新东方网络课堂:GRE作文备考资料5

　　教育的三大目的

　　Fundamental purposes that have been proposed for education include:

　　The enterprise of civil society depends on educating young people to become responsible, thoughtful and enterprising citizens. This is an intricate, challenging task requiring deep understanding of ethical principles, moral values, political theory, aesthetics, and economics, not to mention an understanding of who children are, in themselves and in society.

　　Progress in every practical field depends on having capacities that schooling can educate. Education is thus a means to foster the individual?s, society?s, and even humanity?s future development and prosperity. Emphasis is often put on economic success in this regard.

　　One?s individual development and the capacity to fulfill one?s own purposes can depend on an adequate preparation in childhood. Education can thus attempt to give a firm foundation for the achievement of personal fulfillment. The better the foundation is built, the more successful the child will be. Simple basics in education can carry a child far.

　　教育面临的问题：

　　知识快速更新、 全民教育的普及、 个性化教育的实施困难

　　We increasingly see education as a critical component of democratic society. For intelligent decisions in democratic society, we need an educated population. Furthermore, we increasingly see the need for lifelong education. Society changes faster, so what is learned when we are young is fast outdated. So this need for universal education further complicatesthe problems created by growing populations, by increasing the numbers we must consider.

　　One aspect of education that must be considered is that all students are different, with different backgrounds, knowledge, interests and learning styles. Each student should be treated individually. But our current modes of learning provide little individualization. Every student tends to be provided with the same learning experiences focused around a white Anglo-Saxon curriculum. This cookie-cutter approach to learning works for a few students, but many do not learn, or learn only partially. Our classes are already too large to provide individualized learning.

　　正规教育体系的两大基本假设

　　Two fundamental assumptions that underlie formal education systems are that students (a) retain knowledge and skills they acquire at school, and (b) can apply them in situations outside the classroom. But are these assumptions accurate? Research has found that, even when students report not using the knowledge acquired at school, a considerable portion is retained for many years and long term retention is strongly dependent on the initial level of mastery. One study found that university students who took a child development course and attained high grades showed, when tested 10 years later, average retention scores of about 30%, whereas those who obtained moderate or lower grades showed average retention scores of about 20%. There is much less consensus on the crucial question of how much knowledge acquired in school transfers to tasks encountered outside formal educational settings, and how such transfer occurs. Some psychologists claim that research evidence for this type of far transfer is scarce, while others claim there is abundant evidence of far transfer in specific domains.

 

新东方网络课堂:GRE作文备考资料的延伸阅读——GRE写作技巧详解

 

　　1. gre写作考试有题库：

　　为了达到公平，ETS公布了它考试的所有写作题库，那么为了达到能和native speaker一起竞争，考生应该在考前对所有题目都进行预习(节约考试时的审题时间)，并通过100-150个提纲的写作了解GRE写作的一般结构，通过30-50篇写作来练习自己的写作思路和表达。对题库中的题目越熟练，对考试越有利。

　　2. gre写作考试的评阅是计件工作制的：

　　每个评卷人对你文章的评阅非常快，不可能对每个细节都很仔细地去看。考生应该迎合评卷人的评卷思路，用最规范的结构和最清晰的表达来体现自己的思路：首段要鲜明地提出观点，中间段落层次要拉开，每段的开始应该就是该段的topic sentence。

　　3. gre写作的评分是整体评分(holistic scoring)：

　　首先，从ETS公布的各分数段评分标准看，其评分主要注重以下三个方面：①、逻辑分析能力(要求insightful);②、文章的组织(要求well-organized);③、语言能力(要求standard written English; concise; varied structure等)。

　　4. gre写作两个部分在总分中的权重是一样的：

由于AA的写作不牵涉自己观点的展开，只须指出作者逻辑上的漏洞，因此在经过训练以后，写起来并不困难;而AI的写作需要自己展开自己设立的观点，不但需要逻辑上的洞察能力，还需要论证观点的能力，语言组织的能力，因此对于中国考生来讲比较困难，难以短期内有较大提高。但是这两个部分在总分中的权重是一样的，因此考生的策略应该是尽量提高AI部分的写作能力而力保AA部分满分(或高分)。因为如果AA部分满分的话，AI部分只需争取在4分以上就可以保证整体作文分数在5分以上。