开个GMAT贴

老大卫

Topic 1
In this argument the author concludes that Olympic Foods can minimize costs and thus profits. To support this conclusion, the author points out that the costs of processing go down because as organizations learn how to do things better, they become more efficient and Olympic Foods has a history of almost 25 years. The author also cites the example that the cost of 3-by-5-inch print fell down during the past fourteen years. But when put under close and critical examination, the argument is unsound due to the following three reasons.
First of all, the author fails to see other factors that may contribute to the cost changing. Admittedly, people and organizations can accumulate experiences from the past things and do things better from the former lessons. However, It may not be the only reason to make the cost down. Other factors such as the technical innovation of the machine or material could also be responsible for the change of cost. We can further assume that the cost of the print fell merely because they made a larger quantity of products now than 14 years ago.
The second reason is that the argument is based on a false analogy. Theoretically every object or system in the world is in certain respects unique. When there are enough similarities between two things we can assume the claim that what is true of one is also true of the other. The key condition here for sound reasoning from analogy is that the two things must share characteristics relevant to the claim being made and does not have differences that would destroy the analogy. In this case, however, the print industry and the food industry are two industries that are totally different from the process of producing to the target market. We can hardly draw the conclusion that the success in print industry would also mean the success in food industry, not to mention the successful application in Olympic Foods.
In addition, even if the situation was true in the past, we still can not assume that it would also work in the future. The world changes very fast these days. No one knows what would happen tomorrow. Thus no one can make the claim that former experiences would also be useful in the future and lead us to the success.
Based on the reasons I listed above, the argument is not completely sound. The evidence in support of the conclusion does little to prove the conclusion since it does not address the assumptions I have already raised. Ultimately, the argument might have been more convincing by making it clear that experiences has a positive correlation with efficiency and the success in print industry can be applied in the food industry.

Topic 2
In this argument the author concludes that the Apogee Company should close down its field offices and conduct all its operations from a singe location to improve profitability. To support this conclusion the author points out that when the Apogee Company had all its operations in one location, it was more profitable than it is today. The argument is unsound when put under close and critical examination.
First of all, the author has engaged in " after this, therefore because of this" reasoning. The only reason offer for believing that Apogee Company's distribution of its operations is the cause of making less profit is the fact that the former preceded the latter. No additional evidence linking the two events is offered in the argument, thus leaving open the possibility that the two events are not causally related but merely correlated. This in turn leaves open the possibility that factors other than the author cited are responsible for the loss of profits. We can assume that the Apogee Company makes less profit recently because the competition becomes severe or because they made false policy in the competing of the market.
The other premise in the argument that centralization would improve profitability is also suspect. As we know, if we want to know direct information comprehensively and quickly about a district's market, one of the best way is to set up our own branch there and work in the first line ourselves. We can make full use of the information and adjust our policy to develop the market of that district and thus make profitable. Without certain operations in local district we would loss our competence because it makes us difficult to responses to the changes quickly and accurately. Not to mention the additional cost for the business trip of staff members.
Based on the reasons above, the argument is not completely sound. In attempt to solve the problem, the author needs to make it clear that the change of location policy are the only factor that affects Apogee Company during that period and the centralization for Apogee Company does have more advantages than disadvantages.

Topic 3
In this argument the author makes the conclusion that some of the city's funds for supporting the arts should be reallocated to public television in order to prevent the attendance at the city's art museums from decreasing. To support this conclusion the author points out two facts: (1) the number of people visiting the city's art museums increased as the number of people watch television programs increased. (2) The corporate funding that supports public television, where most of the visual arts programs appear, is now being threatened with severe cut. At first glance, the argument may sound like a somewhat logical position. But under close and critical examination, it is not worth believing because the following reasons.
First of all, the author makes a false connection between the people who watch television programs and people who visit art museums. Not to mention that the poll itself may by inaccurate since the author did not provide the evidence that people who took the poll are those who took the poll five years ago. We may assume that people who watch television are not those also go to the art museum, they only prefer staying at home and do not like to go out. Therefor, it is difficult to say that the exposure to the visual arts on television may cause a similar increase in local art museum attendance.
Furthermore, the argument is crippled by its own paradoxical nature. If it is true as the author assumed that the cut of funding would affect the quantity and quality of the television program, there exist the possibility that the number of people visit the art museum would increase since they have less choice in watching television than before.
In addition, the author made an unsound suggestion of reallocating city's funds for supporting the arts to compensate to loss in corporate funding. The solution to a certain problem must be based on a clear understanding of the cause of the problem and the solution thus shaped should be able to address either the cause or the result of the problem. In this case, however, the author provide no evidence to show that the solution is the best way the solve the problem.
In conclusion, based on the reasons listed above, the argument is not completely sound. In attempt to solve the problem, the author needs to make it clear that the number of people who watch television and the people who visit museum do have correlation. The author should also provide more evidence to show that the increasing of city's art fund is the best way to solve the problem.


Topic 4
In response to a coincidence between falling revenues and delays in manufacturing, the author recommends replacing the manager of the purchasing department. To support this suggestion, the author points out that the falling revenues are attribute to the poor planning in purchasing metal and the current purchasing manager's background is not suitable for his position. The argument, at first glance, may sound like a somewhat logical position. But under close and critical examination, the argument is not worth believing because of the following reasons.
To begin with, the author fails to establish a causal connection between the falling revenues of the company and the delays in the manufacturing. The only reason offered for believing the connection is the fact that the two things happen at the same time. No additional evidence linking the two events is offered in the argument, thus leaving open the possibility that the two events are not causally related but merely correlated. This in turn leaves open the possibility that factors other than the author cited are responsible for the falling revenues, such as a false policy in the severe marketing competition or a wrong design of the new products.
Secondly, the author assumes that background of the current purchasing manager makes him more suitable to work in the sales department. No evidence, however, is stated in the report to support this crucial assumption. It is even ridiculous to suggest a scientist from the research division to be the manager of the purchasing department. Purchasing is a task that needs complicated planning and prediction of company's needs. It is hard to imagine that a scientist only with the knowledge of metal would do better than a professional manager. When making decisions on alternatives, we should consider all the important benefits and setbacks associated with various alternatives and weigh them against each other to evaluate them comprehensively and choose the one with the greatest overall benefit. The suggestion stated here, however, is worthless because the author do not provide enough evidence prove that it is the best way.
In conclusion, based on the reasons listed above, the argument is not completely sound. In attempt to solve the problem, the author needs to make it clear that there is a positive relation between the falling revenues and the delays in manufacturing. At the same time, the author should also provide more evidence to prove that the suggestion is the best way to solve the problem.

Topic 5
In this argument, the author made the suggestion that Mercury should reduce its price below that of the Bugle, the main competitor of Mercury, in order to get more people to read the newspaper and thus attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper. To support the conclusion, the author points out that the Mercury's circulation has declined by 10000 readers since Bugle was started five years ago. At first glance, the suggestion may sound like a good solution to solve the problem. However, under close and critical examination, the argument is not worth believing due to the following reasons.
To begin with, the author has engaged in a " After this, there because of this" reasoning. The only reason offered for believing that the decrease of mercury's circulation is due to appearance of Bugle is the fact that the former preceded the latter. No additional evidence linking the two events is offered in the argument, thus leaving open the possibility that the two events are not causally related but merely coincidental. This in turn leaves open the possibility that factors other than the author cited are responsible for the decreasing of the circulation such as the uninteresting content or the ineffective sales channels.
Even if The Bugle does pose a threat to The Mercury's circulation, the key factor of The Bugle's competing power may not, or not only, be its lower price. Newspapers are priced differently in accordance with multiple factors such as prestige, content, size, paper and printing quality. People compare different newspaper by their relative values instead of their absolute prices. Thus, the change in price may not be effective to increase The Mercury's circulation. The solution to a certain problem must be based on a clear understanding of the cause of the problem and the solution thus shaped should be able to address either the cause or the result of the problem. It is obviously that the suggestion the author may not touch the root of the problem.
Further more, the author assumes that the increase in circulation may attract more advertising. It is also open to question since a company chooses newspapers for advertising not only by their circulation but also by their prestige and content. It is unwise for an industrial company to advise their products on a newspaper that is mainly read by housewives.
To sum up, the argument is not completely sound based on the reasons listed above. In attempt to solve the problem, the author should make it clear that the decrease of The Mercury's circulation does relate to the appearance of The Bugle and the main factor is price.

Topic 6
In this argument the author made the conclusion that the city of Helios is a good place for those corporations who are seeking new business opportunities or new locations. To support this conclusion, the author points out that Helio's unemployment rate is low and it is attempting to attract companies with innovative technologies. At first glance, the argument may sound like a well reasoned logical position. However, under close and critical examination, we find that the things cited in the reasoning process of the argument are either indirect, hence weak, or even worse, achieve the opposite effects of the conclusion.
To begin with, The only detail about the city of Helios we can extract from the argument is the city's low employment rate and good job opportunities. This does not constitute a favorable environment for all corporations looking for new business location. Manufacturing companies, for example, are concerned about the availability of local labor skills, labor cost, energy costs, and proximity to suppliers or customers. Service and retailing companies, on the other hand, may need information about the existing business of the same trade in that area and local purchasing power. In the argument, no sufficient data are given.
Furthermore, in the argument, the author mentioned that Helios used to be an industrial center and now is interested in attracting only a certain type of companies. Such information may likely to achieve the opposite effects. As we know, traditional industrial cities are typically at disadvantage in attracting new businesses because of their crowd, high rent and land prices, expensive energy, and many additional costs. We may also assume that companies other than R&D companies may not be interested by Helios and may not get privileges if they move to Helios.
To sum up, the argument is unsound due to the reasons listed above. The argument would have been more convincing if it had specified the type of industry the city intended to introduce and addressed the city's strength on those aspects crucial for companies of that industry.

Topic 7
In this argument, the author makes the conclusion that people consuming aspartame rather than sugar are unlikely to achieve their dietary goals. To support this argument, the author argues that aspartame can cause weight gain by trigging food cravings, whereas sugar actually enhance the body's ability to burn fat. At first glance, the argument may sound like a well reasoned logical position. However, under close and critical examination, neither of these reasons provides sufficient support for the conclusion.
The first reason the author mentioned is that high levels of aspartame have been shown to trigger a craving for food and thus contribute to weight gain. Given the data presented in the argument about such effects of aspartame is true. It only shows that high level of aspartame may be harmful to people's health. The key is this issue is that not all people would take large amounts of aspartame in daily lives. In fact, almost all the foods would play a negative role if is taken excessively.
The second reason that the author offers is that sugars, if consumed after at least 45 minutes of continuous exercise, actually enhance the body's ability to burn fat. Sugar may have certain calorie-burning benefit as claimed in the passage, but only on the condition that it is consumed after at least 45 minutes of continuous exercise. This condition is too demanding for most people to fulfil whenever they want to take sugar, and once they fail to meet the requirement, as they more often do than not, the benefit of helping calorie-burning is totally lost. This benefit is too evasive to be counted on.
To sum up, the argument is unsound based on the above reasons. In an attempt to solve the problem, the author should compare aspartame and sugar in daily uses and points out the advantages of sugar over that of aspartame.

