Wednesday, October 08, 2008

A Check for Oct, 8

TODAY:

1. Argument Outlines #50~#70
DONE. I should go through it faster tomorrow.
2. A new 'Argument' practice, with a time limitation of 40 minutes.
DONE.
4. Rewrite my first Issue essay.
DONE. The major problem is that I write this essay in nearly 2 hours!!!
5. 15 issue outlines.
NOT START YET

TASK UNFINISHED:
50 issue outlines(may be 10 hours?)

Total Delay: -10 hours

TOMORROW:

1. Argument Outlines #71~#100
NO MORE TALKING to HXC.
2. A new 'Argument' practice, with a time limitation of 40 minutes.
Try out my new template, and verify its function. Using the template more efficiently.
4. Write my 2nd Issue essay, with a time limitation of 90 minutes.
Reduce 30 minutes? God, help me again.
5. 30 issue outlines.

15 Days to go!!!

My "Issue" Essay, NO.1

TOPIC: ISSUE103 - "The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives."
WORDS: 631 TIME: 01:51:27 DATE: 2008-10-8 17:50:21

I admit that history is valuable when it can provide explanations or suggestions for our daily life; however, history- which can also describe our society, culture, and even human ourselves, is more complex than the statement asserts. In my view, it is worthy to study history, no matter whether the study is directly linked to our daily lives or not.

At first glance, everyone will argue that any study relevant to our daily life is important, of course, those studies should include history. Obviously, history can help us to explain many ordinary things in our society. For instance, it is a common sense that citizens in United Kingdom drive their car in the left lanes of the road, while in many other countries such as United States, people are obliged to drive on the right side. Actually, in medieval, all European ride their horse in the left side because- in this way- chevaliers are convenient to fight with their right hands which holding weapons. When modern road system was introduced, English people naturally inherit his tradition. On the contrast, French people consider they are different and enjoy a more developed society than their counterpart for centuries, they declared a right-sided road system. The French's action was soon accepted by many other nations and therefore adopted this system as well. In short, history study is definitely effective in explain this and many other phenomenon in our daily life.

On contrast, if our history text books only contain these anecdotes, the charming of history will be inevitably diminished. Imagine that our history books lack those significant political events and dramatic culture change, how terrible our students' knowledge will be? They will never know the exodus led by Moses; never know Julius Caeser, Augustus and their great legions and great empire; never know the King Author's round table meeting; never know the odyssey of Christopher Columbus; never know the establish of the United States and the Declaration of Independence; never know Neil Armstrong's first small step- as well as the giant leap for mankind- on the moon. Without such knowledge, we are ignorant to what our ancestor had achieved and what we can do in the future; moreover, we are even not able to define who we are. For humankind as a whole, I can confidently assert that, the history of Apollo project is more worthy than the knowledge about why we drive in the opposite direction of English.

Other people who emphasize on common and ordinary lives may further point out that historian's studies are both time-consuming and money-consuming, and thus cannot gain sufficient revenue comparing with the cost. On one hand, I have to concede that historical research cannot create direct benefits as fast as workers in IT industry or life science, let alone the managers in Silicon Valley or stock brokers in the Wall Street. This can explain that why few high school graduates choose history as their major in further education, while the applicants for finance, application technologies are always overflowed. On the other hand, the value of historians always merges in a long term. In some extreme examples, many historical record, were not recognized by the contemporary people; but their value was rediscovered by the later generations. A society that develops as fast as ours, people are more likely to overlook the long term profits. After all, the neglected field is not necessarily unimportant.

In conclusion, I would prefer to take a positive attitude to history study. Although history interpreting our daily life is valuable, those other history that reflects our society, culture, politics, and technology development is more important. Excluding the factor that history cannot bring instant benefit to our society, nation, communities and especially individuals, history is a worth filed to which we are obliged to devote.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

A Check for Oct, 7

TODAY:

1. Argument Outlines #26 ~ #50
I did not concentrate on the class, neither write the outlines nor understand the teachers' instruction.
2. Learn from official Issue samples.
Easy to finish, but not very helpful.
3. A new 'Argument' practice, with a time limitation of 45 minutes.
I made it!!!
4. Write my first Issue essay.
Obviously, it is a terrible one, try again tomorrow.
5. 15 issue outlines.
Have not started yet.
6. Modified my Argument templates.
This is an additional work, although necessary, but consumed too much time.

TASK UNFINISHED:
1 issue essay (2 hours)
30 issue outlines(may be 8 hours?)

Total Delay: -10 hours

TOMORROW:

1. Argument Outlines #50~#70
NO MORE TALKING to HXC.
2. A new 'Argument' practice, with a time limitation of 20 minutes.
Try out my new template, and verify its function.
4. Rewrite my first Issue essay.
GOD! Help ME!!!
5. 15 issue outlines.

