[Prompt: Please discuss your interest in the field of engineering and discuss your interest in a specific engineering discipline.]

Mechanical Pencils

A city bus pulls into the Beijing station. The folded doors creak open, and a six-year-old boy hops off, followed by his mom. The boy will begin school in a week, and they are shopping for school supplies. As the boy and the mother stroll past the store counters, the mother suddenly says, "Lele, let’s get you a mechanical pencil." I was fascinated as soon as I saw the round plastic barrel and pointed tip -- a piece of engineering brilliance.

My first pencil box contained four wooden pencils, a razor, and a strip of sandpaper used to sharpen the lead. Living in the last years of pre-modernized China, I had never seen a mechanical pencil before. I don't remember the trip home from the store, for the only thing on my mind was the yolk-colored barrel. As soon as I got home, I tried to open the pencil to see the magic behind a button that, when pressed at one end, advanced the lead at the other end. After many wasted lead fragments and a bent barrel, the pencil was ripped out of my hand, and I was scolded for not valuing goods. Respect for my elders stopped me from further exploration of the pencil, and so ended my first encounter with engineering; but my fascination with "how does it work?" was unleashed. The following years were full of long, intense stares at moving bicycle gears, adventurous peeks inside my grandfather’s typewriter, and temporary blindness from prolonged examinations of burning light bulbs.

When I arrived in the United States, I had to put my curiosity on hold for a year. With only a basic knowledge of the alphabet and the lyrics to "B-I-N-G-O, " I devoted all my time to learning English, completing the English as a Second Language program two years ahead of schedule. But my fascination with the mechanics of objects around me soon resurfaced. My meager collection of McDonald's Happy Meal toys soon dwindled, as I began prying open poor Simba to see the gears and wheels inside. A few years later, I found myself covered with motor oil as I lay next to my father under our car, learning how to change the oil filter. Watching the black fluid pouring smoothly out of the engine, I knew then that I would become a disciple of engineering.

At the same time as I discovered my love of engineering, I also realized what a large field it is. What kind of engineering would I choose -- electrical, mechanical, chemical? One day, sitting in my AP Biology class, a diagram comparing the electron pumps of a cell to turbines in a dam appeared before me. Suddenly, it all connected under the light of the projector: the gears in Simba’s stomach, the burnt memory cards of my computer, the fascinating science of biology all came into union under the bioengineering field. I had found my calling, and all because of a little mechanical pencil.

點評：

1.文字描寫細致生動，結構緊湊；

2.故事十分真切，沒有虛構的特殊經歷，通過平常的小事來反映作者對于工程方面的興趣和學習能力；

3.對于一些寫Essay時總是覺的沒有東西可寫的人來說，本文無疑是一個十分出色的例子，挖掘個人的物質并不一定要很獨特的經歷，許多平常的小事一樣可以反映一個人的性格和興趣；

4.文風樸實，符合理工科嚴謹踏實的作風；

5.文章給人的印象不是很深刻，這與內容選材有關，文末對生物學的興趣來的比較突然，沒有一個很好的鋪墊，是個敗筆。

翻譯：

［命題要求：請描述你感興趣工程學領域，并論樹你對特定工程科目的興趣。］

我的那支自動鉛筆

一輛公車慢慢駛入北京站。折疊門在輾軋聲中打開，一個六歲的男孩跳著走了下來,接著是他的媽媽。男孩將在一周后開學，因此他們正準備為新學期準備些用品。當男孩和母親走過商店的柜臺時，媽媽突然說，Lele，給你買支自動鉛筆吧。當我看到那圓形的塑料筆桶和筆尖時，我不禁著迷了，一件完美的工程作品。

我的第一個鉛筆盒包括四支木制鉛筆，一把削刀和一卷用來磨尖筆頭的砂紙。在還未實現現代化的中國，我還從來沒有看到過自動鉛筆。我不記得從家到商店的路途，腦海中唯一想的就是那蛋黃色的筆桶。當我回家后，我立刻嘗試著去打開鉛筆探索那個按鈕后面的秘密，因為當我按下一頭的按鈕，筆的另一頭就會自動出來。當我浪費了很多筆芯后，并把筆桶弄彎了后，鉛筆從我手中被拿走了，而且我被指責不珍惜物品。我哥哥阻止了我進一步探索鉛筆的行動，我和工程學的第一次接觸就這樣被終止了，但我探索它工作原理的熱情卻未曾消失。接下來的幾年我經常在祖父的打字機邊研究它是怎么工作的，甚至因為研究發亮的燈泡而導致暫時性的失明。
 
當我到了美國后的一年，我不得不把我的好奇擱到一邊。由于一開始只會一些基本的英語，我把全部的精力都放在語言課程上，并提前２年完成了之前定下的ESL課程。但是我對于機械的熱情很快又浮現了。我收集的本來就不多的麥當勞快樂套餐玩具越來越少了，因為我總是把可憐的Simba打開來研究里面的齒輪和輪子。幾年后，我已經是滿身機油和我父親躺在車下學習怎么更換機油過濾器。看著黑色的機油緩緩的從引擎中流出來，我意識到我要成為一個工程學方面的專業人士。
 
對工程學的興趣越厚，就越發現這是一片非常廣闊的領域。到底我該選擇哪個工程專業呢－－電氣，機械，還是化學？有一天在AP生物課上，我看到一個比較細胞的電子泵和一個水壩的渦輪圖表。突然，我覺的我可以把這一些聯系起來，Simba肚子里的齒輪，電腦里燒掉的記憶卡，以及迷人的生物學所有這些都可以歸類到生物工程的領域中。我終于發現了我的使命，所有的這些都是因為那支小小的自動鉛筆。