高一英语写作课(最新20篇)

Our class to Guangzhou Beach Park to travel, I and my good friend Lin Wei Hao can be happy,the first day ready to take away things,know the day to travel,we frantically singing songs.

We were crazy to spend a pleasant time in the car, but I do not know we have to hit our destination,we ordered the car. But with a cheerful mood,to our dream of the beach park.

We have a good team directly with the captain of the fast to the entertainment, where there are “haunted house”, “flying sky”, “pirate ship”, and I like the “bumper car” and so on.Entertainment, although I, every one play But I am not happy,because Lin Wei Hao and his old classmates to play,did not come to play with me,I also put him as my best friend,he did not come with me Play these games.

Because today is a special day,I am not too unhappy, or resolutely continue to play about the terrorist point, relax about the mood.

Until the time to go,Lin Wei Hao see I am not happy look, as if I am not happy to know the reason seems to have come,said: “Today did not play with you I am sorry,I just forgot your agreement the day before yesterday, said To play with the time to play, but I did not mean that.”I said to him:“nothing I play a very happy.”

Since that day I and my good friend Lin Wei Hao not so good before, although still in a class, our communication is less and less.The first tour turned out to be such a result,leading us to become ordinary students.

Favorite Spring Festival is the most important festival in China .Its to

celebrate the lunar calendar s new year .

In the evening before the Spring Festival ,families get together and have a

big meal .In many places people like to set off firecrackers .Dumplings are the

most traditional food .

Children like the festival very much ,because they can have delicious food

and wear new clothes .They can also get some money from their parents. This

money is given to children for good luck .

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

The Spring Festival lasts about 15 days long .People visit relatives and

friends with the words "Have all your wishes ". People enjoy the Spring Festival

,during this time they can have a good rest .

1) 主语+ cannot emphasize the importance of … too much.(再怎么强调……的重要性也不为过。)例如：We cannot emphasize the importance of protecting our eyes too much.

2)There is no need for sb to do sth. for sth.(某人没有必要做……)，例如：There is no need for you to bring more food. 不需你拿来更多的食物了。

3)By +doing…，主语can …. (借着……，……能够……)，例如：By taking exercise, we can always stay healthy. 借着做运动，我们能够始终保持健康。

4) … enable + sb.+ to + do…. (……使……能够……)，例如：Listening to music enables us to feel relaxed. 听音乐使我们能够感觉轻松。

5) On no account can we + do…. (我们绝对不能……)，例如：On no account can we ignore the value of knowledge.我们绝对不能忽略知识的价值。

6) What will happen to sb.? (某人将会怎样?), 例如：What will happen to the orphan? 那个孤儿将会怎样?

7)For the past + 时间，主语 + 现在完成式…. (过去……年来，……一直……)例如：For the past two years，I have been busy preparing for the examination. 过去两年来，我一直忙着准备考试。

8)It pays to + do….(……是值得的。)例如：It pays to help others. 帮助别人是值得的。

9)主语+ be based on….(以……为基础)，例如：The progress of thee society is based on harmony.社会的进步是以和谐为基础的。

10)主语 + do one’s best to do….(尽全力去……)，例如：We should do our best to achieve our goal in life.我们应尽全力去达成我们的人生目标

1.爱屋及乌 Love me, love my dog.

2.百闻不如一见 Seeing is believing.

3.比上不足比下有余 worse off than some, better off than many; to fall short of the best, but be better than the worst.

4.笨鸟先飞 A slow sparrow make an early start.

5.不眠之夜 whe night

6.不以物喜不以己悲 not pleased by external gains, not saddened by personnal losses

7.不遗余力 spare no effort; go all out; do ones best

8.不打不成交 No discord, no concord.

9.拆东墙补西墙 rob Peter to pay Paul

10.辞旧迎新 bid farewell to the old and usher in the new; ring out the old year and ring in the new

11.大事化小小事化了 try first to make their mistake sound less serious and then to reduce it to nothing at all

12.大开眼界 open ones eyes; broaden ones horizon; be an eye-opener

13.国泰民安 The country flourishes and people live in peace

14.过犹不及 going too far is as bad as not going far enough; beyond is as wrong as falling short; too much is as bad as too little

15.功夫不负有心人 Everything comes to him who waits.

16.好了伤疤忘了疼 once on shore, one prays no more

17.好事不出门恶事传千里 Good news never goes beyond the gate, while bad news spread far and wide.

18.和气生财 Harmony brings wealth.

19.活到老学到老 One is never too old to learn.

20.既往不咎 let bygones be bygones

21.金无足赤人无完人 Gold cant be pure and man cant be perfect.

22.金玉满堂 Treasures fill the home.

23.脚踏实地 be down-to-earth

24.脚踩两只船 sit on the fence

25.君子之交淡如水 the friendship between gentlemen is as pure as crystal; a hedge between keeps friendship green

26.老生常谈陈词滥调 cut and dried, cliché

27.礼尚往来 Courtesy calls for reciprocity.

28.留得青山在不怕没柴烧 Where there is life, there is hope.

29.马到成功 achieve immediate victory; win instant success

30.名利双收 gain in both fame and wealth

31.茅塞顿开 be suddenly enlightened

32.没有规矩不成方圆 Nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards. 33.每逢佳节倍思亲 On festive occasions more than ever one thinks of ones dear ones far away.It is on the festival occasions when one misses his dear most.

34.谋事在人成事在天 The planning lies with man, the outcome with Heaven. Man proposes, God disposes.

35.弄巧成拙 be too smart by half; Cunning outwits itself

Chinese New Year，is the most important festival for all of us. All family members get together on New YearEve to have a big meal.At the same time， everyone celebrates to each other.At about 12 oclock，some parents and children light crackers.The whole sky is lighted brightly. We may watch the fireworks excitedly.How busy it is！

On the first early moring of one year， many senior citizen get up early and they stick the reversed Fu or hang some couplets on the front door. Some houses windows are sticked on red paper cutlings.

The Chinese New Year lasts fifteen days. So during the fifteen days， we always visit our relatives from door to door. At that time， children are the happiest because they can get many red packets form their parents，grandparents， uncles， aunts and so on. The last day of the Chinese New Year is another festival. It names the Lantern Festival.

So the Chinese New Year comes to the end.

要点：实际上中考英语写作就等于两个字，翻译!因为中考英语写作一般会给出几个要点，要求必须在文章中有所体现。文章写的再好，只要缺少要点就会扣分。所以要点，也就是文章的第二段内容，要做到全，围绕中心。

结构：中考最流行的结构就是三段式，深受各地区中考英语写作阅卷老师的喜爱。为什么尼?因为这种结构十分清晰。“观点——要点——总结”让人一目了然。三段式的第一段：简单明了，开门见山，不超过2句话，如，我们想表达小强很强壮，第一段直接说XQis extremely strong。观点明确，这一句足矣。

第二段：分2-3点说为什么他强壮。1. 每天吃10顿饭，He has ten mealseveryday!详举吃的是什么。2. 每天运动2小时，He does exercise 2 hours a day!详举做了什么运动。

第三段：经过第二段的论证，可以得出结论。但请注意，不能完全照抄第一段，要有升华。也可以提出希望和建议等。如，Howstrong and robust XQ is!I hope to be him one day!

