1、本科毕业设计（论文） 外 文 翻 译 原文： How to Study 5/e IMPROVING MOTIVATION Why is it hard to study? For one thing, there is the difference between high school and college. In high school someone is usually breathing down your neck every day to get you to do your work, and hardly any internal push is required. In
2、college external pressure scarcely exists. You are on your own.For most students homework is not assigned on a regular basis, and some-times a single assignment may be given for the entire semester. Another reason its hard to study has to do with the absence of short-term goals. Most students who go
3、 to college express some kind of career interest.They want to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, business executives, teachers,and so on. But these aims are often vague, and it is hard to see how day-to-day schoolwork relates to them. Few students are absolutely sure of what they want to do in life, an
4、d even fewer know exactly what they must do in college to prepare themselves for their chosen careers. If career aspirations should change, as they often do, students are adrift, and this causes insecurity and anxiety that make studying difficult. One of the reasons for going to college is to determ
5、ine a direction for your life. A college education should provide you with enough experience to help you find your career goal. There is nothing wrong with not knowing what you want to do, even after youve been in college for a while. Occupational choice is often difficult, particularly for students
6、 in a liberal arts program. In the absence of a firm career decision, many students find it difficult to work up much enthusiasm for studying. Or worse, they feel positively paralyzed without some clear goal in mind, even if they like their courses. But if you dont feel any clear-cut calling to a pa
7、rticular occupation, dont let it worry you. One thing you can be sure of: If you havent made a career choice by the time you are 21 or 22, the world will not come to an end. If you are in a liberal arts curriculum, remember that the subjects you study will have little or no direct relation to what y
8、ou will end up doing. The course of study is not designed to prepare you for any particular occupation. Rather its purpose is to make you a thoughtful person with skills in critical reading, thinking, or writing. In short, you will end up educated. Many employers want people who have a proven abilit
9、y to learn, and they will teach you what they want you to know. It is our opinion that education, by definition, is valuable, and you should make the most of it. The Importance of Grades Grades are not the measure of a person, nor are they the sole measure of academic accomplishment. They are only o
10、ne rather imperfect reflection of how much you have learned in your various courses. People can learn a great deal and acquire a good education without making high grades, and some students who make straight As may concentrate so much on getting them that they miss their education. Whether we like i
11、t or not, grades are one of things that society uses to judge what you are likely to accomplish in the future.However imperfect they may be, they do work. If you want to go on to graduate or professional school, grades are even more important than you think. The competition among applicants for law
12、school, medical school, veterinary school, graduate business school, and most programs in graduate arts and sciences is formidable. Your college grades will probably be the most important factor in determining whether you are admitted or not (although letters of recommendation sometimes count even m
13、ore we have more to say about this later). Experienced admissions officers know that grades predict success in advanced work better than do test scores. Of course, a few people with the right connections or with a great record of achievement in extracurricular affairs will be admitted despite medioc
14、re grades. But that happens less often than you think. The best graduate and professional schools have two to ten times as many applicants as they have spaces. They can afford to take only the best. In many fields, no one with lower than a B average is even considered, and some schools seldom admit
15、anyone with less than an A average. So, if you plan to go on to advanced studies, you cant afford to dismiss grades as unimportant, even if you have reservations about them, as many of us do Satisfaction in Study Learning, even studying, doesnt have to be a chore. It can be a real source of satisfac
16、tion. In the last chapter we point out that if you see no intrinsic value in learning, perhaps you shouldnt be in college, at least for now. Part of the trick in liking to study is in knowing what to learn and how to learn it. If you can pick up a book, read it with reasonable speed, and know how to
17、 select the main points and remember them, youre the kind of person who probably does get satisfaction from learning. Youre lucky. You will be the richer person for it. Besides acquiring some new information or being challenged to examine some new ideas, you ll have the kind of feeling of pride that
18、 a craftsperson has in work well done. Once you have done a good job at studying, you will be in a better position to do it again. The more you read and learn, the easier it is to read and learn. Instead of being a dull, frustrating chore, studying will be something satisfying in itself. If you deve
19、lop a high level of skill in studying, we can almost guarantee that you will come to enjoy studying more and that you won t dread it. If, despite your best efforts, studying is still a dull task, it may be that you have a problem in reading, writing, or doing basic arithmetic. If so, do something ab
20、out it. Your college almost certainly has some program for helping students for whom the ordinary procedures in studying are a monumental chore. Good study habits will let you get more done in less time. The time you save can be used for the things you like to do best a reward for yourself. We are c
21、onfident that if you learn to study as outlined in this book, you will have more time for the things you like to do, even if its more studying. Evidence shows that students who have been taught how-to-study methods make better grades with less time spent in studying than those students who have not
22、been instructed. Of course, it is not how much you study but how well. Students who study all the time demonstrate that they are not studying effectively, and they frequently get poorer grades than many of those who study a shorter amount of time. Many bright students study day and night without getting the grades they ought to. As it is with many other things we do, its the quality rather than the quantity that counts.
