dengdeng619的习作练习贴

dengdeng619UID: 3583532

4.16二战GRE，一战没来得及准备作文，AW3.5，这次拜读了王老师的帖子，希望接下来的这段时间坚持练习可以取得进步！

6# I1
2# I15


5#A10
4#A18/20
3#A85

dengdeng619UID: 3583532

I1) As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and
explain how these considerations shape your position.


[1+3 map]
The new century witnessed sweeping changes taking place in all aspects of our daily life, with more advanced technology being applied to serve humankind and more devices being designed to solve problems. Though these technologies benefit us a lot by saving more labor and time, some people worried that the ability of humans to think independently would thus deteriorate since the high-tech might leave us little space to think and to react. As to me, however, I think the statement may not hold true in the field of science, policy, and economic for people engaged in these areas tend to keep thinking of innovative ways to address existing problems and improve current situations. Meanwhile, the statement may apply to those people who are addicted by the convenience of advanced technologies.
To begin with, consider people in pursuit of science and technology itself. Admittedly, the previous achievement matters a lot and help to accelerate the discovery of new theories.
Apart from scientists, those ambitious politicians and economists are urged to display their ability to think, if they want to succeed and earn more opponents.
Nevertheless, for those who are reluctant to strive for creativity, the statement is likely to come true.
To summarize, the increasingly wide application of technology is expected to polish our life by saving us more time and energy for more meaningful careers. Hence, for those voracious for new theories in science, celebrated status in politics and handsome benefits in economics, technology would benefit. Correspondingly, technology would instead deteriorate for those showing a continuous proclivity for it.

dengdeng619UID: 3583532

A10) Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia. Using an observation-centered approach to studying Tertian culture, he concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. Recently another anthropologist, Dr. Karp, visited the group of islands that includes Tertia and used the interview-centered method to study child-rearing practices. In the interviews that Dr. Karp conducted with children living in this group of islands, the children spent much more time talking about their biological parents than about other adults in the village. Dr. Karp decided that Dr. Field's conclusion about Tertian village culture must be invalid. Some anthropologists recommend that to obtain accurate information on Tertian child-rearing practices, future research on the subject should be conducted via the interview-centered method.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

The author argued that Dr. Field’s conclusion about Tertian culture must be invalid in the face of the recent study conducted by Dr. Karp, and even recommended that interview-centered method should be superior to the observation-centered one. To scrutinize the soundness of this argument and subsequent recommendation, there remain certain questions like whether the situation on Teria island remained unchanged in the past twenty years, did Teria island enjoyed the same culture with the surrounding islands, what questions Dr. Karp asked in his study and how anthropologists conduct researches.
As to the first question whether the child-rearing habits suffered any changes during the past twenty years, the author simply supposed that the Teria culture maintain ed its features when Dr. Karp conducted his study two decades latter than Dr. Field. What if the demography structure and child-raising practices of Terians had significantly changed during the past two decades? If Teria children had been fostered by the entire village years ago, meanwhile the new generations were cultivated by their own biological parents nowadays, it would be no surprise that Dr. Field and Dr. Karp came to respective conclusions.
Apart from vague information of the situations in respective era, we have no idea of the indigenous cultures on each island and the designed questions in Dr. Karp’s study. Chances are that Teria teenagers are raised by the entire village collaboratively while children on other islands are reared by their biological parents instead. Moreover, if Dr. Karp asked more about the children’s biological parents during his interviews, children might mentioned their blood parents more frequently, or they might speak of how much they missed them.
Additionally, we are not sure about the criteria for anthropologists to choose a research method. Even if Dr. Karp’s study is more successful than Dr. Field’s, we cannot assure that the interview-centered method would always overshadow the observation-centered method. To manage an effective and efficient study, we’d better concentrate more on the circumstances to see which method could make a better match.
To summarize, we need answers to the questions about the changes during two decades, the detailed information of Dr. Karp’s study and the way anthropologists performing their research so as to examine the validness of the argument and the recommendation.  (387/ 65 min’)

dengdeng619UID: 3583532

A 18/20) The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station.
"Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news. During this period, most of the complaints received from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late-night news program have canceled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should expand our coverage of weather and local news on all our news programs."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.


The business manager of the television station proposed that the station should increase the coverage of weather and local news on all news programs in order to attract more viewers and  potential advertising revenues. A number of assumptions have been made about the complaints from viewers, reclined advertising contracts with local businesses and prospect for the television station. To scrutinize the soundness of the manager’s argument, we are supposed to examine the assumptions critically.
To begin with, the manager simply assumed that the complaints were representative of the  entire audience’s opinions and attitudes. These complaints are relative to all news programs the station runs, meanwhile it’s the late-night news program that curtailed the coverage of weather and local news. If the viewers were complaining that they preferred weather broadcast and local news report in early-morning news program, they would also be happy with the reduced time for these topics in late-night program. Moreover, we do not know what the audience are concerned about specifically. Maybe they were not satisfied with the reporting style of the local news, or were annoyed by the inaccuracy of weather forecast on certain days. Under such circumstances, we cannot attribute the complaints to reduced coverage of the two sections in late-night news program, thus weakening the solidification of the manager’s argument.
Apart from the assumption on viewer’s complaints, the manager took the abridged weather and local news in late-night news program as the predominant reason for local businesses’ canceling their advertising contract with the television station. He failed to consider the other possible reasons, like the fantasy of the program, the local economic situations and the advertising tendency. If the advertisment in the program had been rather ineffective, it would be no surprise that local businesses ceased the contracts. Additionally, the local economy may be in recession recently and people might tend to read and put advertisement in the convenience of the Internet, so the local enterprises had to cut short or even cancel the advertising expenses on television news programs, making the assumption invalid.
To be added, we should notice that the manager suggested that the station should expand more coverage of weather and local news on all news programs based on the final assumption that viewers were lost because of the reduction of these topics. However, there could be multiplying reasons for the dwindling audience to the programs, for instance, poor quality of the national news of the station, other competitive sources of news, and so on. If the station lost its viewers for reasons other than the weather and local news, the proposed change would not make such a difference as the manager assumed. Furthermore, the manager also assumed that the late-night news program could take behalf of all programs, whatever and whenever the program is. Since each program features respectively, increased coverage of weather and local news can hardly benefit all programs, and might even cause some negative consequences in certain kind of programs.  
To summarize, we need more information to make a further examination of the manager’s plausible assumptions about the viewers’ complaints, the local businesses’ reaction and the television station’s prospect, so as to evaluate the validity of his argument.   (548/70min' -r)

