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新托福写作素材：STEM学科

We don’t need more STEM majors. We need more STEM majors with liberal arts training.

In business and at every level of government, we hear how important it is to graduate more students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math, as our nation’s competitiveness depends on it. The Obama administration has set a goal of increasing STEM graduates by one million by 2022, and the “desperate need” for more STEM students makes regular headlines. The emphasis on bolstering STEM participation comes in tandem with bleak news about the liberal arts —bad job prospects, programs being cut, too many humanities majors.

As a chemist, I agree that remaining competitive in the sciences is a critical issue. But as an instructor, I also think that if American STEM grads aregoing lead the world in innovation, then their science education cannot be divorced from the liberal arts.

Our culture has drawn an artificial line between art and science, one that did not exist for innovators like Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs. Leonardo’s curiosity and passion for painting, writing, engineering and biology helped him triumph in both art and science; his study of anatomy and dissections of corpses enabled his incredible drawings of the human figure. When introducing the iPad 2, Jobs, who dropped out of college but continued to audit calligraphy classes, declared: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing.” (Indeed, one of Apple’s scientists, Steve Perlman, was inspired to invent the QuickTime multimedia program by an episode of “Star Trek.”)

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, credits her degree in philosophy and medieval history in helping her be the first woman to lead a high-tech Fortune 20 corporation. “If you go into a setting and everybody thinks alike, it’s easy,” she has said. “But you will probably get the wrong answer.”

I became a chemistry professor by working side-by-side at the bench with a number of mentors, and the scholar/mentor relationships I’ve enjoyed were a critical aspect of my science education. And it is the centerpiece of a college experience within the liberal arts environment. For me, it was the key that unlocked true learning, and for my students, it has made them better scientists and better equipped to communicate their work to the public.

Like apprentices to a painter, my students sit with me and plan experiments. We gather and review data and determine the next questions to address. After two to three years of direct mentoring, students develop the ability to interpret results on their own, describe how findings advance knowledge, generate ideas for subsequent experiments and plan these experiments themselves. Seniors train new students in the lab, helping them learn gene recombination techniques that depend on accurate calculations and precise delivery of reagents. Put simply, a microliter-scale mistake can spell disaster for an experiment that took days to complete. And while my students work on these sensitive projects, they often offer creative and innovative approaches. To reduce calculation errors, one of my students wrote a user-friendly computer program to automatically measure replicate volumes. He did this by drawing on programming skills he learned in a computer science course he took for fun. Young people stuck exclusively in chemistry lecture halls will not evolve the same way.

A scientist trained in the liberal arts has another huge advantage: writing ability. The study of writing and analyses of texts equip science students to communicate their findings as professionals in the field. My students accompany me to conferences, where they do the talking. They write portions of articles for publications and are true co-authors by virtue of their contributions to both the experiments and the writing. Scientists are often unable to communicate effectively because, as Cornell University president David J. Skorton points out, “many of us never received the education in the humanities or social sciences that would allow us to explain to nonscientists what we do and why it is important.”

To innovate is to introduce change. While STEM workers can certainly drive innovation through science alone, imagine how much more innovative students and employees could be if the pool of knowledge from which they draw is wider and deeper. That occurs as the result of a liberal arts education.

Many in government and business publicly question the value of such an education. Yet employers in every sector continue to scoop up my students because of their ability to apply cross-disciplinary thinking to an incredibly complex world. They like my chemistry grads because not only can they find their way around a laboratory, but they’re also nimble thinkers who know to consider chemistry’s impact on society and the environment. Some medical schools have also caught on to this. The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has been admitting an increasing number of applicants with backgrounds in the humanities for the past 20 years. “It doesn’t make you a better doctor to know how fast a mass falls from a tree,” Gail Morris, head of the school’s admissions, told Newsweek. “We need whole people.”

By all means, let’s grow our STEM graduates as aggressively as possible. But let’s make sure they also have that all-important grounding in the liberal arts. We can have both.

托福写作举一反三:

摘抄：

We hear how important it is to graduate more students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math, as our nation’s competitiveness depends on it.

我们听到的是更多科学,技术,工程和数学专业的学生毕业有多么重要,因为我们国家的竞争力取决于它。

desperate need：迫切需要

makes regular headlines：经常上头条新闻

bolstering STEM participation：加强STEM学科参与

in tandem with：配合

bad job prospects, programs being cut, too many humanities majors：糟糕的就业前景,计划被削减,太多的人文专业毕业生托福考试报名网站

remaining competitive：保持竞争力

a critical issue：一个关键问题

going lead the world in innovation：在创新引领世界

science education cannot be divorced from the liberal arts：科学教育不能脱离了文科

drawn an artificial line between art and science：在艺术和科学之间绘制一个人为的界线

Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs.

列奥纳多·达·芬奇,史蒂夫·乔布斯

Leonardo’s curiosity and passion for painting, writing, engineering and biology helped him triumph in both art and science：达芬奇对绘画，写作,工程学和生物学的好奇和热爱,帮助他在艺术和科学胜利;

his study of anatomy and dissections of corpses enabled his incredibledrawings of the human figure：他研究尸体的解剖学和解剖使他绘出难以置信的人类图的图纸

dropped out of college：从大学退学

continued to audit calligraphy classes：持续旁听书法课程

yields us the result that makes our heart sing：使我们获得了令我们心灵唱歌的结果

it is the centerpiece of a college experience within the liberal arts  environment.

它的核心是一个有文科环境内大学经历。

it was the key that unlocked true learning: 这是解决真正学习的关键

better equipped to communicate their work to the public:能更好地向公众传达他们的工作

develop the ability to interpret results on their own:

自己开发来解释结果的能力

often offer creative and innovative approaches:

经常提供创意和创新方法。

The study of writing and analyses of texts equip science students to communicate their findings as professionals in the field.

写作的研究和分析文使科学学生为该领域的专业人士交流他们的研究成果。

communicate effectively: 有效沟通

the pool of knowledge: 知识的池子

the result of a liberal arts education: 文科教育的结果。

the value of such an education: 这样教育的价值。

scoop up: 舀上来

apply cross-disciplinary thinking to an incredibly complex world: 将跨学科思维应用到一个非常复杂的世界

consider chemistry’s impact on society:

考虑化学对社会的影响

has been admitting an increasing number of applicants with backgrounds in the humanities for the past 20 years: 在过去的20年已经录取越来越多有人文背景的申请人

By all means: 无论如何

all-important grounding in the liberal arts: 文科的重要的基础

Citation：

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/02/18/we-dont-need-more-stem-majors-we-need-more-stem-majors-with-liberal-arts-training/

托福写作试题实战应用

适用题目：

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement：students should be encouraged to take courses like science, technology, engineering and math that are likely to lead to job opportunities rather than subjects they might be interested in.

A high school has decided that all students must take a class in which they learn a practical skill. School administrators are trying to decide whether to hold a class in cooking, managing personal finances or auto repair. Which do you think the school should require students to take? Why?