初中英语说明文写作模板【精彩20篇】

导语：童年宛如乐谱，谱写出一件又一件的趣事，童年是雨后的彩虹，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!

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

But one day, after we got home from school, my mother went into the bedroom and stayed in bed. I didn’t know what had happened.

I sat beside her , my mother said to me , “it doesn’t matter , mum only has a headache . I will be all right after a while.” Although mother said so, I found tears in her eyes because of pain, at that time I knew adults also got ill and cried. I decided I would take care of my mother from then on.

【参考译文】

我的童年对我母亲的爱很满意。在我幼小的心里,我妈妈强壮健康,从不生病。她每天带我去小学和家。无论刮风下雨还是刮风下雨。

但是有一天,我们放学回家后,妈妈走进卧室,躺在床上。我不知道发生了什么事

我坐在她旁边,妈妈对我说:“没关系,妈妈只是头疼。”过一会儿我会没事的。虽然母亲说,我发现她眼里含着泪水,因为痛苦,那时我知道成年人也生病了,哭了。我决定从那以后照顾我妈妈。

节日的夜晚，一束束焰火凌空而起，有的仿佛天女散花，有的像孔雀开屏，五颜六色，光彩夺目，给节日增添了喜庆的色彩。那么焰火的色彩是怎么来的呢？

为了搞清这个问题，我拆开了几个没燃放的焰火和查阅了资料。原来焰火的原料主要是黑色火药，黑色火药在燃烧时，能放出大量的热和光；另外，原料里还掺入了各种发光剂，这些物质燃烧时，会呈现五颜六色。硝酸钠会发出黄光，硫酸铜会发出蓝光，铝粉、铝镁合金会发出白光，硝酸锶会发出红光……为了使焰火色彩更加艳丽，火药燃烧得更彻底，工人师傅在火药中还要掺入硝酸钾、镁粉等。它们受热后分解，能释放出大量的氧来助燃。

焰火点燃之后，会立即发生剧烈的化学反应，骤然间火药的体积猛胀1000多倍，并突然炸开，构成多种多样的形状，千姿百态，绚烂多彩。

初一的第一节英语课，门口进来一位中等个子，长头发的女青年。上下一打量，20岁左右，个头小于等于1米6。这大概就是我们的英语老师吧!此人发话了：“丑话说在前面，我脾气不好!”一句话着实把我们全班都镇住了。第一印象：凶!

可是时间久了却发现，实际上并不是她自己说的那样，也不是我们以为的那样。

她教英语，时不时地用上几句“现代用语”。虽然平常我们也经常说，但是从一个老师嘴里说出来，难免会有些稀奇，距离感一下子就消失了，亲切感一下子就增进了!比如她反复要强调的东西，她会说：“都强调了10遍了”，这还没什么，到后来演变成100遍、N遍;最后递进到N+1遍。她给我们的第一印象便彻底被抹杀掉了。

上晚自习的时候，她会给我们自由，写作业、看书都行，不像数学老师一进来就讲题，语文老师抱着书就要听写。她每次都会读一些连语文老师都不会读的哲理的、感人的文章，有时还会读笑话，即使是不好笑的，她自己也会乐成一团。

有一次英语晚自习，打了铃之后班里仍是像炸了锅一样热闹，吵架的、打架的、嬉笑的、K歌的，应有尽有，无所不有。我正奇怪英语老师为什么还没来，此人就出现在教室门口了。班里顿时鸦雀无声。一同来的，还有班主任。班主任留下了“站一晚上”的“圣旨”后扬长而去。我们在下面悔得肠子都青了，同时也深感不服。这就是自讨苦吃吧，我想。

正想着，忽然发现英语老师也站在讲台上。过了一会儿，她说：“其实今天的事我也有责任。我来晚了。可是大家真的很乱，从四个班走过来，最乱的就是咱们班了……我也陪你们站，大家谁都别坐了，好吗?”她严肃的表情上找不到任何的虚伪，我们都为之感动，就差鼓掌了。结果那个晚上，她真的一边站着一边看书，根本没坐下过。我们谁也没好意思偷懒，就凭她那晚的那番话和行为，我们愿意站十个晚上来奉还。

教过我的英语老师甚至是所有老师中，她的确是教得最好且最能拉近与学生之间距离的一个。翻开我们的英语作业本，你会发现，每个人的本上每天都会有一个大大的英文：加油!

