高考英语作文必备：英语写作语法错误(汇编20篇)

1、人之所以有一张嘴，而有两只耳朵，原因是听的要比说的多一倍。

2、哲人无忧，智者常乐。并不是因为所爱的一切他都拥有了，而是所拥有的一切他都爱。

3、泪水和汗水的化学成分相似，但前者只能为你换来同情，后者却可以为你赢得成功。

4、越是成熟的稻穗，越懂得弯腰。

5、江海之所以能成为百谷之王，是因为懂得身处低下。

6、每个人都有潜在的能量，只是很容易：被习惯所掩盖，被时间所迷离，被惰性所消磨。

7、生气是拿别人做错的事来惩罚自己。

8、后悔是一种耗费精神的情绪。后悔是比损失更大的损失，比错误更大的错误，所以请不要后悔。

9、人生有几件绝对不能失去的东西：自制的力量，冷静的头脑，希望和信心。

10、不是境况造就人，而是人造就境况。

11、自己要先看得起自己，别人才会看得起你。

12、要铭记在心：每天都是一年中最美好的日子。

13、爱的力量大到可以使人忘记一切，却又小到连一粒嫉妒的沙石也不能容纳。

14、人是可以快乐地生活的，只是我们自己选择了复杂，选择了叹息!

15、过去的一页，能不翻就不翻，翻落了灰尘会迷了双眼。

16、人若软弱就是自己最大的敌人;人若勇敢就是自己最好的朋友。

17、要纠正别人之前，先反省自己有没有犯错。

18、许多人缺少的不是美，而是自信的气质，记住：自信本身就是一种美。有了积极的心态就容易成功。

19、人总是珍惜未得到的，而遗忘了所拥有的。

20、用最少的悔恨面对过去。用最少的浪费面对现在。用最多的梦面对未来。

21、大多数人想要改造这个世界，但却罕有人想改造自己。

22、得意时应善待他人，因为你失意时会需要他们。

23、一千个人就有一千种生存方式和生活道路，要想改变一些事情，首先得把自己给找回来。

24、任何的限制，都是从自己的内心开始的。忘掉失败，不过要牢记失败中的教训。

25、假如我不能，我一定要;假如我一定要，我就一定能。

26、一个能从别人的观念来看事情，能了解别人心灵活动的人，永远不必为自己的前途担心。

27、人生不过三万天，成功失败均坦然，是非恩怨莫在意，健康快乐最值钱。

28、世界上有两种人：索取者和给予者。前者也许能吃得更好，但后者绝对能睡得更香。

29、环境不会改变，解决之道在于改变自己。

30、要让事情改变，先改变我自己;要让事情变得更好，先让自己变得更好。

31、不要对挫折叹气，姑且把这一切看成是在你成大事之前，必须经受的准备工作。

32、你出生的时候，你哭着，周围的人笑着;在生命的尽头，你笑着，而周围的人在哭着。

33、伟人之所以伟大，是因为他与别人共处逆境时，别人失去了信心，他却下决心实现自己的目标。

34、如果早上醒来，你发现自己还能自由呼吸，你就比在这一周离开人世的100万人更有福气。

35、什么时候也不要放弃希望，越是险恶的环境越要燃起希望的意志。

36、积极的人在每一次忧患中都看到一个机会，而消极的人则在每个机会都看到某种忧患。

37、许多人企求着生活的完美结局，殊不知美根本不在结局，而在于追求的过程。

38、也许有些人很可恶，有些人很卑鄙。而当我设身为他想象的时候，我才知道：他比我还可怜。所以请原谅所有你见过的人，好人或者坏人。

39、一句无心的话也许会点燃纠纷，一句残酷的话也许会毁掉生命，一句及时的话也许会消释紧张，一句知心的话也许会愈合伤口、挽救他人。

40、生命就是一个逐渐支出和利用时间的过程。一旦丧失了时间，生命也就走到了尽头。

41、世上并没有用来鼓励工作努力的赏赐，所有的赏赐都只是被用来奖励工作成果的。

42、生命的完整，在于宽恕、容忍、等待与爱，如果没有这一切，你拥有了所有，也是虚无。

43、当我们眺望远方的时候，近处的风景便看不清了。

44、如果你希望成功，以恒心为良友，以经验为参谋，以小心为兄弟，以希望为哨兵。

45、思考是一件最辛苦的工作，这可能是为什么很少人愿意思考的原因。

46、成功呈概率分布，关键是你能不能坚持到成功开始呈现的那一刻。

47、自己打败自己是最可悲的失败，自己战胜自己是最可贵的胜利。

48、为别人鼓掌的人也是在给自己的生命加油。

49、拥有梦想只是一种智力，实现梦想才是一种能力。

50、如果一个人不知道他要驶向哪个码头，那么任何风都不会是顺风。

51、人的才华就如海绵的水，没有外力的挤压，它是绝对流不出来的。流出来后，海绵才能吸收新的源泉。

52、感恩生命，感谢她给予我们一个聪明的大脑。思考疑难的问题，生命的意义;赞颂真善美，批判假恶丑。记住精彩的瞬间，激动的时刻，温馨的情景，甜蜜的镜头。感恩生命赋予我们特有的灵性。

53、善待自己，幸福无比，善待别人，快乐无比，善待生命，健康无比。

54、一切伟大的行动和思想，都有一个微不足道的开始。

55、在你发怒的时候，要紧闭你的嘴，免得增加你的怒气。

56、获致幸福的不二法门是珍视你所拥有的、遗忘你所没有的。

57、骄傲是胜利下的蛋，孵出来的却是失败。

58、没有一个朋友比得上健康，没有一个敌人比得上病魔，与其为病痛暗自流泪，不如运动健身为生命添彩。

59、有什么别有病，没什么别没钱，缺什么也别缺健康，健康不是一切，但是没有健康就没有一切。

60、什么都可以不好，心情不能不好;什么都可以缺乏，自信不能缺乏;什么都可以不要，快乐不能不要;什么都可以忘掉，健身不能忘掉。

61、选对事业可以成就一生，选对朋友可以智能一生，选对环境可以快乐一生，选对伴侣可以幸福一生，选对生活方式可以健康一生。

62、含泪播种的人一定能含笑收获。

63、一个有信念者所开发出的力量，大于个只有兴趣者。

64、忍耐力较诸脑力，尤胜一筹。

65、影响我们人生的绝不仅仅是环境，其实是心态在控制个人的行动和思想。同时，心态也决定了一个人的视野、事业和成就，甚至一生。

66、每一发奋努力的背后，必有加倍的赏赐。

67、懒惰像生锈一样，比操劳更消耗身体。

68、所有的胜利，与征服自己的胜利比起来，都是微不足道。所有的失败，与失去自己的失败比起来，更是微不足道。

69、挫折其实就是迈向成功所应缴的学费。

70、在这个尘世上，虽然有不少寒冷，不少黑暗，但只要人与人之间多些信任，多些关爱，那么，就会增加许多阳光。

71、一个能从别人的观念来看事情，能了解别人心灵活动的人，永远不必为自己的前途担心。

72、当一个人先从自己的内心开始奋斗，他就是个有价值的人。

73、没有人富有得可以不要别人的帮助，也没有人穷得不能在某方面给他人帮助。

74、凡真心尝试助人者，没有不帮到自己的。

75、积极者相信只有推动自己才能推动世界，只要推动自己就能推动世界。

76、一个人最大的破产是绝望，最大的资产是希望。

77、行动是成功的阶梯，行动越多，登得越高。

78、环境永远不会十全十美，消极的人受环境控制，积极的人却控制环境。

79、当所有人都低调的时候，你可以高调，但不能跑调。

80、成功的法则极为简单，但简单并不代表容易。

81、肯低头的人，永远不会撞到矮门。

82、昨晚多几分钟的准备，今天少几小时的麻烦。

83、拿望远镜看别人，拿放大镜看自己。

84、一念放下，万般自在。

85、六个不能：不能饿了才吃，不能渴了才喝，不能困了才睡，不能累了才歇，不能病了才检查，不能老了再后悔。

86、屋子修得再大也是临时住所，只有那个小木匣才是永久的家，所以，屋宽不如心宽，身安不如心安!

