【聚焦】芝加哥大学新essay出炉！你能想到几种破解法？中-新东方前途出国

  　　| 往年芝加哥大学essay题目汇总    

　　在放出今年附加essay题目的同时，我们也看到在官网上放出的往年题目，这里我们经过分类，发现有以下非常典型的几种essay题目类型：  

　　创造某个新事物、解释某个存在的事物、情景想象、制作非文字作品；脑洞大开等等......  

　　来一起围观以下三类烧脑essay题，开发脑洞吧！  

　　· 第一类：给出例子及定义，根据定义“创造”出一个新的事物，并且解释创造它的原因：  

　　创造一个新的学科：Due to a series of clerical errors, there is exactly one typo (an extra letter, a removed letter, or an altered letter) in the name of every department at the University of Chicago. Oops! Describe your new intended major. Why are you interested in it and what courses or areas of focus within it might you want to explore? Potential options include Commuter Science, Bromance Languages and Literatures, Pundamentals: Issues and Texts, Ant History... a full list of unmodified majors ready for your editor’s eye is available here.  

　　—Inspired by Josh Kaufman, AB'18`+  

　　创造一个结合历史人物和现代事物的组合：Joan of Arkansas. Queen Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Babe Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mash up a historical figure with a new time period, environment, location, or occupation, and tell us their story.  

　　—Inspired by Drew Donaldson, AB’16  

　　创造一个新的“三人组”：Little pigs, French hens, a family of bears. Blind mice, musketeers, the Fates. Parts of an atom, laws of thought, a guideline for composition. Omne trium perfectum? Create your own group of threes, and describe why and how they fit together.  

　　—Inspired by Zilin Cui, Class of 2018  

　　创造一个新的俚语：The ball is in your court—a penny for your thoughts, but say it, don’t spray it. So long as you don’t bite off more than you can chew, beat around the bush, or cut corners, writing this essay should be a piece of cake. Create your own idiom, and tell us its origin—you know, the whole nine yards. PS: A picture is worth a thousand words.  

　　—Inspired by April Bell, AB'17, and Maya Shaked, Class of 2018 (It takes two to tango.)  

　　给你过去收到过的礼物创造它的背景故事：“…I [was] eager to escape backward again, to be off to invent a past for the present.” —The Rose Rabbi by Daniel Stern  

　　Present: present  

　　1. Something that is offered, presented, or given as a gift.  

　　Let’s stick with this definition. Unusual presents, accidental presents, metaphorical presents, re-gifted presents, etc.—pick any present you have ever received and invent a past for it.  

　　—Inspired by Jennifer Qin, AB’16  

　　创造一个结合任意语言的新词：The word floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant or of having no value. It originated in the mid-18th century from the Latin words "floccus," "naucum," "nihilum," and "pilus"—all words meaning “of little use.” Coin your own word using parts from any language you choose, tell us its meaning, and describe the plausible (if only to you) scenarios in which it would be most appropriately used.  

　　-Inspired by Ben Zhang, Class of 2022   

　　创造一个新的咒语：Lost your keys? Alohomora. Noisy roommate? Quietus. Feel the need to shatter windows for some reason? Finestra. Create your own spell, charm, jinx, or other means for magical mayhem. How is it enacted? Is there an incantation? Does it involve a potion or other magical object? If so, what's in it or what is it? What does it do?  

　　-Inspired by Emma Sorkin, Class of 2021   

　　· 第二类：给出例子及定义，根据定义从生活中选择出能够符合定义的事物，并且给出合理的解释：  

　　解决绕口令中的难题：Who does Sally sell her seashells to? How much wood can a woodchuck really chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Pick a favorite tongue twister (either originally in English or translated from another language) and consider a resolution to its conundrum using the method of your choice. Math, philosophy, linguistics... it's all up to you (or your woodchuck).  

　　—Inspired by Blessing Nnate, Class of 2024  

　　解释自己认为最重要的三艺或四艺（传统的博雅教育）：The seven liberal arts in antiquity consisted of the Quadrivium — astronomy, mathematics, geometry, and music — and the Trivium — rhetoric, grammar, and logic. Describe your own take on the Quadrivium or the Trivium. What do you think is essential for everyone to know?  

