英语写作干货（汇集20篇）

一、名人名言必背部分。

在英语作文中，我们经常会引用一些名人名言。这里就向大家介绍一些，务必要全部脱口而出!

高考英语作文素材，Culture 文化篇

1.A great poem is a fountain forever overflowing with the waters of wisdom and delight.(P. B. Shelley , British poet )伟大的诗篇即是永远喷出智慧和欢欣之水的喷泉。(英国诗人 雪莱. P. B)

2.Art is a lie that tells the truth .( Picasso , Spanish painter )美术是揭示真理的谎言。 (西班牙画家 毕加索)

3.Humor has been well defined as thinking in fun while feeling in earnest. (Mark Twain , American novelist )幽默被人正确地解释为"以诚挚表达感受，寓深思于嬉笑"。(美国小说家 马克·吐温)

4.The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation; the two keep in their downward tendency.( Johan Wolfgang von Goethe , German poet )文学的衰落表明一个民族的衰落。这两者走下坡路的时间是齐头并进的。(德国诗人歌德 . J . W .)

5.When one loves ones art no service seems too hard .(O. Henry, American novelist)一旦热爱艺术，什么奉献也不难。 (美国小说家 欧·亨利)

Education 教育篇

6.And gladly would learn , and gladly teach .( Chaucer , British poet)勤于学习的人才能乐意施教。(英国诗人, 乔叟)

7.Better be unborn than untaught , for ignorance is the root of misfortune.(Plato , Ancient Greek philosopher)与其不受教育,不如不生,因为无知是不幸的根源.(古希腊哲学家 柏拉图)

Friendship 友谊篇

8. Some friends come and go like a season. Others are arranged in our lives for good reason.(Sharita Gadison)一些朋友随季节离去，而另外一些则伴我们度过美好的季节。

9.A true friend is someone you can disagree with and still remain friends. For if not, they werent true friends in the first place.(Sandy Ratliff)真朋友是可以与你有不同见解的，如果不是，首先就不是真朋友。

10.True friendship is felt, not said.(Mariecris Madayag)朋友是说不出的感觉。

11.Friends are like stars,you dont always see them, but you know theyre always there.(Hulali Luta)朋友是感觉不到的存在。

12.Memories last forever, never do they die. Friends stay together, never say goodbye.(Melina Campos)记忆永不死，朋友永不说再见。

Health 健康篇

13.light heart lives long.( William Shakespeare , British dramatist )豁达者长寿(英国剧作家莎士比亚. W.)

14.Early to bed and early to rise , makes a man healthy , wealthy and wise.(Benjamin Franklin , American president )早睡早起会使人健康、富有和聪明。 (美国总统 富兰克林. B.)

15.The first wealth is health .( Ralph Waldo Emerson , American thinker )健康是人生第一财富。 (美国思想家爱默生. R. W.)

Happiness 幸福篇

16.A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth. (G. Bernard Shaw, British dramatist)终身幸福!这是任何活着的人都无法忍受的，那将是人间地狱。(英国剧作家肖伯纳. G.)高考英语作文素材

17.Happiness is form courage .(H. Jackson, British writer)幸福是勇气的一种形式。 (英国作家 杰克逊. H.)

18.Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money ; it lies in the joy of achievement , in the thrill of creative effort .(Franklin Roosevelt ,American president )幸福不在于拥有金钱，而在于获得成就时的喜悦以及产生创造力的激情。(美国总统 罗斯福. F.)

19.Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be .(Abraham Lincoln ,American president )对于大多数人来说，他们认定自己有多幸福，就有多幸福。(美国总统 林肯. A.)

20.The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved .(Victor Hugo , French novelist )生活中最大的幸福是坚信有人爱我们。( 法国小说家 雨果. V .)

21.We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it . (George Bernard Shaw , British dramatist)正像我们无权只享受财富而不创造财富一样，我们也无权只享受幸福而不创造幸福.(英国剧作家肖伯纳. G. )

高考英语作文素材Ideal 理想篇

22.Do not, for one repulse, give up the purpose that you resolved to effect. (William Shakespeare , British dramatist)不要只因一次失败，就放弃你原来决心想达到的目的。(英国剧作家莎士比亚.W.)

23.Dont part with your illusions . When they are gone you may still exist,but you have ceased to live. (Mark Twain , American writer)不要放弃你的幻想。当幻想没有了以后，你还可以生存，但是你虽生犹死.(美国作家马克·吐温)

24.Ideal is the beacon. Without ideal, there is no secure direction;without direction, there is no life. ( Leo Tolstoy , Russian writer)理想是指路明灯。没有理想，就没有坚定的方向;没有方向，就没有生活。(俄国作家托尔斯泰. L .)

25.If winter comes , can spring be far behind ?(P. B. Shelley, British poet)冬天来了，春天还会远吗? ( 英国诗人, 雪莱. P. B.)

26.Living without an aim is like sailing without a compass.Alexander Dumas (Davy de La Pailleterie, French Writer)生活没有目标就像航海没有指南针。 (法国作家 大仲马. A.)

27.The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.(Franklin Roosevelt , American president)实现明天理想的唯一障碍是今天的疑虑。 (美国总统 罗斯福. F .)

Knowledge 知识篇

28.Activity is the only road to knowledge.(George Bernard Shaw , British dramatist)行动是通往知识的唯一道路 。 (英国剧作家 肖伯纳. G.)

29.Imagination is more important than knowledge .(Albert Einstein , American scientist )想象力比知识更为重要。 (美国科学家 爱因斯坦. A. )

30.Knowledge is power . (Francis Bacon , British philosopher )知识就是力量。 (英国哲学家 培根. F.)

Struggle 奋斗篇

31.Genius only means hard-working all ones life. ( Mendeleyev , Russian Chemist)天才只意味着终身不懈的努力。 (俄国化学家门捷列耶夫)

32.I have nothing to offer but blood , toil tears and sweat . (Winston Churchill, British Politician)我所能奉献的没有其它，只有热血、辛劳、眼泪与汗水。(英国政治家 丘吉尔 . W.)

33.Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet . (Jean Jacques Rousseau , French thinker)忍耐是痛苦的，但它的果实是甜蜜的。 (法国思想家 卢梭. J. J.)

34.There is no royal road to science ,and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of gaining its numinous summits . (Karl Marx, German revolutionary )在科学上没有平坦的大道，只有不畏劳苦沿着其崎岖之路攀登的人，才有希望达到它光辉的顶点。( 德国革命家马克思. K .)

35.Where there is a will , there is a way .( Thomas Edison , American inventor )有志者，事竟成。 (美国发明家 爱迪生. T.)

二、精彩必背部分。

在作文中经常有一些好句子可以借鉴，为此，特总结如下，务必全部脱口而出。高考英语作文素材

1.According to a recent survey, four million people die each year from diseases linked to smoking. 依照最近的一项调查，每年有4，000，000人死于与吸烟有关的疾病。

2. The latest surveys show that quite a few children have unpleasant associations with homework.最近的调查显示相当多的孩子对家庭作业没什么好感。

3. No invention has received more praise and abuse than Internet. 没有一项发明像互联网一样同时受到如此多的赞扬和批评。

4. Many experts point out that physical exercise contributes directly to a person’s physical fitness.

许多专家指出体育锻炼直接有助于身体健康。

5.写信的开头：Very glad to receive your letter of July 13.

6.One day after school,XiaoMing passed a Café on his way home.

7.The boss had no choice but to let him in.

8.How he enjoyed himself on the computer!

9.Walking home full of fear,he was sure that he would be scolded.

10.However,other students are against the idea.

11.Sometimes we have too many examinations which are too difficult for us.

12.today’s activity has taught us the new meaning of the spirit of LeiFeng:sharing with others what you have—you time,energy,or knowledge—makes you fell warm in you heart.It has truly a difference in how I feel about myself.

13.The girl whose composition was well written is spoken highly of.

14.No matter what he says，I won’t believe.

