COMEON作文小组--devilkineleven9.8作业

devilkinelevenUID: 2442869

9月8日

Does study of animals help us to learn human nature?(2007.10.27)

Human nature is defined as a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that are shared by all normal human beings. Two connotations are contained in this definition. First, human nature is shared by all normal people. Second, no other species have the characteristics that define human nature. In other words, the characteristics considered as human nature are not possessed by other species. Therefore, to understand human nature, we have to make clear in what aspects we human beings are unique. Compare and contrast human beings with other species, largely animals are effective ways to understand this question. So study of animals helps us to learn human nature.

Communicating with language and making use of tools are regarded as one characteristic included in human nature. There was once debte in academic circle whether these the characteristic of human beings' are unique comparing to other animals. It is found that some birds can also speak "language" through training. For example, parrots can imitate human voice and utter simple phrases like "Good morning, master" if trained in a proper way. Besides, bees communicate within group through a special dance. They dance to tell other bees where and how far away the flowers are. These findings casted doubts to the assertion that only human beings can speak language, thus questioning whether communicating through language is human nature.

The doubts were cleared in the furhter study of these animals. Close study of parrots shows that although parrots can pronounce certain words, phrases or even short sentences. They have no idea of the meanings conveyed. The act of uttering language-like sounds is simply a mechanical imitation, through which communication can not be achieved. As a result, what parrots say is not language. Language is an endowment that only human beings have. As for bees' dancing, scientists, after long time observation, find the patterns of their dances. Although bees' dancing do serve as a kind of communication, this communication is quite limited. Except for telling others the whereabout of foods, bees cannot communicate other information. Humans use language to communicate various things in life, including events, people, animals, feelings, etc. Compared to human language system, the limited communicative function of bees' dancing makes it impossible to be called "language".

From the above discussion, we can see clearly that in order to understand human nature, we have to study animals. Careful examination of the similarities between other species and human beings help to obtain more sophifisticated understanding of the unique properties of humans.

[ 本帖最后由 devilkineleven 于 2008-9-8 16:09 编辑 ]

devilkinelevenUID: 2442869

写完了去查了下language。
“A language is a dynamic set of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the elements used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon. Language is considered to be an exclusively human mode of communication; although other animals make use of quite sophisticated communicative systems, none of these are known to make use of all of the properties that linguists use to define language.”

human nature 的定义在写之前就查了，汗，不然都无从下笔。

“Human nature is the concept that there are a set of logical characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that all normal human beings have in common.[1] The branches of science associated with the study of human nature include sociology, sociobiology and psychology, particularly evolutionary psychology and developmental psychology. Philosophers and theologians have also carried out research on human nature.”

layfolkUID: 2418021

Does study of animals help us to learn human nature?(2007.10.27)

Human nature is defined as a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that are shared by all normal human beings. Two connotations are contained in this definition. First, human nature is shared by all normal people. Second, no other species have the characteristics that define human nature. In other words, the characteristics considered as human nature are not possessed by other species. Therefore, to understand human nature, we have to make clear in what aspects we human beings are unique. Compare and contrast human beings with other species, largely animals are effective ways to understand this question. So study of animals helps us to learn human nature.

Communicating with language and making use of tools are regarded as one characteristic included in human nature. There was once a debte(debate) in academic circle whether these

the characteristics of human beings' are unique comparing to other animals. It is found that some birds can also speak "language" through training. For example, parrots can imitate

human voice and utter simple phrases like "Good morning, master" if trained in a proper

way. Besides, bees communicate within group through a special dance. They dance to tell

other bees where and how far away the flowers are. These findings casted doubts to the

assertion that only human beings can speak language, thus questioning whether communicating through language is human nature.

The doubts were cleared in the furhter study of these animals. Close study of parrots shows that although parrots can pronounce certain words, phrases or even short sentences. They have no idea of the meanings conveyed. The act of uttering language-like sounds is simply a mechanical imitation, through which communication can not be achieved. As a result, what parrots say is not language. Language is an endowment that only human beings have. As for bees' dancing, scientists, after long time observation, find the patterns of their dances. Although bees' dancing do serve as a kind of communication, this communication is quite limited. Except for telling others the whereabout of foods, bees cannot communicate other information. Humans use language to communicate various things in life, including events, people, animals, feelings, etc. Compared to human language system, the limited communicative function of bees' dancing makes it impossible to be called "language".

From the above discussion, we can see clearly that in order to understand human nature, we have to study animals. Careful examination of the similarities between other species and human beings help to obtain more sophifisticated(sophisticated) understanding of the unique properties of humans.

