GMAT ISSUE类作文范文-81

Topic:

No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or get rich in business by conforming to conventional practices or ways of thinking.

Instructions:

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.

Sample Essay

Whether a conformist can achieve lasting success or "get rich" in business depends primarily on the type of business involved. Iconoclasts rise to the top in newer industries and in those where consumer demand is in constant flux. Conformists ultimately prevail, however, in traditional service industries ensconced in systems and regulations.

In consumer-driven industries, innovation, product differentiation, and creativity are crucial to lasting success, in the retail and media sectors, for example, unconventional products and advertising are necessary to catch the attention of consumers and to keep up with the vagaries of consumer tastes. Those who take an iconoclastic approach tend to recognize emerging trends and to rise above their peers. For example, Ted Turner's departure from the traditional format of the other television networks, and the responsiveness of Amazon.com to burgeoning Internet commerce, propelled these two giants to leadership positions in their industries. And in technology, where there are no conventional practices or ways of thinking to begin with, companies that fail to break away from last year's paradigm are soon left behind by the competition.

However, in traditional service industries—such as finance, accounting, insurance, legal services, and health care—lasting success and riches come not to nonconformists but rather to those who can deliver services most effectively within the confines of established practices, policies, and regulations. Of course, a clever idea for structuring a deal, or a creative legal maneuver, may play a role in winning smaller; battles along the way. But such tactics are those of conformists who are playing by the same ground rules as their peers; winners are just better at the game.

In conclusion, while non-conformists tend to be the wildly successful players in technology-driven and consumer-driven industries, traditionalists are the winners in system-driven industries pervaded by policy, regulation, and bureaucracy.

 

GMAT ISSUE类作文范文-82

Topic:

Business and government must do more, much more, to meet the needs and goals of women in the workplace.

Instructions:

What do you think of the opinion expressed above? In your discussion, be sure to use reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.

Sample Essay

The issue here is whether business and government are doing enough to help meet the needs and goals of women in the workplace. I agree with the speaker insofar as many employers can do more to accommodate the special needs of women in their role as mothers. However, it seems to me that business and government are doing their fair share otherwise for women in the workplace.

Women differ fundamentally from men in their child-bearing ability. Related to this ability is the maternal instinct—a desire to nurture that is far stronger for women than for men, generally speaking. At a minimum, then, businesses should acknowledge these fundamental differences and accommodate them so that a female employee's job and career are not jeopardized merely for fulfilling her instinctive role as a female. More and more businesses are providing maternal leave with full benefits, day-care facilities, and job-sharing programs to accommodate these special needs of women. In my observation, however, many businesses can do more in these respects.

However, beyond accommodating these fundamental differences, neither business nor government has a special duty to improve the status of women at the workplace. The government already has an obligation to enact and enforce anti-discrimination laws, and to provide legal means for seeking redress in cases of discrimination. Moreover, business and government both have a legal duty to abide by those laws by way of their hiring, salary, and job-promotion policies. Discharging this duty should, in my view, suffice to serve the special interests of women in the workplace. While many would argue that de facto double standards still run rampant and largely unchecked, this claim raises subjective perceptions about fairness that can neither be confirmed nor dispelled with certainty.

In sum, business and government can always do more to accommodate women in their special role as mothers. Otherwise, insofar as they are adhering to our current anti-discrimination laws, business and government are discharging their duty to help meet the needs and goals of women at the workplace.

 

GMAT ISSUE类作文范文-83

Topic:

We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.

Instructions:

Explain what you think this statement means and discuss the extent to which you do or do not agree with it. Support your views with reasons and/or specific examples from your experience, observations or reading.

Sample Essay

I believe this statement should be interpreted broadly—to mean that we are influenced by the exterior shape of buildings, as well as by the arrangement of multiple buildings and by a building's various architectural and aesthetic elements. While I doubt that buildings determine our character or basic personality traits, I agree that they can greatly influence our attitudes, moods, and even life styles.

On the structural and multi-structural scales, the arrangement of numerous buildings can shape us in profound ways. High-density commercial districts with numerous skyscrapers might result in stressful commuting, short tempers, a feeling of dehumanization, and so on. A "campus" arrangement of smaller, scattered buildings can promote health, well-being, and stress reduction by requiring frequent brisk outdoor jaunts. Buildings with multiple floors can also "shape" us, literally, by requiring exercise up and down stairs.