Topic 8
In this argument, the author makes the conclusion that workers are not generally apathetic about management issues. The author bases his conclusion on a recently published survey that indicates that 79 percent of the nearly 12000 workers expressed a high level of interest in the topics of corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs. The argument, at first glance, may sound like a well-reasoned logical position. But when put under close and critical examination, the argument is unsound because of the following reasons.
First of all, the statistics cited in the editorial may be misleading. When making general claims about a certain group, or "kind", of people, we need to examine a sufficiently large and representative sample of the " kind" in question. To properly administer a questionnaire survey, a sample of group should be selected, based on a carefully thought-out set of criteria, as representing all the people of "kind" to be included in the generalization. Only in this way can we claim that what is true of the sample is very likely to be true of the group as a whole. In this argument, however, the total number of workers is not specified. For example, if there are 2000 workers in that area, the fact that 79 percent of nearly 1200 respondents show interest in these topics provides strong support for the conclusion. On the other hand, if there are 20000 workers in that area, the conclusion is much weaker. Furthermore, there exist other possibilities that the samples are conducted only in certain companies facing mergers or undergoing major production changes. No wonder workers in such companies tended to be more concerned about the future of the company.
Secondly, the argument makes a hasty generalization about the types of issues workers are interested in. It accords with common sense that workers would be interested in corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs, since these issues affect workers very directly. However, it is unfair to assume that workers would be similarly interested in other management issues.
In conclusion, this argument is not convincing as it stands. To solve the problem, the author would have to show that the survey could represent all the worker's opinion. Additionally, the author must provide evidence of workers' interest in other management topics.

老大卫

Topic 9
In this argument, the author makes the conclusion that stores should replace some of those products intended to attract the younger consumer with products intended to attract the middle-aged consumer. In order to support this conclusion, the author points out that middle-aged consumers devote major of their expenditure to department store products and service than younger people. IN addition, the number of middle aged people will increase significantly during the next decade. The argument, at first glance, may sound like a well reasoned logical position. However, when put under close and critical examination, it is unsound for the following reasons.
First of all, the argument ignores the absolute amount of retail expenditure of middle-aged and younger consumers devoted to department store products and services. Although younger consumers spend a smaller percentage of their retail expenditure to department store products than do the middle-aged consumers, they might actually spend more in terms of the absolute amount.
Even if the middle-aged consumers are spending more than younger ones in department stores, the argument ignores the possibility that the trend may change within the next decade. When samples are used to make general claims about a particular group, the samples should be close enough in time to the generalization they are used to support, so that historical changes will not invalidate the generalization. Data obtained from the current samples, however, can not be applied mechanically to the future group. Ten-year is a long period. We can not ignore the likely changes that might happen in this ten years. For instance, after a few years the elder members of today's younger consumers will be stepping into their middle age, but their shopping habits will not change into those of today's middle-aged consumers.
In addition, the author makes a hasty generalization that all stores should replace their goods. When making decisions, we should consider all the benefits and setbacks associated of the decision. As we know in this argument, the goods stores sell not only depend on the number of certain group of consumer, but also depend on whether such goods could make profits. In a word, the suggestion of changing products to attract younger consumer instead of middle-aged consumer may not be suitable to all the stores.
In conclusion, the argument is unsound based on the reasons listed above. To solve the problems, the author would have to show that the trend would continue in the next decade and advantages of changing overweigh the disadvantages to all the department stores.

Topic 10
In this argument, the author makes the conclusion that the state legislature need not heed the appeals of the protesting students. To support this conclusion, the author points out that only 200 of the 12,000 students traveled to he state capitol building to protest against proposed cuts in funding for various states college programs. Since the remaining students did not take part in this protest, the author concludes they are not interested in the issue. The reasoning is unsound due to the following reasons.
First, the author assumes that the 200 students who take part in the protest could not represent the all students’ opinion. This assumption is unwarranted. If it turns out, for example, that the protesting students were randomly selected from the entire student body, their views would reflect the views of the entire college. Or if the students were delegated by all the students in the college, they could also represent all students' view about the issue. Without information regarding the way in which the protecting students were selected, it is presumptuous to conclude that their opinion fails to reflect the opinions of their colleagues.
Secondly, the author cites the fact that the remaining 12,000 students stayed on campus or left for winter break as evidence that they are not concerned about the issue. But there exists the possibility that the students did so because they know their concerns would be expressed by the protesting students. In any case, the author has failed to demonstrate a logical connection between the students' alleged lack of concern and the fact that they either stayed on campus or left for winter break.
To sum up, the argument is unsound based on the reasons listed above. To solve the problem, the author would have to make it clear that the 200 students can not represent all the students in the college. In addition, the author should show evidences that the rest of the students do not concern about the issue.

Topic 11
In this argument, the author makes the conclusion that the residents of San Perdito would be best served if they voted Montoya out of office and reelected Varro. To support the conclusion the author points out that in the first four years that Montoya has served as mayor of San Perdito the population has decreased and the unemployment rate has increased. The author also points out that under Varro, the situation was adverse. The reasoning process, however, is unsound due to the following reasons.
First of all, the author has engaged in "after this, therefore because of this" reasoning. The only reason offered for believing that the decreased population and increased unemployment rate is attribute to Montoya is the fact that the former preceded the latter. No additional evidence linking the two things is offered in the argument, thus leaving open the possibility that the two things are not causally related but merely correlated. This in turn leaves open the possibility that factors other than the one cited are responsible for the phenomena the author cited in the argument. For example, perhaps a statewide or nationwide recession is the cause of these events. Or perhaps the current economic downturn is part of a larger picture of economic cycles and trends, and has nothing to do with who happens to be mayor.
Secondly, the author makes a hasty generalization that the figure of population and unemployment can represent all the contributions a mayor makes. In fact, there are lot of standards to evaluate a mayor's work, such as the crime rate in that city, the public constructions the city builds, and whether the economy is health. It is a complex standard and can not be made only based on one or two certain figures.
In conclusion, the argument is unsound. In order to solve the problem, the author would have to make it clear that the change is due to Montoya's policy or management. At the same time, the author should point out that such figures are representative for a mayor's whole contribution.

Topic 12
In this argument the author makes the conclusion that advertising he reduced price of selected grocery items in the Daily Gazette will help increase sales volume. To support this argument the author cites an informal poll conducted by sales clerks when customers purchase advertised items. Each time one or more of the advertised items was sold, the clerks asked whether the customer had read the advertisement. It turned out that two thirds of 200 shoppers questioned said that they had read the advertisement. In addition, of those who reported reading the advertisement, more than half spent over 100 dollars in the store. This argument is unconvincing for the following reasons.
To begin with, the author makes a false correlation between those who buy items advertised on the newspaper and those have read the advertisement. No evidence shows that people buy those items just because they were advertised on the newspaper. There exists the possibility that people do not go to the stores because they know there are reduced price items in the store. They just go to there because they need to buy those items. For example, the four days during which the poll was conducted proceeded Thanksgiving and the advertised items were traditionally associated with this holiday, and then the results of the poll would be extremely biased and unreliable.
Moreover, the author committed a logical fallacy know as hasty generalization. The author used the individual case of a store in downtown Marston as the sole example to reach a sweeping conclusion that the advertising would be effective. In logic, if a certain relationship is repeatedly found in many events sharing a certain characteristics, then we may predict with a fair degree of safety that relationship will be found in other event of that nature. This reasoning process from individual cases to generalization is called inductive reasoning, and is reliable only on the condition that the general conclusion is based on observation of sufficient amount of individual event. In this argument, there are only one sample is cited. We can not say that the ways this store use would be effective if used in other stores.
To sum up, the argument is unsound due to the above reasons. To solve the problem, the author would have to compare the sales volumes before and after the advertisement is made. At the same time the author should exclude other factors that may affect the result.

Topic 13
In this argument the author makes the conclusion that using radio advertising can make business more profitable. In order to support this conclusion the author points out that Cumquant Cafe 's business increased by 10 percent over last year's total because they began advertising on local radio station this year. The argument is unsound due to the following reasons.
First of all, the author makes a "after this, therefore because of this" reasoning. The only reason offered for believing that radio advertising makes Cumquant Cafe more profitable is the fact that the former preceded the latter. No additional evidence linking the two events is offered in the argument, thus leaving open the possibility that the two events are not causally related but merely correlated. This in turn leaves open the possibility that factors other than the one cited are responsible for the increase business. In fact, the business volume of a cafe can be affected by changes in many respects such as management strategy and effectiveness, quality of the service, income level of consumers, trends in consuming behavior and many more. When searching for the major cause of the business increase of the Cumquat Cafe, all the significant changes in those respects should be considered.
Secondly, the author committed a logical fallacy known as hasty generalization. The author used the individual case of Cumquant Cafe as the sole example to reach a sweeping conclusion. In logic, if a certain relationship is repeatedly found in many events sharing a certain characteristics, then we may predict with a fair degree of safety that relationship will be found in other event of that nature. This reasoning process from individual cases to generalization is called inductive reasoning, and is reliable only on the condition that the general conclusion is based on observation of sufficient amount of individual event. In the case of this argument, however, the general characterization that using radio advertisement can make business more profitable is reached by citing only one single example, which is far from enough to render the conclusion as reliable and trustworthy.
To sum up, the argument is unworthy of believing due to the above reasons. To solve the problem, the author would have to make it clear that the radio advertisement is the only reason for the growing business. At the same time, the author should also points out that the example of Cumquant Cafe can be applied on other businesses.

Topic 14
In this argument the author makes the conclusion that the school board should use a greater portion of the available funds to buy more computers and all schools in the district should adopt interactive computer instruction throughout the curriculum. To support this conclusion, the author points out that two years ago Nova School introduced the computer instruction and last year they get some achievement. At first glance, the argument may sound a well-reasoned position. However, under close and critical reasoning the argument is unworthy believing due to the following reasons.
First of all, the author makes a "after this, therefore because of this reasoning". Simple because the college introduced computer instruction before they made achievements does not means that the two events have causal correlation. In the argument, the only reason offered for believing that the computer instruction program enables the college to make some achievements is the former preceded the latter. No additional reasons linking the two events are offered in the argument. Thus leaving open the possibility that the two events are not causally related but merely correlated. This in turn leaves open the possibility that factors other than the one cited here might be responsible for the achievements. Maybe the colleges set strict regulations on dropout, or the college raised teacher's salary, which made they work much harder.
Secondly, the author makes a cursory suggestion that the college should buy more computers. When making decisions on alternatives, we should consider all the important benefits and setbacks associated with various alternatives and weigh them against each other to evaluate them comprehensively and choose the one with the greatest overall benefit. In this argument, however, no evidence shows that buying more computers will enable the college to make more achievements.
Furthermore, the author makes a logical fallacy know as hasty generalization. The author used the individual case of Nova High School as the sole example to reach a sweeping conclusion that all schools in that district should do so. In logic, if a certain relationship is repeated found in many events sharing same characteristics, then we may predict with a fair degree of safety that relationship will be found in other event of that nature. This reasoning process from individual cases to generalization is called inductive reasoning, and in reliable only on the condition that the general conclusion is based on observation of sufficient amount of individual events. In the argument presented here, however, the conclusion is reached by citing only one single example, which is far enough to render the conclusion as reliable and trustworthy.
To sum up, the argument is unsound due to the above reasons. In order to solve the problem, the author would have to make it clear that the computer instruction is the cause of the changes and the practice can by applied to other high schools in that district.