逻辑：这里的逻辑实际指的就是逻辑词。最常用的就是表示递进的，转折的，总结的逻辑词等。递进：除了first，second，third，finally等还可以使用高级点的，如first of all(首先)，in addition，whatsmore，moreover(都是另外的意思)，in a word，all inall(表示总结的)。转折：but，yet，however等。真正有经验的阅卷老师会很注意这些逻辑连接词，因为这些词体现了这个文章的思路。

语法：其他几点都不是硬性的要求，不那样做不能说是错，只能说是不好，但是语法却是硬性的。如，单词的使用，时态等。

亮点：当我们将前八个字都做得很完美的时候也只能得到一个二等文的上。要想得到一等文，最后两个字，亮点至关重要。大家设想如果我们是阅卷老师。有两篇写人美丽的作文摆在我们面前，都是结构清晰的三段式，要点都很全，都用了一些逻辑词，都没有语法错误，但是A篇只用了beautiful，good-looking，B篇却用到了attractive，charming，catching等，我坚信正常人都会给B篇高分的。这些高级一点的词汇，词组，句型便是我们得到一等文的最有力的绝招。所以，以后写英语作文要养成一般词汇限量用的好习惯。

一、形成性评价的概念

形成性评价(Formative Assessment)是美国评价学专家斯克里芬在1967年在其所著的《评论方法论》里提出来的。所谓的形成性评价是相对于传统的终结性评价(Summative Assessment)而言的，指的是对学生日常学习过程中的表现、所取得的成绩及所反映出来的情感、态度和策略方面的发展做出的评价，这种评价是通过对学生学习的整个过程持续观察、记录和反思之后得出来的。

形成性评价的目的是为了激励学生学习，帮助学生调控自己的学习过程。让学生获得成就感，增强其自信心和团结合作精神，让学生从被动接受评价变成一个评价的主体和积极参与者。形成性评价能够帮助教师了解学生的学习情况，从而制定下一步的教学计划。与终结性评价相比，形成性评价不只以考试成绩来衡量学生的学习情况，它更加灵活方便，也更加科学有效。形成性评价注重对学生学习行为和表现的评估，能够有效发挥学生的主动性和创造性，有利于培养学生的学习兴趣，也能够有效提高学生的自信心。

在英语口语教学中运用形成性评价，能够让学生在课堂中互相评价，增强学生参与课堂教学的积极性，在提高英语口语能力的同时体会到成功的快乐，形成一个教师与学生、学生与学生之间良好互动的课堂。形成性评价注重开发学生的创新能力和思考能力，而要培养这些能力就必须依靠坚持不懈的学习和运用来完成。

二、形成性评价的方法与工具

首先，一般而言，形成性评价的方法大致分为：自我评价、同伴互评和教师评价。

自我评价是指学生在学习的过程中就自己学习进程中的某个阶段性成果的总结和评价。自我评价是形成性评价中尤为重要的评价方法，只有通过自我评价才能尽力发挥其的主观能动性，积极主动地参与课堂教学活动。只有主观积极地参与课堂，就自己不同阶段的水平，才能更好地定位自己进一步的目标，并在课程初期、中期及末期分别给予自己相对客观中肯的评价，以促进下一阶段的学习。

同伴互评是指在课堂活动中，就某一活动进行同学之间的评价，评价包括学习态度、学习能力及学习方法的评价。在同伴互评的过程中，学生们可以相互探讨学习方法、交流学习心得、提出改进的建议和意见。同伴之间相互比较、竞争，相互取长补短，既增强了合作精神又促进了学习能力和学习效率的提升。同伴互评作为形成性评价重要的方法之一，其评价形式既增强了课堂的趣味性又增强了学生的学习自信心和学习热情。

课堂学习的主体是学生，但是学习评价的主体却是教师。形成性评价侧重过程教育，在教学过程中，根据需要调整教学计划和内容，该评价尤其重视学生与教师在课堂的共同参与度，而非教师“一言堂”。首先，教师在教学过程中设定好学生自我评价与同伴评价的量化标准，列好学生自我评价和同伴评价的核查表；其次，学生根据核查表才可有的放矢，对照核查表所列的内容一一检查，每节课后，客观公正地给予自己和他人中肯的评价；最后，结合学生自我评价和同伴评价的反馈结果，教师针对学生课堂上的表现，纵向对比某一特定学生评价前后的差异，或者横向比较某一特定组别在同一活动中每位学生各项指标的完成情况，同时，以多种形式反馈给学生并提出整改意见。因而，在教学的不同阶段，根据学生的能力发展状况，教师可适时调整评价方式，不断改进教学方法和教学手段。

只有将自我评价、同伴评价与教师评价结合在一起评价方式才能保证较好的教学效果，才能促进教育改革的进一步深化，真正达到以素质教育培养复合型人才的终极目标。

其次，形成性评价的行为评估工具有课堂观察、学生档案、座谈、问卷调查、访谈和对话周记等。如何运用以及怎样运用这些评价工具要根据所授课程、课程目标和授课对象等诸多因素做适当调整。

课堂观察是教学行为和技巧的基本方式。根据Genesee and Upshur(2001:79)的观点，教师在观察的基础上，可以评估学生已掌握和未掌握的内容。换言之，教师应该评估促进或阻碍学生学习的策略。与此同时，教师还可评估一些特定的教学策略的有效性，确定学生们欣赏哪些课堂活动和形式。课堂观察有助于教师更好地了解课程设计和学生需求的契合度。通过正式或非正式的观察，教师可掌握大多数学生对于教学安排的可接受程度，根据学生的需求改进或调整教学安排等，以提升教学效果。

“questionnaires and interviews can all be thought of as conversations between students and teachers”（Genesee and Upshur，2001:136）。如上所述，问卷调查和访谈都可被看作教师和学生间的对话，访谈和问卷调查是相似的，但决定使用访谈或者问卷调查可依据不同的教学目的。无论是哪种方式，都是老师和学生之间相对正式的会谈，这非常有利于老师对他的教学效果进行评估,诊断学生在英语学习遇到的困难，为学生寻找合适的解决问题,获得良好的学习策略和学习得到更多的进步。访谈和问卷调查设计应该根据学生的个人需求并符合教学目标。

对话周记作为教师和学生沟通的另一种方式，深受学生的喜爱。因课程设置和班级规模的不同，课堂观察、问卷调查及访谈都相对比较片面，而对话周记则可以关注到每个学生的不同需求。师生间定期通信，既增加了教师和学生之间的相互了解，增强彼此的信任，又能解决学生的个案问题，做到因材施教；同时，为了促进“教学相长”，学生可及时反馈教师的课堂教学，对于教师的教学提出较好的建议和意见。

