作者：吴越
出版社：外语教学与研究出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
英语作文可以这样写试读：
前言
本书文章按体裁分类。在记叙文部分，作者用生动、流畅和幽默的语言，叙述了他在美国的成长过程。作者五岁随父母赴美，经历了从最初的不情愿，到赴美后克服语言障碍，适应美国的社会文化环境，进而在学校各阶段取得好成绩的过程。每篇短文独立成章，描写了作者在美国的学习和生活情况，也将美国的风土人情、地理环境和社会文化一一见诸笔端，读来既新奇又有趣，使人产生一口气读下去的冲动。掩卷之余，常忍俊不禁。本书专辟美国高考作文和高中作文习作两部分，带领读者走进美国高中生的课堂，了解美国高中生的学习方法和思维方式。美国高考作文部分以及后记中的“如何写好美国高考作文”为中国学生提供了范文和写作方法，希望它们能带给中国学生更多的灵感。其余议论文和说明文等部分则使本书更加全面而实用。
采用中英文对照的方式编排，辅以生动、有趣的插图，并由美国语言专家、作家和美国高考作文辅导老师作序或点评作文，是本书的几大亮点。图文并茂和中英文对照，增强了本书的可读性和实用性。《英语作文可以这样写》适合各年龄阶段的青少年阅读，它既可以增进孩子们对美国文化、教育和生活的了解，又能提高他们的英语阅读和写作水平。对许多即将或打算赴美的家庭和参加美国标准考试的学生来说，本书是不可多得的好参谋。本书对国内的中小学英语教师和海外中文学校的汉语教师们，也有一定的参考价值。
凯·卡哈兰女士是一位具有35年教龄的英语教师。她在过去的25年中教授过以英语作为第二语言的班级，这些班级的英语水平各不相同。她获得了英语学士学位，兼修商务。
在过去的五年中，凯·卡哈兰一直担任得克萨斯州罗德诺克独立学区“公民英语提高”研究基金行政管理者的职务。通过在州内和联邦对非英语国家的新移民实施各种新的措施和方法，凯·卡哈兰为他们提供了融入美国文化的工具。
序言一
我曾经获得得克萨斯大学跨文化交流学的博士学位，并具有38年ESL（English as Second Language，英语作为第二语言）以及其他语言的教学经验。由于职业的缘故我能够遇到来自世界各地的学生，并帮助他们流利地使用母语以外的另一门语言。良好的跨文化沟通技巧和扎实的语言功底造就了我的职业生涯。
作为一名外国语言学教授、教科书的编著者和国际学术计划的学术顾问，我所面临的最大挑战之一是寻找将文化背景融入写作中的材料，它们既要能引起学生的兴趣，又要能激励他们对将要学习或经历的文化进行深入的钻研。吴越为青少年学生创作的新书《英语作文可以这样写》就提供了这样富有深刻见解和吸引力的文章。这些文章既有趣味性，又能鼓舞人心。有趣的是，它们不仅适用于青少年学生，而且对年龄大一些的学英文的中国学生，甚至学中文的美国学生都有帮助。吴越对美国生活的触摸、感受和反应恰如其分地通过他的语言表达出来，有助于中国学生理解两种文化的异同。我发现贯穿在吴越所有文章中的一个元素是他对父母显而易见的爱和尊重。显然，这个很重要的价值观被明智地保留了下来，并没有受到另一种文化的影响。
从教育学的观点来看，这些文章为学生提供了一个学习语言文化的窗口，为老师提供了一个借此讨论语法、修辞结构和词汇的机会。吴越的记叙文和议论文为学生课后练习写作提供了范文。通过这些范文我们可以学到很多，更何况吴越那些生动的描写和富有趣味性的叙述非常贴近学生的生活。我告诉学生，最有用的阅读方法之一是运用想象力，因此阅读时要想象所描述的这个人物、这个地方或这件事情，以及事件的发生和发展。吴越在他描述数学老师、富勒夫人、圣诞节、节日购物、辩论赛等的文章中，都很好地运用了想象力。《英语作文可以这样写》一书的后记是对美国高考作文的建议和攻略，以期帮助那些希望到美国求学的英语学习者。正如吴越所建议的那样，提高写作技巧的最佳方法是阅读，阅读，再阅读。他的这些建议都是清晰而有效的，可供同龄人借鉴。
那些有幸使用吴越新书的学生会从他的跨文化经历和谦逊地分享所学知识的方式中获益。我为这位年轻的作者喝彩，并希望他继续如饥似渴地阅读和富于表现力地写作。莎伦·福斯特
