托福独立写作范文之读报纸和杂志是了解一个国家的最好方式

　　2010年11月27日、2012年6月30日中国大陆考题，英文题目Reading newspapers and magazines is best way to learn about a foreign country.

　　Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Reading newspapers and magazines is best way to learn about a foreign country.

　　Newspapers and magazines are good sources of information, especially current information. With most periodicals going digital, the latest news about countries and the world is available to us at the click of a mouse. Although periodicals provide a wealth of information about countries, I do not believe reading newspapers or magazines is the best way to learn about a foreign country.

　　Newspaper and magazine articles rarely provide more than the most basic information on an issue. Certainly the authors of these articles are experts or experienced reporters about these foreign countries, but the articles they write are restricted to a small amount of words written in a short amount of time. Fully explaining issues and cultures of foreign countries is complicated enough without restricting the explanations to a five hundred word piece in the business section of the Sunday paper. For example, to fully understand issues like the euro and the current financial security of the European Union, scholars spend years researching and reading extensively. Oftentimes their sources are not periodicals. While newspapers and magazine are easily accessible, I have learned that you need to read these kinds of articles critically, scrutinizing whether the information provided is accurate or if it is possible that not all the information available is included in the article.

　　In addition, most articles in newspapers and magazine deal with current events. Except for specific magazines like National Geographic, not many of these focus solely on foreign countries. To understand things like culture and art, you often need to refer to other sources such as documentaries and books. For example, it's impossible to learn about cultural dances of a country if you only read articles. You must watch a performance in order to truly understand this aspect of a nation.

　　A lot about understanding a country is developing your own point of view. Yes articles from newspapers and magazines can help you develop your own perspective, but who is to say that your own cultural and personal concept of the world will not cloud and skew your understanding. For example, I went to Thailand when I was in high school. Before I went I read a lot about the political protests that were happening at the time and thought that all Thai people were very political. I was worried that I would run into very strong Thai nationalism and get stuck in the middle of a violent protest. When I arrived, I did not see any signs of political protests and most people I talked to about the protests bluntly told me that they could care less about the current political situation. This made me realize that I had developed a false image of Thailand in my mind, despite my extensive reading. If I had not gone to Thailand, maybe that false understanding would have never been corrected.

　　Although reading periodicals like newspapers and magazines does provide a lot of information about foreign countries, in order to truly understand a country, you must go to the country yourself and develop your own understanding. (507)