[天下无G]第三次作业

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138."Only through mistakes can there be discovery or progress."

Agree

A widespread aphorism showed that failure is mother of success, it indicated that failures and mistakes are the premises of success. So in other words, only through mistakes can there be great discovery and progress.

1 In the process of working on science, art, music and any other field, it is impossible to avoid making mistakes especially if you are intend to discover something new and make progress.

2 Experience tell us that making mistake can accelerate your pace to success. Firstly, After you made a mistake, you should know the way you have tried is not feasible, and then you will find another way or method to keep on working. In order to find the filament for the bulb, Edison has used hundreds and thousands materials to make experiments and failed many times until he found the tungsten filament, and made great success. Secondly, one would gain valuable experience and even make another discovery although you failed in this field. The failure of inventing a perpetual motion machine appropriately attested the theory of energy balance. Thirdly, People always have deep impression of the mistakes they have made, which have a good effect on their self improvement.

159."The human mind will always be superior to machines because machines are only tools of human minds."

Partially agree

Nowadays, people have invented so much machines to deal with problems in daily life. Some people would say that, human mind will always be superior to machines because they all invented by human. I would partially agree this contention as people have the ability to make use these machines to improve our life and security, but sometimes people should depend on  machines, because there are so many defects in human, and the machines are juster than human being.

1 people should be superior to machines in most of time.

Reason： machines are invented and improved by human beings, so we have ability to make good use of them. For example, people invented vehicles to move faster, computers to work efficiently, communication tools to communicate with others, televisions to entertain, refrigerator to reserve food and so forth.

It is important to be superior to the machines which maybe threat to human’s life. For example, guns, detonator, biochemical weapons, nuclear power and so on.

2 people have emotions and prejudice, which will make negative influences on judgement. Machines are cold-blooded, so they can make decisions on a just and neutral standpoint, it is helpful for us. And machines are proficient in a field, they can work efficiently than human beings, so sometimes it is credible to believe machines than human beings. For example, programmes are useful in the world, and it is unthinkable to live without them.

127."Facts are stubborn things. They cannot be altered by our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions."

Disagree

While I concede that some facts are stubborn and unchangeable, any efforts we pursue to change them are worthless. However, there are also some facts we can alter them though persistent work by our wishes, inclinations, intelligence and passions.

1 Human being is only one of thousands creatures in the world, although our intelligence, emotion, ability, imagination are superior to other creatures. However, our ability is finite when comparing to the whole world even to the whole universe. From this point of view, it is credible that some facts are inalterable. For example, the order of nature, the environmental conditions.

2 Admittedly, we can also change some facts to a good way by our wishes, inclinations, passions, endeavors and so on. Because people have more wisdom and spirit than others, we are able to comprehend some facts and change them. For example, although in facts human beings are not strong than feral animals, we can invent some weapons to beat them, and control them. A people who are not wise naturally can also make great accomplishment by persistent endeavor.

157."There is no such thing as purely objective observation. All observation is subjective; it is always guided by the observer's expectations or desires."

agree

People have emotions and limitations of their knowledge and ability, so purely objective observation can not be accomplished in most of time. The way to improve the quality of observations is to avoid subjective perspectives as much as possible, and use other methods to compensate out defects.

1 The reason why people always make objective observation. human beings have limitations in knowledge, sight, audition and there are also many factors, including  the temperature, air pressure, environment, which can affect our observation results. For example, when we observe characters of people, if we had a good impression of him or he had given us some help before, that may affect the objectivity of our conclusion, because we observe him with a good desire, which may lead to overlook his disadvantages and overstate his advantages.

2 Although people often make subjective observation in daily life, we should try to make objective observation as much as we can. Actually, in academic field we have made many achievements. For example, when a good scientist makes an experiment, he always observe it with no emotion, and record the result according to the fact. Human also invented a great number machines to compensate the limitation of human beings. Microscope and telescope can be used to see objects which are tiny and from a long distance.

70."In any profession—business, politics, education, government—those in power should step down after five years. The surest path to success for any enterprise is revitalization through new leadership."

Disagree

Although it is usually beneficial for an enterprise to change the leadership, to say it is the surest path for success would lead to a misunderstanding view.