87、人生最大的错误，是用健康换取身外之物，人生最大的悲哀，是用生命换取个人的烦恼，人生最大的浪费，是用生命解决自己制造的麻烦!

88、人生最大的哀痛，是子欲孝而亲不在!人生最大的悲剧，是家未富而人先亡，人生最大的可怜，是弥留之际才明白自己是应该做什么的!

89、当心灵趋于平静时，精神便是永恒!把欲望降到最低点，把理性升华到最高点，你会感受到：平安是福，清心是禄，寡欲是寿!

90、最好的医生是自己，最好的药物是时间，最好的心情是宁静，最好的保健是笑脸，最好的运动是步行!

91、欢乐是长寿的妙药，勤奋是健康的灵丹，运动是健康的投资，长寿是健身的回报，相逢莫问留春术，淡薄宁静比药好!

92、金钱难买健康，健康大于金钱，金钱难买幸福，幸福必有健康，生命的幸福不在名利在健康，身体的强壮不在金钱在运动!

93、饮食贵在节，读书贵在精，锻炼贵在恒，节饮食养胃，多读书养胆，喜运动延生!

94、你不能左右天气，但可以改变心情。你不能改变容貌，但可以掌握自己。你不能预见明天，但可以珍惜今天!

95、热爱生活的人，生活也爱他。

96、微笑不用本钱，但能创造财富。赞美不用花钱，但能产生气力。分享不用过度，但能倍增快乐。

97、快乐总和宽厚的人相伴，财富总与诚信的人相伴，聪明总与高尚的人相伴，魅力总与幽默的人相伴，健康总与豁达的人相伴。

98、愚者用肉体监视心灵，智者用心灵监视肉体。

99、生活若剥去了理想、梦想、幻想，那生命便只是一堆空架子。

100、尝试去把别人拍过来的砖砌成结实的地基，生活就不会那么辛苦了。

纵览全国历年优秀作文，不难发现，语言的出彩和深刻的文化思考就是大多数文章成功的主要原因。如何才能在作文中做到这两点呢?其中一个有效的方法就是巧妙地使用诗词，用诗词打扮自己作文的语言，用诗词为文章增加文化的厚度。

在作文中用好诗词的途径很多，或是利用诗词巧拟标题，或是妙用为题记，或是化用诗词故事、结构构思自己的作文。在这里我们重点来讲讲如何在文章语段中使用诗词增添文采。

一是直接引用诗词。

一般可以围绕话题，发散思维，搜寻相关的诗词，排比成文。比如下面关于“生命”主题的一段文字，就是引用了四位诗人的诗句对“生命”作了解释：

生命就是龚自珍“落红不是无情物，化作春泥更护花”的献身精神;生命就是文天祥“人生自古谁无死，留取丹心照汗青”的浩然正气;生命就是苏东坡“一蓑风雨任平生”的超脱与豁达;生命就是杜甫“感时花溅泪，恨别鸟惊心”的无奈与感伤。

直接引用诗词让我们亲切地感受到了这四位诗人的形象，而排比成文更显示了作者对语言的把握能力，使文章的文采“跃然纸上”。再比如作文《望月》中的一个片段：

“惟江上之清风，与山间之明月，耳得之而为声，目遇之而成色，取之不尽，用之不竭，是造物者之无尽藏也，而吾与子之所共适也。”月是我们应该珍惜的人人共享的天赐之福。“花间一壶酒，独酌无相亲。举杯邀明月，对影成三人。”月是我们招之即来，尽可倾诉的知己。“床前明月光，疑是地上霜。举头望明月，低头思故乡。”月是游子思乡念亲的一杯苦茶。“人生代代无穷己，江月年年望相似。不知江月待何人，但见长江送流水。”月又是我们参透历史，顿悟人生的一剂良药。

对诗句的引用和评价淋漓尽致地将作者对诗词的分析鉴赏和感悟能力展现在了我们面前，让那轮万古的明月高悬在我们的上空，使我们遥想百年、千年之前古人的梦想，使文章有了深刻的文化思考。

一是化用诗词。

所谓化用，就是截取诗词的某一部分直接变成我们作文语言或者是用自己的语言去演绎诗词的意境。比如下面这些语段：

乐观就是那直上青天里的一行白鹭;乐观就是那沉舟侧畔的万点白帆;乐观就是那鹦鹉洲头随风拂动的萋萋芳草;乐观就是那化作春泥更护花的点点落红。——话题“乐观”片段

在众人皆醉的麻木空气中，你选择了清醒;在众人皆浊的恶浊世道上，你选择了清白。褪去了华服，你选择了荷叶制的衣裳;逐出了京城，你选择了汨罗江的波涛。——《面对选择》片段

出自内心真诚的心灵选择，才能勾画鹦鹉洲上的萋萋芳草，才能点化二十四桥的清风明月，才能渲染香炉峰间的日照紫烟。——《美丽一次》片段

是的，摒除了浮华，去掉了雕饰，我们就像一枝出自清水的芙蓉，透着迷人的清香。——《简单》片段

天空中一丝云儿飘过，淡淡的、自由自在，你觉得真好，这就是语文;初升的朝阳光芒万丈，你觉得生机勃发，这就是语文;如血的残阳映红半边天，让人无限留恋，别忘了这也是语文。语文是那巍巍昆仑，是那草叶上久久不肯滴落的露珠，是古城旧都中国色天香的牡丹;语文是那无声的冷月，是那静谧的荷塘，是秦皇岛外滔天白浪里的打渔船，是那青天里的一行白鹭，是那沉舟侧畔的万点白帆，是那山重水复后的柳暗花明。——《冷香飞上语文》

这些文字没有直接引用杜甫、刘禹锡、龚自珍等的诗句，而是将他们诗句中的意象搬用过来作为自己作文语言中的一个成分或是作者用自己的语言对诗句的意境进行大胆的描写。这样的语段让我们联想起诗句的意境，带领我们进入似曾相似的诗歌意境，但是又能感受到作文创作者的心声。同样它也能增加文章的文采。

当然写作这样的语段，最重要的是作者对诗词的分析、感悟和概括能力。如果不明白诗的意境，随便套用，那便是“画虎不成反类犬”了。

1.however

We will never countenance violence, however serious the threat against us.不管威胁多么严峻，我们永远不会容忍暴力。

2.rather than

Because love consists of accepting other person as he or she is rather than regulating her or

him.爱一个人就是接受他原来的样子而不是重塑他(以成为你期望的样子)。

3.instead of

She frittered away her time in going to the cinema instead of studying.她不把时间花在学习上，而是浪费在看电影上了。

4.but

On the one hand I admire his gifts, but on the other I distrust his judgment.一方面我羡慕他的才华，而另一方面我却怀疑他的判断力。

5.yet

Although I have not read through the Book of Persons, yet I will try to read it in every sense.尽管我还没有读完这本“人之书”，但我会一直努力从各个方面去阅读。

6.on the other hand

But on the other hand there is a wounded child inside you who wants recognition and appreciation from the outside world.但另一方面在你心中又有一个受伤的小孩想要来自外在世界的认同和欣赏。

On the other hand, users gather in this community and have fun.而另一方面，用户们也快乐的扎堆在这个社区里。

7.unfortunately

Unfortunately we do not have that luxury: we have only one planet.但不幸的是，我们没有这种奢侈：我们只有一个地球。(环保加分句)

8.whereas

Arid uplands are irrigated and planted with leafy gardens, whereas, on fertile plains, the parks are paved with stone.