说明文的中心鲜明突出，文章具有科学性，条理性，语言确切生动。它通过揭示概念来说明事物特征、本质及其规律性。说明文一般介绍事物的形状、构造、类别、关系、功能，解释事物的原理、含义、特点、演变等。说明文实用性很强，它包括广告、说明书、提要、提示、规则、章程、解说词等。说明文有的是以时间为序，有的是以空间为序；有的由现象写到本质，有的由主写到次；有的按工艺流程顺序来说明，有的按事物的性质、功用、原理等顺序来说明。

The annual Chinese New Year came in 20xx, the Spring Festival has come exceptionally busy, it is accompanied by the festive sound of firecrackers, sky in full bloom, and colorful fireworks came. The ancients as "firecrackers of the year" to commemorate Chinese New Year. The return of fireworks and firecrackers, so that the ancient city of Beijing is full of a thick smell of years, sound of firecrackers brings us endless joy, filled with a wonderful interesting traditional festivals.

As a girl, I do not like to put those little on the "crackling" sound of Mei Wan and loud firecrackers. I like those colorful light emitted after, four run around fireworks. There is a called channeling smallpox, a carefully ed in the ground began to release, and later on the secure enough to put in the hand grip, lit "squeak" is heard, a group with a small ball of fire flew up into the sky, screaming, "pit" Suddenly the sky on a flower in full bloom out, quite exciting.

My favorite is called Setaria fireworks in one hand and a lit continuously emitted after the bright, constantly changing colors of the fireworks. My hands turned, arms on the emergence of two very nice Ring of Fire; my arms open, 4 running, I became a "Firebird." I have a another one to lying, I cried, ran, happy with Chinese New Year fireworks is a traditional custom. Legend of the so-called "year" is an evil beast, people set fire to bamboo, the sound of bamboo bursting scared off "year", "years" away is the Chinese New Year in.

I like fireworks, it made me able to live a traditional feature of the year. I think as long as we pay attention to safety, stressing civilization, this tradition will be able to have a wonderful New Year.

[描写春节的初中英语作文

教案(Teaching Plan)是教师施教的课时计划或方案,是帮助教师有效地进行素质教育教学的依据.教案可以帮助教师有计划、有步骤地进行素质教育教学,充分利用课堂教学时间,高质量地完成教学任务.教案写得如何将直接影响教学效果的好坏.因此,在日常教学中,广大教师都非常注重写教案.那么写教案时应写什么呢?

一、写课题(Topic)和课型(Lesson Type)

课题相当于文章的标题,讲课时要首先告诉学生,并写在黑板上.因此要写得准确.课型是指该节课的讲授类型.初中英语的主要课型有:新授课(New lesson)、巩固课(Reinforcement Lesson)、复习课(Revision Lesson)、语音课(Phonetic Lesson)、听力课(Listening Lesson)、听说课(Aural-Oral Lesson)、阅读课(Reading Lesson)、语法课(Grammar Lesson)等.不同的课型应用不同的授课方式或方法,只有确定了课型,才能选择有效的素质教育教学方法.

二、写素质教育教学目标(Teaching Objective)

素质教育教学目标是教案的核心内容,是教师施教的准绳.教学目标要符合大纲对教材的要求.由于教学目标要在课堂上展示给学生,让学生明确,所以写素质教育目标时,要力求简明扼要,浅显易懂,便于操作和检测,一般3~4个目标为宜.

