GRE备考：GRE作文范文大全（22）
To begin with, learning about great human achievements of the past provides inspiration.
For example, a student inspired by the courage and tenacity of history's great explorers might
decide as a result to pursue a career in archeology, oceanography, or astronomy. This decision
can, in turn, profoundly affect that student's everyday life--in school and beyond. Even for
students not inclined to pursue these sorts of careers, studying historical examples of courage
in the face of adversity can provide motivation to face their own personal fears in life. In short,
learning about grand accomplishments of the past can help us get through the everyday
business of living, whatever that business might be, by emboldening us and lifting our spirits.
In addition, mistakes of the past can teach us as a society how to avoid repeating those
mistakes. For example, history can teach us the inappropriateness of addressing certain social
issues, particularly moral ones, on a societal level. Attempts to legislate morality invariably fail,
as aptly illustrated by the Prohibition experiment in the U.S. during the 1930s. Hopefully, as a
society we can apply this lesson by adopting a more enlightened legislative approach toward
such issues as free speech, criminalization of drug use, criminal justice, and equal rights under
the law.
Studying human history can also help us understand and appreciate the mores, values, and
ideals of past cultures. A heightened awareness of cultural evolution, in turn, helps us
formulate informed and reflective values and ideals for ourselves. Based on these values and
ideals, students can determine their authentic life path as well as how they should allot their
time and interact with others on a day-to-day basis.
Finally, it might be tempting to imply from the speaker's allegation that studying history has
little relevance even for the mundane chores that occupy so much of our time each day, and
therefore is of little value. However, from history we learn not to take everyday activities and
things for granted. By understanding the history of money and banking we can transform an
otherwise routine trip to the bank into an enlightened experience, or a visit to the grocery store
into an homage to the many inventors, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs of the past
who have made such convenience possible today. And, we can fully appreciate our freedom to
go about our daily lives largely as we choose only by understanding our political heritage. In
short, appreciating history can serve to elevate our everyday chores to richer, more interesting,
and more enjoyable experiences. In sum, the speaker fails to recognize that in all our
activities and decisions--from our grandest to our most rote--history can inspire, inform, guide,
and nurture. In the final analysis, to study history is to gain the capacity to be more
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human--and I would be hard- pressed to imagine a worthier end.
Issue 39
"It is primarily through formal education that a culture tries to perpetuate the ideas it favors and
discredit the ideas it fears."
The speaker asserts that a culture perpetuates the ideas it favors while discrediting those it
fears primarily through formal education. I agree that grade-school, and even high-school,
education involves cultural indoctrination. Otherwise, I think the speaker misun-derstands the
role of higher education, and overlooks other means by which a culture achieves these ends.
I agree with the speaker with respect to formal grade-school and even high-school
education--which to some extent amount to indoctrination with the values, ideas, and
principles of mainstream society. In my observation, young students are not taught to question
authority, to take issue with what they are taught, or to think critically for themselves. Yet, this
indoctrination is actually desirable to an extent. Sole emphasis on rote learning of facts and
figures is entirely appropriate for grade-school children, who have not yet gained the
intellectual capacity and real-world experience to move up to higher, more complex levels of
thinking. Nevertheless, the degree to which our grade schools and high schools emphasize
indoctrination should not be overstated. After all, cultural mores, values, and biases have little
to do with education in the natural sciences, mathe matics, and specific language skills such
as reading and writing. 感谢您阅读《GRE作文范文大全（22） 》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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