Issue208 [快刀杀鸡]7/31 作业by ajohnares

ajohnaresUID: 2661147

题目：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."

The speaker's assertion includes two main aspects: first, he/she claims that by recognizing the way people look, dress, and act, we can learn their attitudes and interests; second, the appearance and behavior of people in a certain society can reveal its ideas and values. As to the dual assertions, I cannot agree with the speaker completely, which will be illustrated as follows.

First, I concede that in some cases the way people look, dress, and act indeed reflects their attitudes and interests. For example, a university professor is most likely to look virtuous and prudent, dress decently and act in polite manners. Yet, a libertine dallying in streets tends to look dissolute, dress in rags and have terrible demeanor. After all, it is nature of people to get accustomed to presenting their feelings, such as, likes and dislikes, outwardly on their appearance and behavior. This phenomena is not only due to people's needs of expressing their inclination, but also for sakes of classify groups of people. It is common sense that a clique of people usually shares the similar appearance and behavior, as a distinction to be distinguished from other people. Therefore, in some sense by observing the way people look, dress and act we do gain a certain measure of understanding of other people.

However, we cannot neglect those possible situations in which people are not allowed to dress and act at their will. For example, in some corporate the employees are forced to wear uniforms, which forfeit their individuality. And in some schools or colleges, it is mandatory for students to wear the same clothes and even the similar hairstyle. In addition, sometimes people cannot afford to dress as they please. If so, then there is no possibility that we can tell these people's true attitudes and interests simply in terms of their appearance and behavior.

Second, as to a society's ideas and values, observing the appearance and behavior of its people may bring about a certain measure of assistance to us. An apt illustration involves the circumstances in China in the 1960s'. During that age, people are assertive and pragmatic, dreaming about achieving huge success in a short term. Citizens wear Mao suits uniformly, in honor of this greatest leader. And they appear to be vigorous and energetic all day along which indicates that the society was in a premature and radical state. In conclusion, we could attain further understanding of a society’s ideas and values from the appearance and behavior of its members.

Nevertheless, we have to notice that the population in a society is classified and diverse. Which group of people should we regard as a representative of a certain society? As in the foregoing example, professors act in professors' way, while libertines' act in libertines' way, then how can we conclude a society's ideas and values confidently by observing a certain group of people's appearance and behavior?

To sum up, in my opinion, observing people's appearance and behavior do lend support to better understanding their attitudes and interests, and even a society's ideas and values, but we cannot rely on these superficial features to make hasty conclusions. With respect to a particular person we also need to know his or her background, education level, and other propensities before we get close to his or her attitudes and interests. And as for a society we need to select appropriate groups of people as examined objects and consider a variety of other factors, in order to learn about the whole ideas and values comprehensively.