GRE issue写作方法三步走

bailiedu.com GRE issue写作方法三步走 GRE ISSUE作文是一个长久以来困扰中国考生的问题。好多考生面对ISSUE的题目,就不知道如从下手,怎么去完成一篇文章。其实,就每道题而言,逻辑结构取决于思路,思路取决于对ISSUE问题理解的深度。因此,对一个ISSUE题来说,我们应该争取对其有较深刻的了解,而不是一味地背一些别人的提纲。因为死记提纲无助于对问题的了解,纵然能在考场上写出提纲,而若无对每一论点的了解和逻辑体系的支撑,思想便很可能混乱,所作之文仍会有逻辑不清,说理不透之嫌。 针对GRE作文ISSUE的特点,具体地介绍一下 GRE写作ISSUE的三大步骤:分析题目、论证分析、提纲写作。下面一个具体的例子对这三个步骤进行阐述。

例如:“It is dangerous to trust only intelligence.”只相信智力是危险的。

【分析题目】

拿到一个题目后,我们不要忙于去写,一定要先对题目进行详细的分析。通过题目我们知道主要论证的是intelligence的作用,因此,智力是这个题目最关键的突破点。

【论证分析】

知道了题目主要围绕什么展开论述,那么我们就此进行进一步的分析。智力即是我们所说的智商,智商对一个人固然重要,它是人们成功的基础,但是并不是唯一的因素。一个人的成功还取决于其他的因素,如自身的勤奋、努力和勇敢等等。

另外,这个题目可以再引申去论证智商的作用,那么有了智商就自然引出了情商这一概念,智商和情商,都是人的重要的心理品质,都是事业成功的重要基础。这样,题目就可以论证智商与情商两者中,谁的作用比较大。长期以来,人们习惯于将智商作为衡量人才的标准,而现代研究表明,人才成功的决定因素不仅仅是智商,还有情商。如果没有智商的话,我们的知识领域,无论是自然科学还是社会科学都是一片荒芜,因此,智商对我们人类社会的发展与进步起着重大的作用,我们不能忽视智商的作用。但是,智商并不是社会进步发展的唯一推动力,如果一个人光靠智商的话,待人接物都不付出感情的话,那么他就处于精神的不毛之地,精神的空虚状态,这也正是情商所起的作用。情商主要反映一个人感受、理解、运用、表达、控制和调节自己情 感的能力,以及处理自己与他人之间的情感关系的能力。情商所反映个体把握与处理情感问题的能力。

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bailiedu.com 通过上述的分析,我们知道不能仅仅相信智力的作用,还要考虑到其他的因素。因此,我们应在两者之间寻求一个平衡点,将两者有效地结合起来。

地址:北京市海淀区海淀北二街8号中关村SOHO A区 2层

电话:400-890-6000传真:010-82607462

网址:bailiedu.com邮编:100080

 

第二篇:GRE写作issue素材 (4)

Section four: Mass Media

1. Propaganda Techniques in Today’s Advertising

Propaganda is not just the tool of totalitarian governments and dictators. Rather, propaganda is all around us—in the form of commercials and advertisements. The author of this selection shows how Madison Avenue uses many of the techniques typical of political propaganda to convince us that we need certain products and services. After reading the essay, you may regard in a different light the jingles, endorsements, and slogans characteristic of today’s commercials.

Americans, adults and children alike, are being seduced. They are being brainwashed. And few of us protest. Why? Because the seducers and the brainwashers are the advertisers we willingly invite into our homes. We are victims, content—even eager—to be victimized. We read advertisers’ propaganda message in newspapers and magazines; we watch their alluring images on television. We absorb their messages and images into our subconscious. We all do it—even those of us who claim to see through advertisers’ tricks and therefore feel immune to advertising’s charm. Advertisers lean heavily on propaganda to sell their products, whether the “products” are a brand of toothpaste, a candidate for office, or a particular political viewpoint.

Propaganda is a systematic effort to influence people’s opinions, to win them over to a certain view or side. Propaganda is not necessarily concerned with what is true or false, good or bad. Propagandists simply want people to believe the messages being sent. Often, propagandists will use outright lies or more subtle deceptions to sway people’s opinions. In a propaganda war, any tactic is considered fair.

