亲爱的小米阿姨：以下就是我的一篇英文作文。欢迎各位懂英语的叔叔阿姨给我提意见。
Personal Response to Literature
When we live in the world peacefully, something unexpected may happen at any time. In September of 2001, the twin towers were destroyed in New York by the attack of two commercial airplanes and over 3,000 people were dead. Why did this event cause so many casualties? Because the authority had never dealt with this kind of disaster, so they weren’t prepared for it. Last year, an earthquake of 8.0 magnitudes happened in Sichuan, China, on May 12th. There were over 80,000 people dead in the earthquake. Maybe the number of casualties could have been decreased if there had been no shoddy buildings existing in the disaster-hit areas. But the government never paid attention to the quality of those buildings because they didn’t know there would be a huge earthquake happening there. We should prepare as much as possible for tasks ahead us, but we can never prepare fully because we can’t predict the future situation exactly.
In the excerpt from Columbia’s Last Flight, William Langewiesche develops the idea that something unexpected happens because humans are always “vulnerable to self-satisfaction”. Columbia is a new generation of space flight after the Challenger explosion, and it may produce a milestone in space exploration although it is “a risky business”. Although NASA had prepared fully for this mission, “the vehicle and its seven souls [had] actually come to grief.”
The idea that we are often unprepared to face the unexpected is echoed throughout literature. In the movie Rain Man, Charlie Babbitt faces many unexpected events. After his father’s death, he meets the attorney to settle the estate. He thinks he will have all the Babbitt’s estate because he is the only son. But unexpectedly, his father only leaves Charlie a Buick car and several rose bushes. An undisclosed trustee is inheriting 3 million dollars. Eventually he learns that the money is being directed to a mental institution, which is the home of his brother. There Dr. Bruner tells Charlie he has a brother named Raymond in the institution. Charlie is not prepared to see Raymond because he left home when Charlie was two. Raymond is an autistic savant with superb recall but little understanding on subject matters, but he also has strict routines and is frightened by change. Raymond lives in his own world completely. Charlie feels it is unfair because Raymond has no concept of money. If Charlie wants to get the share of Babbitt’s estate, he needs to take Raymond back to Los Angeles to meet the attorney. Charlie thinks they will reach Los Angeles in three hours by air, but Raymond strongly refuses to take the plane by screaming in the airport terminal because he remembers the exact number of casualties in recent years’ air disasters. Charlie unexpectedly starts a cross-country trip that will take about two or three days back to Los Angeles by car. During the trip, Charlie learns that Raymond has an excellent memory, so he lets Raymond gamble for him in Las Vegas. There Raymond wins money which will be enough to pay for Charlie’s business debts. Motivated by his inner strength, Charlie unexpectedly develops love with Raymond. From then on he cares more about the brotherhood than the money. He begins to think what is better for Raymond instead of him, so he allows Raymond to return to the institution in the end. From the movie Rain Man, I learn that a person’s character will change unexpectedly after he undergoes a special experience, like Charlie Babbitt. He is an impatient, bossy, easily irritated and unemotional young hustler at first. After he spends time with his brother, his character has changed fundamentally so that he becomes a person with love.
In our lifetime as we undergo the experience of being unprepared to face the unexpected, we will not make mistakes easily the next time. Three years ago, I decided to study in TIS. Because TIS was an English school, every applicant had to have an English proficiency test. I thought I would enter TIS successfully because English was my second language and the school would consider it. Also my Mathematics was excellent, so the admission would just be a piece of cake. These two reasons made me unprepared for the English test and I arrived in Macau from China just two days ago before the test day. As I began to do the English test on the test day, I could hardly understand anything on articles of the test. I just chose answers randomly without any clue in the article. Two days later, the test result came out which “actually [came] to grief”. I got just 2 out of 100. Some days ago my dad asked the old principal if my English skill would be fine for admission, and he said yes. But unexpectedly a new principal, who was tough on the English proficiency test, was appointed in the midst of those times, so I might not be allowed to enter TIS. This was the first time I met the unexpected event. If I couldn’t get into TIS, I would have to go a Chinese regular school so that my English skill would be limited and the studying pressure would be more than TIS. In order to make my things better, my father went to negotiate with a founder of TIS so that I might have a second chance to do the English test a month later. Finally I was allowed to do the English test again and I never realized I would have the opportunity after failing the first English test. In order to pass the second test, I studied English very strenuously for everyday. I did at least four English reading comprehensions that were close to the level of the English admission test of TIS in one day and memorized 3,000 new vocabulary words in one month. During that month, my life was almost concentrated on English and I hardly had anytime to do anything I wanted. Because of my hard work in that month, I felt that my English reading skill had improved a lot. Finally I passed the English admission test and I came into TIS. Although my English was still more limited than most of students after coming to TIS, I did not fail in any of those required subjects. If I didn’t undergo this frustrating experience, I would not do as well as today in TIS because I would hardly study hard before coming to TIS. After this frustrating experience, I learned that I must be prepared enough for things that were going to happen soon. If I didn’t prepare enough, I would fail as easily as falling into the ravine while travelling on the valley.
Are we often unprepared to face the unexpected? Yes, because we are always “vulnerable to the self-satisfaction”. When we are on the edge of it, we will fail easily. The destruction of space shuttle Columbia happened because NASA’s engineers and designers thought everything about the vehicle would be fine. The failing of the English test happened to me because I didn’t know the difficulty of the test. We can’t avoid these situations, but once these happen to us we wouldn’t fail the next time easily because our minds are not “confined by [former] walls and routines [anymore]”.
Written by David Shi
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IP卡
狗仔卡
发表于 2009-9-20 12:39:10
显身卡
发表于 2009-9-20 18:28:20