Issue208【0806G desperado小组】第十七次作业by坐照

wangyu0920UID: 199396

TOPIC: ISSUE208 - "The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people."
WORDS: 479          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2008-1-12 23:18:23

1.       衣着、行为和外表能够在一定程度上表现人们的兴趣和态度。但是，这只能是小范围的尺度内，个人或一部分群体。当范围扩大到社会和国家时，要想了解他们的社会体系和价值观，仅仅通过外表和行为是远远不够的。
2.       细节能够反映人的内心世界，尤其是衣着、行为、语言、眼神等。而有着相同兴趣和背景的人，在外表和行为上可能有相似的表现。
3.       然而，在社会和国家的层面上，人们的表现其实有很大的不同，即使有相似，也常常是表面上的。
4.       而且，对于国家和社会来说，很多理念和价值观是通过制度、法律、道德体现，而这些是根本无法从外表中判断出来的。
5.       总之，论断有正确的地方，但不公正地扩大了。行为、外表通常表现的还是个人特点，而要判断社会的价值还取决于更多方面对社会的了解

I agree with the statement insofar as look, dress, and act could partly represent people's attitudes and interests.  However, in my view, it is an extreme conclusion.  When the issue comes to a larger scale, the society and the nation rather than individual, it would lend little support to tell a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people.

Admittedly, the details could reflect people's inner world, especially through look, dress, and act.  Usually, people with the same backgrounds and interests are likely to show off similar behaviors and appearances. For example, politicians wear suits in formal occasion, all of them looking gentle and moderate; the actresses and singers commonly wear gorgeous costumes and keep new haircuts to accentuate their good looking; the scientists and teachers behave amiable and mild because of being rich in knowledge; and we can easily read the pure hearts through children's bright eyes. Actually, sometimes we can tell a person, whether he or she is well-educated or kind-hearted, by his or her appearance.

However, on the level of society and nation, people become really different, even they look similar in appearance, and the resemblance could be entirely superficial.  On the one hand, we are living in the era, which pay much more attention on individual characteristics than ever before, almost everyone tries to show off his or her unique.  Accordingly, the age with cultural diversity increasingly comes to us.  People are so different even in appearance that it is so difficult to abstract social ideas and values among them.  On the other hand, the society has become more and more complicated; many people tend to cover themselves under their appearance in order to pursue a feeling of security, or for some other reasons.  For instance, the politicians could talk to the public amiably, but do some horrible things, such as abuse the power to get their personal interests.  Some teachers in university may teach their students that honest is one of the most important virtues in the classroom, but cheat on their own paper in the dark side.  In a word, nowadays, people are so carefully covered that we always reach a distorted conclusion by observing their appearance.

Moreover, in a society and a nation, the ideas and values usually represent by its social system, laws, and moral system, all of which could not be told by the people's appearance at all. For instance, if we want to know whether a country is really a democracy country, we would turn to the constitution, rather than observing what kind of dresses their citizen wearing.  After all, some ideas and values are hiding behind people's behaviors that we could never find them out by outside looking.

To sum up, the statement has some merits, but unfairly generalized. Look, dress, act and behavior could usually represent an individual characteristic. Nevertheless, to tell a society's ideas and values, we need more profound understanding to the society in more aspects.

hongdanUID: 2228730

I agree with the statement insofar as look, dress, and act could partly represent people's attitudes and interests.  However, in my view, it is an extreme conclusion.  When the issue comes to a larger scale, the society and the nation rather than individual, it would lend little support to tell a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people.

Admittedly, the details could reflect people's inner world, especially through look, dress, and act.  Usually, people with the same backgrounds and interests are likely to show off similar behaviors and appearances. For example, politicians wear suits in formal occasion, all of them looking gentle and moderate; the actresses and singers commonly wear gorgeous costumes and keep new haircuts to accentuate their good looking; the scientists and teachers behave amiable and mild because of being rich in knowledge; and we can easily read the pure hearts through children's bright eyes. Actually, sometimes we can tell a person, whether he or she is well-educated or kind-hearted, by his or her appearance.（这段很好，词语很丰富）

However, on the level of society and nation, people become really different, even they look similar in appearance, and the resemblance could be entirely superficial.  On the one hand, we are living in the era, which pay much more attention on individual characteristics than ever before, almost everyone tries to show off his or her unique.  Accordingly, the age with cultural diversity increasingly comes to us.  People are so different even in appearance that it is so difficult to abstract social ideas and values among them.  On the other hand, the society has become more and more complicated; many people tend to cover themselves under their appearance in order to pursue a feeling of security, or for some other reasons.  For instance, the politicians could talk to the public amiably, but do some horrible things, such as abuse the power to get their personal interests.  Some teachers in university may teach their students that honest is one of the most important virtues in the classroom, but cheat on their own paper in the dark side.  In a word, nowadays, people are so carefully covered that we always reach a distorted conclusion by observing their appearance.（这似乎也是说个人，没有到社会的层面吧）

Moreover, in a society and a nation, the ideas and values usually represent by its social system, laws, and moral system, all of which could not be told by the people's appearance at all. For instance, if we want to know whether a country is really a democracy country, we would turn to the constitution, rather than observing what kind of dresses their citizen wearing.  After all, some ideas and values are hiding behind people's behaviors that we could never find them out by outside looking.

To sum up, the statement has some merits, but unfairly generalized. Look, dress, act and behavior could usually represent an individual characteristic. Nevertheless, to tell a society's ideas and values, we need more profound understanding to the society in more aspects.

感觉社会层面分析力度不够，可以再在这方面再深入一些会更好些。
词汇很丰富，很值得学习。

[ 本帖最后由 hongdan 于 2008-1-14 22:42 编辑 ]