学生档案是一个综合各项评估功能于一体的评估工具。它可以记录学生的成长、课堂变化且兼顾多种需要。如今，众多评价工具只把学生作为评价的对象，而评估的责任和任务的则落到了教师身上。但事实上，几乎没有一种评价工具能很好地管理学生活动并对其课堂行为负责。相比之下, 建立学生档案，需要学生亲力亲为；本着自我负责的原则，他们要更好地自我监督和控制，同时，在建档案的过程中，学生可以见证自己的进步与成长，增强学习的自信，提高学习的效果。

三、形成性评价对于英语口语教学的重要性与紧迫性

众所周知,教育评估在大学英语课程改革中扮演着相当重要的角色。英语教学的重点已从传播知识转移到培养能力。多年来，在中国，人们只注重英语写作和阅读的能力的提升，而一直忽视英语口语交际能力。多年来，教学评价已经被狭义理解为量化教学，而后进一步局限于教学测试。考试作为教学的终极目的，期末考试的成绩也就成为教师评价学生的最重要的依据。而对于口语课堂，单一的这种评估方式和依据增加了大多数学生的心理压力和少部分学生侥幸心理。考试成绩给学生很大压力，危害学生的发展，评估过程中，学生一直被动地参与，无法调动其积极性。当课程结束时，教师将得不到及时准确的学生反馈，无法改善评估方法以助于提高学生的英语口语能力。

“形成性评价源于诊断性测试。与终结性评价相比，形成性评价通过教学过程中多方面的评价发现问题，解决问题，强调过程性、目标性和学生学习的主动性。” (魏薇，2005) 鉴于终结性评价在口语测试评分中的片面性和主观性，大学英语口语表达能力的培养还是受到了这种终结性评价的制约。在大学英语口语教学中，形成性评价最重要的任务的是帮助教师监控学生英语口语的学习过程，提高学生的英语口语学习。如能将形成性评价的理论引入大学英语口语课堂教学与测试中，建立大学英语口语课程与形成性评价相结合的评估模式，则会推动大学英语口语教学和测试的改革进程。

鉴于口语课堂的特点，为了克服传统终结性评价对于口语课堂的制约性，形成性评价与大学英语口语教学相结合有其不可忽视的重要性和紧迫性。

首先，由于口语表达能力除了包含最基本的发音、词汇、语法能力还有语用能力、文化知识储备力等多项复杂的技能，而所有的这些技能无法在某一次测试中完全体现出来。因口语学习的最终目的是运用到相关学科、为了更好地促进国际交流。

而形成性评价尤其注重过程教学，这种评价将教学过程分成了诸多阶段，学生可在每个不同的阶段就自己的学习态度、发音、语言运用的准确性、流利程度以及课堂活动参与的积极性进行横向的同学互评和纵向的自我比较。一方面，横向比较可以找到彼此间的差距，互相帮助已达到各方面的提升；另一方面，学生可在整理学习档案的过程中，纵向比较自己前后阶段的学习情况，时刻了解自己在每个阶段的学习状况，在教师和同学的辅助下，运用不同的学习方法和策略，逐项提高自己的口语能力。 另外，教师在学生进行评价的过程中，可真实地参与并记录学生在各方面的真实水平。

其次，口语课堂实际上是教师与学生、学生与学生之间的互动交际。教师需要花费大量的时间设计口语活动、鼓励学生参与活动、监控课堂活动、诊断学生的需求和问题、记录学生的表现等。学生则在各种学习任务和活动中不断地练习、发现问题、纠正偏差。

与传统的终结性评价不同，形成性评价的最显著特征是评价的主体是学生，学生和教师共同参与课堂，缺一不可。根据多数学生的关注点，学生参与确定研究目标、评分标准和英语口语的性能评估。因而，他们了解每一项活动的任务和目标，他们可合理运用各种评价方式和工具，课前认真准备，课堂上积极参与，能与教师积极互动，课堂上客观地评价自己、同伴和教师。这不仅是一种评价过程，更是学生回归自我认同感的方式。学生增加了学习自信，在评价过程中不断积累经验，逐步获得学习成就感。教师亦可在与学生互动的过程中，更好地了解学生的知识掌握和课堂反馈情况，根据反馈适时调整教学方法。如此良性循环，既增强了课堂的趣味性又提高了学生的学习效率。

四、结语

形成性评价，作为正常教学和学习过程的有机部分，可以全面、客观、科学、准确地提供与其学习目标相关的重要信息，它有助于促进学生的个性化发展和外语教学质量的根本性提高。形成性评价其中的一个重要作用是培养学生良好的英语学习习惯。将英语形成性评价与口语教学紧密地结合在一起，能提高学生学习的兴趣并及时、准确、客观地反映学生的真实水平，使学生的英语口语能力稳步提高。通过采用具体的形成性评价方式，发展学生的自我评价与学生间相互评价的能力，以促进学生的自我反思与自我管理能力。从而提高学生自主学习意识与自主学习能力，并为他们养成终身学习的意识与习惯打下基础。

从每年的考试情况来看，很多同学能完整地按照要求把文章写出来，但得分却较低。实际上，高考英语书面表达是一个分值颇高且易得分的题型，只是很多同学没有掌握得分技巧。下面我们一起看看怎样才能让高考作文拽起来。

一、几点重要原则

1.智者利用押题，傻子依赖押题!

2.书面表达整篇背诵绝无必要，可以以看读为主，关键是从中汲取一些常用的词汇和表达，并能得体熟练地运用。考场上应变能力很重要!

3.英文写作模仿很重要。有时也很有效。但不能过于牵强，尤其是对一些长难句的刻意模仿使用。

4.文似看山不喜平，起承转合一定要有!

5.见微知著，一叶知秋，几个亮点足矣：有道是：浓妆淡抹总相宜，作文写得简洁到位要比长篇大论更显功力。

6.心不为形役。不要身陷逐字逐句英汉对号式的字面翻译，要把表达的主动权始终握在自己手里。

二、善用万能句以不变应万变

历届高考，书面表达考得最多是提示作文，即提供一定的情景内容，要求考生完成100词左右的短文。

从命题方式看，有短文提示、要点提示、图画提示、情景提示以及图表提示等；体裁以应用文为主，记叙文为辅：题材为广大中学生所熟悉的日常生活。从提供要点的情景方面看，历届高考书面表达题均属供料小作文，采用文字供料或文字说明加图画(图表)的方式供料。

备考时，同学们要利用有限的时间把以前背的范文整理一下，从中选出不同体裁、不同题材的范文各一篇(范文以高考真题的高分作文为佳)，把它们重新记忆，一定记牢。这样，高考时不管什么样的文章都可套用背诵好的格式。避免考场上因紧张而无章可循。