莎伦·福斯特女士获波士顿大学文科硕士学位和得克萨斯大学跨文化交流学的博士学位。她执教于得克萨斯大学，是一位语言学教授。在执教得克萨斯大学之前，她是西班牙语和葡萄牙语系有关课程的协调人。她曾在西班牙的塞维利亚担任跨文化研究中心的主任。在那里，她教过ESL （英语作为第二语言）和外国语言方法学等课程。作为中心的创始人之一和国际学术计划的学术顾问，她一直在国外从事相关研究。她于2001年从得克萨斯大学退休，随后继续在美国佛蒙特州的米德尔伯里学院极负盛名的夏季语言学校授课。她是七部本科专业语言教科书的合著者，它们均在著名的McGraw-Hill出版公司出版。她目前仍继续参加国内外的专业学术会议。
序言二
年轻的吴越为中国青少年学生写了一本值得关注的书。他的文集记录了如何适应美国生活的生动故事和在美国教育体系下获得成功的策略。文章的信息丰富，富有教育意义并鼓舞人心。
吴越对美国文化的观察使人渴望阅读该书。他抓住作为外来人（新移民）这一要素，展示了他为征服自己所面对的新挑战而进行的不屈不挠的努力。同时，他也试图找出两种文化的相似性，例如将圣诞节与中国的春节进行比较。类似的文章表现出他对这两个国家的尊重。
作为一名曾在大学里教写作的老师，我可以这样评论：吴越对如何写好文章的见解非常准确。他鼓励学生们超越他们自己设定的界限，去阅读优秀的文学作品和有深度的文章，建立一个文学资料库。他告诉读者不能仅仅满足于读书，还要进行深入的思考。由此，批判性思维的原则在读者的大脑里留下了深深的印象。
另外，吴越展示了如何利用个人有限的知识来获取美国高考作文写作的成功。他告诉读者怎样才能紧扣主题，每一段应该写些什么，以及文章如何结尾（在我看来，许多大学生也可以从他的律己和专注中获益！）。吴越写的美国高考作文展示了他的写作技巧。他甚至示范了在参加写作考试时如何使用幽默：在一篇文章中，他以玩笑式的口吻提到作为一位美国高考作文试题阅卷者的烦恼。我可以想象当对字词句早已感到厌烦的作文阅卷者读到这些内容时脸上所绽开的笑容。
除了提供写作技巧外，吴越还是一位天才的故事讲述者。他的许多文章读起来像一个个小故事，让你简直欲罢不能，一定要读下去直到找出结果。通过他的生动描述，读者被带进了他的世界。在他的美国高考作文范文“诚实还是虚假”中，吴越用对比的方法描写了他作为一名志愿者，在临终关怀中心的一个房间里观察到的房间里的温暖与房间外的寒冷所形成的鲜明对照：“外面的大地一片凋零，因霜冻而泛白，鸟儿安静地站在孤零零的枯树上，心怀敬畏，若有所思。”这些抒情味很浓的短句“怂恿”我们去读更多的内容，以便更多地了解一位生活在美国的年轻中国人的思想感情。他描述了对于一棵没有装饰的圣诞树的最初感受——陌生，以及经过全家对它进行装饰后的感情变化：“它不再是个安静的、不合时宜的家伙了，倒像个亲切的、浑身闪闪发光的老朋友。”
吴越在《英语作文可以这样写》一书中成功地为不熟悉美国的读者搭起了一座沟通的桥梁。通过分享他的经历和攻略，他为人们了解世界上两种伟大的文化打开了大门。莫莉·麦克唐纳
莫莉·麦克唐纳女士是一位具有12年丰富经验的职业作家和编辑。她为公共设施、保险公司和能源公司撰写文章并提供技术资料。莫莉女士编辑了两本书，并曾在美国得克萨斯州奥斯汀的圣·爱得华大学教授商务写作和传播学。她目前担任一家媒体训练中心的总裁。A NARRATIVES OF EVENTS写事类记叙文[1]1 Christmas in Remembrance
Christmas brings to mind a chubby, white-bearded old fellow [2]wearing a red suit and hat, giving out warm presents to children on the frigid night. Christmas is one of the favorite holidays of Americans, like the Spring Festival of China.