15. Thanks to the good weather，our journey was comfortable.

16. At the news of his death，she went pale with sorrow.

三、写作指导

多使用过渡性词语。这样使文章更加连贯、更具有逻辑性。

(1)表示增加的过渡词：also，and，and then，too，in addition，furthermore，moreover，again，on top ofthat，another，first second third等。

(2)表示时间顺序的过渡词：now，then，before，after，afterwards，earlier，lat er，immediately，soon，next，in afew days，gradually，suddenly，finally等。(3)表示空间顺序的过渡词：near(to)，far(from)，in frontof，behind，beside，beyond，above，below，tothe right left，around，outside等。

(4)表示比较的过渡词：in thesameway，justlike，justas等。

(5)表示对照的过渡词：but，still，yet，however，on theotherhand，onthecon trary，in spite of，even though等。

(6)表示结 果 和 原 因 的 过 渡 词：because，since，so，as a result，therefore，then，thus，otherwise等。

(7)表示目的的过渡词：forthisreason，forthispurpose，so that等。

(8)表示强调的过渡词：in fact，indeed，surely，necessarily，certainly，withoutanydoubt，truly，torepeat，aboveall，mostimportant等。

(9)表示解释说明的过渡词：forexample，in fact，in thiscase，foractually等。

(10)表示总结的过渡词：finally，atlast，inconclusion，asIhaveshown，inoth erword，in brief，in short，in general，on the whole，ashasbeen stated等。

四、获得高分的英语书面表达的六大特性。

(1)条理性。指的是合理布局文章结构。首先，在文章思路、组织材料、叙述顺序等方面要有一定的条理性。其次，根据需要，安排好段落，各段之间要层次分明，也要重视每一段的开头和结尾，开头语往往是总起句，结尾语往往是总结句。

(2)准确性。指要求写出语法正确的句子，包括时态、语态、用词和句法等，要准确、地道地表达。必须要牢牢掌握一些常用句型或习惯表达，避免中式英语，在实践中不断总结中英用法的差异，养成用英语思维写作的习惯。高考英语作文素材。

(3)流畅性。指根据整篇文章思想的需要，有效采用不同的连接手段，使文章层次清楚、行文连贯。(4)简洁多样性。简洁性就是语言简洁，不重复。多样性就是能随情景内容的变化写出句式多样的语句。这也是新课程标准对写作的评价标准。

(5)思想性。新标准对写作的要求，增加了情感因素，在准确流畅表达写作要点的同时，适当增加句子的感情色彩，增加一些人情味，使文章读起来更亲切，完全达到与读者进行交流的目的。

(6)美观性。指的是卷面书写规范、清楚、干净、整洁。

五、写作步骤

高考英语作文素材，每次写作前问自己四个问题：这篇文章的体裁格式是怎样的?主体时态用什么时态?人称用第几人称?可以分几段，之间用什么过渡词、连接词?带着这四个问题去审题，搞清楚文章的主要内容，然后列出提纲。最后丰富自己的提纲就可以了。

南瓜灯(Jack-O-Lantern)是庆祝万圣节的标志物。下面语文迷网整理了关于南瓜灯的故事作文，希望对你有帮助。

One story about Jack， an Irishman， who was not allowed into Heaven because he was stingy with his money. So he was sent to hell. But down there he played tricks on the Devil (Satan)， so he was kicked out of Hell and made to walk the earth forever carrying a lantern.

Well， Irish children made Jacks lanterns on October 31st from a large potato or turnip， hollowed out with the sides having holes and lit by little candles inside. And Irish children would carry them as they went from house to house begging for food for the village Halloween festival that honored the Druid god Muck Olla. The Irish name for these lanterns was "Jack with the lantern" or "Jack of the lantern，" abbreviated as " Jack-o-lantern" and now spelled "jack-o-lantern."

The traditional Halloween you can read about in most books was just childrens fun night. Halloween celebrations would start in October in every elementary school.

关于万圣节有这样一个故事。是说有一个叫杰克的爱尔兰人，因为他对钱特别的吝啬，就不允许他进入天堂，而被打入地狱。但是在那里他老是捉弄魔鬼撒旦，所以被踢出地狱，罚他提着灯笼永远在人世里行走。

在十月三十一日爱尔兰的孩子们用土豆和萝卜制作“杰克的灯笼”，他们把中间挖掉、表面上打洞并在里边点上蜡烛。为村里庆祝督伊德神的万圣节，孩子们提着这种灯笼挨家挨户乞讨食物。这种灯笼的爱尔兰名字是“拿灯笼的杰克”或者“杰克的灯笼”，缩写为Jack-o-lantern 。

现在你在大多数书里读到的万圣节只是孩子们开心的夜晚。在小学校里，万圣节是每年十月份开始庆祝的。孩子们会制作万圣节的装饰品：各种各样桔红色的南瓜灯。

五一劳动节，始于美国工人在19世纪90年代为争取8小时工作日而进行的斗争。自那以后，世界人民便开始庆祝这一天 - 国际劳动节。这个日子在全球所扮演的角色体现了它的力量：正是在这一天，全世界所有的工人们宣布为了共同的目标而一起奋斗。

Labor Day, began in USA workers for the 8 hour day struggle in nineteenth Century 90s.. Since then, the people of the world began to celebrate this day, international labor day. It plays role in the world embodies its strength: it is in this day, the whole world all workers announced strive together for a common goal.

在许多个五一劳动节里，工人们都受到镇压，他们的活动被禁止，流血事件还时常发生。五一节逐渐失去它原来的意义，成为了独裁者和集权统治的政权对抗工人运动的一种标志性装饰;又或者就是一个平平安安的法定假日。尽管事实如此，工人们仍然满怀信心地庆祝劳动节，因为大家都知道这个社会是靠着我们的力量、眼睛、双手和智慧而不断地发展和强壮，还需要我们不断地支持。

In many Labor Day, workers are suppressed, their activities were banned, the bloodshed has often happened. Five one Jie gradually lost its original meaning, become a kind of decoration workers movement against dictator and symbol of power centralization rule; or is a peaceful holiday. Despite the fact that, workers are still full of confidence to celebrate the labor day, because we all know that this society is relying on our strength, eyes, hands and wisdom and constantly development and strong, we also need to continue to support.

正是在这一天，我们坚持体面的工作、工人健康、饮食和住房、教育和文化表达，都是我们应得的权利，而不是特权。我们志在获得这些权利。然而在这一天，我们从未胆怯卑微地去找法官和狱卒，从未守在财长们进行会议的地方，从未说服他们工会是有益于做生意，也从未要求进行更多的对话。正是在这一天，我们大声地说出：你们的银行，你们的买断、买回，给我们带来了痛苦和大量的失业工人;你们的贸易协定和专利制让工人们无法谋生，更破坏了所有人类获得食物、水和药物的权利。正是在这一天，我们大声地说出：我们不仅要建设一个更加美好的世界，而且，我们也坚决不会让世界越变越差。

It is in this day, we adhere to the expression of decent work, health, diet and housing, education and culture, we are right, not a privilege. Were aiming to acquire these rights. However, on this day, we never fear to the judge and the humble, never keep in the finance ministers meeting place, never persuade their union is beneficial to do business, never asked for more dialogue. It is in this day, we say: your bank, you buy, buy back, causing pain and a large number of unemployed workers to our trade agreements and patent system; you let the workers were unable to make a living, even destroy all humans for food, water and medicine to the right. It is in this day, we say out loud: we not only need to build a better world, moreover, we also determined not to let the world become worse.

五一劳动节是大家庆祝过去、庆祝现在和庆祝未来的日子。我们庆祝的方式就是争取应有权利和向全世界表达我们争取权利的决心。让我们一起大声又自豪地庆祝五一国际劳动节吧。

Labor Day we celebrate the past, now and future day celebration to celebrate. We celebrate the way is to fight for their rights and express our determination to fight for the rights of the whole world. Let us loud and proud to celebrate International WorkersDay.