在干旱的高地上引水灌溉，种植阔叶园林;然而在肥沃的平原上，公园里铺着石头。

[高考英语作文高频语法词汇

书信作文模板

Dear___， 亲爱的___

I am extremely pleased to hear from you.(我很高兴收到你的来

信) And I would like to write a letter to tell you that_____. (我很高兴写封信告诉

你。。。) I will greatly appreciate a response from you at your earliest

convenience/I am looking f0rward to your replies at your earliest convenience.

(我希望你可以在空闲的时候尽快给我回信)

Best regards for your health and success. 祝你身体健康万事如意

Sincerely yours，你最真诚的

___

要想写出满分作文，得到阅卷老师的青睐，那么就需要一些作文技巧，下面是小编整理的满分作文写作技巧，欢迎阅读。

满分作文炼成法之一是从人生的体会方面去思考，写人，一定要写出人生体验，人在这个社会上，满分作文最重要的就是要有一种责任感，除却大的不说，自己对自己也是有责任的，其次是家庭责任感，再次是社会责任感，并且每个人在每个阶段的责任感是不一样的，并且对于写人文主义这一方面的作文，更多人会更加关注，也会更加容易得到阅卷老师的喜爱。

满分作文炼成法之二是从哲理思辨性去思考，作文能够写出深度那就是要从感悟和哲理方面去思考，去挖掘，任何事物之间都是有一定的联系的，比如，成功和失败，这在表面上看起来，明显是对立的，大家都偏爱成功而讨厌失败，那么从哲理方面去思考的话，失败也未必就是那么痛苦，失败可以给人经验，让人从经验中再次找到成功的动力，并且失败了还能够时刻提醒自己。一定不能再大意。如果作文内容能够反弹琵琶，那说不定能够收到更好的效果，这才是满分作文炼成法。

满分作文炼成法之三是结合时代特点，任何一个时代都有任何一个时代的特点，所以，同学们在作文文时需要在平时的时候多关注一些时事，看一些报刊评论等等，这样有利于同学们站在时代角度去思考问题。

满分作文炼成法之四是同学们一定要注重作文素材的累积，不同的作文题材需要不同的作文素材，所以，对于情感，道德，科技，自然，还有文化问题等等，这些方面都需要积累一些。积累的多了，作文起来也就有题材了，这是满分作文形成的基础。

导语：要取得别人的信任，首先要对自己有信心。倘若自己都觉得自己无足轻重，又怎么去挑起重担呢?下面是yuwenmi小编为大家整理的写作素材，欢迎阅读与借鉴，谢谢!

二战后某国受经济危机的影响，失业人数剧增，工厂效益也很不景气。

一家濒临倒闭的食品公司为了扭亏为盈，决定裁员。有三种人名列其中：一种是清洁工，一种是司机，一种是仓管人员。

经理找他们谈话，说明了裁员意图。

清洁工说：“我们很重要，如果没有我们打扫卫生，没有清洁优美、健康有序的工作环境，职工怎么能全身心地投入工作?”

司机说：“我们很重要，如果没有我们，这么多产品怎么能迅速销往市场?”

仓管人员说：“我们很重要，如果没有我们，这些食品岂不要被流浪街头的乞丐偷光!”

经理觉得他们说的话都很有道理，思考再三决定不裁员，重新制定了管理策略。

最后经理让人在厂门口悬挂了一块大匾，上面写着：我很重要。

从此，每天当职工们来上班，第一眼看到的便是“我很重要”这四个字。

这句话调动了全体职工的积极性，不管一线职工还是管理阶层，都认为领导很重视自己，工作起来非常卖命，两年后这家公司已经成为全国有名的公司。

要想让别人相信你，你自己得首先相信自己，任何时候都不要看轻自己，其实你真的很重要!

【相信自己】要取得别人的信任，首先要对自己有信心。倘若自己都觉得自己无足轻重，又怎么去挑起重担呢?

【用人不疑】团队协作的能量，是由团队所有成员共同发挥的;实现这种协作，首先要做到的就是疑人不用、用人不疑。

【激发潜能】遇到困境时，节衣缩食一再退让，只是一时缓兵之计;真正能解决问题的方法，是充分激励现有力量的潜能。

①in+月、年 the morning/afternoon/evening/a week 表示时间

②on+具体某一天(几月几日)/某个假期(…Day)

③at+具体某点时间、某个假期(…Festival)/the weekend

①in…street 表示方位

②on…road/left/right

③at the…crossing/stop/某个具体的地点

①in the tree(不是树上长出来的)

②on the tree(树上原来自己长出来的)

表示时间：

① ago(……以前) later(……以后)

② before (在……以前) after(在 ……以后)

be 动词和助动词

1. be 动词(am/is/are)

主语 be 动词(原形) be 动词(过去式)

I am was He/she/it is was

We/you/they are were

2.助动词(do/does/did)

Do+非第三人称单数 +动词原形…?

…do/dont

Does+第三人称单数

…does/doesnt

Did+所有主格

…did/didnt

What do you/they/we…

+动词原形?

I/They/We+动词原形…。

What does he/she/it…

He/She/It +(动词+S)….

What did you/they/we/ he/she/it…

I/They/We/ He/She/It +动词过去式。

There is no consensus [knsenss] 一致of opinions among people about X(争论的焦点)。Some people are of the view that 观点1，while others take an opposite side, firmly believing that 观点2。As far as I am concerned, the former/latter notion(观念) is preferable in many senses. The reasons are obvious. First of all, 论据1。 Furthermore, 论据2。

Among all of the supporting evidences, one is the strongest. That is, 论据3。 A natural conclusion from the above discussion is that总结观点。 As a college student, I am supposed to 表决心. 或 From above, we can predict that 预测

如何写通顺的英语

英语写作是语言应用的一个重要方面，也是语言能力测定的重要手段，衡量写作水平的标准便是看其是否能用学过的语言材料，语法知识等用文字的形式来表达描述。

书面语言表达一般分为三个过程：思维、组织、表达。先是思维，把要写的东西在脑中思考，这往往是个别的，孤立的一些素材，很凌乱琐碎；因此要对此进行组织，把这些思维作出整理，使其条理、系统化，但这还是较粗糙的，可能还有一些用词不当或语言错误；最后才是表达，把组织过的材料仔细推敲，确无问题了再落笔成文。

在撰写时要注意主谓语一致，时态呼应，用词贴切等，这就是写作。上述的三个过程，最难的就是第三个过程，这需要我们有较好的语法知识，掌握一定数量的句型，习惯用语，熟练的写作技巧，这样才能写出通顺生动的文章来。

总之，要提高英语写作水平，需要两方面的训练：一是语言基础方面的训练，要有扎实的造句、翻译等基本功，即用词法、句法等知识造出正确无误的句子；二是写作知识和能力方面的训练以掌握写作方面的基本方法和技巧。