最后阶段，还要总结一下写作时常用且能出彩的固定句型、句式，比如强调句型、定语从句、名诃性从句等，牢记英语的五个基本句式，背诵平时老师总结的万能句。以不变应万变。

考场答题前，应仔细审题，研究所提供的文字和图画(图表)材料和作文要求。分析、提炼要点，理顺要点，确立基本的写作思路，不要忽略任何一个词。关键的词更不能遗漏，构思好写几个方面，缺一不可。

写作时，尽量用学过的英语句型和词组。少写长句和复杂句以免弄巧成拙、漏洞百出。但目前高考有关书面表达的评分标准要求作文中应有较多的语法结构和词汇，因此同学们在书面表达中不能都写小句、短句和单句，还要正确运用高级词汇和复杂结构。恰当运用过渡词，使写出来的文章含金量更高，更具可读性。

三、高分作文六大特性

1.条理性。指的是合理安排文章结构。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。

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。

四、怎样才能有拽的感觉

1.高考写作的实质变相考查句型与词汇的灵活应用

英语写作不同于语文作文的写作，如果说语文作文是一个自由发挥的舞蹈，那么高考英语写作就是带着枷锁在跳舞。我之所以这样来形容，是因为高考英语写作的内容都已经通过文字、表格、图片这三种形式给定，内容方面，不需要学生进行发挥，大家所需要发挥的就是不要老去给这个不变的内容穿毫无变化的校服(简单句)，而要去穿一些不一样的衣服，让它显得不那么单调，让阅卷老师能看到不同，而那些所谓的衣服也就是多变句型与词汇。

2.写作的评分标准怎么去迎合评卷老师的胃口

我了解到目前很大一部分学生的作文都处在15分左右，写作满分25分，15分也就是个及格分，那么15分和20多分的作文到底差在哪里?这个问题很容易回答。15分的作文中规中矩，该对的都对，包括内容要点的完整，语法与词形的正确，但是全都是简单句子的堆砌，没有任何亮点。而20多分的作文在句型词汇方面就做了很好的包装，它的句子穿的衣服已经不是校服，而是李宁、耐克，或者是阿迪，所以让人觉得很拽，而高考英语写作要的就是这种很拽的感觉。

3.写作提分的三要素句型。连词。高级词汇

句子是我们写作文最大的单位。有了漂亮的句子。用好的连词将其连句成段，再加上一些如星星般亮点词汇的点缀，一篇好的高考英语作文就诞生了。而这三个因素中最容易把握的是句子，最难的是高级词汇，限于大家的词汇还比较有限。一篇文章中出现那么一两个就够了。我们应该把重心放在句型上，因为这个最容易把握。

但是大家又有这样的困惑，学校里老师也给了我们很多的句型啊，动辄成五十上百句的，大家背得挺多，但是面对考试的时候，发现背的那些怎么也用不上。其实不是那些东西没有用，而是它们太干了，就好比一根干骨头，大家嚼起来很没有味。也不知道该把它们往哪里放。

在这里我给大家提供一种比较切实可行、迅速提高的练习方法，在接下来的时间里只要大家按照这个方法来，就一定会有收获。

找出历年真题，一周只需要写两篇。但是要这么来写。

1.把你要写的内容要点用九到十句的汉语表达出来。

2.逐一地进行翻译，不是用简单句。而是要刻意地去想：

(1)可以用什么样的复杂句；

(2)怎样去避开不会的表达，转义。

例如：

这本书是如此的有趣，以至于我读了一遍又一遍。

1.This book was so interest，ing that l read it again and again，

2.This was such an interest，ing book that l read it again andagain，

3.This was s0 jnteresting abook that l read it again and again

4.So interesting was thisbook that l read it again and again

这四句译文当中无疑评卷老师最欣赏的是第四句，因为它用了倒装。

4.如何备考

其实这种思维大家都有。但是没有成为一种思路，让它能在考试中起到作用，那是因为大家练得少。英语写作处在一种很尴尬的境地，一方面大家要分数。但另外一方面大家一个学期里写的作文也就是期中期末的两篇。毫不夸张地说，有的学生上了三年的高中可能只写了六篇作文，所以练习是很重要的，要是现在不练而把高考当练习。那么作文只拿14、15分也合情合理了，到那时你不要骂评卷老师不公平，而应该问问自己备考的时候为什么不多练几篇。时间都是挤出来的，希望大家可以挤出时间来练写作。

travel is a very good means of broadening a persons perspective。 it makes you come into contact with different cultures， meet people of different colors and go through peculiar rites and ceremonies。 travelling much， you will not only enrich your knowledge and eperiences， but also be aware of the vastness of nature。

travel may also relieve person of boredom and gloom。 travel brings you enjoyment and attraction。 it gives you a pleasant eperience， which will disperse your boredom and make you forget whatever annoys you。 travel broadens your mind and leaves you good memories。 later， you may go over these memories and enjoy your past eperiences， thus keeping a fresh and sunny mind。

the fields his study， nature was his book。

travelers can choose different modes of transportation which have advantages and disadvantages。 airplanes are the fastest but also the most epensive。 buses and trains are less epensive， but they soon make you feel cramped and uncomfortable。 ships provide you with comfort unless you get seasick。 most people can afford traveling by bicycle， which， although slow， can limber up your muscles and get you closer to nature。

以下是短文写作中使用率最高、覆盖面最广的基本句式，每组句式的功能相同或相似，考可根据自己的情况选择其中的个，做到能够熟练正确地仿写或套用。

1．表示原因

1）There are three reasons for this

2）The reasons for this are as follows

3）The reason for this is obvious

4）The reason for this is not far to seek

5）The reason for this is that

6）We have good reason to believe that

例如：

There are three reasons for the changes that have taken place in our life

．Firstly，people’s living standard has been greatly improved．Secondly，most people are well paid，and they can afford what they need or like．Last but not least，more and more people prefer to enjoy modern life．

注：

如考生写第一个句子没有把握，

可将其改写成两个句子。

如：

Great changes have taken place in our life．

There are three reasons for this．这样写可以避免套用中的表达失误。

2．表示好处

1）It has the following advantages

2）It does us a lot of good

3）It benefits us quite a lot

4）It is beneficial to us

5）It is of great benefit to us

例如：

Books are like friends．

They can help us know the world better，and they can open our minds

and widen our horizons．Therefore reading extensively is of great benefit to us

3．表示坏处

1）It has more disadvantages than advantages

2）It does us much harm

3）It is harmful to us

例如：

However，everything divides into two．

Television can also be harmful to us．It can do harm to our health and make us lazy if we spend too much time watching television.

