103 學年度指定科目考試
英文考科作文佳作
1.
According to the graph which represents how students in an American high
school live their day, the students spent 6.4 hours learning and having some related
activities, 1.5 hours working part-time jobs, 3.8 hours having their leisure time, 0.8
hour exercising, and 0.2 hour doing religious and voluntary things. What’s special is
that they spent they spend only 6.4 hours learning and spend 8.7 hours sleeping,
which means that they spend more time on sleeping than learning. In Asian countries,
it is never acceptable because Asians thinks diligence is the key to success. You need
to study more than you sleep. Moreover, they spent 3.8 hours social and leisure time
every day, and that is half of the time they spend on learning.
As far as I am concerned, I go to school at eight, and go home at five. At school,
we learn for the whole day. After school, I usually go home. At night I study; I go to
bed at eleven. Therefore, the total time I learn and study is thirteen hours, and I only
spend one hour watching TV, seven hours sleeping, and no time hanging on Facebook
or other social networks. How I have my day is extremely different from the
American students. The reason why we are so different is that our thoughts and
policies is not similar. What Americans place emphasis on is creativity and whether
kids are happy or not. They give students more time to think rather than do
unnecessary works. In contrast, the Asians think that the more time you spend on
studying, the more successful you will be in the future, so they make kids stay at
school for more than eight hours a day to study and learn, and go to bed later at night.
However, not all students are suitable for this kind of lifestyle. For example, some
people may have more talent in exercising, but they don’t have enough time or don’t
have any opportunity to find it. Hence, there are a lot of things we can do to adjust our
lifestyles in the future.
2.
According to the diagram of the survey, I found out that there are quiet a few
special phenomenon compared to the lives of senior high school students living here
in Taiwan. To begin with, students who receive education in the U.S. spend only 6.4
hours on academic learning but participate more in extracurricular activities such as
clubs and exercises. In contrast, students in Taiwan often get burdened with piles of
homework every day and even attend cram school after class. Second, the amount of
time they sleep is also substantially more sufficient than their counterparts in our
country. Last but not least, American students take on part-time jobs on an average of
1.5 hours per day while Taiwanese students often begin to work part-time at a rather
old age such as during college.
As a whole, my use of time in a day is quite typical as an Asian senior high
school student. I go to school and acquire knowledge for 9 hours per weekday.
Usually, I spend I spend most of my weekday hours studying and working on
academic projects. Since social values differ a lot between Asian and the U.S., my
daily life is not so much similar to American high school students. However, I do take
time to exercise regularly to maintain good health, lift my spirits, and keep a good
body figure. In addition, I usually choose to get involved in extracurricular activities
on weekends so that I can strike a balance between work and play. All in all, though I
live a different daily schedule from Americans due to cultural gaps, dividing my time
with wisdom and utilizing it with efficiency, I’m convinced that I can enjoy a happy
and substantial life.
3.
According to the picture, American students spend most of their time on sleeping
and studying. In fact, though it seems there is nothing different Taiwanese students
and American ones, it is definite that the substance of two kinds of schedule is totally
different. In the picture, the pupil of America spend only 6 hours on studying and it is
quite ridiculous in Taiwan since we not only stay in school for nine hours every day
but go to cram school after class and keep studying until midnight. Some
hard-working people may even burn the midnight oil and this kind of behavior will
not happen in America. Moreover, they have four hours so socialize and relax which
Taiwanese student even don’t dare to imagine about because of the tough burden of
schoolwork and the harsh pressure of parents’ expectations. Therefore, we seldom
have the leisure to relax ourselves in order to reach the goal of enrolling in prestigious
universities and ensuring the bright future. Furthermore, they can sleep for almost
nine hours. This is too astonishing to believe. American students are sometimes more
brilliant and creative than us, but they sleep so long and we just consider sleeping as a
waste of time. Given what I have mentioned, their daily schedule is much more
flexible and relaxing in contrast to our busy one.