1、参考历年真题，总结规律。一般来说，高考英语作文体裁相对稳定，考生可参考当地最近五年的高考作文题目，从中分析规律，得出大的命题方向。如陕西对高考英语作文这一板块的考察，从新课改后重点突出的是学生对日常文体的应用，从09年至11年分别以电子邮件或写回信的方式让学生表达出对老师的真挚友谊、与家长沟通学习压力、或解决一些基本的学习难点等。因此我们不难看出，高考对学生作文的考察，会从学生的生活、学习、交友、家庭、社会活动等高中生较熟悉的层面，结合应用文的常见考察点：申请类、投诉类、感谢类、祝贺类等进行综合考察。

2、把对语言基础的应用作为考前强化重点。近年来的高考作文都非常注重考查学生的语言综合运用能力，根据《普通高中英语课程标准》对写作技能目标的要求，英语作文写作须“能根据所读文章进行转述或写摘要;能根据用文字及图表提供的信息写短文或报告;能写出语意连贯且结构完整的短文，叙述事情或表达观点和态度;能在写作中做到问题规范、语句通顺。”2012年高考英语作文的命题趋势，仍将会把学生对语言基础的应用作为首要考察点。

3、关注热点话题。纵观近几年的高考作文，可以发现，题材始终贴近社会、贴近现代生活，是中学生所熟知的热点话题。

除了把握好命题原则，掌握高考英语作文写作技巧更不可少：

1、审题：审题是做到切题的第一步。所谓审题就是要看清题意，确定文章的中心思想、主题，并围绕中心思想组织材料。

2、进行构思，列出简单的提纲，打造文章之骨架：审好题、立好意后，就要写提纲，打造文章的骨架。文章布局要做好几件事：安排好层次段落，铺设好过渡，处理好开头和结尾。

3、扩展成文：根据字数多少扩展成篇。扩展的内容一定要紧扣主题，千万不要写那些与主题不相关的内容。展开的方式包括：顺序法、举例法、比较法、对比法、说明法、因果法、推导法、归纳法和下定义等。可以根据需要任选一种或几种方式。

考研英语写作：应用文写作之感谢信

大纲对应用文写作的评价目标是：考生应能根据所设情景，写出不同类型的应用文，包括私人和公务信函、备忘录、摘要、报告等。写作时。考生应能：

1） 做到语法、拼写、标点正确、用词恰当；

2）遵循文章的特定问题格式；

3）合理组织文章结构，使其内容统一、连贯；

4）根据写作目的和特定读者，选用恰当语域。

应用文写作不需要华丽的辞藻和多变的句式，只需要能够用简洁概括的语言将事情叙述清楚就能够取得不错的成绩。应用文写作作为考研英语中性价比比较高的题目，考生必须重视对其复习。应用文写作可以充分借鉴模板，以达到更好的复习效果。下面，就为考生介绍一下感谢信的基本写作方法。

感谢信的目的是感激对方为自己的付出，感激之情要传达得真挚自然，不要刻意夸大。感谢信所涉及的内容多种多样，比如可以感谢对方替自己做了一件事情，在自己痛苦时安慰了自己，出席了自己的宴会等等。其内容包括：1)表达感激之情2)回顾事情的经过 3)肯定对方帮助的价值以及对自己的影响，表达自己回报的愿望。

常用套语有：

1表达感激之情：

Thanks so much for…;Abundant thanks to … for…

Im writing to express my heartfelt thanks for …

On behalf of my whole family, I wish to extend our heartfelt thanks for all the trouble you had taken in …I must write to thank you for inviting me to…

2肯定对方帮助的价值及影响：

You will never know how much we appreciated your kind and practical help. Your …meant more than I can express in words. Nothing can be more precious for me than your…

3表达回报的愿望：

I hope I can return the favor someday … Do call on me if I can ever return the favor. 感谢信中比较特殊是求职者面试后给面试官写的信。

此类感谢信的内容不只是感谢，而是一般感谢信和求职信的结合。其主要内容包括：(1)感谢对方给你面谈的机会，并注明你面试的时间和所求的职位;(2) 说明你对该公司、该职位的兴趣，强调你的知识与技能符合公司的需要，表示自己能为公司的发展做出贡献。也可以补充说明或澄清在面谈中忽略或没有讲明的问题 (3)重申你对该职位的兴趣，主动提供更多的材料，表示期待他们的消息。

Directions: You have just attended an interview in Apfel Incorporated for the position of marketing analyst. Write a letter of appreciation to the interviewer Mr. David Wayne. Your letter should include the following points:

1) express your appreciation for the interview

2) tell about your job-related skills and experience

实例：

Dear Mr. Wayne，

Thank you very much for taking the time from your busy schedule last Friday to interview me for the marketing analyst position at Apfel Incorporated. After our meeting, I am convinced that your company is an excellent place for my career.

I am extremely excited about the position and believe that my skills are a good match for the company. As you may remember, I completed a project that is similar in nature to the work I

would be doing at your company. I believe that I could make an immediate contribution to Apfel Incorporated.

Please let me know if I can provide you with any additional information about my background or goals. My email address is LiMing@yahoo.com, and my phone number is 12345678. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Li Ming

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

英语是占据分数比较多的，所以写好英语作文很重要。小编整理了关于文明的英语作文，快来看看吧。

【预测作文】文明旅游

【猜题理由】有些旅游景点的文物景观遭到了严重的破坏，致使最近文明旅游的倡议越来越受重视，因此就“游客可付费在仿造长城上涂写留言”发表看法。

【预测题目】文明旅游

写作内容：1. 以约30个词概括短文的要点;

2. 以约120个词写一篇短文，就“游客可付费在仿造长城上涂写留言”发表你的看法，内容包括：

(1)谈谈对某些人喜欢在旅游景点随便涂鸦留言的看法;

(2)对专门修一段仿造城墙让游客付高价留言的做法你是赞成还是反对，并简要陈述你的理由。

【参考范文】

It is reported that tourists to China’s Great Wall can now leave their mark on a fake wall recently built near the real wall in Badaling if they pay 999 yuan.

In China, many visitors have the hobby of carving graffiti on places of interest, especially on some famous cultural relics. Last year I went to the Great Wall and found many people had left names and ugly words on the Wall, which destroys many historic bricks. In my opinion, such people should feel ashamed of leaving their marks on the great relics which were created by our ancestors.

So personally I quite agree with this brilliant project though it has caused criticism from some people. The Great Wall would be ruined one day if we didn’t take any steps to protect it. The fake wall is a really good idea because it will protect our relics as well as making profits from the project.(124 words)

英语写作指导：

英语学习中，在英语书面表达时，每次写作前问自己四个问题：这篇文章的体裁格式是怎样的?主体时态用什么时态?人称用第几人称?可以分几段，之间用什么过渡词、连接词?带着这四个问题去审题，搞清楚文章的主要内容，然后列出提纲。最后利用自己有把握的英语句子丰富自己的提纲就可以了。

(1)条理性。指的是合理布局文章结构。首先，在文章思路、组织材料、叙述顺序等方面要有一定的条理性。其次，根据需要，安排好段落，各段之间要层次分明，也要重视每一段的开头和结尾，开头语往往是总起句，结尾语往往是总结句。

(2)准确性。指要求写出语法正确的句子，包括时态、语态、用词和句法等，要准确、地道地表达。必须要牢牢掌握一些常用句型或习惯表达，避免中式英语，在实践中不断总结中英用法的差异，养成用英语思维写作的习惯。高考英语作文素材。

(3)流畅性。指根据整篇文章思想的需要，有效采用不同的连接手段，清晰段落，使文章层次清楚、行文连贯。

(4)简洁多样性。简洁性就是语言简洁，不重复。多样性就是能随情景内容的变化写出句式多样的语句。这也是新课程标准对写作的评价标准。

(5)思想性。新标准对写作的要求，增加了情感因素，在准确流畅表达写作要点的同时，适当增加句子的感情色彩，增加一些人情味，使文章读起来更亲切，完全达到与读者进行交流的目的。

(6)美观性。指的是卷面书写规范、清楚、干净、整洁。在高考书面表达中，书面整洁是也是一个主观评分标准，所以在高考中保持书面整洁是必要的。

总结：那么在高考作文中，除了自己的一些英语知识的巩固还需要的是自己的情绪和思维。写作期间保持稳定的情绪，按照自己的思维完成写作，从总结文章中—布置文章结构—使用表达的语句—下笔连贯。最后当然是要检查是否出现拼错字，句子语法有误等。

英语写作当中经常会用到“……很重要”这一句式，一般考生会用something be important/essential的词汇表达。不过学了比较状语从句以后，大家可以试着用一种更高级的表达方式，一定会让阅卷老师眼前一亮，作文高分就不在话下啦。

箴言仿写：Cultivation is to the mind what food is to the body.

——M·T·Cicero

上述句子可以概括为A is to B what C is to D.替换ABCD四个名词就可以用来表达“重要性”这一概念。

【例句】

★ 人生态度——乐观与悲观

A positive attitude is to life what the sun is to the earth.积极的态度对于生活，好比太阳对于地球一样。

★ 谈读书

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.阅读对于思想，好比运动对于身体一样。

★ 赡养父母——家庭

Family is to the people what life is to the individual.家庭对于人类，好比生活对于个人一样。

★ 投诉信

Cleanness is to the canteen what reputation is to the people.清洁对于食堂来说，好比名誉对于人一样。

★ 谈诚信

Honesty is to the people what life is to the creature.诚信对于人来说，好比生命对于人一样。

比较状语(倍数表达法)：

A+ be+倍数+as many/much as+ B

A+ be+倍数+the amount+ B

A+ be+倍数+what it was+ B

【例句】

★ 从1999年到2009年，奢侈品的销售增长了3倍。

①The sale of luxuries doubled from the end of 1999 to 2009.

