2015年7月11日托福写作真题及答案解析（新东方）

　　Integrated Writing：

　　Independent Writing:

　　Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Teachers should be paid at least as much as doctors, lawyers or business leaders are paid.

　　Nowadays, the salary level of teachers has aroused a heated discussion in the society. Many teachers consider that their salary is lower compared with other professions, and they advocate the raise in salary to the level that could be compared with doctors, lawyers or even business leaders. As far as I am concerned, though improving the overall payment level of the teachers has certain benefits, whether to raise the salary should be considered more comprehensively.

　　Admittedly, giving teachers’ a comparable salary to doctors, lawyers or even business leaders might serve as an effective tool to motivate teachers. Being given more money, teachers might feel obliged to teach students well. In this case, they might treat students with more patience and respond to their questions more carefully. Also, Giving teachers enough money would relieve their financial burdens, which could keep teachers more concentrated on teaching and improve the overall academic levels. However, on balance, to raise the salary of teachers for the purpose of improving teaching performance might be ineffective because students’ willingness to learn stays the same. This ineffectiveness would cause the rise a waste of money. In this way, the salary of teachers should be evaluated more flexibly.

　　To begin with, whether to raise the salary depends on the contribution teachers have made to the school. In other words, those who have played positive roles in promoting the school deserve a higher salary. For example, Mr. Owen Smith, a teacher in Mountain Ridge High school in Southern California, always organizes school students some social activities with residents in the community. Sometimes, they would play a football game with parents in the neighborhood; sometimes, they would hold a forum regarding how to deal with generation gaps between parents and adolescents; sometimes, they would even hold lectures for parents on how to help children crack SAT so that students could apply for a better college. Thanks to these social activities held by Mr. Owen Smith, Mountain Ridge’s reputation in town is widespread, and since most parents are familiar with how the school runs, they are more willing to send their children to the school. In this case, the school should pay Mr. Owen Smith higher salaries for attracting more students to school.

　　In addition, whether to raise the salary also depends on the role teachers have played in improving students’ academic performance. That is to say, if a teachers could not bring his students helpful guidance in schoolwork, he should not be high paid. According to a survey conducted on Sina Weibo, after polling some headteachers in Beijing, most of them claim that they suffered from a dilemma that teachers’ salary keeps rising every year while the average score students achieve in College Entrance Exam has not improved comparably. The original purpose for raising the salary is to give teachers more incentives in teaching students, but what turns out to be is that teachers, with more money, spend more time on their private life, instead of work. Teachers would choose to travel out of town, instead of helping students after class, which leads to a relative drop in academic performance for students. Under this circumstance, schools might stop providing teachers with high salaries indiscriminately and offer bonus to those who are able to help students achieve satisfactory results in exams.

　　To sum up, improving the salary of teachers seems to bring benefits to schools, but to make the money a better use, more specific thoughts should be given on how to improve it. If a teacher is able to help the school build reputation or help students improve academic performance, the improving salary is a must. Otherwise, the increasing salary might be counter-productive.