1、The Pool of Issue TopicsThis page contains the Issue topics for the analytical writing section of the GRE General Test. When you take the test, you will be presented with two Issue topics from this pool.The wording of some topics in the test might vary slightly from what is presented here. Therefore
2、, read your test topics carefully and respond to the wording as it appears in the actual test.Present your perspective on the issue below, using relevant reasons and/or examples to support your views.“One often hears about the need for individuals to take responsibility for their own lives. However,
3、 the conditions in which people find themselves have been largely established long before people become aware of them. Thus, the concept of personal responsibility is much more complicated and unrealistic than is often assumed.“Most people live, whether physically or morally, in a very restricted ci
4、rcle. They make use of a very limited portion of the resources available to them until they face a great problem or crisis.“Sometimes imagination is a more valuable asset than experience. People who lack experience are free to imagine what is possible and thus can approach a task without constraints
5、 of established habits and attitudes.“In any given field, the leading voices come from people who are motivated not by conviction but by the desire to present opinions and ideas that differ from those held by the majority.“Over the past century, the most significant contribution of technology has be
6、en to make peoples lives more comfortable.“It is impossible for an effective political leader to tell the truth all the time. Complete honesty is not a useful virtue for a politician.“Critical judgment of work in any given field has little value unless it comes from someone who is an expert in that
7、field.“Those who treat politics and morality as though they were separate realms fail to understand either the one or the other.“The surest indicator of a great nation is not the achievements of its rulers, artists, or scientists, but the general welfare of its entire people.“People who pursue their
8、 own intellectual interests for purely personal reasons are more likely to benefit the rest of the world than are people who try to act for the public good.“Important truths begin as outrageous, or at least uncomfortable, attacks upon the accepted wisdom of the time.“Originality does not mean thinki
9、ng something that was never thought before; it means putting old ideas together in new ways.“Laws should not be rigid or fixed. Instead, they should be flexible enough to take account of various circumstances, times, and places.“It is always an individual who is the impetus for innovation; the detai
10、ls may be worked out by a team, but true innovation results from the enterprise and unique perception of an individual.“The function of science is to reassure; the purpose of art is to upset. Therein lies the value of each.“The study of an academic discipline alters the way we perceive the world. Af
11、ter studying the discipline, we see the same world as before, but with different eyes.“It is possible to pass laws that control or place limits on peoples behavior, but legislation cannot reform human nature. Laws cannot change what is in peoples hearts and minds.“What most human beings really want
12、to attain is not knowledge, but certainty. Gaining real knowledge requires taking risks and keeping the mind openbut most people prefer to be reassured rather than to learn the complex and often unsettling truth about anything.“Many problems of modern society cannot be solved by laws and the legal s
13、ystem because moral behavior cannot be legislated.“The way students and scholars interpret the materials they work with in their academic fields is more a matter of personality than of training. Different interpretations come about when people with different personalities look at exactly the same ob
14、jects, facts, data, or events and see different things.“It is dangerous to trust only intelligence.“As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more complex and more mysterious.“It is a grave mistake to theorize before one has data.“Scandalswhether in politics, academ
15、ia, or other areascan be useful. They focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could.“Practicality is now our great idol, which all powers and talents must serve. Anything that is not obviously practical has little value in todays world.“It is easy to welcome innovati
16、on and accept new ideas. What most people find difficult, however, is accepting the way these new ideas are put into practice.“Success, whether academic or professional, involves an ability to survive in a new environment and, eventually, to change it.“If people disregard the great works of the past
17、, it is because these works no longer answer the needs of the present.“As long as people in a society are hungry or out of work or lack the basic skills needed to survive, the use of public resources to support the arts is inappropriateand, perhaps, even cruelwhen one considers all the potential use
18、s of such money.“Education should be equally devoted to enriching the personal lives of students and to training students to be productive workers.“Success in any realm of life comes more often from taking chances or risks than from careful and cautious planning.“It is not the headline-making politi
19、cal events but the seldom-reported social tranformations that have the most lasting significance.“The best preparation for life or a career is not learning to be competitive, but learning to be cooperative.“The goal of politics should not be the pursuit of an ideal, but rather the search for common ground and reasonable consensus.“Technology creates more problems than it solves, and may threaten or damage the quality of life.“The material progress and well-being of one country are necessarily connected to the material progress and well-being of all other countries.“