②The sale of luxuries increased three times/three-fold from the end of 1999 to 2009.

③A three-fold increase was seen in the sale of luxuries from the end of 1999 to 2009.

④There was a three-fold increase in the sale of luxuries from the end of 1999 to 2009.

【写作练习】

定语从句与状语从句的写作方法指南：合并简单句!

1.通过指代关系合并简单句为定语从句

【例句】

★ 故事发生于19世纪末期。那个时候，中国正遭受西方列强的蹂躏。

A: The story happened in the late 19th century.

B: At that time, China was suffering from the invasion of western powers.

→合并为定语从句：The story happened in the late 19th century when China was suffering from the invasion of western powers.

2.通过逻辑关系合并简单句为状语从句

【例句】

★ 这个问题很复杂。我们花了近两周的时间才把它搞定。

A: The problem was very complicated.

B: It took us nearly two weeks to solve it.

→合并为结果状语从句The problem was so complicated that it took us nearly two weeks to solve it.

长难句虽然是考研[微博]复习中让很多考生都头疼的一部分，但可以说是无处不在的，不仅仅是阅读理解和翻译题中，需要我们去读懂并理解，更重要的是在作文题中，准确精彩地写出几个长难句，往往会让你的作文增色不少，也是你作文制胜的重要砝码，所以考研英语要想拿高分，千万不能忽视长难句哦。

导语：要学好写英语短文，就必须经常练习写作。记日记是提高书面表达能力的有效方法之一。下面是yuwenmi小编为大家整理的优秀英语作文指导，欢迎阅读与借鉴，谢谢!

一、日记的格式

英文日记通常由书端和正文两个部分组成。日记常以第一人称记下当天生活中的所见、所闻、所做或所想的事情。中、英文的日记三格式大致一样。英语日记的书端是专门写日记的日期、星期和天气的。左上角是日期(年、月、日)、星期。右上角写上当天的天气情况，如：Sunny，Fine，Rainy，Windy，Snowy，Cloudy等。

1、日期表达有多种形式。年、月、日都写时，通常以月、日、年为顺序，月份可以缩写，日和年用逗号隔开。例如：

A)September 1，2004或September 1st，2004也可省略写成Sept. 1，2004或Sept. 1st，2004;the 1st of September in 2004(月份不可以缩写)

B)只有月、日：September 1或September 1st(月份可以缩写)

C)只有年、月：September 2004或the September of 2004(月份不可以缩写)

以上的1或1st都应读作the first.

2、星期也可以省略不写，可将其放在日期前或后，星期和日期之间不用标点，但要空一格，星期也可缩写。如：

Saturday，October 22nd，2004;October 22nd，2004 Saturday

3.天气情况必不可少。天气一般用一个形容词如：Sunny，Fine，Rainy，Snowy 等表示。写在日期之后，用逗号隔开，位于日记的右上角。如：

Saturday，March 4，2004，Windy;1st January，2004，Fine

二、日记的要求

日记的正文是日记的主要部分，写在星期和日期的正下方，可以顶格写，也可以内缩3至5个字母的空间。由于记载的内容通常已经发生，谓语动词多用一般过去时。但也可根据具体情况，用其它时态。如：记叙天气、描写景色，为了描写生动，可以使用现在时，以表现当时的情景。再如文后发表感想或评论可用现在时态或将来时态。记日记力求简单明了，有连贯性。若有文字提示，则应重视提示，把握要点。在句式上尽量使用简单句，以防繁杂，造成语法、句型错误。

三、日记的类型和训练

日记分为记事型、议论型、描写型和抒情型。建议大家在学习写日记的过程中，可按以下步骤进行：

①将一天所经历的主要事情和过程依次简要地记下来，不附加任何感情色彩，这是最简单的记日记的方法;

②阅读别人的日记，并利用所学过的句型来表达个人在一天中观察到的或感受到的事情。

「范文与点评」

March 12th，2003，Tuesday Sunny (Fine)

Today is Tree Planting Day. At 7∶30 in the morning，all the students in our class met at the school gate. We walked to the park. Miss Gao and other teachers went and worked with us. All the students worked very hard，and we planted about 200 trees. Though we were dirty and tired，we still felt very happy.

这是一篇记叙型的日记。结构严谨，中心突出，有选择地记录当天的见闻(人或事)，并加以分析和评论。

记叙文是以写人、记事、状物为主要内容，以叙述和描写为表达方式的文章。

以写人为主的记叙文，应该注意肖像描写、行动描写、语言描写、心理描写以及对细节的描写，考生应根据写作的要求，灵活掌握，突出重点。

以写事为主的记叙文，应该注意交待六要素(时间、地点、人物、事件、原因、结果)，应该注意描写先后顺序以及记事的相对完整，注意把握好事情的开始、发展、高潮及结局。

以与景为主的记叙文，应该注意景物的主要特征，景物描写的层次，以及人与物的情感交融。

记叙文写作要点如下：

1. 明确写作目的和叙述的中心思想，段落叙述始终围绕着主题而展开，避免空间的叙述和与主题无关的内容。

2. 一篇好叙述文需要直接或间接表达以下六个问题，即：when?该事发生的时间， where?该事发生的地点，who?人物角色是谁，what?发生的是什么事，why?该事发生的原因，以及how?事件的结果是如何造成的等等。

3. 一篇记叙文，无论长短如何都应该是一个完全独立的事实，因此，在下笔时必须明确：该从何处开始叙述，该在何处结束叙述，以及应该提供何种事实才能使叙述完整。

4. 写作顺序可以采用“顺叙”、“倒叙”和“穿插叙述”的方法，但初学者最好采用“顺叙”的方法进行训练，以情节发生时间的先后为序。

记叙文高考指引

记叙文是高考书面表达中比较常用的一种形式。

1)记叙文要写作者比较了解的人或事物。

2)仔细审题，看准题目要求，确定文章的主题。文章的内容、结构、层次及所用语言都应围绕主题进行。

3)具体详细地描述。要使文章有说服力，叙述就必须繁简疏密相间。详细具体的描写有助于读者对所叙述的人物或事件等有个深刻的印象。

4)写作时要避免句子单调、毫无花样。这就要求写作时长短句结合，注意衔接词的运用。

5)叙述要生动。要使文章叙述生动，具有吸引力，必须请注意词汇的选择，时态的运用以及上下文的一致问题。词语的运用应注意是否恰当、通顺、简洁和准确。时态的运用应注意上下文的相关性、连续性，要与表达的内容一致。

6)叙述的顺序。大多数情况下叙述都是按照事情的发展及时间的先后进行的，但有时也可以采用其它顺序，如倒叙、插叙等。

7)人称。一般说来，记叙文用第一人称或第三人称来叙述。用第一人称叙述的优点是：文章比较生动、形象，使读者有身临其境的感觉，因而加强了故事的真实感和感染力。其缺点是，描写的范围受到限制。一篇文章中，由于角色的变化，人称也要随之而变，但应注意前后一致性。

一. 肯定不如否定好

修辞的使用在书面表达中算作很大的亮点，在高中阶段很少有学生会注重修辞的应用。

双重否定也是种修辞，而且对于考生来说，只要稍加注意，可以在文章中设计双重否定的句子。

例如想表达“邮递员天天准时到”，如果写成The postman comes on time every day，就不如变成双重否定，The postman never fails to come on time，就变成了亮点句，起到强调作用。

“几乎每个人对生活的态度都不同程度受到地震的影响”，写成双重否定There was hardly a man or a woman whose attitude towards life had not been affected by the earthquake.