As for floor plans and internal space, physical arrangement of workspaces can shape workers' attitudes toward work and toward one another. Sitting in small, gray cubicles lined up in militaristic rows is demoralizing, leaving workers with the feeling that they are little more than impersonal cogs of some office machine. But creative design of workspaces in varied arrangements can create feelings of uniqueness and importance in each employee. Workspace relationships that suggest some sort of hierarchy may breed competitiveness among coworkers, and may encourage a more bureaucratic approach to work.

Finally, as for aesthetic elements, the amount of light and location of windows in a building can shape us in significant psychological ways. For most people, daily tasks are more enjoyable in settings with plenty of natural light and at least some natural scenery. Choice of colors can influence our mood, concentration, and efficiency. Numerous psychological studies show that different colors influence behavior, attitudes, and emotions in distinctly different ways. Yellow enhances appetite, blue has a tranquilizing effect, and gray is the color of choice for companies who want their workers to be subservient.

In sum, our buildings, the space around them and the space within them, can affect us in important ways that influence our outlook on life, relationships with coworkers, and even physical health and well-being.

 

GMAT ISSUE类作文范文-84

Topic:

A business should not be held responsible for providing customers with complete information about its products or services. Customers should have the responsibility of gathering information about the products or services they may want to buy.

Instructions:

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.

Sample Essay

Requiring businesses to provide complete product information to customers promotes various consumer interests, but at the same time imposes burdens on businesses, government, and taxpayers. On balance, the burdens outweigh the benefits, at least in most cases.

A threshold problem with disclosure requirements is that of determining what constitutes "complete" information. Admittedly, legislating disclosure requirements clarifies the duties of business and the rights of consumers. Yet determining what requirements are fair in all cases is problematic. Should it suffice to list ingredients, instructions, and intended uses, or should customers also be informed of precise specifications, potential risks, and results of tests measuring a product's effectiveness vis-a-vis competing products? A closely related problem is that determining and enforcing disclosure standards necessarily involves government regulation, thereby adding to the ultimate cost to the consumer by way of higher taxes. Finally, failure to comply may result in regulatory fines, a cost that may either have a chilling effect on product innovation or be passed on to the customers in the form of higher prices. Either result operates to the detriment of the consumer, the very party whom the regulations are designed to protect.

These burdens must be weighed against the interest in protecting consumers against fraud and undue health and safety hazards. To assume that businesses will voluntarily disclose negative product information ignores the fact that businesses are motivated by profit, not by public interest concerns. However, consumers today have ready access to many consumer-protection resources, and may not need the protection of government regulation. Although health and safety concerns are especially compelling in the case of products that are inherently dangerous—power tools, recreational equipment, and the like—or new and relatively untested products, especially pharmaceuticals, narrow exceptions can always be carved out for these products.

In conclusion, while stringent disclosure requirements may be appropriate for certain products, businesses and consumers alike are generally better off without the burdens imposed by requiring that businesses provide complete product information to all customers.

 

GMAT ISSUE类作文范文-85

Topic:

Advertising is the most influential and therefore the most important artistic achievement of the twentieth century.

Instructions:

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.

Sample Essay

Advertising is clearly the most influential art form in this century. It is therefore tempting to think it is also the most important. However, great artistic achievement is determined by criteria beyond mere influence. And when examined against these criteria, the genre of advertising does not measure up as truly important.

To begin with, great art inspires us to look at the human situation from new perspectives. For example, early impressionist paintings challenge our thinking about visual perception and about the nature of our reality we assume we see. Other works, like Rodin’s “The Thinker,” capture for our reflection the essential value of human rationality. In stark contrast, advertising encourages people not to think or reflect at all, but simply to spend.

In addition, the significance of great artistic achievement transcends time, even when it reflect a particular age. Yet advertising, by its very nature, is transient; in an eye blink, today’s hot image or slogan is yesterday’s news. Of course, the timelessness of a work cannot be determined in its own time. Still, it’s hard to imagine even the most powerful advertisement living beyond its current ad campaign.

Admittedly, one ad—Andy Warhol’s painting of the Campbell Soup can—has achieved timelessness. But notice the irony; the packaging or advertising image was banal until it was elevated above mere graphic design to high art. The lesson here is that advertising, in itself, probably will not achieve great importance as art. But taken up by the artist as content in a larger commentary on society, it can become transcendent.

In sum, artists will no doubt continue to comment on advertising and on the materialistic values it reflects and promotes. But the ads themselves, however influential in marketing terms, fail to fulfill all the criteria for important art.

嘉文博译郑重声明：