Ngày nay cuộc khủng hoảng thất nghiệp đang gây phiền toái không chỉ các nước nghèo, nhưng các nước phương Tây phát triển là tốt, sao cho dễ tìm việc làm có thể đóng một vai trò quan trọng trong quyết định những người đang làm. | Answers to All TOEFL Essay Questions Topic 4 Are books more important than experience To my opinion books and real experience are two completely different sources of knowledge. It is really difficult to determine which of the two to be of much greater importance because normally knowledge gained from experience complements that acquired from books but not substitutes it. Comparing the features of the two sources I would stress the following points of differences. First the knowledge gained from books is to a certain extent of abstract nature. Books are normally the collections of facts and general rules. Books give us the most complete overview of a subject in a more or less structured manner covering all known details and exceptions. In some way books are concentrations of knowledge and experiences of many generations of people given in a concise and comprehensive way. Obtaining such knowledge just from the personal experience would take an immense amount of time or even would not be possible at all. The practical experience gives us not general knowledge but particular skills. Without these particular skills all the knowledge gained from books might be just a useless collection of facts and rules. The best example of the importance of practical experience that comes to my mind is learning a foreign language. One can learn a lot of vocabulary and grammar rules memorize many exceptions but without actual applying of all this knowledge in real life conversations writing letters and listening to real speeches one can hardly be proficient in the language. The importance of having practical skills is also proved by the fact that most employers appreciate working experience above all grades and diplomas. Another point of contrast between books and experience is that for some subject such as economy of sociology a book may represent a point of view of its author or authors. The conclusions given in the book might be out of date or might be biased by the personal attitude
