四六级考研英语作文范文选读（一）

江节明  选编

Passage 1

Gateway to World

The various traditions of education have always an importance on the learning of other languages. There are many practical reasons students of any nation should learn foreign languages. The knowledge of one more language has distinct effects on an individual.

One effect of learning a second language is that a person can experience first hand the great literature of another people. One can experience directly the power and the subtleties of the original, which are often lost in translation. One can feel the flow of the language, the combinations of sound and word order, all of which combine to bring the word alive--alive as the artists have intentionally planned.

Learning another language reinforces a second effect: the gaining of knowledge about another culture. When one learns a second language, one sees there are other ways to see how men are related to the environment. Every country has different customs and cultures.

Perhaps the most powerful effect of learning another language is communication. With a second, or third, or fourth language, make contact with a fellow human being. Through communication, one can we see that the human mind, whether of the east or the west, is basically similar.

Many people study foreign languages because of a school requirement. Others learn a second language because of more practical reason. Regardless of the reasons for acquiring a new language, however, the effects are considerable. Since greater understanding and communication with other cultures and people are two important by-products, we all would do well if we studied at least one more language. In this way, we could contribute one small part to the achieving of word peace.

文章开头以概括法引出主题——学外语对人有很重要的作用。后面几段从不同的侧面对其进行阐述；一是可以直接接触外国文学；二是了解别国文化；三是增进交际。论述逐层深入，层次分明。最后一段是结尾段，指出不论于何种目的学外语，都会使自己受益非浅，同时也会为增进世界和平做出贡献。

Passage 2
Women Are Not Second-Class Citizens
    In this enlightened age, there still exist a certain number of men who view women as second-class citizens. They go on maintaining the fiction that women, who are inferior, unreliable and irrational, depend too little on cool reasoning and too much on intuition to arrive at decisions. Hence, men almost entirely control top-level negotiation between countries, businesses and banks.
    Nevertheless, women have shown their excellence and superiority in any job you care to name. As farmers, workers, drivers, doctors, politicians, scientists and even presidents of countries they have often put men to shame. They are so conscientious, industrious, and persevering that they frequently succeed brilliantly in all walks of life in addition to bearing and rearing children.
    Although the hard-fought battle for recognition that women are equal and often superior to men in almost every field has been won, it is by no means over. Further effort should be exerted to convert some men's contemptuous and hostile attitude towards women. The world can grow more peaceful and flourishing only by consummate hand-in-hand cooperation of men and women.
    文章第一段陈述了在现代社会，妇女仍然受到歧视这一现状。第二段以“Nevertheless”为转折，对歧视妇女的观点进行反驳，并运用实例进行阐述，让人信服。最后一段指出要消除性别歧视仍然需要我们付出更多的努力。
Passage 3
Why A Sense of Humor Is Important for One's Happiness
    A sense of humor, God's greatest gift to mankind, is universally considered the most valuable personality asset. It is born within every person's heart, but has to be cultivated. A person without humor is just like a spring without flowers, a dish without seasoning. In a sense, your personality lies in your sense of humor.
    Humor can enhance physical as well as mental wellbeing. It helps us bear our burdens, lessen our tension, overcome our frustration, relax our body muscles, and dissolve countless trifles and irritations. With the cracking of a joke, all our worries, sadness and tiredness disperse like mist and smoke, and we are full of vim and vigor again.
    Humor helps us live in harmony with others. It is unavoidable to have misunderstanding and tension with others during work or study. But humor can, as a "pacifier", inject a light note into the touchy situation to ease these problems quicker than angry words or quarrels. With it you can always keep on good terms with others.
    A sense of humor is really one of the keys to happiness. It gives zest to life to make it worth living.
    文章论述了幽默的重要性。可以使人消除疲劳，精神振奋，减轻压力，还可以免除误会，协调人际关系。最后总结全文，再次重申主题，使首尾呼应，给人以文章圆满结束之感。
Passage 4
Arctic and Antarctic Regions
    The northern and southern polar regions are different in many ways. The most important difference concerns the distribution of land and water. The northern Arctic regions are ice-covered sea, almost completely surrounded by land; on the contrary, the Antarctic is a huge continent which is surrounded by a great ocean. Because of this basic difference, other differences occur. The Arctic has a varied climate, while the Antarctic climate varies little: the Arctic has much plant life, but the Antarctic is an empty desert. And whereas the Arctic has been exploited economically for centuries, trade has never really touched the Antarctic.
    Though there are differences between the Arctic and the Antarctic regions, they are similar in one important respect: both of them are old glaciers. This means that the ice in the Arctic as well as the Antarctic is in fact frozen fresh water. Like western countries, eastern countries are short of fresh water, and for this reason many countries of the world, both east and west, have been trying to find ways of carrying the fresh water from both the Arctic and the Antarctic.
    这篇文章是一篇介绍北极地区和南极地区相同和不同之处的说明文。全文结构清楚，主次分明，语言简练流畅。并运用适当的过渡词和过渡句，使文章连贯自然。
Passages 5
On Making Friends
    As a human being, one can hardly do anything without a friend. Helping one out of trouble and bringing happiness to a lonely heart, a true friend may shed sunshine and love on one's life. A friend will help you find out and overcome an overlooked shortcoming, so that you can make progress and have success in your work or study. All the splendor in the world is not worth a good friend.
    True friendship is like an in-time rain falling on the dry land. True friends are not those who like to eat or drink together with you, but those who concern more about your needs, growth, successes and failures. They will never flee for their own sake when faced with a great danger. Just as the old saying puts it, "A friend in need is a friend indeed."
    I like making friends. In order to make true friends. I will trust others, following their advice and lending a hand whenever they need help. I like to make friends with those who have the same interest and idea with me, but not those who are boastful, aimless, narrow-minded or selfish. Once I make friends with someone, I hope that the friendship will last all through my life.
    作者在第一段阐述了朋友的重要性。第二段说明什么样的朋友才是真正的朋友，并用谚语作为论据，增强了说服力。最后一段作者从自身的角度来谈怎样交朋友，交什么样的朋友。