三、写素质教育教学的重点(Main Points)、难点(Difficult Points)和关键点(Key Points) 素质教育重点是课堂教学的主要任务;教学难点是师生顺利完成教学任务的障碍;素质教学关键是攻克教学难点的突破口.在教案中写清一节课的教学重点、难点和关键点,能提醒教师在讲课时注意突出重点、突破难点、抓住关键.

四、写教具(Teaching Tools)

课堂上需要什么教具要写清楚,如录音机、教材录音带、教学挂图、卡片、实物(或模型)、小黑板、刻印好的练习题、彩色粉笔、幻灯片等.

五、写素质教育教学过程(Teaching Procedure)

素质教育教学过程是教案的主要部分.写教学过程主要写以下几方面的内容:

1. 写教学环节.教学环节即教学任务是什么要写清楚,做到心中有数.目前有些教师采用"三阶段六环节"教学模式,即:准备阶段(自由交流、复习检查)、讲练阶段(导入课程、分层操练)和发展阶段(巩固发展、布置作业).

2. 写知识点和所用时间.写好知识点,教师使用教案时能一目了然,有的放矢.写好所用时间,能使教师从容掌握教学速度,合理安排每个教学环节所需的时间,充分利用课堂时间.

3. 写教师活动.不仅要写教师"教什么",还要写出教师"怎样教",即写清楚教师要教的内容,写出讲授这些内容的方法.写出课堂用语和各环节的过渡语.课堂用语要求简练、口语化,用学生已经学过的熟悉的、听得懂的英语来解释或表达新的教学内容.各环节之间的过渡语要自然流畅.写出使用教具的时机和方法,写板书内容等.

4. 写学生活动.写出学生学习的内容和学习方法,特别是怎样学应写清楚.不能简单地把学生活动写成听、读、思考、操练、做题等.

六、写课堂训练题(Exercises)

备课时精心设计的有针对性的随堂练习题和达标题要写在教案中.写清出示这些题的办法,如用小黑板、看刻印材料或学生已有材料等.写出这些题的答案和解题方法.

七、写课堂小结(Summing-up on Teaching)

课堂小结是教师帮助学生回顾和总结本节课的学习内容的重要环节.小结的方式和方法要在教案中写清楚,不论是教师引导学生总结,还是由教师归纳总结,都要注意把本节课的内容纳入知识系统之中,使学生在整体上把握知识.

八、写板书设计(Blackboard Designs)

板书是有声有色的教学语言,它具有直观性、形象性和启发性.因此,教师在课堂上要有计划

地使用黑板,板书什么内容、写在什么位置、用什么颜色的粉笔等要在备课时设计好,并写在教案中.避免课堂上东写一个句子、西写一个短语、一会儿写、一会儿擦、一会儿擦了又写的板书混乱现象.好的板书能使讲课的内容系统化、结构化,有利于学生复习本节课的知识. 写教案时要考虑的问题

1、如何开始备课

在教师着手备课之前，必须吃透课程标准（大纲）及教材，在此基础上，考虑学生的认知规律和实际的语言能力，以确定课题和教学目的，明确教学目标。从教学目标出发，确定重点和难点，考虑用哪些教学法来组织课堂。然后精心挑选、设计练习，确定要做、改、删、增的练习，列授课计划提纲，再逐步仔细预测各种教学技巧和教学手段的应用，特别是涉及可能修改计划、增删内容的教学步骤。

