1、shiTOPIC: ISSUE152 - “The only responsibility of corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, is to make as much money as possible for their companies.“WORDS: 598 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2010-03-22 17:08:51Generally I can identify with the speakers perspective that corporate executives shou
2、ld shoulder the responsibility to make as much money as they can for their companies on condition that their conducts are legal. Nonetheless, so complicated is the issue concerning the duty of corporate executives that other viewpoints could be equally tenable from different angles. As far as I thin
3、k, corporate executives ought to take a wide range of responsibilities, not just making money.In most cases, making profits for the companies remain the single most important objective for corporate executives provided that their conducts stay within the law. After all, having a strong and healthy c
4、ash flow is generally a guarantee for companies to pursue further development and thus increase their market shares. A corporate executive is authorized, by major shareholders, as the chief manager in a company to run business for the benefits of shareholders, namely make more money for shareholders
5、. Therefore, as long as their conduct is within the law, it is natural that making money certainly seems the ultimate goal for them. For example, there are a large number of business magnets, such as Warrant Buffet, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, to name a few, prospering their own business in the global
6、 market, and yet not a single one of them doesnt include making money in their chief responsibilities.Nevertheless, to be an effective and responsible manager, he/she needs to take into account more than just making money. Usually the executive also needs to take on the responsibility for analyzing
7、the risks involved in the money-oriented policy which may not always be beneficial for the companys long-term development, especially when the economy is enjoying a boom. Due to the opportunities provided by the booming economy, business may seek to expand blindly. If corporate executives are merely
8、 money-oriented, they may overlook the potential hazards in making money. For example they may seek to increase more liabilities and upgrade their market shares due to the positive picture the economy gives to them, hoping to make as much money as possible- a dangerous and reckless approach which co
9、uld results in overvaluing the companies strength and once the market crashes, bankruptcy may be doomed to come. The 2008 financial crisis may prove a good example. Before the economic downturn, everything seems just too good: interest rate is stable, theres no sign of inflation and commerce is pros
10、pering. Blinded by the retina of the economy, executives only shoulder the responsibility of making money, resulting in countless business going bankrupt once the markets bubble is burst, despite the fact that those approaches by them are within the law.Moreover, company executives are also responsi
11、ble for strengthening morale and creating a positive social image for the corporation. Companies are supposed to provide social returns because they accumulate wealth from society. Once too much wealth is mounted in one company without it contributing a single penny to society, ordinary people may f
12、eel that the company is not being responsible and will choose not to purchase products or services from such “cheapskate”. And beyond that, company executives should also carefully consider the exact amount of labor costs. A trade-off between profits and labor costs could be tricky, but if the execu
13、tive merely wants profits, which roughly equal the difference between income and all kinds of cost, including labor costs, those generally provided as wages or salaries for employees, he/she is likely to reduce the labor costs, thus contracting the benefits the employees should get. This in turn, in
14、 all likely hoods, will cause discontentedness among employees and decrease in morale, leading to less competitive productivity. In a nutshell, despite the strong justification in the speakers conclusion that corporate executives are supposed earn as much money as possible for their own companies, p
15、rovided they obey the law, therere other responsibilities that need shouldering and once theyre overlooked, it is hard to maintain the market strength of the companies. TOPIC: ARGUMENT103 - Blue City Highway had always been notorious for its tight curves and poor roadway visibility, and the accident
16、 rate there was generally very high. Last year the highway was redesigned to broaden the curves and improve roadway visibility. Drivers report that they now feel much safer driving on the highway and that the redesign has been a big improvement. But the number of accidents on the highway has not bee
17、n significantly lower in the six months since the redesign than it was in the six months before the redesign. Therefore, the redesign clearly did not improve the curves and roadway visibility enough to make a difference.WORDS: 465 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2010-03-22 17:08:51The speaker reaches to the co
18、nclusion that the improvement made on the Blue City Highway isnt of much use for the reason that the number of accidents hasnt been decreased after the improvement. As far as I think, theres a lack of strong justification in reaching the conclusion and I find it untenable through the following reaso
19、ns.To support his view, the speaker reasons that the number of accidents on the highway remains roughly the same in the six months since the redesign than it was in the six months before the redesign. Is this analogy persuasive? First of all, the speaker fails to specifically compare the condition i
20、n the recent six months after the redesign with that before it. Perhaps the six months after the redesign saw much more weather turbulence, a possible hazard that could significantly cause traffic accidents. Without ruling out the weathers influence on transportation on the Blue City Highway, the sp
21、eaker cannot blame the ineffectiveness of the redesign. In addition, it could be that the transportation management is different after the redesign. After the improvement, drivers report that they feel more much safer and express their recognition of the highway renovation which may give a false imp
22、ression to the authority and they may loosen their management on the high way, without which drivers would feel more relaxed. This is another possible cause of traffic accidents and due to this; the speaker also cannot reach to the hasty conclusion that the improvement itself doesnt make a differenc
23、e.Second, its insufficient for the speaker to only mention a single number to reach his conclusion. It is very possible that in the six months after the redesign, there has been a large increase of vehicles going on the high way because the curves have been widened and road visibility has been impro
24、ved. Accordingly, the number of accidents will naturally increase. Without comparing the ratio of the number of accidents to the total number of vehicles on the high way in the recent six months with that before the redesign, a single number is far from being persuasive.Even if we assume the number
25、of vehicles as the same as that before the redesign, it is still specious. It could be quite possible that the severity of traffic accidents after the improvement is significantly mitigated. In other words, because of the highway improvement, people caught in the traffic accidents suffer less seriou
26、s injuries than before. In this case, its untenable to conclude that improvement has made a difference.In conclusion, if the speaker comprehensively compares the driving conditions, besides the highway alone, in the six months after the redesign and those before the redesign, or if heshe presents mo
27、re arguments instead of just a single number, the conclusion would be far more persuasive.TOPIC: ISSUE160 - “The most essential quality of an effective leader is the ability to remain consistently committed to particular principles and objectives. Any leader who is quickly and easily influenced by s
28、hifts in popular opinion will accomplish little.“WORDS: 645 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2010-03-23 14:46:06Generally I can identify with the speakers perspective that effective leadership embraces consistency to principles and objectives because of the likelihood of leaders to accomplish little if they hap
29、pen to be pushovers. Nonetheless, sticking to the same principles and objectives is not absolutely a good quality. As far as I think, the flexibility of leadership is also of great importance and in specific circumstances; its advisable to make accommodations to particular principles and objectives.
