剑桥5 谢振礼 雅思范文: 停学一年
Cambridge English 5
IELTS Writing Task 2
Topic:
In some countries young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing high school and starting university studies.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages for young people who decide to do this.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Essay:
Taking a year-long break between finishing high school and starting college studies is far from being a realistic option for those who decide to do so. Whether for work or travel, young people are likely have less to gain and more to lose. For that matter, two factors—time and money—had better be taken into consideration.
Regarding the money factor, there are two assumptions that might lead some young people to take the gap-year decision. Either they have deep pockets to go places across the world on an over-extended vacation; or, they are in financial stress so that they need to work for a while in order to save my money for their university expenses. That is to say, the rich can afford to spend a lot of dollars along with four seasons of time, whereas the poor are obliged to work their way to get in and through college. Thus, it is up to an individual to visualize exactly what to gain by traveling or working, necessarily out of the regular track of academic studies. However, setting aside the money factor, it is true that young people are expected to benefit from traveling for global knowledge or from working for social experience before attending college, and this the main advantage of young people who decide to travel or work for one year.
It is hard to justify the loss of one year long for youngsters who are in pursuit of university degrees. With a few exceptions, the rule of the academic mainstream is to continue following the educational course without any interruption. For their own good, it is not advisable for young people suspend the habit of studying for the purposes of traveling or working. The loss of 12 months is a considerable disadvantage, referring particularly to when a hasty decision of this sort might end up in some of them never again returning to the normal academic process. At this point, it would be prudent to adapt to the thoughts of Confucius: “The process of studying is like rowing upstream—not advancing forward means getting back”. So, it is critical for them to advance rather than wait for one year because no one with a strong desire to attend university should be left behind.
In view of the money factor and the time factor, young people should think twice before making the decision to take one-year break. For them, there are more disadvantages than advantages to suspending their studies for as long as one year. After all, it is better to be realistic for their own sake.
