GRE作文分类题库---ISSUE
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一 教育类 1. A nation should require all its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college rather than allow schools in different parts of the nation to determine which academic courses to offer.” 2. While some leaders in government, sports, industry, and other areas attribute their success to a well-developed sense of competition, a society can better prepare its young people for leadership by instilling in them a sense of cooperation. 3. In order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and university level, all faculty should be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach. 4. Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student’s field of study because acquiring knowledge of various academic disciplines is the best way to become truly educated. 5. Colleges and universities should offer more courses on popular music, film, advertising, and television because contemporary culture has much greater relevance for students than do arts and literature of the past. 6. It is primarily through formal education that a culture tries to perpetuate the ideas it favors and discredit the ideas it fears. 7. Some educational systems emphasize the development of students’ capacity for reasoning and logical thinking, but students would benefit more from an education that also taught them to explore their own emotions. 8. It is often asserted that the purpose of education is to free the mind and the spirit. In reality, however, formal education tends to restrain our minds and spirits rather than set them free. 9. How children are socialized today determines the destiny of society. Unfortunately, we have not yet learned how to raise children who can help bring about a better society. 10. Both parents and communities must be involved in the local schools. Education is too important to leave solely to a group of professional educators. 11. The purpose of education should be to provide students with a value system, a standard, a set of ideas—not to prepare them for a specific job. 12. Society should identify those children who have special talents and abilities and begin training them at an early age so that they can eventually excel in their areas of ability. Othervise, these talents are likely to remain undeveloped. 13. Although innovations such as video, computers, and the internet seem to offer schools improved methods for instructing students, these technologies all too often distract from real learning. 二 学习类 1. We can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from people whose vies contradict our own. Disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning. 2. No field of study can advance significantly unless outsiders bring their knowledge and experience to that field of study. 3. Anyone can make things bigger and more complex. What requires real effort and courage is to move in the opposite direction-in other words, to make things as simple as possible. 4. Students should memories facts only after they have studied the ideas, trends, and concepts that help explain those facts. Students who have learned only facts have learned very little. 5. Scholars and researches should not be concerned with whether their work makes a contribution to the larger society. It is more important that they pursue their individual interests, however unusual or idiosyncratic those interests may seem. 6. In any academic area or professional field, it is just as important to recognize the limits of our knowledge and understanding as it is to acquire new facts and information. 7. Facts are stubborn things. They cannot be altered by our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions. 8. Students should bring a certain skepticism to whatever they study. They should question what they are taught instead of accepting it passively. 9. There is no such thing as purely objective observation. All observation is subjective; it is always guided by the observer’s expectations or desires. 10. The human mind will always be superior to machines because machines are only tools of human minds. 11. Critical judgment of work, in any given field has little value unless comes from someone who is an expert in that field. 12. People who pursue their own intellectual interests for purely personal reasons are more likely to benefit the rest of the world than are people who try to act for the public good. 13. Originality does not mean thinking something that was never thought before; it means putting old ideas together in new ways. 14. The study of ac academic discipline alters the way we perceive the world. After studying the discipline, we see the same world as before, but with different eyes. 15. The way students and scholars interpret the materials they work with in their academic fields is more of personality than of training. Different interpretations come about when people with different personalities look at exactly the same objects, facts, data, or events and see different things. 16. As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more complex and more mysterious. 17. It is a grave mistake to theorize before one has data. 三 行为类 1. Although many people think that the luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life are entirely harmless, they in fact, prevent people from developing into truly strong and independent individuals. 2. Public figures such as actors, politicians, and athletes should expect people to be interested in their private lives. When they seek a public role, they should expect that they will lose at least some of their privacy. 3. Creating an appealing image has become more important in contemporary society than is the reality or truth behind that image. 4. The concept of ‘individual responsibility’ is a necessary fiction. Although societies must hold individuals accountable for their own actions, people’s behavior is largely determined by forces not of their own making. 