GRE Essay Prompts questions wiith best answers
Study major cities to understand most important characteristics of society
For
All great civilizations have had a flourishing city.
Learning centers/colleges/universities are typically in a city; understanding the intellectual output is key to unde...
Study major cities to understand most important characteristics of society - answersFor
All great civilizations have had a flourishing city.
Learning centers/colleges/universities are typically in a city; understanding the
intellectual output is key to understanding a society.
Most jobs are contained within cities.
High population
Against
Many societies have been agricultural; that society's customs, rituals can only be
understood in the context of a rural backdrop.
Even a modern society depends on agriculture to sustain it; to understand the important
characteristics of a society, we need to understand the people who live in rural areas.
Even smaller cities can help us understand a society, especially if the culture/values
tend to be different in the smaller cities/more rural areas.
Educational institutions have responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of
study in which they are unlikely to succeed - answersFor
goal is to succeed
reasonable view because it isn't too rigid with open-ended definition of "responsibility"
and "success"
one of those tools is support and advice about what to pursue
students represent their schools
Against
goal should just be to provide tools - let student decide what to do with the tools
slippery slope to too much control
Claim: Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support
they need in order to thrive.
Reason: It is primarily in cities that a nation's cultural traditions are preserved and
generated. - answersFor
There is no doubt that major cities are the principal force when constructing a healthy
country and their development directly reflects the development of the country.
Major cities primarily generate a nation's cultural traditions and makes it famous in the
world.
The cultural traditions are the backbone of a nation and they should be preserved.
Against
Preserving cultures should not be the single reason to develop major cities. This is not
only for preservation of nation's culture but also for the reason of developing the whole
society.
,It is actually towns and villages where cultural traditions originate and are preserved and
any government that pays attention to its cultural traditions should neither neglect nor
ignore those places.
However, as it is a major financial and shopping hub, it attracts people from all over the
world and it is a great source of revenue for the government. Hence, the government of
China has to patronize it to maintain its importance.
The government of a country has to take care of both the sides to keep balance in
society. To counter major cities, the rural places should not be ignored.
However, major cities and rural areas should get equal attention from the governments.
Some people believe that government funding of the arts is necessary to ensure that
the arts can flourish and be available to all people. Others believe that government
funding of the arts threatens the integrity of the arts. Which do you support? - answers
Governments should offer a free university education to any student who has been
admitted to a university but who cannot afford the tuition. - answers
A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until
they enter college. - answersFor
It determines a standard level which is required by every student to clear before he is
able to take another academic step.
Logical levels/steps
Stable and universal learning pattern.
Easy for students who move a lot
Equal opportunity
Against
Schools should have certain liberty in choosing the format of courses it offers.
Variable interests and abilities
Curriculum should be molded so that they retain their interest in studies altogether.
Some people believe that in order to be effective, political leaders must yield to public
opinion and abandon principle for the sake of compromise. Others believe that the most
essential quality of an effective leader is the ability to remain consistently committed to
particular principles and objectives. - answersSuccessful leaders are those who make
more number of correct decisions than the wrong ones, irrespective of whether these
decisions were an outcome of a compromise or persuasion of their principles.
Therefore, the decision making strategy for political leaders is a blend of yielding to
public opinion and sticking to their principles in varying proportions.
1: A political leader can opt for a compromise when the issue being addressed is not
very critical or when the results of the compromise could lead to major benefits for the
country.
Being unnecessarily rigid may lead to damage that cannot be undone.
During World War II, Adolf Hitler refused to let his soldiers abandon positions as he
believed that soldiers should never retreat. However, later it was realized that if he had
,allowed withdrawing at critical times, and then counterattacking, he could have been
more successful.
2: Leader may be more educated
Winston Churchill's uncompromising resolve during World War II was eventually
justified.
Governments should focus on solving the immediate problems of today rather than on
trying to solve the anticipated problems of the future. - answersFor
Good levels of prioritization but can be a slippery slope
May not have a future if we don't solve current problems
Against
We all have been faced with a dilemma when we have to take a split-second decision
and there is no time to think about what will happen in the future - innately factor in long-
term impact
Future conditions have to be taken into account more than the present conditions for the
decisions taken to be effective and profitable in the long run.
Car passing on hill example
Example: Releasing new product requires study and prediction of market
The decisions taken by the government determine the future of an entire nation and
hence they have to be taken after due deliberation.
Retirement
In view of the above, it can be seen that the future conditions are far more important
than the present conditions when it comes to taking a decision and this holds true for
corporations, governments and individuals as well.
Laws should be flexible enough to take account of various circumstances, times, and
places. - answersFor
Change and flexibility are required for growth
Within a particular type of crime also, the situation might be different.
Consider whether a person has made an offense deliberately, unintentionally, just for
fun or for money.
One child rule in China -> get rid of it after earthquake
Laws have to keep pace with the changing times.
As time has progressed and women have started asking for their rights, law has
changed and now all the offspring have equal right to the family wealth.
Rehabilitative
There should be a scope of modifying the existing and fading laws to give way to the
development of the society and justice to people.
Against
Fixed laws help the judges in determining whether a person is guilty or not.
Punitive
Bias risks
, Claim: The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the
character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its role
models.
Reason: Heroes and role models reveal a society's highest ideals. - answersFor
A society idolizes certain men and women as its heroes and heroines depending on
what these people have done for the society.
Against
Irrespective of what they have done for the society, their characters cannot determine
the character of the entire society as these people will have their own individual
characteristics that cannot reflect the characters of all the people who are a part of that
society.
There may be some cases wherein people try to emulate their idols, but this does not
mean that the entire society's character can be understood by studying the character of
its heroes and heroines.
Assuming some cultural heroes are just people the masses love, then some celebrities
(actors) may be heroes. It would be wrong to assume that the society has the same
character as it is an accepted fact that these people are liked for their values other than
their characters. Therefore, it is not necessary that the entire society behaves in a
manner similar to the people who are loved by the masses.
Leader vs people: Even if they can see his true form after he has already been elected,
a close examination of his character would reveal a character that would be far from
that of the society that has chosen him.
Character of a society and that of the people idolized by the society are not related ->
Character of the heroes and heroines is not an indication of the character of the society
that has chosen them.
Governments should place few, if any, restrictions on scientific research and
development. - answers
The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones. -
answersThe recommendation presents a view that I would
agree is successful most of the time, but one that
I cannot fully support due to the "all or nothing"
impression it gives.
Certainly as an educator I agree fully that the best
way to elicit positive response from students is to
make use of students' positive energy and then
encourage actions that you would like to see repeated. It is human nature that we all
want to be accepted and achieve on some level, and when people in authority provide
feedback that we have done something well, the drive to repeat the action that was
praised is bound to be particularly strong.
This blanket statement would obviously pay dividends in situations in which a teacher
desires to have students repeat particular behaviors. For example, if an educator is
attempting to teach students proper classroom etiquette, it would be appropriate to
openly praise a student who raises his or her hand when wishing to speak or address
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