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gaochenwei1
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发表于 2009-7-6 00:09:07 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

Issue16. Although many people think that the luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life are entirely harmless, in fact, they actually prevent people from developing into truly strong and independent individuals.

In this era of rapid scientific and high-tech advancement at a tremendous rate, we benefit a lot from the enormous life conveniences due to these modern changes, everything seems perfect. However, I fundamentally agree the speaker’s claim that instead of liberating us from daily life, technology has already turn us become into its slaver as a person, preventing us from developing into strong and independent individuals.

Admittedly, I have to acknowledge that we are greatly better off for the service rendered by luxuries and conveniences thanks to the development of technology. The vast contradiction in both world emerged fully as an outcome of various scientific inventions and discoveries. We have been able to accomplish a lot of things which we even couldn't be able to imagine once upon a time. Today, by the help of computer, we perform so many tasks easily in fewer minutes that would have been considered impossible or would have consumed several hours to get done; We are capable of covering a distance to some places by airplane in less than an hour nowadays, which used to take us several months of time to arrive at; We can get in touch with people thousands of kilometers away instantly, which can only be found depicted in a fiction in the old times; and so on.

However, in spite of these fantastic conveniences, technology has already enslaved us indeed, instead of leaving us with ever-increasing quantities of time to waste away on idleness and pleasure. First, I admit these years have witnessed the springing out of incredible inventions in this modern era; yet, as each invention arrives, it eats into our life as well. The automobile, for example, promised unimaginable levels of speed. But now, the congestion in cities have prevented us from moving even several meters in almost half an hour.

Secondly, technologies, as a matter of fact, bring about not only convenience but information explosion as well, which make us less thoughtful and creative. Several centuries ago, all the aggregated learning could be contained in the heads of only a few philosophers. In this modern time, however, one with the most talented head can only hope to acquire only a tiny fraction of the information in his life time. New findings, facts, opinions spread into every corner of the world, which make us depressed and hopeless to keep up with the pace of the world. A head of our college, major in cell signal transduction, once said(I paraphrase):"I surf the internet every day, subscribe 30 or 40 journals or magazines just to obtain a small drop of water from knowledge ocean of the humankind, the more I understand, the more ignorant I feel about myself." This illustrates the point that we are so oppressed by the knowledge that we will become self-abased and in turn prevent us from improving.

Nonetheless, the problems can be resolved to a certain extend. Based on the analysis above, we have to confess that it is ourselves who choose to live this kind of life-in other words, we are self-imposed to be enslaved by the modern life. Firstly, we are supposed to realize the bad effect of technology-the government can do a lot of contribution in the development of people's awareness in this case. Also, I strongly believe that everyone can become predominant and independent again in our daily life, as long as we are abstentious and strong enough to resist these temptation of some bad influences which is likely to emerge when we are enjoying benefits of technology and luxuries.

Without technology and the convenience it bring about, our life would not be so colorful and meaningful. But everything has its both sides, the luxuries and conveniences can also do erode our life as well. In order to live a healthier and more harmless life, we have to have a better understanding of life and set boundaries for ourselves to assist the temptation and make better use of life convenience.

issue16

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gaochenwei1
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发表于 2009-7-6 13:15:18 |只看该作者

The following appeared in a letter from a department chairperson to the president of Pierce University.
"Some studies conducted by Bronston College, which is also located in a small town, reveal that both male and female professors are happier living in small towns when their spouses are also employed in the same geographic area. Therefore, in the interest of attracting the most gifted teachers and researchers to our faculty and improving the morale of our entire staff, we at Pierce University should offer employment to the spouse of each new faculty member we hire. Although we cannot expect all offers to be accepted or to be viewed as an ideal job offer, the money invested in this effort will clearly be well spent because, if their spouses have a chance of employment, new professors will be more likely to accept our offers."

Merely based on dubious evidence and unwarranted assumptions, the argument gives a suggestion that in order to attract more talented teachers and researchers to their faculty, employment should be offered to the spouse of each new faculty member they hire. In order to support this recommendation, the arguer cites some studies which reveals the happiness when they live in small towns with their spouses. In addition, the arguer also mentions that new professors will be more likely to accept their offers as a result of the employment chance given to their spouses. But further reflection reveals that it omits some substantial concerns that should be addressed to substantiate the argument. In my point of view, this argument suffers from some logical flaws as follows.

Firstly, unless the survey sampled a sufficient number of teachers and researchers and did so randomly across the entire employee spectrum, the result of these studies is not reliable to gauge the condition generally. The chairperson, however, fails to provide more information about the exact number and percentage of respondents in the university and only conducted the study from professors, which render it unacceptable.

Even if the studies reflect the preference of the employee in Bronston College (BC), it does not indicate that the researchers and teachers in Pierce University (PC) have the same preference as well. The recommendation relies on a false analogy that conditions in BC and PC are similar. However, common sense informs me that BC and PC have a lot of differences: maybe PC located in a city which is severely polluted and do not have a good living environment, so professors or other employees would rather their spouses not live and work in this place. Thus, without ruling out this and other possibilities, the arguer cannot justifiably infer that the faculty in PC have the same attitude as the faculty in BC.

Granted that people prefer to live and work together with their spouses in PC, the arguer unfairly conclude that people's preference to live with their spouses will sufficiently or necessarily result in attracting gifted teachers and researchers to their faculty. The chairperson fail to consider many other relevant factors that would influence new professors' decision equally or even greater. Perhaps the professors lay more stress on the salary or other incentives in order to live a better life. Also, common sense informs me that academic environment, research strength and other polices of the university are also very important part in consideration of making a decision on choosing a perspective working place. Thus, without taking account of these possible factors, the chairperson cannot draw the conclusion that this measure will sure attract more gifted faculty members to PC.

In sum, the chairperson's recommendation that offering to the spouse of each new faculty member they hire is totally unconvincing. To strengthen the argument, the author must provide more information of the studies. Also, I would also need to know more information to testify the similarities between PC and BC, in order to substantiate the correctness of the analogy. Besides, a survey should be conducted in BC to support that the measure given is the sufficient and the most effective way to attract more gifted professors to PC.

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