中学生是否应该在上大学之前拿出至少一年去工作或旅行?为什么?下面是小编整理的托福独立写作作文，大家可以参考参考。

　　3月13日托福写作真题

　　Students should spend at least one year working or travelling before they go to the university.

　　托福独立写作参考范文【1】

　　Gap year, a break between high school and college, has become a trend among many American and European students theses years. As the popularity of gap year has grown, so to has its appeal. Generally, it can be constructed (working in a company, taking time off to improve coding skills, learning a language, working on personal projects) or unconstructed (travelling, figuring out what to do as it comes). The idea of gap year has been strongly questioned by some nervous parents, however, some supporters contend that it will be a lifelong treasure which enables one to have the full command of his life. From my perspective, taking a year to work or travel before college brings about more advantages than shortcomings.

　　To begin with, a gap year helps guide students’ future education and life goals. Most of young students do not know exactly what they wanted to do once they left high school or even half way through college. Working or travelling a year will give them some “real world experience” as well as insight into their interests and strengths which will help them shape a path to a successful career. Once students learn a whole lot about themselves, they are likely to take full advantage of college. Take an Australian boy for an example. Enjoying his gap year in Nepal, he helps the locals in Pokhara to build their organic farms. He is so passionate about what he is doing now and he decided to pursue environmental science after he comes back to university. The internships and professional experience gained over the gap year will have much more influence on the development of one’s future than college.

　　In addition, taking a year off can refresh the tired-out high school graduates. In general, it will take at least ten years before jumping into the long and challenging years of university. There is no doubt that studious students will spare no effort to improve their academic performance with the expectation that they will receive offers from their dream schools. Under the competitive pressure of high school, they will not only prepare for exams such as SAT or ACT but also seek for voluntary opportunities to enrich their Curriculum Vitae. My younger sister used to travel to Cuba to volunteer with brown bears for three months. After that she went to Europe driving her Vespa across more than 20 cities. She said it was so different from school. She won’t have to attend a test at then end of the trimester, which means that there is no peer pressure or any pressure from outside. At the same time she can reorganize her mind which was full of chemical equations, historical events as well as verses from poems.

　　It is true that students who choose to drop a year are more likely to lose their study skills. During the gap year, there will be less chances for them to participate in actual classes in college. Without attending lectures given by famous professor and communicating face-to-face with classmates, the whole learning process will be incomplete. Many of study skills could not be developed and trained, which leads directly to the deprivation of both academic ability and motivation. However, it won’t be a potential problem nowadays because most of top universities offer MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses). Students can study random topics through free online classes. Although they don’t have any college credit, they learned a lot, met wonderful people, and keep their brains in shape for college.

　　Ultimately, the benefits of gap year far outweigh the only drawback because it can help exhausted students relax both mentally and physically and provide them with the opportunities to take a step back to focus on their goals, leading to a stronger sense of direction once they’re back in the classroom.!

　　托福独立写作参考范文【2】

　　The prevailing notion is that high school students are under huge pressure. Then appears a controversy whether students should have one year to engage in other things before they attend their university. After weighing the pros and cons, I am favor of the opinion that having a gap year can produce many benefits.

　　First off, students can benefit a lot from traveling. As everyone knows, to maintain strong competitiveness, high school students are required to accomplish a wide range of either required or optional curriculums at school and the rights to develop their own interests have been deprived relentlessly, which has proven to be a detriment of their growth. Instead of pursuing their bachelor degree without pause in the college, traveling can help them regain chances to cultivate and perfect their personalities and release pressure. For instance, many more college graduates are reported to be indifferent to the society and show no mercy on those in need, part of which owes a lot to the fact that schools lay more emphasis on cultivating students’ academic abilities and downplay the importance of developing their overall qualities. Traveling to those places in poverty can give students a sight of those impoverished families to call on the sense of responsibility. Besides, by paying a visit to some places of interest like the Great Wall or the pyramid in Egypt, students can approach the greatness of diverse culture. What’s more, the direct access to the natural world can appease students’ inner uproar. Accordingly, a gap year can be a great asset for high school graduates.

　　Secondly, by taking part-time jobs, not only can students accumulate sufficient social experience but also earn some money to reduce financial stress on their families. Though economy in China keeps growing at a rate of almost 9 percent in the recent, average citizens still suffer huge pressure especially when the slump of stock market took a heavy toll on them and the majority of stock investors withdrew their money and reinvest to the real estate, further increasing pressure on the ordinary because of the increasing prices of housing. For most families from small cities and rural areas, college tuition still appears to be a great burden on them and by taking part-time jobs, students can earn some wages to relieve financial pressure, such as serving as a restaurant attendant that enables students to better develop their communication techniques and learn more about how to meet the demands of consumers or working as a salesman that will be an entirely different experience from high schools and can lead to the cultivation of the ability of presenting customers the advantages of products. Obviously, a gap year means a lot to high school graduates.

　　Admittedly, there is another voice that high school students are supposed to start their campus life immediately after graduation from high schools. To be more specific, maintaining high-efficiency study can lead students to be better acclimated to their college life. Instead of going to college soon, a gap year may disrupt their study schedule and weaken their learning skills. It appears to be sensible, however; the ultimate goal of attending a university is to seek a decent job and gaining social experience in advance makes students more conscious of which kind of area they are more interested in in the near future such as the serving industry or high-tech fields.

　　In conclusion, high school graduates had better live a different life temporarily before they go to college.