新gre写作题库2012:GRE作文范文大全(66)
While education helps us see the flawed nature of our previously cherished ideas,
paradoxically it also helps us see ideas we previously rejected out of hand in a different
light--as having some merit after all. Through education in public policy and law,
once-oppressive rules, regulations, and restrictions appear reasonable constraints on freedom
in light of legitimate competing interests. Through the objective study of different religious
institutions, customs, and faiths, a student learns to see the merits of different belief systems,
and to see the cultural and philosophical traditions in which they are rooted.
Education also helps us see our own culture through different eyes. As cultural neophytes
we participate unwittingly in our culture's own customs, rituals, and ceremonies--because we
see them as somehow sacrosanct. A student of sociology or cultural anthropology comes to
see those same customs, rituals, and ceremonies as tools which serve our psychological need
to belong to a distinct social group, and to reinforce that sense of belonging by honoring the
group's traditions. And, by reading the literary works of writers from bygone eras, a literature
student comes to see his or her own culture as a potential treasure trove of fodder for the
creative literary mind. For example, by studying Twain's works a student learns that Twain saw
19th-Century life along the Mississippi not as a mundane existence but as a framework for the
quintessential adventure story, and that we can similarly transform the way we see our own
culture.
Finally, education in the arts alters forever the way we perceive the aesthetic world around
us. Prior to education we respond instinctively, emotionally, and viscerally to the forms, colors,
and sounds of art. Post education we respond intellectually. We seek to appreciate what art
reveals about our culture and about humanity. We also seek to understand the aesthetic
principles upon which true art is founded. For instance, an earnest art student learns to see not
just pigments and shapes but also historical influences and aesthetic principles. An informed
listener of popular music hears not just the same pleasing sounds and pulsating rhythms as
their naive counterparts, but also the rhythmic meters, harmonic structure, and compositional
forms used by the great classical composers of previous centuries, and which provided the
foundation of modern music. 感谢您阅读《GRE作文范文大全(66) 》一文,出国留学网(liuxue86.com)编辑部希望本文能帮助到您。
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