英文议论文

议论文1Directions: Write an essay in response to the passage below. You should state clearly whether you agree or disagree with the ideas mentioned in the passage and explain your reasons for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the author’s opinion might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position. You should write about 500 words. Please remember that you should write in your OWN words.The Facial Recognition Nightmare Is Upon UsThis is no longer a distant dream but a reality. The facial recognition age has arrived. But when you applaud, excited about all the convenience and security it will bring you (no more keys, cards or pin numbers since no one will be able to pretend to be you), are you aware that your nightmare might have started?Just imagine you’re standing in front of the cashier, authorizing a payment by smiling at your brand new smartphone. You think by using your phone that everything is under control, but the front-facing TrueDepth camera will be using you too. It reads your facial features, with your consent (or without, if your phone is hacked) to share with other organizations. That is the beginning of the end: they will be able to analyze your gender, race and approximate age, as well as the brand of orange juice you just paid for. They will study your purchase behavior, model on your features, and make plans to entice you to act in their best interests—to buy more!Now your face is no longer a part of you. It is part of your property which you will be unable to protect from exploitation.Facial Recognition Waits for No ManFacial recognition now is a commonplace in daily life. However, when people stare at the TrueDepth camera, some people are uneasy since the camera is reading their facial features and collect their confidential information. The technique of facial recognition has loomed up a wide public concern. That is to say, opponents are afraid that the customers purchase behavior and personal information will be leaked which means they will receive countless harassment from unknown people. As far as I am concerned, this fear cannot deter me from using facial recognition as its advantages outweigh disadvantages.The first and the most worrisome thing for users is security. However, does the facial recognition technique lead to the spread of confidential information? It is true that we have to consent some terms if we want to use the facial recognition, in other words, our age, gender, race and purchase behavior will be shared by organizations. It is also true that we don’t want all our lives to be exposed to others, especially for those people who don’t have a positive financial conditions. But even without facial recognition, there are various ways for merchants and suppliers to peddle customers’ information. It’s not rational enough for consumers to criticize the technique itself as we know there is no consequential relationship between facial recognition and privacy right.When we trace back to passwords time and fingerprint time, we may find that the facial recognition is not as unreliable as it seems. Since passwords can be incautiously leaked when strangers peep through their fingers and fingerprint can be copied, the facial recognition still acts as the firmest guard of our database. The key point to overcome some existent unfavorable factorsof facial recognition, such as the use of protrait without the confirm, is the supervisory system. Thus, corporation’s research department as well as the government are endowed with the rights and responsibility to research for a more consumer-oriented system, including protecting the personal information from being abused by illicit behaviors.Additionally, it is the facial recognition, not only yielding convenience for young people, but also bringing out an easy-to-learn way for elder people. We are all liberated from annoying passwords, mixed with capital letters, symbols and numbers. Instead, the only procedure we will encounter during the purchase is to put our face before the screen. The facial recognition is not constrained by complex procedures and elusive function keyboards so that even though elder people can adjust to this technique. Here I want to express my thanks to facial recognition as it saved me from an embarrassing situation. Last week I went to a supermarket. Unfortunately, my phone had run out of battery while I was going to pay for my bill. Luckily, this supermarket was equipped with a machine which could support facial recognition even without a phone. Thanks to the facial recognition, I escaped from the impatient eyes of other customers and the suspicious attitude of the cashier.To sum up, privacy issue can be considered as a challenge but cannot be overstated just like we cannot stop the upcoming of information age even it carries potential threats. The best way to adapt to this time and tide lies in the prudent attitude which may be the least and the most essential thing we could do.议论文2Directions: Read the following passage presenting contradictory views and write an essay in response. You should state your view clearly and support it with solid evidence and sound reasoning. You should write about 500 words. Please remember that you should write in your OWN words.Should Music Be Free?The digital era is redefining the way we live. While it brings us huge amounts of resources, it raises questions about how we access them. This is exactly what has happened to music, one of the most popular products nowadays. Once connected to the Internet, we could download mp3s to our computers for free and this seemed much more appealing than going to a CD shop.However, the “free lunch” has not lasted long. In recent years, online music platforms in China have been insisting that downloaded music must be paid for. Some major Internet music providers have set up new membership systems which users have to pay if they want to listen to or download the music they like. Moreover, a lot of records that used to be accessible online are now banned. Some people applaud the elimination of “free” music. For them, music is the intellectual property of musicians and singers; therefore they argue that we should pay to show respect and support for their work. However, opponents argue that having to pay for music blocks it from a larger audience. Since the spirit of the Internet lies in openness and sharing, limiting a user group is seen as discriminatory and unfair.Paid Music is an Imperative TrendWith the advent of Internet, online resources have been considered as a collective database, the storehouse of intellectual and spiritual property. However, since the Internet supervisory system is enhanced, increasing resources are not available to all users unless you pay for a certain product or become a membership of a website. This is also the case in music industry which means people cannot download all songs they want to hear in any time and in any place. Some supporters reckon that this trend symbolizes a respectful and encouraging attitude towards musicians while some opponents express doubts on whether this measure goes against the nature of the Internet since the Internet is supposed to be an encompassing and sharing system. From my own standpoint, eliminating “free” music is an inevitable trend and its abeyance would frustrate the development of the music industry.It’s conceivable that free products to consumers, on the