5. People work more productively in teams than individually. Teamwork requires cooperation, which motivates people much more than individual competition does. 6. In any realm of life-whether academic, social, business, or political— the only way to succeed is to take a practical, rather than an idealistic, point of vies. Pragmatic behavior guarantees survival, whereas idealistic views tend to be superceded by simpler, more immediate options. 7. It is primarily through our identification with social groups that we define ourselves. 8. Only through mistakes can there be discovery or progress. 9. Most people recognize the benefits of individuality, but the fact is that personal economic success requires conformity. 10. People who are the most deeply committed to an idea or policy are the most critical of it. 11. No amount of information can eliminate prejudice because prejudice is rooted in emotion, not reason. 12. The most essential quality of an effective leader is the ability to remain consistently committed in particular principles and objectives. Any leader who is quickly and easily influenced by shifts in popular opinion will accomplish little. 13. Sometimes imagination is a more valuable asset than experience. People who lack experience are free to imagine what is possible and thus can approach a task without constraints of established habits and attitudes. 14. In any given field, the leading voices come from people who are motivated not by conviction but by the desire to present opinions and ideas that differ from those held by the majority. 15. It is always an individual who is the impetus for innovation; the details may be worked out by a team, but true innovation results from the enterprise and unique perception of an individual. 16. Success, whether academic or professional, involves an ability to survive in a new environment and--, eventually, --to change it. 17. Most people choose a career on the basis of such pragmatic considerations as the needs of the economy, the relative ease of finding a job, and the salary they can expect to make. Hardly anyone is free to choose a career based on his or her natural talents or interest in a particular kind of work. 18. If a goal is worthy, then any means taken to attain it is justifiable. 19. People often look for similarities, even between very different things, and even when it is unhelpful or harmful to do so. Instead, a thing should be considered on its own terms, we should avoid the tendency to compare it to something else. 20. People are mistaken when they assume that the problems they confront are more complex and challenging than the problems, faced by their predecessors. Thus illusion is eventually dispelled with increased knowledge and experience. 21. Moderation in all things is ill-considered advice. Rather, one should say, ‘Moderations is most things,’ since many areas of human concern require or at least profit from intense focus. 22. Most people are taught that loyalty is a virtue. But loyalty—whether to one’s friends, to one’s school or place of employment, or to any institution—is all too often a destructive rather than a positive force. 四 政治类 1. It is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public. 2. There are two types of laws: just and unjust. Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and, even more importantly, to disobey and resist unjust laws. 3. To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards. 4. It is impossible for an effective political leader to tell the truth all the time. Complete honesty is not a useful virtue for a politician. 5. Those who treat politics and morality as though they were separate realms fail to understand either the one or the other. 6. Laws should not be stationary and fixed. Instead, they should be flexible enough to take account of various circumstances, times, and places. 7. The goal of politics should not be the pursuit of an ideal, but rather the search for common ground and reasonable consensus. 五 科技类 1. The primary goal of technological advancement should be to increase people’s efficiency so that everyone has more leisure time. 2. Money spent on research is almost always a good investment, even when the results of that research are controversial. 3. Humanity has made little real progress over the past century or so. Technological innovations have taken place, but the overall condition of humanity is no better. War, violence, and poverty are still with us. Technology cannot change the condition of humanity. 4. When research priorities are being set for science, education, or any other area, the most important question to consider is : How many people’s lives will be improved if the results are successful. 5. The function of science is to reassure; the purpose of arts is to upset. Therein lies the value of each. 6. Technology creates more problems than it solves, and may threaten or damage the quality of life. 7. Most important discoveries or creations are accidental: it is usually while seeking the answer to one question that we come across the answer to another. 六 传媒类 1. In the age of television, reading books is not as important as it once was. People can learn as much by watching television as they can by reading books. 2. The purpose of many advertisements is to make consumers want to buy a product so that they will ‘be like’ the person in the ad. This practice is effective because it not only sells products but also helps people feel better about themselves. 3. Because of television and worldwide computer connections, people can now become familiar with a great many places that they have never visited. As a result, tourism will soon become obsolete. 4. High-speed electronic communications media, such as electronic mail and television, tend to prevent meaningful and thoughtful communication. 5. In this age of intensive media coverage, it is no longer possible for a society to regard any woman or man as a hero. The reputation of anyone who is subjectied to media scrutiny will eventually be diminished. 