2017年1月7日雅思考试A类大作文真题重现：

Art classes like painting and drawing are as important as other subjects. So they should be compulsory in high school education. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

2017年的第一场雅思考试，教育类话题总算再次出现；此类话题算起来已经有整整一个季度没有出了，很不正常！所以接下去的考试建议大家继续多关注教育类话题的准备。1月7日的考试话题虽然不算原题重现（之前有文章分析过，大陆地区出原题的概率很小），但也不是全新的。我们之前关于艺术教育的话题有：

Schools should only offer subjects that are beneficial to students' future career success. Other subjects, such as music and sports, are not important. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

关于compulsory（强制，必修）的题目有：

Some people believe that unpaid community service should be acompulsory part of high school programs (for example working for a charity, improving the neighborhood or teaching sports to younger children). To what extent do you agree or disagree?

有关中学生艺术教育和志愿者活动的好处和坏处的题目我们已经分析得够多了，所以当考官特意在题目上加了compulsory两个字想必是希望看到不同以往的观点，所以迎合一下考官，我们不如试着抓住这个compulsory来做点文章：

Art classes like painting and drawing are asimportant as other subjects. So they should be compulsory in high schooleducation. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

No one can deny the importance of art to the well-being of mankind:art enlightens people, expresses human emotions and provides spiritual enjoyment.It has also been scientifically proven that engaging in some art activitiessuch as drawing a picture or playing a musical instrument can help a child todevelop hand-eye coordination, color recognition and imagination effectively.However, reaching the conclusion that art is important is not the same asassuming that art classes should be a mandatory part of high school curriculum.

First, compulsory art classes will be very unpopular among highschool students who aim at universities or colleges which do not requireperformance in art-related subjects for admission. These students would naturallyprefer to focus on enhancing GPA and participating in social activities thatare essential for their future university application. The class attendance,assignment and preparation for exams entailed by a compulsory course willinevitably add burden to students' ever-growing list of demands.

Even if some institutions of tertiary education do requirecandidates' competence in art, such competence is unlikely to be provided by thegeneral art education in a non-art-specializing school. So it will be betterfor students who have special demands in art either to attend an art school orto seek extra help from other artistically-professional organizations.

Second, interest and talent in art are not universal. Somestudents may feel sleepy at the very thought of attending an art class; othersmay enjoy appreciating a beautiful painting or listening to a piece of music,but they do not like the idea of having to draw a picture or play a musicalinstrument themselves. As a result, art classes might bring these students asense of frustration, causing them to link art classes to something unpleasant.This is especially true when considering that many students tend to develop anaversion to things that they are forced to do but that are not directly relatedto their future.

Finally, disapproving compulsory art educationin high school does not mean that students are denied the chance of receivingproper art education. Schools may well offer elective courses in painting,drawing or music for interested students to take. This will ensure that theneeds of some students are met without having to make other students feelunnecessarily overburdened or frustrated. To sum up, art is important, butforcing high school students to attend art classes may defeat the very purposeof art education.