As far as a Taiwanese student is concerned, I, of course, consider studying to be
my first priority. To me, there is nothing important than cultivating my ability and
broadening my knowledge. As a result, I spend more than ten hours on reading, which
is definitely different from American students. In addition, I deprive plenty of
sleeping time and leisure in order to utilize my time in a most effective and efficient
way. Therefore, there is no time for me to do part-time jobs or voluntary works. The
schedule, though, is absolutely intensive and depressing; I convince myself that all my
efforts will repay me with a bright and promising career. I forsake the time to play,
give up the time to sleep, and even prohibit myself from relaxing. The whole schedule
of my daily life is to ensure a wonderful life.
4.
According to the chart, there are two special points in that. Firstly, students in
that high school in America spend 1.5 hours on part-time jobs. That is totally different
from that in Taiwan. In Taiwan, parents often think of studying as the first priority,
and anything which may affect academic performance or learning process is not
allowed. On the other hand, doing part-time jobs plays an important role in American
students’ daily lives. Their parents may consider the process of doing part-time jobs a
way of learning. That can not only help students acquire some practical skills, but
help them get accustomed to the competitive society earlier. Secondly, time that they
spend on social activities and leisure activities account for a big part. This
phenomenon may result in their philosophy of lives, Apart from work and studying,
entertainment is indispensable for their lives. The lifestyle in western countries is
relatively slow-paced than that in orient countries. That’s might the cause of that
phenomenon.
Compared to their time distribution, my schedule is totally different. Due to the
bitter competition among high school students in Taiwan, it takes me ten to twelve
hours each day on studying, and most students do the same thing as well. Doing
part-time jobs is an impossible thing, because it may reduce my studying time.
Chatting with friends on social networks like Facebook is a luxury for me in this year.
Owing to the entrance exam, I almost spend all my time on studying without doing
anything else. Consequently, after the exam, I plan to work part-time and do other
meaning things such as ameliorating my English listening and speaking skills or
taking a trip to other countries to experience local cultures. I am convinced that these
will help me broaden my horizons and that I can have many indelible experience in
the process.
5.
The chart about the time management of an American school’s student shows us
a special phenomenon. Besides sleeping and education, which is quite similar to
ordinary students around the world, the students have relatively spent more time on
taking part-time jobs and engaging in social or leisure activities compared to students
in other countries. This is quite interesting, as in other countries and cultures, students
are told that studying is their main duty. They aren’t given so much spare time to
engage in social or leisure activities, let alone take part-time jobs. Another interesting
fact given by the chart of time management is that American students don’t seem to
spend lots of time on sports, which is against the stereotype of being active and
sports-minded.
There are great differences between the time management of the American
students and mine. First of all, having 8.9 hours for sleeping seems a bit too luxurious
to me. Due to the heavy loads of studying, I usually sleep six hours a day. Secondly,
my study hours are approximately two times of theirs. It doesn’t mean that I’m a
maniac of study or what. It’s quite common for our Taiwanese students to study over
ten hours. I guess it is the differences of culture. While our culture tells us that
through studying can we succeed, their culture encourages them to lead a versatile life
instead of merely studying. Last, while American students tend to take part-time job
for 1.5 hours a day, I have none. Working just seems to be a bit too early for me. As
far as I am concerned, despite the great differences between their time management
and mine, there are no wins or loses. They both have their pros and cons. It is just
interesting to have the chance to peek into the life of American students, which has a
great different with ours.
6.
The chart shows how high school students in America spend their day. Averagely,
each of them spend 8.7 hours on sleeping 6.4 hours on their studies, 3.8 hours on
social and leisure activities, 1.5 hours on their part-time jobs, 0.8 hour on exercising,
0.2 hour on cultural activities and volunteer work, and 2.6 hours on other things. To
my astonishment, it seems that American high school students spend rather little time
on their studies, with only one-fourth of their entire day. In addition they spend they
spend almost the same proportion of time on extracurricular activities, such as
chatting with friends, working, exercising, and many other things they like. On top of
that, sleeping takes the most of time of their day, with more than eight hours a day,
which is definitely impossible for me to do that.