应用类似的修辞会在中为同学们加分。

二. 陈述不如倒装妙

在书面表达中阅卷老师喜欢看到的高级语法共有五种：倒装，强调，从句，独立主格和分词结构，以及虚拟语气。

倒装是一种最简单易行的使句子呈现亮点的方法。在高中阶段只需掌握倒装的四种形式，就足以应对书面表达。

小作文一般以书信居多，因此，在写作时要注意一下两点。

第一，既然是书信，一定要按照书信的格式写作。阅卷老师最先注意到的就是格式，其次才通过阅读看看内容是否符合要求。不注意格式，肯定被扣分。还不熟悉书信格式的同学赶紧多多练习。

第二，要仔细审题。这个问题年年在强调，但是年年有人不注意，写作时往往会跑题。这样怎么能得高分?考试时时间很紧张，怎样快速审题?笔者建议大家首先要脑子里要迅速构建一副写作场景，接下来要抓住关键词，然后围绕场景和关键词进行扩展。这一点不是说一说看一看就能掌握，需要同学们现在多做强化训练。

具体写作就按照题目要求一个点写一段，总共分三段。这样给人的印象是重点突出、条理清晰。下面就以2014年小作文为例，简单分析一下每一段怎么写。

称呼：Dear John,注意称呼中，所有实词首字母全部大写，Dear John后面的逗号不可丢，也不能写成冒号。

正文：

第一段：写作内容需涵盖两点：自我介绍，写信目的。文章开门见山就是自我介绍，用到了这样的表达：I am Li Ming who will go to study in your university and live together with you in one department. 其中的“I am …who…”这个句型来自于建议信的表达，放在这里也十分贴切。接下一句话表明了写信目的：Now I am writing this letter to tell you some of my habits and ask you for some suggestions to adapt myself there.

第二段：写作内容为习惯介绍以及寻求建议。首先，介绍自己的生活习惯，自己一般早上六点起床外出锻炼;周末一般在图书馆看书;其次，希望John就如何适应当地生活给自己一些建议。

第三段：写作内容表示期待，良好祝愿。用到了这样的表达：I am looking forward to seeing you soon and wish everything goes well.

落款：Yours sincerely, 特别提醒sincerely后面逗号不能丢;

签名：Li Ming，特别注意Li Ming 后面一定不能出现句点。

附注：

1、格式

称呼：英语应用文称呼有这样的特点，如果是不认识的人，一般称呼为敬词+尊称。例如，DearSirorMadam或者ToWhomItMayConcern(需注意每个单词首字母都大写);如果是写给关系正式的某团体或个人，称呼为敬词+尊称+名。例如，DearMr.xx或DearMs.xx;;对于关系较亲密的人可以直呼其名，即Dearxx。需要注意的是：1.称呼要顶格写;2.称呼之后要加逗号或者冒号(推荐大家用逗号，因为历年的高分范文都是用逗号的)。

正文：正文格式一般有两种格式，一是缩进式，即首段开头空四个字母，段落之间不空行;一是齐头式，即每段开头不空格，但是各段之间空一行。老师建议考生采用缩进式，因为如果用齐头式，段间空行的话很可能答题空间不够，导致字数不够。

2、语言

写作用词准确是最基础的要求之一。其次，句型可以多变，例如既有并列句，也有复合句，还有从句，但注意语法运用要正确。此外还要注意，正式语言一般是写给具有正式关系的团体或机构，这种情况不用缩略语和口语用法。除了正式的文体以外，其他的文体皆为非正式文体，像写给朋友的书信等。

一般小作文的考查要求中会体现出写该篇的目的和场合，所以考生在写作时要注意针对不同场合使用不同语言，使交流得以进行。另外，考生也要注意不同的应用文有不同的用语。建议考生对某些应用文的格式和习惯用语，应该加以熟悉和背诵，以便运用自如。

3、其他

考生在考试时注意在看到题目要求后不要忙于动笔，虽说小作文的字数充其量在一百多个单词，但是依旧要在脑子里理清思路。最好能够在仔细审题以后，认真列个提纲，这样更有利于思路清晰。写作时，注意表达清楚以下几个方面：首先交代清楚写信目的;其次为了让阅卷者对你的文章结构及表意一目了然，注意关联词或衔接词的运用;接下来，应该对个人的观点进行阐述(在写作有此必要的时候)。最后，行文间要注意简化描述，用简短的语句代替冗长的语句。在作文完成的时候，应该检查、修改，以免遗漏一些需要表达清楚的要点和细节。

一、构思、准备不充分，匆忙下笔

任何一篇作文出题都是有它独特的道理的，所以提前审题和构思就显得必不可少了。很多孩子目前存在一个情况，想到哪写到哪，有记流水帐的习惯;这也造成了作文杂乱无章，毫无条理，同时容易出现写错单词和用错句型的情况。

针对这种情况可以从以下几个方面予以解决：

1、认真审题，审题的重点放在写作体裁、格式、字数方面，确保第一遍审题就能保证得到基本分。

2、确定文体和时态，因为不同的文体要求的写作格式也是不同的。

3、列提纲，打草稿，然后修改。这样可以保证错误降低至最少或者没有错误，同时也能保持卷面整洁。

二、中心重点不突出，切题不准确

英语写作不是语文散文(形散神不散)，写英语作文，尤其是在中考大压力下短时内写出高分作文一定要注意这一点。造成这种情况的主要原因是动笔前并没有认真审题和思考，对出题者希望得到的预期尚未揣摩透彻，这也就造成了一些同学虽然语言功底非常不错，但是最终的结果还是没有拿到一个自己预期的心理分数，最大的问题就出在切题不准确或者不够突出中心上了。

三、忽视文化差异

我们要时刻牢记一点，中英文表达方式有很大的差异，所以体现在作文表达上也常常会出现生硬的中国式作文表达，降低了我们的作文质量。所以注重中英语言差异，并努力找到两者之间的表达方式上的共通点，并且有意识的运用就能避免类似的问题。

四、忽视细节，无谓失分

很多孩子在写作文时常常感觉"下笔如有神"，但最终结果出来后大惑不解。这方面的问题主要体现在忽视标点、书写、段落安排、大小写的问题，所以只要更加注重细节，这些无谓失分就可以解决。

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you have an email account. You may well have several – perhaps separate accounts for professional and personal contacts.

如果你正在阅读这篇文章，你肯定有一个或若干个甚至是不同帐号的私人或办公邮箱。

It’s easy to assume that we know how to use email effectively: it’s been around for long enough. But if you find yourself struggling to communicate effectively by email, these six tips should help:

邮件这样的沟通方式早已经渗入到了我们的生活工作中，因此可以说大多数人都能有效地使用邮件与他人交流。但如果你发现自己还没做得足够有效，我想以下这六点可以帮到你：

1. Start With an Appropriate Salutation

邮件开头称呼要恰当：

Some people jump straight into the text of an email without so much as a “hi”. It’s polite to add a salutation, just as you would with a letter. That might look like:

有些人写邮件不喜欢加称呼，甚至连简单的“你好”都忽略，直接开始正文内容。孰不知就像在传统的信件上一样，写上称呼是一种礼貌的象征。称呼可以这样写：

#Dear Sir/Madam 亲爱的先生/女士

#Dear Mr. Johnson 亲爱的约翰逊先生

#Hi Sue 苏，你好

#Hello Fred 你好，福瑞德

Your salutation needs to be appropriate. If you’re writing to a prospective employer, “Dear Mr. Johnson” is probably the best way to go. “Hi Bob” is going to look unprofessional.

称呼必须恰当。若邮件对象是你未来的上司，“亲爱的约翰先生”这样的称呼应该为最得体的。像“你好，鲍勃”更适用于随意的场合。

But don’t assume that formality is always the right answer. If you’re writing to a friend of a friend, using “Dear” plus their surname is going to seem oddly stilted.

那么，是不是正式的用语就万能呢?绝对不是。若你给你朋友的朋友写邮件，那用“亲爱的+姓”就显得异常别扭。

If in doubt, “Dear [first name]” will usually work just fine.

当你判断不出哪种场合该用什么称呼合适，你可以使用“亲爱的+名”来应付所有情况。

2. Get Straight to the Point

直奔主题

Your correspondent won’t want to wade through paragraphs of waffle – so get straight to the point. If you’re writing to someone out of the blue, don’t give them your life story before you make a request.

相信阅读你邮件的人不会愿意仔细浏览你那空洞无聊的长篇大论，所以你需要直奔主题。如果你想写封邮件安慰某个心灵受伤的朋友，开头先把你的建议亮出来，然后再用你的亲身经历来辅助说明。

Getting straight to the point might mean that the first line of your email (after the salutation) looks something like this:

直奔主题意味着邮件内容的第一行应该是这样：

#I’m working on an article about Acme Widgets for XYZ publication, and wondered if you had a few minutes to answer the following three questions.

我现在正在写一篇要交给某某出版社关于极致控件的文章，不知道您有没有时间回答3个问题呢?

#Could you supply me with a quote for the following project?

可否对下面的设计项目进行引证?

