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Topic 4 Are books more important than experience?

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?

Knowledge from books forms a very important part of our knowledge structure. In schools and colleges, we learn knowledge that is fundamental to our future career. We learn knowledge from books in order to make our contributions to this society in the future. A student learns 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 knowledge about life and the world by reading books, magazines and newspapers. This is also very important, as we cannot experience everything all by ourselves. Therefore books are a very important source of knowledge.

On the other hand, we cannot learn everything from books. "Experience is the best teacher" is an old cliche 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 gain 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 experience is also a very important supplement to knowledge from books.

Needless 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 experience, it is impossible to get a real understanding of knowledge from books, and how to apply this knowledge to real world situations.

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Answers to All toefl Essay Questions

Topic 4 Are books more important than experience?

Upon the question "not everything that is learned is contained in books", different people have different opinions. From my point of view, I believe knowledge gained from experience is more valuable than knowledge gained out of books. In the following paragraphs I will try to explain my position more clearly.

Firstly, life's valuable lessons are learned from experience. Can you forget important lessons learned from your childhood years, such as jumping down from a high place and broke your arms? From that accident you knew the importance of self-protection. Knowledge gained from experience is likely to be retained in our memory for a long period of time, although most of the time we have to pay a price for it.

Secondly, knowledge that is gained by doing things can provide you with firsthand information. If you don't have the chance to experience on your own, you can only obtain second-hand knowledge and you will feel a lack of self-confidence.

Moreover, many skills and knowledge can only be learned through practical experiences. You cannot learn swimming by just reading from books on how to swim. You have to actually get there and jump into the pool. Experience is the best way to develop your personal abilities.

However, just as an English proverb goes "a coin has two sides," reading books is also helpful. After all, you will not have the chance to experience everything by yourself. For instance, to travel to foreign countries is expensive and time-consuming, while reading a book about different cultures provides you with plenty of valuable information in a short period of time.

To conclude, knowledge gained from experiences is more important. Life requires knowledge, and experience is the key.

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