By contrast, my life is exceedingly different. First, I spend more than 12 hours on
my studies every day. As a senior who is facing one of the most important exam in my
life, curricular work definitely takes most of the time of my day. After having classes
for nine hours at school, I have to study for at least 3 more hours at home to review
the things I learn that day and even preview the lessons for classes tomorrow. Second,
I spend only six hours sleeping every day. It would be a paradise that every senior
aspire to sleep more than six hours a day. At this point, however, it is impossible to do
so. Last but not least, it comes to the 2 hours I spend on my leisure activities. After
deducing the time I spend on commuting, taking shower, eating, and all the other
trivialities there is 2 hours left for me to relieve me from all the tiring school work.
The two hours are divided into two parts. First, I will spend half an hour doing yoga
every day, which always takes away all the stress and makes me refreshing after doing
it. Then, I will flung myself in the sofa and sprawl, watching some TV series and give
my brain a break. The reason why me and students in America spend the day
differently is cultural differences. They emphasize more on the creative use of leisure
time. Therefore, they spend more time on the athletic field, the music classroom, and
so on. In contrast, people in Taiwan put more emphasis on school work, on academic
performances and score, which comes from the concept deeply rooted in our hearts
that diploma counts a lot. And that makes all the differences.
7.
According to the diagram, high school students in American spend most of their
time sleeping and attending activities about learning. What’s more intriguing is that
they apply themselves to social activities and recreation for at least three to four hours.
It’s also crystal clear that students in America spend more time sleeping than students
in Asia. However, the most interesting to me is that in accordance with the diagram,
students in America devote themselves to part-time jobs for almost two hours every
day, which makes me awe at their independence.
Speaking of time management of a day, I may create a diagram of my own which
is quite different to the one I analyzed above. Being a twelfth-grade student in Taiwan,
I have a stressful life and keep a fast pace toward my daily life. Confronted with lots
of pressure in studies, I dedicate myself to studying for at least half a day. Nonetheless,
I never forget to get an eight-hour comfortable sleep every day. While my time is
filled with learning and sleeping, I cultivate a habit to play badminton with my dearest
friends, who also need to prepare for the big test. It takes an hours for us to let
ourselves work out, worn out, and laugh out loud after perspiration. Compared with
students in America, they have one great difference against me; they are active in
extracurricular activities, particularly in social activities. Eminently, I hardly spend
my day socializing, which is a pity for me. Although I have plenty of best friends, we
have little time to hang out or have our leisure time. All in all, there are diverges
between Eastern and Western culture. Whereas students in Asia, like me, are
preoccupied with studies and endeavor to achieve higher scores, students in American
are engrossed in their recreational activities. Nevertheless, it is impossible to choose
which one is better for students. The only thing we need to bear in mind is that live
our life in a way you want it to be!
8.
According to the chart showing students in U.S. high school use their time every
day, three main features stand out. Students in the school spend nearly nine hours a
day sleeping and more than six hours a day on learning-related activities, and these
two activities occupy five-eighth a day in total. Contrary to popular belief, sports,
volunteering and religious activities make up merely an hour altogether. School and
recreational activities eat up approximately four hours a day, consistent with the
common impression that these kinds of extracurricular activities are significant to U.S.
high school students.
As a Taiwanese high school student, some apparent differences can be observed
when drawing a parallel between my daily routine and that of the students shown in
the chart. For states, since I have been preparing painstakingly wholeheartedly for the
exam I’m taking at the very moment for the past five months. I could only allocate
four to five hours a day to sleeping while distributing up to six hours a day to studying.
Nevertheless, I have made it a habit to go jogging at least ninety minutes a day to stay
healthy and escape from immense pressure. Though I have extended my studying time
at the expense of my time for extracurricular activities such as volunteering and
part-time jobs, I insist on retaining one to two hours a day to strengthen my
interpersonal relationships by chatting or eating dinner with my friends, and to read
newspaper to prevent myself from being ignorant of what’s going on in the world.
