GRE作文范文 Issue-3

"Colleges and universities should offer more courses on popular music, film, advertising and television because contemporary culture has much greater relevance for students than do arts and literature of the past."

嘉文博譯Sample Essay

To the extent that contemporary culture is, by definition, current, it does have a much more immediate impact on students and people in general than do the arts and literature of the past. Contemporaneous events directly affect everyone alive at the time because they are occurring at precisely the same time as the individual's existence. But to paraphrase a famous philosopher: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." To a great extent, past arts and literature shape who we are as people at least as much as, if not more than, contemporary culture does.

Everyone alive today is affected in one way or another by the events of the past. Past events have directly led to the way that the world is shaped today. The arts and literature are one of the most well-preserved and documented resources that can give us a direct link into what actually happened in the past. Consider the religious writings of the Bible, the Koran and those of Confucius, as well as those related to Buddhism, Hinduism and all other religions. These writings directly relate to, and in some cases to a great extent control, the behavior of human beings today even though most were written hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Artworks relating to these religions also have a profound effect. Consider Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, or the vast myriad of historic Buddhist statues throughout Asia, or the ancient Muslim mosques throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. It would be difficult to argue that contemporary culture has more relevance to today's students when compared with the relevance of these examples of past arts and literature.

At times it is difficult to determine what exactly is the difference between contemporary culture and the arts and literature of the past. Shakespeare's classic writings are continuously being adapted into current movies that are often big hits with students and the general population as a whole. Millions of people every year view classic works of art in museums all over the world. Readings of religious texts have never gone out of style with a large part of the world's population. Clashes between centuries-old cultures and religions, such as that of Western countries and Islamic extremists and that of Hindus and Muslims in India, demonstrate that the religious artifacts that could be called arts and literature of the past are very much a part of contemporary culture.

While the past can certainly not be ignored, a large part of what students must learn at university is based on contemporary culture. Most religious learning, at least of one's own religion, occurs either at home or early on in a student's education. At the university level, studies of politics, business and the computer sciences must deal in great detail with the latest advances in contemporary culture in order to remain up to date and relevant. Other subjects, such as mathematics, agriculture, and the arts and literature themselves look largely to the past for the core knowledge that is taught in these courses. The application of these lessons from the past are entirely appropriate to help put contemporary culture into some type of historical context that can help students to understand and comprehend the rapidly changing world that they are living in.

It would seem self-evident that a properly educated university student must find a balance between studying contemporary culture without neglecting the study of arts and literature of the past. The study of one is not mutually exclusive of the study of the other. The benefits of a well-rounded education come from not only knowing the state of the world as it exists today but also in knowing how the world arrived at this stage of development in the first place.

參考譯文

"學院和大學應該開設更多通俗音樂、電影、廣告和電視方面的課程，因為當代文化要比昔日的藝術和文學對于學生具有遠為密切的聯系。"

只要當代文化--依照其定義--具有當代性，它無疑比昔日的藝術和文學對學生乃至普通大眾具有一種遠為直接的影響。同時代的事件會直接影響到生活在那一時代的每一個人，因為它們的發(fā)生與這個人的生存正值同時。但這里我們可以復述一位著名哲學家的話，"那些無法從歷史中汲取教訓者注定會重蹈覆轍"。在相當大的程度上，昔日的藝術和文學造就了我們現如今的情狀，其作用即使并不甚于當代文化，至少與當代文化相同。 生活于當今時代的每個人以一種或另一種方式深受過去事件的影響。昔日的事件直接導致了世界目前的運轉方式。藝術和文學是保存和記載得最為完善的一種資源，它們能使我們與過去實際發(fā)生過的事情直接聯系起來。 不妨考慮一下《圣經》，《可蘭經》一類的宗教著作，孔子的著述，以及那些與佛教、印度教和所有其他宗教相關的著作。這些直接地與當今時代人們的行為相關，并在某些情形中在相當大的程度上控制著當今時代人們的行為，雖然它們大多數創(chuàng)作于數百年、甚至數千年之前。與這些宗教相關的藝術品同樣也產生了深遠的影響。我們不妨考慮一下梵蒂岡西斯廷教堂內米開朗琪羅的作品，或遍布亞洲的無數具有歷史性意義的佛教像，或者散布在整個中東和中亞地區(qū)的古代穆斯林清真寺。與這些過去的藝術和文學實例的相關性相比，當代文化被說成與當今學生更密切相關，這一論點是難以成立的。

有些時候，人們難以確定當代文化與過去的藝術和文學的差異究竟何在。莎士比亞的經典之作不斷地被改編成當代電影，常常能成為學生和普通大眾的大熱門。每年，全世界數百萬人在博物館觀賞古典藝術作品。宗教文本的閱讀對于世界相當大的一部分人口而言從來就不失為一種風尚。數個世紀古老的文化與宗教之間的沖突，如西方國家與伊斯蘭極端主義者之間的沖突，以及印度國內印度教徒與穆斯林教徒之間的沖突，例證著那些可被稱為昔日藝術和文學的宗教事物在很大程度上實乃當代文化的一部分。

雖然過去無疑不能被淡忘，但學生在大學中所學內容，很大一部分是基于當代文化的。大多數宗教學習，至少一個人自身的宗教的學習，或始于家庭，或始于學生受教育的早期。在大學這一層次上，對政治、商科以及計算機科學的學習，與當代文化中的最新進步深深相涉，以便使人與時俱進，與時代緊密相關。其它的學科，如數學、農業(yè)、藝術與文學，很大程度上是從過去的源泉獲取這些課程中所傳授的核心知識。這些來自過去的課程的應用完全是恰當的，有助于將當代文化置于某種歷史架構之中，去幫助學生領略和理解他們所生活于其中的那個變化迅速的世界。

有一點似乎是不證自明的，即一個受過恰當教育的大學生必須在學習當代文化與不偏廢昔日藝術和文學之間尋找到某種平衡。對兩者的學習并非互為排斥。一種綜合全面的教育，其益處不僅在于讓人知道當今世界所處的狀態(tài)，而且亦在于首先要讓人弄清世界是何以抵達目前這一發(fā)展階段的。