I have heard of numerous friends who had been struggling for kaoyan,yet they failed the English test, thus all their previous efforts are in vain. Notably, many contestants, most of whom are taking majors of science & technology, meet with great obstacles as they come across the final part of the test - English Composition. They constantly complain about the lack of ideas, the shortage of grammartical structures and the scarcity of vocabulary. It appears to them that writing something is really more painful than anything else in the world.

    This is not an isolated phenomenon, however. Ever since we were in primary school, we have experienced the same things during Chinese Writing. There're times that the teacher had claimed a topic, and I sat there think and think and think, and 45 minutes passed, and I still couldn't think of any words worthwhile writing. When it came to examinations, I would have to write some ridiculous nonsense on the paper and avert my eyes while I got my points. Really, the typical mode of orient education and the long-time immersion in science subjects have too much stragled our imagination & creativeness. It is not easy for us to work out a math problem which we had not seen before,let alone making a composition from scratch. Nor,if we cannot express ourselves clearly in mother tongue, is it incredible for us to manage finishing our English Composition via reciting scores of "patterns" provided by a pack of so-called "experts".

    Practice is important, which is known to all. But how to? The average teacher would simply hand out some topics and say:"Write them." He does not care whether the student really have any interest or ideas in the topic. Thus it would be easy for him to check the compositions, but unsuitable for all the pupils to improve. The master teacher, instead, would rather let the pupils write freely, e.g., making diaries everyday, or making reports on infinitive topics. Only under such a mechanism can the pupils fully indicate their imagination and creativeness. Thus invoke the pupils' interest on writing, their ability being improved.

    When it comes to kaoyan, where much more active-study than passive-study are required, it makes little difference. You can only improve if you keep on writing, but if you stick to a pack of topics provided by others, and manage to write 200 words according to some fixed sentence structures, all your efforts are hardly any more than the simple repetetion of some low-quality compositions. Deng Xiaoping has told us:"Liberate our heads, and seek truth from facts." We should also liberate our heads to the greatest extent through our study, and try to write about anything that you want to write about, not somebody wants you to write about. You can talk about your favorite food, your feelings, your current situations. Or you can even talk about your own sexual experience, if only no one could possibly see what you have wriitten. Of course, you won't necessarily write about those, otherwise you'd be trapped again. Simply write anything you like. Remember to check your composition for any existing mistakes after you finish, without which you can make little improvements.

    我把文章的中心意思再说一下：我认为在平时使用别人制订好的主题来练习英文写作是不合适的，因为这将限制你的想象力和创造力的发挥，使你更愿意通过一些辅导书上提供的句型和结构模式来拼凑作文，最后结果将仅仅是大量低水平应试作文的简单重复，而提高甚少。最好是把那些“水资源与经济发展”、“环境污染和生态平衡”之类的垃圾抛到太平洋里去，自己随便写。写什么都成，只要你喜欢。没有字数限制，也没有任何别的限制。当然，写完以后一定要回头来仔细检查其中的错误，只有这样你才能提高。