那么，究竟怎样才能写好作文呢？

阅读优秀范文

首先要搞好阅读。阅读是写作的基础，在阅读方面下的功夫越深，驾驭语言的能力也就越强。所以要写好英语先要读好英语，在语言学习方面狠下苦功，教科书要读透，因为教科书中的文章都是一些很好的范文，文笔流畅，语言规范，精彩的一些课文段落要背诵。再就是要进行大量课外阅读，并记住一些好文章的篇章结构。

加强练词造句训练

其次，要加强练词造句的训练。词句对作文相当于造房的材料，无好材料就造不出好房子。平时在学习阅读时要注意收集积累，把好的词语、短语、句型做好笔记。平时在练习中的错误也要做好记录，再对照正确句子，使地道的英语句子如同条件反射，落笔就对。

了解英语写作格式

还有，要了解英语写作的不同体裁与格式。可以先看一本介绍英语写作入门的书，对英语写作有一个初步的概念，如怎么写议论文，如何提出论据，如何展开，如何确定中心句；又如，英语信的格式，如何根据不同身份写不同结束语等，然后根据不同的体裁进行写作练习。

用英语写日记

要养成记英语日记勤练笔的好习惯。经常用英语记日记，等于天天在练笔，这无疑是提高英语协作的行之有效的好办法。在记日记时，不要总是用简单句，要有意识地用一些好的词组、句型、关联词和复合句等，使文句更优美生动。还有要按照题目或所给情景写文章练笔。写好后对照范文，找出差距，然后再练习，这对提高英语作文也很有帮助，在游泳中学会游泳，只有多练习才能练好。

总之，平时学习语言素材积累多了，体裁格式记住了又经常练习不断提高，到作文下笔时就会得心应手，水到渠成。

australia, the largest country in oceania, lies on the south coast of the pacific. it covers an area of 7.6 million square kilometers. it has a population of over 10 million. most of its people live in the east of the country by the sea. canberra,the capital of australia,is a beautiful city. sydney is the biggest city in australia, which has many places of interest. the opera house is well known all over the world.the olympic games were held in sydney.

澳大利亚是大洋洲最大的国家，位于太平洋南海岸，国土面积760万平方公里，人口超过1 000万，大多数居民居住在东部地区，濒临海洋。首都堪培拉是一座美丽的城市。悉尼是全国最大的城市，有许多名胜，悉尼歌剧院闻名于世。奥运会就是在这里举行的。

What is beauty in your mind?

everyone admires beauty. everyone has his own standard about beauty.

nowadays some people tend to think that they own beauty if they have a good looking. they are not satisfied with their appearance. they spend much money taking a kind of operation. can beauty really be man-made?if so,everybody can get beauty. as a result,there is no beauty at all.the appearance is given by our parents and is unique in the world. everyone should value it. i would rather nature as the standard of beauty. just accept yourself,accept everything the god gives to you,and create the beautiful life belonging to you.

many heroes dont have beautiful surface. however,their beautiful images often come to our minds. their beauty comes from their contributions to the society.dont be eager to judge whether a person is beautiful or not without a thorough understanding of him. a beautiful person is not the one with a good looking,but with a broad and kind heart.

good looking is pleasant while spiritual beauty is more important. as an old saying goes,"virtue is fairer than beauty. "if you have a kind heart,you own real beauty.

(一)屈原投江

(one) Qu Yuan River

为了纪念爱国诗人屈原，居民为了不让跳下汨罗江的屈原尸体被鱼虾吃掉，所以在江里投下许多用竹叶包裹的米食(粽子)，并且竞相划船(赛龙船)希望找到屈原的尸体。

To commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, residents in order not to let Qu Yuans Miluo River jumped by fish and shrimp to eat, so in the river for the rice wrapped in bamboo leaves with many (dumplings), and race (rowing Dragon Boat Race) to find Qu Yuans body.

(二)曹娥寻父尸

(two) case of seeking father.

东汉孝女曹娥，因曹父溺江而亡，年仅十四岁的她沿江豪哭，经十七日仍不见曹父尸首，乃在五月一日投江，五日后两尸合抱而浮起的感人事迹， 乡人群而祭之。

The Eastern Han Dynasty filial daughter Cao E, drowned himself in a river because Cao father died, only fourteen years old, she cried along the ho, after seventeen days still do not see Cao father body, but in May 1st the river, five days from two dead and floating deeds, people group and sacrifice.

(三)白蛇传

(three) the legend of white snake

传说白蛇白素贞，为了报答许仙的恩惠，与许仙结为夫妻的凄美的爱情故事，传说端午节当天白蛇喝了雄黄酒，差点现出蛇形，加上法海白蛇及水淹金山寺的情节，都是脍炙人口的民间戏曲的曲目。

The legend of white snake and Bai Suzhen, in order to repay the grace of Xu Xian, and Xu Xianjie married the beautiful love story, the legend of the White Snake Legend of the Dragon Boat Festival a male Yellow Wine, almost a snake, white snake and flooded with sea Jinshan Temple of the plot, is a folk opera music win universal praise.

(四)伍子胥的忌日

(four) the anniversary of the death of Wu Zixu

传说伍子胥助吴伐楚后，吴王阖闾逝世，皇子夫差继位，伐越大胜，越王句践请和，伍子胥主战，夫差不听，却听信奸臣言，赐伍子胥自杀，并于于五月五日将尸体投入江中，此后人们于端午节纪祀伍子胥。

Legend has it that Wu Zixu will Fachu Wu, Wu helv Prince died, his successor, the victory of the king, and Wu Zixu battle, the king, do not listen, but listen to a word, give Wu Zixu Dutch act, and on May 5th the bodies into the river, then people in the Dragon Boat Festival worship Wu Zixu ji.

(一)段首句

1. 关于……人们有不同的观点。一些人认为……

There are different opinions among people as to ____ .Some people suggest that ____.

2. 俗话说(常言道)……，它是我们前辈的经历，但是，即使在今天，它在许多场合仍然适用。

There is an old saying______. It"s the experience of our forefathers，however，it is correct in many cases even today.

3. 现在，……，它们给我们的日常生活带来了许多危害。首先，……;其次，……。更为糟糕的是……。

Today, ____, which have brought a lot of harms in our daily life. First, ____ Second,____. What makes things worse is that______.

4. 现在，……很普遍，许多人喜欢……，因为……，另外(而且)……。

Nowadays，it is common to ______. Many people like ______ because ______. Besides，______.

5. 任何事物都是有两面性，……也不例外。它既有有利的一面，也有不利的一面。

Everything has two sides and ______ is not an exception，it has both advantages and disadvantages.

6. 关于……人们的观点各不相同，一些人认为(说)……，在他们看来，……

Peoples opinions about ______ vary from person to person. Some people say that ______.To them,_____.

7. 人类正面临着一个严重的问题……，这个问题变得越来越严重。

Man is now facing a big problem ______ which is becoming more and more serious.

8. ……已成为人的关注的热门话题，特别是在年青人当中，将引发激烈的辩论。

______ has become a hot topic among people，especially among the young and heated debates are right on their way.

9. ……在我们的日常生活中起着越来越重要的作用，它给我们带来了许多好处，但同时也引发一些严重的问题。

______ has been playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day life.it has brought us a lot of benefits but has created some serious problems as well.

10. 根据图表/数字/统计数字/表格中的百分比/图表/条形图/成形图可以看出……。很显然……，但是为什么呢?

According to the figure/number/statistics/percentages in the /chart/bar graph/line/graph，it can be seen that______ while. Obviously，______，but why?