#I’d like to discuss the revisions with you. Would Tuesday at 2pm be a good time?

我想和你谈谈修订的事。这周二下午两点您有空吗?

#I’ve attached the documents you requested at our meeting yesterday.

昨天会议上您要求的文件已附上，请查收。

You may well need to include more details, but if you put the important point up front, your email is more likely to get a timely response. If your question comes too far down, the recipient may not even realise that you need a reply.

当然，你需要再增加更多的细节内容。若将邮件重点放到内容的开头，你将收到更加及时的回复信息。如果你的问题在邮件后头，收信人可能都不会意识到你在等他回复。

3. Keep it Short

内容言简意赅

try to keep your email as short as possible. Make the paragraphs short, too – long paragraphs can be difficult to read and take in.

尽可能将你的邮件内容写得简单明了。文章太长不易阅读和吸收。

Do make sure you give enough information for your correspondent to be able to make a decision, if that’s required. You might find that it’s best to offer this as an attachment – you’ll have more flexibility over formatting, and your correspondent can print out the attachment easily.

若对方需要通过你的邮件来做决策，那你一定要在邮件中将相关信息写完整。为了能更灵活地排版，你可以把这些信息作成附件形式，以方便对方将其打印出来。

4. Use Numbered Points

将内容编号

If you’ve got several questions or points to make, it’s very helpful to number them. This makes it easy for the other person to respond to each one, especially if some just require a yes/no response or a single word answer. For instance:

对于那些为了咨询或提供各种问题的邮件，最好将问题一点一点的列举出来，以便于他人对每个问题作答，尤其当某些人更倾向于对问题只回答“是”和“否”的时候。例如：

#Could you let me know:

能否告知：

#1. How much it would cost for the website design

1. 网站设计费用

#2. How much for the website design plus a tri-fold brochure

2. 网页设计加一份三页宣传册的费用

#3. Whether you could complete #2 by the end of April

3. 您能否在四月底完成第二点所述工作?

It’s also useful to list your questions or points as bullets in this way; if you write a single paragraph, some of your questions might get missed.

将你的问题或观点用图标的方式罗列出来是很实用的，倘若你用一段话将几个点全部涵盖，那对方有可能会漏看其中的几点。

5. Re-read and Use Spell-Check

重新阅读一遍，校对拼写错误

A typo or spelling mistake can turn one word into an entirely different one. If you’re using email in a professional capacity, that mistake could be embarrassing – or even offensive. It might alter the whole meaning of your email: a missing “not”, for instance, could potentially cause problems.

排版或拼写错误有时能导致对一个单词的误解。尤其当你用邮件来沟通专业性内容时，这样的错误就很尴尬，甚至有些失礼。它可能改变你整个邮件的意思。比如：少写了个“不”，就可能会引起某些问题。

Spell-check should help you avoid any silly mistakes – but use your eyes and brain too. There are plenty of words that spell-check won’t pick up. If you’re emailing from a device with predictive text and an auto-correct feature, make sure you always re-read what you’ve typed.

因此检查拼写将避免你犯这些低级错误，但这里强调——不仅仅用眼睛检查，还得用大脑思考。有些错误不一定能轻易检查出来。如果你的邮件系统有字句联想功能和自动纠错功能，一定要把写出来的内容再通读检查一遍。

6. Make Your Signature Useful

充分利用邮件签名

Do you have an email signature? (That’s the text that appears automatically at the bottom of your email.) Some people don’t use one at all; others have a funny quote or favorite saying.

你设置过邮件签名吗(它将会在你每次邮件内容的下方自动生成)?有些人从来都没有使用过它，但我们也看过一些非常有意思和哲理的签名。

Whether you’re using email for professional or personal reasons, make your signature useful for both you and your recipient. That might mean:

无论你是为了工作还是私人聊天，加注签名对你和邮件接收者都有好处，因为这意味着可以：

Giving the link to your website

加上你的网页链接

Including your work address and/or phone number

写上你的工作地址或电话号码

Adding links to your social media accounts

注上你的社会媒体工具帐号(例如博客，微博，论坛)

Putting in a line to promote your recent book / blog / product

宣传你最新的书籍，博文或产品

If your email provider allows it, you may even want to create several signatures to use for different purposes (e.g. one for emailing friends, one for new business contacts).

有些邮箱甚至还提供用户根据不同目的设计不同签名的服务(比如：一个对朋友使用，一个对新结识的企业伙伴使用)。

导语：写作方法就是写作中进行表现时运用的方法，是作者为表情达意而采取的有效艺术手段。

学生写作时，如果语句平平，只选用一些普通的、直截了当的词，那么，这样写出来的文章根本没有可阅读行，就像是一碗没有油盐酱醋面条一样，让人提不起一点精神和看下去的欲望，呆板、单调，没有可读性。如果一篇文章要让读者有可读性、有深度，同学们更应该掌握一些高级点词和语句来装饰你的文章，突出这篇文章的彩头，使文章增添文采，给读者以不一样的感受。具体方法可以参照下面的语句：

1. 画龙点睛，一篇文章的开头很重要。

在通常情况下，英语句子的排列方式为“主语+谓语+宾语”，即主语一般都会在谓语前面。但若根据情况适当改变句子的开头方式，比如在文章的开始的时候写一些倒状语句或以状语为起始语句的开头，这样子的文章更具表现力和感染力。如：

(1) There stands an old temple at the top of the hill.

→ At the top of the hill there stands an old temple.

在小山顶上有一座古庙。

(2) You can do it well only in this way.

→ Only in this way can you do it well.

只有这样你才能把它做好。

(3) A young woman sat by the window.

→ By the window sat a young woman.

窗户边坐着一个年轻妇女。

2. 避免重复使用同一词语

为了使表达更生动，更富表现力，同学们在写作时应尽量避免重复使用同一词语来表示同一意思，尤其是一些老生常谈的词语。如有的同学一看到“喜欢”二字，就会立刻想起like，事实上，英语中表示类似意思的词和短语很多，如 love, enjoy, prefer, appreciate, be fond of, care for等。如：

I like reading while my brother likes watching television.

→ I like reading while my brother enjoys watching television.

我喜欢看书，而我的兄弟却喜欢看电视。

3. 合理使用省略句

合理恰当地使用省略句，不仅可以使文章精练、简洁，而且会使文章更具文采和可读性。如：

(1) He may be busy. If he’s busy, I’ll call later. If he is not busy, can I see him now?

→ He may be busy. If so, I’ll call later. If not, can I see him now?

他可能很忙，要是这样，我以后再来拜访。要是不忙，我现在可以见他吗?

(2) If the weather is fine, we’ll go. If it is not fine, we’ll not go.

→ If the weather is fine, we’ll go. If not, not.

如果天气好，我们就去；如果天气不好，我们就不去了。

(3) She could have applied for that job, but she didn’t do so.

→ She could have applied for that job, but she didn’t.

她本可申请这份工作的，但她没有。

4. 适当运用非谓语结构

非谓语结构通常被认为是一种高级结构，适当运用非谓语结构，会给人一种熟练驾驭语言的印象。如：

(1) When he heard the news, they all jumped for joy.

→ Hearing the news, they all jumped for joy.

听了这消息他们都高兴得跳了起来。

(2) As I didn’t know her address, I wasn’t able to get in touch with her.

→ Not knowing her address, I wasn’t able to get in touch with her.

由于不知道她的地址，我没法和她联系。

(3) As he was born into a peasant family, he had only two years of schooling.

→ Born into a peasant family, he had only two years of schooling.

他出生农民家庭，只上过两年学。

5. 结合使用长句与短句

在英语写作中，过多地使用长句或过多地使用短句都不好。正确的做法是，根据实际情况在文章中交替使用长句与短语，使文章显得错落有致，这样不仅使文章在形式上增加美感，而且使文章读起来铿锵有力。如：

At noon we had a picnic lunch in the sunshine. Then we had a short rest. Then we began to play happily. We sang and danced. Some told stories. Some played chess.

→ At noon we had a picnic lunch in the sunshine. After a short rest, we had great fun singing and dancing, telling jokes and playing chess.

中午我们晒着太阳吃野餐。休息一会儿后，我们唱的唱歌，跳的跳舞，还有的讲笑话、下棋，大家玩得很开心。

6. 适当使用短语代替单词

(1) He has decided to be a teacher when he grows up.

→ He has made up his mind to be a teacher when he grows up.

他已决定长大了当老师。

(2) He doesnt like music.

→ He doesnt care much for music.

