TOPIC: ARGUMENT242 - The following appeared as an editorial in the student newspaper of Groveton College.
"To combat the recently reported dramatic rise in cheating among college and university students, these institutions should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton's, which calls for students to agree not to cheat in their academic endeavors and to notify a faculty member if they suspect that others have cheated. Groveton's honor code replaced an old-fashioned system in which students were closely monitored by teachers and an average of thirty cases of cheating per year were reported. The honor code has proven far more successful: in the first year it was in place, students reported twenty-one cases of cheating; five years later, this figure had dropped to fourteen. Moreover, in a recent survey conducted by the Groveton honor council, a majority of students said that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without."
WORDS: 568 + 100(修改的时候添加)TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2009-3-9 下午 07:09:31
The suggestion of adopting honor codes similar to Groveton College(GC)'s at first glance soundly bases upon the evidence of declining number of cases of cheating, the survey of Groveton honor council, and the assumption that the great success of GC could be wide spread by the same regulation, still, to prove these hypothesises needs more work of reasoning.
The major suspicion stems from the doubt whether the number of cheating cases indeed declined. To be realistic, the statistics of the study, reliable and objective as it might be, is not sufficient to buttress the deduction of the author. Could the report coming from students reflect the real phenomenon of cheating? Advanced tricks might play an important role in the declining number of students who cheated in examination. In other words, the decreasing number of cheaters reported might only illustrate that fewer students who did not utilizing high-tech cheating measures had been "caught" in examination, rather than that they had complied with the restriction of GC more than ever before. There might exist a myriad of students cheated but did not be reported in test. Besides, students might not be willing to report others who were cheating. If, for example, certain compromise -- such as cheating together or keeping silent about others' cheating action -- has been established among the students during the past five years, the honor code would be finally proven to work little, if any, in preventing cheating.
In addition, another survey of the less-cheating will of students faces the similar challenge too. Its generality is first questioned. How many students were included in the survey? Without a significantly large sample pool, one would require great act of will to trust a survey. Generally speaking, as is self-evident, a survey related to education is useful only when it manages to deputize general will of all students. Unfortunately, for the author might intentionally conceal the number of the respondents, it is reasonable for readers to suspect the representativeness of the survey. Moreover, the grade and gender of the students have been undeserved overlooked. Were the interviewees limited in one or several groups sharing similar study customs? If those who preferred not to cheat are mainly students in grade one, or if majority of the example were girls who enjoyed attending class and doing homework, the will of respondents could hardly represented that most students would not take part in speculation any more. Since the author simply slipped these issues, the survey he cited appears to be insufficient to bolster his judgment of students' attitude toward the honor code.
What is more, even if the honor code of GC verified to be an effective approach to inhibit and eliminate cases of cheating, to generalize its experience to every college, being blind to the differences in educational level, is skeptical. The average degree of difficulty of tests, as is apparent, should be taken into account. If, for instance, the examinations of other universities are much harder than the one of GC, students of those colleges would be overwhelmingly likely to cheat. Actually, when the supervisors simultaneously turn out to be the cheaters, they would certainly lose their function of supervising. Such phenomenon should be to serve as essential negative impact to the effectiveness of the regulation. Therefore, the suggestion of wide spread of the honor code might be an action with little effect. Though the author might confidently believe that the same honor code measure would be actualized everywhere, his failure to scrutinize the education and examination condition of each college does weaken his position.
In sum, the author supplied a seemingly beneficent suggestion to prohibit students from cheating, whereas his deduction is not rational. Were there more background of the investigation demonstrating that the number of cases of cheating was really decreased by the honor code policy, detailed information about the participators of the survey, and comprehensive conditions of those colleges and universities suffering dramatic rise in cheating, the advice of him would be relatively strengthened.作者: comorain 时间: 2009-3-13 14:06:06
still(尽管如此) 属于一个语气很轻的转折副词,用法没有however那么严格,甚至可以当连词用,类似于whereas,给个例子好了:she felt ill, still she went to work.
所以前面不要句号也没有问题。作者: comorain 时间: 2009-3-13 17:10:11
句子太长,我们只看主干:
The suggestion……bases upon the evidence ……, the survey ……, and the assumption……, still, to prove these hypothesises needs more work of reasoning.
still前后都是完整的句子,根本没必要强扭在一起。still表转折时,一般前面有although。例子:Although she felt ill, she still went to work. 她虽然觉得身体不舒服, 但仍然去上班了. (来源:牛津高阶英汉双解词典)
1、still:in spite of that; nevertheless; even so 尽管那样; 然而; 不过; 虽然如此: He's treated you badly: still, he's your brother and you should help him. 他待你很不好; 但他终归是你的兄弟, 你应该帮助他. * Although she felt ill, she still went to work. 她虽然觉得身体不舒服, 但仍然去上班了. (牛津高阶英汉双解词典)
2、still:in spite of what has just been said or done
The hotel was terrible. Still, we were lucky with the weather. (朗文当代英语词典)
3、You use still to emphasize that something remains the case or is true in spite of what you have just said.
I'm average for my height. But I still feel I'm fatter than I should be. Despite the ruling, Boreham was still found guilty.
改法一:The suggestion of adopting honor codes similar to GrovetonCollege(GC)'s at first glance soundly bases upon the evidence ofdeclining number of cases of cheating, the survey of Groveton honorcouncil, and the assumption that the great success of GC could be widespread by the same regulation; however, to prove these hypothesises needsmore work of reasoning.
(我很怀疑,即使用still,恐怕前面也是分号而不是逗号)
改法二:The suggestion of adopting honor codes similar to GrovetonCollege(GC)'s bases upon the evidence ofdeclining number of cases of cheating, the survey of Groveton honorcouncil, and the assumption that the great success of GC could be widespread by the same regulation. On its surface, that argument sounds reasonable; neverthless, to prove these hypothesises needsmore work of reasoning. (哈佛大学教授曼昆曾在他的博客上用过前半部分,只不过后半部分他用的是but。)
但这样一来,你前面那一句就显得很平淡,可以进一步改为:
Basing on the evidence ofdeclining number of cases of cheating, the survey of Groveton honorcouncil, and the assumption that the great success of GC could be widespread by the same regulation, the newspaper editorial suggests that other colleges or universities should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton college's.作者: irvine666 时间: 2009-3-13 18:21:46