(二)中间段落句

1. 相反，有一些人赞成……，他们相信……，而且，他们认为……。

On the contrary，there are some people in favor of ___.At the same time，they say____.

2. 但是，我认为这不是解决……的好方法，比如……。最糟糕的是……。

But I don"t think it is a very good way to solve ____.For example，____.Worst of all，___.

3. ……对我们国家的发展和建设是必不可少的，(也是)非常重要的。首先，……。而且……，最重要的是……

______is necessary and important to our country"s development and construction. First，______.What"s more, _____.Most important of all,______.

4. 有几个可供我们采纳的方法。首先，我们可以……。

There are several measures for us to adopt. First, we can______

5. 面临……，我们应该采取一系列行之有效的方法来……。一方面……，另一方面，

Confronted with______，we should take a series of effective measures to______. For one thing，______For another，______

6. 早就应该拿出行动了。比如说……，另外……。所有这些方法肯定会……。

It is high time that something was done about it. For example. _____.In addition. _____.All these measures will certainly______.

7. 为什么……?第一个原因是……;第二个原因是……;第三个原因是……。总的来说，……的主要原因是由于……

Why______? The first reason is that ______.The second reason is ______.The third is ______.For all this, the main cause of ______due to ______.

8. 然而，正如任何事物都有好坏两个方面一样，……也有它的不利的一面，象……。

However, just like everything has both its good and bad sides, ______also has its own disadvantages, such as ______.

9. 尽管如此，我相信……更有利。

Nonetheless, I believe that ______is more advantageous.

10. 完全同意……这种观点(陈述)，主要理由如下：

I fully agree with the statement that ______ because______.

(三)结尾句

1. 至于我，在某种程度上我同意后面的观点，我认为……

As far as I am concerned, I agree with the latter opinion to some extent. I think that ____.

2. 总而言之，整个社会应该密切关注……这个问题。只有这样，我们才能在将来……。

In a word, the whole society should pay close attention to the problem of ______.Only in this way can ______in the future.

3. 但是，……和……都有它们各自的优势(好处)。例如，……，而……。然而，把这两者相比较，我更倾向于(喜欢)……

But ______and ______have their own advantages. For example, _____, while_____. Comparing this with that, however, I prefer to______.

4. 就我个人而言，我相信……，因此，我坚信美好的未来正等着我们。因为……

Personally, I believe that_____. Consequently, Im confident that a bright future is awaiting us because______.

5. 随着社会的发展，……。因此，迫切需要……。如果每个人都愿为社会贡献自已的一份力量，这个社会将要变得越来越好。

With the development of society, ______.So it"s urgent and necessary to ____.If every member is willing to contribute himself to the society, it will be better and better.

6. 至于我(对我来说，就我而言)，我认为……更合理。只有这样，我们才能……

For my part, I think it reasonable to_____. Only in this way can you _____.

7. 对我来说，我认为有必要……。原因如下：第一，……; 第二，……;最后……但同样重要的是……

In my opinion, I think it necessary to____. The reasons are as follows. First _____.Second ______. Last but not least,______.

8. 在总体上很难说……是好还是坏，因为它在很大程度上取决于……的形势。然而，就我个人而言，我发现……。

It is difficult to say whether _____is good or not in general as it depends very much on the situation of______. However, from a personal point of view find______.

9. 综上所述，我们可以清楚地得出结论……

From what has been discussed above, we may reasonably arrive at the conclusion that____.

10. 如果我们不采取有效的方法，就可能控制不了这种趋势，就会出现一些意想不到的不良后果，所以，我们应该做的是……

If we can not take useful means, we may not control this trend, and some undesirable result may come out unexpectedly, so what we should do is_____.

下面是语文迷网为大家整理的一些英语写作常用的句子，希望对你有帮助。

1、Time flies.

时光易逝。

2、Time is money.

一寸光阴一寸金。

3、Time and tide wait for no man.

岁月无情;岁月易逝;岁月不待人。

4、Time tries all.

时间检验一切。

5、Time tries truth.

时间检验真理。

6、Time past cannot be called back again.

光阴一去不复返。

7、All time is no time when it is past.

光阴一去不复返。

8、No one can call back yesterday;Yesterday will not be called again.

昨日不复来。

9、Tomorrow comes never.

切莫依赖明天。

10、One today is worth two tomorrows.

一个今天胜似两个明天。

11、The morning sun never lasts a day.

好景不常;朝阳不能光照全日。

12、Christmas comes but once a year.

圣诞一年只一度。

13、Pleasant hours fly past.

快乐时光去如飞。

14、Happiness takes no account of time.

欢娱不惜时光逝。

15、Time tames the strongest grief.

时间能缓和极度的悲痛。

16、The day is short but the work is much.

工作多，光阴迫。

17、Never deter till tomorrow that which you can do today.

今日事须今日毕，切勿拖延到明天。

18、Have you somewhat to do tomorrow,do it today.

明天如有事，今天就去做。

19、To him that does everything in its proper time,one day is worth three.

事事及时做，一日胜三日。

20、To save time is to lengthen life.

节省时间就是延长生命。

21、Everything has its time and that time must be watched.

万物皆有时，时来不可失。

22、Take time when time cometh,lest time steal away.

时来必须要趁时，不然时去无声息。

23、When an opportunity is neglected,it never comes back to you.

机不可失，时不再来;机会一过，永不再来。

24、Make hay while the sun shines.

晒草要趁太阳好。

25、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。

26、although this view is wildly held, this is little evidence that education can be obtained at any age and at any place.尽管这一观点被广泛接受，很少有证据表明教育能够在任何地点、任何年龄进行。

27、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。

28、in fact, we have to admit the fact that the quality of life is as important as life itself.事实上，我们必须承认生命的质量和生命本身一样重要。

28、in the last decades, advances in medical technology have made it possible for people to live longer than in the past.在过去的几十年，先进的医疗技术已经使得人们比过去活得时间更长成为可能。

30、in view of the seriousness of this problem, effective measures should be taken before things get worse.考虑到问题的严重性，在事态进一步恶化之前，必须采取有效的措施。

31、it is indisputable that there are millions of people who still have a miserable life and have to face the dangers of starvation and exposure.无可争辩，现在有成千上万的人仍过着挨饿受冻的痛苦生活。

32、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

33、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。

34、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

35、no one can deny the fact that a person’s education is the most important aspect of his life.没有人能否认：教育是人生最重要的一方面。

36、people equate success in life with the ability of operating computer.人们把会使用计算机与人生成功相提并论。

37、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。

38、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。

39、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

40、the majority of students believe that part-time job will provide them with more opportunities to develop their interpersonal skills, which may put them in a favorable position in the future job markets.大部分学生相信业余工作会使他们有更多机会发展人际交往能力，而这对他们未来找工作是非常有好处的。

导语：共享单车在退出以来就给人们出行提供了极大的便利，但是在这使用过程中也出现了很多问题。下面是yuwenmi小编为大家整理的优秀英语作文，欢迎阅读与借鉴，谢谢!

It has been billed as a hi-tech bike-sharing boom that entrepreneurs hope will make them rich while simultaneously transforming Chinas traffic-clogged cities.

But, occasionally, dreams can turn sour.

In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, more than 500 bicycles for hire have been found dumped in huge piles on the streets, according to reports.

Pictures showed jumbled stacks of vehicles nearly three metres high, with handlebars, baskets and other parts scattered on the ground.

City streets around the country have seen an explosion of the colourful bikes that users can rent on demand with a smartphone app and then park wherever they choose.

