Topic 82 Can advertising tell about a country? Advertising plays an important role in modern society

Advertising plays an important role in modern society. Advertisements

covering every aspect of social life can tell a lot about a country by the

marriage of substantial information and colorful expressive forms. Although

many disagree with the title statement, I believe that we can learn a lot about a

country's economy, culture and beauty spots simply by advertising.

 

Advertising offers a great amount of economic information about a country.

Take commercial advertisements for example, they unveil many direct and

useful economic messages: major commodities, service level, living conditions,

and so on. Undoubtedly, politicians, businessmen and citizens will all take

advantage of these helpful advertisements.

Advertising also reveals greatly distinctive traditional culture about a country.

 

It can easily be attained by observing advertisements associated to art, literature,

custom, and social ritual, which have been deeply rooted in a country's unique

history. For example, advertisements for some articles used in a Chinese

wedding reflect their way of thinking, an appreciation of harmony, and a

peculiar taste for wedding clothes. Advertisements of those kinds can thus

show plenty of cultural heritages boasted in a country.

 

Furthermore, advertising helps people learn more about a country's beautiful

scenery. Advertisements about travel serve this purpose perfectly. Information

and knowledge about various resorts might be obtained by happening to see a

photo advertisement posted on a wall by some travel agency. Advertisements

on television, on the contrary, frequently provide us many opportunities to

watch all kinds of unusual beautiful places we may never have thought of

before.

 

All the above evidence supports the undeniable fact that advertising can tell a

lot about a country. I must admit, however, some advertisements become more

or less homogenous around the world due to the tendency of globalization.

Some even fail to signify any special characteristics that are essential for a

country when they need to do so. But all in all, no one can ignore the abundant

and useful information about a country afforded by advertising.

 

 

Topic 83 Is modern technology creating a single world culture?

I strongly agree with the statement that modern technology is creating a single

world culture. Modern technology like computers and the Internet is bringing

people together, and making the world smaller.

 

First of all, with the development of modern technologies such as computers,

English is becoming the most important language in the world, and the

importance of other languages is getting weaker and weaker. Admit or not, the

most common language used today on the Internet is English, and this makes

English becomes the one and only most important language in the world. On

the other hand, computers can cross the barriers of human language. No matter

where people are, and no matter which language people speak, they always use

computers the same way, and basically they are using the same kind of software

packages, like the Windows Operating Systems and word processing software

packages. The computer language is also a universal language. Programmers

from different part of the world can work in the Silicon Valley together.

Although they might have difficulties in communicating in English, they have

no problem at all writing programs with Java, or C++.

 

Besides, the development of the Internet is unifying people's life style. Internet

is being used in almost every corner of the world. People are doing almost

everything with the Internet, like getting all sorts of information, shopping

online, paying for their bills and checking their balances in the online bank.

Over 90 per cent of people in the world use the same kind of Internet browser -

the Internet Explorer, and the interfaces of almost every Internet page looks like

the same, although they use different language and design. People from all over

the world are doing the same thing each day on the Internet, and their living

habit is becoming closer and closer with each passing day.

 

In addition, modern technology has facilitated the communications among

people from all over the world, and therefore has resulted a single world culture.

For instance, people can chat with a friend or a stranger who lives abroad over

the phone, or the Internet, and they can also see and listen to him/her through a

camera and a microphone attached to the computer. The ease of communication

helps one culture learns from other culture, and brings the world together.

Before people can see each other through TV, they used to wear their local

costumes; nowadays T-shirt and blue jeans have become a universal custom for

people. This is a concrete example that modern development is creating a

single world culture.

 

Based on the points discussed above, we can see why I agree with that modern

technology is creating a single world culture.

 

Topic 83 Is modern technology creating a single world culture?

When we look back to the history of human being in recent 200 years, we will

be surprising what a huge change modern technology has brought us. Trains

and planes connect people everywhere. Radios and televisions enable us to

keep with every news happened around the world. More and more chances of

communication influence different cultures deeply.

 

To discuss the impact that modern technology has given on different cultures,

most people would agree that nowhere in history has the issue been more

visible that people in different countries are getting more and more alike. Most

of the time, you cannot tell which country a person is from only by his/her

clothes. Young people all over the world can enjoy McDonald's and other

western food the same way as Americans enjoy. A pop music singer can have

her fans in every corner of our planet. People around the world share news

from newspapers and TV and express concerns on the same topic.

 

cannot be wiped off easily - не может быть стерт с легкостью

 

"The world is getting smaller!." How often we hear such words! But that is

only part of the truth. Not everything in a country's culture can be changed.

Something developed from thousands of years ago and has already been a part

of a nation's spirit cannot be wiped off easily. For example, the family concept

of our country has never changed. We still prefer a big family that all

generations live together. That is the definition of happiness in our value

system. We still appreciate the thinking of Confucius and take it as guideline of

our daily life. At the same time, many countries make great efforts to preserve

their culture heritages. People around the world take more and more pride in

their own cultures, and try to cherish them.

 

Люди во всем мире принимают с большой гордостью собственную культуру, и попытаются лелеять (сохранить) их (её).

but not a tool for erasing individualities - но не инструмент для того, чтобы стереть индивидуальность

 

Certainly, modern technology make possible for cultures to communicate with

each other. But I don't think it is creating a single world culture.

Communication brought by modern technology can be an instrument for

improving and learning, but not a tool for erasing individualities. And it is the

cultural diversity that makes our world more beautiful and interesting.

 

Topic 84 Has the Internet provided a lot of valuable information?

The Internet...is it a boon or a curse? This is a very debatable topic. We would

need to look at the pros and cons of it and then draw conclusions. Even then it

would not be possible to totally answer yes or no to the question. It would

depend upon individual personalities as well as the situation that we are in. In

my opinion, the Internet is definitely a valuable source of information, but as

with all forms of technology one must know how to make the best use of it.

 

Let's step back a few years from now. We were totally dependent on books, the

experience of other people or data stored in other forms for getting information

of any sort. The problems with those kind of information sources is that it is

time consuming, inconvenient and often times even misleading. The concept of

weeding out data from old reports and books was a time consuming and painful

process and would itself deter people from trying to get new information.

 

But today with a touch of a button we can get any information available, sitting

in the comfort of our homes. We are more knowledgeable and aware of things

happening around us. Technology has given us the greatest power at our

fingertips...the power of knowledge!

 

Lets take an example. Suppose someone wants to start off a business venture.

He can get all information regarding other companies in the same line of

business, he can do a cost benefit analysis, gather corroborating data, make new

contacts, and so on, thanks to the internet. He is now well informed. If he has to

discuss this with other potential partners he is armed with a wealth of

information.

A ruffian waylaid her in the street. — Хулиган подстерёг её на улице.

On the other hand the Internet does supply an overload of information. Hence if you give a topic in a search engine such as Google, you will get a number of sites that would cater (поставлять, угождать) to the information required. Now if one were unable to decide what information to cull out (отбраковывать) and what to leave, it would be a painful experience rather than an enjoyment. So in conclusion, it really depends on how you use a particular technology - used in moderation and in an intelligent manner it could be the greatest tool. Otherwise an enemy that steals time and waylays (подстерегать) and deters (удерживает) a person from achieving his ultimate goal (конечной цели).