20. In this age of automation, many people complain that humans are becoming subservient to machines. But, in fact, machines are continually improving our lives.
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
Sample Essay 1:
The issue of whether machines are an advantage or disadvantage to humans is a controversial one. On the one hand, humans are more and more dependent on machines. On the other hand, machines are making our lives better and better. However, in the final analysis, I believe that the advantages of machines outweigh their disadvantages.
One reason for my belief is that machines have made our lives much easier than before. For example, with help of my computer, I can navigate on the Internet everyday, searching for the information I need, while my automatic washing machine is doing my laundry for me. My mobile phone connects me with my friends and my office wherever I go. I cannot image what my life would be like without all these machines and devices.
Another reason for my belief is that machines can do many dangerous work for us. For example, a robot bomb expert can dismantle a bomb for the police so that no one will be hurt. Other robots can work under extreme weather conditions.
Perhaps the best reason for my belief is that machines have opened more and more possibilities for humans. For instance, a spaceship can take us to outer space where we had never dared to go. Likewise, a submarine can bring us to the bottom of the ocean, which used to be forbidden area to humans. I believe that there will be more machines doing hazardous jobs.
For all these reasons, I therefore believe that machines are so important to humans that we cannot do without them. Of course, machines have also brought with it many disadvantages. Such machines as calculators, cars, typewriters have made some people lazy, stupid, weak, and clumsy. However, whether machines are beneficial to humans depends on how you use them. We can use machines to save us time and then use the time to do more creative work or to enjoy life. Anyway, there are still more advantages than disadvantages.
Sample Essay 2:
In some respects humans serve machines, while in other respects machines serve us by enhancing our lives. While mechanical automation may have diminished our quality of life on balance , digital automation is doing more to improve our lives than to undermine our autonomy.
Consider first mechanical automation, particularly assembly line manufacturing. With automation came a loss of pride in and alienation from ones work. In this sense, automation both diminished our quality of life and rendered us slaves to machines in our inability to reverse progress. Admittedly, mechanical automation spawned entire industries, creating jobs, stimulating economic growth, and supplying a plethora of innovative conveniences. Nevertheless, the sociological and environmental price of progress may have outweighed its benefits.
Digital automation has brought its own brand of alienation. Computer automation, and especially the Internet, breeds information overload and steals our time and attention away from family, community, and coworkers. In these respects, digital automation tends to diminish our quality of life and create its own legion of human slaves. On the other hand, by relegating repetitive tasks to computers, digital technology has spawned great advances in medicine and physics, helping us to better understand the world, to enhance our health, and to prolong our lives. Digital automation has also emancipated architects, artists, designers, and musicians, by opening up creative possibilities and by saving time. Perhaps most important, however, information technology makes possible universal access to information, thereby providing a democratizing influence on our culture.
In sum, while mechanical automation may have created a society of slaves to modem conveniences and unfulfilling work, digital automation holds more promise for improving our lives without enslaving us to the technology.
英语四类典型并列句
条件状语从句
比较need和dare
英语基础语法——并列句
will和would
并列连词与并列结构
带有until状语从句的主句谓语有何特点
连词for的用法
表示一…就…的结构
in case用作连词的用法
or的用法归纳
目的状语从句
原因状语从句
if与whether的用法区别
比较while, when, as
yet的用法
表原因关系
unless与if…not
方式状语从句
because, since, as, for的用法区别
高考英语考查连词while的四关键点
状语从句
语法考题考查but的四个热点
带to 的情态动词
表示选择的并列结构
not only…but also…是否一定要连接对称结构
并列连词词组的用法
结果状语从句
连词so的用法
and的六点用法
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