I remember the first Christmas in the United States. I was barely six. It was a whole new custom, and, naturally, I had no idea of what was going on. All I know is that when Mom brought home the plastic Christmas tree, she also brought home a night of unforgettable joy.
At first the tree looked decrepit, just a product of some remote, unnamed company. It sat there, quite quietly, naively content with its nudity. But as Dad started to heap tangles of lights upon the trunk, upon the thicker branches—lights of all colors conceivable that could be made of glass—and as Mom judgmentally tacked onto the tree pristine greeting cards with her woman's fashion sense; as I carefully placed onto branch tips, the tree started to undergo a transformation. It was no longer a docile, out of place creature, but a seemingly familiar, spectacularly scintillating old friend. Mom placed now much-anticipated presents under the tree and stepped back to admire.
As if this wasn't enough, Dad took a power cord and fit it into an [3]electric outlet.
Click!
Suddenly the lights on the tree lit up, exploding the room into rainbow daylight. The effect was amazingly realistic, as if the tree had caught our holiday infection and decided to do a dance. The lustrous moving lights were too much for a tiny child to forget, and, to this day, a decade later, this memory still persists in my mind.
Another year, on Christmas Eve, my parents, to strengthen my Chinese writing ability, made me write Santa Claus a letter for presents. They also said that Santa Claus knew Chinese. Though I must admit I never believed in the myth of Santa, at the bottom of the letter I drew a map of a nearby store where Santa Claus could buy my long-desired present (maybe this was because I was too keen on getting the present).
Another Christmas, my parents designed for me a treasure hunt. Christmas morning, I traditionally put on my red Santa hat and ran downstairs to open presents. My parents, however, told me to open their present first.
But where was it? Dad pointed at the phone without saying a word. I shot over to it, fumbling about the receiver and found a sheet of paper. Upon reading a Chinese poem written on it, I figured out that the first words of every line made up the location of the next destination: the tip-top of a tree.
The question was, exactly which tree was it? Maybe I was still groggy from just waking up, but my first thought was to check the trees in our backyard. I opened the door and stood in the frosty wind, eyes squinted, searching the treetops desperately for a clue.
My parents laughed. "Are there any other trees?" they asked.
I suddenly realized: wasn't there a Christmas tree in our house? Without another word, I slammed the back door shut and ran into the living room, hoping to reach the note on the top of the tree. Darn! This wasn't my present, but a math problem. The answer would be the number of the stair, counting from bottom up, on which the next puzzle would be found.
This…this was really unthinkable. In my hurry downstairs, I didn't notice the blazingly obvious note that contrasted so sharply with the brown carpet of the stairs.
What made me even more frustrated was the contents of that note: Dear son, your present is in your hat.
I hurriedly reached up, took off my hat and pulled out a red envelope, containing fresh green currency, my Christmas present from my parents.