The sharing economy is taking off in China, where ride-sharing and Airbnb are increasingly commonplace.

From Shanghai to Sichuan province, bike-sharing schemes are being rolled out in an effort to slash congestion and air pollution by putting a country once known as the "Kingdom of Bicycles" back on two wheels.

Companies such as Ofo and Mobike, with their rival fleets of bumblebee yellow and fluorescent orange bikes, have been locked in a cut-throat battle for customers.

But problems have arisen when clients have abandoned their cycles.

"Some people these days just have really bad character," a man named He, who lives near where the stacks appeared, told the Southern Metropolis Daily.

"When theyre done using (the bike) they just throw it away somewhere, because theyve already paid."

In the past few days he witnessed people demolishing the bikes before discarding them on the side of the road, he said.

Residents told the paper that bikes had been piling up over the past week, either parked haphazardly by careless users or stacked by local security guards trying to clear narrow residential alleys and footpaths.

Zhuang Chuangyu, a representative at Shenzhens municipal peoples congress, said the city needed to step up regulation of the bike-sharing industry in order to improve traffic conditions and safety standards, especially since schoolchildren often used the bikes.

In 1980, almost 63% of commuters cycled to work, the Beijing Morning Post reported in 2015, citing government data. But by 2000 that number had plummeted to 38% and today it stands at less than 12%.

Car use, meanwhile, has rocketed. In 2010 China overtook the US to become the worlds largest car market, with 13.5m vehicles sold in just 12 months.

【参考译文】

这已被誉为高科技的自行车共享繁荣，企业家希望将使他们富裕的同时，把中国的交通堵塞的城市。

但是，偶尔，梦想可以变酸。

据报道，在中国南部城市深圳，有超过500辆出租自行车被丢弃在大街上。

图片显示车辆杂乱的堆高近三米，与车把，篮子和其他零件散落一地。

全国各地的城市街道都看到了五彩缤纷的自行车爆炸，用户可以按需智能手机应用程序租，然后公园无论他们选择。

共享经济是在中国起飞，在骑共享和Airbnb是越来越普遍。

从上海到四川省，自行车共享计划正在铺开，旨在通过将一个曾经被称为“自行车王国”的国家拖回两个轮子来减少拥挤和空气污染。

公司如G和Mobike，与他们的对手大黄蜂的黄色和橙色荧光自行车车队，被锁定在一个客户的割喉战。

但问题出现时，客户已经放弃了他们的周期。

“有些人这几天真的很坏，”一个叫他，他住在附近的栈出现，告诉南方都市报。

“当他们使用(自行车)，他们只是把它扔在某处，因为他们已经支付。”

他说，在过去的几天里，他亲眼目睹人们在把自行车扔到路边的时候拆除自行车。

居民告诉记者，自行车被堆放在过去的一周里，要么停地由粗心的用户或由当地保安试图明确狭窄的胡同和人行道堆放。

庄创宇，深圳市人大代表，需要加快共享行业为了改善交通条件和安全标准的自行车调节城市说，尤其是学生经常使用的自行车。

1980日，北京晨报报道，近63%的上班族骑车上班，引用政府数据。但是到了2000，这个数字已经降到了38%，而今天却还不到12%。

与此同时，汽车的使用量猛增。2010中国取代美国成为世界最大的汽车市场，与13.5m车辆在短短12个月内出售。

根据笔者近两年参加高考作文阅卷的体会,发现这样两个有意思的现象:一是绝大多数考生写的是议论文,二是绝大多数的议论文不像议论文。主要表现是:1、议论文结构不合体。如开头不提出论点,中间只写几个论据,而不分析,更没有分论点;甚至在列举论据时,还出现了大量的语言描写和心理描写。2、思路不合逻辑。如开头提出的议论文论点是“干什么事都要三思而行”,按逻辑思路,接下来的论证应主要围绕“为什么要三思而行”来展开,即三思而行的重要性,或者三思而行能够带来的好结果;但是有的学生却重点在写“三思而行是什么”或者“怎样三思而行”,让人感到别扭。3、议论文论点和议论文论据之间缺乏必要的粘连,即通常所说的有述无论,有据无析。为此,笔者认为高中议论文,必须走好以下三步,即结构合体,思路入格,粘连有术。

一、议论文的结构合体

议论文,分析事实,论证道理,当然要遵循一定的思维规律;这种思维规律反映在文章的外部形态上,就是具有一定体式的文章的结构。怎样写议论文才算“合体”呢?

一是根据议论问题的一般思维模式,应当是按“提出问题、分析问题、解决问题”( 或曰“引论”、“本论”、“结论”) 三大块构成。“提出问题 ”即在议论文开头一般要鲜明地提出中心论点,“分析问题”即在文章的中间要围绕中心论点展开分析论证,“解决问题”即在文章的结尾部分或者得出综合性结论, 或者提出前瞻性希望等。这一点,众所周知,兹不赘述。

二是分析问题即本论部分,要按一定的向度分层展开论述。所谓“向度”即论述展开的方向。这个“向度”有四个: 是什么,为什么,怎么样,何果。一般情况下, 一篇中学生议论文作文,其本论部分只要从这四个向度中选择一个或者两个展开即可。但无论是从哪个向度展开, 其分论点之间都要形成一定的联系。一般来说,有并列式、递进式和对照式三种。

所谓并列式,就是围绕中心从同一个向度列出几个分论点,逐一论证。如果仅仅围绕一个向度写,那么几个分论点之间的关系大多是并列关系 。

递进式同并列式结构相比,除了论点之间的意义联系不同以外,其段落的结构模式与并列式相同,就不再说了。

所谓对照式,就是从论题的正反两个方面入手,进行正反对比论证得出结论。其优点是结构简洁,论证充分,容易上手。最简单的对照式是在提出观点后，一段从正面论证观点,一段从反面论证观点,最后得出结论。还有一种对照式结构是在正面进行论述或者摆出论据后,紧接着用转折或者假设的方式从反面展开论述。

二、思路入格

议论文是论述问题的,当然要有一定的思路,即议论文各部分之间要有必然的内在联系。我们知道,议论文是论证问题的,你在提出议论文论点后,就要摆事实,讲道理,让你提出的论点令人信服地确立起来。因此,中心论点和各分论点之间就应当是因果联系,即中心论点是“果”,分论点是“因”。这个因果联系就是议论文的思路之“格”。

作为一个高中生的议论文作文,最起码要做到在中心论点和各分论点之间 ,论点和论据之间要有一定的因果联系。

学生提出中心论点后,只要围绕中心论点问一个“为什么”,就能找到提出分论点的方向。如中心论点是“只有坚守,才能使人的思想品德升华,才能成就一番事业”。稍加分析,就可发现这个观点是在说“坚守”的重要性,于是,分论点就要回答“为什么坚守很重要”这个问题。那么就可从“为什么”和“何果”这两个向度来立分论点。如“坚守是一种执着,使绝望变成希望”,“坚守是一种信念,使普通变得高尚”,“坚守是一种职责,使平凡变得伟大”。如果我们要检验这三个分论点和中心论点之间有没有必然的内在联系的话,只需在这三个分论点之前加上“因为”,在“坚守很重要”之前加上“所以”,再连起来念一下即可。