2. 思考几个问题

（1）教学技巧上，是否有足够的变化可以使课堂教学生动有趣？成功的外语课上总有不同的活动，使学生思维活跃，情绪高涨。

（2）不同教学技巧的应用和教学的组织有没有得到有序的、合乎逻辑的安排？理想化的课堂教学须朝着教学目标由易及难、循序渐进。建立在新知识之上的教学活动必须精心安排。

（3）整堂课的节奏设计得好吗？节奏的含义，可以有以下三个方面：第一，活动不能太短，也不能太长。如果课堂活动多而短，那么学生刚刚找到某活动的“感觉”，又得“跳到”下一个活动去了。这样不好。第二，教师应考虑如何把各种教学技巧、教学手段和教学组织形式揉合在一起。例如，一堂课上连续搞全班俩俩全班小组俩俩全班……的活动，每个活动五分钟，那么，这些活动是难以发挥其应有作用的。第三，控制好节奏也有利于各个教学活动之间的衔接。例如：

（4）整节课的时间有没有安排好？这是备课最难控制的因素之一。新教师往往容易提早授完所备内容，而后又易矫枉过正，不能完成课时计划。这里有两点值得提醒。预先准备一些“备用”的复习活动。如果提早授完已准备的内容，则进行复习巩固练习。

3. 学生的个体差异

随着教学过程的重心由教师向学生转变，学生的主体作用日益突出。课堂教学必须充分考虑学生的个体差异。我们主张，备课一般应以中等程度的学生为准，但也应适当照顾两头的学生。可以考虑以下五个方面：（1）教学内容适当包含一些较难或较易的项目，（2）针对不同水平的学生问不同难度的问题，（3）设计的教学活动尽可能让全体同学都参与。

4. 学生谈话与教师谈话

备课时要充分考虑教师与学生的谈话时间。一般的英语课上，总是教师说得多， 学生说得少。要注意让学生有较多的机会进行交际。

I am a shy girl, when my teachers ask me the questions, I will always low

down my head and answer them with small voice. Because of my character, I miss

the chances to make myself stand out and I also don’t have many friends. I

really want to change my situation, I don’t want to be a stand by anymore, I

want to be part of the group. So I force myself to join the class activities, I

find I enjoy them and I talk to my classmate a lot. I become active and start to

try more things, I take part in the debate competition and show my ability, I

find my stage.

Live with thankfulness Do you know Thanksgiving Day?Do you know why human thank God? Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, a different date every year. The President must proclaim that date as the official celebration.

Thanksgiving is a time for tradition and sharing. Even if they live far away, family members gather for a reunion at the house of an older relative. All give thanks together for the good things that they have. In this spirit of sharing, civic groups and charitable organizations offer a traditional meal to those in need, particularly the homeless. On most tables throughout the United States, foods eaten at the first thanksgiving have become traditional. What should we thank?

The thankful great universe provides the environment of existence for us and give us sunlight, air, water and everything in keeping with we existence of space, bring storm to let us accept to toughen for us, bring to us mysterious let us look for. The thankful parents give us the life, make us feel the merriment of the human life, feel the genuine feeling of the human life, feel the comity of the human life, feel happiness of the human life, also feel hardships and pain and sufferings of the human life!

The thankful teacher works with diligence and without fatigue everyday of teach, give us knowledge ability, put on the wing which flies toward the ideal for us. The thankful classmate and friend grows up road of, let I no longer standing alone in the itinerary of life;The with gratitude is frustrated and let us become in a time the failure stronger.

[ 多与家人朋友沟通交流初中英语作文

We have lived in Lida School for more than one year. I enjoy all the time here because it can bring me a lot of things such as feelings, knowledge and other things I need.

There are many trees and flowers around us. The trees are green all the year. When we sit in the classroom and look out of the windows, we can see a big tree shaking its strong arms to us. It is really wonderful.

In some ways, our thoughts are at large. Perhaps it makes our brains creative. I believe that nothing can tie up my mind even it stands for authority. The free life is just like our school life.

In our school, of course, there are both success and failure. We should not be proud but modest because there are too many people much better than myself. Actually, we also should muster up courage and work harder.

I like

We are honest.

We always keep promises.

We often think a lot.

We are never afraid of anything.

So we have our own school life different from others.