Topic 15
In this argument the author makes the suggestion that we should re-elect Adams as the governor. To support this claim, the author points out several data to show that the situation has been improved over the past year alone. In addition, the author cites a poll to show public’s opinion about Adam. At first glance, the argument may sound like a well-reasoned logical position. But when under close and critical examination, the argument is unworthy believing because of the following reasons.
First of all, the absolute data the author cites in the argument is far from enough to draw the conclusion. We should compare these data with the data in other states and the data before Adam was in government. It is probably that all the states have a large increase in worker's wage and job opportunity due to the worldwide good economic situation. In this situation the improvement could not be attribute to Adam's effect. The same is true if we found that the data during the period before Adam was in the government is better than that the author cited. In addition, the achievements of a government are not only based on the fields the author mentioned here, There might be comprehensive criteria in evaluating a governor's achievement.
Secondly, the poll cited by the author is described in the vaguest possible terms. When making claims about a certain kind of people, we need to examine a sufficient large and representative sample of the group. To properly administer a questionnaire survey, a sample of the group should be selected, based on a carefully thought-out set of criteria, to represent all the people of that group. In this argument, however, the author did not indicate who conducted the poll, who responded, or how and when the poll was conducted. Until these questions are answered, the survey results are worthless as evidence for public opinion about Adam.
Furthermore, it is unfair to say that Zebullon would lead our state in the wrong direction only because Zebullon disagrees with many of Adams's economic policies. Just as the old saying" all ways leads to Rome", Zebullon's opinion may also work well and bring the state lots of benefits.
In conclusion, the argument is unsound due to the above reasons. In order to solve the problem, the author should make it clear that Adam do brought lot of benefits to the state and no other candidates are more suitable for the position than him.

老大卫

3. "Corporations and other businesses should try to eliminate the many ranks and salary grades that classify employees according to their experience and expertise. A 'flat' organizational structure is more likely to encourage collegiality and cooperation among employees."
It is traditionally a common practice for corporations and other businesses to have many ranks and salary grades that classify employees according to their experience and expertise. It seems natural that since employees differ in their experience and expertise, their ranks and salary grades should correspondingly be different. In addition, the difference may, to some extent, stimulate the more experienced and skill to work better and the less experienced and skilled to work harder. However, the reality is by no means as simple for the following reasons.
First of all, the so-called experience and expertise are practically hard to define. In fact, they constitute a continuum from the highly experience and expertise to the very low. Besides, those employees who enter the company at the same time and on the same position may differ greatly in terms of their different background and capability. Even for a same employee, his or her experience and expertise may change from time to time. Not a single system of rank and salary can be so flexible as to deal with the difference and change well. Therefore, the many rank and salary grades may hurt some employees' feelings since their capabilities are not reflected properly by the system.
Secondly, the hierarchical system sometimes may impede the communication within the company. In a company that has many ranks, employees can only report to his or her boss. A certain information should be transferred several times before getting to the right person. It would take excess time and sometimes may lead to the lose of good opportunities in the severe competition. A typical example of such kind of problem is in the Japanese companies. Their hierarchical system largely impedes them to responses quickly to the changes in the market.
Thirdly, the present-day situation also makes the ranks and salary grades hard to exist. Traditionally, building a career meant moving up and a pay-raise by means of increased responsibility and promotion to a summit. This progression was ideal for people planning a career of 20 to 30 years in one corporation. But for good or ill, the conditions that made it possible are vanishing. For employees, when vertical advancement becomes hard, they will change their jobs.
On the contrary, a flat organizational structure has the obvious advantage of easier communication, more mutual support, collegiality and cooperation.
In conclusion, corporations and other businesses should carry out reforms and liberate from the traditional ideas. They should try to eliminate the unnecessary and even harmful ranks and salary grades in order to make themselves develop further.


4. "Of all the manifestations * of power, restraint in the use of that power impresses people most."
l        manifestations: apparent signs or indicators


5. "All groups and organizations should function as teams in which everyone makes decisions and shares responsibilities and duties. Given gone person central authority and responsibility for a project or task is not an effective way to get work done."
In the past decade, teamwork as an essential tool to achieve target has been use by more and more people. But how to use the team? Should everyone in the team be given rights to make decisions, or should central authority and responsibility be give to a certain people even in teamwork? There is a long debate between these two kinds of opinions. In my point of view, central authority and responsibility is still necessary even in teamwork.
The first reason for this opinion is that not all the people have enough capability and knowledge to make decisions. Making certain decisions should base on certain knowledge. For example, people from finical department have more power than others to analysis the company's finical situation and provide suggestions about it. It is even harder to imagine that a trainee would have the same ability as the CEO to decide the direction of the company.
Secondly, people from different divisions may have different background and different opinions according to their own interests. It may be difficult to reconcile all the opinions if everyone in the team has the right to make decisions. Taking new product launching as an example. People from sales division may mainly concern how to increase the sale volume while people from finical division may concern the profits and cost of making and selling new product. Without a strong leadership and authority we can hardly reach any conclusion and realize the target finally.
Last but not least, central authority and responsibility may also make it clear who will be responsible for a certain task when something goes wrong. Remember, all members take responsibility is equal to no one takes the responsibility. When something goes wrong, people in the team may assume that is other's task to solve it or that is other's responsibility for the wrong things.
In conclusion, central responsibility is essential even to the teamwork. We may share our opinions with others; we may share our duties with others. But we must have a certain people to make the decision and lead the teams to realize the target.

6. "There is only one definition of success - to be able to spend your life in your own way."
Successful people are those whose spend their life in their own way. This does not mean that they are self-centered and regardless of the rules and regulations of the society. What it does mean is that they are so self-conscious that they are self-confident, self-respected, self-supportive and that they self-actualize themselves.
Firstly, according to A. H. Maslow, human needs are hierarchical. At the bottom of the hierarchy are basic physiological needs. The ways up are respectively safety and security, belongings and social needs, esteem and status. And self-actualization and fulfillment is on the top. As we know, the highest level of our human needs, if met, renders us a full sense of success. Self-actualization and fulfillment indicates, in a sense, spending one's life in one's own way.
Secondly, lots of successful people have already told us from their experiences that it is important to spend one's life in his own way. When Dell decided to set up his own computer company. He chose a different way to sell his computers--direct sell. Before Dell, all the computers were sold through sales channels. Dell discovered that such kind of channel system is not good for computer business since technical changes very fast in IT business and the channel sales system would make large excessive stocks. So he decided to sell his computer directly to the end-user. After several years-hard works, Dell made his brand one of the most famous brands in the world.
People, unlike tumbleweed, are not just blown here and there by the environment. We act and react. We can resist the social situation, and sometimes even change it. "
To spend your life in your own way" should not only by the definition of success, but also a motto in our lives. It is not an end in itself, but a process. Once we internalize the definition, large rewards of tremendous successes will follow.

7. "The best way to give advice to other people is to find out what they want and then advise them how to attain it."
Some people think that the best way to advise people is simple to find out what they want and help tem attain it. In my point of view, it may not be a good idea to do so because of the following reasons.
First of all, many people are rarely have any clear idea of what they want. This applies not only to consumer items such as clothing, cars and luxury items but also to what they want out of life in general. In fact, numerous studies have shown that most people can not even list the ten things they want most out of life, even if given considerable item to think about it.
The second reason for rejecting this method is that more often than not what people want is not what is best for them. For example, children want to quit school and get enough time playing games. Would parents help their children attain this want? Surely, parents would convince their children that continuing education is in their interests. The same is true when a drinker asks more alcohol. We would not give him any more since we know it is not good for him.
Thirdly, our suggestion may not be suitable for the advisees since it is difficult for others to understand what one is lack and what he is good at. In Matsushita, once they want to launch a series of new products in China and increase the sales volume soon. They accept a consultant’s suggestion and set up a penetrating price for the new product. The sales volume did increase very quickly. However, the number of problems and complains also increased quickly because the consultant did not realize that by that time Matsushita had not have enough member to follow the customer and do the after service. Finally, the sales volume decreased again. Matsushita lose the market of industrial automation and defeated by Omron and Mitsubishi.
In conclusion, I do not agree that the best way to advise people is to find what they desire and help them achieve it. In my estimation the pitfalls of such a technique outweigh and of its potential advantages.

8. "For hundreds of years, the monetary system of most countries has been based on the exchange of metal coins and printed pieces of paper. However, because of recent developments in technology, the international community should consider replacing the entire system of coin sand paper with a system of electronic accounts of credits and debits."
Some one says that we should consider replacing the entire system of coins and paper with a system of electronic accounts of credits and debts. In my point of view, it may not be a good idea to do so because of the following reasons.
To begin with, the traditional monetary system has deeply rooted in almost all societies. People have long been used to coins and paper money as a medium of exchange and a standard of value. Even in highly developed countries like those in European community, when they were considering adopting a common monetary system that is named Euro at the turn of the 21st century, they continued in use of coins and paper and spent a lot of money in designing and producing them. Monetary system, like many other systems in the society such as language system, political system, has a cultural, historical and social background, and therefore becomes difficult, and sometimes even impossible to change.
Secondly, the technology is still not advanced enough to realize such kind of change. Although technology has brought us to moon, given us tremendous comforts and conveniences, we can not take it for granted that it changes everything in our lives. Take the office revolution for example. When computers were first introduced into offices, people thought that computers were so marvelous that they could not only save our time but also save large amount of paper. Some people even dreamed of a so-called paperless office. But finally we found that we still use large amounts of paper to copy and backup the important documents from computer in case of the loss of data in computers. We do not have full confidence that our monetary system would run well all the time in a digital system. Even if a little miss happens, we would have great losses.
Thirdly, how to prevent crimes is another great topic we should not forget. In recent years, it becomes very common for us to hear about various computer crimes. At the same time, the technical development of preventing such kind of crime always seems to lag behind the development of the hacker technology. No country can afford the crime in their network.
To sum up, although theoretically the replacement may bring convenience to people and can avoid certain problems, in practice, the recent developments in technology can only change some aspects of the existing system, not the entire one.

