We gain our knowledge about the world and our life from two sources: from experience and from books. These two resources are both important, but which of them is more important?
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Knowledge from books forms a very important part of our knowledge structure. In schools and
4 ~* q, A% _+ }4 Scolleges, we learn knowledge which is fundamental to our future career. We learn knowledge
/ U3 H& i- }0 T. l; _4 m: M1 bfrom books in order to make our contributions to this society in the future. A student learns 7 b# x, ], X+ D
mathematic equations and other scientific knowledge and become a scientist or engineer. We will be illiterate and ignorant without learning knowledge from books. Moreover, we acquire % w- `5 m c) T/ S$ |! p4 a
knowledge about life and the world by reading books, magazines and newspapers. This is also
0 Y0 h: E% ]# `5 L. a/ `' jvery important as we cannot experience everything all by ourselves. Therefore books are a very
9 Z; v3 f: f: ?, Iimportant source of knowledge. 8 R8 ~ [" }& f% c! a) v) t
! C1 ?: I0 l9 N. i# B6 X( SOn the other hand, we can’t learn everything from a book. “Experience is the best teacher” is an old cliché, but I agree with it. The most important, and sometimes the hardest, lessons we learn in life come from our participation in situations. We learn how to get along with others or how to have self-respect from our experience, not from books. We cannot learn emotional feelings, such as love and care, through books; they come from our real life experience. Knowledge from
- _5 H+ m- Q8 ^) t# d/ G0 hexperience is also a very important supplement to knowledge from books.
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( w1 w& t( V/ Q8 p8 L& m& t8 jNeedless to say both learning sources, books and experience, are very important to us. But in my opinion knowledge from experience is more important, because without knowledge from
8 Q8 e, a' T+ O m9 Jexperience, it is impossible to get a real understanding of knowledge from books, and how to apply this knowledge to real world situations. |