The Christmases in my memory are full of love, warmth, and fun, and even to today this day I cannot forget them.Comments
The title "Christmas in Remembrance" immediately suggests to the reader that the following passage will be about one particular Christmas. In reality, Jackie reiterates several of his most memorable Christmases. Possibly change the title, or limit the passage to just one specific Christmas. However, the writer stayed with the topic nicely.[1] This article won the second place of the "World-wide Chinese Students Essay Written Competition" organized by People's Daily Oversea Edition in 2006; published in a local Chinese journal, Texas Capital News, Volume 189 in Dec, 2006.本文曾获得由《人民日报（海外版）》在2006年举办的“世界华人学生作文大赛”二等奖；曾于2006年12月发表在当地中文杂志《得州首府新闻》第189期上。[2] 表示被指导老师删除，后同[3] 该字体表示指导老师增加的单词，后同记忆中的圣诞节
圣诞节留在脑海里的印象是一位胖乎乎的、长着白胡子、穿红衣戴红帽的老人，在寒冷的夜晚为孩子们派发礼物的情景。圣诞节是美国人特别喜爱的节日之一，就像中国的春节一样。
我还记得来到美国过的第一个圣诞节，那时我差不多六岁。这是个全新的习俗，我自然不清楚发生了什么。我所知道的就是当妈妈带回来那棵塑料的圣诞树时，她其实也为全家带来了整晚难忘的欢乐。
开始的时候，那棵树显得老态龙钟，它只不过是一个来自遥远的不知名的某家公司的产品。它坐在那儿，十分安静，天真地满足于自己的朴实无华。但当爸爸开始在树干和茂密的树枝上挂上一串串灯泡时——你能想象的到的玻璃质地的各种颜色的灯泡，当妈妈凭借女人的时尚感觉审慎地将崭新的贺卡别在树上时，当我将节日的装饰物一件件小心翼翼地挂在树枝末梢的时候，那棵树开始改头换面了。它不再是个安静的、不合时宜的家伙了，倒像个亲切的、浑身闪闪发光的老朋友。妈妈将我盼望已久的礼物放在树下，继而退后一步欣赏。
好像还缺点什么，于是爸爸拉来一根电线，将一端接入电源的插座里。
咔嗒！
突然间，圣诞树上的灯全亮了，迸射出彩虹般的光芒，将屋子照得跟白天一般亮。它逼真的效果令人惊叹，似乎圣诞树也被我们的节日气氛所感染，准备翩翩起舞。这明亮闪烁的灯光给一个小小的孩童留下了难以磨灭的印象，以至于十年后的今天，这个记忆仍然深深地印在我的脑海里。
有一年的圣诞节前夜，我的父母为了加强我的中文写作能力，要我给圣诞老人写一封信，请他送我圣诞礼物。他们还说，圣诞老人懂中文。我必须承认我从未相信过关于圣诞老人的虚构故事，可我居然在信的最后画了一张附近商店的地图，告诉圣诞老人在那里可以买到我向往已久的礼物（这或许是因为我太想得到礼物了）。
还有一年的圣诞节，我的父母为我设计了一个寻宝游戏。圣诞节那天早上，我按照习俗将红色的圣诞帽戴在头上，然后跑下楼，准备打开礼物。然而，父母告诉我先打开他们送的礼物。
但是礼物在哪儿呢？爸爸指了指电话，一言不发。我冲过去，笨手笨脚地在听筒旁搜寻，找到了一张纸。读完写在纸上的一首中文诗，我领悟出将每一行诗的第一个字连在一起便是下一个目的地：一棵树的最顶端。
问题是：哪一棵树才是要找的呢？也许是刚刚起床的缘故，头脑还不清醒，我的第一个想法竟然是去查看后院里的树。我打开门，站在寒风中，眼睛眯成一条缝，努力地搜寻着树梢，希望找到一丝线索。
爸爸妈妈哈哈大笑。“还有没有其他的树呢？”他们问道。
我突然意识到：家里不是有一棵圣诞树吗？我二话没说，“砰”地一声关上后门，跑进客厅，希望从树顶取下纸条。唉！这还不是我的礼物，而是一道数学题，题的答案等于从下往上数的楼梯的级数，在那里会找到下一个谜。
这⋯⋯这真是不可思议。因为在急急忙忙下楼的时候，我根本没有注意到在楼梯间棕色的地毯上有什么便条之类的显眼的东西。
更让我产生挫败感的是便条上写的内容：亲爱的儿子，你的礼物就在你的帽子里。
我举起手，迫不急待地取下帽子，从里边拔出一个红色的信封，信封里装着几张崭新的绿色纸币，那就是我父母给我的圣诞礼物。
记忆中的圣诞节充满了爱意、温馨和乐趣，直到今天我仍然难以忘怀。
评语：读者看见《记忆中的圣诞节》这个题目会立刻想到：接下来的文章将会与一个特别的圣诞节有关。而事实上，吴越着墨于他的几个印象最深刻的圣诞节。也许可将题目改一下，或者将文章局限于某一个特别的圣诞节。但尽管如此，作者仍出色地紧扣了主题。2 School: An Easy Breeze
If you were to attend elementary school in the US, you'd be greatly surprised. You'd wonder if you were in the wrong place, perhaps a kindergarten: the rooms all have twenty or so little desks, not neatly arranged in rows but placed in groups of three to five, to allow better student-to-student communication. Walls are taped full of pictures students drew in schoolwork. There's no podium in the room; rather, the teacher sits like the students, except at a much larger desk. Near a corner is a wooden cupboard, with slots for plastic tubs containing the curriculum books, colored pencils, colored construction paper, and other school supplies of all the students in that class. Students aren't allowed to take the tubs or the materials home because the school firmly believes in leaving work at the workplace. This annoys a few Chinese parents.