9. "Employees should keep their private lives and personal activities as separate as possible from the workplace."
Should employees leave their personal lives entirely behind them when they enter the workplace, as the speaker suggests here? In my point of view, it could never be more correct to do so if one want to do a better job and thereby promoting success for the organization.
First of all, keeping one's personal live separately would enable one to keep his own secret. As we know, private lives and personal activities involve some kind or degree of privacy. If they are dealt with in a place as public as the workplace, it can be rather risky. Others would know your private things through your chat with your friends in the phone. Sometimes it would even be embarrassing to let others know certain kind of things.
Secondly, it will enable people to engage in their work. Take email system as an example. In recent years, email system has become more and more popular in business. However, many of the employees use email to make lunch dates, discuss personal problems, complain about work, tell jokes, and even flirt. A study conducted by a famous magazine found that the efficiency of the company would improve 10% if they prevent their employees from using email system to discuss personal things. It was once reported that employees in some Japanese companies were each equipped with two pagers--one for the office and the other for personal use. No wonder some Japanese companies are making themselves world-renowned for their high efficiency and productivity.
In addition, it is equally risky for those so-called workaholics to mix work with their private lives and personal activities. Workaholics are passionate about their work; they may be able to sustain long hours on the job for days, weeks and even months on the end. But eventually, they will burn out, because work can hardly be a substitute for such private lives and personal activities as a family, a good relationship, close friends, or quality leisure and recreational time to renew them.
To sum up, employees should go all their ways to keep their private lives and personal activities as separate as possible from the workplace. It is good both to employees themselves and others.

老大卫

10. "In any enterprise, the process of making or doing something is ultimately more important than the final product."
Generally speaking, the quality of the final product of an enterprise is closely connected with its production process. To be more specific, the process of making or doing something in any enterprise, to a large extent, determines the final product.
First of all, the quality of the final products depends on is production process. Process control has long been a common practice in almost all enterprises. Take the canned soup producing as an example, canned soup needs to remain within certain temperature guidelines during processing. If the temperature becomes too high, the soup might taste burned; if it falls too low, dangerous bacteria will not be killed. The temperature control in the production process determines whether good canned soup can be produced. As a matter of fact, people now do not see quality control as a mere inspection task of the final product. Instead, they view it as an integral part of the company strategy---the strategy for managing each stage of production so as to minimize or eliminate errors.
Secondly, process control also offers opportunities for refining old methods and inventing new ones. In the severe market competition, all the companies are concerning to make their products more competitive. Process control provides such kind of chance not only guaranteeing the quality of the products but also making the cost down. Through process control companies can cut or rearrange unreasonable processes and make the production more effective.
Last but not least, laying emphasis on the process may be helpful to the management of the company and the improvement of employee’s capability, which, in turn, makes better products and runs the company more efficiently. People become caught up in process primarily for the challenge and enjoyment of the activity, not merely to produce some product. Therefore, process control may largely depend on the capability of the employees. Take Toyota as an example. The president of the company Hiroshi Okuta believes that the employee training should precede production at plants anywhere in the world, which leads to the famous saying "making the people before making the cars." The success of Toyota goes a long way toward explaining why process control may be helpful to management of the company.
Based on the above discussion, we can find that the process of making or doing something has implications far beyond the immediate product. And in fact, people are paying more attention to the process control than before.

11. "When someone achieves greatness in any field - such as the arts, science, politics, or business - that person's achievements are more important than any of his or her personal faults."
As a Chinese proverb goes, "one point of beauty can hide a hundred points of ugliness". People usually think that a person's greatness in a certain field can make his or her failings as a human being neglectable. However, the idea that one's achievements are more important than any of his or her failings as a human being can be very misleading.
First of all, failing as a human being can be very damaging or even destructive. For instance, failings commonly known as the " seven deadly sins" do harms to human beings. As we know, "pride" can lead to backwardness; "covetousness" instigates people to grasp all but end up losing all; "lust" causes the biggest trouble in the least time; "anger" is to punish oneself with the mistakes of others. Likewise, "gluttony", "envy", and "sloth" also bring about extremely undesirable results.
Secondly, the greatness achieved by those people with failings as a human being may not last very long, especially the greatness achieved through inappropriate means, such as corruption in politics, unjustifiable competition in business and even unlawful behaviors in the society etc.
Thirdly, failings as a human being can prevent people from making more and greater achievements. For example, selfishness, dishonesty, immorality, or even unlawfulness is usually typical of those narrow-minded or shortsighted people. As a matter of fact, real greatness is usually achieved by those almost free from failings as a human being. High achievers such as Albert Einstein was seen by his friends as being immune to such emotions as jealousy, vanity, bitterness, anger, resentment or personal ambition. He was beyond any pretension.
In sum, we can say that the thought of people's achievements being more important than any of their failings as a human being can be dangerous. If not given enough emphasis, such failings can put an end to all their greatness and even an end to themselves.

12. "Education has become the main provider of individual opportunity in our society. Just as property and money once were the keys to success, education has now become the element that most ensures success in life."
Which factor offers more opportunity for success in our society: education or money? In my point of view, education has replaced money as the key element to success for the following three reasons.
First of all, education can widen one's horizon, mature one's thoughts, and sharp one's inclination. It is well-known that the fundamental aim of education is to develop the potential of individuals so that they become independent-minded and socially-aware adults, equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes which help them lead a full life as individuals and play a positive role in the society.
          Secondly, in a developing country such as China, education plays a very important role in an individual's success in life. To those young people, the higher education he or she gets, the more competitive he or she will be in the severe competition of getting a good job that leads to a promising future. In the mean time, to those laid-off workers, education also means a way to get re-employed. The fulfillment and self-actualization of an individual is best represented by the following: self-actualization equals achievements equals skills equals training equals education, It is a linear equation, which shows that education is the beginning of the continuum having a direct effect on the individual success.
In addition, education also makes it possible to catch up with the times. The Third Wave-- information revolution, which is directly or indirectly based on knowledge, is sweeping the whole world. People in such an era are constantly sensing an urge to seek education in order not to be discarded by the world. The same is true in China. China has entered WTO last year. There would exist more challenge and chance than before. One of the ways to catch the chance to develop further is getting enough knowledge through education.
To sum up, we can say that education has become more and more important. It fosters among us an all-round development covering ethics, the intellect, the physique, and social skills. Education has become the element that most ensures success in our lives.

13. "Responsibility for preserving the natural environment ultimately belongs to each individual person, not to government."
Who should be responsible for preserving the natural environment: individual person, enterprise or government? Environmental problems always involve a tug war among conflicting political and economic interests. For this reason, and because serious environmental problems are generally large in scale, all the society should participate in the environmental preservation.
First of all, the government should make correct policies for the environmental preservation. If the government did not concern about the environment, it is hardly possible to image that people in that country would protect the natural environment. An example may be eloquent. It is the floods that threatened the whole south China and China's northeastern cities in 1998. Experts on environment said that it was because the plants and trees have been damaged in the upper reach of the Changjiang River and the erosion of the land raised the level of the riverbed. The media once covered that in Southern China's Yunnan province, the local government destroyed the original rain forests year on year to make money. Hundreds of people died and millions of dollars lost just because the government made the wrong policy.
Secondly, the private company should also play an important role in protecting the environment. Just as Toyota's slogan "Do yourself a favor, and do something for the earth, too." Companies should be especially sensitive to environmental considerations where they are expanding production capacity rapidly. They should teach their employees how to make products without making a mess. Toyota is working very hard to make cars greener--reducing output of carbon dioxide, consuming clean and new sources of power and making cars more recyclable. If all the companies could act as Toyota does, we would probably not worry about the environment problems any more.
Thirdly, individuals, as actors of all policies, should take part in the preservation more actively than before. The natural environment problem is in such a large scale that all of us should participate to solve it. Take the control of green house effect as an example. We should stop use certain poisonous chemical in order to avoid damaging ozone in the atmosphere. The task would be in vain if there were only a few people take part in that task.
To sum up, all the people and organizations should be responsible for preserving the natural environment. Only through that way can we make our world more beautiful than before.

14. "Organizations should be structured in a clear hierarchy in which the people at each level, from top to bottom, are held accountable for completing a particular component of the work. Any other organizational structure goes against human nature and will ultimately prove fruitless."
There used to be a trend that organizations had clear hierarchical structures. Now, the old command-and-control environment that existed when the world wasn't moving so fast really has to be changed. Employees are expecting to work in a different environment, one that requires less hierarchy, a high degree of autonomy, and empowerment in decision-making. The hierarchical is no longer effective.
First of all, the strict hierarchy undermines the cooperation and communication among coworkers. Take the new product launching as an example. When a company wants to design and launch a new product, the company should make full use of all the forces in the company. The designers should design the products based on the information the sales get from consumers. The marketing should decide the price based on the calculation of the accountant. It is a process full of close communication and cooperation. In the hierarchy, however, employees only report to their bosses and do not share information among different divisions, which impede the company from running effectively.
Secondly, the hierarchical structure stifles creativity. I used to work for a company that had established a rigid organizational barrier between designers and engineers. The designers often provided the engineers with concepts that were unworkable from an engineering standpoint. Conversely, whenever an engineer offered a design idea that allowed for easier engineering, the designers would simply warn the engineer not to interfere. This is a typical case where organizational barriers operate against creativity, harming the organization in the end.
Furthermore, the hierarchical structure also go against human nature. As a matter of fact, human beings long for equality, communication, mutual support and collaboration by nature. But hierarchy emphasis on rank, create boundary and lack of incentive for full-hearted participation.
Just as Hiroshi Miyamae, the former president of Sony Cooperation, says, " we need to have the speed to get things done and we don't get hindered by hierarchy".
Therefore, organizations should put much emphasis on the creation of an effective, efficient and mutual supportive working environment instead of hierarchy. As we have discussed, a non-hierarchical, flatter structure can turn out to be more fruitful.

15. "Nations should cooperate to develop regulations that limit children's access to adult material on the Internet." ** The Internet is a worldwide computer network.
Internet users have been booming in the past few years because Internet has a vast amount of information. They range from the very young to the very old. Children are curious by nature. Once they have access to the Internet, they become hooked to it.
Admittedly, the Internet brings large benefits in terms of information and allows children to broaden their knowledge, to explore their specific interest and to contact other children all over the world. However, at the same time, the system is widely abused. Worse still, a number of children are exploring the Internet's adult materials, and the number is on the rise.
The Internet adult materials include depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, violence or crime, and sex-related issues in particular. They have great negative influence on children. They present a wrong world to children and mislead them to certain wrongdoings or even crimes. We commonly know that many youngsters' problem is closely related to the frequent access to the adult materials from various sources such as movies, TV programs, and more recently the Internet.
How to deal with such a problem has become a worldwide concern, since the Internet has spread so widely and quickly. Our suggestion is that nations should cooperate to develop regulations that limit children's access to adult material on the Internet. It is like the way every one of us is subject to the influence of the environment. Children of different nations are all possible to be affected by the adult materials on the Internet, because the Internet is as widespread as the environment and because the problems of children's access to the adult materials on the Internet are just as serious as the global environmental problems. Environmental problems need worldwide cooperation and a common effort, so do the problems of children's access to adult materials on the Internet. All the nations need to work together; otherwise, it would fall short of success for lack of a common effort.
One of the practical solutions to the problem that has already been adopted is to use "firewalls", which are intended to serve to block access to particular sites. It would also be better if all countries could work together to restrict the total amount of adult materials on the whole flowing into the Internet. And at the same time, we should educate children and adults as well with the consequences that adult materials have on children.
In sum, there will be an effective solution to the problem of children's access to adult materials on the Internet. All the nations should work together to find it out since children are our future.

