芝加哥大學(xué)2019-2020補充文書題目出爐

申請美國大學(xué)的同學(xué)都知道，每年除了CA系統(tǒng)里的通用申請文書外，多數(shù)美國大學(xué)都會要求提交補充文書，這補充文書中往往包含了豐富的信息，也是學(xué)校進(jìn)一步了解申請者的途徑。

而在眾多美國大學(xué)中，芝加哥大學(xué)的文書題目一向以趣味性和獨特另類著稱，創(chuàng)意題目十分考驗學(xué)生對于題目的理解力，讓申請者們又愛又恨。

上周末，芝加哥大學(xué)官網(wǎng)公布了2019-2020申請季的附表文書題目。

芝加哥大學(xué)介紹說：每年我們都會向新錄取的和當(dāng)前的大學(xué)生發(fā)送電子郵件，并向他們詢問論文主題。我們收到了數(shù)百個回復(fù)，其中許多都是雄辯的，有趣的，或者是徹頭徹尾的古怪。

正如您從歸因中看到的那樣，以下問題的靈感來自于來自UChicago學(xué)生和校友的提交。

2019-20 UChicago Supplement

Question 1 (Required)

How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

根據(jù)你現(xiàn)在對芝加哥大學(xué)的了解，芝加哥大學(xué)如何滿足你對于學(xué)習(xí)，環(huán)境，以及未來的展望?請用具體事例來闡述你和芝加哥大學(xué)的聯(lián)系。

Question 2: Extended Essay (Required; Choose one)

Essay Option 1

Cats have nine lives, Pac-Man has 3 lives, and radioactive isotopes have half-lives. How many lives does something else—conceptual or actual—have, and why?

貓有9條命，吃豆人有3條命，放射性同位素有半衰期。其他觀念上的或者現(xiàn)實的生物有多少生命？為什么？

—Inspired by Kedrick Shin, Class of 2019

Essay Option 2

If there’s a limited amount of matter in the universe, how can Olive Garden (along with other restaurants and their concepts of food infinity) offer truly unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks? Explain this using any method of analysis you wish—physics, biology, economics, history, theology… the options, as you can tell, are endless.

如果宇宙中的物質(zhì)是有限的，橄欖園(連同其他餐廳以及他們對食物無限的概念)怎么能提供真正無限的湯、沙拉和面包棒呢?用任何你想用的分析方法來解釋這個問題——物理、生物學(xué)、經(jīng)濟學(xué)、歷史、神學(xué)……你可以看到，選項是無窮無盡的。

—Inspired by Yoonseo Lee, Class of 2023

Essay Option 3

A hot dog might be a sandwich, and cereal might be a soup, but is a ______ a ______?

一個熱狗可以成為一個三明治，麥片也可以成為湯，但是一個______一個______？

—Inspired by Arya Muralidharan, Class of 2021 (and dozens of others who, this year and in past years, have submitted the question “Is a hot dog a sandwich,” to which we reply, “maybe”)

Essay Option 4

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” – Jessamyn West

“小說揭示了現(xiàn)實掩蓋的真相”——杰薩明·韋斯特

—Inspired by Elizabeth Mansfield, Class of 2020

Essay Option 5

UChicago has international campus centers around the world, but we don’t have any interplanetary, interstellar, or interdimensional campuses… yet! Propose a spot in time or space, in this or any universe, for a new UChicago campus. What types of courses would be taught at this site? What cultural experiences await students who study there?

芝加哥大學(xué)在世界各地都有國際校園中心，但我們還沒有任何行星間、星際或維度間的校園……建議在時間或空間，在這個或任何宇宙的一個地方，設(shè)置一個新的芝加哥大學(xué)校園。這個地方會開設(shè)哪些課程?在那里學(xué)習(xí)的學(xué)生有什么樣的文化體驗?

—Inspired by Peter Jasperse, Class of 2022

Essay Option 6

“Don’t be afraid to pick past prompts! I liked some of the ones from previous years more than those made newly available for my year. Also, don’t worry about the ‘correct’ way to interpret a question. If there exists a correct way to interpret the prompt I chose, it certainly was not my answer.”

“不要害怕挑選過去的題目！比起新的這些文書題目我更喜歡前幾年的。另外，不要擔(dān)心解釋問題的“正確”方式。如果有正確的方法來解釋我選擇的提示，那肯定不是我的回答。“

—Matthew Lohrs, Class of 2023

一看題目就蒙圈了，有沒有？

就是這樣，還有更燒腦的，我們看一下往年的題目：

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.

（https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/academics/areas-study）

—Inspired by Josh Kaufman, AB'18

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

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 “fremdsch?men” 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

Heisenberg claims that you cannot know both the position and momentum of an electron with total certainty. Choose two other concepts that cannot be known simultaneously and discuss the implications. (Do not consider yourself limited to the field of physics).

—Inspired by Doran Bennett, AB’07

Susan Sontag, AB’51, wrote that “[s]ilence remains, inescapably, a form of speech.” Write about an issue or a situation when you remained silent, and explain how silence may speak in ways that you did or did not intend. The Aesthetics of Silence, 1967.

—Anonymous Suggestion

So where is Waldo, really?

—Inspired by Robin Ye, AB’16

Findx.

How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.)

—Inspired by Kelly Kennedy, AB’10

Chicago author Nelson Algren said, “A writer does well if in his whole life he can tell the story of one street.” Chicagoans, but not just Chicagoans, have always found something instructive, and pleasing, and profound in the stories of their block, of Main Street, of Highway 61, of a farm lane, of the Celestial Highway. Tell us the story of a street, path, road—real or imagined or metaphorical.

—Anonymous Suggestion

有沒有感覺自己腦子不夠用了，已經(jīng)完成標(biāo)化考試的同學(xué)，要盡快著手你的文書寫作了，合理規(guī)劃好自己的時間，尤其是遇到這么燒腦的題目，更要提前準(zhǔn)備了。