约翰霍普金斯大学官方公布的优秀文书

今天老师整理了一篇优秀文书和同学们分享

这篇优秀文书来自约翰霍普金斯大学官网，JHU的官网有个板块叫做ESSAYS THAT WORKED，专门用来分享录取学生的优秀文书案例。

约翰霍普金斯大学认为，文书可能是大学申请中最重要的组成部分。标化考试只能展示你的一部分，只能告诉招生官你有多优秀。招生官更想看到你真实的想法是什么样的。

招生委员会 · 评语

Admissions Committee Comments

What we learn about Jess from her essay is a willingness to experiment, to take risks and find failure, and to learn from the past—whether it is from her parents and grandparents or just her own experiences. Her essay is clever and well written, but more importantly it shows us her willingness to try different things, to embrace the different interests and aspects of her own personality, and to approach different things with a positive attitude.

从Jess的文章中，我们了解到她勇于尝试，敢于冒险，不惧失败，并且善于汲取经验教训——无论是从她的父母和祖父母那里，还是从她自己的亲身经历中。Jess的文章写得很好，很巧妙，但更重要的是展示了她愿意尝试不同的事物，接纳自己不同的兴趣和个性，并以积极的态度对待每件事。

文书 · 正文

Jess, “Fried Rice in One (Not So) Easy Step”

“（并不那么）轻松搞定炒饭”

-3 tablespoons butter

-2 eggs, whisked

-2 medium carrots

-1 small white onion

-1/2 cup frozen peas

-3 cloves garlic

-salt and pepper

-4 cups cooked and chilled rice

-3-4 green onions

-soy sauce (to taste)

-2 teaspoons oyster sauce (optional)

-1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

I bet you didn’t read those numbers.

I’ll let you in on a secret – I didn’t either.

-3汤匙黄油

-2个鸡蛋，搅打

-2根中等大小的胡萝卜

-1个白洋葱

-1/2杯的冷冻豌豆

-3瓣蒜

-盐和胡椒

-4杯煮熟并放凉的米饭

-3-4段青葱

-酱油（调味）

-2茶匙蚝油（可选）

-1/2茶匙芝麻油

我打赌你没有好好看这些数字

我告诉你一个秘密——我也没看

The ingredients above were copied and pasted from the first Google search result for “fried rice recipe.” But, without any disrespect to the recipe’s owner, I can tell you it’s wrong.

上面的食材是在谷歌搜索“炒饭食谱”的第一个结果中复制粘贴而来的。虽然我对提供这配方的人没有任何不敬，但是，我可以告诉你这是错的。

The only true fried rice recipe is no recipe at all. There are no measurements, no exact instructions, no timer for how long something should sizzle in the pan. There are only smells and feelings and memories. I learned to cook fried rice on the rickety stool covered in Blues Clues stickers, surrounded by the scents of my nainai’s Minnie Mouse apron, my yéyé’s cashmere sweater, or my mama’s Pantene shampoo; in the comfort of our cozy condo and our sweltering Hángzhou apartment; by watching the eggs crack over delicate china bowls, tossed and stirred in woks using slanted wooden spatulas. We used however much leftover rice we had, however many eggs we found appropriate, and a combination of anything and everything or nothing sitting in the fridge.

真正的炒饭根本不需要食谱。没有食材用量的规定，没有精确的步骤说明，没有计时器来限定某种食材应该在平底锅里嘶嘶作响多久。只有气味、感觉和回忆。我是在一张贴满蓝色斑点狗贴纸的咯吱作响的小板凳上学会了做炒饭，四周弥漫着奶奶的的米妮老鼠围裙、爷爷的羊绒衫和妈妈的潘婷洗发水的气味。在闷热的杭州，在舒适的公寓里，看着鸡蛋磕碰在精致的瓷碗上，然后用木铲在锅里翻炒。我们用掉了所有的剩饭，搭配适量的鸡蛋，再加入冰箱里我们觉得能点缀炒饭的任何食物。

Yet-I’ve always been more of a baker than a cook. I enjoy recipes – I enjoy the process of being exact and finding details, tweaking and leveling and weighing. Other people will have recipes passed down from their great-grandparents; I will have memories, held dear, but no way to pass anything on besides the recreation of childhood moments. From a young age, I found solace in the meticulous baking recipes found in Western cookbooks.