16. "Public buildings reveal much about the attitudes and values of the society that builds them. Today's new schools, courthouses, airports, and libraries, for example, reflect the attitudes and values of today's society."
Architecture has always been a facet of a city, and a country. In some ways the style of architecture reflects a society's culture, taste and even values and attitudes. Public buildings, as a main component of architecture, guide the main stream of architecture styles. They form a special view in cities.
First of all, the style of public buildings reveals people's daily life. For example, today's architecture style shows a beauty of efficiency, simplicity and abstractness. The spacious office buildings, most of which are high-rises or even skyscrapers, have been constructed in commercial areas. The style fully illustrates the values and attitudes of today's society, in which people are living at a quicker pace and are eager to contribute their productivity.
Secondly, Styles of the modern buildings match with the ideas that people around the world agree with. That is the harmony with nature. The Opera House in Sydney might be an excellent example. It has been designed to be a fantastic white ship that seems to be going to start its cultural journey from the tip of the Harbor. It has just enhance the natural beauty and therefore become the symbol of the country.
In addition, public building also reveals values of today's society. In some villages of West China, we can find that the most wonderful and comfortable building in the area is schools. This show that people there has realized that education serves a foundation of any potential achievements in the long run. They have realized that talents and knowledge could bring them out of poor. The idea of " education is the first productive power" leads to the set-up of more schools.
To sum up, architectures are like a mirror, reflecting the values of the society that builds them. Different cultures or values may lead to different styles of architectures.

17. "Some people believe that the best approach to effective time management is to make detailed daily and long-term plans and then to adhere to them. However, this highly structured approach to work is counterproductive. Time management needs to be flexible so that employees can respond to unexpected problems as they arise."
There exists a long debate about whether detailed daily and long-term plans are necessary. Some argue that time management should be flexible since we do not know what kind of unexpected problems would rise the next minute. In my point of view, the best approach to effective time management is to make detailed daily and long-term plans and to adhere to them. Being flexible does not contradict with making plans.
To begin with, daily and long-term plans serve as goals. They may let us clear what we want to do and what we should do in a certain period. Working at any job without a detailed road map for the immediate and longer-term can trivialize the efforts of both employees and organizational units so that all their efforts become aimless. The only sensible way proceed is to consider first what is the most important long-term objective. Then order daily and weekly tasks according to how much each adds to the achievement of those objectives.
Secondly, Setting plans enables us to arrange our time reasonably and efficiently. People who do not make daily or long-term plans tend to deal with whatever comes along. Unexpected problems arise every now and then. Without plans, people are easily misled by whatever comes next. They can not make the " important and emergent things first", and can not deal with things systematically. At the end of a day or a period of time, it is hard for them to have any sense of achievement.
In addition, making plans and adhering to them does not necessarily being about rigidity. In fact, plan making can be flexible. By making plans, people usually make a list of tasks to be fulfilled and give them an order in terms of importance and set specific times for them. That means people have clear ideas of what are of the top priority, and what are less important. When unexpected problems arise, people with plans can easily judge their importance within the frame of their plans. Then they can quickly make decisions, and adjust their original plans.
To sum up, with detailed daily and long-term plans, we can collect the right information, make sensible decisions, and take the necessary actions to realize the target. Clear plan is not unnecessary but essential to success.

老大卫

18. "If the primary duty and concern of a corporation is to make money, then conflict is inevitable when the corporation must also acknowledge a duty to serve society."
There has been a long debate about whether a company's primary is to make money or to serve society. Someone says that a company should first think about making money. It is the only way a company can survive in the severe competition. And the goal conflicts with the duty for a company to serve society. However, in my opinion, the two tasks do not conflict for the following reasons.
To begin with, corporations have make contributions to the society since they set up. They manufacture products or provide services that the society needs. They pay taxes that in return serve for the benefits of the whole society. They hire employees that may relief the problem of unemployment. They develop new technology that will be applied to enhance the living standard of the whole society.
Secondly, in a modern and civilized world, corporations have inevitably done a lot in educational and cultural activities and social charities. The sense of responsibility, in return, helps the business build up good reputation and prosperity. The disaster of the flood in 1997, for instance, has drawn a great attention of corporations. They donate large sum of money and other goods for the people in that area. Why do they do so? Because they know that the society is their base for development and the people are all their potential customers. Without a stable society and wealthy customer, they could not survive.
Admittedly, sometimes some corporations destroy the order of the society in order to make money. For instance, they leak their toxic substance into the ground or water in order to favor an inexpensive containment program. They compete with others by all means without caring the fair play. However, in the long run, such corporations can not survive if their violation were disclosed, not to mention making money.
To sum up, it is not wrong to say that the primary duty and concern of a corporation is to make money. In fact, it does not conflict with the goal for a corporation to serve society. Anybody, any business can not live alone. Only through serving the society can a corporation make money in the long run.

19. Some employers who recruit recent college graduates for entry-level jobs evaluate applicants only on their performance in business courses such as accounting, marketing, and economics. However, other employers also expect applicants to have a broad background in such courses as history, literature, and philosophy.
Whether an employer should emphasize specialization in business courses or a more varied academic preparation is a controversial topic. In my point of view, employees with a more varied academic preparation would be more useful to the corporation for the following three reasons.
To begin with, entry-level jobs may also require more specific knowledge. For example, salespeople need extensive technical knowledge to educate customers. He also need to have a broad knowledge such as psychology, history and marketing management in order to deal with different kinds of customer.
Secondly, employer should look for long term employees. Such employees may be more adept than their colleagues with business-only backgrounds at recognizing and solving management problems, dealing with business associates from different cultures, and viewing-issues from a variety of perspectives. Take Japanese companies as an example. When they hire college graduates they not only care applicants' performance in business course, but also concern about applicants' background and characteristics. They hope their employees would serve the company for a long period. So they will give training to their employees. No wonder employees with broad knowledge would adopt better and move easier into new position than those only have business knowledge.
Thirdly, in today's fast-paced, global environment, critical problem can be existing in an advanced, multifaceted state before an organization discovers it. And businesses do not, however, expect to train their new employees extensively in every area required by modern economy. So, employers, in the application process, expect the applicants to have a previous broad background to ensure success in their businesses. This also enables the company to maintain a competitive edge in the fast-changing world.
On the contrary, employees with less previous training in history, literature and philosophy usually "see only trees instead of a forest". They do not understand the " big picture" or strategic nature of the organization when analyzing problem, and they do not analyze and solve problems from a developmental point of view.
In general, employers who want more and bigger successes in their business should seek those college graduates with a more varied academic background. Knowledge is power, and varied knowledge means the ultimate success.

20. "In this age of automation, many people complain that humans are becoming subservient to machines. But, in fact, machines are continually improving our lives."
It is true that we have entered an age of automation. We depend on machines so much that we can say that machines make our way of life possible. No matter whether we are at work, at home, or anywhere else, our lives are tied to machines. Thus some people complain that humans are becoming subservient to machines. But in my point of view, machines have become a part of our lives and are continually improving our lives.
First of all, automation makes it possible to manufacture large amounts of products that makes our society become wealthy. Take the textile industry as an example. People knew how to make textile three thousand years ago. But till 500 years ago one people could only make ten meters textile a day through manual textile machine. After the industrial revolution, the automation technology tripled the productivity. And till now with the modern computer control, only one or two people can produce thousands of meters of textile in several hours.
Secondly, automation releases us from working and enables us to have more time to enjoy our lives than before. Before the first Industrial Revolution, workers used to work fifty to fifty-five hours every week since they can not complete their task in time. The number of hours reduced continually during this three hundred years. Now workers in most countries work forty hours or less every week thanks to the automation. They have more time than before to engage in their hobbies, to play with their friends and to do family services.
Thirdly, automation enriches and improves our lives. A clock radio reduces our tension of getting up late. A refrigerator saves us a lot of shopping time. Likewise a dishwasher, washing machine, microwave oven liberate us from tiring and time-consuming activities. An ATM and a vending machine provide the convenience of banking and shopping services during non-banking and shopping hours. While cars, television and air-conditions give us comfort and convenience. The digital revolution sweeping through every corner of the business community is having its share of impacts-both large and small-in our lives. Fax machines, telephones, voice mails, and mobile phones as well as computer networks present us a wired world.
To sum up, we can see that in this age of automation, machines, no matter how we feel and complain about them, are always quietly there improving our lives honestly.


21. "Job security and salary should be based on employee performance, not on years of service. Rewarding employees primarily for years of service discourages people from maintaining consistently high levels of productivity."
Job security and salary are two main aspects that employees are pay attention to. There has been long debate about whether these two things should be based on employee performance or on years of service. In my point of view, it should be based on employee performance for the following reasons.
First of all, it can motivate employees to work hard. Employees can change or improve their performance through their efforts, while what they can not change is their years of service. So, naturally, if employees' job security and salary are based on service instead of performance, many employees will feel helpless and discouraged. These feelings eventually lead to deteriorating job performance including increased waste and error, poor quality and quantity, and all sorts of internal friction and poor morale. On the contrary, if job security and salary are based on employee performance, employees will try their best to improve their performance and the enhanced performance will lead to high levels of productivity.
Secondly, it will promote the good atmosphere of competition among employees. Employees will improve their efficiency and productivity since they know if they performance is worse than that of others, they could not be promoted and their salary could not be increased.
The typical example of the two ways of rating system is the Japanese companies and the American companies. In Japanese companies, employees are promoted based on how many years they work for the company. And employee serves for one company for the whole life. It to some extent hinder employees' creativity and mobility since they know they can be promoted even they do not work hard. Japan has been in recession for more than ten years and has no sign to walk out of it till now. Some analyst says that one of the reasons of such situation is the rating system in most Japanese company. On the other hand, in America companies, like IBM and 3M, employees are willing to work hard because their salary and job security are connected with their performance. That is also the impetus for most American business to be in the leading situation in the world.
To sum up, rewarding employees primarily for years of service does a lot harm than good to both the employees and the organization. Instead, employee performance should be given enough emphasis in considering employees' job security and salary.