这篇出现很大的问题是东西写太多，感觉上有很多逻辑错误的点可以写，按照1+3分的时候感觉没太理清顺序，显得有点杂乱。考场上估计来不及写到500+

dengdeng619UID: 3583532

A 85) In a study of the reading habits of Waymarsh citizens conducted by the University of Waymarsh, most respondents said that they preferred literary classics as reading material. However, a second study conducted by the same researchers found that the type of book most frequently checked out of each of the public libraries in Waymarsh was the mystery novel. Therefore, it can be concluded that the respondents in the first study had misrepresented their reading habits.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.    #77



The author argued that the respondents in the first study had lied about their reading habits as the public library records in the second study demonstrated that mystery novels, rather than literary classics, were most frequently checked out each public library by Waymarsh citizens. To make a thorough assessment about the argument, we need more evidences about how the first study was designed and conducted, where Waymarsh citizens obtain their reading material, and what kind of books each public library provides.
To begin with, we need to figure out the questions’ content and the way researchers from the University of Waymarsh conducted the first survey. For example, if respondents in the first study had been asked to make a preference between literary classics and professional articles as their reading material, it would be easy to understand that they would turn to literary classics. What’s more, we have no idea about the target people involved in the first study. what criterion the researchers established when sampling/targeting respondents for the first study and how representative the respondents could be on behalf of Waymarsh citizens. If the researches had targeted more on proponents of literary classics, there would be no doubt that they claimed literary classics as their reading material, thus weakening the solidification of the first study and fortifying the overall argument instead.
Apart from lack of details about the first study, we have to make it clear where Waymarsh citizens obtain their reading material. In the second study, researchers came to the conclusion merely on the basic of the check-out records in public libraries. However, citizens may buy books in book stores, read an digit edition online, and exchange books with friends. Under such circumstance, books in public libraries in Waymarsh cannot make an integral part of all source of reading materials citizens in Waymarsh have access to, which would diminish the soundness of the argument.
Moreover, we need to know more aspects of the public libraries, including a detailed explication of the library check-out records. What if the literary classics in public libraries are extremely out-of-date or in a rather small amount? What if the literary classics only allows for being read in the reading rooms of the library? What if citizens tend to keep the literary classics for a longer period of time? If it’s the case, people might borrow more frequently other kind of reading materials, to be specific, mystery novel. We are supposed to take all these apropos factors into consideration to see if the reasoning is acceptable. If the above-mentioned aspects were true, the plausible findings of the second study would grow untenable, which would significantly enervate the soundness of the argument.
To summarize, we need more evidence about the studies’ detailed contents, the reading preference of Waymarsh citizens, and the information about each public library before discriminating whether respondents in the first study had misrepresented their reading habits.   (489/60min’-revised)

dengdeng619UID: 3583532

I15) Educational institutions should actively encourage their students to choose fields of study that will prepare them for lucrative careers.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.  



With the increasingly severe competition for superior living conditions, more and more people tend to crave for those lucrative careers and encourage the younger generation to choose relevant fields. Under such circumstances, it’s proposed that educational institutions, where the youth are nourished and shaped, should play an active role in leading students there to better prepare themselves for lucrative careers. As to me, however, though the proposal may be quite inviting for the majority of students, especially those from poor families, it lacks a thorough consideration of students’ individuality, their distinct roles in society and the long-term development of educational institutions themselves.
To begin with, the lucrative vocations differ among students with different preference, competence, and personality. Though many people may claim that it would be much more pragmatic for students to pursue what they enjoy after they have already earned a ground in beneficial industries, we should keep it in mind that the days spent in school is the most rewarding. It’s true that it’s never too old to learn, but a person’s learning ability would deteriorate in most cases. What’s more , if one shows little interest and talent in those so-called lucrative careers, there’s slightest chance that he could succeed. Hence, why not let these student have access to more subjects and try to make their preference lucrative?
Even if we suppose that all students were malleable, we cannot circumvent the critical question of social cooperation. What if all students poured into the specific position after graduation? Since the educational institutions had only equipped them with knowledge and skills related to the shining position, those graduates might have little idea with other fields. Consequently, the graduates may risk experiencing unemployment and our community would even suffer a tumult in the job market.
In addition, the educational institutions cannot limit themselves to the confined fields if they desire to attract more students and to possess an everlasting reputation. Despite the fact that business, economics, and laws are popular among most students, an institution with a monotonous list of fields would hardly be the top choice for students and their parents. Moreover, an educational institution is established to cultivate students in all aspects and shouldn’t be governed by the current of job market. Those in agreement with the claim might mistaken the unique status and function of educational institutions for those training organizations.
To summarize, I cannot convince myself with the statement for the above reasons referring to the students, the society and educational institutions.  (70min’/431)