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发表于 2008-9-25 19:04:11
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以下是马来西亚学生的优秀英文作文。
tittle: ‘Growing up is hard to do?’
Time and tide wait for no one. That is one saying which contains more than an ounce of truth.
Have anyone of you ever thought of how limited your teenage life is? Ever sat down to think about what you would do for a living in the future? Or have you thought about your achievements so far?
I bet not many of you have done this. That is the way a teenager lives his or her life, I guess. In fact, teenagers can probably do with just these “basic” necessities: three simple meals a day (or maybe more), a mobile phone, and an ample supply of money – all supplied by “higher authorities” aka(also known as) the parents!
But there is a bitter truth awaiting all of us teenagers. The truth of living. The experience of living a difficult yet more meaningful life; the knowledge that we can only really experience life by living it.
Some of you might think to gain this experience is by listening to the “grandmother” stories of peers who claim to know a lot; some might try to absorb it from newspapers, books and magazines. But nothing works like hands-on experience.
We don’t have a lot of time ---- the teenage years last only seven years. And when it’s gone, it’s gone beyond recall. Will you realise that life is passing you by in time to do something about it?
I came to realise this when all my friends started leaving to pursue whatever they wanted or what their parents wanted. Okay. I still have my members. But deep inside I know that it won’t last much longer as everyone will graduate soon.
You can always make new friends. But will it ever be the same? You probably will feel miserable and regretful at first. I did. But these feelings will soon pass. Crying won’t help a bit. Things have to go on, no matter what. Making new friends helps. There is still a chance for you to find a close friend again. But it is rather hard.
When all the bad feelings subside, it is time to move on. “Break away,” as that advertisement suggests. Leave that naïve and young phase behind and move on to the wiser and mature young adult.
Growing up is inevitable. Even those pesky younger brothers/sisters will eventually grow up. Nothing comes more naturally than moving on to the next phase because when the situation requires it, you will just have to oblige. It is a no-win situation. Though, everything new will fall into place, sooner or later depending on how adaptable a person is.
But it will never be the same again.
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tittle : ‘Don't give others nickname.’
I am quite handsome, kind of smart, too... And most of all I think I am a nice person. I was popular in high school and doing not too badly with my current colleagues. Things seemed fine. But with the many supporters I had, I had just as many detractors.
But that is the way it is! Yes, the “shorties”, the “dorks”, the “uncool” are often painted as the victims. But so is everyone else. The pretty ones are “slutty”, the confident ones “bitchy”, the smart ones “dont have a life”, etc. I am sure it is all familiar --- be honest, no one is spared the taunts, ridicule and gossip – unless you have lived a near invisible existence throughout your life.
It is really unfair to blame others for ones own inability. So you were the strongest, the smartest, the happiest one in school, big deal! Somehow everyone is, too. When you go out, you are made fun and given the nicknames, it is the same! Arent you also the tool which is made fun by others?
I am sure many of us were teased when we were young, becoming the laughing stock of many for simple reasons, some of which seem baseless as you grow older. Whether it was your name, your style of walking or even the shape of your ears.
There is a big difference between mean-spirited ridicule of a person and a sense of humour. Your words can poison or touch lives. People will forget what you say, but they will never forget how your words make them feel.
Jokes are no longer jokes if you are hurting someone to make yourself feel superior or better. Treat others as you want to be treated. Each time you have the urge to make fun of someone, climb into his skin and walk around in it.
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tittle: ‘Education more than rote-learning and exams’
I write this article not with the intention of pointing an accusatory finger at anyone; I merely wish to state my views on an issue which I feel strongly about.
A week ago, I read a book by a Nobel prize winner in physics, Richard P.Feynman. One entry in his memoirs which I found particularly disturbing was about his experience teaching at the Brazilian Academy of Science.
What Dr Feynman said about the students and the Brazilian education system then was thought-provoking. The students could pass their exams by simply memorising their textbooks and yet not learn anything out of it.
The students were also reluctant to ask questions in class for fear of appearing ignorant. I quote from the book: “It was pitiful! All the work they did, intelligent people, but they got themselves into this funny state of mind, this strange kind of self-propagating ‘education,’ which is meaningless, utterly meaningless.”
As I read the book, a feeling of déjà vu crept over me – Dr Feynman could well be talking about Malaysian students!
