全国2008年1月高等教育自学考试
英语写作试题
课程代码：00603
Ⅰ.Supply the missing paragraph (20 points)
The following passage is incomplete with one body paragraph missing. Study the following passage carefully and write a body paragraph of about 100 words. Make sure that the tone and vocabulary you use are in unity with the passage provided.
In recent 10 years, with the advent of IT era, the role of a library has changed a lot. It is no longer restricted to the traditional function of lending books, but becomes a synthesis of educational functions. Some people think that a library should keep in pace with modern technology while others insist that a library should maintain its original function and resist hi-tech materials.
Admittedly, books are the main resources of a library, and helping people to read is the main function of a library. But the 21st century has changed the traditional definition of “book”. It is not only related to the printed materials, but also expands to a wider range, covering visual and audio publications, e-books, essay data bases, and website resources. In such an occasion, a library has to reform its old functions and introduce new functions. Once a library becomes modern, it would have the ability to display all educational resources to the public. Otherwise, it might fade out from our horizon and even become a museum. Moreover, it is the public’s demand that dominates the reformation of a library. Nowadays, people ask more. They are no longer satisfied with a simple function in a library, and furthermore, they would like to enjoy a cup of coffee as well. Therefore, a library has to add café, internet bar and video room to its original design. Overall, the money spent on the relatively expensive hi-tech media would arm a library and make it more educational, as well as attractive. What it invests would definitely result in a huge return.
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All things considered, I have reasons to believe that developing hi-tech media in a library is a right choice. A library should allocate a certain part of money on updating hi-tech materials, as well as books.
Ⅱ.Write an outline (20 points)
Read the following passage carefully and compose a “topic outline” for it.
Last year alone, more than one million children in the United States chose home-schooling over traditional education. This stunning figure was released according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Home-schooling is a recent development in education. Not long ago, it was considered too radical by many education experts. Nowadays, it is legalized in every state and more than one million children have undergone home-schooling and many more parents are seriously considering home-schooling.
The interesting thing was: What prompted such a change? There have been many recent surveys to suggest that parents are getting impatient and fed up with our public schooling system. It is seen as being superficial with no real-life skills being applied and taught.
Parents are also concerned about the negative publicity often portrayed in news. Examples are school students taking drugs in schools, abusing fellow students physically and even students bringing guns and knives to schools. Parents are concerned about the negative peer influences that these students have on their children.
Home-schooling offers an opportunity to end all that and allows parents to bring up their children in a natural and loving environment. It is especially important in the early years of a child’s development (between three to twelve years old ) as this is the period where they are prone to negative influences and peer pressure and cannot differentiate what is right and what is wrong. Home-schooling helps to protect them from such negative influences.
Another benefit of home-schooling is that it is an inevitable bond between the child and the parents. The parents and the child spend more time together forming a unique bond. The bond gets stronger as time passes and later you will find that you can connect with your child better than you never thought before.
Parents can also have better control over the kind of moral and religious beliefs that a child should have. Parents can impart their moral values and beliefs to their children easily since they spend more time together.
So what is stopping parents from adopting home-schooling? For one thing, home-schooling requires a lot of time and money. For most families, both parents need to be working full-time to support the family. Many home-schooling families are dependent on one parent for the income. The other parent has to devote full-time to home-schooling the child. Therefore in some cases, it is not possible to adopt home-schooling unless you are financially stable.
The other interesting phenomenon is that more and more home-schooling support groups are appearing in the neighborhood. They help to guide and support each other. Some home-schooling support groups have even gone online. If you do decide to go home-schooling, find a home-schooling support group in your area.
Ⅲ.Compose an essay (60 points)
In some society sports and entertainment stars have higher value than professional workers like doctors, nurses and teachers. Do you think it is a good or bad social phenomenon? Write a short argumentative essay about 300 words to discuss this social phenomenon. In your writing, give a title, underline your thesis and number your paragraphs.
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