16 Days to go!!!

My "Argument" Essay, NO.6

TOPIC: ARGUMENT188 - A new report suggests that men and women experience pain very differently from one another, and that doctors should consider these differences when prescribing pain medications. When researchers administered the same dosage of kappa opioids-a painkiller-to 28 men and 20 women who were having their wisdom teeth extracted, the women reported feeling much less pain than the men, and the easing of pain lasted considerably longer in women. This research suggests that kappa opioids should be prescribed for women whenever pain medication is required, whereas men should be given other kinds of pain medication. In addition, researchers should reevaluate the effects of all medications on men versus women.
WORDS: 447 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2008-10-7 16:52:28
The author of this argument claims that kappa opioids have insignificant effect on reducing pain of male and all medications should be checked for gender difference. To justify this claim the arguer cites a research about 48 men and women who taking the operation of removing their wisdom teeth. This excerpt seems to be convincing and plausible; however after close scrutiny, I find it contains logical flaws in several critical respects, as the following discussion shows.

To begin with, the argument is based on the search of 48 people, which is not a statistically reliable sample. When samples are used to make general claims about a particular phenomenon, an author is responsible to assure its randomness and representativeness. In this argument, the author failed to take this rule into consideration, which make the conclusion unsubstantiated. Perhaps the 28 male patients in this study just suffered more sever toothache than their counterpart.

Additionally, the author assumes unwarrantedly that the medical effect of kappa opioids was the explanation for the difference response between the women and the men. Yet the only foundation for this causal relation is that they both take this type of painkiller after their wisdom teeth were extracted. It is entirely possible that other factors were instead reasons for the dissimilarity of their reports. First, the sense of pain is a subjective feeling and there is no common standard to weigh the pain. Secondly, even if the men did suffer more than the women, perhaps men's nerve and vessel around wisdom teeth are denser that women, which probably cause more pain. Since the author failed to consider and weigh these possibilities, the conclusion that kappa opioids has little effects on men is groundless.

Finally, even I concede that kappa opioids is a painkiller that cannot heal men's pain efficiently; the speaker still assumes too hastily that all medical treatment on men should be reevaluated. However, it is not the case. Common sense informs me that both male and female are similar in most of their biological features, and most medicine's functions are irrelative to gender. Should the author's claim reflect the fact, most of medicine we use should have insignificant impact on either men or women; however, this phenomenon is never observed.

To sum up, the author's conclusion about the medication effectiveness in relevant to gender difference is not well reasoned. To better support the conclusion, the author is expected to provide more information which can show that the research cited is believable and capable to reflect the fact. Furthermore, to make it logically acceptable, the arguer should also demonstrate that kappa opioids cannot reduce the pain of male in a view of medical science.

Monday, October 06, 2008

A Check for Oct, 6

TODAY:

1. Argument Outlines #1 ~ #25
Ok, I finish 50% of the plan, it's ok, and I should hurry up tomorrow.
2. Argument Essay 5, with a time limit of 45 minutes.
I failed to arrange enough time to revise it by myself.
3. 看完Issue所有的题目。
I, did it!
4. 看完8篇Issue范文和总结。
It seems that I have no chance to form essays like those samples; what I can do is to learn from them.
5. Issue Outlines, top 20
Not, start yet.
6. Start to practice typing and memorize some beautiful express.
I spent about 1.5 hours on this new task, which is definitely helpful.

TASK UNFINISHED:
20 issue outlines(may be 5~6 hours?)

Total Delay: -6 hours

TOMORROW:

1. Argument Outlines #26~#70
Maybe I should escape from some lessons.
2. Learn from official Issue samples.
Only a little work to finish.
3. A new 'Argument' practice, with a time limitation of 45 minutes.
4. Write my first Issue essay.
Obviously, it will be a terrible one.
5. 15 issue outlines.


17 Days to go!!!

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Oct, 5 总结

今天的任务完成地不太好
1. Issue范文还没动(估计要用2hr)
2. 题目大概还有40%没看完(估计也要2hr)。

目前总进度:-4hr

今天的问题主要出在:
1. 6:00PM~8:00PM效率比较低。
2. 对看题目的速度过于自信。晚上速度稍微提升了一些,达到15min一页的速度(共15页),这样明天2hr内能看完题目。

看来明天要加速了

明天的任务:

1. Argument Outlines #1 ~ #50
尽量抓紧上午的时间看。

2. Argument Essay 5, with a time limit of 45 minutes.
开始练习速度,好了以后修改。

3. 看完Issue所有的题目。

4. 看完8篇Issue范文和总结。
争取晚饭前完成,至少在晚饭前看掉4篇。

5. Issue Outlines, top 20
但愿比较顺利,这个刚上手,还是很有难度的。

如果抓得紧的话,明天可以把时间赶回来。加油!最后三周!

