AWA 6

Adlai Steveson once commented, “It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.”

Based on your reading, observation, or experience to what extent do you agree or disagree with Stevenson’s words? Please give examples that support your point of view.

I completely agree with Adlai Steveson’s statement that living a life for principles is much tougher than fighting for them due to the following three reasons.

Firstly, living a life with certain principles requires strength and courage to do so, especially during tough and rough weather. It requires people to believe in them and their beliefs more than their surroundings and environment. On the other hand, fighting always gives the flexibility of changing sides according to the circumstances. For example, it is much easier to protest some wrong doing of a senior manager in one’s organization and then fight for it but when the job comes at stake, the fighter can switch the side while the person with a living on principles may have to quit and go through the strenuous and harshness of jobless life.

Secondly, living a life on principles can make a person feel isolated and alienated from the  society with lot of other aspects of life like peace, happiness at stake. Consider a normal married person who loses his job due to protesting to some unethical practices of the management of his organization. He may have to go through the mental trauma of losing his beloved wife, children, relatives and friends.

Thirdly, people who live their life on values never compromising on the circumstances are the ones who change the course of the world and people who just fight and change their stands like a Chameleon with the change in the circumstances could never do so. All great people like Mahtma Gandhi have always lead the world with their principles and set examples for others to follow.

For the above said reasons, I strongly feel that a true-principled man lives his whole life for his values because he finds solace and heaven in them and achieves satisfaction from it, which is much tougher than just fighting for it because facing the consequnces of a certain action tests the real strength.

AWA 5

Certain schools of thought stress the value to the listener of having some practical experience of music. They suggest that even a rudimentary playing of the piano or some other instrument is better than reading a dozen books about music. There are those, however, who claim that even many concert pianists have only a limited understanding of what music is.

Do you agree with the claim that practical experience is a better teacher of music than learning about it from books? State your position using relevant reasons and examples from your own experiences, observations, or reading.

Practical knowledge is superior to the theoretical bookish knowledge. I strongly support that people with some rudimentary knowledge of playing instruments and knowledge of music can be better than those who don’t. There are various reasons for supporting the above said statement.

Firstly, there can be no denying the fact that people with some knowledge of music can appreciate its variations and types with the significance of instruments palyed in them. For example, for Indian classical music, flute can be soothing but for ROCK, the significance of electronic instruments cannnot be ignored at all. But the person who has no knowledge of what they could be, he could probably neither disntinguish nor appreciate them at all.

Secondly, even though there is no doubt that the very good concert artists might be having only a limited understanding of music, but one cannot deny the fact that they would have been better if they would have possed the knowledge of music.

Thirdly, people with limited knowledge will probably always try to stick to a particular rhythm and tone of the music in which they could feel comfortable and would never try to experiment, thus, bringing a complete stop to the creativity-the basic necessity of music.

Lastly, concert artists may be popular in certain area but they may not be necessarily famous with all the artists across the globe. For example, there is no necessity that concert artists with limited knowledge of certain mixing of certain genre of music may not be hired by famous artists for their performances as occassionally they may require instant audience reaction.

Therefore, I strongly support the artists with some elementary knowledge of music and playing the instruments to be a better and fast learner than those who just know few memorized words read from the music books.

AWA 4

Science may be on the threshold of greatly extending the human life span to 100 years or more. If all causes of biological aging are discovered and cured, people eventually may have an indefinite life span extending for many centuries.

Discuss how logically persuasive you find the above argument. In presenting your point of view, analyze the sort of reasoning used and its supporting evidence. In addition, state what further evidence, if any, would make the argument more sound and convincing or would make you better able to evaluate its conclusion.

The author’s argument is unconvincing because his conclusion depends on several unsubstantiated assumptions. Each of the following areas merit further explanation before the author can be given any degree of credibility.

Firstly, the whole argument is based on a single most powerful assumption that Science is at the threshold of achieving the near-possible immortality. But there is hardly any evidence given to prove the stand or as to how far the developments has actually taken place on which this prediction has been done.

Secondly, with the constant controversies around the research of the biological aging features like stem cell, cloning, etc., the possibility of the successful completion of any of them is questionable. For example, in a recent observation it was found that the animals on which the experiments are tested on, are different than the animals from their natural habitat. Such incidents always brings a question on the credibility of the outcome of such scientific researches.