七 社会类 1. Such nonmainstream areas of inquiry as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuits play a vital role in society by satisfying human needs that are not addressed by mainstream science. 2. Society does not place enough emphasis on the intellect-that is, on reasoning and other cognitive skills. 3. It is through the use of logic and of precise, careful measurement that we become aware of our progress. Without such tools, we have no reference points to indicate how far we have advanced or retreated. 4. At various times in the geological past, many species have become extinct as a result of natural, rather than human, processes. Thus, there is no justification for society to make extraordinary efforts, especially at a great cost in money and jobs, to save endangered species. 5. The absence of choices is a circumstance that is very, very rake. 6. What society has thought to be it greatest social, political, and individual achievements have often resulted in the greatest discontent. 7. The well-being of a society is enhanced when many of its people question authority. 8. Tradition and modernization are incompatible. One must choose between them. 9. The only responsibility of corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, is to make as much money as possible for their companies. 10. Many problems of modern society cannot be solved by laws and the legal system because moral behavior cannot be legislated. 11. Scandals—whether in politics, academia, or other areas—can be useful. They focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could. 12. Practicality is now our great ideal, which all powers and talents must serve. Anything that is not obviously practical has little value in today’ s world. 13. It is easy to welcome innovation and accept new ideas. What most people find difficult, however, is accepting the way these new ideas are put into practice. 14. The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its heroines. 15. Progress is best made through discussion among people who have contrasting points of vies. 八 历史类 1. The video camera provides such an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life that it has become a more important form of documentation than written records. 2. Most people would agree that building represent a valuable record of any society’s past, but controversy arises when old buildings stand on ground that modern planners feel could be better used for modern purposes. In such situations, modern development should be given precedence over the preservation of historic buildings so that contemporary needs can be served. 3. The greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries. 4. The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The most significant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few, but by groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten. 5. The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives. 6. When we concern ourselves with the study of history, we become storytellers. Becauses we can never know the past directly but must construct it by interpreting evidence, exploring history is more of a creative enterprise than it is an objective pursuit. All historians are storytellers. 7. So much is new and complex today that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present. 8. The chief benefit of the study of history is to break down the illusion that people in one period of time are significantly different from people who lived at any other time in history. 九 艺术类 1. Imaginative works such as novels, plays, films, fairytales, and legends present a more accurate and meaningful picture of human experience than do factual accounts. Because the creators of fiction shape and focus on reality rather than report it literally, their creations have a more lasting significance. 2. The arts (painting, music, literature, etc.) reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society. 3. ‘It is the artist, not the critic,’ who gives society something of lasting value. A person who evaluates works of art, such as novels, films music, paintings, etc. 4. As long as people in a society are hungry or out of work or lack the basic skills needed to survive, the use of public resources to support the arts is inappropriate—and, perhaps, even cruel—when one considers all the potential uses of such money. 5. In order for any work of art—whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song—to have merit, it must be understandable to most people. 十 文化类 1. Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive, because it is primarily in cities that a nation’s cultural traditions are preserved and generated. 2. Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are. 3. The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society’s ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people. 4. The true value of a civilization is reflected in its artistic creations rather than in its scientific accomplishments. 十一 国际类 1. All nations should help support the development of a global university designed to engage students in the process of solving the world’s most persistent social problems. 2. Many of the world’s lesser-known languages are being lost as fewer and fewer people speak them. The government of countries in which these languages are spoken should act to prevent such languages from becoming extinct. 3. With the growth of global networks in such areas as economics and communication, there is no doubt that every aspect of society—including education, politics, the arts, and the sciences—will benefit greatly from international influences. 4. The surest indicator of a great nation is not the achievements of its rulers, artists, or scientists, but the general welfare of all its people. 5. The material progress and well-being of one country are necessarily connected to the material progress and well-being of all other countries. |