GRE AW 写作之 我的10天(非全天)ISSUE复习计划

OCT 5S 花一个晚上看分类题库和几片官方范文
OCT 6M 上午上课的时候继续看Argument的提纲(这周还不准备大规模翘课)
下午到108,尝试一下45分钟整一片Argument。
还是下午,还有晚上,结合高频和分类,每一类写1~3个提纲。(总计20个,已经20个了)
OCT 7T 上课的时候以及中午继续看Argument的提纲(这周还不准备大规模翘课)
下午到108,45分钟整一片Argument。
晚饭饭后整第一篇Issue,然后拿去找拍。
还是晚上,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经30个了)
OCT 8W 上课的时候以及中午继续看Argument的提纲(这周还不准备翘课)
下午到108,45分钟整一片Argument。
还是下午,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经40个了)
晚上再搞一Issue,找拍。
还是晚上,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经50个了)
OCT 9T 如果礼拜二网安点过了,这天就翘掉。课上、中午继续Argument。
下午到108,45分钟整一片Argument。
晚上再搞一Issue,找拍。
还是晚上,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经60个了)
OCT 10F 上午上完课,40分钟搞一片Argument,然后改。
午饭前还有时间的话,看Argument提纲。
午后,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经70个了)
剩下的时间解决一下各科作业。
晚上再搞一Issue,找拍。
还是晚上,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经80个了)
OCT 11S 上午8:30到108,老规矩,Argument一片。
余下的时间,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经90个了)
下午,限时1:00搞一篇Issue,然后改。
余下的时间,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经100个了)
晚上,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经110个了)
余下的时间,照顾一下学校的作业。
OCT 12S 上午8:30到108,老规矩,Argument一片。
余下的时间,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经120个了)
下午,限时1:00搞一篇Issue,然后改。
余下的时间,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经130个了)
晚上,结合高频和分类,每一类写1个提纲。(总计10个,已经140个了)
余下的时间,照顾一项目申请。
然后AI都大范围熟悉题目,开始翘课,开始摸考。

每天要早上要写 Daily Plan, 晚上要写 Check List.

My "Argument" Essay, NO.4

TOPIC: ARGUMENT47 - Scientists studying historical weather patterns have discovered that in the mid-sixth century, Earth suddenly became significantly cooler. Although few historical records survive from that time, some accounts found both in Asia and Europe mention a dimming of the sun and extremely cold temperatures. Either a huge volcanic eruption or a large meteorite colliding with Earth could have created a large dust cloud throughout Earth's atmosphere that would have been capable of blocking enough sunlight to lower global temperatures significantly. A large meteorite collision, however, would probably create a sudden bright flash of light, and no extant historical records of the time mention such a flash. Some surviving Asian historical records of the time, however, mention a loud boom that would be consistent with a volcanic eruption. Therefore, the cooling was probably caused by a volcanic eruption.
WORDS: 513 TIME: 01:11:49 DATE: 2008-10-5 11:26:13

The author of this argument claims that the abnormal cold weather in the mid-sixth century resulted from a volcanic eruption. To justify this claim, the arguer cites historical records about a dimming of the sun and a loud boom. Moreover, he or she also points out that no evidence of a meteorite collision was recorded. This excerpt seems to be convincing and plausible; however, after close scrutiny, I find it contains logical flaws in several critical respects, as the following discussion shows.

To begin with, the argument relies on the unwarranted assumption that the extraordinarily low temperature was attributable to the dimming of the sun which was observed by ancient Europeans and Asians. Yet, the only foundation for this causal relation is that these two events occurred simultaneously. It is equally possible that other factors were instead reasons for the abnormal climate. Perhaps activities of aerosphere suffered from a unusual change in those decades and the global climate saw a variation which led average temperature in Asia and Europe dropped greatly. Without ruling out this or other similar possibilities, the arguer's conclusion remains unsubstantiated.

Additionally, even if the lack of sunshine was the reason for global cooling, the author assumes too hasty that either a meteorite collision or a volcanic eruption led to the sun dimming. Although these are entirely possible, common sense and experience inform me that they are not the only explanations. Perhaps there was an unobserved forest fire during these years, which could also produce large amount of smoke to dim the sun; or perhaps solar eclipse occurred frequently in the mid-sixth century and those ancient people consider it was the symbol the sun dimming. Since the arguer failed to weight and eliminate these explanations, the arguer's assertion cannot be taken seriously.

Finally, even I concede that one of the two reasons listed by the argument was responsible for the significant dropping of the temperature; the speaker cannot confidently draw the conclusion that volcanic eruption instead of meteorite collision was the probably explanation. The mere fact that no bright flash was recorded does indicate that no meteorite collision happened. Perhaps the meteorite crash into the continent of Africa; thus people lived in Europe and Asia cannot spot the flash, but the smoke and dust can still affect the whole planet. Similarly, the arguer insufficiently proves that the loud boom was the result of volcanic eruption. Oppositely, there was a great chance that it was the meteorite collision that led to his boom.

To sum up, the author's conclusion about the cause of the global cooling in the mid-sixth century is not well reasoned. To bolster his or her argument, the speaker must prove that the lack of sun light necessarily contribute to the cold weather. Similarly, to better support the conclusion, the author is expected to provide more information which can prove that there were no other reasons for the dimming of sun. Furthermore, to make it logically acceptable, the arguer should also sufficiently demonstrate that, in that period, a volcanic eruption did occur and no meteorite collided into Earth.