他不大喜欢音乐。

(3) He told me that the question was now under discussion.

→ He told me that the question was now being discussed.

他告诉我问题现正正在讨论中。

7. 恰当套用某些固定表达

(1) He was very tired. He couldn’t walk any farther.

→ He was too tired to walk any farther.

他太累了，不能再往前走了。

(2) The film was very interesting. Both the teachers and the students liked it.

→ The film was so interesting that both the teachers and the students liked it.

这电影很有趣，学生和老师都很喜欢。

(3) Your son is old. He can look after himself now.

→ Your son is old enough to look after himself now.

你的儿子已经长大，可以自己照顾自己了。

8. 尽量使句子带点“洋味”

(1) Dont worry. Be bold and try it, and youll learn it soon.

→Dont worry. Just go for it, and youll get it soon.

别担心，大胆试一试，你很快就会学会的。

(2) Thank you for playing with us.

→Thank you for sharing the time with us.

谢谢你陪我玩。

9. 综合使用各类所谓的“高级”结构

(1) Now everyone knows the news. I think Jim must have let it out.

→ Now everyone knows the news. I think it must have been Jim who has let it out.

现在人人都知道这消息了，我想一定是吉姆把它泄露出去的。

(2) We had to stand there to catch the offender.

→ What we had to do was (to) stand there, trying to catch the offender.

我们所能做的只是站在那儿，设法抓住违章者。

(3) If her pronunciation is not better than her teacher’s, it is at least as good as her teacher’s.

→ Her pronunciation is as good as, if not better than, her teacher’s.

如果她的语音不比她的老师好的话，至少也不会比她老师的差。

10. 适当使用名言警句点缀

在写作时根据实际情况恰当地用上一两句名言警句来点缀文章，不仅使文章显得有深度、有智慧，而且会让文章在评分中上一个“得分档次”。如：

(1) As the proverb says, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Though you fail this time, you needn’t lose heart. As long as you work hard and stick to your dream, you will succeed one day.

(2) There is a proverb goes like this “Life isn’t a bed of roses.” It is ture that it is likely for everyone to meet problems and difficulties in life.

(3) In the modern world, more and more people live alone, which is not so good for our life. It is better for us to make more friends and enjoy friendship. Just as a proverb says, “A near friend is better than a far-dwelling kinsman.”

[关于英语作文的写作方法指导

导语：在英语作文中，运用一些成语或者俗语能够给作文加分哦，下面是yuwenmi小编为大家整理的优秀英语素材，欢迎阅读与借鉴，谢谢!

1. 瞒天过海crossing the sea under camouflage

2. 围魏救赵relieving the state of Zhao by besieging the state of Wei

3. 借刀杀人killing someone with a borrowed knife

4. 以逸待劳waiting at one’s ease for the exhausted enemy

5. 趁火打劫plundering a burning house

6. 声东击西making a feint to the east and attacking in the west

7. 无中生有creating something out of nothing

8. 暗渡陈仓advancing secretly by an unknown path

9. 隔岸观火watching a fire from the other side of the river

10.笑里藏刀covering the dagger with a smile

11.李代桃僵palming off substitute for the real thing

12.顺手牵羊picking up something in passing

13.打草惊蛇beating the grass to frighten the snake

14.借尸还魂resurrecting a dead soul by borrowing a corpse

15.调虎离山luring the tiger out of his den

16.欲擒故纵letting the enemy off in order to catch him

17.抛砖引玉giving the enemy something to induce him to lose more valuable things

18.擒贼擒王capturing the ringleader first in order to capture all the followers

19.釜底抽薪extracting the firewood from under the cauldron

20.混水摸鱼muddling the water to catch the fish; fishing in troubled waters

21.金蝉脱壳slipping away by casting off a cloak; getting away like the cicada sloughing its skin

22.关门捉贼catching the thief by closing / blocking his escape route

23.远交近攻befriending the distant enemy while attacking a nearby enemy

24.假途伐虢attacking the enemy by passing through a common neighbor

25.偷梁换柱stealing the beams and pillars and replacing them with rotten timbers

26.指桑骂槐reviling/ abusing the locust tree while pointing to the mulberry

27.假痴不癫feigning madness without becoming insane

28.上屋抽梯removing the ladder after the enemy has climbed up the roof

29.树上开花putting artificial flowers on trees

30.反客为主turning from the guest into the host

31.美人计using seductive women to corrupt the enemy

32.空城计presenting a bold front to conceal unpreparedness

33.反间计sowing discord among the enemy

34.苦肉计deceiving the enemy by torturing one’s own man

35.连环计coordinating one stratagem with another

36.走为上decamping being the best; running away as the best choice

书面表达是英语写作的重要组成部分，有不少学生觉得用英语写作很难，不知从何练起。笔者教学实践发现，首先要具备扎实的基础知识，抓住课本教学来培养学生的写作能力，立足教材，由易到难，由浅入深，采取多种形式来加强书面表达训练，这样英语写作水平才能得到提高。

一是通过词汇教学训练写作能力。要写好文章不是一朝一夕就能达到的，必须从最基础的词汇入手。教学中，教师要注意加强词汇方面的训练，力求给学生交代清楚每一个词语的具体用法。对一些重点的、核心的词汇讲清，讲透每个词语的单独用法和搭配用法。为了更有效地与课本结合起来，每学完一个单元，根据本单元的单词、短语造句，举一反三，帮助学生扩大词汇量，使学生词不离句，强化写作训练。

二是通过一句多译练习训练写作能力。就七年级学生而言，他们虽然接触英语学习时间不长，但教师还是要注重引导学生多做一些一句多译练习，这样有助于启发学生的写作思路。考试时选择自己有把握的句子灵活地表达同一内容，减少失误，提高得分率。通过做汉译英练习，暴露出学生受母语影响的问题，对这些问题我及时进行讲评和纠正。这样，有利于培养和规范学生的英语表达能力。

三是结合课文进行各种体裁的写作训练。目前，信息来源的渠道多种多样，学生课文中有记叙、日记、通知、便条、书信、广告和说明等多种体裁，文中还有大量的插图，教师可利用图片让学生进行看图写作。要学好英语写作就必须从课文练起，从一些常见的文体练起，由短到长，由浅入深，循序渐进地进行。

四是通过背诵训练写作。培养学生的英语写作能力，以课文为中心训练写作能力非常重要，因为课文中的句子就是规范的英语范文。因此，每学完一篇课文或对话，教师就要要求学生背诵，然后默写。这样使学生把词语放在句型、段落、篇章中去理解、记忆和体味，以至于能够仿写、改写。

五是通过仿写和改写训练写作能力。仿写也是提高英语写作能力行之有效的方法，模仿写作中，格式、构思、表达方式等方面都可模仿。但要提醒学生注意灵活变通，语句要通顺，符合英语表达习惯。仿写前要从时态，句型，内容选材等方面对学生加以辅导，指导学生怎样模仿，特别提醒学生注意时态。

另外，改写也是一种很好的方法，改写就是对文章材料的文体、式样、句式等进行改编的一种训练方式。无论是改人称、改时态，还是改对话材料为叙述文字，这都有助于学生复习巩固所学知识，又能培养学生所学知识的迁移运用能力，还能起到提高学生的写作能力。

总之，要提高学生的英语写作能力，就要培养学生养成良好的学习习惯。即：重视词、短语、造句，优秀的对话和课文要背诵，多做翻译练习，练习改写和仿写，结合课文进行各种体裁的写作训练。只有坚持不懈，持之以恒，才能写出准确、地道、规范的英语文章。

以下是小编整理的2015中考英语写作素材:名言警句类，希望能帮的到您。

01. Practice makes perfect.

熟能生巧.

02. Time is money.

时间就是金钱

03. Easier said than done.

说来容易做来难

04. Where there is a will, there is a way.

有志者事竟成.

05. Look before you leap.

三思而后行.

06. Knowledge is power.

知识就是力量

07. God helps those who help themselves.

自助者天助.

08. Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.

心之所愿，无事不成

09. It’s never too old to learn.

活到老，学到老

10. No pains, no gains.

不劳无获

11. Once in a blue moon.

千载难逢

12. To make the impossible possible.

将不可能变为可能

13. Failure is the mother of success.

失败乃成功之母

14. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

患难见真情

15. First things first.

先做重要之事

16. Great minds think alike.

英雄所见略同

17. Rome was not built in a day.

成功并非一朝一夕的事

18. All that glitters is not gold.

闪光的未必都是金子

19. East or west, home is the best.

金窝银窝不如自家草窝

20. Time and tide wait for no man.

时间不等人

21. There is but a secret to success—Never give up!

成功只有一个秘诀—永不放弃!