4．表示重要、必要、困难、方便、可能

1）It is important（necessary，difficult，convenient, possible）for sb．to do sth．

2）We think it necessary to do sth．

3）It plays an important role in our life．

例如：

Computers are now being used everywhere，whether in the government，in schools or in business．

Soon, computers will be found in every home，too．

We have good reason to say that computers are playing an increasingly important role in our life and we have stepped into the Computer Age．

5．表示措施

1)We should take some effective measures．

2）We should try our best to overcome（conquer）the difficulties．

3）We should do our utmost in doing sth．

4）We should solve the problems that we are confronted（faced）with．

例如：

The housing problem that we are confronted with Is becoming more and more serious．Therefore，we must take some effective measures to solve it．

6 ．表示变化

1）Some changes have taken place in the past five years．

2)A great change will certainly be produced in the world’s communications．

3）The computer has brought about many changes in education．

例如：

Some changes have taken place in people’s diet in the past five years．The major reasons for these changes are not far to seek．Nowadays，more and more people are switching from grain to

meat for protein，and from fruit and vegetable to milk for vitamins．

7．表示事实、现状

1）We cannot ignore the fact that．．．

2）No one can deny the fact that．．．

3）There is no denying the fact that．．．

4）This is a phenomenon that many people are interested in．

5）However，that’s not the case．

例如：

We cannot ignore the fact that industrialization brings with it the problems of pollution．To solve these problems，

we can start by educating the public about the hazards of pollution．

The government on its part should also design stricter laws to promote a cleaner environment．

8．表示比较

1）Compared with A，B．．．

2）I prefer to read rather than watch TV．

3）There is a striking contrast between them．

例如：

Compared with cars ,bicycles have several advantages besides being affordable．Firstly，they do not consume natural resources of petroleum．Secondly，they do not cause the pollution problem．Last but not least，they contribute to people’s health by giving them due physical exercise．

9．表示数量

1）It has increased（decreased）from．．．to．．．

2）The population in this city has now increased （decreased）to 800，000．

3）The output of July in this factory increased by 15％compared with that of January．

例如：

With the improvement of the living standard,the proportion of people’s in some spent on food has decreased while that spent on education has increased．

再如：From the graph listed above,it can be seen that student use of computers has increased from an average of less than two hours per week in 1990 to 20 hours in 2000．

10．表示看法

1）People have（take，adopt，assume)different attitudes towards sth．

2）People have different opinions on this problem．

3）People take different views of（on）the question．

4）Some people believe that．．．

Others argue that．．．

例如：

People have different attitudes towards failure．Some believe that failure leads to success．

Every failure they experience translates into a greater chance of success at their renewed endeavor．However ,others are easily discouraged by failures and put themselves into the category of losers．

再如：

Do“lucky numbers really bring good luck？

Different people have different views on it（注：

一个段落有时很适宜以问句开始，考生应掌握这一写作方法。）

11．表示结论

1）In short，it can be said that ．．．

2）It may be briefly summed up as follows．

3）From what has been mentioned above,we can come to the conclusion that ．．

例如：

From what has been mentioned above，we can come to the conclusion that examination is necessary，however，its method should be improved．

12．套语

1）It’s well known to us that ．．．

2）As is known to us．．．

3）This is a topic that is being widely talked about．

4）From the graph

（table，chart）listed above，it can be seen that ．．．

5）As a proverb says，“Where there is a will，there is a way．

例如：

As is well known to us，it is important for the students to know the world outside campus．

The reason for this is obvious．Nowadays,the society is changing and developing rapidly，and

the campus is no longer an“ivory tower.As college students，

we must get in touch with the world outside the campus．

Only in this way can we adapt ourselves to the society quickly after

we graduate.

Some people believe (argue, recognize, think) that 观点1. But other people take an opposite side. They firmly believe that 观点2. As for me, I agree to the former/latter idea.

There are a dozen of reasons behind my belief. First of all, 论据1. More importantly, 论据2. Most important of all, 论据3.

In summary, 总结观点. As a college student, I am supposed to 表决心. 或 From above, we can predict that 预测.

导语：我们大家都知道，每个公民都有维护好自己权益的义务，所以日常生活中发生一些小摩擦我们当然要理智的去处理，那么投诉信是不是一个很好的办法呢?下面是yuwenmi小编为还在备考的同学整理的优秀英语素材，欢迎阅读与借鉴，谢谢!

Dear_______,

I am . (自我介绍) I feel bad to trouble you but I am afraid that I have to make a complaint about_______.

The reason for my dissatisfaction is ______________(总体介绍). In the first place,_________________________(抱怨的第一个方面). In addition, ____________________________(抱怨的第二个方面). Under these circumstances, I find it ___(感觉) to ____________________________(抱怨的方面给你带来的后果).

I appreciate it very much if you could_______________________(提出建议和请求), preferably __________(进一步的要求), and I would like to have this matter settled by ______(设定解决事情最后期限).

Thank you for your consideration and I will be looking forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely

Li Ming

对于考研英语的应用文写作来说，考生平时复习时不仅要注意应用文写作特点、格式要求，还要有意识的掌握各类应用文的写作方法。考研辅导专家建议广大考生不要简单认为应用文的复习就是复习相应的格式，格式只是应用文写作的最起码要求，除了应用文特定的格式外，还要背诵一些经典的套话，在平时的写作训练中培养迅速构思成篇的能力，注意词句的多样性和准确性训练。下面，我们就针对应用文写作中的私人和公务信函、备忘录、摘要、报告几种形式介绍一下写作技巧。

一、私人和公务信函

信函是很重要的一种应用文。私人和公务信函是用以交涉事宜、传达信息、交流思想、联络感情、增进了解的重要工具，与同学们的生活、学习比较密切，也是以后工作中用的最多的一种沟通方式。所谓私人信函就是给家人、朋友或者同学等写信，谈事情的同时又交流感情，是四级考试(专业课历年考研试卷)中常见的一种信函，研究生英语考试(专业课历年考研试卷)中常考的是公共信函。所谓公务信函就是给亲朋好友之外的人写信，主要是为了办事，比方说给老板或是客户写信都属于公共信函。

信函一般都是由写信时间、信内地址、称呼、信的主要内容和信尾几个主要部分组成。收信人地址要写在左上角，寄信人地址要写在右上角，寄信人地址也可以不写，姓名写在地址上面，地址排列顺序依次为门牌号、街区名、城市和国名。在信的开头人名前一定要加Mr.,Mrs.,Dear等比较尊敬的称呼，信的结尾注意使用常用的客套话如：sincerelyyours,faithfullyyours或者yourssincerely,yoursfaithfully。英文书信写作要遵循五个原则，即正确、清晰、简洁、礼貌和体贴。

正确是指信中所谈的事情要准确、具体，不用含糊抽象的词如：本月、明天等。清晰要求的是主题要明确，层次要清楚，让读者看后了然于心。简洁是现代英语发展的一大趋势。书信写作要做到行文简洁流畅，避免迂回冗长的长句，使书信尽可能写得明白清晰。书信交往，同样需要以礼待人，因而在写信过程中，要避免伤害对方感情，措辞上多多使用would,could,may,please等词，要自然得体，彬彬有礼。体谅对方也是写书信时要注意的一个原则，不能以自己为中心，要尊重对方的习俗爱好，即便是拒绝，也要委婉而不失去友谊。书信的写作也要注意格式，避免语法、拼写、标点错误，信中所引用的史料、数据等也应准确无误。