22. "Clearly, government has a responsibility to support the arts. However, if that support is going to produce anything of value, government must place no restrictions on the art that is produced."
The argument here is two-folded. On the one hand, the government has the responsibility to support arts; on the other hand, the government must not restrict the development of the arts if they want to produce anything of value. In my point of view, the government should fulfil its role as the main sponsor of art and cultural development of the nation. But the support can never be absolute and unconditional if the government intends to render its support for arts to responsible and constructive in nature. In short, the government should and must lay certain restrictions on artistic products resulted from the activities of individual or art groups.
To begin with, the government should support arts. Arts compose an inherent part of a culture and are vitally important to people. They play a significant role of maintaining and developing cultural vitality and diversity by sanctifying creativity, originality, and freedom of expression. Any good government should encourage art and cultural activities by using its resources to increase access and participation, multiply forms and styles, encouraging creativity, invention, and artistic freedom. A positive cultural climate will provide opportunities for talented individual to create works of the imagination that develop a body of shared knowledge and provide the nation with a collective memory. In the meantime, artworks, like other pronounced or written messages, may carry with them the opinions and stands of their originators or advocate for a certain social group whose ideas or views are captured and vocalized by a few artists through the medium of artistic expressions.
Secondly, the government should also set certain restrictions on arts in order to let them develop in a healthy and correct way. As we know, not all ideas and arts play a positive role in forming nation's idea or maintaining nation's culture. Some even are capable of producing detrimental effects on children and adolescents, or causing negative responses from certain strands of the society. Such kind of arts, if we can call them arts, should be subjected to government monitoring and restrictions.
To sum up, government should take the responsibility to support arts that have positive effect on its nation. At the same time, government should monitor the development of arts and set restrictions to minimize the risk or harm that negative arts pose on the nation.

23. "Schools should be responsible only for teaching academic skills and not for teaching ethical and social values."
There is a long-running debate about whether schools should be responsible only for teaching academic skills. Someone suggests that the teaching of academic skills really is what schools all about and that other outcomes should receive only minimal emphasis. However, in my view, schools should not only be responsible for teaching academic skills but also for teaching ethical and social values.
First of all, the society needs people who have a broad knowledge background. As we all know, the society is under great changes. It is facing new challenges and demands, and it is setting new requirements for the products of education. The society needs people that are flexible, capable of thinking, and adaptable to a variety of real world circumstances. However, the teaching of only academic skills, which is strongly centered on such subjects as foreign languages, mathematics, history, literature, and the hard sciences--subjects thought capable of "challenging" the intellect, can only be directed at a narrow, college-bound, intellectual elite. If schools are to serve the entire society, then it is by no means appropriate.
Secondly, schools are part of the society. Their utmost goals are in the pursuit of excellence in both academic and other domains of education, and are delivering educational outcomes that meet the needs and expectations of the society. School should aim to foster among youngsters an all-round development covering ethics, the intellect, the physique, social skills and aesthetics; a global outlook; and a sense of responsibility towards the family, the community, the country and the world. Therefore, the teaching of only academic skills will not fully carry out the aims of schools.
Thirdly, adolescence is one of the most important periods in people's life. During this period, people form their philosophy of life. Young people, as the products of education, are living in a social world. They frequently interact with each other. They need to exchange ideas and skills. They need communication and cooperation. They need similar and common ethical and social values. All these set school a much higher requirement-to produce students with both academic and non-academic achievements.
To sum up, schools should take the responsibility of teaching both academic skills and ethical and social values. It will good not only to the young people themselves but also to the whole society.

24. "A powerful business leader has far more opportunity to influence the course of a community or a nation than does any government official."
Nowadays, a powerful business leader may play an important part in the course of a community or a nation. They have strong influence in economic and political affairs. However, in my point of view, a government official has a far more decisive role and thus has more opportunity to influence the community and the nation. Such kind of situation is predetermined by the essential difference between business leaders and government officials.
First of all, government officials set policies that decide which direction a community or a nation takes. They are in charge of nation's most newspapers, radios, TVs as well as other public media. They tend to be in a strong and powerful leadership image. They adopt personal active attitudes toward their goals. However, business leaders manage and try their best to get things done. They are influenced by public media. They appear to be more communicative and cooperative, and be more interested in profits and results. They usually adopt interpersonal attitudes toward their goals.
Secondly, government officials usually have broader goals than business leaders. They cover such large areas as a region or nation and for a longer period of time, while business leaders tend to have more local and intermediate goals.
Thirdly, government officials take superior conceptual skills, vision, and a keen commitment to missions of a community or a nation and a set of beliefs. Their predominant orientation is to create excitement in people through projecting ideas into images that excite people. Just as President Eisenhower defined, government leadership is "the ability to get people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it." By contrast, business leaders take superior administrative, analytical and interpersonal skills. They prefer to work with people and avoid solitary activity because it makes them anxious.
All in all, government officials, with their powers more influential both in range and scale, have more opportunity to influence the course of a community or a nation than business leaders.

老大卫

25. "The best strategy for managing a business, or any enterprise, is to find the most capable people and give them as much authority as possible."
There has been long a debate about what is the best strategy for managing a business. In my point of view, the best strategy is to find the most capable people and give them as much authority as possible. Here the strategy is two-folded. On the one hand, it focuses on the capacity of people. It is the most capable people that business or enterprises are looking for. On the other hand, it focuses on the authority that should be given to these people.
First of all, we should focus on the capable people. The world of economy is rapidly changing. We no longer live and work in the old-style economy, where competitive advantage is based on labor and natural resources, though they still remain to be important. In order to cope with the changing world, businesses and enterprises launches lots of strategies. Some companies claim they will focus on the marketing share of their products. Some companies pay much attention to profits. However, no matter what kind of strategy the business chooses, the root problem is people. All strategies are implemented by people. We live in an economy driven by the knowledge that we create. In this world, all the competitions in the final analysis are the competition of capable people. So it is important for businesses to find capable people.
Secondly, we should trust those capable people and give them the biggest possible authority. In other words, we should make full use of their capabilities. Most capable people are generally characterized as independent, self-stimulating, goal oriented, and capable of giving directions to their own efforts. All these traits will be brought into play if we trust and stimulate these capable people. On the contrary, if we recruit capable people but not give them enough authority. They may not able to do the things they want to do. No to mention to lead the business to the correct direction.
In general, it has been widely accepted that people are the foundation of business or enterprise success. Without those capable and motivated people, a business or enterprise will have to struggle to survive in today's fiercely competitive business climate. Winning the competition for the most capable people is the first step to win the competition for business and development, and giving the most capable people the biggest possible authority is definitely a step further.

26. "Location has traditionally been one of the most important determinants of a business's success. The importance of location is not likely to change, no matter how advanced the development of computer communications and others kinds of technology becomes."
Computer communication and other kinds of technology have been dramatically changing almost every aspect of the society. It seems that many businesses are losing their ties to any particular geographical location. However, the facts turns our to be against what has been taken for granted. Location still remains one of the most important determinants of a business's success.
First of all, location is one of the important factors that affect a company's daily operation. For some businesses like bank, retail sectors and restaurants, the location directly affect the business of the company. If they choose a location that there are not enough potential customers around it, they will find themselves in difficulty soon. Even to those manufacturers, location is also an important factor. They should choose a place that can provide enough raw materials they use or enables them to transport they products out to the target market quickly. To take Shanghai Bao Still as an example, although it is not near the place producing iron mineral resources, it nears the biggest harbor in China so it can transport the raw material and products conveniently.
Secondly, location will affect the future development of the business. To those IT companies, at first glance, location may not seems so important since they do not face the problems of logistic or customer number of in-person visit. However, such companies will also face the problem in human resource management, local policy utilization, etc. If they can not find enough suitable person from local district and afford to retain others to work outside their hometown, they will also lose their advantage in the fierce competition of today's world. No wonder many IT companies choose America's Silicon Valley to locate headquarter rather than Africa.
Furthermore, the importance of location is as deeply rooted as traditions and social customs. Once a business has undergone hard years and establishes itself, it forms visible and invisible ties with the area and it may even stimulate other businesses to boom in the area. With time going on, it and other businesses are coexisting and become interdependent. It is hard for the business to remove again.
To sum up, no matter how advanced the technology is, the location still plays an important role in deciding a company's success.

27. "A Company's long-term success is primarily dependent on the job satisfaction and the job security felt by the company's employees."
Employees are thought to be a company's most important asset and the primary source of organizational success. In order to exert every employee's initiative, some one says we should let employees feel satisfied and secured at their current job. The involvement and commitment, in turn, are crucial to the company's long-term success. However, in my point of view, job security and satisfaction are not the most important thing to a company's long-term success. On the contrary, they may have reversed effects to a company's development.
Firstly, if an employee feel satisfied and secured with his job, he may lack of initiative to go further. Thus, his productivity and creativity will be reduced. Take former Chinese State-own companies as an example. The companies are run by the state, no matter their business are good or bad, the employees get the same salary and need not worry about being dismissed. In that circumstance, no one work hard, not to mention think about ways for the company's development. A wide survey of 100 Japanese companies has showed similar situations in Japanese companies. As we all know, Japanese companies preferred to hire employee life long. They think that through that way their employees would link their future with the company's future together. However, the survey showed that most of the employees do not concern about it since they are satisfied with the current situation and do not worry about losing their job. They think it is those employers’ but not employees’ task to lead the companies to the success.
Secondly, the nowadays fast-changing world also makes it impossible for companies to do so. As the old Chinese saying says "survive with the feeling of crisis, die with the feeling of satisfied". If one feels satisfied with his current situation, he may not be alert on the crisis in front of him. However, the world has run into an era full of uncertainties. Everyday, we should face many challenges and we should find ways to deal with them. If we do not prepare for it, we could not go smoothly. The same is true for a company. If all the employees feel satisfied and do not prepare for facing the challenges, the company could not realize its long-term success.
Thirdly, today's employee may also not concern about job security. Many employees actually place job security relatively low on the list of what they want in a job. In fact, more and more people are positively uninterested in long-term job security; instead, they are joining firms for the sole purpose of accomplishing near-term professional goals, then leaving to face the next challenge.
To sum up, the claim at issue overrates the importance of job satisfaction and security by identifying them as the key factors in a company's long-term success. There may be lots of other factors such as correct developing direction, competitive products, and innovation that will be crucial for a company's success.

28. "Because businesses use high-quality advertising to sell low-quality products, schools should give students extensive training in how to make informed decisions before making purchases."
In modern society, the advertising has become a part of our daily life. Sometimes people think only the advertised products are worth buying and thus get a wrong idea of making purchases. In order to make informed decisions before making purchases, someone suggest that training should be given from childhood. However, in my point of view, it is not necessary and correct for the following reasons.
First of all, it is hard to distinguish bad advertising from those good advertising. As we all know, in today's society the competition is fierce and no company can survive without making advertisement. So we can not make a sweep conclusion that all the products behind the high-quality advertising are low quality. In fact, there do exist some companies who make both good products and high-quality advertising. How to distinguish whether the advertisement is cheating customer is a difficult task even to the most professional experts, not to mention those teachers who spend most of their time in school.
Secondly, it is not the job of our school to teach such kind of skills. Children have much basic knowledge to learn in school. They do not have time to concern such skills as to make informed decisions before making purchase. This skill is actually based on personal experience rather than theoretical knowledge. So it should leave children to learn by them when they graduated from the school. Our teacher should devote more time on the basic knowledge and technical skill that may be helpful to children's future career.
Thirdly, it may not be a good thing to educate young people such idea in their formative years. Young people tend to think about things extremely. They could not make decisions based on objective reasoning. Making informed decision is an idea too complicated to them. It may be misinterpreted by young people and even misused. It may foster a distortedly narrow and unhealthy view of the world.
To sum up, making informed decision is a complicated task. And it is inappropriate for schools to provide training in such field.

