Must we choose between tradition and modernization, the two seemingly incompatible options in our society, as the speaker contends? Although I agree that, in certain aspects, they are truely controversial, for most parts, tradition and modernization is reciprocal to each other rather than mutually exclusive. Moreover, there is also exist a crucial problem within this issue, that is how to define tradition and modernization?
In the first place, if we want to know whether tradition and modernization are incompatible, our prerequisite is to understand the definition of them. Our commonly unconscious assumption are always limited a fixed or a potential time to differentiate modernization and tradition. But this measurement could not run effectively and accurately when people is under reproduction that young generations and senior may have gaps between the definition of the another fixed or potential time to confine modernization and tradition. For instance, in arthitecture, the a building can be called modern or traditional due to different persons or groups. Thereby, tradition and modernization can not be claimed simply with no limitations or specification.
As mentioned above, modernization and tradition can exist toghter without disharmony. For example, in general, a cherished antique of a past dynasty is traditional, and mostly our administrator of the museum, do place them with deep caution, and often deposited along with complicated alarming systems, which is the made by the modern scientific technology. Thus, when this issue comes to antique, modern techonology must be used to protect the traditional and historical antique without any doubt or controversy.
Thirdly, in my personal observation, tradition and modernization are being both relative. Consider, for instance, the Christmas Day in western countries are customary and traditional. But in some underdeveloping countries, such as China and South Korea, peopel who vacation in Christmas Day would be alleged to be modern and fashionable. Therefore while in some aeras something would be recognized as modern, but in other places it can be considered as traditional.
Fourthly, in architecture, especially in the world most prestigious unversities, the style and structure of the buildings are often traditional from oxfrod to berkeley. In my view, the reason for this is that university take the traditional figure for the long lasting spirit of it. Moreover, the contemporary alumni and alumna of the university would also consider the traditional structure of the building as historical or nostoglic.
We noted earlier that a significant aspect of modern science is its contribution to the rapid pace of technological change. However, at first we must be clear that the modern science is mainly based on the conventional principles of mathematics and physics, paragon such as the plus and minus principles. Without theses theory, the technological changes would quenched by its termination. In short, in most parts, modernization can be called a modification of the traditional postulate, at least to some extent.
To sum up, tradition and modernization is not an absolute opposing things in the world. Something traditional may be modern in other areas, it is not wise to claim that tradition and modernization is incompatible or one must choose between them. A rational understanding of tradition and modernization would help us to know the them and choose between them, if we need.作者: iq28 时间: 2008-1-21 15:21:51 标题: 回复 #4 isoglucose 的帖子
Issue 208
"The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people."
We can hear of people's attitudes and interests in coversation with them. But there are occassions when no first-hand information is available. The only method we can learn about their attitudes and interest is to observe the way they look, dress, and act.
A lawyer representing a black man in a case would prefer a jury made up of people of color, who, more likely show mercy on his client; A hostess could expect a female guest who wears a veil and a loose-fitting dress to be Muslim and thus take an aversion for pork; Moreover, we have generally accepted such body language as a frown suggesting frustration, a shrug indicating uncertainty, and etc.
As a matter of fact, we lean heavily on observation of the way people look, dress, and act to acquire their attitudes and interests. The police owe a lot to observation of people's look, dress, and act, which plays an important role in discerning guilt or innocence, and eventually cracking criminal cases. So does the service industry which perceives its customers' preference by observing the way they look, dress, and act, and accordingly offers high quality sevices catering to individual taste. Furthermore, what we regard as acumen or considerateness in our daily life, is often coexistent with a keen sense of observation over the way people look, dress, and act and an excellent ability to analyze the evidence for their attitudes and interests.
However, we can not correctly judge people's attitudes and interests from the way they look, dress, and act every time. Sometimes what people look, dress, and act outside is totally different from the inside, especially when they have sordid motives or are driven by vanity. What we get from outside -- look, dress, and act, then, is merely an illustion which distorts the overall picture of people's attitudes and interests. Besides, different cultural background may as well lead to misunderstanding in interpreting people's look, dress, and act. Americans, for instance, take it for granted that head-nod indicates yes, while in Nepal it means no in effect.
When it comes to people within a society, in some sense, you can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people. This effect has been reinforced by knowledge of social background and cross-social comparisons.
There are some parts of the world where even now people, wrapped in leaves, furs and feathers, ditribute food, which comes mainly from hunting and gathering, uniformly among the community. Based on observation of their simple clothing, tool kit, and lifestyle, we could reach a tentative conlusion that they are a very primitive people and share acommon set of ideas and values prevailing in primitive societies.
Women's garment today is given much more bold dashes of design than even one hundred years ago. Such a change in the style of dress also indicates women's liberation in general. Obviously we now live in a society which puts on more emphasis on gender equality than ever before.
Taking a look at the behavior - involvement in social activities, for example - of black people in America in early nighteen century and nowadays, from slaves in plantations to citizens with the right to vote, the social and economic status of the black people has been upgraded significantly, which suggests that racial discrimination has been withdrawn from mainstream American ideas and values at present.
This advantage, however, is gradually being undermined with a growing trend of individuality and the third wave of globalization. Instead of conforming to certain criterion, appearance and bebevior of people today appear to be rich and varied. Besides, people with different social background dress themselves in the same fashion and share the similar experience of work, study, entertainmen with the helpe of modern communication technology and mass global media. All these facts manifest that now it has become more and more difficult to find in appearance and behavior of people similarities within one society and distinction between different ones and consequently abstract a society's ideas and values.