[初中英语作文参考：缤纷校园生活

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

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

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

Xiamen is located in Southeast of Fujian province,it is considered as the

cleanest port city in China thus people call Xiamen "the garden on the sea" or

call it "green island". Back to Song dynasty it started its administrative

founding until now.There are a great variety of sights to witness in

Xiamen.Gulangyu Island, the most beautiful island near Xiamen, has won great

reputation for its Sunlight Rock and Shuzhuang Garden.South Putuo Temple, which

is located at the foot of Wulaofeng and is deemed to be the most renowned

Buddhist temple in Xiamen.Xiamen Botanical Garden, known as the Wanshi Botanical

Garden,which has scenic spots such as the Morning Bell of Heaven, the Reading

and Music Playing Cave, the Cloud Locking Stones, the Jade Scepter Rock and the

Peace Stone. In the past decade, Xiamen has changed a lot with rapid advancing

in agriculture,industry,science technology and education areas.

One possible version:

Changes in My Hometown

Great changes have taken place in my hometown these years. There used to be old and low houses on the streets,but now you can see people live and work in tall buildings. In the past, you could always see rubbish everywhere. But now the environment is clean and tidy. Many trees are planted on both sides of the street, so the air is very fresh.There were not any buses in my hometown, so most of us used to walk to work or go to school by bike.However, life is much better now. Many people buy their own cars, so they go out by car.

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

英语一直是我最头痛的一门功课。因为在我看来有无数个毫无规律的英语单词要背诵，还有那莫名其妙的听力，都令我烦恼不已。但这学期我发现我似乎对这门讨厌的功课产生了兴趣。

事情的起因是爸爸出差到北京，给我带回了一台“读书郎”英语同步读书机。我立刻被它漂亮的外表吸引住了，因为它像一台高档的笔记本电脑。打开读书机，左边是音标，分为元音、辅音;右边是26个英语字母。最大的好处是它可以下载我上课用的pep教材。妈妈让我打开英语课本，翻到第1页，把读书机中的页码调至相同页码，我再用那神奇的信号笔一点，点到哪儿，读书机就发出标准的读音，点第二遍时它就译出这个单词的中文含义，真是太神奇了!

刚开始几天，我每天一放学就抱着这台“读书郎”，渐渐地新鲜劲也就过去了。妈妈看准了时机，立即调动我的积极性，把老师当天教的英语单词分批教我，并慢慢告诉我这个字母在单词中所发的音。这样，日积月累，慢慢地我对有些字母的发音规律也有所掌握。正像妈妈所说的那样，一旦你会读准这个单词，那么这个单词的一半已被记住，只要稍一用心，就可记住全部。妈妈告诉我：学习英语要循序渐进，因为记忆会衰减，所以学单词时，先学一遍，过一会儿复习一遍，到第二天再复习一遍，一星期、一个月内再次复习，这样能把短期记忆变成长期记忆。这种方法叫作“思马德记忆”。按照妈妈所说的方法，我试了一下。哎，果真有效果!渐渐地我对背诵单词有点窍门了。这个学期六个单元所要求的四会单词，我全部做到了会“听、说、读、写”。

因为背诵单词有了明显的进步，得到了老师的表扬，我的学习热情倍增，对听力也产生了兴趣。现在我拿到听力课文，不象以前那样手忙脚乱，而是先把课文、图案看一遍。如果是选择题，我会看清图案，了解这几幅图的大致含义，再听录音。我现在能抓住几个重点词语与图案进行对照，基本能做到准确无误。对阅读也同样，抓住几个关键词语和下面的问题进行对照。

以上几点仅是我对学习英语的几点体会。同学们，你们是不是也和以前的我一样，对学习英语非常头痛，其实不用害怕，只要坚持不懈，今天记不住的单词明天再记，反反复复，我相信你一定会成功。让我们一起努力，共同进步吧!