However, I am proud to hereby declare that in a few more minutes, the strenuous
lifestyle is going to be a thing of the past for me, and I will be able to enjoy my
vacation schedule resembling that shown in the chart.
9.
As high school students, we are flooded by piles of books. Therefore, we spend
most of our time studying. As a result, the time to rest is limited, let alone
extracurricular activities. However, students in the United States spend less time
studying. In addition to utilizing a moderate period sleeping, they take advantage of
their free time to not only exercise but also work part-time. Moreover, leisure
activities also play an integral role in their lives. In short, they take part in
miscellaneous activities in a day.
By contrast, my life seems to be more monotonous. In an attempt to attend a
prestigious university, I have no choice but to go all out studying. As a consequence, I
spend much time maintaining my academic performances. In addition, sleeping takes
up much of my time. Still, I make it a habit to some exercise every day. As the saying
goes, “Exercise is to the human body what water is to the fish.” Not only can exercise
boost our physique but it can also relieve our stress. Such is its importance that it
plays an indispensable part in my life. In the meantime, it is a pity that I have no time
to take part in voluntary works as I am already suffocated by the demanding academic
pressure. Nevertheless, as a freshman-to-be, I would definitely spare some time
serving as a volunteer, and make use of my time well to have a bright future.
10.
It could be seen clearly from the table that high school students in America ten to
have abundant sleeping hours, which is close to 9 hours per day. They spend 6.4 hours
on activities related to studies and 0.8 hours on exercising respectively. Another
noticeable point is that American high school students spend approximately 1.5 hours
participating in part-time jobs on average. Their time allotment also includes time for
religious events and volunteering. Last but not least, they spend much of their time
socializing with their friends or family members and entertaining themselves.
Generally speaking, my personal daily schedule is greatly different from the
table given. Driven by an exam-oriented educational system, hardly can I seize time
for extracurricular activities compared to students in America. First of all, Taiwanese
students like me are commonly lack of sleeping hours because of the fast-approaching
college entrance exam. With heavy burdens on my shoulder and obligations to fulfill,
I have to stay up late studying textbooks to prepare for numerous tests. Secondly, I
spend less time on activities which aren’t associated much with my studies. I rarely
get involved in any volunteering works, not to mention any religious events. Being a
senior high school student, I immerse myself into seeming endless assignments. It’s
also interesting that American high school students work after class but I don’t. While
American parents encourage students to develop their potentials to the fullest and to
learn from all works of lives, Taiwanese parents are afraid of their children getting
hurt in the workplace. The only time allotment we have in common is sporting time. I
think the main reason is that both Western and Eastern culture put emphasis on the
importance of exercise. To sum up, I have a quite different time allotment to those in
America because we are from different countries and cultures.
11.
In the graph, we can find out some interesting facts. For instance, American
students in high school spend approximately nine hours on sleeping. This reminded
me of a news report which specialists recommended that juveniles should sleep for at
least nine hours a day, and those students have just touched that line. Academic
activities are the ones that occupied the second most time on the graph. It is
reasonable, for the main job of students is to study. Hanging out with peers, which is
also an essential part in teenage life, takes up four out of twenty-four of the day. The
following activities are working a part-time job, exercising and religious or charity
activities. It really surprises me that exercising takes up less than one hour in those
students’ pattern, even lower than working.
As a high school student in Taiwan, my time management is quite different from
the Americans. I, like many, students in Asian countries do, spend for more than six
hours on studying, perhaps eleven, because of the heavy burden of academic
performance. It results in the length of my sleeping time, too, which is lower to about
seven hour a day, leisure activities, such as surfing the net and chatting with friends,
can only take up about two hours a day. However busy do I seem, I still spend an hour
after school everyday, to join our class for playing volleyball. Playing team sports
relaxes my mind, and sometimes through the jump and pass, I feel more bonded with
my classmates. While American students may sacrifice their day to go part-time
working, I would rather stay home and study. I think that those experiences, including
charity and religious activities, can be gained after I enter a university. There is no
need to haste and hurry. So they don’t exist in my current time pattern. Time
management vary in culture, age, gender, and personality, what we should do is not to
make our time pattern look “great,” but to make it just fit and relaxing to ourselves!
