GRE优秀作文赏析：科学的作用

 　　题目：

　　The function of science is to reassure¹; the purpose of art is to upset. Therein lies the value of each.

　　科学的作用是解惑;艺术的目的是创新。只有这样他们才各得其所。

　　正文：

　　Science and art are two of the most glorious fields in which numerous people have made their great contributions. As the society develops, people concern more about the function of science, of art and of other realms. Some may argue that the function of science is to reassure, and the purpose of art is to upset, however, as far as I am concerned, science and art have more significant values than just to reassure or to upset people.

　　The main function of science is to propel the development of human society and to provide people the power to understand the nature and ourselves. In the primordial² days of the human history, when the conception of science first emerged, science was to answer people's questions and to satisfy people's curiosity towards myriad³ mysterious phenomenon. If we understand the science in such way, we can't see clear differences between the inchoate⁴ religion and the inchoate science, because, the functions of both of them are nearly the same, and both contain totally absurd theories if one studies them today. One may agree that in that period of time, science was largely to reassure people's fear towards the mysteries just as what religions try to do.

　　However, the development of science finally makes it an important tool for us to understand the nature and to change the nature in our favor. The understanding of electricity expels the old thought that the thunder is a sign indicating that the god is angry. The advancement⁵ achieved in medicine greatly elongate⁶ human's life, and nowadays people no longer depend on certain rituals to give them health. Discoveries and inventions alike have transformed our society into the nowadays form, and provide us great power to determine our future. If science is only to reassure us, how can we achieve the feats⁷ we have made through our history? As Francis Bacon once said, "Knowledge is power", the true function of science is to give us the power to conquer the difficulties we confront.

　　Unlike science, arts which seldom give us the power to better our material lives, mainly concern about our spiritual lives. Admittedly, some arts actually upset people by let us see the weakness of the human nature or the darkness of our society, as the art works of Michelangelo. However, arts possess much more functions than just upset us. Arts can ease our emotions and reassure us, as the music of Mozart does; arts can give us confidence and braveness, as the music of Beethoven does; arts can also tell us what philosophy is, as the music of Mahler does. Although arts possess so many functions,one can judge that the major function of art is to represent the life and to present the artists' ideals. Most literary works, such as fictions, poems, dramas, give us a vivid image of the society. Other forms of arts have the same kind of functions. For example, Tchaikovsky composed music to represent the hard life of the common Russian people, while Van Gogh drew pictures to represent the beauty of the nature. There're also other pieces of art showing us the inner part of the artists, for instance, the representative new trend movie "four hundred blows". By presenting the life and the ideals, arts give us true understanding of our circumstances and ourselves in a spiritual way. Arts can not explain why it rains,but it explains how people feel about the rainy day.

　　Before we can make full utilization⁸ of any subjects of study, we must at first understand their main functions and values to our society. For example, if we depend upon rituals and ceremonies to give us fortune and luck and to provide us enough to eat, we may probably die of hunger. The true value of these rituals and ceremonies lies in the fact that they are crucial part of our culture. It's the same case for science and art, if we hold the opinion that science is only to reassure people, and art is only to upset people, we can't see the importance of these two subjects to our society. It's possible that we ignore the development of them, and sequentially our society won't develop without the breakthroughs made in science, and our citizens won't lead a happy life and will stay in an ignorant status without the existence of great art works.

　　Science and art, as discussed above, are crucial to our society. Admittedly, science can reassure people by explain the mysterious phenomenon, and arts can upset people by let us see things we can't discover with our own eyes. However, if we simply regard science and art this way, we would miss so much that our society will stop developing or even collapse⁹ into chaos¹⁰.

　　以上便是关于科学的作用的新GRE issue写作范文，各位考生在新GRE写作练习中应加强对思维逻辑的重视，平时注意积累论据论证素材，注意借鉴一些新GRE写作范文，来吸收其精华，提高自己的写作水平。

 

1 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

2 primordial   

adj.原始的；最初的

参考例句：

• It is the primordial force that propels us forward.它是推动我们前进的原始动力。
• The Neanderthal Man is one of our primordial ancestors.的尼安德特人是我们的原始祖先之一.

3 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

4 inchoate   

adj.才开始的，初期的

参考例句：

• His dreams were senseless and inchoate.他的梦想根本行不通，很不成熟。
• Her early works are inchoate idea,nothing but full of lush rhetoric.她的早期作品都不太成熟，除了华丽的词藻外就没什麽内容了。

5 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

6 elongate   

v.拉长，伸长，延长

参考例句：

• We plan to elongate the cooperation with that company in Australia.我们打算延长与澳洲那家公司的合作关系。
• Corn is treated when the stalk starts to elongate.在玉米秆开始拔节时，给玉米打药。

7 feats   

功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He used to astound his friends with feats of physical endurance. 过去，他表现出来的惊人耐力常让朋友们大吃一惊。
• His heroic feats made him a legend in his own time. 他的英雄业绩使他成了他那个时代的传奇人物。

8 utilization   

n.利用，效用

参考例句：

• Computer has found an increasingly wide utilization in all fields.电子计算机已越来越广泛地在各个领域得到应用。
• Modern forms of agricultural utilization,have completely refuted this assumption.现代农业利用形式，完全驳倒了这种想象。

9 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

10 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。