2014年

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
翻译：阐述一个成就、事件或认识。它启迪了你的一段人生成长的历程以及对自己或他人的新领悟。
解析：AADPS分类I-b
字数限制：七选一，250-650词

I was sixteen when my journey to the Arctic changed the way I see this world.

As we entered the Arctic Circle, I used the pendulum to measure the acceleration of gravity. Though I have tried every way to reduce interference, such as doing the experiment at 4am before the ship set sail, my plan was still spoiled by the constantly caress of the sea, so-called ocean swell. I could not smooth the non-linear waves with my equations so I was forced to give up the experiment with 6% error margin.

Serendipity was absent in my experiment. Upset and agitated, I took a stroll on board and looked far away. Under the golden radiance of the rising sun, snow mountains became a holy city which has no hunger or distress. Beside the ship a few whales surfaced to take breaths. The vapor they exhaled formed clouds in the sky. I saw those distant mountain range with an infinite sea, which have been there since the ancient past and will last in the distant future.

I was overwhelmed by the magnificent presence of nature, and my little tinkering was not unlike a proud kid showing off his arithmetic skills to a savant—so naïve, so ignorant. I used to think that there was nothing in the world that could not be parsed and fathomed by human intelligence, and I had been proud that I could solve physical and metaphysical problems with dazzling mind experiments and logic deductions. However, when I faced the phenomena of mother nature, I could neither draw a Venn diagram nor think of any man-made formula that matches such myriad of changes in the twinkling of an eye, as nature is so intricate and unpredictable. A beat of an arctic tern’s wings may create a blizzard that forces a mother polar bear and her sons into their hiding. As my old common sense crumbled into dust, I could only try to perceive nature through my heart.

When I did this, it felt as easy as raising my hand—I did not know the details but could easily accomplish the task. Nature, experienced by my heart, is simple and pure. I guess this had something to do with that we are instinctively connected to it in some special ways. Somehow, this reminded me of a common idea shared by Zen and Taoism: We can only use our hearts to access truth but not words to describe it. When one tries to interpret the greatness and depth of principles with explicit descriptions, he or she has already misrepresented them.

Sometimes I would envy the longevity of the sea and pity the transient lives of mortals, but though we appear to be tiny, we are always hopeful and curious. Our lives may be limited, the ultimate law may be concealed, but our imagination knows no bounds, and the long path to the truth is always open.

I may fail to measure the outcome, but the measurement itself already hints consummation. I will never lose faith on our thoughts and ideas, from Immanuel Kant who acclaimed the value of freedom will to John Nash who prevailed illusions with reasons. We are strange creatures indeed: Though ephemeral and minute in front of the time and space, we are always tied to nature through an invisible, unbreakable bond. I believe just like a drop of water embodies features such as salinity and constituents of the ocean, we and other creatures and the whole nature are but fractals from microscopic to macroscopic scale: "I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space."

留学文书译文（机翻）：

当我16岁时，我的北极之旅改变了我对这个世界的看法。

当我们进入北极圈时，我用钟摆测量重力加速度。虽然我已经尝试了各种方法来减少干扰，比如在凌晨4点船启航前做实验，但我的计划仍然被大海不断的爱抚所破坏，即所谓的海浪。我无法用我的方程平滑非线性波，所以我被迫放弃实验，误差为6%。

我的实验中没有意外发现。我心烦意乱，在船上散步，远远望去。在初升的太阳的金色光芒下，雪山成为一座没有饥饿和痛苦的圣城。船旁边有几条鲸鱼浮出水面呼吸。他们呼出的蒸汽在天空中形成了云。我看到了那些遥远的山脉，那里有着无穷无尽的大海，从远古时代起就一直存在着，并将在遥远的未来持续下去。

大自然的壮观景象让我不知所措，我的小修补就像一个骄傲的孩子向一个如此天真无知的学者炫耀他的算术技能一样。我曾经认为，世界上没有什么东西是人类智慧无法解析和理解的，我很自豪我能通过令人眼花缭乱的思维实验和逻辑演绎来解决物理和形而上学的问题。然而，当我面对大自然母亲的现象时，我既不能画一幅维恩图，也不能想到任何人造公式能与瞬息万变的变化相匹配，因为大自然是如此复杂和不可预测。北极燕鸥拍打翅膀可能会造成暴风雪，迫使北极熊妈妈和她的儿子们躲藏起来。当我的旧常识化为乌有时，我只能试着通过内心去感知大自然。

当我这样做的时候，感觉就像举手一样简单——我不知道细节，但可以轻松完成任务。我内心感受到的大自然是简单而纯洁的。我想这与我们本能地以某种特殊的方式与之联系有关。不知何故，这让我想起了禅宗和道家的一个共同观点：我们只能用我们的心去接近真理，而不能用语言来描述它。当一个人试图用明确的描述来解释原则的伟大和深度时，他或她已经曲解了这些原则。

有时我会羡慕大海的长寿，同情凡人短暂的生命，但尽管我们看起来很渺小，但我们总是充满希望和好奇。我们的生命可能有限，终极法则可能被隐藏，但我们的想象力是无限的，通往真理的漫长道路总是敞开的。

我可能无法衡量结果，但衡量本身已经暗示了完美。我永远不会对我们的思想和理念失去信心，从伊曼纽尔·康德到约翰·纳什，他推崇自由意志的价值，他用理性战胜了幻想。我们确实是奇怪的生物：虽然在时间和空间面前短暂而微小，但我们总是通过一种无形的、牢不可破的纽带与大自然联系在一起。我相信，就像一滴水体现了海水的盐度和成分等特征一样，我们和其他生物以及整个自然界都是从微观到宏观的分形：“我可以被限制在一个果壳里，把自己视为无限空间之王。”

标化条件：GPA 4.0 TOEFL 109 SAT 2180

AADPS老师文书点评：经过仔细讨论，学员和我决定以一次北极科考中不成功的小实验作为引子，写一写极地严酷而壮丽的自然景观给他的感触。短短六百余词的篇幅里，我们尽量既体现了科学的专业性，又通过细腻的环境描写展现了他的点滴感触，反思了自己乃至人类本身的定位。相信这种态度对他未来的科研实践也是颇有助益的。在文书指导和反复修改的过程中。我们遇到的一个很大挑战就是最初的几版过于散漫，缺乏有效的逻辑组织。通过顺序的调整和一些提纲挈领句子的设计，逐渐改成了现在这一稿，构筑了一条清晰的主线，读起来更加明晰顺畅。

家长感言：感恩AADPS老师在文书指导过程中耐心细致地发掘出了小朋友的独特品质和情感。相信正是这些在激烈竞争中打动了招生官。