二、备忘录

备忘录是一种录以备忘的公文，主要用来提醒、督促对方，或就某个问题提出自己的意见或看法。包括书端、收文人的姓名、头衔、地址，称呼，事因，正文，结束语，和署名，备忘录上一定要说明什么时间，谁写的？写给谁？什么事？并且正文、结束语和署名等项与一般信件的格式相同。

三、摘要

接着谈谈摘要。摘要分成两种，一种是文章摘要，一种是论文摘要。

文章摘要就是给一篇文章让写一个摘要，文章摘要是对文章主要内容的简练概括，内容上要涵盖全文，语言上要尽量简练。写摘要前一定要仔细阅读全文，弄懂文章大意；摘要涵盖原文的主要观点并与原文的观点保持一致；摘要应该简明扼要，字数在规定的字数范围内；摘要最好不要照搬原文，应该用自己的话概括原文的主要观点；并且注意千万不要照抄，也千万不要评论，只需要写出中心思想或者段落大意即可。

第二种摘要是论文摘要。比方说是大家写一篇学术论文，硕士博士论文需要写一个英文的摘要。相对来讲我们认为考论文摘要的可能性稍微大一点。写这种摘要时要注意时态和语态。叙述研究过程，多采用一般过去时；说明某课题现已取得的成果，宜采用现在完成时。摘要中多数情况下可采用被动语态。但在某些情况下，特别是表达作者或有关专家的观点时，又常用主动语态。英文摘要有一些常用句型，比如表示研究目的，可以用Inorderto……Thispaperdescribes……Thepurposeofthisstudyis……，表示表示结论、观点或建议可以用Theauthors[suggest/conclude/consider]that……。

四、报告

最后一种是报告。报告其实也分为两种，第一种是读书报告。比如读一本书或者看一本小说写一个读书报告。读书报告中首先要交代背景知识，比如作者生平，时代简介等，接下来对书的内容做一个简单的概括，与摘要不同的是读书报告最后一段可以发表评论。与摘要相同，读书报告也要注意时态，比如像科普类的知识应该用现在式。另一种报告就是书面报告，书面报告考试(专业课历年考研试卷)的可行性和可能性更大一些。书面报告与备忘录的写法很类似，所不同的就是书面报告一般是下级写给上级，它也需要交代清楚四件事：什么时间？谁写的？写给谁？什么事？

当然，应用文写作能力的提高必须经过长期的实践锻炼。在复习阶段，首先要熟悉不同类型的应用文写作格式，注意事项，写作特点等。其次要背诵大量的优秀范文，要整段整段的背，不仅是背会而且要脱口而出，并且转换成自己的语言，写作时可以随心所欲支配。再次，是要多动手写作，要写出属于自己的文章，多动手写作才能快速写出好文章来。写好的文章要注意检查，看有无语法错误，有无用词不当，能否用其他的句式表达相同的意思，可以让同学帮忙检查，让同学提一些宝贵的意见和建议。总的来说，虽然大家对应用文的写作还比较陌生，但是只要认真对待，只要花时间背范文了，花时间写文章了，就一定能取得理想成绩。

i was thirty-seven then, strapped in my seat as the huge 747 plunged through dense cloud cover on approach to the hamburg airport. cold november rains drenched the earth and lent everything the gloomy air of a flemish landscape: the ground crew ran gear, a flag atop a squat airport building, a bmw billboard. so germany again.

37岁的我端坐在波音747客机上，庞大的机体穿过厚重的夹雨云层，俯身向汉堡机场降落。11月砭人肌肤的冷雨将大地涂得一片阴沉，使得身披雨衣的地勤工、呆然垂向地面的候机楼上的旗，以及bmw广告板等的一切的一切，看上去竟同佛兰德派抑郁画幅的背景一般。罢了罢了，又是德国，我想。

once the plane was on the ground soft music began to flow from the ceiling speakers: a sweet orchestral cover version of the beatles " norwegian wood". the melody never failed to send a shudder through me, but this time it hit me harder than ever.

飞机刚一着陆，天花板扩音器中低声传出轻柔的背景音乐，那是一个管弦乐队演奏的甲壳虫乐队的《挪威的森林》。那旋律一如往日地使我难以自已。这一次，比往日还要强烈地摇撼着我的身心。

i bent forward in my seat, face in hands to keep my skull from splitting open. before long one of the german stewardesses approached and asked in english if i was sick. "no," i said, just dizzy"

为了不使头脑胀裂，我弯下腰，双手捂脸。很快，一位德国空中小姐走来，用英语问我是不是不大舒服。我答说："不要紧，只是有点晕。

"are you sure?"

"yes, im sure. thanks."

"真的不要紧?"

"不要紧的，谢谢。"我说。

she smiled and left, and the music changed to a billy joel tune. i straightened up and looked out the plane window at the dark clouds hanging over the north sea, thinking of what i had lost in the course of my life: times gone forever, friends who had died or disappeared, feelings i would never know again.

她于是莞尔一笑，转身走开。音乐变成彼利·乔的曲子。我直起了腰，望着北海上空阴沉沉的云层，浮想联翩。我想起自己在过去人生旅途中失去的许多东西——蹉跎的岁月，死去或离去的人们无可追回的懊悔。

the plane reached the gate. people began unlatching their seatbelts and pulling baggage from the storage bins, and all the while i was in the meadow. i could smell the grass, feel the wind on my face, hear the cries of the birds. autumn 1969,and soon i wou1d be twenty.

机身停稳后，旅客解开安全带，从行李架中取出皮包和上衣等物。而我，仿佛依然置身于那片草地之中，呼吸着草的芬芳，感受着风的轻柔，谛听着鸟的鸣啭。那还是1969年的秋天，我快满20岁的时候。

…

true, given time enough, i can bring back her face. i start joining image-her tiny, cold hand; her straight, black hair so smooth and cool to the touch; a soft, rounded earlobe and the microscopic mole just beneath it; the camels hair coat she wore in the winter; her habit of looking straight into your eyes when asking a question; the slight trembling that would come to her voice now and then (as if she were speaking on a windy hilltop)-and suddenly her face is there, always in profile at first, because naoko and i were always out waking together, side by side. then she turns to me, and smiles, and tilts her head just a bit, and begins to speak, and she looks into my eyes as if trying to catch the image of a minnow that has darted across the pool of a m1impid spring.

