Issue99红尘笑沧桑作文互改小组第4周周3作业

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题目：ISSUE99 - "In any realm of life-whether academic, social, business, or political-the only way to succeed is to take a practical, rather than an idealistic, point of view. Pragmatic behavior guarantees survival, whereas idealistic views tend to be superceded by simpler, more immediate options."
字数：414
用时：00:36:10
日期：2010/1/6 19:42:11


The author contends that the only way to succeed is to take a practical point of view instead of an idealistic one in any realm of life while idealistic views tend to be superceded by simpler, more immediate options. I agree in so far as practical point of view
is essential. However, we cannot overestimate the value of practical views. Idealistic views also play an important role in the realms of academic, social, business and political.

First of all, idealistic views play a favorable impact on the students and the researcher's academic success and they are important for long-term development. Admittedly, practical views are crucial for the students and scholars. As for students, along with the intensive competition
in job market, it is practical for them to study knowledge which will be good for their job seeking. For scholars, it is also essential for them to make profits on their academic realm so that they can have enough funding to continue their academic research. However, the practical views can only help them to get the short-term aim. It is important for students and scholars to possess
idealistic views to obtain long-time projects and these idealistic views will become a guiding light which encourages them to pursue their target.

In the realm of business, idealistic views also play an essential role. Although for business companies, making profits can assure the management of a company. However, if the manager of a company considers only the practical profits and he doesn't place emphasis on the idealistic views which can bring more long-term profits to the company, he will pay a heavy price for ignoring the idealistic views. For example, if Bill Gates just thought about the practical profits, he would not give up his study in Harvard which could bring him a job and stable income. It is the idealistic view that provide him much courage to challenge himself on the way to success.

Last but not least, having idealistic views is important for politics as well. For instance, if Martin Luther King did not have the idealistic views and only pursue his own practical interests, perhaps African Americans still sit on the back of the bus. It is idealists, not pragmatists who sway the masses, incite revolutions, and make political ideology reality.

From what has been discussed, we can draw the conclusion that practical views and idealistic views are essential for the development of a society. We should combine these two views together and think about the short-term aims and long-term aims as well.



题目：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."
字数：366
用时：00:30:00
日期：2010/1/6 20:22:39


In the argument, the arguer concludes that although the sales of Whirlwind video games have declined over the past two years, the sales of Whirlwind video games are likely to increse dramatically in the next few months. To support his conclusion, he cites that Whirlwind has just introduced several games which provide lifelike graphics with an extensive advertising campaign directed at people 10 to 25 years old. At the first sight, the argument seems to be reasonable. But later reflection shows that the argument is flawed in several aspects.

First, the author failed to analyze the reason why Whirlwind video games have declined over the past two years. Perhaps Whirlwind locates in the place where few people are interested in the video games, or perhaps the cost of playing games in Whirlwind is so high that there are fewer people. So the author should give us more evidence about the reason why Whirl has declined so that we can get a clear idea about how to reverse the situation.

Secondly, the author did not provide enough details about the survey, such as how many people were in the survey and how old they are. According to different ages, people
have different views on playing video games. So we can actually doubt the reliability about the survey.

Third, the author failed to give us sufficient evidence to assure us that introducing several such games will increase the sales of Whirlwind. He drew the conclusion on the unpersuasive survey. Furthermore, the arguer points out that the game is directed at people 10 to 25 years old, he ignored that there may be some old people or some younger kids who are also interested in playing games. If the games only consider people who are 10 to 25 years old, perhaps Whirlwind will lose more customers, so it will not increase its profits.

Finally, the arguer did not analyze the cost of such games. Perhaps Whirlwind needs to invest much money on these games, so it is impossible for Whirlwind to make more profits. To support his assumption, he should make a survey about how much will be invested in the games and how much Whirlwind will gain from the games.

In sum, in order to make the conclusion persuasive, the author should analyze the reason why Whirlwind declined over the past two years and then design the suitable games which can increase the sales of Whirlwind. Meanwhile, he should provide more details about the survey and consider more customers.