昊 天 翱 龙 » 日志 » 2008-03-26 Issue218 Argument200 什么叫大垃圾
2008-03-26 Issue218 Argument200 什么叫大垃圾
昊天翱龙 发表于 2008-03-26 15:31:27
TOPIC: ISSUE218 - "In order for any work of art-whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song-to have merit, it must be understandable to most people."
WORDS: 502 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2008-03-26 11:42:47
The speaker asserts that only those works of art that can be understandable to most people have merit. In order to judge the assertion, we must first discuss about the functions of art and the definition of merit. After that can we draw a reasonalbe conclution whether the merit of art lies in its being understood by the majority of people.
To begin with, we come to scrutinise the functions of art. Generally speaking, art is a natural express of an artist's emotions, and through the way the artist present the emotions, the work of art cast an impact on our minds and spirits. Beethoven's symphonies can reach a strong resonance with our heart, and Jane Austin's novels can stimulate the sense of love in our minds.
However, sometimes art work is created to cater to the favours of the majority of people, especially in the modern world. Popular music which are prevailing nowadays, are created in the way like products are produce in assembly lines. Many films are adapted from well-sold novels, in order to satisfy the needs of the audience.
Secondly, let us examine the definition of 'merit'. If merit means the lasting influnce a piece of art work has throughout the human history, then art containing the true emotions of artist is of great value, although it may be not so easy to understand. Piccaso's paintings are puzzling to most people but we can not deny the impact they cast to the modern painting. Jule Verne's science fictions have illuminated scientist develop advanced tools nowadays, but they are not accepted in his days. These kinds of art may be hard to understand, but the merit that lies in them is permanent.
If merit means the price of an article of art work, it is important to be understable to most people. Consider a pop singer or a comtemporary novelist, provided his works can hardly be accepted by the mass majority, we will regard his works as of no value. We always consider the albums and films on the top-10 lists are valueable, because they can understood by the general public. The popular art works can bring a lot of fortune to the producer and impetus the national economy.
As we have discussed above, due to different understandings of art and value, we can have different conclusions. Art works that represent the expression of emotion of the artist are always of great value, even they are not so easy to understand to most people. On the other hand, art works serve to cater to the general public should be understandable to the majority of peole, or it will have no market, thus has no value at all. However, in some cases, art works that contains the true emotions of artists can be understandable to most peole, they will have lasting influnce in the history, and also strike the public's favours. If an piece of art is combined with these two factors, we can say it is of the greatest merit.
TOPIC: ARGUMENT200 - Statistics collected from dentists indicate that three times more men than women faint while visiting the dentist. This evidence suggests that men are more likely to be distressed about having dental work done than women are. Thus, dentists who advertise to attract patients should target the male consumer and emphasize both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients.
WORDS: 440 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2008-03-26 12:14:47
The author cites the statistics that three times more men than women faint while visiting the dentists to reason men are more likely to be destressed about having dental work done. The auther then suggests dentist to target the male consumers and emphasize both the effectiveness of their techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous. The judgement is weak and flawed in my opinion in the following aspects:
The statistics that the author cites is unconvincing. Dentists are not specific statisticists, so the statistics collected from them can not be regarded as a strong evidence. And we have no information about the ratio of men and women that participate in the survey. It is possible that there are much more men than women that regularly go to see the denists. If the 90% of the regular cumstomers visting dentists are men, then the fact that the number of men faint while visting dentists is three times of that of women does not explain anything, because the ratio of women that faint while visiting dentists are even higher than that of men.
Assuming the statistics are true, we still can not infer it will be benifitial to target the male consumers while dentists advertise for themselves. Female consumers consist of considerable part of the dentist's profits, so it will do no good to overlook the female consumers. Morever, if men are more likely to feel destressed about having dental work done, it will cost the advertisers more time and vigour to persuade men to go the the dentists.
Besides, the author does not give any evidence to show that emphasizing the effectiveness of anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of the staff to nervous or suffering patients can attract male customers. The feeling of destressed is an psychological problem, which can not be substantially solved by anesthetic techniques.Even assuming these methods may help to relieve the patients, but the author should also pay attention to other advertizing strategies, such as emphasizing the reputation of the dentist, the advanced equipments of the clinic, the quality of the dental service, etc. All these factors are as important as the ability to relieve the patient while one decides whether he needs to see a dentist.
The author's suggestion can not convince me as it stands. The author cites an ambiguous statistics, and draw a conclusion through an illogical reasoning, And he also overlooks other relevant influential factors. I do not see any neccessity for dentists who want to attract patients target the male consumer and stress the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of the staff to nervous or suffering patients.