The American teachers are exceptionally nice though, criticizing students very rarely to avoid decreasing their confidence. Once, a teacher asked our class a math question, and I immediately answered "five." The teacher replied, "Good job, that is correct." Another student came up with the answer "four," to which the teacher replied, "Good job, great try." I was a bit irritated, feeling that this teacher wasn't very fair. It seemed she had no right or wrong to base her judgments on. But after some time, I began to understand the teacher's kind heart.
American education really stresses the equality of students. In a class there is no class leader, no supervisor, and of course no honors students the teacher would willingly name in front of others. When classmates discuss what they want to be when they grow up, some avidly want to be garbage men, because, in their minds, driving that large truck with the spiffy lift seems very cool. Some students want to work at a nursing home to care for old people. Certainly there's nothing wrong with these jobs, but compared to the dreams of being rich businessmen, they are very different. Students voluntarily enter competitive events without the teacher's urging or recommendation. The audience of giving out awards and trophies is usually only limited to others of the same activity, as in that the teacher would not announce to the whole class one student's achievements. Because there isn't much mental pressure, it seems to most students that there isn't a natural tendency to compete.
Of course, the teachers still do give out awards. For example, in second grade, every few weeks the teacher would give out various prizes, not only to the students with the best grades but also to those who had improved the most, among other reasons. I knew a classmate whose grades weren't particularly good but helped tie a fellow classmate's shoe in gym class. That month he was awarded a "Helping Others Award." At the end of the school year, nearly all of the students for some reason or other received a prize.
Teachers usually try to make class time very active, frequently telling engaging stories to keep the students' attention. I especially liked art class because the teacher allowed us to draw whatever we wanted. Math was also okay because the material covered there I had learned a few years ago, in perhaps pre-school, and no matter what the test I always easily breezed past them.
Seeing that I was bored during my free time after classes, my parents wondered if the public school system was to blame. So, from third to fifth grade, I was sent to a private school where the workload was marginally greater, but for the most part the difficulty remained the same.