When we hear the word “propaganda,” we usually think of a foreign menace: anti-American radio programs broadcast by a totalitarian regime or brainwashing tactics practiced on hostages. Although propaganda may seem relevant only in the political arena, the concept can be applied fruitfully to the way products and ideas are sold in advertising. Indeed, the vast majority of us are targets in advertisers’ propaganda war. Every day, we are bombarded with slogans, print ads, commercials, packaging claims, billboards, trademarks, logos, and designer brands-all forms of propaganda. One study reports that each of us, during an average day, is exposed to over five hundred advertising claims of various types. This saturation may even increase in the future since current trends include ads on movie screens, shopping carts, videocassettes, even public television.

What kind of propaganda techniques do advertisers use? There are seven basic types:

1. Name Calling Name calling is a propaganda tactic in which negatively

charged names are hurled against the opposing side or competitor. By using such names, propagandists try to arouse feelings of mistrust, fear, and hate in their audiences. For example, a political advertisement may label an opposing candidate a “loser,” “fence-sitter,” or “warmonger”. Depending on the advertiser’s target market, labels such as “a friend of big business” or “a dues-paying member of the party in power” can be the epithets that damage an

opponent. Ads for products may also use name calling. An American label of foreignness will have unpleasant connotation in many people’s minds. A childhood rhyme claims that “name can never hurt me,” but name calling is an effective way to damage the opposition, whether it is another car maker or 2 congressional candidates.

2. Glittering Generalities using glittering generalities is the opposite of name calling. In this case, advertisers surround their products with attractive—and slippery—words and phrases. They use vague terms that are difficult to define and that may have different meanings to different people: freedom, democratic, all-American, progressive, Christian, and justice. Many such words have strong, affirmative overtones. This kind of languages stirs positive feelings in people, feelings that may spill over to the product or idea being pitched. As with name calling, the emotional response may overwhelm logic. Target audiences accept the product without thinking very much about what the glittering generalities mean—or whether they even apply to the product. After all, how can anyone oppose “truth, justice, and the American way”?

The ads for politicians and political causes often use glittering generalities because such “buzz words” can influence votes. Election slogans include high-sounding but basically empty phrases like the following:

“He cares about people.” (That’s nice, but is he a better candidate than his opponent?)

“Vote for progress.” (Progress by whose standards?)

“They’ll make this country great again.” (What does “great” mean? Does “great” mean the same thing to others as it does to me?)

“Vote for the future.” (What kind of future?)

“If you love American, then vote for Phyllis Smith.” (If I don’t vote for Smith, does that mean I don’t love American?)

Ads for consumer goods are also sprinkled with glittering generalities. Product names, for instance, are supposed to evoke good feelings: Luvs diapers, New Freedom feminine hygiene products, joy liquid detergent, Loving Care hair color, Almost Home cookies, and Yankee Doodle pastries. Product slogans lean heavily on vague but comforting phrases: Kinney is “The Great American Shoe Store,” General Electric “brings good things to life,” and Dow Chemical “lets you do great things.” Chevrolet, we are told, is the “heartbeat of America,” and Chrysler boasts cars that are “built by Americans for Americans.” 3. Transfers In transfer, advertisers try to improve the image of a product by associating it with a symbol most people respect, like the American flag or Uncle Sam. The advertisers hope that the prestige attached to the symbol will carry over to the product. Many companies use transfer devices to identify their products: Lincoln Insurance shows a profile of the president; Continental Insurance portrays a Revolutionary War minuteman; Amtrak’s logo is red, white, and blue; Liberty Mutual’s corporate symbol is the Statue of Liberty; Allstate’s name is cradled by a pair of protective, fatherly hands.

Corporations also use the transfer techniques when they sponsor prestigious shows on radio and television. These shows function as symbols of dignity and class. Kraft Corporation, for instance, sponsored a “Leonard Bernstein Conducts Beethoven” concert, while Gulf Oil is the sponsor of National Geographic specials and Mobil supports public television’s Masterpiece Theater. In this way, corporations can reach an educated, influential audience and, perhaps, improve their public image by associating themselves with quality programming.

