2. 职称英语
  3. Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside t

Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside t

游客2024-01-12  9
问题 Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student’s field of study.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.
选项
答案     After undergoing a marathon journey from primary to high school and then to university, students are confronted by another dilemma: how to strike a balance between their majors and courses in other fields. A similar quandary must have perplexed educators for decades as they grappled with designing university courses. While at first glance it may seem appealing to require students to take various courses outside of their fields of study, I remain doubtful of such a proposal. If we hastily carry out the advice, it would probably jeopardize education’s purpose of facilitating students’ well-roundedness.
    Advocates of this claim will reject my position. They may argue that knowledge gained from other fields contributes to innovative approaches to understanding the majors. The blending of different methodologies from various fields exemplifies this argument. For supporting examples, we can no further turn to the cooperation of linguistics and literature and the combination of math and economics. What bind these pairs are similar methodologies. By transferring a methodology from one field to another, students are able to understand the essence of both fields and this leads to the emergence of creative ideas and more profound understanding. However, not all fields relate as readily as the aforementioned pairs, so we cannot expect to apply principles from any field to another. Therefore, only when the courses share similar methodological principles can the author’s recommendation come into effect.
    Opposition to my argument also comes from current students’ limited range of knowledge and narrow horizons. From this point of view, university students should be equipped with holistic capabilities in diverse fields so that they can better accustom themselves to diverse work in the future. In modern society, we are not surprised to encounter a professional lawyer who excels at public speaking; nor will it shock us when a mathematician assumes the role of a philosopher. An abundance of these generalists demonstrates the very advantage of a mastery of comprehensive skills and expertise. Nevertheless, I argue that generalists choose to be excellent, but are not required to be. It is their insatiable desire for knowledge that drives them to conquer new fields one after another, and it is their proficiency in the previous fields that enables them to excel in the new ones. Students nowadays are exceedingly short of time and universities should foster, in most circumstances, specialists rather than generalists. Consequently, while we welcome generalists, it might be more reasonable if we step back from the decision requiring students to choose courses in various disciplines, and adopt an alternative policy: encourage them to take extra courses and do whatever we can to facilitate this process.
    Although I maintain that encouraging course selection may function better than a mandatory requirement, some people may dispute my position. They claim that the latter overshadows the former in terms of efficiency, since sluggishness is human nature and it is only through compulsory course requirements that students will really make progress in their major fields. The beginning of every course, they argue, inevitably stumbles on questioning and even emphatic repudiation; however, such questioning and repudiation will be followed by subsequent acceptance and students will quickly absorb new knowledge. Consistent might this claim appear with the reality, I tend to say that students do not learn for the sake of learning, and instead they learn in order to pass tests. Whatever form is used to test students, be it an exam, a paper submission or group work, students always tend to focus on the test itself, but not on the accumulation of knowledge. Without adjusting students’ attitude towards learning, the introduction of various new courses will remain well-intentioned but will inevitably result in a meaningless struggle against the exam-oriented education system.
    Taking extra courses outside one’s original field goes far beyond the decision of whether or not to take them, but raises more fundamental and far-reaching issues. We may tentatively implement the issue’s recommendation, but a complete change in the design of university courses requires more careful consideration. (662 words)
解析     这篇文章很好地回答了一个被经常问到的问题：面对“敌方看法(他人看法)”类的Direction，我们需要用多少篇幅去写那些反对我们立场的观点?
    将本文与其他两篇敌方看法类的文章相结合，我们可以得出结论：面对敌方看法类的Direction，我们少则用一段，多则可以用三段(假设中间段有三段)来讨论敌方看法。也因为这篇文章的中间段三段都在照应Direction，这也给我们提供了很好的思维模板和语言素材。比如，在陈述敌方看法时，这三段分别用了这样的句式：
    1. Advocates of this claim will reject my position. They may argue that…
    2. Opposition to my argument also comes from…
    3. Although I maintain that…some people may dispute my position.
    而每一个中间段在陈述了他人看法之后，还对他人看法做了进一步的分析和评价，另外值得一提的是本文的观点。在面对“大学是否应该要求学生选修多种多样的课”这一话题时，同意这个建议的考生最容易想到的观点是“多样的课程能拓宽学生的视野，增强他们的综合素质”；而反对者最容易诉诸的观点则是“学生没时间，精力不够”。这些观点不是不可以，只是很多考生都写，便很难出彩了。而这篇文章给大家提供了一些新的思路，如：
    1.学习其他课程可能会加深对本专业知识的理解，但这仅局限于方法论相似而且可以互相借鉴的学科。
    2.大学不排斥通才，但更应该培养专才。
    3.当学生被要求选很多课时，他们看似学到了很多知识，但只是在应付考试而已。
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