While the way people look, dress, and act does reveal their attitudes and interests to some extent and by observing the appearance and behavior of its people you can, indeed, tell much about a society's ideas and values, no one can hope to arrive a full and true understanding of people's attitude and interest as well as a society's ideas and value by only observing people's appearance and behavior. It merely provides a possible access to them. And for in-depth look, other aspects of people and society such as speech, publication, legal system, historical background should also be taken into account. All in all then observation of people's appearance and behavior, together with other approaches, contributes to our understanding of people and society profoundly and significantly.作者: lytl 时间: 2008-1-21 15:34:17
Generally speaking, it is impossible for anyone to get full knowledge of all fields at such an information age. While the advancement of any field is basically laid on the foundation of knowledge accumulated within that field, one critical point to be kept in mind is that only knowledge and experience from other fields can make it put forward significantly, since all fields of study actually interact in ways that can be perceived only in the context of a variety of disciplines.
As a matter of fact, different fields of study are intrinsically, profoundly and inevitably interrelated, more or less, to one another, and not a single one can be isolated. Consider how an anthropologist can enhance his knowledge about a civilization. He will need the expertise of an archeologist to unearth the evidence, a biochemist to analyze the relics, a geologist to identify the age of the tools and to help extrapolate about the civilization’s economy, trades and working pattern, life and mobility styles, and a linguistist to interpret hieroglyphic and local languages, and even a theologist to explain the mysterious rituals and symbols. Only when all involved expertise in diverse fields are able to work together properly toward the same goal and make contribution to it, can significant advancement be achieved in any field of study.
In modern society, the emergence of many new subjects is the result of the combination of two or more fields of study, which at the same time, with the adoption of multiplicate knowledge, brings about a large number of inventions and breakthroughs beneficial to human beings. When vocabulary like “biophysics” and “sociobiology” are compiled to the dictionary, we also see the success achieved in these “crossing subjects”. For example, the usage of computer science for anatomy breaks the limits of microcosmic world, which help present the magified images of the tissues and nerves on the screen and also make accurate calculation about the position and extent.
Moveover, if one field of study is isolated and even shut from the outside world, it would become like a pool of dead water, with no fresh stream coming in and bringing no life. Without evalution and tests from outside knowledge, none of its outcome can be put into effective or practical use. That is to say, it is impossible for it to gain significant advancement.
In sum, in an age of globalization and information explosion, no field of study can be an “autarky”. All subjects are related to each other and the understanding of the interplay will be the only way to make great advancement. With the availability of easier and faster communication and broader and deeper information sharing and knowledge absorbing, one have more opportunity to better develop his own field as well as obtain inspiration from others’.作者: bryanshaw 时间: 2008-1-28 08:00:01
argument108随机抽得，第二个习作
第二个argument,应该比第一个（28）有进步吧？请指教
TOPIC: ARGUMENT108 - The following appeared in a Brenton newspaper.
"The Brenton power plant draws water from Scott's River for its cooling system and releases the warmed water back into the river. The town council recommends that the plant install a more efficient cooling system that uses less water, claiming it will be more environmentally sound. However, in Uptown, where the new system is used, a study found that the complex network of pipes in the new system tends to accumulate algae. The build up of algae can be avoided by scrubbing the pipes, which is costly, or by adding an herbicide to the water in the pipes to prevent algae accumulation. But water containing the herbicide cannot be released back into the river and it is known that low water levels can harm river ecosystems accustomed to higher levels. Therefore, Brenton power plant should continue to use the old cooling system exclusively."
WORDS: 500 TIME: 00:50:49 DATE: 2008-1-31 9:32:21
conclusion-- the town council recomends the Brenton power plant continue to use the old cooling system
reason1--two town different,maybe the water quality different
reason2--the arguer fails to consider other meatures to solve herbicide
reason3--new system may not affect the water level
Based upon the argument above, the town council recomends the Brenton power plant continue to use the old cooling system. To support this recommendation, the arguer cites the unsatisfing experience of the Uptown, where the more efficient cooling system is installed for the environmental purpose. Also, the arguer cites a study of the complex network of pipes in the new system-which tend to accumulate algae- to support the recommendation. The reasoning of the argument is problematic in several respects.
First of all, the arguer cites the experience of Uptown-where the new system is used-to prove the merits of the new system. The arguer takes for granted that if the new system is used in the Brenton, the network of pipes tend to accumlate algae. However, the Brenton power plant draws water from Scotte's River for the cooling water, which may be different from the one Uptown draws. In that case, the water quality may be different. Perhaps, the water in Scott's River is much more clear than that of Uptown, which is unlikely to accumulate the algae. All in all, the arguer fails to provide the detail information to indicate that both of the two towns draws water from te Scotte's River, that we can make an analogical deduction that the same thing will happen to Brenton.
Secondly, as it says in the argument, the water containing the herbicide cannot be released back into the river, because of the harmful material in it. However, the arguer fails to consider other meatures to solve this problem. For instance, the toxics can be dealed before releasing back to the river. Perhaps the cost is not high, and the procedure is not complicated to add a sort of chemicals to the water to clean the herbicide in the cooling water. In this way, the power plant do not have to consider the ecosystem unbalance caused by the low water levels due to the new system. So the argument is not perfectly deduced, and the arguer has to consider all the possiblities that may solve the problems.
Moreover, using less water-a special character of the new system-may not affect the water level, even if it does not release back into the river. As it mentioned in the argument, the new cooling system is more efficient that do not need much water. That is to say, with less water used for this system, the water level will not be affected. Actually, the water level is not easy to change, if it is only a small proportion comparing to the large amount of water in the river.The aruger fails to rule out this possibility and get an unconvincing conclusion to this argument.
To sum up, the recommendation to use the old cooling system is unconvincing as it stands. To strength the argument, the arguer has to rule out all the possiblities mentioned above and provide more information to indicate the reasonings. Only in that way can the arguer convince the town council the make the decision.作者: CrazyCat666 时间: 2008-1-31 10:41:13