Thirdly, supposing that Science could find and cure all the cause of the biological happening, then there is no gurantee of the indefinite life span of the human beings especially with simultaneous discoveries of new diseases like Bird Flu and so on. Additionally, the frequent natural calamities and accidents as that of wars, road accidents can hardly ensure that every human being will have an indefinite life span.

Last but not the least, questioning the natural process and controlling it could backfire the whole mankind severely as observed in the cases of mindless expansion of industrial growth at the expense of nature, that resulted in frequent tornadoes, floods, global warming and so on.

Due to the many holes in the reasoning of the author’s argument, it is difficult to take him seriously. Unless further evidence surface in each of the areas discussed above, the given premises are insufficient proof that the conclusion drawn is viable.

AWA 3

The BestValue Superette chain has nine stores in Mytown, USA. The company’s policy is to maintain the same prices for all items at all stores. However, the distribution manager knowingly sends the poorest cuts of meat and the lowest quality produce to the store located in the low-income section of town. He justifies this action on the ground that this store has the highest overhead because of factors such as employee turnover, theft and vandalism.

Discuss how logically persuasive you find the above argument. In presenting your point of view, analyze the sort of reasoning used and its supporting evidence. In addition, state what further evidence, if any, would make the argument more sound and convincing or would make you better able to evaluate its conclusion.

 

Response:

The distribution manager’s argument is unconvincing because his conclusion depends on several unsubstantiated assumptions of high overhead. Each of the following areas merit further explanation before he can be given any degree of credibility of his decision of sending the poorest cuts of meat and low quality produce to the low-income store of the town.

Firstly, the consideration of theft as a factor of high overhead of the store is questionable. The possibility of the lack of the security measures at the store cannot be ruled out due to poor employee turnover. Also, the technical security measures adopted by the store might not be of the accepted standard. Additionally, the location of the town may be well-known for its higher rate of thefts due to improper law and order at that section f the town.

Secondly, vandalism can be the result of the dissatisfaction of the customers over the poor quality products provided at the stores and its continuous negligence towards improving it. Moreover, the possibility of the bad nature and behavior of the employees of the store also cannot be ruled out, which might be prompting people for vandalism.

Lastly, the employee turnover can be bad due to various reasons. There might be the possibility that the store might not be paying them well. Moreover, the employees could also be sceptic about their security due to chaotic frequent incidents like thefts and vandalism at the store. In view of the thefts and vandalism, the company’s response and trust towards its employees can also be questioned, which could determine the interest and loyalty of the employees.

Due to the many holes in the reasoning of the distribution manager’s argument, it is difficult to take him seriously. Unless further evidence surface in each of the areas discussed above, the given premises are insufficient proof that the conclusion drawn is viable.

Essay 16

The most important information does not come from books.

Time changes as the world grows. There were times when books were considered to be the best companions of the students and people. Books, magazines, novels, newspapers, libraries, etc. were considered to be the best sources of information. Today Internet techonolgy revolution has taken over it. Google is busy scanning old newspapers now to create the biggest archive of the newspapers after successfully doing so for Google Books.

But still one source of learning remains constant, the mother of all learnings-The Life. Books make us aware of the external world and prepares us to face it confidently. Life throws challenges that makes us think and act in real practical sense. Most successful persons are thos people who understand that LIFE is the real challenge of all and the biggest ever school that can have vaious subjects in a single book itself. For example, Thomas Edison was thrown out of his school after haviing being said that he had poor IQ, worse than the normal. The same poor IQ guy later went on to create a never-forgettabe history by his invention. People like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer were all school-drop-outs but all went on to pursue their dreams despite all odds to become sucessful in their own areas.

Scientific challenges are better known with the experiments rather than than the books. Similarly, geography can have long lasting impact when we go around places understanding its environment, culture and traditions. Therefore, all subjects come to its true color when we understand it from the books to apply them practically and intelligently to solve the real life problems. This is where the information is learnt rather than just mugging up just the books.

Essay 15

It is much easier to learn in a small class than in a large one.

Small and larger classes, each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Let us snalyze them vis-a-vis.

Firstly, in small classes teachers can give individual attention to each and every student while this may not be possible in the larger classes. But sometimes repeating such things may make a steudent dependent on his teachers for his/her various activites like should he be participating in a dance competition, making him prone to his future decision making capabilities.

Secondly, small classes may encourage less group involvement activites and more individual oriented tasks. On the other hand, their larger counterparts will be involved in more of group oriented activities rather than the individualistic tasks. Thus, larger classes makes an individual understand and decision of giving priorities to the correct part of their involvement in day to day activites. Moreover, in todays fast changing business world, the participation and contribution of the groups can hardly be ignored anymore when an individual’s impact has come almost to its dead level.

