It has been said,"Not everything that is learned is contained in books." Compare andcontrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books. Inyour opinion, which source is more important? Why? $[M} K
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Both experiencesand books are very essential resources, and both of them have relevant merits. ASzzBR;?_
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Experiences arethe most direct resources we ever have. Almost our every basic skill came fromexperiences, such as walking, articulating, reading even thinking. Withoutexperiences, some natural born abilities even might lose. Studies have shownthat a baby who was robbed by animals into forest for 12 years lost his abilityto talk in human language. Furthermore, it is generally accepted that each andevery skill develops by experiences, and that's why people always say practicemakes perfect. 93Mdp9v+i
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Books are valuablewhen knowledge is beyond the scope of our experiences. Perhaps the most obviousexamples are those fluent writers. They write various stories, the scopes ofwhich are far beyond any individual's experiences. Take Joyce Carol Oates forexample, her productivity has been prodigious, accumulating in less than twodecades to nearly thirty titles, including novels, collections of short storiesand verse, plays and literary criticism. Although some of them appear to comefrom her own direct observations, her dreams, and her fears, much more isclearly from the experiences of others. Her fictive world remains strikinglyakin to that real one reflected in the daily newspapers, the television newsand talk shows, and the popular magazines of our day. JqI6k6~Q^
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Yet eitherexperiences or books may give us wrong information. Our direct observationsalways are subject to our beliefs, hopes, fears, expectations, and our bias,which might make observations unreliable. People vary in their powers ofobservation, and the reliability of our observations is no better than thereliability of our memories, which as we know can be deceptive. Informationprinted in papers sometimes is unreliable either, it may be misprinted, or evendeliberately distorted. For example, Definitions such as Marxism, Capitalism,Zionism are totally different in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of CurrentEnglish between the original edition and the sanctioned Russian edition. ~In{lQ[QX
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In conclusion,both sources are important. Sometimes one is more important than the other inaccordance with specific circumstances. For example, when we make a generalsurvey about a certain subject, we may prefer rich references in library. Onthe other hand, if we want to know more specific details, we had better referto experiences such as results of carefully designed experiments. *.kj]B oO
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7. Howdo movies or television influence people's behavior? Use reasons and specificexamples to support your answer. !Oeq
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The impact thatmodern mass media such as movies or televisions has had on our daily life, andsociety in general, is undeniable. No doubt it will become even greater as thescope of mass media continues to grow, and as the relevant technologies becomemore and more sophisticated, and so fascinating that virtually nobody will beable to escape. Already, it can be seen how western movies are exercisinginfluence on our youth generation: they grow long-hair regardless of their sex,commonly part of which are dyed in gold; they wear jeans in each and everyseason, usually knees of which are deliberately tattered; boys are fond ofearrings or other odd pendants; and girls are keen on Marlboros and weirdcoarse languages. [ 3$.*
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The major meansthat mass media influence the public is by creating topics of discussion in thesociety. Mass media offers people (the consumers) issues to talk and think about.Titanic had brought a worldwideuproar by its extolling and of fascinating immortal love; Prime Color and Wag the dogmet the national debate on right and duty of the president of the United States.Antiwar movies such as Tears of the Sunand All Quiet On The Western Frontamong numerous others have been raising the question that is any war really touphold justice or is it really worthy that an individual makes sacrifices tohis country and at the same time ignores his own family or his personal values? N=>- Q)
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Mass media also shapesour understanding of what is important and what is not important (to know). The"important" issues are to be found on the first pages of thenewspaper (/in the beginning of a television program). The "notimportant" stories are the ones that are not being told at all. The"not very important" stories are probably very short and hidden inthe last pages. In fact censorships present all mass media including itsdistributing means such as the Internet. By prearranging public issue, the massmedia makes decisions for us. Even though there are critical thinkingindividuals in any society, they are definite minority; the public in whole indeed lack skills of critical thinking, and therefore they are often led by themedia. Z:I*y7V-
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In brief, massmedia, by offering topics and affecting the ways in which we discuss “theimportant issues”, has a strong influence on our perception of the truth, ofthe world or of the structure of our society, we have to admit that it has arole in our lives as a source of information, experiences, entertainment,amusement and relaxation. |if '_x1V
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