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南方科技大学公共卫生及应急管理学院2026级博士研究生招生报考通知（长期有效）

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[资源] 【转贴】钱坤强大师佳作：GRE范文【已搜索无重复】

GRE Issue 作文范文
Topic:
“Only Through Mistakes Can There Be Discoveries and Progress.”

“Failure is Mother to Success”, a more popular and more widely publicized version of “Only through mistakes can there be discoveries and progress”, has been championed as an adage of encouragement perhaps since our earliest childhood, by people ranging from kindergarten nurses, teachers of elementary through middle to senior high schools, to university professors, and even by employer to his employee in the moving story at IBM involving Watson and one of his vice presidents. Admittedly, it is totally possible for Paul Ehrlich, one of the few exceptionally talented scientists in the world, to discover—perhaps under the encouragement of his childhood axiom—an syphilis-curing drug (which he symbolically named “Formula 606” as an indication of his perseverance, for he failed for the first 605 trials in developing the drug), thereby making important contributions to the progress of medical science as a whole. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that it is seriously misleading to take this apparently encouraging remark as a lifelong principle and even to live by this principle. There are times when mistakes are committed in such a way that there is no time for discoveries. Imagine how you would think if you, still committing mistakes in your great seniority, were approached and admonished with this “motto” by your grandson, who received it from his father to whom it was precisely you that had handed it down innumerable decades ago?

The process of “making mistakes”, especially when it is connected with “making discoveries”, strongly implies that a human agent, presumably a scientist, is engaged in an act of highly positivistic and empirical scientific research. However, with life being so transitory, we should keep in mind that the wealth of scientific knowledge accumulated by the scientists who precede us can help us effectively and directly head toward discoveries and progress by bypassing possible pitfalls and mistakes. The fact that we can exploit existing scientific findings in a more speedy and fruitful manner precludes us from the necessity to achieve scientific progress by resorting to mistake-making as the sole source of knowledge, as is advocated by the foregoing argument.

Moreover, the proposition that “only through mistakes can there be discoveries and progress” induces the illusion that, as long as researchers keep on undertaking trials and experiments regardless of efficiency and cost, victory will be there automatically and inevitably. The proposition that perseverance will ultimately lead to discoveries and progress further implies that every scientific effort would end up in success. By inference, there would never be such a thing as resignation or giving up halfway, as if success can always be guaranteed by an “anti-failure insurance company.” But there are instances in which certain scientific missions have to be terminated eternally because the prospect of making a discovery is all too bleak. If we allow ourselves to cherish the blind faith in an ultimate victory, two serious consequences would ensure thereof. On one hand, those mistake-makers would comfortably indulge themselves in committing infinite mistakes, and even blind mistakes. It would scarcely occur to them to make opportune reflections on their sustained failures and to seek fresh and more efficacious perspectives and methodologies. It is pathetic to expect the occurrence of the final miracle which in actuality might never occur. On the other hand, this will also give rise to the development of magnanimous but ill-fated tolerance on the part of the general public for mistake-making. In this case, the general public itself live under the illusory misconception that the perpetrator of constant mistakes would eventually evolve into a scientific genius, given enough time. It is absolutely conceivable that, by being exonerated for committing “innocent and necessary” mistakes, the perpetrator tends to contract inertia and indolence on one hand and become increasingly irresponsible on the other, thereby resulting in alarming physical wastes of materials and resources.

In connection with this consequence is the cost of making mistakes. Since making mistakes is generally negative, it carries the implication that a cost must be paid for every mistake. And when it comes to the point that the cost of making mistakes significantly dwarfs the possible benefits that can be derived from a trivial discovery, every sensible person would come to the conclusion that the practice of achieving minor discoveries through making costly mistakes should by no means be encouraged.

It might be contended that, given the incessant emergence of changing circumstances and fresh challenges, making mistakes are ineluctable and hence excusable. This is, at least partially, an ill-founded pretext for being immature. For one thing, a person who commits mistakes under each changed circumstance or commits the same mistake in similar cases can only be characterized as incapable of maturity. For another thing, although a definite demarcation line between maturity and naivety can be identified sooner or later in a person’s lifetime, it is hardly logical to say that a mistake-committing senior citizen has not completed his evolutionary process of de-naivetization when he is virtually on his deathbed. Progress, either personal or social, is absolutely impossible in a state of lasting naivety.