Thirdly, smaller classes may be useful when an individual might be doing some advanced study as like PhD and especially in research but larger classes teach how to achieve every individual’s

 goals while achieving the group’s success at the same time.

Last but not the least, larger classes build ever lasting relationships while smaller classes sometimes may lead to harsh competition and rivalry among individuals due to jealousy and many other factors.

Therefore, considering the above said resaons,I would favour learing in a larger class rather than a samller one.

Essay 14

You have received a full scholarship to a good university in your country. You have also been offered a full scholarship to a top university in another country. Which of these two scholarships would you accept?

I would prefer to study in the university of my country rather than going to any another country, if I qualify to get full scholarship at both the universities.

Inida has come up as a strong economic pwerhouse in the past two decades after economic liberalization. It is now considered to be one of the fastest growing and emerging economies. With the future looking good and prosperous for the country, I would prefer to study and work here rather than going abroad to study.

Moreover, top universities like Indian School of Business, Indian Institutes of Managements, Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Information Technology has become global brands with their alumni having established as graduates at par with any other good universities of the world and has been now constantly been ranked at the world level.

Additionally, being in the country helps to be within the reach of my relatives and friends in mutual needs. And I strongly believe that joy of success will be in its true color if we share that joy with our loved near and dear ones.

As I am keenly interested to take my country tot he nect level of its development and see the dream of our past President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam of India becoming a developed country by 2020, I would like to help it from here be lending a hand in its course in every possible way.

Essay 13

There are many types of television shows:comedies, news programs, dramas, reality series, and so on. What is your favorite type of television shows?

I prefer comedies among all the television shows due to below said four reasons.

Firstly, comedies generally help in relaxing and getting energized again. For example, immediatley after The 70’s show, I generally feel out of the worries and tensions and feel afresh to take on the challenges of the daily life.

Secondly, watching shows as that of Friends, make the whole family to be together and enjoy each moment of it. They make me feel closer and understand the deeper meanings of the realtionships too.

Thirdly, comedies provide laughter among us, which has suddenly become one of the most essential ingredient in todays busy world. People have forgetten what is laughter and how to laugh. The enormous number of laughter groups is an example of this. SOmehow, I tend to get the most of the laughter from the funny dramas in the comedy serials.

Last but not the least, Laughing is said to be the best medicine to all the diseases of the world and comedies are the only one who tend to take us back to our childhood where we tend to laugh and live in our dreams and joy, which we tend to lose as we grow up.

Essay 12

If you could spend a year living in any city on the world, which city would you choose to live in?

I would like to choose New York. New York is famed to be the financial capital of the world and one of the busiest city. I choose New York due to four reasons.

Firstly, as I intend to work till the end of my life, New York can provide excellent opportunity to explore new challenges in the financial domain, win which primarily I am interested in. With the experience and mature financial market, I can not only impart my learnings but also learn from the changing markets.

Secondly, being in one of the main city, I can have all the facilities like health, entertainment, etc. at the highest level and efficiency.

Thirdly, the schools and universities like that of NYU Stern, Columbia, Buffalo, etc. help in imparting high class education to the people residing in the vicinity with ease.

Last but not the least, New York has the utmost infrastructure to support the communication and thus, enhancing the reach to any part of the world as and when required and with much ease than any other city probably in the world.

Essay 11

Some people like to go to the same place for thier vacations. Other people like to take their vacations in different places.

I would prefer to tkae vacations in different places rather than going to the same place again and again.

There are a lot of excitements and challenges that we face and learn from them when we visit  different places while on vacations. Firstly, new places throws us to a totally new environment; sometimes completely different than what we could imagine. I remember when I went on a vacation to a tiger forest reserver during my college days, spending time with the tribal people of the area and staying in a lonely resort was a great experience. With no electricity in the evenings so as not to disturb the wid animals and spending time with lamps was a challenging task when it was a question of spending around almost 12 hrs in dark . Eating food and sharing experiences with the tribal people was the most amazing experience.

Secondly, though I agree that visiting same places may give some people satisfaction of knowing the people and theat place pretty well but in my opinion, the whole idea of vacations is to explore new for the change that we might be looking for from our daily life.

As CHANGE is the only constant thing in this whole world, I would like to explore new places and thus, love being a observer to the change that I wanted to have in my vacations.