GRE作文范文 Issue-36

“Most people choose a career on the basis of such pragmatic considerations as the needs of the economy, the relative ease of finding a job, and the salary they can expect to make. Hardly anyone is free to choose a career based on his or her natural talents or interest in a particular kind of work.”

嘉文博譯Sample Essay

It is an unfortunate reality of life that most people view work as a chore – something that must be done in order to put money in the bank and food on the table. Very few people are fortunate enough during their lives to have a job that they love and can actually make a living while performing it. But it would be an incorrect statement to say that people are not “free to choose” their careers based on his or her natural talents or interests. The main problem with choosing a career is that many times, regardless of their individual right to choose, people simply give up that right and surrender to the demands of family and society.

First of all, in almost every country in the world, people are free to choose what it is that they want to do for their life’s work. Mostly gone are the days of totalitarian regimes forcing children to develop a particular skill at a very young age in order to play a government mandated role in society. Although this is a providential and perhaps inevitable development, it does not mean that all individuals actually pursue a career doing what they love for a living. Indeed, it is a rare individual who loves his or her work and can therefore wholeheartedly put his or her natural skills and interest to the test in order to become successful. These people can count themselves as fortunate, although they probably believe that it is only natural to do something that you like as a career. Though the freedom to choose a career is almost always there, there are many reasons why people choose their work based primarily on pragmatic reasons.

Most of us know what we want to be when we grow up from a very young age: doctors, lawyers, truck drivers or firefighters are common examples. The problem is that as we mature, we lose the clear-headed thinking that is natural for children. Somewhere along the way between childhood and adulthood, we lose the ability to follow our dreams and instead base our choice of career on how much money we can make or maybe simply on what jobs are available in the place that we choose to live. There is a “short-circuit” somewhere between what we always wanted to be as children and what we actually become when we grow up. Perhaps it is because as we mature, we believe that our childhood dreams were somehow foolish and that we never could have become a world famous singer or movie star anyway. Whatever the reason, it is a sad fact of life that somewhere along the way, most of us give in to society’s demands and leave our youthful fantasies to some forgotten place in our minds.

Usually, what an individual’s choice of career comes down to is that the person follows the path of least resistance rather than pursuing something that they possibly believe is an unreachable goal. Perhaps the person falls in love early on, or simply gets tired of going to school and goes to work in a factory, always believing that someday he or she will somehow “make it” to a better station in life. Years pass by before the person realizes that, while working to support the family, pay the mortgage and buy the latest cars and clothes, the opportunity to fulfill those childhood dreams has forever passed them by. Truly fortunate are those who, for whatever reason, have the tenacity to go after what they want and do whatever it takes to make those childhood dreams become reality rather than simply going to work to pay the bills.

(672 words)

參考譯文

大多數(shù)人在選擇職業(yè)時(shí)基于實(shí)用的考慮，例如經(jīng)濟(jì)的需要，找工作相對(duì)容易，以及他們希望得到的工資報(bào)酬等。很少有人因?yàn)樗?她的天賦或?qū)δ彻ぷ鞯呐d趣而自由選擇職業(yè)。

大多數(shù)人把工作看成是不得不做的一件事——為了掙錢存在銀行里以及掙到餐桌上的食物，這是生活中不幸的現(xiàn)實(shí)。很少有人一生中非常幸運(yùn)，能夠去從事他們愛干的工作，而且是干工作本身就可以謀生。但是，說人們不能根據(jù)他們的天賦或興趣“自由地選擇”他們的職業(yè)，這是不正確的。選擇職業(yè)的主要問題是，在許多情況下，人們盡管擁有個(gè)人選擇的權(quán)利，但是他們不得不屈服于家庭和社會(huì)的需要而放棄他們的權(quán)利。

首先，在世界上幾乎任何國(guó)家，人們都有自由選擇他們想做的事情作為其畢生職業(yè)的權(quán)利。極權(quán)主義政權(quán)強(qiáng)迫兒童在很小的年齡培養(yǎng)某一技能以便完成政府授予的任務(wù)，這種日子已是在很大程度上一去不復(fù)返了。盡管這是不以人們的意志而轉(zhuǎn)移的，或許是必然的進(jìn)步，但是這并不意味著每個(gè)人實(shí)際上都可以選擇一個(gè)他們所喜愛的職業(yè)并以此謀生。的確，很少有人熱愛他/她的工作而且因此全身心地把自已的才能和興趣投入到工作中去以便獲得成功。這樣的人可算是幸運(yùn)之人，雖然他們可能認(rèn)為做你喜歡的工作是很自然的。誠(chéng)然，選擇職業(yè)的自由是永遠(yuǎn)存在的，然而有許多理由說明為什么人們依照實(shí)用的原因選擇工作。

我們大多數(shù)人在成長(zhǎng)過程中知道我們想成為什么樣的人。醫(yī)生、律師、卡車司機(jī)、或者救火隊(duì)員等等。問題是在我們成熟時(shí)，我們失去了兒童時(shí)擁有的頭腦清晰的思維。在我們從童年到成年這一過程的某個(gè)時(shí)期，我們失去追尋夢(mèng)想的能力，取而代之的是根據(jù)掙錢多少或在我們居住的地區(qū)能找到什么工作來選擇職業(yè)。我們童年時(shí)想做什么和成年后實(shí)際做什么，兩者之間在某階段出現(xiàn)了“短路”?；蛟S是因?yàn)?，?dāng)我們成熟時(shí)我們相信童年的夢(mèng)幻有點(diǎn)傻或者認(rèn)為我們不會(huì)成為舉世聞名的歌星或影星。無論何種原因，我們大多數(shù)人在成長(zhǎng)過程的某個(gè)階段不得不屈服于社會(huì)的需要，把我們年輕時(shí)的夢(mèng)幻扔到我們腦海的忘卻地帶，這是生活的悲慘事實(shí)。

通常，在一個(gè)人職業(yè)選擇中所發(fā)生的情形是，他要沿著阻力最小的路走，而不是去追求他們認(rèn)為可能達(dá)不到的目標(biāo)?；蛟S一個(gè)人很早就戀愛了，或者懶于上學(xué)了，因而就到一家工廠工作了，同時(shí)憧憬著有朝一日“發(fā)了跡”過上較好的生活。許多年過去了他才認(rèn)識(shí)到，因?yàn)橐B(yǎng)家糊口、償還抵押貸款、購(gòu)買新款汽車和衣服，所以實(shí)現(xiàn)童年夢(mèng)想的機(jī)會(huì)一個(gè)接一個(gè)擦身而過。有些人確實(shí)是幸運(yùn)的，這些人不管發(fā)生什么事情都鍥而不舍地追求他們的愿望并且不辭辛勞以使童年的夢(mèng)想變成現(xiàn)實(shí)，而不是為了支付賬單去奔波工作。