"As" this sentence is confirmed by the wonderful nature, yesterday the

wisper under light rain, my heart is heavy like a rock, because want to master

and old milk grave, before, I dont understand the real meaning of the qing Ming

day, until today after sweeping the tomb, I understand the true meaning of

tomb-sweeping day!

At seven o clock in the morning, we prepare to master and old milk grave,

grave is a fresh thing for me, we take tools and set off.

Walking the winding mountain road, I cant wait, after about an hour, we

came to the master and old grandmas grave, a year didnt come, graves are

covered with wild grass, you well after the division of labor, began to busy,

everything is in place, we started to burn money, along with the smoke, I seem

to see their shadow, they told me: study hard and cherish life.

Yes, life is short, happy every day to live, to continuously surpass

ourselves, surpass ourselves, dream will come true; The superego, the dream into

power; Beyond the self, to create beautiful life! I think life is constantly

transcend self, beyond the dream!!!!! Panoramic view of the city house on the

mountain, the mountain was full of golden golden in the rape, deep breath, deep

and remote light fragrance, fresh air, the flowers with irresistible power

explanation of the meaning of life!

Have you ever had a dream about your splendid future or imagined something ueal but interesting or meaningfulTell your closet friend about it now. My Dream I have a dream that I am always young. Then I will have enough energy to do everything whenever I want. Moreover, I dont have to worry about the old age during which I even cant take care of myself. I know that my dream will not come true. However, I think it is lucky that I am young now. So I will treasure my time, enjoy my life and try my best to do everything well.

我有一个梦想就是我永远年轻，然后我就会有足够的精力去做我想做的事情，而且，我就不会因年老无法照顾自己而忧虑。我深知我的梦想不会实现。然而，我很幸运，现在我很年轻。 因此，我一定要珍惜青春好时光，享受生活，并且尽最大努力把每件事情做好。

[我的梦想英语作文三篇

People always say that we are lacking of the eyes of realizing the beauty

in life. I can’t agree with it anymore. Last week, I woke up very early in the

morning, so I decided to take a walk. The street was very quiet and there were

many old people dancing in the square. Without many cars, I realized the city

looked so clean and beautiful. Some coffee shops decorates so well, which

attrated my eyes. The city was coverd by the green trees, which made it a green

city. I liked this feeling so much. At this moment, I found the city was so

lovely, I just ingored its beauty usually.

一、注意审题

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

一个孩子乘母亲不在，将家里的小闹钟拆了，母亲见后……

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

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

二、注意语言的简洁

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

三、力求结构完整

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

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

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

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

四、注意表达方式的运用

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

I love weekend, because I can do many things. I can read books, watch TV

and play some games……

OnMonday, I went to school by bike and played computer games.

After nine o’clock, I went to zoo with my parents and saw lots of

animals.

On Wednesday, I went to Cheng gu visited my cousins and my uncle. On

Thursday, I went to library read books.

Friday is my favourite day, I was very happy! Because I saw a film with my

best friend, Webought many books.

On Saturday, I listened to music and watched TV. Today is Sunday, I don’t

like this day, because tomorrow I will go to school.

What a busy week!

乐于助人

Helping Others

In school, I work very hard and I rank in the top of my class. Therefore, my classmates would like to ask me some questions about study when they do not ask for teachers. I like helping others. Firstly, when others need help,初中英语I want to give them a hand. They come to me, because they trust me. This makes me happy. Secondly, I can get help from others, too. Once you did some favors to them, they are more likely to help you. Finally, helping others is helping myself, too. When I solve problems, I get improvement at the same time.

通过上面对之乐于助人的学习，相信同学们已经很好的阅读了吧，希望给同学们的学习很好的帮助。

比较级和最高级可用哪些词修饰

1. 比较级的修饰语有 far, even, still, a great deal, a bit, rather, three times, any 中考, no, very much 等。如：

This is very much cheaper. 这个便宜得多。

Do you feel any better today? 你今天感觉好点儿了吗?