22. Where there is life, there is hope.

有生命必有希望

23. Beauty will buy no beef.

漂亮不能当饭吃

24. Better late than never.

迟做总比不做好

25. Every little helps.

点滴都有用;积少成多

26. The shortest answer is doing.

最简短的回答就是行动

27. No news is good news.

没消息，就是好消息

28. Well begun, half done.

好的开始是成功的一半

29. All for one, one for all.

人人为我，我为人人

30. One false step will make a great difference.

失之毫厘，谬以千里

31. Facts speak louder than words.

事实胜于雄辩

32. As the tree, so the fruit.

种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆

33. To live is to learn; to learn is to better live.

活着为了学习，学习为了更好的活着

34. Like and like make good friends.

趣味相投

35. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

只学习不玩耍聪明的孩子也变傻.

1. According to a recent survey， four million people die each year from diseases linked to smoking.依照最近的一项调查，每年有4，000，000人死于与吸烟有关的疾病。

2. The latest surveys show that quite a few children have unpleasant associations with homework.最近的调查显示相当多的孩子对家庭作业没什么好感。

3. No invention has received more praise and abuse than Internet.没有一项发明像互联网一样同时受到如此多的赞扬和批评。

4. People seem to fail to take into account the fact that education does not end with graduation.人们似乎忽视了教育不应该随着毕业而结束这一事实。

5. An increasing number of people are beginning to realize that education is not complete with graduation.越来越多的人开始意识到教育不能随着毕业而结束。

6. When it comes to education， the majority of people believe that education is a lifetime study.说到教育，大部分人认为其是一个终生的学习。

7. Many experts point out that physical exercise contributes directly to a persons physical fitness.许多专家指出体育锻炼直接有助于身体健康。

8. Proper measures must be taken to limit the number of foreign tourists and the great efforts should be made to protect local environment and history from the harmful effects of international tourism.应该采取适当的措施限制外国旅游者的数量，努力保护当地环境和历史不受国际旅游业的不利影响。

9. An increasing number of experts believe that migrants will exert positive effects on construction of city. However， this opinion is now being questioned by more and more city residents， who complain that the migrants have brought many serious problems like crime and prostitution.越来越多的专家相信移民对城市的建设起到积极作用。然而，越来越多的城市居民却怀疑这种说法，他们抱怨民工给城市带来了许多严重的问题，像犯罪和卖淫。

10. Many city residents complain that it is so few buses in their city that they have to spend much more time waiting for a bus， which is usually crowded with a large number of passengers.许多市民抱怨城市的公交车太少，以至于他们要花很长时间等一辆公交车，而车上可能已满载乘客。

11. There is no denying the fact that air pollution is an extremely serious problem： the city authorities should take strong measures to deal with it.无可否认，空气污染是一个极其严重的问题：城市当局应该采取有力措施来解决它。

12. An investigation shows that female workers tend to have a favorable attitude toward retirement.一项调查显示妇女欢迎退休。

12a. A proper part-time job does not occupy students too much time. In fact， it is unhealthy for them to spend all of time on their study. As an old saying goes： All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.一份适当的业余工作并不会占用学生太多的时间，事实上，把全部的时间都用到学习上并不健康，正如那句老话：只工作，不玩耍，聪明的孩子会变傻。

14. Any government， which is blind to this point， may pay a heavy price.任何政府忽视这一点都将付出巨大的代价。

15.Nowadays， many students always go into raptures at the mere mention of the coming life of high school or college they will begin. Unfortunately， for most young people， it is not pleasant experience on their first day on campus.当前，一提到即将开始的学校生活，许多学生都会兴高采烈。然而，对多数年轻人来说，校园刚开始的日子并不是什么愉快的经历。

一、认真审题，确定时态人称，同时关注题材格式

时态：故事性文章一般用过去时，其中表达感受时可用现在时。

说明性或议论性文章一般用现在时，举例时可用过去时。

根据题目要求也会出现时态的交错使用，如过去和现在的对比等。

如果句中出现了时间状语，时态则要遵循时间状语。

如ago，last…——过去时

next，in…——将来时等

人称：注意在句子中人称的统一。

例如：Thanks to the teachers， we have improved our English。

其中we和our就是人称的统一。

格式：注意书信格式的开头和结尾。

二、找全信息点，紧扣主题，突出重点

切忌只看表格中或所列1、2、3中的信息点。一定把题读全，找齐信息点，建议用铅笔标出，写完后再涂掉。

根据题目，可适当增加合理内容。

特别注意文章要有开头和结尾。

三、成文时表述正确，文字流畅

切忌与汉语提示的一一对应，使用所学表达方法将语义表达出来即可。

首先考虑句子结构(如主谓宾，主系表等)。

同时注意短语的正确使用和单词的拼写，最好使用课本上学过的短语和句式。

四、文章结构清晰，重点句型出彩，可使文章在得分上提高一个档次

考虑文章的篇章结构，使用适当的连接短语，使文章结构紧凑。

常用连接词：

1.表文章结构顺序：First of all，Firstly/First，Secondly/Second…

And then，Finally，In the end，At last

2.表并列补充关系的：What ismore，Besides，Moreover，Furthermore，Inaddition

3.表转折对比关系的：However，On the contrary，but

Although+clause( 从句)，In spite of+n/doing

On the one hand…

On the other hand…

Some…，while others…

4.表因果关系的：Because，As

So，Thus，Therefore，As a result

5.表换一种方式表达：In other words

6.表进行举例说明：For example，句子;For instance，句子;such as+n/doing

7.表陈述事实：In fact

8.表达自己观点：As far as I know，In my opinion

9.表总结：In short，In a word，In conclusion，In summary

文中正确使用两三个好的句型，如：宾语从句、状语从句、动名词做主语等。

宾语从句举例：I believe Tianjin will be more beautifulandprosperous。

状语从句举例：If everyone does something for the environment， ourhometown will become clean and beautiful。

动名词做主语举例：Reading books in the sun is bad for our eyes。

It’s bad for our eyes to read books in the sun。

常用状语从句句型：

1)时间when，not…until，as soon as

2)目的so that+clause;to do( 为了)

3)结果so…that+clause，too…to do(太……以至于……)

4)条件if，unless(除非)，as long as(只要)

5)让步though，although，even though，even if

no matter what/when/where/who/which/how

6)比较as…as…，not so…as…，than

五、认真检查，检查信息点是否全面，时态、人称是否一致，句子结构是否清晰，短语使用、单词拼写是否准确等。

检查后，将草稿誊写在纸上，请注意按结构分段，书写清晰。

下面列举一些在检查中可发现的错误：

1.We live more and more comfortable。

改正：comfortably(副词修饰动词)

2.we can get many informations by reading newspapers。

改正：much information

(不可数名词由much修饰)

3.There has many programs in TV。

改正：There are many programs on TV。

(There be句型和介词短语)

4.I think ride a bike can keep our health。

改正：I think riding a bike can keep us healthy。(动名词作主语)

建议大家练习或模仿不同题材的文章，特别注意改错总结和吸取范文中好的结构与表达方法，适当运用于自己的文章中。

1．词语选择的重要性

在The Right Word at the Right Time的“序言”中，编者对词语选用的重要性作了一个很好的比喻：“Using the right word at the right time is rather like wearing appropriate clothing for the occasion：

it is a courtesy to others，and a favor to yourself-a matter of presenting yourself well in the eyes of the world."

显然，说话或写文章时用词适当比穿着适当难度大得多，因而也具有更大的重要性。在我国，古人写文章时常为一个词语的选用具思苦想，因而有“语不惊人死不休”的说法。

成语“一字值千金”也说明了选择词语的极端重要性。有时“一字之差”造成令人遗憾的败笔，或招致成千上万的经济损失。这些反面的教训也告诉我们必须重视词语选用的问题。

2．词语选择的可能性

实际上，我们每个人的脑子里都有了一个或大或小的词库，只要我们肯去发掘，往往可以得到更好的表达方式。这是我们做好词语选用的主观条件。

从客观条件广看，我们有各种类型的词典和参考书，只要我们平时多翻译、多阅读，写作时勤查考，就会在词语选用上不断进步。当然，一部好词典也不会毫无缺点，更难以面面俱到，因此在这里我们应牢牢记住著名英国作家、评论家和辞书编纂家Johson的话：