同样,分论点和议论文的论据之间,也应当是因果联系。如在“坚守是一种职责,使平凡变得伟大”这个分论点后面,就可这样展开论述:“边防战士的坚守,使国家安定祥和;人民教师的坚守,使桃李满天下;白衣天使的坚守,使病魔为之屈服。”又如在“自由是思想的漫飞”这个分论点下可以这样展开论述:“行动可以受制于客观现实,思想却永远享受绝对的自由。有了这份思想的自由,才有了集豪放与浪漫于一身的诗仙李白;才有了身陷囹圄还在感叹‘故国不堪回首月明中’的落魄后主李煜;才有了向往‘面朝大海,春暖花开’的天才诗人海子。总之,因为这份思想的自由,社会才会在其牵引之下不断地进步,才会创造出一个个永载史册的人类奇迹。”

三、粘连有术

一篇像样的议论文,除了议论文的结构合体、思路入格外,还有更重要的一个方面,就是对论点的恰当阐述和对论据的中肯分析;没有这样的阐述和分析,议论文论点论据就不能粘连起来,而这个粘连是有“术”的。

(一) 观点+过渡+事例+分析

这个步骤中最重要的是“过渡”和“分析”。所谓“过渡”就是要在观点和事例之间,用适当的词句来勾连,以接通文气,使观点和议论文材料在语言形式上畅通无阻。所谓“分析”,就是事例叙述完之后,还必须对事例进行适当的分析评论,指出其本质特点,使事例和论点在内容上联结在一起。

(二) 观点+过渡+论据+分析+归纳

这种议论文论证方式就是在第一种的基础上加了一个“归纳”。所谓归纳,就是从多个事例中提炼出必然性的东西。既然要从多个事例中提炼,那么,“论据”部分,就应是两个或三个以上。

(三) 一般道理+个别道理

即“演绎推理法”。前面的分析归纳是从个别到一般,而演绎推理法是从一般到个别,用普遍性的真理(论据)来证明特殊的论点的方法。

如果完成了以上三步走,大概就能写出像样的议论文了。

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

下面是语文迷网小编为大家整理的中考英语作文万能句型，欢迎大家阅读参考。

一、开头句型选择

1. 关于……人们有不同的观点。一些人认为……

There are different opinions among people as to ____ 。Some people suggest that____。

2. 俗话说(常言道)……，它是我们前辈的经历，但是，即使在今天，它在许多场合仍然适用。

There is an old saying______。 Its the experience of our forefathers，however，it is correct in many cases even today.

3.现在，……，它们给我们的日常生活带来了许多危害。首先，……;其次，……。更为糟糕的是……。

Today， ____， which have brought a lot of harms in our daily life. First， ____ Second，____。 What makes things worse is that______。

4.现在，……很普遍，许多人喜欢……，因为……，另外(而且)……。

Nowadays，it is common to ______。 Many people like ______because ______。 Besides，______。

5.任何事物都是有两面性，……也不例外。它既有有利的一面，也有不利的一面。

Everything has two sides and ______is not an exception，it has both advantages and disadvantages.

6.关于……人们的观点各不相同，一些人认为(说)……，在他们看来，……

People’s opinions about ______ vary from person to person.Some people say that ______。To them，_____。

7.人类正面临着一个严重的问题……，这个问题变得越来越严重。

Man is now facing a big problem ______which is becoming more and more serious.

8.……已成为人的关注的热门话题，特别是在年青人当中，将引发激烈的辩论。

______ has become a hot topic among people，especially among the young and heated debates are right on their way.

9.……在我们的日常生活中起着越来越重要的作用，它给我们带来了许多好处，但同时也引发一些严重的问题。

______ has been playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day life.it has brought us a lot of benefits but has created some serious problems as well.

10.根据图表/数字/统计数字/表格中的百分比/图表/条形图/成形图可以看出……。很显然……，但是为什么呢?

According to thefigure/number/statistics/percentages in the /chart/bar graph/line/graph，it can be seen that______while. Obviously，______，but why?

11、Recently， the problem of … has aroused people’s concern.

最近，…问题已引起人们的关注。

12、Internet has been playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day life. It has brought a lot of benefits but has created some serious problems as well.

互联网已在我们的生活中扮演着越来越重要的角色。它给我们带来了许多好处，但也产生了一些严重的问题。

13、Nowadays，(overpopulation) has become a problem we have to face.

如今，(人口过剩)已成为我们不得不面对的问题了。

14、With the development of science and technology， more and more people believe that…

随着科技的发展，越来越多的人认为…

二、结尾句型

1、Taking all these factors into consideration， we naturally come to the conclusion that…

把所有这些因素加以考虑，我们自然会得出结论…

2、Taking into account all these factors， we may reasonably come to the conclusion that…

考虑所有这些因素，我们可能会得出合理的结论…

3、Hence/Therefore， we’d better come to the conclusion that…

因此，我们最好得出这样的结论…

4、There is no doubt that (job-hopping) has its drawbacks as well as merits.

毫无疑问，跳槽有优点也有缺点。

5、All in all， we cannot live without… But at the same time we must try to find out new ways to cope with the problems that would arise.

总之，我们没有…是无法生活的。但同时，我们必须寻求新的解决办法来对付可能出现的新问题。

6、It is high time that we put an end to the (trend)。

该是我们停止这一趋势的时候了。

7、It is time to take the advice of … and to put special emphasis on the improvement of …

该是采纳…的建议，并对…的进展给予特殊重视的时候了。

8、不用说…… It goes without saying that = It is obvious that …

例：不用说早睡早起是值得的。It goes without saying that it pays to keep early hours.

9、……是必要的 It is necessary (for sb.) to do / that … ……

是重要的 It is important(for sb.) to do / that … ……

是适当的 It is proper (for sb.) to do / that … ……

是紧急的 It is urgent (for sb.) to do / that …

例：It is proper for us to keep the public places clean.

It is proper that we (should)keep the public places clean. 我们应当保持公共场所清洁。

一、写作要领

考生无论遇到哪一类试题，都要仔细审题，根据题目的要求确定文章的类型和中心内容，并对你自己熟悉的、可写的内容进行筛选、整理、规划、列出提纲，这是很重要的一步。提纲列好后，要围绕提纲内容展开说明自己的观点和结论，不要在写作时抛开提纲。一篇好的作文应该具备以下5个方面：

(1)内容切题，主题鲜明。

(2)表达清楚准确，条理清晰。

(3)结构完整，衔接流畅自然。

(4)句法正确多样。

(5)用词恰当丰富。

二、方法与步骤

1．提纲

提纲是写作一篇文章的详细计划、安排。提纲准备的目的是：

(1)计划要写什么。

(2)文章的思想的表达顺序。

(3)如何安排段落。

(4)使写作从头到尾围绕主题进行。内容一般用短语和词。主题、副题表达先后顺序，要用数字标明。提纲内容的安排是写作一篇好文章的关键。

2．依据提纲写作

(1)初稿

在完成提纲安排后，动笔写作的第一步是打初稿，在写初稿时要争取做到心中有数，胸有成竹，经过反复练习后，能够按照提纲安排落笔成文，一气呵成。如果突发奇想，也可修改提纲，顺理成章，但切忌偏离正题。在初稿写作时要有意识加大行距，为文章的修改留有余地。

(2)定稿及修改方法

在完成初稿后，修改是必不可少的过程。修改文章要注意以下几点：

①内容是否切题，论点是否鲜明，论证是否合理、严密。

②段落衔接时过渡使用是否合理，语句是否通顺、有没有语法错误，用词是否恰当。

③拼写是否正确，标点符号、大小写是否有错误，有无其他笔误。

高考英语写作紧扣教学大纲对考生书面表达的要求，以有指导的写作为主，要求考生在短时间内构思成文。由于它是对学生语言综合运用能力的考查，因此在高考中令很多考生感到十分苦恼，也是一个失分率很高的题型。对此，笔者有如下几条建议：

