Time：25 minutes
The essay gives you an opportunity to show how effectively you can develop and express ideas. You should, therefore, take care to develop your point of view, present your ideas logically and clearly, and use language precisely.
Your essay must be written on the lines provided on your answer sheet— you will receive no other paper on which to write. You will have enough space if you write on every line, avoid wide margins, and keep your handwriting to a reasonable size. Remember that people who are not familiar with your handwriting will read what you write. Try to write or print so that what you are writing is legible to those readers.
Important Reminders:
● A pencil is required for the essay. An essay written in ink will receive a score of zero.
● Do not write your essay in your test book. You will receive credit only for what you write on your answer sheet.
● An off-topic essay will receive a score of zero.
● If your essay does not reflect your original and individual work, your test scores may be canceled.
● You have twenty-five minutes to write an essay on the topic assigned below.
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
There are books that try to show the world as it is and books that try to show the world as it should or could be. Which sort of books should we offer to our children and read ourselves? One answer is the argument for the value of truth, for“ telling it like it is.” Writers could promote certain positive ideals by being less realistic, but all of us—especially children—have a right to be told the truth.
Adapted from Claudia Mills, “The Ethics of Representation: Realism and Idealism in Children’s Fiction”
Assignment: Should books portray the world as it is or as it should be? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
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Section 1—— Sample Essay
Books serve all kinds of purposes, but the ultimate purpose of books is to educate. Not only do we learn about the world through novels and historical tomes, but we are also taught to examine what is wrong and right with society. People should not only be entertained, but provoked; if books simply served as distractions from personal realities, then governments would not ban controversial tomes. In this way, both realistic and fictional books are necessary.
Two different titles written by George Orwell contrast with each other, but both increase the reader’s awareness of realities and trigger him to consider the pessimistic realities of life. The first, , describe the hazards and difficulties of working class life and beggarship in two of Europe’s biggest cities. In Paris, the narrator works in various restaurants, low and high end, warning the reader of unsanitary kitchens and actions as well as of the abuse workers endure. When the story moves to London, the life of a tramp traveling around, sleeping in charity beds or on the street, picking up unfinished cigarettes is used to illustrate a life of poverty. By writing this novel, Orwell intends to publicize the harsh circumstances of how the poor struggle to live, and to simply live as human beings. The novel goads the reader to examine what needs to be changed in society through graphic images of destitution and desperation.
Orwell then illustrates a completely fictional situation in his book, , which depicts the social hierarchy on a farm run by animals. Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon drive out the human farmer and rename the land “Animal Farm.” Once in power, Napoleon’s greed and thirst for power begins to unravel the social bond. He convinces the others that Snowball is at fault for the destruction of an important windmill, and begins to propagandize his superiority with slogans such as “Napoleon is always right.” This satirical story, in which the animals clearly are representations of people and the events are small scale caricatures of real revolutions and political upheavals, simplify the retelling of unjust events for the reader. Orwell uses these metaphors to describe the Soviet Union, which was undoubtedly an authoritarian state, and warns the public against tyranny of the few.
There is no need to limit the types of books we read to simply realistic tales or to optimistic stories. Circumstances within a novel are always humanly constructed, raising the importance of a story’s message and background. If we only read stories that idealize the world, we will fail to understand society’s complexities. Thus it is important to read books depicting the potential good of society, as well as ones portraying the flaws existing within it.