Passages 6
If I Were A Boy Again
    If I were a boy again, I would practice perseverance oftener and never give up a thing because it was too hard to do. If we want light, we must conquer darkness.
    Perseverance can sometimes equal genius in its results. "There are only two creatures," says a proverb, "who can surmount the pyramids---the eagle and the snail."
    If I were a boy again, I would school myself into a habit of attention. I would let nothing come between me and the subject in hand. I would remember that a good skater skate never tries to skate in two directions at once.
    If I were a boy again, I would cultivate courage. "Nothing is so mild and gentle as courage; nothing is so cruel and pitiless as cowardice," says a wise author. We too often borrow trouble, and anticipate evils that may never appear. "The fear of ill exceeds the ill we fear." Dangers will arise in any career, but presence of mind will often conquer the worst of them. Be prepared for any fate, and there is no harm to be feared.
    If I were a boy again, I would look on the cheerful side. Life is very much like a mirror; if you smile upon it, it smiles back upon you; if you frown and look doubtfully on it, you will have a similar look in return.
    Finally, instead of trying hard to be happy, as if that were the sole purpose of life, I would, if I were a boy again, try still harder to make others happy.
如果我再年青一次，我会重新开始，这是许多人都有的愿望。这篇文章虽然不长，却把这个话题讲得具体明了，层次清晰。从要学会坚韧、勇敢到乐观面对生活，从使自己幸福到努力使他人幸福，这是作者愿望的升华，也是文章主题的升华。
Passages 7
Love and Marriage
    In China people used to marry without their own consent. The marriages were arranged by parents. Two persons, man and a woman, who were entirely strangers, were united in wedlock and became husband and wife. They had known nothing of each other before, and of course love was a sealed book to both.
    This type of marriage often led to unhappiness. Tragic stories of ill-matched couples were common enough.
    Nowadays it is held by many that one should not marry without love. A man and a woman may freely make friends with each other. They do not talk of marriage until their friendship has ripened into love. In arranging their marriage, they may take other things into consideration, but they regard love ad the most important thing.
    This type of marriage usually brings happiness. However, love may be a temporary passion, and those who are in love are often blind to other things. So what we love is required before a marriage is arranged, it is not the only thing required.
    文章把过去和现在的婚姻状况作了对比。过去是包办婚姻，没有爱情，当然也没有幸福可言；现在的年轻人彼此有了感情，才会考虑婚姻，因此通常中幸福的。但是作者在最后补充指出，有时爱情是盲目的一时的冲动，所以牢固幸福的婚姻，除了爱情，还需考虑其他的因素。
Passages 8
Misunderstanding between Parents and Children
    It is natural for young people to be critical of their parents at times and to blame them for most of the misunderstandings between them. They have always complained, more or less justly, that their parents are out of touch with modern ways; that they are possessive and dominant; that they do not trust their children to deal with crises; that they talk too much about certain problems and that they have no sense of humour, at least in parent child relationships. I think it is true that parents often underestimate their teenage children and also forget how they themselves felt when young.
    Young people often irritate their parents with their choices in clothes and hairstyles, in entertainers and music. This is not their motive. They feel cut off from the adult world into which they have not yet been accepted. So they create a culture and society of their own. Then, if it turns out that their music or entertainers or vocabulary or clothes or hairstyles irritate their parents, this gives them additional enjoyment. They feel that they are leaders in style and taste.
