2003年专八真题作文及范文

An English newspaper is currently running a discussion on whether young people in Chinatoday are (not) more self-centered and unsympathetic than were previous generations. And the paper is inviting contributions from university students. You have been asked to write a short article for the newspaper to air your views. 　

范文

Love, and Then Be Loved

In recent years, more and more teachers complain that their students are indifferent to others. Some even worry that the young generation might ruin the future ofChina. To be sure, many of our young people cannot see eye to eye with this view. However, as a university student, I myself would like to hold that we young people today are in general more self-centered and unsympathetic than our previous generations.  

To start with, the majority, if not all, of young people choose to attend exclusively to their own needs. In their eyes, it is all too natural to seek satisfaction from what they do, even if it may mean inconvenience to others. Take my dormitory for example. It is a common scene here that a roommate cheerfully talks to his girlfriend on the phone at midnight when others are struggling for a sound sleep. One may complain now and then, but to no avail. In fact, others, to the exclusion of me, live their dormitory life much in the same way. When I take a nap at noon, they often play cards. They have no regard for others. Life is a joy to them, yet they often enjoy it to the neglect of others' feelings. In sharp contrast, our caring parents always pay heed to our needs and those of others. Whenever my father comes back home late in the night, he tiptoes in for fear that he might awake me.
  Moreover, young people tend to be insensitive to others' difficulty. When a classmate falls ill, few people offer to help, but regard it as none of their business. Some students in my class come from poor families. Yet, they are active mobile phone users, who may spend twice as much as what their parents earn from arduous labor. When asked why they do so, they answer that their parents have the obligation to accommodate their expenses. Personally, I detest their answer, for I know my parents never thought that way when they were young. Being aware of their parents' financial difficulty, they managed to save every penny they could.
  For the above reasons and those not mentioned here, I subscribe to the view that young people in today's China are more self-centered and unsympathetic than were our previous generations. It is high time that we learned from older generations so that a harmonious and splendid future can be anticipated.