I26,最后两周了，求拍求意见~

大剑Jade

26. The luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life prevent people from developing into truly strong and independent individuals.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.


With the development of technology and science, this issue is discussed accordingly: will these developments be detrimental to us and impede us from growing into truly strong and independent individuals? While this issue is far from being settled for good, certain aspects concerning it might be able to help when considered.
First off, admittedly, the luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life brought by the development of technology make people soft compared with ancient people to some extent. People living in that time were able to bear a great many pains and survive through a host of fatal factors. For example, in ancient China scholars must go to the capital to participate in a exam to get culled. Since there was no tool of transportation like planes or cars, these scholars could only walk or ride to it. Sometimes it would be thousands of miles away from which they were living in. Thus the spirit of walking across nearly the whole continent should be admired as well as esteemed, whereas people now are complaining the tough trip on a bus or a ship. Another example is that the ancient people might bear the pain of hunger or thirst, due to a lack of knowledge of producing foods efficiently. But this could result in their relatively healthier bodies compared with ones at present. People now are suffering diseases like diabetes more often than not, because the increasing productions of foods grant them the opportunities to eat more in a meal while their ability to digest the foods has not been strengthened during thousands of years of evolution. In these cases, we might conclude that the populace at present could be weaker than the ancient one at least at the aspect of bodies, owing to the conveniences and luxuries of contemporary life.
Nonetheless, we should also notice that the cases discussed above are not sufficient to support the contention that the people nowadays are weaker. For instance, people’s knowledge has been enlarged hugely, and the development of medicine could succor most people struck by fatal damages. This couldn’t be even imagined at the ancient time, when people might be able to live up to merely 40 or less. They died because of a lack of protection of technology, so they could be termed “weak” as well compared with the people at present. Moreover, a lot of tools of exercise are accessible to most people, which could contribute to help them maintain states of health as long as they are willing to use the tools. In this light, people are certainly more healthier and stronger than the ancient ones, thanks to the luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life. Thus the point of people being strong at present might hold true for sure.
In retrospect, it still remains a herculean task for people to judge the benefits and detriments the luxuries and conveniences brought us. Nevertheless, what is the key to tackling this problem is to understand the definition of strength. In my point of view, strength is never narrowed to certain aspects concerning simply bodies or minds. We should be comprehensive and reflect about all factors before finally drawing a conclusion.
527words,29min

ppguo

herculean 这个词我还真没有见人用过。

大剑Jade

关于神的词，比喻用法，评论性的文章而且是非常棘手的问题经常用。

ppguo

是很学术的文章吧？真的不是生活中常用的。

大剑Jade

呃，是啊，说实话我也是最近才看到的，挺学术的文章

ppguo

老美都讲究浅显易懂，所以如果有简单的词可以用，就不提倡用高深的词。美国的教科书写得风格都是很白话，叫人爱不释手啊。

大剑Jade

嗯，有道理~呵呵，我一直在看生化（我的专业）的经典美版教材，的确是因为描述的浅显易懂而质量很高呢~只是还是有点疑问，就是GRE的AW的风格究竟是偏向于教材的风格还是学术评论的呢？当然，让人看懂是必须的，但在这个前提下，或许更加专业的词应该能起到更好的效果，因为不容易发生歧义——一些浅见，希望指正啊~~

ppguo

想想看GRE考试的文章是给谁看的？考官里面可能没有一个是有理工科背景的。所以我觉得写出来的东西，应该是那种不需要任何专业背景就能看懂的。

大剑Jade

嗯~~不过herculean task这个词不是理工科的，而是文学评论常用的，我估计大概应该相当于国内高中语文水平的词组吧~这个一开始我是在纽约时报上看到的，后来在读者文摘上也有，再后来看到某个范文也这么用，所以就。。。

ppguo

那是我的词汇量不够，献丑了。