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.
掌握新GRE阅读中的两大特性
新GRE阅读方法训练:研究式学习方法
新GRE阅读 难句分类及其难句高分修炼秘籍
GRE阅读考试四大类难句解读
GRE阅读考试难句解读(七)
GRE逻辑阅读7大语法结构:分割结构
GRE阅读考试中的长句心法
GRE阅读经典句型总结(5)
30天全面攻克GRE阅读难句
如何应对GRE逻辑阅读的陌生词汇
新GRE阅读:长难句的典型结构分析
新GRE阅读长句技巧解析
新GRE阅读:不可不知的2种逻辑思维
怎样复习GRE阅读才能取得高分
GRE阅读经典句型总结(6)
GRE阅读:客观题的备考策略
新GRE阅读备考:单词后缀技巧
GRE逻辑阅读出题规律解析
GRE阅读长难句的典型结构
GRE考试难句分析四大类
GRE阅读难句要点解读
GRE阅读:运用排除法拿高分
攻破GRE阅读长难句心法
GRE阅读中常见的难句种类
解析GRE阅读的套路规则
战胜GRE考试,心理战术是关键
盘点GRE阅读的12大出题点
GRE阅读经典句型总结(4)
新GRE阅读的两大技巧
GRE阅读考试难句解读(一)
| 不限 |
| 英语教案 |
| 英语课件 |
| 英语试题 |
| 不限 |
| 不限 |
| 上册 |
| 下册 |
| 不限 |