2012gre写作宝典：GRE作文范文大全（45）
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On the other hand, the claim amounts to an overstatement when it comes to today's
scientific endeavors. In medicine the most common procedures today are cosmetic; these
procedures strike me as highly impractical, given the health risks and expense involved.
Admittedly, today's digital revolution serves a host of practical concerns, such as
communicating and accessing information more quickly and efficiently. Much of chemical
research is also aimed at practicality--at providing convenience and enhancing our immediate
comfort. Yet, in many other respects scientific research is not driven toward immediate
practicality but rather toward broad, long-term objectives: public health, quality of life, and
environmental protection.
In sum, practicality may be our idol today when it comes to education, the arts, and politics;
but with respect to science I find the claim to be an unfair generalization. Finally, query whether
the claim begs the question. After all, practicality amounts to far more than meeting immediate
needs; it also embraces long-term planning and prevention aimed at ensuring our future
quality of life, and our very survival as a species.
Issue 95
"It is easy to welcome innovation and accept new ideas. What most people find difficult,
however, is accepting the way these new ideas are put into practice."
The speaker maintains that it is easy to accept innovation and new ideas, yet difficult to
accept how they are put to use. In my view the speaker has it backwards when it comes to
socio-political ideas, at least in our democratic society. Nevertheless, I tend to agree with the
speaker insofar as scientific innovation is concerned.
In the areas of politics and law, new ideas are not often easily accepted. More often than not,
the status quo affords people a measure of security and predictability in terms of what they can
expect from their government and what rights and duties they have under the law. The
civil-fights movement of the 1960s aptly illustrates this point. The personal freedoms and rights
championed by leading civil-rights leaders of that era threatened the status quo, which
tolerated discrimination based on race and gender, thereby sanctioning prejudice of all kinds.
The resulting civil unrest, especially the protests and riots that characterized the late 1960s,
was dear evidence that new ideas were not welcome. And today those who advocate gay and
lesbian rights are encountering substantial resistance as well, this time primarily from certain
religious quarters.
Yet once society grows to accept these new ideas, it seems that it has an easier time
accepting how they are put into practice. The explanation for this lies in the fact that our
system of laws is based on legal precedent. New ideas must past muster among the
government's legislative, judicial, and executive branches, and ultimately the voters, before
these ideas can be codified, implemented and enforced. Once they've passed the test of our
democratic and legal systems, they are more readily welcomed by the citizenry at large.
In contrast, consider innovations in the natural sciences. It seems that we universally
embrace any new technology in the name of progress. Of course there are always in formed
dissenters with legitimate concerns. For example, many scientists strongly opposed the
Manhattan Project, by which nuclear warfare was made possible. Innovations involving
alternative energy sources meet with resistance from those who rely on and profit from fossil
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fuels. Some sociologists and psychologists claim that advances in Internet technology WIU
alienate society's members from one another. And opponents of genetic engineering predict
certain deleterious social and political consequences. 感谢您阅读《GRE作文范文大全（45） 》一文，出国留学网(liuxue86.com)编辑部希望本文能帮助到您。
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