老大卫

29. "Too many people think only about getting results. The key to success, however, is to focus on the specific task at hand and not to worry about results."
Some people think that in order to get success, focusing on the specific task at hand is more important than only worry about results. We should put more emphasis on the process than on the desired results. In my point of view, however, both the process and the result are important in getting success.
On the one hand, it is the target results that determine what kind of process we should take. Without some reference to a goal or result we would have no idea of what task to perform in the first place. As a result, the various tasks we engage in would be somewhat aimless. No matter how diligent and careful we were in performing them it is difficult to produce worthwhile or successful end products. Take new product launching as an example. When companies plan to produce new products, they should first decide what kind of target they are pursuing, to make more profits or to take more market share. In order to make more profits they should take the skim strategy. They will set a high price and focus on advertising high quality of the products to catch a part of customers who have certain purchase power. On the other hand, if they want to take more market share, they will set a low price and hope that the more customers come to buy the better. If companies do not set up their targets in advance, they could not launch their products successfully and survive in the fierce competition. All the work they do is in vain.
On the other hand, it is the process that determines whether we can have successful results. The process usually consists of specific tasks, large or small. And each of the specific tasks in one way or another, if completed, contributes to the end results. Therefore, neglecting any of the tasks in process will in some way hinder the obtaining of the result. Still take the new product launching as an example. When a correct target has been set up, all the departments including product design, production, transportation, sales, and marketing, should work together in order to realize the target.  Every stage is important to the final success. By focusing on each aspect that affects the result, the company can better survive the business competition and therefore achieve its desire results.
To sum up, Thinking about the results and focusing on the process are two essential parts of getting success and could not be separated. Only if we pay attention to both the process and the results can we get the final success.

30. "Companies benefit when they discourage employees from working extra hours or taking work home. When employees spend their leisure time without 'producing' something for the job, they will be more focused and effective when they return to work."
According to this statement, companies would be well advised to discourage employees from working overtime or from taking projects home, since employees are more productive when they return to the job after a break from their work. The statement is absolutely true.
First of all, working extra hours or taking work home is not the best way to increase productivity. It is true that with the increasing competition, many people have heavier workload, stronger sense of competition, and feel under more pressure than before. To deal with these problems and survive in the fierce competition, people usually work long time or take work home. As we all know, however, people may be able to sustain long hours on job for days, weeks, or even months. But eventually, they will burn out. Breaks from work provide opportunities to enjoy other activities in life and enable people to return to the job refreshed. Thus in turn enables people to engage in the job more effectively. According to a management psychologist Harry Levison, people who are in a constant state of activity are not necessarily the most productive. Long time of monotonous working tend to produce boredom, weariness, absent-mindedness.
Secondly, Working over time has obvious negative effects on the quality of off-work life. These effects may eventually effect work as well. Researchers found that confusion and conflict between work and family roles diminish employee' perceptions of quality of work life and the quality of family life which, in turn, can impact organizational outcomes such as productivity, absenteeism and turnover. Although it is nice for people to engage in their jobs, work is hardly a substitute for such things as a family, a good relationship, close friends, or quality leisure and recreational time to renew themselves.
Thirdly, taking work home will also decrease the efficiency in work time. When people has form the custom of working in leisure time, he may not look for ways to improve his productivity in work time and slow down his speed. As we know, in the high-speed society nowadays, such kind of low efficiency will lead to failure eventually.
To sum up, companies should discourage employees to work extra hours or take work home both for their own good and for their employees. Just as the old saying goes, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

老大卫

31. "Financial gain should be the most important factor in choosing a career."
What is the most important factor in choosing a career? Some say financial gain is essential. Others say job security is in high priority. In my point of view, People's opinion about what factor is the main factor in selecting a career is different depending on the goals and values of the particular person making the choice.
Admittedly, financial gain is one of the main factors in selecting a career. No wonder we can not live in a world without money. When we buy houses, buy cars, raise children and even live in daily life, money always become such an important factor that we have to take finical gain into consideration when we choose a job.
However, money is not the only factor we consider. There are many other factors, which are to some extent more important than financial gains.
Firstly, people may think about the job security. In the fierce competition society, sometimes job security is also important, especially to those mid-aged people. They have brought houses and have to raise children so they can not afford losing job and income for a certain period. So when those people look for jobs, they pay more attention to the job security than to the salary.
Secondly, people may lay emphasis on the happiness and freedom of the career. A good career, which includes good relationship between colleagues, enjoyable working environment and satisfactory performance, will guarantee a happy life. Those people want a pleasant position that is of their personal interests. A US friend working in China as a teacher told me that she earns only ten percent of the money of what she made in the States. Then why did she come to China? " Because I love the culture here." She said.
In addition, people may pursue self-actualization and fulfillment in choosing a job. For example, some people join one of the helping professions, such as nursing, teaching or social work, well aware that their career will not by financially lucrative. Others choose to be a writer, artists or musicians, knowing that they are trading off dollars for non-tangible rewards. These people place a high value on the spiritual fulfillment they may get from their career.
To sum up, economic gain should not be the only factor in selecting a career. Different people may have different opinions in choosing a career and may lie their emphasis on different aspects.

32. "You can tell the ideas of a nation by its advertisements."
It is true that advertisement has become a part of our life. Someone even jokes," A life without advertisement is just like a life with sun." Indisputably, advertisements inform us the ideas, attitudes and priorities of a nation.  
To begin with, the development of advertising reflects the development of a country's science, economy and culture. In China, for instance, the idea of advertisement itself had not emerged until the 1970s, nearly coincident with the time when China started its opening-up policies. The market economy has introduced competition, and competition has churned out advertisements, which will help business to attract more customers. Advertisements at that time were straight. They gave audiences information about how many rewards the product has been honored. Then advertisement have evolved to be more enjoyable by using modern techniques, inviting pop stars to present the product and adopting creative ideas. The development shows that the ideas of Chinese are changing.
Secondly, the content of the advertisement reflects the value concept of a nation. In the 1980s we can only see bicycle advertisements in newspaper and television because by that time bicycles are the main vehicles family and individual use. No individual can afford to buy cars and even no one had that idea. However, nowadays there are many kinds of car advertisements around us. We do not take car as a luxury product but an affordable tool used in daily life.
Thirdly, Advertisements show some traditional ideas of a nation. Take a dumpling advertisement as an example. The advertisement shows a picture of family harmony. All family members are sitting together, taking the dumpling. And the kids says," we getting together to have dumpling."(In Chinese terms, dumpling represents to getting together.) It caters to customers by highlighting Chinese traditional culture. Another case is that a company producing washing powder name its products "strong" and advertise it with the slogan "Chinese, Strong".  People may find a foreign-made product in Chinese market. But they prefer a homemade, even with a higher price, because the advertisement arouses their love to their motherland.
In conclusion, advertisements tell us what activities are worthwhile, what the future holds, and what is fashionable and attractive. They reflect a nation's ideas, values and attitudes.

33. "People are likely to accept as a leader only someone who has demonstrated an ability to perform the same tasks that he or she expects others to perform."
Some people often take it for granted that a leader should be an expert in a certain field and that he or she knows and performs skillfully in most of the things or tasks that he or she expects others to do. They think that a layman can not lead a group of experts forward. Therefore, they are likely to accept only those who have demonstrated an ability to perform the same tasks he or she expects others to do. However, the reality turns not to be as simple as what these people think.
Of course, expert leaders have far more possibilities to succeed, but successful leaders possess many other abilities. Good leaders motivate people to strive to achieve common goals. They draw extraordinary performance from ordinary people. They focus on a mission, and make things happen as well as get results.
First of all, leaders enable their group to establish and reformulate visions, goals and policies. Leaders may not do the thinking for the group. But rather they elicit the thinking of all members of the group, fill in any gaps, organize the thinking into a consistent form, and communicate it well enough back to the group to secure their agreement and, if possible, the commitment to it.
Secondly, leaders guide and encourage their members to act and realize target. They mobilize people and other resources to work for their common goals. They gather their members' opinion, decide which way to go, and lead their members to success.
Thirdly, leaders empower and train new leaders. By recruiting and training additional leaders, leaders also enable the group to accomplish more. Further, the ongoing creation of new leaders eliminates the "loneliness" of the isolated leaders who try to do everything themselves.
Take Jack Velch, the former CEO of General Electronic, as an example. As a leader, he led GE from the world's tenth largest company to the world's largest company. His successful implement of "either NO 1 or No 2" and "six sigma" has been deeply impressed by so many people. We respect him not because he knew every specific task of his members but because he performed well in his leading position.
In general, the vision, imagination, and foresight of leaders, rather than their limited individual contributions in performing specific tasks, have a profound impact on the creativity, productivity, further development and growth of a group or an organization.

34. "All citizens should be required to perform a specified amount of public service. Such service would benefit not only the country as a whole but also the individual participants."
Someone suggests that all citizens should be required to perform a specified amount of public service. In my point of view, such suggestion is absolutely true. Public service is, as its name indicates, to serve the public. Public service is good not only to the country but also to every one of us.
To begin with, our society needs public service. Here the public service does not merely mean the cleaning-up of the neighborhood, the volunteer service in maintaining traffic, and in occasions such as the Olympic Games. It also means to take an active part in keeping social and public orders, in helping and supporting each other. We now live in a world where pollution, deforestation, regional conflicts, crimes and natural disasters are growing sources of concern. One of the solutions to those problems is to let people reach back to their oldest values of public service and arouse the their of responsibility and community by encouraging all citizens to perform public service.
Secondly, public service is important to our country. It not only means that through public service a country can increase its volunteer service and labor force, but also means that the cohesive force of the country and people's sense of society responsibility will be improved through public service,
Thirdly, public service is also good to individual participant.  All of us are living in the same world and that we are co-existing, and are bound to each other. The quality of life is largely determined by the state of the environment that the mutual support among all citizens, and the sense of responsibility and community, all of which rely heavily on our public service. Although public service sometimes means the sacrifice on an individual basis. In the long run, it will benefit all of us.
Admittedly, there are some difficulties in implementing the requirement of public service. It may be hard to make the assignments and decide what projects are worthwhile, and some people may be incompetence and inexperience to certain tasks. However, the potential advantages of mandatory public service have far overweighed the disadvantages.
To sum up, if all citizens are to perform a specified amount of public service, the benefits not only belong to the country or a community as a whole, but also belong to individual participants.