This one is even more expensive. 这个更贵些。

2. 最高级的常见修饰语有 (by) far, much, nearly, almost, not quite, second 等。如：

He is by far the best of all the students. 他是所有这些中最好的。

He is almost the tallest here. 他差不多是这儿最高的。

This is much the worst book of all. 这是所有书中最最糟糕的一本。

very不能修饰比较级，却可修饰最高级，但它与一般的修饰最高级的副词有所不同，即它要放在最高级前的定冠词之后，而不是之前：

This is the very best one. 这是最最好的。

另外，second, third等也要放在定冠词之后：

The Yellow River is the second longest river in China. 黄河是中国第二长河流

初中作文 少壮不努力老大徒伤悲

Almost everyone knows the famous Chinese saying：A young idler，an old beggar. Throughout history，we have seen many cases in which this saying has again and again proved to be true.

It goes without saying that the youth is the best time of life，during which ones mental and physical states are at their peaks. It takes relatively less time and pains to learn or accept new things in a world full of changes and rapid developments. In addition，one is less likely to be under great pressure from career，family and health problems when young. Therefore，a fresh mind plus enormous energy will ensure success in different aspects of life.

Of course，we all know：no pains，no gains. If we dont make every effort to make good use of the advantages youth brings us，it is impossible to achieve any goals. As students，we should now try our best to learn all the subjects well so that we can be well prepared for the challenges that we will face in the future.

详解阅读题--我懂他的话

While eating in a restaurant, I reprimanded my four-year-old son for speaking with his mouth full . "Mump umn Kmpfhm," was all I heard.

"Drew," I scolded, "no one can understand a word youre saying.

"He says he wants some ketchup," my husband said calmly

A woman sitting nearby leaned over and asked, "How in the world did you understand him?"

"Im a dentist," my husband explained.

Notes:

(1) reprimand v.申斥

(2) scold v.责备

(3) ketchup n.番茄酱

(4) How in the world did you understand him？你究竟如何明白他的话的呢？句中“ in the world”用来表示强调，加强语气。

Exercises:

根据短文回答下列问题：

① Where did the story take place?

② How old was the son?

③ Why did the mother scold her son?

④ What did the father say the boy want?

⑤ Why could the father understand the son?

102.我懂他的话

在饭店吃饭的时候，我申斥我4岁的儿子，因为他满嘴食物在说话。“喔、呢”，我听到的就是这些。

“祖，”我责备道，&ldquo 中考;没人明白你在说什么。”

“他说他要一些番茄酱，”我丈夫平静地说。

坐在旁边的一位妇女靠过来问道：“你究竟如何明白他的话的呢？”

“我是牙医。”我丈夫解释道。

练习参考答案：

① In a restaurant.

② He was four years old

③ Because he had spoken with his mouth full.

④ Some ketchup.

⑤ Because he was a dentist.

浅谈名词的可数性及其修饰语

名词根据其可数性可分类可数名词和不可数名词。在使用时要注意它们的以下特点：

◎可数名词有复数形式，而不可数名词一般没有复数形式。

◎可数名词前可以直接用不定冠词修饰，而不可数名词前不可以直接用不定冠词修饰。

◎可数名词可以在前面直接加数词表示数量，而不可数名词不能直接在前面用数词表示数量，若要表示数量需要用a piece of之类的结构。

◎可数名词前可用each, either, neither, another, these, those, both, (a) few, several, many, a great / good many, a large number of, scores of, dozens of等修饰，但不可数名词前不可用这些修饰语，而不可数名词前可用(a) little,

much, a bit of, a great deal of, a large amount of等修饰，但可数名前不能用这些词修饰；不过，可数名词和不可数名词前均可用some, any, half, most, all, a lot of, lots of, plenty of 初三, a large quantity of, quantities of等修饰。