In elementary school I occasionally called my friends up in Chengdu. I heard them talk about how the school assigned them tremendous loads of work, and how sometimes they couldn't finish by 11 p.m. In addition to Math Olympic events on weekends, many of them played musical instruments, such as piano or flute. I was very glad I didn't have such a rigorously difficult schedule. At home, when I goofed off too much, my dad would threaten me to send me back to China to study. This usually shut me up pretty fast and kept me on task, because no way did I want to go back to those kinds of schools! But really, I knew, in some ways I already couldn't keep up with my friends in China.
Education was perhaps the reason adults called America the "Children's Heaven."Comments
A viewpoint expressed from an exceptionally gifted student or a self-motivated individual. However, Jackie did take note of differences in individuals which is an important aspect of learning. Nice punctuation and expression of his feeling.轻轻松松上学去
假若你去美国的小学上学，你一定会大吃一惊。你会怀疑自己是不是走错了地方，到了一所幼儿园里面：所有的教室里都摆放着二十来张小课桌，它们并非整齐地按行排列，而是三五张课桌一组地摆放在一起，这样是为了学生之间能更好地交流。墙上贴满了学生在学校里画的画。教室里没有讲台，老师和学生一样坐在课桌旁，只不过这张课桌要大得多。靠墙的角落里有一个带有许多狭长小格的木制壁柜，格子里面放着塑料小桶，桶里盛着教材、彩色铅笔、五颜六色的手工纸以及全班同学的其他学习用品。学生们不许将小桶或资料带回家，因为学校坚信工作只能留在工作的地方。一些中国家长对此不以为然。
尽管如此，美国学校的老师们却特别和蔼，他们极少批评学生，避免降低学生的自信心。有一次，老师要求我们班做一道数学题，我立即说出答案是5，老师回答说：“做得好，答案正确。”另一位同学得出的答案是4，对此老师回应道：“不错，很好的尝试。”我当时有一点忿忿不平，觉得这位老师不太公平，她的判断似乎没有建立在正确或错误的基础之上。不过，一段时间以后，我开始明白了这位老师的良苦用心。
美国的教育非常强调学生的平等。班级里既没有班干部，也没有监督员，当然老师也不会当着全班同学的面表扬学生。当同学们讨论长大以后想干什么的时候，一些同学渴望当垃圾清洁工，因为在他们的心目中，开着那种大型的带有漂亮好看的升降机械的卡车看上去非常酷；有些同学希望到疗养院去照料老年人。当然啦，选择这些职业都没有错，不过，与想要当富商的梦想相比，它们有非常大的区别。学生们在没有受到老师的敦促和推荐下会自愿参加各种比赛。奖状和奖品颁发现场的观众往往仅局限于那些参加了同样比赛的学生，这样老师便不必向全班同学宣布某一位同学的成就。因为没有精神上的压力，对大多数学生而言，好像没有竞争的自然倾向。
当然，老师仍然会给学生颁奖。比如，上二年级的时候，每隔几周老师便颁发不同的奖项，不仅奖励那些成绩最好的学生，而且也会因其他原因而颁奖，包括奖励进步最大的学生。我知道有一位同学的成绩并不是特别好，但他在上体育课的时候替另一位同学系好了鞋带，在那个月他获得了“帮助他人奖”。在学年结束的时候，几乎所有的学生都因为这样或那样的原因获得过奖励。
老师们通常想方设法地让课堂变得非常活跃，经常讲一些有趣的故事来吸引学生的注意力。我特别喜欢美术课，因为老师允许我们随心所欲地画。数学课也行，因为课堂上教授的内容我在几年前，也许是在学前班里便已经学过，所以不管考什么我都能轻松搞定。
看到我在课余时间里无所事事，我的父母怀疑是不是公立学校的教学体系存在问题。所以，从三年级到五年级，我被送到了一所私立学校。在那里，功课稍稍多了一点，但大部分知识的难易度仍然维持在相同的水平上。
在念小学的时候，我偶尔打电话给成都的朋友，听他们讲学校如何给学生布置繁重的作业，他们有时如何到晚上十一点还做不完功课。周末除了要参加奥林匹克数学辅导班外，他们中的许多人还要学乐器，比如弹钢琴或吹笛子。我真高兴我没有过如此艰难的学习生活。每当我在家里无聊闲混之时，爸爸便吓唬我说要把我送回中国去念书，这通常会立刻奏效，让我专心学习功课，因为我才不想回到那样的学校去念书呢！不过说真的，我知道我在某些方面已经跟不上我在国内的朋友了。
大人们称美国是“儿童的天堂”，也许就是因为教育的缘故吧。
评语：表达的观点出自一位非常有天赋的学生或者说一位具有内在动力的人。不过，吴越的确注意到人与人之间的不同，这是关于学习的一个重要方面。对标点符号的使用和对自身感受的表达均非常得当。3 Blessings of a Retired General
I've liked math since I was very little, adding and subtracting with my fingers. If those weren't enough, I'd use my toes. A bit after I was two, I walked around the dining room, counting four legs on the table and four legs on each chair. Dad saw me concentrate on this seemingly simple task to him and joked that maybe I was going to invent a new way of counting tables and chairs, where I'd count the number of legs and divide by four instead of counting the objects outright.