namejoeUID: 2373013

呵呵,看了看你的文章,果然很精致,从两个点出发,在深度方面的确很具有说服力.
不过我觉得human nature是个既深又广的概念,可以从不同方面把握,小鬼从深度方面入手,的确让人读完后感觉是茅塞顿开啊,嘿嘿,学习了~

candyamUID: 2325105

看楼下

[ 本帖最后由 candyam 于 2008-9-8 21:28 编辑 ]

candyamUID: 2325105

我开始写的时候毫无头绪，看了楼主的文章大有启发，但是我很大的改写了一下。下面陈述我改写的理由和改写后的文章。本人水平一般般，只想与大家共勉。
首先第一段基本思路一样，但是我精简和改写了大多数句子，我认为楼主的第一段很多句话是有重复的嫌疑。意思只要表达出来就好，不要为了字数重复。Second, no other species have the characteristics that define human nature. In other words, the characteristics considered as human nature are not possessed by other species...... largely animals are effective ways to understand this question. So study of animals helps us to learn human nature.
第二，我把楼主的第2，3段合为一段，并且在我的第三段加上了楼主在第二段陈述的但是却没在后来详细写的理由——using tools。我认为楼主把一个language分成2段写实在有点啰嗦，紧凑一点写在一段比较好，而且需要第三段来写using tools
改写后的文章如下：
Human nature is defined as a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting.  Two meaings are contained in this definition.  First, human nature is shared by all normal people.  Second, the characteristics considered as human nature are not possessed by other species, they are unique to us.  Therefore, to understand human nature, we have to make clear in what aspects we human being are unique.  Comparing human being with other species helps us find answer to this question, so study of animals are effective ways to learn human nature.
Language as well as invention tools are regarded as two characteristics included in human nature.  There was once debate among scholars that whether these characteristics are unique to human or not.  To began with, it refers to languages.  For example, parrots can also speak language like "Good morning, master" if trained in a proper way.  While further researches demonstrate that parrots do not understand what they talking about, they just imitate human voice.  Another example is bee.  Bees communicate with each other by dancing.  They dance to tell other bees where and how far away the food resources are.  However after long time observation, scientists find that although bees' dancing do serve as a kind of communication, this communication is quite limited.  Bees cannot communicate other information except for the locations of the food.  Human use language to communicate various things, including things, feelings, thoughts and so on. Compared to human language system, the limited function of bees' dancing makes it impossible to be called as "language".
Further more, I want to talk about tool-using behavior by animals.
As we know, there do exist animals that can take advantage of tools.  For example, the orangutans use sticks to get honey.  They usually put a stick into a nest and move it around and catch the honey, pull it out, eat, and then go back in. If the stick is too long to use comfortably, they snap off one end.  At the first glance, people may think that orangutans also have ability to use or even invent tools.  However further study confirm that this ability is obtained through heredity rather than learning, and orangutans can only take advantage of tools but not invent them.  In sum, studying of orangutans helps us learn one aspect of human nature, and base on this research we can better understand the concepts of  creation, innovation, even the sense of achievement.
In conclusion, we can see clearly that in order to understand human nature, we need to study animals. Careful study of the differences between other species and human being helps to let us know ourselves better ,therefore benefits our lives.

devilkinelevenUID: 2442869

完全是我构思时候的思路啊，tool那段连例子都想得一样的，看见有人扩展出来，真感动~~

ourtransUID: 2241441

先说明一下，LZ写得很好，我改的都是一些minor错误。

Human nature is defined as a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that are shared by all normal human beings. Two connotations are contained in this definition. First, human nature is shared by all normal people. Second, no other species have the characteristics that define human nature. In other words, the characteristics considered as human nature are not possessed by other species. Therefore, to understand human nature, we have to make clear in what aspects we human beings are unique. To（动词不能直接做主语，用不定式更合适） compare and contrast human beings with other species, largely animals，（插入语应用comma隔开，largely改成especially更好） are is a effective ways to understand this question. So the study of animals helps us to learn human nature.

Communicating with language and making use of tools are regarded as one characteristic included in human nature. There was once debte in academic circles（应该加s） whether these the（these和the其中一个多余） characteristics of human beings'（'多余） are unique comparing to other animals. It is found that some birds can also speak "language" through training after being trained(through training表示birds主动去train别人). For example, parrots can imitate human voice and utter simple phrases like "Good morning, master" if trained in a proper way. Besides, bees communicate within group through a special dance. They dance to tell other bees where and how far away the flowers are. These findings casted doubts to the assertion that only human beings can speak language, thus questioning whether communicating through language is human nature.

The doubts were cleared in the furhter study of these animals. The close study(或者用复数close studies) of parrots shows that although parrots can pronounce certain words, phrases or even short sentences. , (although 分句和主句之间不能用句号隔开)they have no idea of the meanings conveyed. The act of uttering language-like sounds is simply （only更合适）a mechanical imitation, through which communication can not be achieved. As a result, what parrots say is not language. Language is an endowment that only human beings have. As for bees' dancing, scientists, after long time observation, find the patterns of their dances. Although bees' dancing do serve as a kind of communication, this communication is quite limited. Except for telling others the whereabout of foods, bees cannot communicate other information. Humans use language to communicate various things in life, including events, people, animals, feelings, etc. Compared to human language system, the limited communicative function of bees' dancing makes it impossible to be called "language".

From the above discussion, we can see clearly that in order to understand human nature, we have to study animals. Careful examination of the similarities between other species and human beings helps（主语是examination，所以第三人称单数） to obtain more sophifisticated understanding of the unique properties of humans.

忘了说明了， 我的习惯是红色的表示有问题应该去掉的，蓝色的是补充进去的。

[ 本帖最后由 ourtrans 于 2008-9-9 00:57 编辑 ]

devilkinelevenUID: 2442869

谢楼上。细微处见功夫啊，:handshake