情都需要勇气，成长，也一样。想要快乐，想要成功，必须勇敢。

在我们成长的途中会遇到不少挫折，会摔倒过很多次，也会经受失败带来的困惑，在这些困阻中我们会怎样面对呢?是的，我们需要勇气，我们要有勇气战胜挫折，要有勇气站起来战胜一切艰难困阻，不要因为一点小困难就退缩，不要因为一个“我不会”而担忧，我们并不是一生下来就什么都会的，我们要在成长的过程中不断的学习，正因为这样，所以我们需要很大的勇气。

小时候的我并不懂事，以为取得一点小小的成功就是走向成长最好的捷径，那时我问妈妈快快成长的方法是什么，妈妈只是笑了笑拍拍我的脑袋说“努力”我被这简短的两个字所疑惑，但我死要面子的朝妈妈点了点头，后来一次小小的数学测试本来还自信满满的我被这眼前的题目所难住，结果考了个不及格回家，我伤心的走到家问妈妈有没有什么不努力就能快快成长的方法，妈妈又是笑了笑说“失败没关系，在成长的道路上难免会遇到挫折，只有有勇气战胜挫折，我相信你会成功的”或许在成长的道路上我们真正需要的并不是挫折，我们需要的是足够让我们从失败中爬起战胜挫折的勇气!

人生难免有几次尝试，它可能成功，也可能失败。有位名人曾说过：“实践是进步的第一阶梯，只有实践才能使你有所发现，有所感悟。”在我无数次的尝试中，有一次尝试让我刻骨铭心，那是一次勇敢的尝试。 It is inevitable that there are several attempts in life. It may succeed or fail.A celebrity once said: "Practice is the first ladder of progress. Only by practice can you find something and feel." In my countless attempts, I tried to make me unforgettable.try.

记得那一次去安吉的百草园游玩，只见我们来到了一个叫“鳄鱼桥”的地方，我一听，心里好奇极了，便按捺不住，拉着妈妈来到了桥边，我赶紧上了桥。一上桥，我的心一震，不由自主地往下面看去，啊!是湖，我顿时明白了我在吊桥上。我不禁惊恐万状，手死死地抓住妈妈的衣裳，双脚在微微发抖。“没事，别怕!”妈妈露出慈祥的笑脸，两朵像花儿一样的小酒窝绽放在她的脸上，妈妈这一温暖的笑，给予了我莫大的勇气，我只好硬着头皮往前走，突然刚刚还稳稳当当的桥现在就像被施了魔法一样，开始左右摇晃不已，我左手死死地抓住妈妈，右手扶住扶手，身体随着吊桥前后摆动，顿时，我心想：死定了，这回可能会掉到河里去的，如果这座桥坍了的话，我们就会被鳄鱼吃掉的。

这时，害怕，畏惧涌上我的心头，我感觉浑身血液在倒流，细胞在扩散，神经绷得紧紧的……这时，我惊慌失措，后悔这次来玩，后悔自己会上这个鬼桥，我胸中的血在这一刻凝固了，不知有什么东西闯进了我的心田，我的泪水如奔腾不息的野马脱缰而出，“啊!”我一边哭，一边叫，也毫不顾虑旁人的看法。我一边抓住扶手，一边低头往下看，只见有一条鳄鱼在桥下欢快的游来游去。他张开血盆大嘴，我这时心想：这只鳄鱼会不会攻击桥面，然后，我们都掉进了河里，被鳄鱼吃掉……想着，想着，我不禁闭上了眼睛。

突然，笛福的一句名言出现在我的脑海里，“害怕危险的心理比危险本身还要可怕一万倍”，对呀，只要驱除畏怯的心理，就能走过去。我努力地做了一次深呼吸，试着睁开眼睛，轻轻的松开妈妈的手，握着桥上的扶手，这时，太阳公公用温暖的抚摸着我，小鸟在一旁为我加油打气，我随桥的晃动，左脚先跨，右脚紧接着跟上，努力保持平衡，就这样走完了全程。走到了桥的对岸，我朝天望了望，那洁白无暇的云朵使我心旷神怡，我的心里比吃了蜜还甜。

那次勇敢的尝试，让我明白了驱除害怕危险的心理，才能成功。

一直以来都认为自己是个超有勇气的人，超独立的人。因为家庭环境的影响，自小妈妈一直这样要求我，而我也确实如她所愿了。甚至在性格上略微带有一些男孩的气势。但最近越来越发现自己缺少了当年来深的那种勇气。也许是时间的轮回让我渐渐的丧失了它，也让我越来越不相信自己，越来越怀疑自己！一个人最可怕的就是对自己失去信心！是的，我还是以前的我吗？还是以前那个敢想敢做的我吗？我开始怀疑，开始恐惧！

也许到了该我做选择的时候了！我知道现在还不晚，因为我还年轻，还有精力，也还有时间。自小我就是个很有想法的人，心中也有无数个美好的梦想。我也一直在苦苦的追寻着，努力着。却发现离梦想越来越遥远！以致让我一度的陷入困惑与迷茫之中……

时光的洪流中我们总会长大，而今我也长大，已不是在那个倔强任性的女孩了，生活的压力让我渐渐明白我不能一味的去索取，我得学会创造，创造我想要的，为了我的梦想！

加油吧，相信自己！

勇气，所以让你抓住时机。成功的勇气，所以让你展示自己的风采。勇气，可以让你得到赞扬，快乐……勇气，实在太好了!那么，走在21世纪前列的我们何乐而不为呢? courage, so let you seize the opportunity.The courage to succeed, so let you show your style.Courage can make you praise, happiness ... courage, really good! So, why do we have to be at the forefront of the 21st century?

作为学生，整日与老师接触，老师提问题时，也许你已经有了答案，并且是正确的，但是你不回答，总是沉默在那儿，课堂气氛不活跃，老师讲不下去，此类的问题发生的太多太多啦!也许你认为沉默是金吧!今天，就让我诉说一个故事来说明我对此的看法吧。

小时候，是妈妈把苹果咬了一口尝尝，再递给我：“乖，这个苹果甜，快吃吧。”于是我吃得津津有味。长大一些，是我把苹果咬了一口，再递给妈妈：“妈，这个苹果酸，我不想吃。”于是妈妈摇摇头，皱着眉头把苹果吃了。“扔掉太可惜了。”

再长大一些，和朋友一块儿吃苹果。一次摆着一个苹果，不大，青皮，但对干渴的要命的我们却很解渴。可谁都不知这个苹果是酸是甜，还是别的什么怪味，因为它很难看。几个丫头围着苹果看了半天，我忍不住拿起来咬了一口，一个“很酸吧?”“很涩吗?”“该不会是甜的吧?”……“当然是甜的。”我满意地说，不由递给她们，她们说：“这怎么能吃呢?你咬了一口啊?”听了之后，我干脆吃个精光，百分百享受它的美味。

如果我不尝尝这个苹果，就不会知道它是甜的，知道了它是甜的，而又因为被咬了一口又放弃，当然更不会享受它的美味了。

生活犹如一个不知其味的苹果，没有勇气去咬它一口，就不会知道它的价值，于是就失掉一个美味的苹果，失掉一次机会。当别人尝到它的滋味，认识了它的价值，你却因为它被咬过一口而主动放弃了品尝它美好的机会，那你还会有别的什么良机呢?

生活，是需要我们拿出勇气去尝试的，当机会来临时，你更要主动把握它，否则将一事无成、一无所有。

听了我的言论，你是否在课堂上会举起你那珍贵的手呢?是否会活跃课堂气氛?是否会重获勇气呢?