托福范文系列 (Part 24)

　　1. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People are never satisfied with what they have; they always want something more or something different. Use specific reasons to support your answer.

　　I think it’s probably true that people are never satisfied with what they have. They always want something more or something different from what is theirs. This just seems to be part of our human nature. Look at a toddler, Give her a toy to play with and she’ happy—until she sees something else. Then she wants that other toy to play with. If she and her brother are each given a cookie, she’ll look to see whose cookie is bigger. She’ll protest loudly if she thinks her brother is getting more.

　　“The grass is always greener” is an old expression, but it’s a good expression of how many of us feel. We’re always striving for a better job, a nicer place to live, a fancier car, or more expensive clothes. Part of this reaching for more and better is because we care about what other people think and want to impress them. Part of it is trying to make ourselves feel successful. But there’ also something in our nature that tells us we can do better and reach higher.

　　This isn’t always a negative quality. There’s another saying: ”A man’s reach should excess his grasp. Or what’s a heaven for?” It’s a good thing to be constantly pushing ourselves and looking for something different. If we don’t try for more and different things, we begin to stagnate, like a pool that doesn’t get any fresh water.

　　The problem comes when we won’t let ourselves be satisfied with anything we have. If we have a comfortable life and still feel as if something ‘s missing, then we need to look inward. The something that’s missing may be in our spirit.

　　2 AD Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People should read those books that are about real events, real people, and established facts. Use specific reasons and details to support your opinion.

　　The Important of Fiction

　　How could anyone suggest that people should only read about real events, real people, and established facts? For one thing, that means people wouldn’t be reading half of all the great books that have ever been written, not to mention the plays, short stories and poetry. For another, it would mean that people’s imaginations would not develop as children and would remain dulled throughout their lives.

　　Reading stories as a child helps develop our creativity by reaching us a lot about how to use words to create mental images. It open our world up, exposing us to other times and different ways of living. Reading histories of those times would serve kind of the same purpose, but it probably wouldn’t stick in our minds as sharply. Reading an essay about poverty in Victorian England is not the same thing as reading in Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist. The images of a small boy being sold are more horrifying than simply reading the statement, “children were sold into labor “because a novel makes that small boy seem real to understanding fiction makes a more lasting impression on our minds and emotions.

　　Besides, storytelling is an emotional need for human beings. From earliest times, humans have taught their children about life, not by telling them facts and figures, but by telling them stories. Some of these stories show what people are like (human nature),and help us experience a wide range of feelings. Some make us think about how we should act. Telling a child that it’s wrong to lie will make little impression, but telling him the story of a little boy whose grows longer every time be tell a lie will make a big impression.

　　Fiction is too important to our culture, our minds, and our emotions. How could we ever give it up?

　　3 Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? It is more important for students to study history and literature than it is for them to study science and mathematics. Use specific reasons and details to support your opinion.

　　I think it’s more important for students to study history and literature. these subjects help us understand the human race and feed our spirits and our imaginations. That’s more important than understanding how to split the atom or do algebra.

　　People talk about a crisis of spirit in our country. They mean we’ve forgotten how to believe in and understand our own better natures. I think part of this is because we’ve become too excited about facts and not enough about things we can’t see and measure. Reading books from our own culture helps us understand our roots. Reading books from other cultures helps us understand the way other people think and react to situations. It also teaches us that we’re not so very different from others, and that leads to better relations between cultures.

　　Reading literature also feeds our spirits. Even when the material we’re reading is about terrible sadness and hardship, it still brings us in touch with our inner selves. It makes us think about issues other than new car we want to drive or how much money we’re making.

　　Studying history gives us more information than just who died when or who won which war. It tell us about how human beings have related to each other at different periods in our development. It gives us the big picture. So often, when international crises occur, we only see the problem of the moment. We have no idea how something that happened twenty years ago was the beginning of this current problem. Without that information, we can have only a shallow understanding of ? going on in the world.

　　Both history and literature are necessary subjects for students to prepare for more than just careers. These subjects prepare students for the way they want to live their lives.

　　4 Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? All students should be required to study art and music in secondary school. Use specific reasons and details to support your opinion.

　　I agree that all students should be required to study art and music in high school. I’ve read that young children who study art and music in grade school do better in their other studies. That argument aside, we should study art and music for its sake alone. We should study art and music to learn more about ourselves, our culture, and our world.

　　Both art and music feed students’ imaginations and help them express themselves. There’s a reason our ancestors in caves drew on the walks and make music with drums. Wanting to express ourselves is natural. It gives us an ? for our emotions and fears. It may not always be music other want to hear or art others will appreciate, but the activity itself is enjoyable. It shouldn’t matter if the end of result isn’t perfect. In the process, we learn what we like and dislike.

　　Studying art and music means more than drawing or playing an instrument. Student usually go to art galleries and concerts, too. By studying the pictures on the museums walls or by reading the program notes at a recital, students will learn what society has decided is worthy of praise. They learn what is important in their own culture.

　　Students may also learn about other cultures by looking at art and listening to music from other countries. When they do that ,they ‘ll see similarities and differences with their own. They’ll learn about what is important in other societies. Student will also learn how the art and music of other societies. Students will also learn how the art and music of other cultures affect our own.

　　By studying art and music in high school, students begin to understand themselves as well as their own culture and other culture. What could have more value than that?