Issue51 Argument147 限时模考-ISSUE专项突破-寄托家园留学论坛

frances0122 发表于 2007-4-17 16:53:10

Issue51 Argument147 限时模考

TOPIC: ISSUE51 - "Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and
interests of each student."
WORDS: 783       TIME: 0:45:00       DATE: 2007-4-17

While I agree with the speaker that specifically-designed education for each individual may serve students better than the
general education we adopt today, this kind of education may have some potential problems and even harms undermining its
feasibility.

I concede that nowadays individualism is becoming more and more vital. People advocate and appreciate special characteristics
and skills distinctive from those of others. The trend applies to both social lives and professional careers. With respect to
one's vocation, specialization demands that talents with unique skills and abilities are the most distinguished ones,
especially in such a competitive society like today. Every individual is competing with peers all around the world. If one
receives mere general education, it is quite possible that he/she can only reach a mediocre level, never an eminent expert.
With respect to school education, a specifically designed education is needed to dig out students' potentials, which would
otherwise be masked by general education. It is especially so in high school, when students are prepared to choosing their
future majors in university. Suppose a student with distinguished gifts in economics. With only a few economics courses in
the high school curriculum, he/she may not discover his/her own gifts. Even if he/she realizes his/her interests in
economics, no opportunnities of exploring more about economics are provided for him/her because there lacks special courses
for those who want to learn more about economics. From the two respects above, I strongly hold a positive attitude towards
specialized education which caters to individual needs.

Nevertheless, the concept of specific education has certain potential problems which prevent it from being feasible in a
large scale. The problems are mainly embodied in three aspects. First, the technical feasibility of the concept is highly
questionable. How can people devise a curriculum that is suitable to each student in the country? How does a school arrange
those courses? How can teachers be able to deal with so many different needs and interests of each individual? As a matter of
fact, under today's circumstances of general education, the supply of teachers is becoming less and less, while the demand
for them is increasing. So, it's hard to imagine that, for so many students in the country and so many different needs and
interests, the teachers can be capable of catering to all the students.

Secondly, too much emphasis on specific education may make students disregard the importance of general knowledge, therefore
undermining the academic basis of students. Take high school education as an example, we encourage students to learn a wide
range of basic disciplines, such as mathematics, literature, physics, chemistry, philosophy, to ensure that they absorb
adequate knowledge from all different subjects. That guarantees them to have a relatively general background to explore their
own potentials and develop their own interests. If a student interested in literature is encouraged to plunge into literature
and overlook other subjects from high school, even if his/her individual interest is satisfied, it is harmful for his/her
future development because of lack of logical and analytical training.

Finally, specifically-designed education sets up many obstacles in evaluating students. No unified criteria can be created if
we adopt such an individualized educational mode. Then, it is quite a thorny problem for our educational institutions to
devise examinations to select talents. How can we compare a student specializing in literature with another one who studies
chemistry? How can we decide which ones are admitted to colleges and universities while others are not? Some people might
argue that we can divide the college entrance examination into several parts, which respectively cater to different
specializations of students. However, it is still too demanding and expensive. Thus it is rather infeasible.
The most eclectic and effective way to combine specialization with generalization may be like today's education mode in which
students learn a wide range of general knowledges in high school and study major subjects in university. As to developing
individual interests and digging out individual potentials in high school, I recommend that those responsibilities be taken
by parents or private tutors. Generally parents know best about their children's needs and they have every motivation to
explore their children's potentials. It is far too burdensome and difficult for our public education institutions to take
those responsibilities.

To sum up, I agree with the speaker insofar as that individual needs and interests of each students should be underscored and
valued, but the public general education should remain the way it has been. Because public education has its inherent
limitations, and thus we cannot require too much of it. I advocate that parents should pay more attention to the individual
needs and interests of their children, and family tutoring may be a more effective way to developing students' individual
interests.

TOPIC: ARGUMENT147 - The following appeared in an editorial in a business magazine.
"Although the sales of Whirlwind video games have declined over the past two years, a recent survey of video-game players
suggests that this sales trend is about to be reversed. The survey asked video-game players what features they thought were
most important in a video game. According to the survey, players prefer games that provide lifelike graphics, which require
the most up-to-date computers. Whirlwind has just introduced several such games with an extensive advertising campaign
directed at people 10 to 25 years old, the age-group most likely to play video games. It follows, then, that the sales of
Whirlwind video games are likely to increase dramatically in the next few months."
WORDS: 500       TIME: 0:30:00       DATE: 2007-4-17

In this editorial, the author predicts that the sales of Whirlwind video games will increase greatly because the new games
perfectly cater to video-players' needs. However, this argument is based on a questionable survey, an ignorance of other
facts which influence sales and an oversimplification of sales increase factors, which makes it incredible.

To begin with, the author fails to consider other possible scenarios for sales decline of Whirlwind video games. Maybe some
more competitive and popular rivals have occupied the majority of the video game market. Maybe Whirlwind video games have a
bad reputation of poor quality or high prices. Maybe people are just tired of the style of Whirlwind video games. It is also
possible that, during an economic recession, video games industry suffers from an overall decline in sales, that is, people
are not willing to spend much money on video games. Without ruling out those possible reasons, it is ungrounded to predict
that new games will stimulate the sales.

Even if Whirlwind's decline in sales is due to its lack of new appealing games, as the author assumes, the survey, which is
used as a basis, may be not targeted at people who are most likely to play video games, which makes it unconvincing. The
sample size and randomness are also omitted in this argument, which undermines the inherent credibility of the survey. What
if the sample only contained twenty people? What if the sample was selected in one particular place where people there
coincidently had a similar taste of video games? Failing to clarify those questions, the survey cannot serve as a strong
basis for the argument.

Granted that the survey is credible, that doesn't mean that Whirlwind games with lifelike graphics will necessarily appeal to
video game players, because lifelike graphics constitute only one element of all the features. A game with lifelike graphics
but lack of appealing plots and satisfying audio effects will still sale badly.

Moreover, the extensive advertising campaign cannot be a necessary contribution to the sales, as the author assumes. First of
all, it increases significant costs for Whirlwind, especially when it contains lots of TV commercials. However, the target
consumers--video game players of 10 to 25 years old are unlikely to watch TV frequently. In that case, the huge amount of
money invested in TV commercials would be a pure waste. Furthermore, even if the extensive advertising strategy does make
some effects, the effects are difficult to measure, especially in only the next few months. There is always a time lag
between the advertising campaigns and purchasing behaviors. Failing to point out this possibility, the author cannot make
such a prediction that the sales will increase dramatically very soon.

To sum up, in order to substantiate this argument, the author should take more possible reasons for sales decline into
account, and provide more detailed information of the survey. Besides, the author has to give an overall introduction to
Whirlwind video games. And finally, the advertising campaign should not be overrated.

[ 本帖最后由 iq28 于 2007-6-26 02:34 编辑 ]

carilyn 发表于 2007-7-19 16:21:02

carilyn 发表于 2007-7-19 16:21:44

奇怪？怎么变成这样了？改的时候还好好的啊:eek:

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Issue51 Argument147 限时模考