关于概念与事实的托福作文范文

　　Which is more important for students, to understand concepts or to learn facts? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice.

　　对于学生来说，理解概念和知道事实哪个更重要？请用具体的理由和事例来说明。

　　I have no doubt that understanding concepts is more important for students than learning facts. Facts are specific pieces of information, like the population of a country or the date of an event. Facts can help students know about one thing but they are not useful in other areas of students' lives. For example, China has 1.3 billion people. This is a fact that tells a person something about China but he or she cannot use this fact to understand another thing. Knowing the population of China cannot teach a student about population problems or the population of other countries.

　　Furthermore, a fact does not explain why something is so, or whether it is a good or bad thing. If students just know facts, they will have knowledge but they will not be able to analyze this knowledge. By understanding concepts, students learn how to be analytical and think independently. They can use a concept to understand a situation deeply,and then they can apply the concept to other areas. They can know why something happened and whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. In short, learning facts tell people “what” but understanding concepts tells them “why” and “how.”

　　For example, if we know about the concepts of population growth and overpopulation,we can know why China's population is so large, whether it is a good or bad thing, and the possible consequences. We can also use the same concept to analyze every country's population. Understanding concepts ensures that people or countries can learn from each other. Concepts focus on explaining the relationship between different things. To my mind, it is very important to know why something is true because this means we can apply the knowledge to other areas in order to improve society.

　　我从不怀疑对学生来说理解概念比认识事实要重要得多。事实是具体的信息片段，例如一个国家的人口或是一个事件的日期。事实可以帮助学生了解一件事情，却无法在学生生活中的其他领域帮助他们。例如，中国有13亿人口。这一事实可以告诉一个人关于中国的一些信息，却无法让他/她用这一事实去理解其他事情。知道中国人口数量并不能让学生了解因人口产生的问题或是其他国家的人口数量。

　　此外，一个事实本身并不能解释事情为什么如此，事情是好是坏。如果学生仅仅知道事实，他们会有知识，但是无法分析知识。而通过理解概念，学生可以学会如何掌握分析能力，如何独立思考。他们可以利用概念去深入了解一种现象，并把概念运用于其他领域。

　　他们可以知道事情为什么发生，事情是好是坏。简而言之，学会事实只能告诉人们“是什么”，而理解概念则告诉人们“为什么”和“怎样做”。

　　举个例子，如果我们知道关于人口增长和人口过剩的概念，我们就可以知道为什么中国的人口如此之多，了解这是好事还是坏事，以及可能产生的结果。我们也可以使用这同样的概念去分析每一个国家的人口。理解概念使人们和国家可以相互学习。概念关注解释不同事物的关系。在我看来，了解事物为什么是正确的是十分重要的，因为这意味着我们可以将这些知识运用到其他领域来改善社会。