[Prompt: Please discuss your interest in the field of engineering and discuss your interest in a specific engineering discipline.]

Mechanical Pencils

A city bus pulls into the Beijing station. The folded doors creak open, and a six-year-old boy hops off, followed by his mom. The boy will begin school in a week, and they are shopping for school supplies. As the boy and the mother stroll past the store counters, the mother suddenly says, "Lele, let’s get you a mechanical pencil." I was fascinated as soon as I saw the round plastic barrel and pointed tip -- a piece of engineering brilliance.

My first pencil box contained four wooden pencils, a razor, and a strip of sandpaper used to sharpen the lead. Living in the last years of pre-modernized China, I had never seen a mechanical pencil before. I don't remember the trip home from the store, for the only thing on my mind was the yolk-colored barrel. As soon as I got home, I tried to open the pencil to see the magic behind a button that, when pressed at one end, advanced the lead at the other end. After many wasted lead fragments and a bent barrel, the pencil was ripped out of my hand, and I was scolded for not valuing goods. Respect for my elders stopped me from further exploration of the pencil, and so ended my first encounter with engineering; but my fascination with "how does it work?" was unleashed. The following years were full of long, intense stares at moving bicycle gears, adventurous peeks inside my grandfather’s typewriter, and temporary blindness from prolonged examinations of burning light bulbs.

When I arrived in the United States, I had to put my curiosity on hold for a year. With only a basic knowledge of the alphabet and the lyrics to "B-I-N-G-O, " I devoted all my time to learning English, completing the English as a Second Language program two years ahead of schedule. But my fascination with the mechanics of objects around me soon resurfaced. My meager collection of McDonald's Happy Meal toys soon dwindled, as I began prying open poor Simba to see the gears and wheels inside. A few years later, I found myself covered with motor oil as I lay next to my father under our car, learning how to change the oil filter. Watching the black fluid pouring smoothly out of the engine, I knew then that I would become a disciple of engineering.

At the same time as I discovered my love of engineering, I also realized what a large field it is. What kind of engineering would I choose -- electrical, mechanical, chemical? One day, sitting in my AP Biology class, a diagram comparing the electron pumps of a cell to turbines in a dam appeared before me. Suddenly, it all connected under the light of the projector: the gears in Simba’s stomach, the burnt memory cards of my computer, the fascinating science of biology all came into union under the bioengineering field. I had found my calling, and all because of a little mechanical pencil.

點(diǎn)評(píng)：

1.文字描寫細(xì)致生動(dòng)，結(jié)構(gòu)緊湊；

2.故事十分真切，沒有虛構(gòu)的特殊經(jīng)歷，通過平常的小事來反映作者對(duì)于工程方面的興趣和學(xué)習(xí)能力；

3.對(duì)于一些寫Essay時(shí)總是覺的沒有東西可寫的人來說，本文無疑是一個(gè)十分出色的例子，挖掘個(gè)人的物質(zhì)并不一定要很獨(dú)特的經(jīng)歷，許多平常的小事一樣可以反映一個(gè)人的性格和興趣；

4.文風(fēng)樸實(shí)，符合理工科嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)踏實(shí)的作風(fēng)；

5.文章給人的印象不是很深刻，這與內(nèi)容選材有關(guān)，文末對(duì)生物學(xué)的興趣來的比較突然，沒有一個(gè)很好的鋪墊，是個(gè)敗筆。

翻譯：

［命題要求：請(qǐng)描述你感興趣工程學(xué)領(lǐng)域，并論樹你對(duì)特定工程科目的興趣。］

我的那支自動(dòng)鉛筆

一輛公車慢慢駛?cè)氡本┱?。折疊門在輾軋聲中打開，一個(gè)六歲的男孩跳著走了下來,接著是他的媽媽。男孩將在一周后開學(xué)，因此他們正準(zhǔn)備為新學(xué)期準(zhǔn)備些用品。當(dāng)男孩和母親走過商店的柜臺(tái)時(shí)，媽媽突然說，Lele，給你買支自動(dòng)鉛筆吧。當(dāng)我看到那圓形的塑料筆桶和筆尖時(shí)，我不禁著迷了，一件完美的工程作品。

我的第一個(gè)鉛筆盒包括四支木制鉛筆，一把削刀和一卷用來磨尖筆頭的砂紙。在還未實(shí)現(xiàn)現(xiàn)代化的中國(guó)，我還從來沒有看到過自動(dòng)鉛筆。我不記得從家到商店的路途，腦海中唯一想的就是那蛋黃色的筆桶。當(dāng)我回家后，我立刻嘗試著去打開鉛筆探索那個(gè)按鈕后面的秘密，因?yàn)楫?dāng)我按下一頭的按鈕，筆的另一頭就會(huì)自動(dòng)出來。當(dāng)我浪費(fèi)了很多筆芯后，并把筆桶弄彎了后，鉛筆從我手中被拿走了，而且我被指責(zé)不珍惜物品。我哥哥阻止了我進(jìn)一步探索鉛筆的行動(dòng)，我和工程學(xué)的第一次接觸就這樣被終止了，但我探索它工作原理的熱情卻未曾消失。接下來的幾年我經(jīng)常在祖父的打字機(jī)邊研究它是怎么工作的，甚至因?yàn)檠芯堪l(fā)亮的燈泡而導(dǎo)致暫時(shí)性的失明。
 
當(dāng)我到了美國(guó)后的一年，我不得不把我的好奇擱到一邊。由于一開始只會(huì)一些基本的英語，我把全部的精力都放在語言課程上，并提前２年完成了之前定下的ESL課程。但是我對(duì)于機(jī)械的熱情很快又浮現(xiàn)了。我收集的本來就不多的麥當(dāng)勞快樂套餐玩具越來越少了，因?yàn)槲铱偸前芽蓱z的Simba打開來研究里面的齒輪和輪子。幾年后，我已經(jīng)是滿身機(jī)油和我父親躺在車下學(xué)習(xí)怎么更換機(jī)油過濾器。看著黑色的機(jī)油緩緩的從引擎中流出來，我意識(shí)到我要成為一個(gè)工程學(xué)方面的專業(yè)人士。
 
對(duì)工程學(xué)的興趣越厚，就越發(fā)現(xiàn)這是一片非常廣闊的領(lǐng)域。到底我該選擇哪個(gè)工程專業(yè)呢－－電氣，機(jī)械，還是化學(xué)？有一天在AP生物課上，我看到一個(gè)比較細(xì)胞的電子泵和一個(gè)水壩的渦輪圖表。突然，我覺的我可以把這一些聯(lián)系起來，Simba肚子里的齒輪，電腦里燒掉的記憶卡，以及迷人的生物學(xué)所有這些都可以歸類到生物工程的領(lǐng)域中。我終于發(fā)現(xiàn)了我的使命，所有的這些都是因?yàn)槟侵⌒〉淖詣?dòng)鉛筆。