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43、"To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards."
Whether a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards to be an effective leader has been a controversial issue for a long time perhaps since the first time human beings select some fortunate guys as their leaders. Although most of voters in domestic societies or subjects in totalitarian regimes wish their leaders as perfect models in all aspects, including ethical and moral ones, many leaders proved to be effective and successful in their terms of office with certain blemishes in regard to ethical and moral standards.
And the standards of social conducts will hardly be in high level if the monarch is extravagant and dissipated. In addition, moral regulations in leaders’ mind constrain from themselves abusing their authorities and are helpful to prevent corruption.
However, the list of effective leaders is starred with famous ones imperfect in terms of ethical and moral standards. Consider President John Kennedy. While he was in deep trouble of extramarital relations rumors, the space race program initialized and nuclear test ban treaty proposed by him in his administration made US the strongest competitor in space exploration and contributed prominently to the peace of world, respectively. What’s more, he has been ranked highly in public opinion among presidents in American history. Bill Clinton is another typical example. He was accused of various sexual affairs and once impeached for obstruction of justice, but the longest period of economic expansion after the Second World War testifies his effective leadership. Or consider an extreme case of Hitler, who framed the notorious ethnic genocide policy towards Jews, which offends basic humanity, let alone highest ethical and moral standards. By contrast, few historians will deny his role as an effective leader in the fields of economy and military. It is during his tenure that German transformed from a weak defeated country of World War I to a super power in Europe in merely a couple of decades. Also his unique military strategy of lighting attack became the nightmare of invaded countries such as Poland, a representative victim of lighting war, which was totally occupied by German troops just in five weeks.
As a matter of fact, there are other factors influencing the effectiveness of a public leader such as insight, creativity, managing skills, affinity to people and so forth. A leader with highest ethical and moral standards but without traits mentioned above will not become an effective one. Overemphasizing on the aspects of ethical and moral standards and ignoring other abilities of a public official will make a moral model rather than an effective leader. Furthermore, a leader can hardly satisfy everyone because the term highest is subjective and varied a lot as far as different individuals are concerned.
In summary, although high ethical and moral standards may help a leader in some situations, the assertion in title statement is arbitrary and superficial for lack of a full consideration of other factors important for an official to be an effective leader.
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212、"If a goal is worthy, then any means taken to attain it is justifiable."
The speaker asserts that any means can be taken to attain a goal if it is worthy, while he or she fails to take into account the cost caused by means taken to realize the goal. If adverse consequences derived from the pursuit of certain goals outweigh benefits we expect, then the means we take should not be considered to be justifiable.
To obtain personal economic success is well acknowledged and encouraged in modern society. Various means are available for reaching this goal. For example, you could choose to try your best to become an excellent businessman like Bill Gates. In this case, your success in terms of business not only realizes your dream–being a rich man, but also benefits lots of consumers due to your innovative products with high quality and sets up a typical example inspiring other young people. On the other hand, for an extreme case, stealing and bank robbery are another choices. While you can be rich over night, your “success” is based on the damage of interests of others, which is illegal, let alone justifiable.
The criterion for determining whether a means is justifiable also applies to a country and a society. Some countries rich of forest, for example, those in Amazon area, see deforestation and exports of timber as a main source of national revenue irrespective of the negative influence by doing this. As a matter of fact, large scale deforestation without sufficient restoration contributes largely to Green effect, aridity and desertification, posing a grave threat to the domestic people as well as the whole human being. Another relevant example is about China. As Chinese government intend to achieve instant improvement regarding the quality of Chinese people, the development of education especially in high level has been accelerated during recent years. More and more students are admitted with loosen standards in college and university. Nevertheless, more graduates find it is difficult to get jobs while lots of employers complain for the shortage of skillful mechanic who should be trained in vocational schools rather than institution of higher learning. Furthermore, high tuition fee forces many rural families into deep debt.
Moreover, we should pay very attention to the definition of a worthy goal. The term worthy is quite subjective and varies a lot as far as different persons are concerned. Although a “good” goal does not necessarily require good means, an evil goal undoubtedly means the need of evil means. Hitler framed heinous ethnic massacre policy towards Jews to demonstrate racial superiority of German. What’s more, terrorists revenge against society by the means of suicide bombings, killing both themselves and innocent citizens. So the standard of a worthy goal lies at least in the precondition of doing no harm to most of people and violating no laws.
In summary, a full evaluation should be made on whether a goal is really worthy and outcome caused by possible means before taking concrete actions, whether for an individual or a country.
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50、"In order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and university level, all faculty should be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach."
The speaker asserts that all faculties in college and university should spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach in order to improve the quality of instruction. While the cases this issue involved are various and complex, to make a conclusion without full analysis is superficial and arbitrary.
Admittedly, the quality of instruction is directly relative to the capabilities of faculty. So, as a way to improve qualification of faculty, to require them work outside will be conducive to broadening of their horizon and a more clear and exact understanding of job market. For instance, the experience of working outside college and university for faculty will help them find out what knowledge and skills are desired by employers and necessary to do a job well, which will benefits students when those specific knowledge and skills are introduced into courses later. One primary reason why it is difficult for graduates from college and university to find jobs is not that there are few job vacancies but that they have not mastered the knowledge and skills required by companies. From this point of view, the assertion above is reasonable.