1上海高考英语作文命题特点

1.写作话题

每年高考在即，会出现许多对高考英语写作话题的预测，但这种具体的预测往往是徒劳的。分析近年来真题规律，上海市高考英语写作的话题都是跟高中生的生活密切相关，而非政治性或社会性话题。例如，2006年的话题是选择大学的问题；2007年的话题是礼物；2008年的话题是集体舞比赛；2009年是参加夏令营的课程；2010年则是学生上课情景。这些话题都源于高中生的日常生活。因此，考生不必担心无话可说。在备考过程也不必将过多精力放在一些重大的社会性及政治性话题上。

2.写作体裁

近年来，上海市高考英语写作从体裁上来说主要是偏重于叙议结合的文章，例如在2008年的高考中，考生首先要说明自己是否要参加集体舞比赛，之后要阐述自己的理由。又如，在2009年的高考中，考生首先要根据材料说明自己要参加夏令营的哪个课程，其次要阐述自己的理由以及描述一下希望从课程中学到的内容。刚刚结束的2010年高考题要求学生描述图片以及自己同时期上课的情景，再简单发表感想。纵观近三年的高考，都是夹叙夹议的文章，因此这种体裁的文章是考生接下来备考的重点。

2.如何写好高考作文

高考英语作文的考核目标是看学生能否根据题意连贯、贴切地进行书面表达。我们在写作时应注意：

1.认真审题，确定内容。弄清写作要求是写好作文的前提，也是书面表达的基础。审题时应注意以下几个方面：

1)审题时要确定文章的体裁。

例：(2010年高考)下图是小学新生的课堂一角，对照你当时的上课情况，做出比较并谈谈你的感受。你的作文必须包括：描述图片里学生上课的场景；比较你同时期的上课情况；简单谈谈你的感受。

这篇文章的内容必须覆盖题目给出的三块内容，其中前两项描述图片里学生上课的场景和比较你同时期的上课情况皆是记叙和描绘的部分。只有最后一部分简要发表感想是议论。

2)审题时，把握题目中的关键内容，以免跑题或遗漏。

例：(2009)高考作文：某海外学校举办英语夏令营，开设了如下课程：园艺(gardening)、烹调(cooking)、防身术(self-defense)、护理(nursing)。假如你是王跃华(不可以用自己的真实姓名)，写一封申请信，报名参加其中一门课程的学习。信的内容必须包括：你感兴趣的课程；你期望从这门课程中学到什么；为什么想学这些内容。

这个命题的关键内容有三块：是什么、为什么和学什么。很多同学在审题时把重点放在了为什么要学上，却忽略了想学什么这个关键内容。文章的主体段只交待了为什么要学习某个课程，却只字不提想学习这个课程的哪些方面，遗漏了关键的内容。

2.语言表达上要从三方面把好语言关。

1)准确性：在写作的过程中最好用自己熟悉的句型和词语，力求语言表达正确流畅。

2)句式多样性：在写作过程中，过多使用简单句和短句，会使文章显得罗嗦，幼稚。我们在书面表达时应学会合并短句，并注意句式的多样性。

3)语言恰当性：在高考英语写作时，还应注意用词的恰当性。有些同学喜欢用一些词汇等级较高的词以显示语言的水平，但若不贴切文章的内容，效果往往适得其反。比如，在一篇描写同学间友谊的文章中，用Itisuni－versallyacknowledgedthatfriendshipisveryimportanttous这样的语句来开头，就显得过大，十分不适合文章的主题和作者的身份。

3.组织结构上要做到结构正确，层次分明，运用适当的连接词使上下文连贯一致。

1)注意篇章结构，合理布局开始部分(Openingparagraph)——说出文中的要点、核心问题。正文部分(Bodyparagraphs)——围绕主题开展叙述、讨论。结尾部分(Concludingparagraph)——对全文的总结和概括。

2)运用适当的连接词使段落之间必须是有机地联系，内容完整、连贯。记叙文一般按照时间顺序来写，用一些表示先后顺序的连接词能使记叙的事件脉络更清楚。议论文中用一些连接词可以使文章层次分明，上下连贯。

3.高考作文的写作步骤：

高考写作理想时间是30分钟，最少不能少于20分钟，拿到考题后，写作的一般步骤为：

第一步：审题

第二步：谋篇布局

1)作文动笔之前一般都要先打腹稿。在确立中心上、运用材料上、篇章结构上，充分酝酿。

2)考虑好想写多少句子，该用哪些词汇和句型等。

3)边写边思考内容的连贯性，语言和句子的准确性

第三步：写后检查，写后复查全文，看内容要点有无遗漏，标点、格式、大小写是否规范，是否有语病，卷面是否整洁等。

[ 高考英语作文这样拿高分

高考作文(College Admission Essay)即普通高等学校招生全国统一考试(全国高考)语文卷最后一题或几题(包括小作文)，一般要求立意自定、文体自选(或除诗歌外)、题目自拟、不要抄袭、不少于800字，一般满分为60分。如何准确地界定与把握命题者的正确意图和话题本身的意义指向，又如何在文章中准确地呈现出来，将大体决定全文的成败。下面是小编为你带来的高考半命题作文的写作技巧，希望对你有帮助。

半命题作文是指命题人限定了作文题目的一部分内容，然后留出一部分内容由作者按要求自己填写完整，再进行写作的作文命题形式。这种作文形式的主要标志是作文题目中留有空缺。其特点是有较大的开放度、灵活性，给人留下广阔的创作空间，又有一定的限制性。这两年中考全国有不少的省市采用了半命题作文的形式。半命题作文根据有无提示语可分为有提示语和没有提示语两种形式;根据题目空缺的位置可分为前空式、中空式和后空式。

写这类作文的前提是要按要求补全题目。需要注意的问题是：

1.斟酌已给出的半个题目信息，再结合自己的生活经历、写作特长、写作内容等将其补全，成为全命题作文，巧妙地让陌生的新题变成自己熟悉的旧题，从容地完成一篇熟悉的作文。例如有关“读书”“亲情”“学校生活”之类的作文相信同学们已经写过不计其数的文章，我们可以将2005年重庆中考作文题“那是一首歌”写成“读书经历是一首歌”“母爱是一首歌”“学习生活是一首歌”。也可以将2005年江苏省无锡市中考作文题“精彩”演变成相类似的形式。

2.注意审清题面要求，明确选材范围。如2003年湛江中考作文题要分清“生活”与“生命”的不同。

3.标题切忌大而空，要力求展示个性风采。标题是一篇文章的“眉目”，它关系到一篇文章的格调、精神和色彩，好的标题能使人产生强烈的阅读愿望。

4.立意要鲜明，集中，新颖。

例如：“生活因__更精彩”和“生命因__更精彩”都是半命题作文，限制较少。空缺处可以填名词、动词、形容词，如音乐、读书、挫折、爱等，也可以填短语，如得到关注、奋力拼搏、遭遇苦难等。题目一旦确立，就要善于从平凡的生活彩链中挖掘出最耀眼、最闪光的那一节来写，要写出精彩的一瞬、精彩的场面、精彩的心灵感悟。总之，要突出精彩，突出填写的词语，突出主题。

其次，表达的角度要巧。在突出主旨的前提下可以有选择地使用悬念、插叙、呼应、对比等技巧，要设计好文章的开头和结尾，适当穿插议论和抒情，行文中要注意反复点题。

另外，选材要新。要善于调动多种描写手段打动人，以此引起读者情感上的共鸣。