近日，芝加哥大学官网更新了2025-26申请季的补充文书题目。
长期以来，芝加哥大学都以“脑洞大开”、引人深思的文书题目而闻名。大学招生官相信这样极具发挥空间的文书题目能够为申请者提供一个充分展现自身经历、认知和抱负的机会。
在对待文书题目时，你可以非常严肃，也可以非常天马行空，或采取介于两个极端之间的思维和写作方式。
每年，芝加哥大学都会给最新一届的被录取者和在读生发邮件，邀请他们给予一些文书题目的建议。招生办收到的数百条回复都很有趣，大部分文书题目在新颖又古怪的同时，也具有极大的启发性。
芝加哥大学的申请者需要回答2道文书题目：
必答题 1
你如今所了解的芝加哥大学，如何满足你对某种特定学习方式、社区氛围与未来愿景的渴望？请具体地阐述你自己的期待，并说明它们如何与你对芝加哥大学的认知相契合。
How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.
必答题 2 （7选1）
1. 在一个理想世界中，物种间可以通过心灵感应交流，你会选择与哪个物种对话？你最想从他们身上学到什么？你会请河狸传授建筑学？向章鱼探究认知能力？向鸽子了解导航原理？或向蚂蚁请教治理模式？请为你的选择进行论证 —— 既论证你选择的物种，也论证你想提出的问题。
In an ideal world where inter-species telepathic communication exists, which species would you choose to have a conversation with, and what would you want to learn from them? Would you ask beavers for architectural advice? Octopuses about cognition? Pigeons about navigation? Ants about governance? Make your case—both for the species and the question.
—— Inspired by Yvan Sugira, Class of 2029
2. 如果你能“取消发明”某样东西，你会选择什么？这一取消将会引发哪些连锁反应？
If you could uninvent one thing, what would it be — and what would unravel as a result?
—— Inspired by Eitan Fischer, Class of 2027
3. “Left”可以表示“留下”也可以表示“离开”；“Dust”可以是“撒上灰尘”也可以是“拂去灰尘”；“Fast”既能表示“快速移动”，也能表示“牢牢固定”。这些“矛盾词”在含义对立中保持着一种奇妙的张力。请探讨一个类似的“自带矛盾”的身份、角色或经历：它在你的人生中如何体现出自己的对立面？
"Left" can mean remaining or departed. "Dust" can mean to add fine particles or to remove them. "Fast" can mean moving quickly or fixed firmly in place. These contronyms—words that are their own antonyms—somehow hold opposing meanings in perfect tension. Explore a contronym: a role, identity, or experience in your life that has contained its own opposite.
—— Inspired by Kristin Yi, Class of 2029
4. 一美分硬币正在退出历史舞台——太小，不值得存在，维护成本却又太高。但并不是所有小东西都该被淘汰。请谈谈你认为当前世界正在逐步淘汰、但我们绝不能失去的一件“小物件”，并说明原因。
The penny is on its way out—too small to matter, too costly to keep. But not everything small should disappear. What’s one object the world is phasing out that you think we can’t afford to lose, and why?
—— Ella Somaiya, Class of 2028
5. 从米其林轮胎推出《米其林指南》，到音响设备品牌铁三角成为全球最大寿司机器人制造商之一 —— 品牌身份的延展性往往远超我们的想象。请挑选一个现有品牌、公司或机构，并为他们设想一个出人意料但逻辑合理的新产品或服务。为什么这个看似不可能的跨界延展，正是当下世界或该品牌最需要的？
From Michelin Tires creating the Michelin Guide, to the audio equipment company Audio-Technica becoming one of the world’s largest manufacturers of sushi robots, brand identity can turn out to be a lot more flexible than we think. Choose an existing brand, company, or institution and propose an unexpected but strangely logical new product or service for them to launch. Why is this unlikely extension exactly what the world (or the brand) needs right now?
—— Inspired by Julia Nieberg, Class of 2029
6. 从统计学角度讲，吃冰淇淋不会导致鲨鱼袭击，宠物支出不会导致加州律师人数激增，人造黄油的消费也不会引发缅因州的离婚潮——至少，常识是这么认为的。但如果统计学家错了呢？请挑选一个你最喜欢的“伪相关性”现象，并为其背后可能隐藏的因果真相提出有说服力的解释。
Statistically speaking, ice cream doesn’t cause shark attacks, pet spending doesn’t drive the number of lawyers in California, and margarine consumption isn’t responsible for Maine’s divorce rate—at least, not according to conventional wisdom. But what if the statisticians got it wrong? Choose your favorite spurious correlation and make the case for why it might actually reveal a deeper, causative truth.
—— Inspired by Adam DiMascio, Class of 2025
7. 延续一贯的传统，接下来是经典的冒险题目。请抱以勇敢探究的精神，从过往的题目里任意选择，或者自创一个题目。请务必确保原创性，发挥你的创意，并引人思考。展现你作为作家、思想家、畅想家、社会评论家、智者、世界公民或芝加哥大学未来成员的特质，踏上冒险之旅，玩得开心！
And, as always… the classic choose your own adventure option! In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun!
官网文书页面链接：https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/essay/
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