英语写作资料：exercise sample

1、So That Nobody Has To Go To School If They Dont Want by Toby Roger Sipher A decline in standardized test scores is but the most recent indicator that American education is in trouble. One reason for the crisis is that present mandatory-attendance laws force many to attend school who have no wish to

2、be there. Such children have little desire to learn and are so antagonistic（敌对的） to school that neither they nor more highly motivated students receive the quality education that is the birthright of every American. The solution to this problem is simple: Abolish compulsory-attendance laws and allow

3、 only those who are committed to getting an education to attend. This will not end public education. Contrary to conventional belief, legislators enacted compulsory-attendance laws to legalize what already existed. William Landes and Lewis Solomon, economists, found little evidence that mandatory-at

4、tendance laws increased the number of children in school. They found, too, that school systems have never effectively enforced such laws, usually because of the expense involved. There is no contradiction between the assertion that compulsory attendance has had little effect on the number of childre

5、n attending school and the argument that repeal would be a positive step toward improving education. Most parents want a high school education for their children. Unfortunately, compulsory attendance hampers the ability of public school officials to enforce legitimate educational and disciplinary po

6、licies and thereby make the education a good one. Private schools have no such problem. They can fail or dismiss students, knowing such students can attend public school. Without compulsory attendance, public schools would be freer to oust students whose academic or personal behavior undermines the

7、educational mission of the institution. Has not the noble experiment of a formal education for everyone failed? While we pay homage to the homily, You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink, we have pretended it is not true in education. Ask high school teachers if recalcitrant（倔强不服从的

8、） students learn anything of value. Ask teachers if these students do any homework. Quite the contrary, these students know they will be passed from grade to grade until they are old enough to quit or until, as is more likely, they receive a high school diploma. At the point when students could lega

9、lly quit, most choose to remain since they know they are likely to be allowed to graduate whether they do acceptable work or not. Abolition of archaic attendance laws would produce enormous dividends(红利). First, it would alert everyone that school is a serious place where one goes to learn. Schools

10、are neither day-care centers nor indoor street corners. Young people who resist learning should stay away; indeed, an end to compulsory schooling would require them to stay away. Second, students opposed to learning would not be able to pollute the educational atmosphere for those who want to learn.

11、 Teachers could stop policing recalcitrant students and start educating. Third, grades would show what they are supposed to: how well a student is learning. Parents could again read report cards and know if their children were making progress. Fourth, public esteem for schools would increase. People

12、 would stop regarding them as way stations（小站） for adolescents and start thinking of them as institutions for educating Americas youth. Fifth, elementary schools would change because students would find out early they had better learn something or risk flunking out （退学）later. Elementary teachers wou

13、ld no longer have to pass their failures on to junior high and high school. Sixth, the cost of enforcing compulsory education would be eliminated. Despite enforcement efforts, nearly 15 percent of the school-age children in our largest cities are almost permanently absent from school. Communities co

14、uld use these savings to support institutions to deal with young people not in school. If, in the long run, these institutions prove more costly, at least we would not confuse their mission with that of schools. Schools should be for education. At present, they are only tangentially（间接地，略有触及） so. Th

15、ey have attempted to serve an all-encompassing social function, trying to be all things to all people. In the process they have failed miserably at what they were originally formed to accomplish.2.The Cult of Busyness - Barbara EhrenreichNot too long ago a former friend and soon-to-be acquaintance c

16、alled me up to tell me how busy she was. A major report, upon which her professional future depended, was due in three days; her secretary was on strike; her housekeeper had fallen into the hands of the Immigration Department; she had two hours to prepare dinner party for eight; and she was late for

17、 her time-management class. Stress was taking its toll, she told me: her children resented the fact that she sometimes got their names mixed up, and she had taken to abusing white wine.All this put me at a distinct disadvantage, since the only thing I was doing at the time was holding the phone with

18、 one hand and attempting to touch the opposite toe with the other hand, a pastime that I had perfected during previous telephone monologues. Not that Im not busy too: as I listened to her, I was on the alert for the moment the dryer would shut itself off and I would have to rush to fold the clothes

19、before they settled into a mass of incorrigible wrinkles. But if I mentioned this little deadline of mine, she might think I wasnt busy enough to need a housekeeper, so I just kept on patiently saying Hmm until she got to her parting line: Look, this isnt a good time for me to talk. Ive got to go no

20、w.I dont know when the cult of conspicuous busyness began, but it has swept up almost all the upwardly mobile, professional women I know. Already, it is getting hard to recall the days when, for example Lets have lunch meant something other than Ive got more important things to do than talk to you r

21、ight now. There was even a time when people used to get together without the excuse of needing something to eat-when, in fact, it was considered rude to talk with your mouth full. In the old days, hardly anybody had an appointment book, and when people wanted to know what the day held in store for t

22、hem, they consulted a horoscope.Its not only women, of course; for both sexes, busyness has become an important insignia of upper-middle-class status. Nobody, these days, admits to having a hobby, although two or more careers-say, neurosurgery and an art dealership-is not uncommon, and I am sure we

23、will soon be heating more about the tribulations of the four-pay-check couple. Even those who can manage only one occupation at a time would be embarrassed to be caught doing only one thing at a time. Those young men who jog with their headsets on are not. as you might innocently guess, rocking out,

24、 but are absorbing the principles of international finance law or a lecture on one-minute management. Even eating, I read recently, is giving way to grazing- the conscious ingestion of unidentified foods while drafting a legal brief, cajoling a client on the phone, and, in ambitious cases, doing cal

25、f-toning exercises under the desk. All the bustle, my busy friends would explain-they want to succeed.But if success is the goal, it seems clear to me that the fast track is headed the wrong way. Think of the people who are genuinely successful: path-breaking scientists, best-selling novelists, and

26、designers of major new software. They are not, on the whole, the kind of people who keep glancing shiftily at their watches or making small lists entitled To Do. On the contrary, many of these people appear to be in a daze, like the distinguished professor I once had who, in the middle of a lecture

27、on electron spin, became so fascinated by the dispersion properties of chalk dust that he could not go on. These truly successful people are childlike, easily distractible, fey sorts, whose usual demeanor resembles that of a recently fed hobo on a warm summer evening.The secret of the truly successf

28、ul, I believe, is that they learned very early in life how not to be busy. They saw through that adage, repeated to me so often in childhood, that anything worth doing is worth doing well. The truth is, many things are worth doing only in the most slovenly, halfhearted fashion possible, and many oth

29、er things are not worth doing at all. Balancing a checkbook, for example. For some reason, in our culture, this dreary exercise is regarded as the supreme test of personal maturity, business acumen, and the ability to cope with math anxiety. Yet it is a form of busyness which is exceeded in futility

30、 only by going to the additional trouble of computerizing ones checking account-and that, in turn, is only slightly less silly than taking the time to discuss, with anyone, what brand of personal computer one owns, or is thinking of buying, or has heard of others using.If the truly successful manage

31、 never to be busy, it is also true that many of the busiest people will never be successful. I know this firsthand from my experience, many years ago, as a waitress. Any executive who thinks the ultimate in busyness consists of having two important phone calls on hold and a major deadline in twenty minutes, should try facing six tablefuls of clients simultaneously demanding that you give them their checks, fresh coffee, a baby seat, and a warm, spontaneous smile. Even when shes not busy, a waitress has to look busy - refilling the salt sh