谢振礼托福写作范文
ielts360toefl@hotmail.com
TOEFL TWE Question:
Some people think that reading books is more educational than watching movies. Other people think that watching movies is more educational than reading books. What do you think? Use specific reasons and examples (based on your knowledge or experience) to support your answer.
Example Answer (Jeenn Lee Hsieh):
Although books cannot always please, however good, they make more educational sense than do movies. On the one hand, watching movies is increasingly a popular form of entertainment, and no wonder there are more cinemas than libraries in town. On the other hand, it is mainly through doing a great deal of reading that you can become such a learned person with enhanced ability to express your thoughts in words and to stimulate your imaginations between the lines.
To begin with, reading a lot matters to writing well (with imagery, symbolism, metaphors, and so on). Learning to write as well as learning to read is an essential part of the education, but you cannot master these skills by simply seeing enough movies on the screen. True enough, some motion pictures are so designed as to be educational as well as entertaining, actually even these films have little or nothing to do with improving viewers' reading and writing skills. For instance, try to forget for a moment the educational value of reading, and ask any reader who has seen the movie version of a favorite novel, the answer will usually be, "The book was better." Books and movies being of completely tastes and often for different purposes, you can no more improve your reading and writing skills by watching a movie than telling a book by its movie. Now ask yourself, "Do you want a movie based on a book, or a book based on a movie?"
Unlike books, movies usually leave little room to your imaginations and may not be valued as particularly educational. It is because a film, however dramatic, tends to limit the realm of your imaginations and force you to accept the director's vision of the book on which the story is based. In comparison, when reading, it is as if you were creating your own movie and deciding a number of the important parts relevant to the plot: how the characters speak, what they look like, and what their surroundings look like, etc. This way of imagining and interpreting as a reader is a creative process that is distinctly different from viewing a film. Independent of its educational value, not all movie versions might be considered as necessarily worse than the books, as is the case of "The Godfather" which is said to make more educational sense than the novel itself. "The Great Gatsby" is a typical case in which it is amusing to see how Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role in the film while it is more educational to learn how F. Scott Fitzgerald writes his famous piece.
As a general rule, reading books is a better way to improve your reading and writing skills and stimulate your imagining power than watching movies. It is one thing that people love seeing films than reading books, and it is another thing that books are more educational than movies. As long as education is concerned, do you believe that books are a superior story telling medium to that of movies? (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh 谢振礼 ielts360toefl@hotmail.com pigai zuowen)
>Notes from Jeenn Lee Hsieh 谢振礼老师:
What is a Thesis? It is the main controlling idea of your Essay. First, when writing an essay, you may need to tell an OPINION from a FACT. In your Introduction, you must present your Position in response to the Essay Topic. Therefore, Thesis=Position+Topic.
Your Thesis is an Opinion, not a Fact. Your Opinion needs support of evidence. An OPINION is an Abstract Idea that requires explanations through reasons, examples and details, in order to convince the Reader. A fact cannot be supported. Facts are supports.
Abstract Ideas--Opinions or Facts? Your Opinion is an Abstract Idea, not a Fact.
The Thesis Statement in your Introduction is your position, which is an opinion, not a fact. An opinion is arguable, so it needs support to prove that your argument is true. The Topic Sentence in your Body Paragraph A as well as in Body Paragraph B is an opinion, not a fact.
Remember: Your opinion needs proof or evidence. A fact is a fact and it does not require support of reasons/examples/details.