Jokes aside, I had a preference for math, and this carried over into my scholastic career. At Brentwood Elementary there was a mathematics competition called "Math Command," where every two weeks for part of the school year teachers would give fourth and fifth graders a short amount of time to complete arithmetic problems. There was no preparation, no reviewing before the quizzes. Every time that a student successfully completed a test, they he would get a star and move up a rank, and with a certain number of stars they he would win the competition; however, no one in the history of Brentwood had ever completed this. But in my opinion the tests weren't particularly difficult, and at the end of my first year taking this competition, I had beaten it. At the ceremony, I was formally recognized by Mr. Richard Smith.
Mr. Smith was a Major General in the United States Army. He used to be the director of logistics at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. In his thirty-year military career, he had won numerous awards and recognitions. The letter he wrote to me said: " I have been informed of your exceptional achievement of the rank of 'General' in the Math Command Program at Brentwood. I commend you and congratulate you for that effort," along with "Mathematics is, in my opinion, the most important skill set that you can develop in your education. With proficiency in math, all possible occupations are open to you. You obviously have made a great start in developing that proficiency." As he read this speech in front of my parents, I could not help but feel a rising feeling of pride.
In fifth grade I entered Texas private school interscholastic league math competitions. I was on the official school team and left for Dallas for a meet one weekend. After a night at a hotel, a few other students and I went to the competition. At the end of the day I had won a first and third place in different mathematics events against the best students of private schools across the state. My parents were delighted and congratulated me thoroughly.
In the summer of 7th grade I enlisted enrolled in a math camp that had its long roots in Austin. I learned math alongside some of the brightest students, and lived in a dorm away from my parents. When I came home two weeks later, I brought back seven packets of Ramen—which had sustained me throughout the camp.
In eighth grade I competed in MathCounts against other middle school students. After practicing with our school's coach for a few weeks, we went to District to compete. The hall at the University of Texas was enormous, and a few hundred people came. That day it rained, and the competition didn't end until late afternoon. I placed third in our entire district, allowing me a chance to go onto State.
At State it was a completely different story, as the 200 or so two hundred of the brightest minds in the field of mathematics from all of Texas were assembled together to compete. We were invited to a five star hotel for the contest and got received various merchandise including a T-shirt, lights, mousepads, and more , for free. At this meet I really felt the competition and did not place well enough to go to Nationals.
Doing math has paid off in my life. Just last summer I graded papers for a math teacher. I guess you could count math as the start of my working career.Comments
Nice piece. Stayed on topic—mathematics. Possibly word choice could be better in some cases.
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