35. "Business relations are infected through and through with the disease of short-sighted motives. We are so concerned with immediate results and short-term goals that we fail to look beyond them."
It seems that everywhere we see in the business world, we see fierce competitions -- for skilled people, for natural resources, for both domestic and international market. In order to survive in such environment, many companies became blinded and were driven by short-term profits. They are so concerned with only immediate results and short-term goals that they fail to look beyond them.
        To begin with, shortsighted motives make companies see only risks rather than opportunities. When Sony developed VCR cassette recorders in 1975, they hoped that they could make large profits from this product. They were so concerned about the short-term profits that they did not want other companies to share the market with them. This gave Matsushita an opportunity to beat them. Matsushita gave up the short-term profits and focused on long-term market share. Finally they won the VCR market by sharing control and profits with other manufacturers.
        Secondly, shortsighted motives let people pay attention to only short-term profits. It may be one of the key reasons for which these companies can not develop further in the long run. Take Chinese color TV industry as an example. In 1980s, with the improvement of people's living standard, color television has become a house appliance that every family can afford. Many companies saw this potential big market and imported color TV assembly lines from overseas, ignoring that there were so many competitors in domestic market.  These companies had boomed for a certain period. But finally, the total capability of producing has far exceeded the total number that customers required. Many companies went bankrupt because of the large amount of dead inventory.
        Furthermore, some companies even discard business principles in order to realize short-term profits. Software companies hastily develop new products to cash in on fad during certain period, ignoring bugs in their programs that ultimately drive customers away. Manufacturers of inherently dangerous products cut safety corners to enhance short-term productivity failing to see the future implications in safety problems. Businesses assume excessive debt to keep up with booming business, ignoring the possibility of future slowdown and resulting forfeiture or bankruptcy.
        To sum up, business can not develop further if they are so concerned with immediate results and short-term goals. When we are setting up strategies for the development, we should not only see the "trees" but also " the forest" as well.

36. "Businesses and other organizations have overemphasized the importance of working as a team. Clearly, in any human group, it is the strong individual, the person with the most commitment and energy, who gets things done."
Which one should be emphasized in running a business, the spirit of teamwork or the leadership of a strong individual? In my point of view, the former is more important than the latter for the following three reasons.
To begin with, working as a team has already been proved to be an important element for success in most organizations. "Fortune" magazine estimated that 91% of America's largest companies are experimenting with teams. In fact, businesses accomplish many of their goals through teamwork. Working as a team has been seen increasingly as a means of improving organizational health, redesigning structure and driving quality forward. Organization benefit from teamwork in terms of heightened cooperation among organization members, and enhanced performance resulted from the cooperation.
Furthermore, the present world of business makes working as a team not only important but also very necessary. With the increasing growth of industrialization, computerization and economic globalization, many tasks are becoming interdependent. Task interdependence derives from the distribution of resources, materials, information and skills necessary for task completion. An example of a group task design is a team charged with new product design. The team might include engineers, researcher, scientists, production supervisors, market experts, and project managers. The success of the final design depends on all of these people's contribution.
In addition, teamwork may enhance motivation and task involvement of all the team members. Such effect is essential to a team to get success. On the contrary, when faced with a task and only a certain strong individual's power is emphasis, other member's motivation may be hurt. They may have no enthusiasm to participate in the task. It is dangerous to the implementation of the task.
Admittedly, a successful team requires both natural leaders and natural followers. Otherwise the team will accomplish little. The commitment of those strong individuals should not be neglected. However, if these strong individuals know how to motivate other people in the group through teamwork, the success of the business and organizations will be even greater.
To sum up, the importance of working as a team should be continuously emphasized in businesses and other organizations. It is essential to our success.

37. "Since science and technology are becoming more and more essential to modern society, schools should devote more time to teaching science and technology and less to teaching the arts and humanities."
Education has become so important today that schools are viewed as nurturers of the nation's intellectual capital. There has been a long debate on whether our education should focus more on scientific knowledge than on the arts and humanities. Some argues that since scientific knowledge is increasingly important in our technological world, schools should devote sufficient time to teach mathematics and science. In my point of view, however, this does not to say that schools should devote less time to the arts or humanities. Arts and humanities are as important as science.
First of all, studying arts and humanities can help students better understand mathematics and science. As an infant's growing process relies on a balanced diet, a person's maturity of mind and intelligence relies on an all-round education. Studies show that children in different phases of age show different interests. Playing a musical instrument, for instance, is a task demanding good control of the small muscle. Studying music at this age can strengthen a child's later grasp of mathematics. The same study also show that understanding philosophical concepts has helped scientist recognize their own presuppositions, and frame their central questions more accurately. In a word, relevant education can help children develop both mentally and physically.
Secondly, studying arts and humanities helps inspire children's creativity and intellectual questioning. This is particularly important in an era dominated by technology, where we run a serious risk of becoming automatons who fit neatly into the efficient functioning of some system. Creativity is a characteristic that may be essential not only for artists but also for scientists.
Thirdly, not all students will start their career in technical field. A clumsy student in science may be very smart in art and humanity. It is unfair and unsuitable for them to be treated in the same way as those who have talent in science. Schools as the nurturer of the nation should provide every student a big stage to perform his talent, both on science and art.
Actually, sufficient cases have shown that people may not fully show their potential in certain field in childhood. Take Einstein as an example. He is a pioneer scientist in math study and nuclear research. But it is said that when he was young, he devoted lots of times in playing violin and was not a good science student at all.
To sum up, schools should not devote less time to the arts and humanities. These area of study enhance learning in mathematics and science, as well as helping to enrich our personality, widen our horizon and sharp our inclination.

老大卫

38. "Courtesy is rapidly disappearing from everyday interactions, and as a result, we are all the poorer for it."
Just as the author claims, simple courtesy and good manners are disappearing from modern life. We are losing the tradition of being polite and kind. Such kind of phenomena may result from the following reasons.
First of all, the society nowadays let people hardly have time to think about courtesy. We now live in a competitive world in which almost every resource, like job opportunity, is limited. Natural resources are exhausting too, attributed to people's continuing exploration and the explosion of population. As a result, the peaceful life routine has been broken. Employees could feel a pressure of uncertainty and anxiety. Market shrink and downsizing, with all the worry they produce, place constant threat on career people. This can come out in irritability and short tempers. Even well educated employees may lose courtesy manners. People become rude to their parents or colleagues by telling them some cruel facts, including their small error, straight away. Sometimes we even omit to say "thank you" or " I am sorry" only for the reason that we are too busy and have too many things to concern.
Secondly, the increased distance among people hinders communication. In China, for example, members of one family live together. Sometimes even four generations live under one roof. They help each other and take care of each other. Children can learn good manners and traditions from the old. Nowadays, however, young couples buy houses and live separately from other family members. They are busy in working and have no time to teach their children. Their children hardly have opportunities to learn those good traditions from the older.
Thirdly, the development of high technology makes people lack of courtesy. With the wide use of telephone and Internet, people pay fewer visits to their relatives and friends than before. On festivals they merely make a phone call or order some flowers through Internet to their relatives. High technology also foster some bad habits among people. Some mobile users talk in the phone loudly in public occasions. Their look-at-me manner was intended to draw attention and envy, but instead, they were thought of disgusting because the cheap show-off disturbed other people.
All in all, lacking courtesy has been a widely spread phenomenon in today's society. As a result, we will all become poor for it. In order to solve this problem, we should pay full attention to such phenomenon and look for ways to change it.

39. "It is difficult for people to achieve professional success without sacrificing important aspects of a fulfilling personal life."
A stereotyped idea thinks that only the loss in one's personal life, which could be marriage failure, love suffer, and bad health, could inspire the person's strong desire of working hard. In my point of view, however, although success could make us happy, it does not worth if we have to pay a price of sacrificing important aspects of fulfilling personal life.
To begin with, a happy and healthy personal life may proved to be helpful to individual development. Just as the old saying goes," A healthy mind in a healthy body". If we want to survive in today's fierce competition and struggle for personal development, a healthy body is one of the essential factors we need. In addition, a happy mood that we get from our family may let us have more enthusiasms to devote into works.
On the contrary, an unhappy life may have negative effect on the person himself and others. People in society have to band together with other people, and one person's actions can affect the group of which he is a part. Modern business not only requires diligent people, but also employees with a high emotional quotation to have pleasant communications with business partners and customers. An unhappy personal life will pass on the gloomy feelings to other people. Like a vicious circle, the bad mood in work could damage any potential of success. In this aspect, I believe that people who fail to fulfill personal life will pay much higher price to get success because they have to recover from the attack of losses of their emotional life, which will distract them from engaging into work.
In fact, many cases have already show that fulfilling personal life and professional success are not mutually exclusive. One of the key characteristics that lead to success is the time-management skill. The skill is also useful in arranging personal lives. One need to look at the recent American president, George W. Bush, to see that it is possible to lead a balanced life which includes time for family, hobbies, and recreation, while immersed in a busy and successful career.
To sum up, professional fulfillment and personal fulfillment are two things that could not be mutually exclusive. Given the growing demands of career on today's professionals, a fulfilling personal life remains possible by working smarter and arranging the time reasonably.

40. "With the increasing emphasis on a global economy and international cooperation, people need to understand that their role as citizens of the world is more important than their role as citizens of a particular country."
With the growth of the global economy and the need for international cooperation, it becomes not only necessary but also important for people today to understand their role as citizens of the world rather than as citizens of a particular country.
To begin with, The increasing emphasis on a global economy and international cooperation has set such requirement on modern people. Today we live and work in a global economy in which companies routinely established national boundaries to compete for markets and customers. Ever since global companies such as GE, Toyota, and BP started to invest in overseas manufacturing facilities in late nineteenth century, multinational enterprises, as we know them today, have been under constant development. Now the globalization of business has become one of the most important changes in the external environment of most organizations. A growing number of companies operate production facilities outside their own country and market their products abroad. Even companies with only domestic operations face international competition and rely on foreign suppliers. To cope with this trend, people engaged in such market expansion need to take on roles as the citizens of the world. They need to know certain foreign language, cultures and knowledge of geography and history etc. Today, no businessman or manager can afford to take an exclusively domestic point of view.
Secondly, modern science and technology has made worldwide communications not only possible but also frequent. International leadership and worldwide cooperation become exceedingly important and necessary. They can collect funds to support the research and experiments financially and can gather concerned scientists and researchers to make contributions to the matter.
Thirdly, we need worldwide cooperation to deal with some worldwide problems. Such problem as protecting the world’s existing energy resources needs all countries and citizens to take part in. Some nations may not face energy crisis nowadays. If people of that nation do not understand their role as citizens of the world and only focus on the role as citizens of a particular country, over-exploration and blind-consumption could not be avoid the energy crisis of the whole world will become severe.  Only when individual nations and people have realized their global role can they take immediate actions to conserve energy.
Based on the above analysis, it is essential for today's people to realize that their role as citizens of the world is more important than their role as citizens of a particular country. The concept of " global village" has never been so visualized as today.

eswee

Critical Reasoning: Only 14 Questions?
I am one of the kind of guys who tend to take these questions for fun.

老大卫

我当年只练了15道。。

kobees

勾起了痛苦得回忆，呵呵。。。

Esmay

www.mba8.com是我当时常去的一个网站。
现在回想起来真是没有必要花那么多时间来考试。

eswee

I checked class profile -s of the top american GBSs. Based on my research, GMAT is not a problem. Which I found might be a problem for me is GPA. I know 3.0 is kinda "scholarship level" for Engineering & science students and I thought GBSs focused more on people's working experience. Not at all! 80% students in most of the GBSs have a GPA higher than 3.0. the mean value is higher than 3.5. Wt ...

My is around 2.99 ~ 3.0X. Sigh.