Political ads, of course, practically wrap themselves in the flag. Ads for a political candidate often show the Washington Monument, a Fourth of July parade, the Stars and Strips, a bald eagle soaring over the mountains, or a white-steeple church on the village green. The national anthem or “America the Beautiful” may play softly in the background. Such appeals to Americans’ love of country can surround the candidate with an aura of patriotism and integrity.

4. Testimonial The testimonial is one of advertiser’s most-loved and most-used propaganda techniques. Similar to the transfer device, the testimonial capitalizes on the admiration people have for a celebrity to make the product shine more brightly—even though the celebrity is not an expert on the product being sold.

Print and television ads offer a nonstop parade of testimonials: here’s Cher for Holiday Spas; here’s basketball star Michael Jordan eating Wheaties; Michael Jackson sings about Pepsi.

American Express features a slew of well-known people who assure us that they never go anywhere without their American Express card. Testimonials can sell movies, too; newspaper ads for films often feature favorable comments by well-known reviewers. And, in recent years, testimonials have played an important role in pitching books; the backs of paperbacks frequently list complimentary blurbs by celebrities.

Political candidates, as well as their ad agencies, know the value of testimonials. Barbra Streisand lent her star appeal to the presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis, while Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed George Bush. Even controversial social issues are debated by celebrities. The nuclear freeze, for instance, starred Paul Newman for the pro side and Charlton Heston for the con.

As illogical as testimonials sometimes are (Pepsi’s Michael Jackson, for instance, is a health-food adherent who does not drink soft drinks), they are effective propaganda. We like the person so much that we like the product too. 5. Plain Folks The plain folks approach says, in effect, “Buy me or vote for me. I’m just like you.” Regular folks will surely like Bob Evans’s Down on the Farm Country Sausage or good old-fashioned Country time Lemonade. Some ads emphasize the idea that “we’re all in the same boat.” We see people making long-distance calls for just the reasons we do—to put the baby on the phone to Grandma or to tell Mom we love her. And how do these folksy, warmhearted (usually saccharine) scenes affect us? They’re supposed to make us feel that AT&T—the multinational corporate giant—has the same values we do.

Similarly, we are introduced to the little people at Ford, the ordinary folks who work on the assembly line, not to bigwigs in their executive officers. What’s the purpose of such an approach? To encourage us to buy a car built by these honest, hardworking “everyday Joes” who care about quality as much as we do.

Political advertisements make almost as much use of the “plain folks” appeal as they do of transfer devices. Candidates wear hard hats, farmers’ caps, and assembly-line coveralls. They jog around the block and carry their own luggage through the airport. The idea is to convince voters that the candidates are average people, not the elite—not wealthy lawyers or executives but the common citizen.

6. Bandwagon In the bandwagon technique, advertisers’ pressure, “Everyone’s doing it. Why don’t you?” This kind of propaganda often succeeds because many people have a deep desire not to be different. Political ads tell us to vote for the “winning candidate.” The advertisers know we tend to feel comfortable doing what others do; we want to be on the winning team. Or ads show a series of people proclaiming, “I’m voting for the Senator. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t.” Again, the audience feels under pressure to conform.

In the marketplace, the bandwagon approach lures buyers. Ads tell us that “nobody, but all like Sara Lee” (the message is that you must be weird if you don’t). They tell us that “most people prefer Brand X two to one over other leading brands” (to be like the majority, we should buy Brand X). If we don’t drink Pepsi, we’re left out of “the Pepsi generation.” To take part in “America’s favorite health kick,” the National Dairy Council urges us to drink milk. And Honda motorcycle ads, praising the virtues of being a follower, tell us, “Follow the leader. He’s on a Honda.”

Why do these propaganda techniques work? Why do so many of us buy the products, viewpoints, and candidates urged on us by propaganda message? They work because they appeal to our emotions, not to our minds. Often, in fact, they capitalize on our prejudices and biases. For example, if we are convinced that environmentalists are radicals who want to destroy America’s record of industrial growth and progress, then we will applaud the candidate who refers to them as “tree huggers.” Clear thinking requires hard work: analyzing a claim, researching the facts, examining both sides of an issue, using logic to see the flaws in an argument. Many of us would rather let the propagandists do our thinking for us.

Because propaganda is so effective, it is important to detect it and understand how it is used. We may conclude, after close examination, that some propaganda sends a truthful, worthwhile message. Some advertising, for instance, urges us not to drive drunk, to become volunteers, to contribute to charity. Even so, we must be aware that propaganda is being used. Otherwise, we will have consented to handing over to others our independence of thought and action.

