matek

About Cs theory, Cs Nyu is very famous of combinatorial geometry with Pollak, Pach. Spencer is also a leading expert in probabilistic method. Congrats.

The dead line was 1st Jan 2004. I applied in about Nov, Dec 2003

Thank you guys. I ve just got an email of acceptance. Phd, CS-Cornell--happy!!! Good luck for everybody.

Waiting is killing me. Why do you guys think replies arrive so late?

Did anyone get admission to Cornell? I applied to CS, but have not recieved any replies yet.

I got 89% do you think if it is Ok for top schools like Stanford, Cornell..?

I had only 1 week to prepare for my GRE, but I was very nervous when taking the verbal section. Thank TestMagic. You guys helped me alot improve my writing. I am applying for Ph.D in Maths and Computer science, do you think I have chance? ( My math back ground is ok. My recommendation is good.)

I think this is very very bad topic. I hate this. "Anyone can make things bigger and more complex. What requires real effort and courage is to move in the opposite direction-in other words, to make things as simple as possible." If I have this topic on the exam I would write like this. 1-The issue is not clearly stated. what are the "things"? If it is an object like a house, a software I dont think the statement is true. If the thing is society, I dont think we can somehow make it simpler. It tends to be more and more complex. becouse it is developing, do we want it to be simpler??? 2-The more important question is For what people try to make things more complex or simpler??? sometimes make things more complex is better, and sometimes the opposite.

Most people would agree that buildings represent a valuable record of any society's past, but controversy arises when old buildings stand on ground that modern planners feel could be better used for modern purposes. In such situations, modern development should be given precedence over the preservation of historic buildings so that contemporary needs can be served. -------------------- Conflicts between the past and the contemporary have been always hot topics. People keep thinking about whether keeping the record of the society's past or leaving it and being concerned with the contemporary purposes. The answer seems to be not simple. Whether modern development should be given precedence over the preservation of historic buldings? In my opinion before giving a definite answer we should have more analysis. Many experiences have shown that there is no simple Yes-No answer to this kind of problems. For a society the past is not less important than the contemporary. The past gives people a whole picture of the society, from which people can do things better in the future. But besides the contemporary problems should be solved, and when they are solved, people will get many benefits. For that reason, being forced to choose between the past value and the contemporary benefit, we have to evaluate them more carefully. If the the past is very valuable, destroying it means loosing a big treasure, we should keep it. Take an example, in my town last year, when people wanted to build a supermarket in a place down town, they discovered a palace in the ground. The palace was built in 17th century. The palace was so valuable so they decided not to build the supermarket, but to develope the place to a museum. But not every situation is like my example above. In many cases, the contemporary purpose is much more necessary than the reservation of the past. People then should choose to the morden development. Besides that, a third solution is sometimes suggested: to move either the old buliding or the modern plan to another place. With the development of the technology this suggestion sometimes can be solved, and it is sometimes the best solution, becouse we can both develope for the future and reserve the past's value. Returning to our situation, the author claimed that old buildings stand on ground that modern planners feel could be better used for modern purposes, if the situation is that modern purposes are more benifitial than the old bulding, I firstly recommend the third solution, to move one of them to another place. In the case that cannot be solved. The modern development should be given the precedence.

39 The intellectual benefits of attending a university or college are vastly overrated: most people could learn more by studying and reading on their own for four year than by pursuing a university or college degree. -------------------- Talking about intellectual benefits of attending universities or colleges some people think it is overrated to the self studyng process. In my opinion, the claim does not hold the definite validity. To answer the question is studying at universities better than self studying, one may ask a more general question what is a good studying method. Many studies in the education science have indicated that the good studying way is a good combination of studying by the self and studying with introductor. The good combination isn't fixed, it depends on the individual's studying abilities, age, and many other factors. So does people learn more by studying and reading on their own for four years than going to universities? The correct answer again depends on individuals. In many cases the statement is true. Take an example of very intelligent people, when they go to schools, having the same education with others students, whose studying abilities is not as high, the intellectual benifits the is not as much as if they studied by their own. But in other cases, the converse claim is true. tThe education in Universities does consist of both self studies and studies with instructors. The self studies there also play important role, but besides teachers are inevitalbe, they are people who assist students on problems with studying, introduce new field of science. Without teacher, and many educational device in universities , many people find it hard to acquire knowledge. When I was a freshman in Maths at a university, I tried to read a text book by myself, but I failed, since on very first pages I found so many new definitions which were not explained, they were just written in mathematical languague. When read them without being explained, it is nearlly impossible to understand what it is about. The current educational system was found out to satisfy the intellectual demands of a nation, a state. The universities and colleges nowadays are really doing the good job on the education. In USA every year thousands of people graduate, and sastify well the demand of intellectual works. The fact that without universities could not be done. Although, every education system has flaws, universities may not be the best choise for some special people, but generally attending universities is better than self studying.

