GRE作文 ETS官方Issue主題范文(六)

ball into a basket.  What could be more simple or commonplace than a ball and a peach basket.

Today, basketball is the new American pastime.  It replaced baseball because it is cheaper than baseball and it can be played by only one person.  This interest in balls and new uses for them,  as we can see in both baseball and basketball, brought about a huge social phenomena of excercise and new social interaction that would bring people together rather than divide them.

It doesn't take a ball to create a sport from a commonplace item.  Track and field has no balls used in it, unless you consider the shotput a ball.  The whole sport of track and field is made of simple ideas: running, jumping, and throwing.  Simple but yet it is one of the most watched events worldwide as evidenced by the recent Olympic Games. For example, team relay races consist of four people running around an oval track passing a baton to each other.  A baton that is the only object you need to have a relay race,a baton is definetly a commonplace thing.   Yet this event has such stars as Carl Lewis who is known world wide.

Sports and how they were created is the epitome of the idea that "the best ideas arise form a passionate interest in commonplace things."  What might have seemed boring at the time of hitting a ball, or throwing a ball into a net, or passing a baton are all now events that millions take part in and even more watch.  What makes these ideas great is that they all bring people from different backgrounds together, wether they  intended to or not.

COMMENTARY

This essay presents a thoughtful, if not very well-developed, discussion of the issue.  Drawing examples from the world of sports, the writer notes that most sports begin with a simple idea.  Baseball, for example, "began when someone decided to throw a ball at someone with a stick and that person with the stick would then try to hit the ball."  From this simple idea came a sport that is played and enjoyed all over the world.  Instead of focusing solely on the universal appeal of sports, however, the essay introduces the idea that sports cross "international divides of religion, race, and politics."  This is a perceptive idea, but it is not effectively supported or sustained.

Throughout the essay, ideas are expressed clearly and word choice is accurate.  Sentences are at times well formed and varied: "Today the simple game of baseball is played all over the world.  It is a sport that crosses international divides of religion, race, and politics.  This one simple game, a bat hitting a ball, can bring the whole world together."  On the whole, however, this is a 5 essay; it lacks the syntactic sophistication and insightful analysis necessary for a score of 6.

SAMPLE-3 (score 4)

While the best ideas do indeed arise from mankind's interest in the commonplace, one must realize that the "commonplace ideas" of our current society continue to evolve at such a rapid rate that we are converging on the Twenty-First Century on a wave of thought, ideas, and creation that would surely baffle our forefathers.

Simply put, Thomas Jefferson, a brilliant, and progressive thinker, was motivated to create certain societal services that he felt necessary for his time.  Historians report that Mr. Jefferson witnessed a fire which destroyed a man's home.  The victim was left with nothing. Mr.Jefferson, thinking it most unfortunate that a man should lose all his worldly posessions, developed a system of homeowners insurance.  Of course today, we have taken insurance to a new and all-encompassing level.  President Roosevelt adored nature and found great solace while visiting Yosemite in Wyoming.  Among his many accomplishments, Rooselvelt, our twenty-sixth President, is perhaps best known for his creation of a National Parks Protection program.