　　—Inspired by Peter Wang, Class of 2022  

　　错误引用的名言："Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" - Eleanor Roosevelt. Misattribute a famous quote and explore the implications of doing so.  

　　—Inspired by Chris Davey, AB’13  

　　阴差阳错解决了问题的方法：Engineer George de Mestral got frustrated with burrs stuck to his dog’s fur and applied the same mechanic to create Velcro. Scientist Percy Lebaron Spencer found a melted chocolate bar in his magnetron lab and discovered microwave cooking. Dye-works owner Jean Baptiste Jolly found his tablecloth clean after a kerosene lamp was knocked over on it, consequently shaping the future of dry cleaning. Describe a creative or interesting solution, and then find the problem that it solves.  

　　—Inspired by Steve Berkowitz, AB’19, and Neeharika Venuturupalli, Class of 2024  

　　“神奇的入口”：Alice falls down the rabbit hole. Milo drives through the tollbooth. Dorothy is swept up in the tornado. Neo takes the red pill. Don’t tell us about another world you’ve imagined, heard about, or created. Rather, tell us about its portal. Sure, some people think of the University of Chicago as a portal to their future, but please choose another portal to write about.  

　　—Inspired by Raphael Hallerman, Class of 2020  

　　正在退化的东西：Vestigiality refers to genetically determined structures or attributes that have apparently lost most or all of their ancestral function, but have been retained during the process of evolution. In humans, for instance, the appendix is thought to be a vestigial structure. Describe something vestigial (real or imagined) and provide an explanation for its existence.  

　　—Inspired by Tiffany Kim, Class of 2020  

　　很难翻译出的表达方式：In French, there is no difference between “conscience” and “consciousness.” In Japanese, there is a word that specifically refers to the splittable wooden chopsticks you get at restaurants. The German word “fremdschämen” encapsulates the feeling you get when you’re embarrassed on behalf of someone else. All of these require explanation in order to properly communicate their meaning, and are, to varying degrees, untranslatable. Choose a word, tell us what it means, and then explain why it cannot (or should not) be translated from its original language.  

　　—Inspired by Emily Driscoll, Class of 2018  

　　用各种方式来比较苹果和橘子：How are apples and oranges supposed to be compared? Possible answers involve, but are not limited to, statistics, chemistry, physics, linguistics, and philosophy.  

　　—Inspired by Florence Chan, AB’15  

　　讲述自己和宿敌间的故事：“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.” –Oscar Wilde. Othello and Iago. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. Autobots and Decepticons. History and art are full of heroes and their enemies. Tell us about the relationship between you and your arch-nemesis (either real or imagined).  

　　—Inspired by Martin Krzywy, AB’16  

　　世界上的两种人：Dog and Cat. Coffee and Tea. Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they?  

　　—Inspired by an anonymous alumna, AB'06  

　　你怎么被抓住了：How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.)  

　　—Inspired by Kelly Kennedy, AB’10  

　　给出设定好的场景，充分发挥想象：  

　　和火星人分享人类的故事：You are on an expedition to found a colony on Mars, when from a nearby crater, a group of Martians suddenly emerges. They seem eager to communicate, but they're the impatient kind and demand you represent the human race in one song, image, memory, proof, or other idea. What do you share with them to show that humanity is worth their time?  

　　—Inspired by Alexander Hastings, Class of 2023, and Olivia Okun-Dubitsky, Class of 2026  

　　螳螂虾看到的世界是什么样的：The mantis shrimp can perceive both polarized light and multispectral images; they have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. Human eyes have color receptors for three colors (red, green, and blue); the mantis shrimp has receptors for sixteen types of color, enabling them to see a spectrum far beyond the capacity of the human brain. Seriously, how cool is the mantis shrimp: mantisshrimp.uchicago.edu What might they be able to see that we cannot? What are we missing?  

　　—Inspired by Tess Moran, AB’16