30、It may well be that any leader who is easily influenced by the popular opinions will in most cases succeed little in his/her policy. After all, the number of popular opinions is immense and they keep constantly changing. If the shifts of opinions exert too large an influence on decision makers, its
31、easy for them to become swayed and thus go astray from their original plans leading to abnegation of what they intend to accomplish halfway-an unwise act thatll result in inconsistency in the policy and a waste of resources. On the other hand, if the leaders have a strong assertion in what theyre do
32、ing and stay impervious to the alteration of public opinions, it is likely that they will finish their projects and make great achievements.Nonetheless, this is not to say that leaders should take the changes in popular opinion for granted. If they do, they will unfortunately fall into stubborn poli
33、ticians, unaware of the on-going immediate changes. Popular opinion is not without use; it is a reflection of the current social mentality and if the majoritys view-point is carefully being considered by the decision makers, itll be healthy for the entire enterprises development. After all, the popu
34、lar opinion shed light on the benefits of the masses, and it is the masses that constitute the whole body-the mainstream force in an enterprise. If their benefits are overlooked, and their opinions stifled, it wont last long for this enterprise to develop. A typical example would be the cultural rev
35、olution of China in the 1960s and 1970s. At that time capitalism in China was regarded as evil because it encouraged people to pursue personal gains rather than benefits of the whole country. Chairman Mao Zedong, deeply guided by this principle, made the resolution to develop China and make it outst
36、rip the US in 10 years. Thus most teenagers were demanded to give up education and to go back to the farmlands and factories to make contribution to the country and private business was forbidden since it didnt intend to make profits for the country and thus was of no use to Chinese people. Chinese
37、intellects were against this policy and a large number of people protested against it. However, their opinions were perished, some of their lives persecuted. After ten years, Chinese leaders finally realized the need to change the original principle and objective and things got better. But this so-c
38、alled Cultural Revolution is so disastrous that it causes Chinas economy to regress 20 years.Therefore while leaders oughtnt to make constant modifications to their particular principles and goals, change, when the call for reform grows all the more stronger, is necessary Theres no guarantee that th
39、e decisions made by the leaders are always correct and theres no assurance that the principles they abide by will always perform full well if they remain still against time. Keeping an open mind to public opinions makes leaders well -informed of changes and thus make necessary adaptations. Things ar
40、e changing all the time and survival of the fittest seems a natural law. How to balance change and sticking to the particular principles and goals is what leaders ought to meticulously contemplate.In a nutshell, while leaderships shouldnt be susceptible to popular opinion shifts and need to generall
41、y abide by their own principles and stick to the objectives, its of essence for them to have an open mind and make necessary adjustments when appropriate. TOPIC: ARGUMENT112 - The following proposal was raised at a meeting of the Franklin City Council. “Franklin Airport, which is on a bay, is notori
42、ous for flight delays. The airport management wants to build new runways to increase capacity but can only do so by filling in 900 acres of the bay. The Bay Coalition organization objects that filling in the bay will disrupt tidal patterns and harm wildlife. But the airport says that if it is permit
43、ted to build its new runways, it will fund the restoration of 1,000 acres of wetlands in areas of the bay that have previously been damaged by industrialization. This plan should be adopted, for it is necessary to reduce the flight delays, and the wetlands restoration part of the plan ensures that t
44、he bays environment will actually be helped rather than hurt.“WORDS: 578 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2010-03-23 14:46:07The speaker advocates the Franklin Airports plan to increase the capacity for the airports runway by filling in 900 acres of the bay for the purpose of reducing flight delays. Furthermore
45、, the Franklin Airport promises to fund the restoration of 1000 acres of wetlands if its plan is permitted to implement, thus the speaker doesnt think the environment will be hurt and on the contrary, itll be likely to get improved. Nevertheless, I find his/her argument untenable due to the followin
46、g reasons.To justify that building new runways will reduce flight delays, the speaker fails to provide a link between them. Theres no scientific evidence or survey to illustrate that Franklin Airports flight delays are due to its limited number of runways. Actually there is a wide range of possibili
47、ties that could be held responsible for its unpunctuality. For example, the weather around the airport area could be exceptionally inclement. Windy conditions, bad storms and sandstorms are all possible to procrastinate air flights. Or it could be that the airport is perhaps poorly managed and the a
48、ir flights are not well arranged, etc. Without ruling out these possibilities, the speaker can hardly persuade me to accept that the incapacity of runway is a direct cause of flight delays.Even if we assume that building new runways is a good approach to decrease flight delays, if the sacrifice it n
49、eeds to make in order to reduce delays is significantly more than the benefits it can get from the new runways, then this method should not be recommended. According to the Bay Coalition organization, damaging the 900 acres of the bay could disrupt tidal patterns and harm wildlife. If the environment is severely damaged, it is a great hazard to the local economic and social development. If Franklin City Council happens to be a tourism city (it is near the bay