However, as the energy of a person is limited, working outside will inevitably make a teacher not concentrate on preparing and teaching courses. The quality of instruction will hardly be satisfactory if teachers yawn from time to time and present lectures full of mistakes to students in class. As a matter of fact, many teachers, especially graduate instructors, have already been distracted much from the work they are responsible for. For example, some famous professors have so many seminars to attend and lectures to address, not in class but on social occasions, that their students complain for having not seen them for the better part of a month. In situations like this, if the busy professors are still required to work outside, you can imagine the feelings of their students. Perhaps, what should be done to those professors is to ask them to spend more time with their students, not just to encourage them to work outside.
Moreover, some disciplines such as theoretical physics need more devotion in laboratory to formulating models and deduction rather than working experience outside. As to other subjects, such as cosmology and archeology, there are no appropriate job positions at all for researchers in those fields. Besides, to require faculty to work outside will exert severe negative impacts on those field which develops fast. The research on nanoscaled materials is a typical example. Numerous academic papers are published and many breakthroughs are made every year even every month. Working outside for a researcher will only results in the lack of latest developments which is fatal to his or her study. In fact, aside from working outside, other means to train faculty are available and prove to be effective empirically. For example, inviting notable scholars to present lectures regarding academic front and trend, taking part in symposium regularly and so on. On the other hand, the quality of instruction is influenced by many other factors, such as learning atmosphere, teaching facilities and curriculum provision. Overemphasis on the qualification of faculty may make us ignore the core of problems.
In summary, though to require all faculty to work outside the academic world can not be denied thoroughly, the management of corresponding college and university should undertake a full investigation to decide who should work outside, for how long a period and the measures to take to assure the quality of instruction during their leaving.
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208 "The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people."
The speaker asserts above one can tell much about a society’s ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people because the way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. Although some information about a society undoubtedly can be gathered through the observation of the appearance and behavior of its people, overemphasizing what its people act, dress and look and ignoring other aspects relative to a society will not lead to an objective knowledge of a society in its entirety.
The appearance and behavior of people can reveal their attitudes and interests, further reflecting a society’s ideas and values. French are famous for their beautiful and fashionable dresses, showing their romantic trait, while German usually try their best to do a job perfectly, indicating they are prim and meticulous. To be more specific and concrete, just by reviewing the change of Chinese in terms of dress and behavior will you find the transformation of Chinese Society in past decades. All Chinese adults, whether men or women, were dressed in clothes with same color and style, which were fabricated by same materials. Workers commute to work places by the same bicycles—there were few bicycles specifically designed for women then. In addition, the forms of entertainment are rare: all songs are to chant the eulogy of the Communist Party of China and there is almost no pop music for the fact that people who composed and sang them would probably be sent into jail. Furthermore, people only shake hands for greeting when meeting each other because other gestures such as hug were considered to be immoral then. But nowadays, people in China are in various clothes and sing any song they like. Besides, there are dancing rooms, Karaoke and home parties. No one will be blamed for kissing in public, let alone hugs. Moreover, the state-run China Central Television, marked with tedious leaders’ speech and rigid official news, has held a beauty contest and broadcasted it lively, which is beyond imagination before.
However, we should take into account the exceptions that sometimes appearance and behavior of people will cheat our eyes. For an extreme case, a spy, who disguise himself or herself to win others’ trust and by which obtain what he or she wants. In this case, the appearance and behavior does not reveal one’s true attitudes and interests. As to a country or a society, similar exceptions also exist. We can not know much precise and exact information about a country by observing its national grand ceremonies because people in those activities act more as political symbols rather than independent individuals. You probably will not connect the excited and happy crowds engaged in celebrations of the establishment of North Korea with their deprivation of freedom of speech by totalitarianism.
In summary, it is hard for one to completely and objectively know about a society only by observing the appearance and behavior of its people. More studies should be undertaken, such as the history, culture and customs of a society to get a full understanding of a society.
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一到冬天，北方的太阳能用户就开始为太阳能被冻着担心了。水箱被冻上的可能性不大，毕竟里面有热水，上下水管则经常冻死，轻则没有热水用，重则水管直接爆裂，带来的麻烦不小。昨天想到了三种可能的解决办法，很简单，就是用电加热，示意图如下：
第一种是单纯的在水管管壁内部包一层导电箔，外部用导线连接形成回路；
第二种是管壁内层加入导电箔，把裸露的导线放在管中心，这样可以内外同时加热，有利于冰的均匀融化；
第三种就是一个加长型的热得快了，管内装两根导线形成回路。
个人比较偏爱第二种方法。
昨天查了一下，现在有一种热水器加热带，用法大概是临时包在水管外部，通电加热来融冰。这种方法虽然可行但是比较麻烦，谁愿意老是跑到楼顶给水管裹个带子？
进一步，可以搞一个芯片，利用水与冰的电阻不同进行非均匀加热，在有冰的地方集中加热，一来提高加热效率，二来节约能源。相信以现在的技术肯定能解决这个小小的电路问题，我本外行，就力不从心了。
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