当然，只要有时间，我会忆起她的面容。我追忆着：那冷冰冰的小手，那流线型泻下的手感爽适的秀发，那圆圆的软软的耳垂及其紧靠底端的小小黑痔，那冬日里时常穿的格调高雅的驼绒大衣，那总是定定注视对方眼睛发问的惯常动作，那不时奇妙发出的微微颤抖的语声(就像在强风中的山岗上说话一样)—随着这些印象的叠涌，她的面庞突然自然地浮现出来。最先出现是她的侧脸，大概因为我总是同她并肩走路的缘故，最先想起来的每每是她的侧影。随之，她朝我转过脸，甜甜地一笑，微微地低头，轻轻地启齿，定定地看着我的双眼，仿佛在一混清澈的泉水里寻觅稍纵即逝的小鱼的行踪。

i do need that time, though for naokos face to appear. and as the years have passed, the time has grown longer. the sad truth is that what i could recall in five seconds all too soon needed ten, then thirty, then a full minute——like shadows lengthening at dusk. someday, i suppose, the shadows will be swallowed up in darkness. there is no way around it: my memory is growing ever more distant from the spot where naoko used to stand-ever more distant from the spot where my old self used to stand. and nothing but scenery, that view of the meadow in october, returns again and again to me 1ike a symbolic scene in a movie. each time it appears, it delivers a kick to some part of my mind. "wale up," it says. "i’m still here! wake up and think about it. think about why im still here." the kicking never hurt me. theres no pain at all. just a hollow sound that echoes with each kick. and even that is bound to fade one day. at the hamburg airport, though, the kicks were longer and harder than usual which is why i am writing this book: to think. to understand! it just happens to be the way im made. i have to write things down to feel i fully comprehend them.

但是，让直子的面影在我脑海中浮现出来，我总是需要一点时间。而且，随着岁月的流逝，所需的时间愈来愈长。这固然令人悲哀，但事实就是如此。起初5秒即可想起，渐次变成10秒、30秒、1分钟。它延长得那样迅速，竟同夕阳下的阴影一般，并将很快消融在冥冥夜色之中。哦，原来我的记忆正在同直子原来站立的位置步步远离，甚至逐渐远离自己一度站过的位置。而惟独风景，惟独那片10月草地的风景，宛如电影中的象征性镜头，在我的脑际反复推出。并且那风景执着地连连踢我的脑袋，说着："起来，我可还在这里哟!起来，起来想想，思考一下我为什么还在这里。"不过这种踢法一点也不痛，一脚踢来，只是发出空洞的声响。甚至这声响或迟或早也将杳然远逝。但是在这汉堡机场，它们踢得比往常更长久、更有力：起来，理解我!惟其如此，我才动笔写这篇文字。我必须形诸文字，才能弄得水落石出。

Every family has its own start-up and family precepts. Dan has a osmosis and important influence to everybody, it is like the spring wind people people generally moist summer rain rain, influence people. No home, no society, Dans influence on the society as a whole are huge, countless good start-up can cause necessarily good social conduct.

If a person, he has a good home family trait, so he can surely little detours. And if his family trait, then many walked curved road.

Our family trait is "integrity". Honesty is to open, with a clean SLATE be honest, do your own thing will be accountable, can not pass the buck to others. The letter is to keep your words, words like pour out the water out, cant back, said to himself. In addition to Dan, there is another led people - family precepts. As opposed to a family trait, our family precepts is "good faith, practical work. Work to be steadfast, step-by-step. Like the way to go step by step, rice to a bite to eat. If light thinking about how do things, then do a thing also wont have too big achievements. On the contrary, if a man can do in front of down-to-earth to concentrate on every thing, dont aim high, must be able to accomplish something.

In short, the family is an important part of society, every successful person must have a good family trait and family precepts. And a good family trait family precepts each family member is required to build, only builds the start-up family precepts strictly, can we little detours.

每个家庭都有自己的家风和家训。家风对每个人都有着潜移默化而重要的影响，它就像春风风人夏雨雨人一般滋润，影响着人们。没有家就没有这个社会，家风对整个社会的影响都是巨大的，无数好的家风必然可以引起好的社会风气。

如果一个人，他家中有好的家风，那么他定可以少走弯路;而如果他的家风败坏，那么就少不得走弯弯道了。

我们家的家风便是“诚信”二字。诚就是要堂堂正正，清清白白地诚实做人，自己做的事情就要勇于承担，不能向别人身上推卸责任。而信就是要守信，说出去的话就如同泼出去的水，不能收回来，说过的话自己要做到。除了家风，还有另一个引导着人们的——家训。与家风相对，我们家的家训也是“诚信做人，踏实做事”。做事要踏踏实实，按部就班的做。就像路要一步一步的走，饭要一口一口的吃。如果做事情光想着一步登天，那么干出的事也不会有太大的成就。相反，如果一个人能够脚踏实地的专心做眼前的每件事情，不好高骛远，必然能够有所成就。

总之，家庭是社会的重要组成部分，每个成功的人必定有好的家风和家训。而良好的家风家训需要每个家庭成员来共筑，只有严格筑好家风家训，我们才能少走弯路。

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

一、单项选择题

(1)先易后难：一些考题的答案比较容易选定，可以先从这些考题入手。平时练习时，应以基础为主，主要精力不应放在偏题、怪题上。

(2)分析考查意图、运用相关知识：应学会分析出题者考查的意图，明确相关题的测试点是什么，然后运用所学知识，进行分析、判断，再进行选择。

(3)利用暗示进行选择：注意考题涉及的语境范围。平时应注重对习惯用语表达、惯用法和中英文化差别等方面知识的积累。

(4)运用排除法：可采取语言排除、逻辑排除、语法排除或选择排除等方法。先排除较容易、较明显的错误选项，缩小范围，而后对剩余的选项进行比较分析，最后确定答案。

二、完形填空题

1、搭配判断法。

根据对以往试题的分析，搭配型考题在完形填空题中占的比例最高。搭配型问题主要测试常见搭配的熟练程度，比如说哪些词要搭配不定式、动名词或某种从句，哪些词必须与某个介词搭配。我们在复习时要特别注意短语动词和介词的固定搭配。

2、结构判断法。

结构型问题主要包括句型、句式、连接词的选择等，解题时要运用句法知识，把握关键词，从而做出迅速正确的判断。完形填空题中有很多是利用语法的正确性与逻辑的排斥性间的矛盾来设计的。因此考生应结合上下文的合理性及意义关系的逻辑性选择最佳答案。完形填空中常考的逻辑关系主要有：

(1)转折、让步关系：这种关系表明后一种观点或事实与前一种观点或事实相比有些出乎意料。

常见的表示转折、让步的词或词组有：but，still，yet，however，though，although，no matter，in spite of，anyway，even if等。

(2)因果关系：

表示原因的连词或词组有：because (of )，due to，owing to，thanks to，since，for，as等。

表示结果的词或词组有：so，therefore，then，as a result，in consequence，consequently，thus等。

(3)递进、补充关系：这种关系表示对前一事实或观点做进一步阐述。

常用的词、词组有：moreover，likewise，besides，in addition，also，too，not only…but also，apart from，what‘s more 等。

