GMAT ISSUE类作文范文-111

Topic:

Because of recent advancements in business and technology, the overall quality of life in most societies has never been better than at the present time.

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

The stated opinion is that recent advancements in business and technology have made overall quality of life better than ever. I disagree somewhat with the speaker’s viewpoint. For although such advancements have improved our lives in many respects, they have also diminished our quality of life in other ways.

Clearly, progress in business and technology has produced many benefits. For example, we can research problems and their solutions in minutes on the Internet; productivity is at an all-time high. And we can get more done in less time, leaving more time for hobbies, entertainment or other leisure activities. We can even mix a little work into our leisure time, by taking our laptops and cell phones on vacation. This way, we can stay one step ahead on projects at work, anticipating deadlines and staying in touch with co-workers and important clients.

In addition, leisure time has itself been enhanced by business and technology. Never before have we had so many spectacular diversions available, or so many leisure- and entertainment-related businesses vying for our attention. Moreover, we can obtain everything from airline tickets to a language course and holiday wardrobe via the Internet, in the convenience of our own homes.

Nevertheless, advances in business and technology have compromised our quality of life as well. For all the wonders of computers, they have spawned their own special illnesses and ailments, like severe eyestrain, back and neck problems, and carpal tunnel syndrome. And though we now have a world of information available in a keystroke, some of this information—like pornography, hate group diatribes and bomb-building instructions—are harming our society, especially our children. Even apparently harmless material, like direct mail advertising and telephone soliciting, is endlessly annoying. Finally, family life is sometimes a casualty of all this progress, with parents and children spending more time transfixed before their computer monitors and less time together.

In conclusion, advances in business and technology are a mixed blessing. For while we enjoy many benefits of this so-called progress, in many ways it has changed our lives for the worse.

 

GMAT ISSUE类作文范文-112

Topic:

In most fields - including education, politics, and business - the prevailing philosophy never stays in place very long. This pattern of constantly shifting from one theoretical position to another is an inevitable reflection of human nature. People soon tire of the status quo.

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

The speaker claims the prevalent philosophies in many areas change frequently, a result of people tiring of the status quo. I disagree with this claim because, first, philosophical perspectives do not change frequently; and, second, it is not mere tiresomeness that lies at the root of such changes.

Consider first the field of higher education, where the longtime objectives of broadly educating and civilizing students now clash with business-oriented goal of producing efficient workhorses for the world of commerce. With the power of money behind it for ammunition, the latter just might win. But, this change will hardly be due to anyone’s boredom with the status quo. Instead, it will be an outcome of evolving social and economic forces.

Secondly, consider changes in political philosophy. A traditional liberal philosophy is that government should provide for the underprivileged through various public is that government should provide for the underprivileged though various public assistance programs. One outcome of a plain welfare program, however, was that recipients lingered for years on its rolls. The liberal point of view is now evolving to one that endorses some public stipend, but requires a return to the workforce. I think this change has come about as an attempt to improve ideology on the basis of past failures, not simply because people grew tired of the existing order.

Finally, consider the transition in business from models of rigid management control to the cooperative workplace. Whereas traditionally workers complied with orders dictated from the top and were motivated by strict reward/punishment systems, many employees today participate in the decisions affecting their work, and are motivated by more cooperative projects. This shift, moreover, is the result of extensive research that shows stricter models result in lower productivity.

In conclusion, philosophical changes in the areas of education, politics and business are not frequent, but slowly evolve. Furthermore, the transitions in question are the outcomes of socioeconomic change, research, and lessons from past failures, not tedium associated with the status quo.

 

GMAT ISSUE类作文范文-113

Topic:

It is essential that the nations of the world increase spending on the building of space stations and on the explorations of other planets, even if that means spending less on other government programs.

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

The author believes that increased spending on space on space stations and the exploration of other planets is essential. I disagree with this view, and I especially disagree with the claim that such spending should take place at the expense of other government programs.

Increased funding for the space program would be justified only if it could be shown that money spent on space programs would improve the lives of people on earth more than money spent on other areas that directly affect the well-being of humans. But there is no evidence that space programs can benefit people to a greater extent than, for example, medical care, medical research, education or environmental protection.

Admittedly, the space program has produced a great many ”spinoff” results that make life better in ways that have nothing to do with space. But if the nations of the world were to make as substantial an investment in medical research -- or environmental protection, or marine exploration-many unforeseen but useful byproducts would certainly result. And it seems unwise to argue that we should invest huge sums of money in a project, hoping it will produce virtually unforeseen good results, particularly when the alternative is to invest the same money in projects that are certain to produce substantial benefits.

It remains to consider whether the avowed goals of the space programs can justify increased spending. But those goals are unclear. We explore the universe out of scientific curiosity, which might warrant spending at the current level. But we are producing as much information now as the scientific community can reasonable assess. Without convincing arguments that some currently unstated goals will be served by more spending, there can be no justification for taking money from other programs.

Therefore, it is not essential to increase funding for the space program, or to sacrifice other programs on its behalf. Space exploration does not yield the obvious benefits to humans that other government programs do. And neither the promise of “spinoff” benefits nor the current goals of the programs justify increased spending.

 

GMAT ISSUE类作文范文-114

Topic:

Technology ultimately separates and alienates people more than it serves to bring them together.

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

I believe there is some truth to the speaker’s claim that technology separates and alienates people. However, there is certainly at least as much evidence that technology serves best to bring people together.

The most obvious way that technology separates and alienates people from one another is symbolized by the computer nerd sitting glazed-eyed before his computer screen in a basement, attic, bedroom, or office cubicle. While this scene is a caricature, of course, it’s true that practically everybody who uses email or surfs the Internet does so alone, with only his or her computer for company. And, to the extent that computer use increases the amount of time we collectively spend in solitary activities, it increases the amount of time we spend separated from our fellow humans.

On the other hand, technology has been a wonderful aid in bringing people together, or, in many cases, back together. Speaking for myself, I can say that I have become connected with quite a number of people via email with whom I might never have spoken otherwise. These include old friends with whom I had fallen out of the habit of writing regular letters but with whom I now correspond regularly because of the ease with which email can be sent and delivered.

A second way in which the new technology has brought people together is by allowing individuals who have common interests to make contact with one another. It is possible to find people who share one’s interest in nearly anything, from aardvarks to zippers. Such contacts may be ephemeral, but they can be a great source of information and amusement as well. I would hazard a guess that for each person who sits neurotically at home, eschewing personal contacts with others in favor of an exclusive relationship with his computer, there are hundreds of others who have parleyed their email capacity and their access to the Web into a continuous succession of new acquaintances.

In sum, it seems clear to me that technology has done more to bring people together than to isolate them.

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