12.
According to this graph, I find several phenomena that are quite special.
American senior high school students seem to spend more time sleeping or taking part
in leisure activities. They spend about eight or nine hours sleeping and it takes them
three to four hours to do leisure activities or join in social activities. They also spend
some time taking part-time job, playing sports, and doing volunteer work. It seems
that they spend time effectively and they don’t totally focus on school work. They do
more things and they do not place so much emphasis on studies as we.
On the whole, my time assignment is similar to the graph, but there are still some
differences. I spend about ten hours on my academic work and lesser time sleeping,
playing, or resting. I spend little taking part-time job or doing volunteer work. In my
opinion, Taiwanese people place more emphasis on academic performances, so we
tend to spend more time studying. I think extracurricular activities such as social,
leisure or volunteer activities are less important than school work. I want to do them
after the entrance exam. In this stage, I only want to study hard and get admitted to a
prestigious university. Therefore, I spend more time studying and getting more
knowledge. On the other hand, American students think every aspect of life is equally
important. Thus they do more activities and spend more time on them. In a nutshell,
it’s the cultural difference and values that lead to such difference and phenomenon.
There is no telling which one is better or worse. What we have to do is respect each
other and accept the differences among us.
13.
It is often said that compared with lives of American high school students, high
school students lead very different ones. In my opinion, this point of view can be
perfectly proved by means of the chart. According to the chart, it is obvious that
American high school students have ample sleeping time on average on the ground
that they approximately have 8.7 hours to get rest per day, which makes up over one
third of one day. On top of that, from the chart, we can see that they lead colorful lives
because various kinds of activities, such as working, taking exercise, volunteering,
attending social activities and relaxing, consist their daily lives. As for learning, it
only takes them about 6.4 hours a day for studies, which are relatively short for
Taiwanese high school students.
When it comes to my daily life, there is no denying that it is tedious compared to
the chart. Given I have to work hard to get into my ideal university, learning makes up
most of my daily life. Instead of attending most of extracurricular activities, I often
immersed myself in schoolwork, making my life a little bit monotonous. To be frank,
I have to budget my limited time and squeeze little time for relaxation. In order to
perform well on exams, I have no alternatives but to burn the midnight oil, which
induces to the lack of sleeping; it seems that it is next to possible for me to do
extracurricular activities and get enough rest. As it is, I still cherish my life and I am
willing to make great strides for my own future at any price. As the saying goes, “No
cross, no crown.” I am convinced that my boring daily life will pave the way to
success in the future.
14.
According to the statistics provided, we can find out that it is very important for
American students to have a found sleep since the time they spend on sleep is the
most. They spend eight point seven hours sleeping, which is very different from
Taiwanese students’ habit. We spend less time sleeping than they do. We Taiwanese
students spend almost nine hours studying at school and more at home, while they
spend only six point four hours on learning. As we see, social activities and leisure
play an essential role in their daily life. From this, we can infer that they emphasize
these activities very much. Also, they work part-time for one and half an hour. Some
of the students in Taiwan do so, while the others don’t. There are several differences
in daily routines between American and Taiwanese senior high school students.
Take me for example, I always spend six hours sleeping, from eleven p.m. to five
a.m.. The competition is so fierce in Taiwan society that I must exert myself to study
hard. Therefore, it takes me almost a day to study in order to get high scores on tests.
However health is important to me because one can achieve nothing without a healthy
body. Thus, I always jog for half an hour every day after school. I consider social
activities and relationships crucial, too. But I spend only an hour for them, avoiding
being distracted by them. It is obvious that I spend much of my day on learning than
the American students do. Boring as my daily life might seem, I feel happy since I can
learn a lot of new things and spend lots of time with my family.