    Sometimes you are resistant and proud, because you not want your parents to approve of what you do. If they did approve, it looks as you are betraying your own age group. But in that case, you are assuming. This is a passive way of looking at things. It is natural enough after long years of childhood, when you were completely under your parents' control. But it ignores the fact that you are now beginning to be responsible for yourself.
    If you plan to control your life, cooperation can be part of that plan. You can charm others, especially your parents, into doing things the way you want. You can impress others with your sense of responsibility and initiative, so that they will give you the authority to do what you want to do.
    这篇文章论述了家长与孩子之间的误会的种种情况和原因，很有深度。最后提出建议，孩子应该采取合作的态度，展示自己的能力，从而获得家长的认可。
Passages 9
Why Do We Launch the "Project Hope"
    Education plays a very important role in the modernization of our country. However, because of historical factors, there are still a lot of people in China who are still undereducated, illiterate, especially among youngsters in rural areas. They cannot afford the expenses of schooling and need help. At the same time, China is not able to invest too much money in the matter at present time. It is in this particular situation that the authorities carry out the "project Hope".
    This project is necessary to our country. It is an urgent measure that the government has taken. In the first place, this project will provide conditions for the youngsters to go back to school, which will contribute to their future success. Thus it will lead to the enhancement of the intelligence level in our country. Secondly, education makes it possible for people to acquire knowledge, which is useful to their future work. Hence, this project benefits the modernization of our country a lot. Finally, it can make more people educated. Therefore, it may indirectly result in the increase of the living standard of our people.
    In my opinion, this project is of great importance to our country at present time. As the project is gaining more and more support and recognition, an increasingly larger number of children are given the opportunities for education. But still we have to awaken to the fact that although this project is a significant step towards solving the problem of illiteracy in China, a thorough abolition of illiteracy calls for governmental as well as nongovernmental support.
    文章首先阐述了希望工程的必要性，然后在第二段用列举法论证了希望工程的作用。最后点明自己的看法，并提出建议。全文结构清楚，语言流畅，一气呵成。
Passages 10
On Mood
    What accompanies you all your life is not fortune and fame nor youth and appearance, but your mood or the state of mind which controls your life. In the modem age, our moods are as changeable as the cars coming and going on the super-highway. A favor from a neighbour, a kiss from a child, a praise from others are like warm sunshine that makes us comfortable. But a rough word from a stranger, a false product bought from the store, or an insulting remark in fun would put you in a bad mood and make your heart sink. A good mood makes one happy, energetic and creative. I was once shut in an elevator for one and a half hours. I had to phone for help. Eventually I was released. It was fun because I was in a happy mood .Otherwise I would have felt miserable.
    A bad mood is bad enough to cause you to lose self-confidence and leave you helpless with all your worries and troubles in mind.
    More often than not, we are in a mixed mood. Sometimes we are happy and high-spirited. Sometimes we are in low spirits. At this time we have to take courage and have a change of mood.
    A good mood will accompany you on your way the palace of success, to the chamber of love and to the pleasure and harmony in life. With a happy mood, we can live a more substantial life, one that is more interesting and meaningful.
    So, always remember to keep a happy mood wherever you go or whatever you do.
文章首先陈述了心情的特点——伴随人的一生，并且容易受外界的影响而发生变化。然后分别介绍了好心情和坏心情对人的影响，最后以“So”得出结论，无论去哪儿，无论做什么都应保持好的心情，这样才会过得快乐，有意义。