It is by now, quite an open secret that the Malaysian system of education places a lot of emphasis on examinations consisting of predictable questions which require nothing more than mindless memorising. The majority of Malaysian students study only their textbooks and are quite myopic to anything else.
I remember going to the school library at the age of 13 and stumbling upon a treasure trove – an entire shelf full of books by literary greats.
I spent hours each day devouring books by John Keats, Elexander Pope, William Shakespeare, Voltaire and Somerset Maugham with much gusto.
After a while I noticed that none of the borrowers’ cards for these books had been stamped before. The books had been untouched since the 60s. Why were all these fabulous books left to rot unnoticed?
It would not be a valid defence to argue that the students were not proficient enough in English. One might as well, on seeing a ward full of lunatics laughing, say, “It is obvious what made them insane, it is over-laughing.”
Our students cannot progress in their English language because they do not read enough and they do not read non-academic books because ‘these are not tested in the exams!”
Students have become so achievement-oriented that they fail to see the pleasure of reading a good book as an end in itself. It saddens me to see supposedly brilliant students having no knowledge of the humanities whatsoever.
Having been a student myself, I find the way my classmates study quite startling. They read a page, roll their eyes skywards (which can be hilarious to see if not for the terribly earnest expressions on their faces), and repeat what they have just read.
They go over this procedure until they can parrot the entire page flawlessly. No one doubts the accuracy of the facts given. If there is indeed a factual mistake in the textbook which goes unnoticed, everyone sinks in the same wretched boat.
Once, upon seeing a fellow student studying for a science exam, I offered to read out the questions so she may answer them orally.
I then read out a question on satellites and how they stay in orbit, changing the sentence structure a little and jumbling up the order of the multiple choice answers as I went along.
The bewildered look this young lady gave me said it all. After this little experiment, I concluded that school examinations are not a real gauge of one’s intellect – it is merely a means of measuring how much time is spent on memorising textbooks and how well this useless information is regurgitated during the exams.
However, it would be wrong to stereotype all students as being information-hoarding robots. Once in a while, an exceptionally bright spark turns up to vex the teacher with complicated questions.
This, of course, angers the well-meaning but hassled teaching, who replies: “It is not necessary for you to learn this at your stage” or “This is not relevant to what you have to study for your exams.”
These two typical answers put a damper on the student’s curiosity and can possibly be interpreted as: “Shut up! Don’t ask me questions that I don’t know the answers to.”
If the intelligent student persists in asking questions in class, he or she is most likely to receive jeers of disapproval form his or her peers. The bright student learns quickly that nobody appreciates a maverick.
He or she then tries to fit in with the rest of the bourgeois, where each person is as directionless as the other.
College students gather an accumulation of notes which are rarely read, and when asked if they understood what has been taught in a lecture, all nod their heads fervently, bovine-like.
They keep up this pretence all through their lives, giving themselves a false semblance of security.
In one extreme case a student learnt an entire chapter by heart, thus doing very well in an impromptu test, but when asked the meaning of a technical
al term around which the question revolved, he could not give its definition and had no idea how the scenario in the question given could be applied to everyday life.
Perhaps the students are not to be blamed for their lack of inventiveness. If one dissects and analyses the present education system, one may well find that it leaves much to be desired.
The school syllabus and examination format are militaristically rigid and monotonous. Projects and coursework assigned requires the students to follow strict guidelines, thus leaving no space for original ideas.
Students end up waiting to be spoon-fed with notes because they are less likely to go wrong in doing so than in attempting the project by trial and error.
Upon reading any textbook, you will inevitably discover a lacuna: none of these books show the students how to use that particular subject to find solutions to problems in everyday life.
A fifth-former may ace a mathematics exam with flying colours without really knowing what logarithms are used for.
When I was at school, due to an ill-equipped laboratory, certain experiments could only be carried out by the teacher, while the students watched with waning interest.
When this ordeal was over, we had notes dictated to us. I wonder how this method of science education will directly benefit us in the long run.
Many suggestions have already been forwarded to the relevant authorities to overhaul the present education system but the bulk of these are turned down as being too idealistic and too costly.
So, in the meantime, we must be content to churn out hordes of unimaginative automatons who go on to lead a perfectly prosaic lives.
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发表于 2008-9-23 20:04:42
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