As is universally acknowledged, human beings differ from other creatures in that they are rational. This faculty of rationality functions by endowing man with the ability to foresee and to predict, to make full preparations based on past experience and knowledge for the advent of potential adversities caused by changed circumstances. The capacity for foresight makes it possible for man to be prepared in advance for impending problems, thus eliminating and avoiding mistakes.

In conclusion, the proposed argument is seriously flawed on two accounts. In the first place, by the use of the word “only”, it posits the committing of mistakes as an absolute condition for accomplishing discoveries and progress, ignoring the foundational importance of the research performed by those scientists preceding us in leading to scientific discoveries and progress. In the second place, the argument is merely negative, based on the act of being erroneous and even being fallacious. A more plausible and compelling explanation for human discoveries and progress is man’s intelligence as a rational being, his long-accumulated experience and knowledge that have been proved effective through practice, his sound judgments, his right methodologies in understanding himself and the world around him, and his correct decision-making in choosing the proper course of action.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(1045 words)

为了便于理解，附本文的中文参考译文如下:
“唯有通过犯错误，才会有发现和进步。”
　　人们应该永不满足于他们业已拥有的一切，并应该永远去追求新异之物，这似乎是人类本性中所固有的一个倾向。我们在Jane Austin的《傲慢与偏见》一书中都读到过这样一句话，“这是一个举世公认的真理，即一个腰缠万贯的单身男人必欲迎取一位娇妻。”这仅仅只例示着人类生存的一个侧面，亦即人类生存中的一种必要境况。

　　在最为抽象的层面上，永不满足的精神构成了推动人类文明在整个人类历史长河中前进的力量所在。出于对知识渴求的内在激励，以及恶劣环境的外在挑战，人类成功地完成了其进化，由最原始的状态嬗变至最高级的和最尖端的境界。倘若我们的原始祖先满足于栖息于洞穴之中，或过一种游牧的生活，他们终将只能成为某些到处飘零、浪迹天涯的生物体，出没于险象丛生的森林或满是敌意的荒野，永远提心吊胆，处处设防，惟恐成为某些食人猛兽的牺牲品。因此，我们可以十分有把握地得出结论说，正是人类勇于求索的心灵及其满怀抱负的本性才使人类有别于其他动物。

　　在当今世界，人类身上这种永不满足的欲望引发了科技领域最宏伟壮观的发展。我们知道，人类凭借业已积累起来的物质财富，早就可以过上一种过得去的、甚至是甚为富裕的生活。但是，我们也充分地意识到，这种生活并不是最美好的。因此，我们遨游至宇宙不为人知的深处去探索其奥秘；我们也深入到南极进行危险的远征，以期发现可供替换的能源，来弥补我们业已拥有但却正以惊人速度锐减的那些能源。每项科技进步无一不是对新异之物和更美好之物的不懈求索所致。

　　最后，世纪之交目睹了文艺领域中各种思潮流派持续不断的大量涌现，诸如印象主义，表现主义，象征主义，立体派，野兽派，超现实主义，结构主义等。原因何在？答案十分简单。这种百花齐放的繁荣是对人们的某种不满所做出的反应，人们已不再满足于各种陈腐的、老一套的表达方式，因为它们的表现力由于几个世纪的反复使用而丧失殆尽。要求人们仅仅欣赏古典杰作，比如说达?芬奇的《蒙娜丽莎》，不啻是一桩令人十分乏味的事情。相反，立体派画家毕加索则以一种令人耳目一新的、带有先锋派色彩的清新与原创性在《格尔尼卡》一画中表达了一种深刻的真理。可以说，现存的状况总是在被新异之物所超越。

　　诚然，对于永不满足这一普遍规律而言，总是有可能存在着例外情形。中国古谚云：“知足常乐”。它在这方面是一个最好的例证。但我更愿意对这一古谚作这样的解读，即人们的幸福感与满足感缘起于他们所已取得的成就，包括已经取得了的“新”和“异”的成就。毕竟，人类决不是伊索寓言中的那只寒鸦，可以自满且虚荣地整日沉湎于唱歌跳舞，却全然不知下一餐食物将从何而来。

    读后偶感：
   钱大师不仅英文功底深厚，中文功底也是令人难以企及地深厚！
   真正的学贯中西，学界泰斗！
推荐钱老师另一佳作：TOEFL范文
http://muchong.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=550941

[ Last edited by wfcicsd on 2007-8-16 at 00:21 ]

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