2. TV Addiction

The word “addiction” is often used loosely and wryly in conversation. People will refer to themselves as “mystery book addicts” or “cookie addicts.” E.B. White writes of his annual surge of interest in gardening: “We are hooked and are making an attempt to kick the habit.” Yet nobody really believes that reading mysteries or ordering seeds by catalogue is serious enough to be compared with addictions to heroin or alcohol. The word “addiction” is here used jokingly to denote a tendency to overindulge in some pleasurable activity.

People often refer to being “hooked on TV.” Does this, too, fall into the lighthearted category of cookie eating and other pleasures that people pursue with unusual intensity, or is there a kind of television viewing that falls into the more serious category of destructive addiction?

When we think about addiction to drugs or alcohol, we frequently focus on negative aspects, ignoring the pleasure that accompany drinking or drug-taking. And yet the essence of any serious addiction is a pursuit of pleasure, a search for a “high” that normal life does not supply. It is only the inability to function without the addictive substance that is dismaying, the dependence of the organism upon a certain experience and an increasing inability to function normally without it. Thus a person we’ll take two or there drinks at the end of the day not merely for the pleasure drinking provides, but also because he “doesn’t feel normal” without them.

An addict does not merely pursue a pleasurable experience and need to experience it in order to function normally. He needs to repeat it again and again. Something about that particular experience makes life without it less than complete. Other potentially pleasurable experiences are no longer possible, for under the spell of the addictive experience, his life is peculiarly distorted. The addict craves an experience and yet he is never really satisfied. The organism may be temporarily sated, but soon it begins to crave again.

Finally a serious addiction is distinguished from a harmless pursuit of pleasure by its distinctly destructive elements. A heroin addict, for instance, leads a damaged life: his increasing need for heroin in increasing doses prevents him from working, from maintaining relationships, from developing in human ways. Similarly an alcoholic’s life is narrowed and dehumanized by his dependence on alcohol.

Let us consider television viewing in the light of the conditions that define serious addictions. Not unlike drugs or alcohol, the television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and enter into a pleasurable and passive mental state. The worries and anxieties of reality are as effectively deferred by becoming absorbed in a television program as by going on a “trip” induced by drugs or alcohol. And just as alcoholics are only inchoately aware of their addiction, feeling that they control their drinking more than they really do (“I can cut it out any time I want—I just like to have three or four drinks before dinner”), people similarly overestimate their control over television watching. Even as they put off other activities to spend hour after hour watching television, they feel they could easily resume, living in a different, less passive style. But somehow or other while the television set is present

in their homes, the click doesn’t sound. With television pleasures available, those other experiences seem less attractive, more difficult somehow.

A heavy viewer (a college English instructor) observes: “I find television almost irresistible. When the set is on, I cannot ignore it. I can’t turn it off. I feel sapped, willess, enervated. As I reach out to turn off the set, the strength goes out of my arms. So I sit there for hours and hours.”

The self-confessed television addict often feels he “ought” to do other things—but the fact that he doesn’t read and doesn’t plant his garden or sew or crochet or play games or have conversations means that those activities are no longer as desirable as television viewing. In a way a heavy viewer’s life is as imbalanced by his television “habit” as a drug addict’s or an alcoholic’s. He is living in a holding pattern, as it were, passing up the activities that lead to growth or development or a sense of accomplishment. This is one reason people talk about their television viewing so ruefully, so apologetically. They are aware that it is an unproductive experience, that almost any other endeavor is more worthwhile by any human measure.

Finally it is the adverse effect of television viewing on the lives of so many people that defines it as a serious addiction. The television habit distorts the sense of time. It renders other experiences vague and curiously unreal while taking on a greater reality for itself. It weakens relationships by reducing and sometimes eliminating normal opportunities for talking, for communicating.

And yet television does not satisfy, else why would the viewer continue to watch hour after hour, day after day? “The measure of health,” writes Lawrence Kubie “is flexibility and especially the freedom to cease when sated.” But the television viewer can never be sated with his television experience—they do not provide the true nourishment that satiation requires—and thus he finds that he cannot stop watching.

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