It turned out to me that writing on topics like this is so hard. I just dont have ideas to write. I much more prefer topics on some social problems, technology stuffs. Topics on friendship, love, people's character is so difficult. Do you guys feel the same? #117: Some people choose friends who are different from themselves. Others choose friends who are similar to themselves. Compare the advantages of having friends who are different from you with the advantages of having friends who are similar to you. Which kind of friend do you prefer for yourself? Why? ---------------------------- Choosing friends is important for people in their life. No one could have a good life without friends. However depending on individual character, people have their own way to choose friends. Some people choose friends who are different from themselves. Others choose friends who are similar to themselves. Each type of friends has advantages. The following writing will clarify some of my points of view. Some one who chooses friends who are similar to himself could share many things with friends. They have similar thinking, similar points of view, they usually agree with each other. Spending time with each other could be very pleasure, they dont have to have redudant rows about little things. On the other hands, people with friends who are different from themself also have interesting experiences. Debating with people who have different points of view sometimes is very exciting. People could study alot from others. Talking with them seems never to be boring. In my own opinion, I prefer friends who are different from myself. One of the interesting thing in friendship is to discover others' hobbies, interests. And for me it is very pleasure to know that my thinking is not always the only way of seeing things in the world. ------------

Should governments spend more money on improving roads and highways, or should governments spend more money on improving public transportation (buses, trains, subways)? Why? Use specific reasons and details to develop your essay. ---------- Transportation is an very important factor in every country's development. It encourages other economic aspects to develope . Investment in transportation is always necessary in every nation, but the question is how to invest efficiently. Should the government spend more money on improving roads and highways, or should governments spend more money on improving public transportation (buses, trains, subways)? The answer is ofcouse, depends on the situation of each country. In my country, many studies have shown that the latter one is more efficient. My country is quite big, with many rivers and mountains, which are great disadvantages for building roads, and bridges. On the other hand, the water trasportation, and the railway systems throughout the country are already very good for delivering goods, and traveling. The investment on roads and highways seem to be unnecessary and costly. On the contrast, the population is densely concentrated on big cities, where the traffic problems are getting more and more complicated. Traffic jams take so much time from people. The problem is everyone drive their own motorbike to work, and the population keeps increasing. Besides,the puclic trasportation is very undeveloped, there are few bus routes in the cities. If we can sovle this problem, we can save time for everyone, and that means we are saving money. The solution seems to be the improving of puclic trasportation. It's not expensive, and may solve the problem efficiently. Depending on the necessity of the developement of transportation in cities, the government should spend more money on public transportation. Improving roads and highways at the moment is unnecessary and very costly.

Most experiences in our lives that seemed difficult at the time become valuable lessons for the future. Use reasons and specific examples to support our answer. ------------------ It is usualy said that hard experiences are valuable lessons. I think the claim is absolutely true. After hard experiences people learn alot of things, and the next time when faced with similar situations, they can easier get over. More detailed reasons, and exapmle are given below. At the first time when someone confronts with a hard problem, he becomes confused finding a solution. Not everyone can find a good way to the problem, but no matter that poeple suceed to solve the problem or not, trying to find is already a good lession. People learn from the lession many skills, many facts that they had misunderstood. For example , when I was young , I was very shy. Many times in school, I didn't dare to say my thinking to the teachers and friends. I was afraid people would laugh at me. But once I had an excercise of representation, I had to tell to all the class. I tried very hard, and at last I could get over the shyness to do the representation well. That experience turned to be very useful for me later. I become less shy, and got many oppotunities, that I wouldn't have had if I still had been so shy. Every one has this kind of experience in his life. We also usually say that life is not easy. That true but It is worth to try becouse when we can get over not only we will be happy for the successful work , but that experience also brimgs us great benefit.

It is generally agreed that society benefits from the work of its members. Compare the contributions of artists to society with the contributions of scientists to society. Which type of contribution do you think is valued more by your society? Give specific reasons to support your answer --------------------------- Society benifits from the work of its members. Each type of contributions of people has its own importance to the society. The artists' works bring nice things to people, make life seem nicer, while the scientists' contributions improve the humanbeings understanding about the world, besides the scientists also invent things that make our life better. It is very difficult to say which contribution is better, but the following will clarify some of my thinkings. First let's have a look about how the two kinds of contributions are different. Artsists make scuptures, writes peoms, stories, make, play films, and so on. Their works' aim is to make nice things for people to entertain, which is very important to our lives. Trying to imagine that we are living in a world without literature, without music, colour, the lives would be very boring. Besides, art makes people live more meaningful, becouse art is usually about love, art remind people of love- the meaning of life, the thing that sometimes people could not recognise. When reading a peom about mothers, we see more the love our mother give to us. On the other hand, the scientists' work is about discovering the world around us. We can understand why apple drop from the trees. With the knowledge that scientists discover many devices have been invented to make our life better. The electricity is an example. It's hard to imagine that we can live without electricity nowadays. The scientific works satisfy the humanbeing's need of understanding things around , and also make our life better. But what is more important, I would like to give that answer in this last paragraph. People can live without electricity, can live without understanding that the world is round. But we cannot live without love. That why for me the art works, which bring and remind love for us is more important.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Reading fiction (such as novels and short stories) is more enjoyable than watching movies. Use specific reasons and examples to explain your position ------- Reading fiction and watching movies are two popular types of entertainment. While reading fiction enable you to imagine, watching movies brings interesting experiences becouse the effection of sound and images. But in my opnion, reading fiction is still more enjoyable, becouse imagination has no limits, and you can read fictions in many places, not like movies can only watched in theatres. Many people get disappointed after they watch a film based on their favourite book. They don't satisfy with like the acting of the actresses, actors, they dont see as much fantasy as when they read the book. With the limit of technology, and sometimes different view about the stories of the director, films based on fictions cannot bring to the audience the experience like books. Another point makes reading book freferable to me to watching movies is I can read book whenever I have time, I can enjoy myself when I am traveling on buses, sitting alone in a garden or sunbathing on beaches. On the contrast, we have to go to the theatre, have to stand in long row to get tickets, and sometimes have to bear the disturbing noise from the neighboor seats. Although, seeing a film in movies has its own joy, there are usually great effections of sound and images, but watching films is passive way of obtaining arts while reading books is the active way. It is not only enjoyable, but also develope our imagining abilities. To finish, I again would like to say that reading book is very good activity to enjoy and develope our imaginary. But it is the fact that nowadays people tend to be more and more lazy, many people prefer watching movies.