other hand, infringes the producers’ intellectual right. When we stand in singers or composers’ shoes, we will understand what intellectual property means to them. Let’s imagine this, you have spent a month selecting the beat, the key, the lyrics of a new song, and even more time finding the Mr. Right to perform that, sacrificing the time to eat and to sleep, and losing the opportunities to earn the money in a more profitable way. It turns out that your song is such a success, yet, no one shows any concern on whether you have received the reward to maintain your life and further creative work. I assume that you would lose your passion for further work unless you are carefree and merely take musiccareer as an interest or a volunteer activity. Therefore, only when the intellectual right is guaranteed, musicians’ passion and creativity would be triggered, and then they would provide a novel and qualified composition for audiences.While yielding critical advantages for producers personally, the enterprises will also benefit from such a requirement. The protection of intellectual right creates an equal and fair environment for companies to compete with each other. Chances are that corporations will obtain earnings from the released albums without the concern of pirated edition. Apart from the income of both musicians and enterprises, broadly speaking, the whole nation is unconsciously enhancing the soft power, as is known to all, which we eagerly seek for from decades ago. If distinctive music with Chinese style can be accepted by people around the world, it embodies not only one type of music, but also the Chinese culture and the expectation of ambitious musicians.I must admit, it is difficult to disagree completely with the assertion that the spirit of the Internet roots in its open atmosphere. However, this creates a frustrating opinion -what is the point of sharing if it is simply going to be the standpoint against intellectual property unless all-free supporters are happy with it? No one will deny the value of the sharing, but the word "sharing" implies, in my opinion, a form of mutual respect rather than receiving everything free without recognizing the effort and pain of the producers. This is not purely a music career issue - those who participate in the sciences, other liberal arts, and more intellectually minded fields face with the same choice every day.The passion of musicians and the capital assets of enterprises may breed a prosperous music industry. Therefore, when we enjoy the convenience brought by the Internet, allow for the recognition to those unknown workers in the music industry just as often as we strive for the recognition form others.议论文3Write a passage in response to the report below. You should discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the report and explain your reasons for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the report’s opinion might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position. You should write about 500 words.Newsweek, the venerable weekly publication that will be remembered for its decades-long efforts for a spot on consumers’ coffee tables, has shut down its print edition at the end of 2012, but it lives on in a new digital tablet edition known as Newsweek Global. As Tina Brown, the Newsweek editor, said, this tablet edition will target a “new highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context.”The move should not shock. The publication has faced major financial problems in recent years. The numbers tell the tale: Newsweek’s circulation has fallen in the number of subscribers from 3 million to 1.5 million in the last decade; annual losses were thought to be $40 million. More broadly, the company faces a more existential problem in that a “weekly news” magazine has become an anachronism in the digital world.Newsweek is not the only one that has to tackle the challenge in the digital time; other outlets will continue to change their business models for a digital future. With the “imminent death” of print, digital formats come out as an inevitable development that could turn the industry’s fortune around.Print Edition can Coexist with the Digital EditionNewsweek turned its print edition into digital edition, aiming to tackle the financial problems in the last decade. Obviously, the information age entails a digital managing model for most enterprises. Otherwise, the business will face a severe challenge in terms of the mobility and flexibility. For publication, of course, it is the turnover that matters as it is revealed in the report. However, I have doubt on whether the digital edition have a positive relation with more profits.From my perspective, the digital edition does not necessary bring more profits for the publication. The publication closely connects the appearance of digital with increasing subscribers, also means more income. Although Newsweek’s digital format may increase the number of audiences around the world, at the same time, Newsweek is faced with a fierce competition since online publications come out like bamboo shoots after the rain. In this circumstance, the low charge may be one essential factor that will influence the consumers’ motivation. Compared to the print edition, the digital format indeed skip many production procedures, such as printing the newspaper and transporting the newspaper to different places. Thus, the low price is imperative in the market. Additionally, more often than not, people are always submerged in the sea of information, so only those attracting titles and the publication fame may arouse audience’s interest, in other words, this asks for more incisive and inspiring reports. Even the publication has qualified reports, a large amount of subscribers are not guaranteed since people tend to go through a certain top research and hot news. Therefore, we can assume that few people will deeply analyze an event, which means few people will subscribe online since they can get simple facts from other free channels. With regards to the low price and small amount of subscribers, we may see the tough time Newsweek may have to experience in the near future.It is reasonable for corporations to put the return in the first place. However, once the publication wants to earn more money from consumers, the consumers’ appeal is of the utmost importance. Instead of being entangled in the conflict of digital edition and print edition, returning back to the consumers’ need could rescue the corporation from this crisis. It conceivable that the digital format saves people the trouble of buying the newspaper from the news stall, which is true to the people who can learn how to use the application on their cellphones, whereas those people who are sluggish to learn how to use, who don’t have smartphones, and who still have a preference towards the print format rather than the digital format, may feel frustrated in this age. The majority always gets its way even at the expense of the minority's rights. But the publication is not supposed to give up the minority, as the publication is urgently needed by this part of consumers .Therefore, print edition or digital edition is not a choice question as digital edition is not indispensable for profits while print edition is not unnecessary for all people. Industry’s fortune lies in how to optimize the marketing strategies instead of merely shutting down the print edition.。