李承——2009-9-1 argu147 issue88
lc.itper
2009-9-1 argu147 issue88
上次粘了几个附件，也没有列提纲，被zc同学批评为“不地道”...于是这次改进之~不用手下留情！
TOPIC: ARGUMENT147 - The following appeared in an editorial in a business magazine.
"Although the sales of Whirlwind video games have declined over the past two years, a recent survey of video-game players suggests that this sales trend is about to be reversed. The survey asked video-game players what features they thought were most important in a video game. According to the survey, players prefer games that provide lifelike graphics, which require the most up-to-date computers. Whirlwind has just introduced several such games with an extensive advertising campaign directed at people 10 to 25 years old, the age-group most likely to play video games. It follows, then, that the sales of Whirlwind video games are likely to increase dramatically in the next few months."
WORDS: 406 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2009-9-1 8:50:48
提纲：
1. graphics -?-> sales
2. people 10 to 25 years old?
3. sufficiency
In this editorial, the arguer cites a survey that players prefer games with lifelike graphics. The arguer also points out that Whirlwind has introduced several such games with an advertising campaign directed at people 10 to 25 years old. On the basis of this evidence, the arguer concludes that the sales of Whirlwind video fames are likely to increase dramatically in the next few months, which is specious on several grounds.
To begin with, the arguer underlying assumes that it was the poor graphics that brought the decline over the past two year and games with lifelike graphics can bring Whirlwind good sales performance, which is open to doubt. It is entirely possible that the graphics of games over the past two years were fantastic already, but the high price levels were responsible for the decline. Or perhaps its poor sound-effect explained the low sales. Without eliminating these and other possibilities, the conclusion that games with lifelike graphics will sale well is untenable.
Another flaw in this editorial is the dubious assumption that an extensive advertising campaign directed at people 10 to 25 years old will help Whirlwind increase its sales. There is no age limitation in the survey, so the people 10 to 25 years old may not hold the general opinions that good graphic effect is most important in a video game. It is likely that they prefer games with moving story-line to good graphics. In lack of such evidence that people 10 to 25 years old also like games with lifelike graphics, the advertising campaign is rootless.
Even assuming all the foregoing assumptions, the sufficiency and the necessity of the strategy that Whirlwind are to increase its video games sales by introducing games with lifelike graphics is questionable. Perhaps the young people don't have such most up-to-date computers which are required for the games, so they will not buy the video games though they want to. Unless the arguer takes this into account, the claim that sales of Whirlwind video games will increase in the next few months is unwarranted.
In the final analysis, the editorial cannot convince me that the sales of Whirlwind video games will increase dramatically in the next few months. To strengthen it, I suggest that the arguer should provide more information about the decline two years ago. It would also be helpful to analyze the interests of all the people and consider the sufficiency of the strategy carefully.
TOPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
WORDS: 536 TIME: 01:00:40 DATE: 2009-9-1 15:25:15
提纲：
1. tech can change our daily lives and some customs of the festival
2. tech cannot change festivals themselves, family and social ethics and humanities
With the technology developing, our lives have been changed. Nevertheless, some basic customs and ethics remain the same.
Few would deny that science and technologies have much influence on our lives. On the one hand, we alter our daily lives because of the technology. With the cars and planes, we can travel to other places in one hour where we used to spend a day on the back of horses. We write few letters to communicate with others, instead we keep contact with each other by phone and the internet, which we can never imagine before; at ancient time even the most important messages such as wars can be only passed by wolf-smoke. Now we can cook meals with microwave stoves, receive information all across the world easily on TV, make the house cool in summer and warm in winter with the help of air conditioners. Technologies help us a lot.
On the other hand, certain customs of the festival are also changed by technologies. Spring Festival is the most significant festival in China when all the family members get together wishing for good luck in the coming year. In the middle 1980s, televisions were already common in ordinary Chinese family, and watching the Spring Festival Gala has become a custom since then. Moreover, greeting friends using short messages of the cell phones during the festival is very popular now. In short, technologies do make us more comfortable and has changed the way we live.
However, the core customs and ethics remain unchanged. Firstly, let's come to the festivals again. Although the technologies have changed some of the customs of festivals, the genuine meanings of the festivals are not altered. At least, festivals are still there. Christmas, Thanks Giving Day, Carnivals, Mid-Autumn Festival, all these festivals are celebrated by the same purposes through their long history.
Secondly, technologies do not change the family ethics and the social ethics. The young must show respect to the old; students should respect their teachers; we should not cheat others and we ought to obey the laws -- I believe these facts are not, and will never be changed though the high-tech has much power on our lives.
Finally, in a deeply level, the humanities are the same no matter how the technologies develop. Merits such as diligence, brave, honest, hope and demerits such as lust, envy, sloth, gluttony, greed are always there deep in our hearts. Maybe the Genentech can better our body, but the demerits could not be corrected only by the technology, nor will the merits be eroded away.
The social customs and ethics are formed not by the technology level of human, but by the values on ourselves and on the world in order to express what we hope and what we attach importance on. Technologies may change the way these values are expressed, just like how Chinese greet their friends during the Spring Festival, nonetheless the technologies cannot change the core values. In a nutshell, technologies don’t determine the social customs and ethics.
In sum, the external appearance of our lives has altered with the development of the technology, which shows in the way that technologies influence customs and ethics. However, the internal values remain the same, and technologies cannot determine the social customs and ethics.