首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
For admissions officers, reviewing applications is like final-exam week for students except it lasts for months. Great applicati
For admissions officers, reviewing applications is like final-exam week for students except it lasts for months. Great applicati
admin
2010-07-19
65
问题
For admissions officers, reviewing applications is like final-exam week for students except it lasts for months. Great applications tell us we’ve done our job well, by attracting top-caliber students. But it’s challenging to maintain the frenetic pace without forgetting these are all real people with real aspirations--people whose life stories we are here to unravel, if they will let us.
The essay is a key piece of learning those life stories. I live near Los Angeles, where every day screenplays are read without regard for human context. The writer’s life and dreams don’t matter--all that matters is the writing, the ideas, the end product. On the other hand, in reading essays, context does matter: who wrote this? We are driven to put the jigsaw puzzle together because we think we are building a community, not just choosing neat stories. When I pick up a file, I want to know whether the student has sib lings or not, who his parents are, where he went to high school. Then I want the essay to help the rest of the application make sense, to humanize all the numbers that flow past. I am looking for insight.
A brilliantly written essay may compel me to look beyond superficial shortcomings in an application. But if no recommendation or grade or test score hints at such writing talent, I may succumb to cynicism and assume the writer had help--maybe too much. In the worst cases, I may find that I have read it be fore--with name and place changed--on the Internet, in an essay-editing service or a "best essays" book.
The most appealing essays take the opportunity to show a voice not rendered homogeneous and pasteurized. But sometimes the essays tell us too much. Pomona offers this instruction with one essay option: "We realize that not everything done in life is about getting into college. Tell us about something you did that was just plain fun. "One student grimly reported that nothing was fun because in his family everything was about getting into college. Every activity, course choice and spare moment. It did spark our sympathy, but it almost led to a call to Child Protective Services as well.
Perfection isn’t required. We have seen phenomenal errors in essays that haven’t damaged a student at all. I recall a student who wrote of the July 1969 lunar landing of-I kid you not--Louis Armstrong. I read on, shaking my head. This student was great--a jazz trumpeter who longed to study astronomy. It was a classic slip and perhaps a hurried merging of two personal heroes. He was offered admission, graduated and went on for a PhD in astrophysics. He may not have been as memorable if he had named "Neil" instead of "Louis" in his essay’s opening line. Hey, we’re human, too.
An essay that is rough around the edges may still be compelling. Good ideas make an impression, even when expressed with bad punctuation and spelling errors. Energy and excitement can be communicated. I’m not suggesting the "I came, I saw, I conquered" approach to essay writing, nor the "I saved the world" angle taken by some students who write about community service projects. I’m talking about smaller moments that are well captured. Essays don’t require the life tragedy that so many seem to think is necessary. Not all admission offers come out of sympathy!
Admissions officers, even at the most selective institutions, really aren’t looking for perfection in 17 and 18-year-olds. We are looking for the human being behind the roster of activities and grades. We are looking for those who can let down their guard just a bit to allow others in We are looking for people whose egos won’t get in the way of learning, students whose investment in ideas and words tells us in the context of their records--that they are aware of a world beyond their own homes, schools, grades and scores. A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. To us, an essay that reveals a student’s unaltered voice is worth much, much more.
It can be inferred from the first paragraph that ______.
选项
A、reviewing applications is a tedious and exhausting task.
B、there are a lot 9f applications that need attending to quickly.
C、people tend to tell their life stories in their applications.
D、reviewing applications is a constant headache to the teachers.
答案
B
解析
推断题。首段首句指出:reviewing applications is like final-exam week for students--except is lasts for months,可见applications非常之多,这里没有提到这项工作沉闷、累人,[A]不符合文意。[D]中的“constant”意为“持续的”,过于绝对,与it lasts for months矛盾,故排除。第三句中的the frenetic pace与[B]“need attending to quickly”意思一致,故[B]为答案。末句提到people whose life stories we are here to unravel,这里是说录取官员要火眼金睛,从学生们的申请材料中发现他们的生活轨迹,[C]不符合文意,排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/EklO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
ChileisdisadvantagedinthepromotionofitstourismbyAccordingtothepassage,inWHICHareaimprovementisalreadyunder
PartofthenewdesignistobeconcernedwiththefollowingEXCEPTAccordingtothepassage,thenewdesignworkinvolves
TheFrenchPresident’svisittoJapanaimsat
Fromthefirstparagraph,wegettheimpressionthatItcanbeinferredfromthepassagethatFeld’sdaughterwasallEXCEPT
TheodoricVolerhadbeenbroughtup,frominfancytotheconfinesofmiddleage,byafondmotherwhosechiefsolicitudehadbee
回忆起那几年的教学生涯,最使我眷恋的是:学生们和我成了知心朋友。那时教师和男女学生都住在校内,课外的接触十分频繁。我们常常在未名湖上划船,在水中央的岛边石舫上开种种的讨论会,或是作个别谈话。这种个别谈话就更深入了!有个人的择业与择婚问题等等!这时我眼前忽然
Theoceanbottom—aregionnearly2.5timesgreaterthanthetotallandareaoftheearth—isavastfrontierthateventodayisl
TheInternetofthefutureshouldbeaworldwidemarketplacefullyaccessiblebymobilecustomerseverywhere,theleadingnetwor
A、Anexportsalesmanworkingoverseas.B、Anaccountantworkinginthecompany.C、Aproductionmanagerinabranch.D、Apolicyma
1 ApanelofthegreatandthegoodfromEuropeandtheUnitedStatesrecentlydrewupanelegantblueprintforremakingtheAt
随机试题
健康男婴,出生体重为3.5kg,身长为50cm,头围34cm,现在年龄为6个月,来医院做健康体检。预计该婴儿的头围应当为
治疗肝脾血瘀型鼓胀的代表方剂为
借款人无法足额偿还贷款本息,即使执行担保,也肯定要造成较大损失的贷款是指()。
关于消费行为影响因素的说法,错误的是()。
三大改造以后,我国社会主义政治生活的主题是坚持马列主义、毛泽东思想。()
下列情况中,可适用假释的有()。
某公司举行假面舞会。张先生与张女士头戴不同颜色的面具相遇。“我是一位先生。”戴红色面具的那位说。“我是一位女士。”戴黄色面具的那位说。说完后,两人都笑了。因为他们两人中至少有一个人在说谎。据此,可以推断出下列哪项判断为真?()
Mothersinterferewiththeirchildren’slivesevenmorethanmostoffspringrealize.Thattheynagabouteatinghabitsiswellk
在系统分析阶段中有两个主要的工具:数据流程图和数据字典。其中,______是为系统设计提供支持,它将被转换成系统设计中的控制结构图;______将为数据库的设计提供支持。
人们乐于藉此节日之机互相走访,互赠礼物,借以表达相互之间的关怀,从而巩固彼此的关系。
最新回复
(
0
)