1 whether or not those in power should step down after five years is beneficial for an enterprise is contingent on the leader’s performance. If the leader performs well and become the spiritual leader in the enterprise, it will do harmfully for the enterprise to survive without the leader. For example, it is unthinkable for Microsoft without Bill Gates, Haier without Zhang Ruimin. Whereas a leader who did not perform well and make great contribution to the enterprise should be replaced by a new one.

2 Constitute a five years’  tour of duty, can stimulate the leader to work hard for the development of the enterprise. Whether or not the old one is replaced by a new one depends evaluation of his feat and selection system.

144."It is the artist, not the critic,* who gives society something of lasting value." *a person who evaluates works of art, such as novels, films, music, paintings, etc

Agree

Art which includes novels, films, music, paintings has evolved through thousands of years. There are a great many of artists who give the society something of lasting value though critics who evaluate works of art also contribute a lot to art field.

1 Great artists who has produced grandiose works in particular field deliver his spirit to mass, and gives society something of everlasting value. Spanish novelist Cervantes wrote a famous novel----Quixote, which advocated freedom and humanity and harshly derided the feudal aristocrat and popery by a sarcastic style of writing has a far-reaching impact on literatures afterwards. German composer Beethoven had composed many concertos and sonatas through his life, and his works are full of enthusiasm from classical to romantic ones. Paintings such as Mona Lisa by Italian artist Da Vinci are worth great value even now.

2 critics who are able to evaluate works of art on a objective standpoint and professional in this field also contributed a lot in the art field, though they never created great works themselves. Firstly, they help people to understand the underlying values and meanings in the work. Secondly, they give artists proper advice to improve.

218."In order for any work of art—whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song—to have merit, it must be understandable to most people."

Disagree

While nearly everyone would agree that art should not deviate from masses, to say what any work of art must be understandable to most people in order to have merit would need much consideration.

1 Some works of art must be understandable to most people, because one purpose of doing art works is to edify people and entertain, such as film, novel, song and so forth, If most of these art works can not be understandable by masses, the artists may go to a dilemma as they can not feed themselves.

2 It doesn’t mean any works of art should be understandable to most people, because some artists have high talent on art so that their productions are too high to popular, maybe they would be understandable to the minority or comprehended by posterity.

3 Art should not become vulgar in order to be understandable by most of people, artist should persist on their interest and intrinsic thought.

48."The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The most significant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few, but by groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten."

Disagree

Were significant events and trends in history made by famous people or groups of people? And whether the study of history places too much emphasis on individuals? My answer is no, in fact individuals really act significant roles in history and they should be emphasized.

1 the study of history relies on the material we have got, because many valuable materials were lost, most of our existent books related to individuals.

2 Individuals really did great effect on the history, they changed history and society.

3 we should not ignore the importance of groups of people, because individuals can not succeed without supports of group of people.

54."History teaches us only one thing: knowing about the past cannot help people to make important decisions today."

Disagree

Society is running in a cycle, and history will happen again and again in some manner. So knowing about the past can help people make important decision.

1 As we learn the successful experience in history, it will give us proper direction and instruction to make decisions now. For example, we often find someone who succeeded in this field to tell their experience if we want to set foot in the field. Because we can learn from their experience so that we can definite the direction and considerate the difficulties we may encounter. It is also important to learn the experience of someone who has failed, taking shun of mistakes they ever made.

2 Knowing about the past can only help us to make decision, it is also significant to analyze the special situation when we make decisions today.

103."The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives."

Disagree

The study of history has great value to us not only when it is relevant to our daily lives but also those which are irrelevant to our lives.

1 The significance for history studying. Firstly, Learning history can help us to know the derivation of humans, nations, cultures and others, which will broaden our sightview and let us have a in-depth cognition of human beings. Secondly, we can gain much valuable experience through studying history, this will benefit us on daily life.

2 The significance of history study is independent of whether it is relevant to our daily life.  When history is irrelevant to our daily lives, it can also instruct our behavior and influence our ideas. For example, learning history of foreign countries which seems irrelevant to our daily life benefit us a lot. For the reason that it can help us to know the deviation of the culture and habit of foreigners, so we can keep decent behavior and speech when we communicate with them and learn something which can benefit a lot to our daily life.