然而，我一直以来更像一个面包师而不是厨师。我喜欢食谱——我享受精确和细节，以及微调、平衡和称重的过程。其他人的食谱是从他们的曾祖父母那里传下来的，而我有的则是珍贵的记忆。除了这些愉快的童年时光，我没有什么可以继续传递下去的东西了。在我很小的时候，我就从西方烹饪书籍里精确的烘焙食谱中获得了快乐。

This coveting of all things exact doesn’t flow into the rest of my life. My mom will tell you my desk is a mess – I call it “room for creative license.” My mom will tell you my closet is also a mess – I call it “fashionably curious.” My mom will tell you my life is sometimes, you guessed it!, a mess. I call it MAPWIFOWISTBSIDMOTBOML, also known as “my-artistic-phase-where-I’m-figuring-out-who-I’m-supposed-to-be-so-I-dumped-myself-out-to-be-organized-much- later.” That’s a mouthful, so I shorten it, obviously.

这种对一切事物的垂涎不会伴随我的余生。我的妈妈会告诉你我的书桌一团糟——我称之为“创作空间”。她会告诉你我的衣橱也是一团糟——我称之为“好奇时尚”。她还会告诉你我的生活有时候，你猜对了！也是一团糟。而我称之为MAPWIFOWISTBSIDMOTBOML，这是“思考自己将要成为什么人的精彩纷呈的人生阶段，所以不惧怕一切都是乱糟糟的，因为以后会变得井井有条起来。”这个名字有点拗口，所以我把它精简了一下。

On the flip side, I like measuring the liquid in my graduated cylinder from the exact bottom of the meniscus. If your text message has a typo in it, I feel the nagging urge to annoyingly correct you. If the origami swan I folded has an uneven tail, I will take it apart and start over. (This was certainly detrimental to my life during my middle school’s mission to fold 3,000 paper swans.)

另一方面，在测量量杯里的液体时，我喜欢严格按照液弯面来读取数据；如果你的短信中有错别字，我就会产生一种无法抑制的，想要纠正这个错误的冲动；如果我折的千纸鹤的尾巴不平整，我会把它拆开，重新开始。（在我上中学时，我曾经需要折3000只千纸鹤，这对我的生活无疑是个重大的打击。）

But I understand the beauty of spontaneity and organic creation. There’s something special in realizing that no two recreations of my grandpa’s fried rice will ever be the same, and really, isn’t that what life is? Creation, without recipe?

但我理解自发性和良性创造的美。不会有两份一模一样的外公的炒饭。但是说真的，生活不就是这样吗？创造本身不就是没有什么规则可循的吗？

It’s funny. This may contradict everything I’ve written thus far, but the more I bake, the more I realize perhaps baking is spontaneous too. I don’t always need to weigh my flour beforehand in order to get perfect cookies, nor do I really need to add the copious amounts of sugar the recipe calls for. My signature food is brownies, but I challenged myself to use a different recipe every time. You’d be surprised at how different brownies taste when you add an extra egg, and you’d be especially uncertain about my baking skills if you tried my brownies that had wayyy too much baking soda (trial and error…).

这其实很有趣。或许这与我到目前为止写的所有东西相矛盾，但当我烘焙得越多，就越意识到也许烘焙也是自发的。为了做出完美的曲奇饼，我并不总是需要事先称好面粉的重量，也不需要按照食谱添加大量的糖。布朗尼蛋糕是我的招牌，但我每次仍然会挑战用不同的食谱。当你多加一个鸡蛋时，你会惊讶于布朗尼蛋糕的味道居然会变得如此不同。如果你尝过我加了太多小苏打烤出来的布朗尼蛋糕，你会对我的烘焙技巧丧失信心（不断出错，不断尝试……）

I’m learning to love improvisation. It’s not mutually exclusive with loving precision, and it’s such an integral part of my culture, I’d be missing out otherwise. Coming to terms with and embracing the unknown is scary and definitely a process, but I assure you: one day, I’ll master my own fried rice.

我正在学着去喜欢即兴创作。这和我热爱精确并不冲突，并且这是我的文化中不可分割的一部分，如果没有这种随性，我就像缺少了什么似的。接受和拥抱未知是一个可怕的过程，但我向你保证：总有一天，我会炒出带有我鲜明特色的蛋炒饭。