(4)对比、比较关系：对比观点或事物间的差异性，比较观点或事物间的同一性。

表示对比的词或词组有：in contrast，by contrast，on the contrary，conversely，unlike，oppositely 等。表示比较的词或词组有：like，in comparison，compare…with，as，just as等。

3、词义判断法。

词汇型问题也是完形填空的一个考点，主要测试考生在段落语篇中把握语义连贯性的能力，提供选择的词可能是近义词、近形词也可能是随意拼凑的四个选项，遇到这类题，既要联系上下文，又要具有扎实的词汇基础，有时还须根据自己的文化背景知识做出判断、选择答案。

三、阅读理解

在做阅读理解题时，除了掌握前面介绍的基本题型、基本法则外，还要进行有意识的阅读训练。提高阅读能力的训练主要可以从下面几个方面入手：词汇、方法、侧重点。

1、词汇：猜词的技巧。

在阅读过程中，不可避免地会碰到不认识的单词，考试中又不允许查词典，有些不认识的单词对文章的理解影响不大，可以忽略。但有些不认识的单词则会影响阅读者对文章理解的正确性。在这种情况下，必需猜测词的含义，这就需要利用猜词的技巧了。

最基本的猜词技巧有两种：一是根据构词法的规则猜，构词法的规则在前面的章节中已有介绍，这里就不重复了;另一种猜词的技巧是根据上下文的描述、解释、列举、比较等，运用已有的知识，分析、推断该词的含义。常用的猜词技巧可归纳为以下几种：

(1)利用词根、词缀构词法推测词义。通过构词法推测词义是最常用的方法之一。

(2)分析文中对该词的直接定义推测词义。

作者在行文中有时不得不使用某些难词、偏词，为使读者理解，作者常常会在文章中直接解释该词语。作者或通过同位语，或使用定语从句加以阐明，或用冒号、破折号、括号给出，或用语篇标志词引出，这类语篇标志词有：that is (to say); e.g.;oor，in other words;to put it in another way等。如：

She is bilingual.In other words，she speaks English and French equally well.(bilingual：会说两种语言的)。

(3)分析文中对该词的近义复述推测词义。

同一短文中前后两个句子、短语或单词通常有互释作用，可以从上下文的复述中获取与某一单词或短语相关的信息以猜测词义。如：

It is difficult t

o list all of my fathe‘s attributes because he has so many different talents and abilities.(attribute：特质;才能)

(4)分析文中对该词的对比和并列表述推测词义。

利用上下文中的对比或并列表述猜测词义是最常用、最可靠的方法。有不少句子会在上下文中给出某个生词(尤其是偏词、难词)的同义词或反义词，运用对比或并列表达对这些生词加以推测。通过了解词与词之间的连接关系，特别是一些语篇标志词，如：however;on the other hand;nevertheless等，我们不难推断这些生词的词义。如：

If you agree，write “yes”;if you dissent，write “no”。(dissent：不同意）

The dream blooming flower Everyone has a dream, a beautiful dream. Different environment, different life background, experience of things different, everyone’s dream is also different. Some people want to become national leaders, some people want to be a scientist, and some people want to become a businessman. The dream I just want to be an ordinary person. Do the people useful things in ordinary post. For example, when a teacher, to impart knowledge to the next generation; when a doctor, save dead trauma; when a gardener, contribute to the greening of the environment. The dream is beautiful, but to achieve the dream, no words can, in the dreams of the road, will encounter difficulties, setbacks, resistance, if did not have the courage, will, you will be very difficult to realize his dreams. The dream cannot do without knowledge, so I think the first step to realize my dream is to accumulate knowledge, we now need to do is to Study hard, overcome the difficulties in learning, grasp more knowledge, to lay the foundation for the realization of dreams. Let us brave to face life

It s about one and a half month away from the Chinese New Year, It is a festival celebrated by the Chinese people at the beginning of the lunar calendar year.

As of the Chinese traditional customs, our parents and grandparents will sweep every corner of the house and clean the windows until they gleam, and washing clothes, buying foods and goods for the new year s future use and presents.

Children will be the most benefited group during this feast period.

One month before that, they are expecting the new clothes, delicious foods.

The firecrackers and the year s allowance for their increased ages.

In recent years, with the rising of the standard of life, Chinese tend to make various holiday plans to spend a different and meaningful new year.

Such as traveling abroad, or be absorbed in their hobbies, and even work.

Why today we try to spend our Chinese new year in such a different way? I think that s because this is a era of free life and personality high-ranking.

Though there are still something traditional, our young generation is attempting to make something new and suitable for ourselves.

And we would like to take something really worth to be cherished in our memorable treasures.

That s amazing and wonderful!

I ll always keep in mind that the Chinese new year is a great feast inherited from our ancestors, but if necessary, I would like to enjoy it by some ways personal.

[高一英语作文春节

To be or nor to be, that is a question. To succeed or to fail? How to

succeed and how to achieve? These problems confuse many teenagers in

nowadays.

We all have dreams, and we all work hard to realize them. But there will

always be some problems and setbacks to stop the pace of advance. When they

appear, what should we do? To stop or to go on? Mrs. Curie told us the answer.

We all know that Mrs. Curie discovered radium, but how many people really know

how hard she worked? At that time, there were many people disapprove of Mrs.

Curie. Although she got over hundreds of difficulties, she still believed in

herself and never gave up. Finally, she succeeded to discover radium. She proved

that she was right by her continuous hard work and her strong spirit. We should

learn from Mrs. Curie. She told us the truth through her own experiences that

believe in yourself, you can do it! Never give up, face the difficulties with a

smile, someday, you will be proud of yourself.

The key to success is confidence. It makes you brave, helps you get over

the troubles, and brings motivation to you. For example, somebody always get

nervous when they have an important speech, if they are in a nervous mood, the

results are always terrible. But if they are confident to themselves, the

results turn out to be better. Therefore, be confident, believe in yourself,

keep smile in your face when comes to difficulties, and you will achieve

more.

Once man did not have to think about the protection of his environment。

There were few people on the earth， and natural resources seemed to be

unlimited。

Today things are different。 The world has bee too crowded。 We are using up

our natural resources，and polluting our environment with dangerous chemicals。 If

we continue to do this， human life on earth will not survive。

We realize that if too many fish are taken from the sea， there will soon be

none left。 Yet，with modern fishing methods， more and more fish are caught。We

know that if too many trees are cut down， forests will disappear。 Yet， we

continue to use powerful machines to cut down more and more trees。 We see that

if rivers are polluted with waste products， we will die。 Yet， waste products

are

still put into rivers。

We know that if the population continues to rise at the present rate， in a

few years， there wont be enough food。What can we do to solve these

problems?

If we eat more vegetables and less meat， there will be more food available。

Land for crops feeds five times more people than land where animals are

kept。

Our natural resources will last longer if we learn to recycie them。

The world population will not rise so quickly if people use modern methods

of birth control。

Finally， if we educate people to think about the problems we shall have a

better and cleaner planet in the future。