<p>Prompt:
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.</p>
<p>We often hear that we can learn much about someone or something just by casual observation. We are not required to look beneath the surface or to question how something seems. In fact, we are urged to trust our impressions, often our first impressions, of how a person or a situation seems to be. Yet appearances can be misleading. What ?seems? isn?t always what is.</p>
<p>Is the way something seems to be not always the same as it actually is? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>My essay:
People always trust their first impressions, and they simply use these impressions to judge a person or analysis a situation. Though these actions will save much time, the results may not be satisfying because people are always misled by their first impressions. Things are not always seem to be the same as they actually is. In order to get a holistic view of a person or a situation, we should not only believe our first impressions, but also look into the matter deeply.
I once read a story about a reporter who wanted to find the laziest person in the city and then write a paper to criticize the person on the newspaper. He went to the outskirt of the city; there he happened to find a man was slowly watering a very small square of vegetable field in the warm afternoon sun. How indolent the man was, the journalist thought after observing him for a few minutes. The man only did very little work so tardily and cost almost a whole afternoon doing this. The reporter was quite excited because he thought he had found the very person he wanted to repudiate on the newspaper.
But as he was leaving for home, he glimpsed at the man again, from another aspect, he was surprised to find that the man was a disabled man, and the poor man only had one hand and one leg. He was lying on a stick and moving stiffly?he was using all his effort to do a matter that might seem very easy for a normal person. The reporter was deeply moved. As he wrote on his paper, thanks to the second look, he found a man who is industrious, persevering and sublime. From then on, the journalist never wrote any paper just based on simply first impression, in stead, he always made an insightful investigation into the matter before reporting it. From this story, we can easily conclude that things are not always the same as they actually are.
Further more, in my own experience, the similar situation happened. Last semester, a girl called Violet transferred into our class. I found her ugly in some degree just at the first time I saw her. Her head was twice as big as mine; her face was pale, dotted with two small eyes hardly recognizable she also had a pointed nose that resembled a man?s, and a curved mouth which was the only part that looked fine.
But later, Violet and I became good friends after several months of contact. And as time passed by, I began to realize Violet?s unique beauty. Her eyes were small as usual, but were bright and warm; her lips became thin when she spoke and wore very cute; and the shin on her face was white, clean and juicy. I am convinced now Violet is beautiful. Besides, she is very kind. Her warm personality adds more to her special beauty. Violet is truly an angel.
My own experience tells me that man can not only be judged by first impression, and something seems to be not always the same as it actually is.
Though people always judge things by first impression, these actions are wrong in some cases. From literature story and my own experience, I am convinced that something seems to be not always the same as it actually is. We should make further investigations before we make final conclusions.</p>