以上几点是关于名词可数性的几个基本用法要点，初学者应重点注意！

初三英语学习的三大对策

尽早进入状态

初三是初中学习生活的关键年级，学习内容多，要求高，强度大。一年后（实际上约10个月）同学们就要参加中考，进入状态越早，就会越主动，效果就会越好。

初三的状态是指：树立明确的人生目标，拥有足够的学习动力，具有强烈的自信心；变“要我学”为“我要学”，时间安排合理，学习效率高；学习得法，不搞题海战术，既会学习，又会考试。

抓好三个环节

预习：初三学习忙，时间紧，但预习工作不可忘。课前要熟悉课文中生词的音和义，基本搞懂课文内容，尤其要记下难于理解的问题。带着这些问题，有的放矢地听课，听课的效率就会提高。

听课：课堂是获取知识和培养能力的主渠道，学习时间大多是在课堂中度过的。因此掌握科学的听课方法，提高听课效率，是提高课堂学习效率和学习成绩的关键所在。在课前预习的基础上，可以明确听课目标，掌握听课的主动性，从而提高学习效率。课堂上，通过听、说、读、写的训练，掌握词、句、段、篇等基本知识，培养听、说、读、写的基本能力。因此上课不仅要认真听，更要多说，多读，多写，多思。也要捕捉讲课重点，尽可能当堂消化。

复习：温故而知新，课后复习可以加深对课堂所学知识的消化和理解，并强化记忆，达到熟练掌握灵活运用。

复习要及时。艾宾浩斯遗忘曲线告诉我们，在学习开始的一段时间，不仅遗忘得快，而且遗忘的内容也多，因此趁热打铁，及时复习非常必要。对课文中的重点，难点、关键句可用有色笔注上记号，以便经常复习。

初中英语学习积累英语词汇十个技巧

【—学习积累英语词汇十个技巧】同学们是否还在为记忆单词而感到烦恼呢？下面是老师为大家推荐的方法总结。

十个窍门积累英语词汇

Connect：将单词的记忆建立在一个常用主题的基础上更容易记忆单词。建立你自己的单词间的联系还可以用蜘蛛网的方式组织单词。

Write：实际使用词汇能帮助在脑海中真正记住单词。用新的词汇造句或用一组单词或表达方式编故事。

Draw：激发出你自身的艺术性画那些和那些新学单词有关部门的图片。你的图片能在今后帮助你激发记忆。

Act：将你新学的单词或表达方式用动作表达出来,初中数学。或者，想象并表演出你可能会使用到那些单词的场景。

Create：用英语设计你的单词卡并在空闲的时间学习。每周都要制作新的单词卡，但是要不停的回顾所有的单词。

Associate：不同的单词指定不同的颜色。这种联系方式能在今后帮助你回忆单词。

Listen：想一想有没有什么听起来和你新学到的单词接近的单词，特别是一些复杂的单词。将你的新单词和其他单词联系起来以帮助你记住发音。

Choose：记得你感兴趣的话题要更容易学习。因此，仔细选择你认为有用的或有趣的单词。就算是选择单词的过程也是一种记忆的手段！

Limit：不要试图一天之内记下一本单词！每天限制你自己记忆15个单词，你就会不断的增添自信而不是感到没有办法应付。

Observe：当阅读或是听英语的时候注意那些你正在学习的单词。

上述的十种方法同学们是否掌握了呢？如果还有不明白的可以参考！

[初中英语乐于助人作文

It is known to all that China is a great big old country, which has

profound culture. As a result, the diversity of culture makes this country

charming. There are fifty-six minorities and all of them have different

features. Many foreigners come to China and they are attracted by the diversity.

For example, the scenery is different in areas. We have green and high mountains

and amazing historical relics. What’s more, Chinese food is famous around the

world. The unity of the minorities makes our country become stronger. Every

Chinese knows that we are families and will fight for the country’s future. We

have the responsibility to keep the country peaceful.