| PERCENT CHANGE IN DOLLAR AMOUNT OF SALES IN CERTAIN RETAIL STORES FROM 1977 TO 1979 | ||
Percent Change | ||
| Store | From 1977 to 1978 | From 1978 to 1979 |
| P | +10 | -10 |
| Q | -20 | +9 |
| R | +5 | +12 |
| S | -7 | -15 |
| T | +17 | -8 |
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument.
A recent study shows that people living on the continent of North America suffer 9 times more chronic fatigue and 31 times more chronic depression than do people living on the continent of Asia. Interestingly, Asians, on average, eat 20 grams of soy per day, whereas North Americans eat virtually none. It turns out that soy contains phytochemicals called isoflavones, which have been found to possess disease-preventing properties. Thus, North Americans should consider eating soy on a regular basis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression.
Present your perspective on the issue below, using relevant reasons and/or examples to support your views.
"Important truths begin as outrageous, or at least uncomfortable, attacks upon the accepted wisdom of the time."
| (1) | Picture-taking is a technique both for annexing the |
| objective world and for expressing the singular self. | |
| Photographs depict objective realities that already exist, | |
| though only the camera can disclose them. And they | |
| (5) | depict an individual photographer's temperament, dis- |
| covering itself through the camera's cropping of reality. | |
| That is, photography has two antithetical ideals: in the | |
| first, photography is about the world, and the photogra- | |
| pher is a mere observer who counts for little; but in the | |
| (10) | second, photography is the instrument of intrepid, |
| | questing subjectivity and the photographer is all. |
| | These conflicting ideals arise from a fundamental |
| | uneasiness on the part of both photographers and view- |
| | ers of photographs toward the aggressive component in |
| (15) | "taking" a picture. Accordingly, the ideal of a photogra- |
| | pher as observer is attractive because it implicitly denies |
| | that picture-taking is an aggressive act. The issue, of |
| | course, is not so clear-cut. What photographers do can- |
| | not be characterized as simply predatory or as simply, |
| (20) | and essentially, benevolent. As a consequence, one ideal |
| | of picture-taking or the other is always being rediscov- |
| | ered and championed. |
| | An important result of the coexistence of these two |
| | ideals is a recurrent ambivalence toward photography's |
| (25) | means. Whatever the claims that photography might |
| | make to be a form of personal expression on a par with |
| | painting, its originality is inextricably linked to the pow- |
| | ers of a machine. The steady growth of these powers has |
| | made possible the extraordinary informativeness and |
| (30) | imaginative formal beauty of many photographs, like |
| | Harold Edgerton's high-speed photographs of a bullet |
| | hitting its target or of the swirls and eddies of a tennis |
| | stroke. But as cameras become more sophisticated, more |
| | automated, some photographers are tempted to disarm |
| (35) | themselves or to suggest that they are not really armed, |
| | preferring to submit themselves to the limits imposed by |
| | premodern camera technology because a cruder, less |
| | high-powered machine is thought to give more interest- |
| | ing or emotive results, to leave more room for creative |
| (40) | accident. For example, it has been virtually a point of |
| | honor for many photographers, including Walker Evans |
| | and Cartier-Bresson, to refuse to use modern equipment. |
| | These photographers have come to doubt the value of the |
| | camera as an instrument of "fast seeing." Cartier-Bresson, |
| (45) | in fact, claims that the modern camera may see too fast. |
| | This ambivalence toward the photographic means deter- |
| | mines trends in taste. The cult of the future (of faster and |
| | faster seeing) alternates over time with the wish to return |
| | to a purer past - when images had a handmade quality. |
| (50) | This nostalgia for some pristine state of the photographic |
| | enterprise is currently widespread and underlies the |
| | present-day enthusiasm for daguerreotypes and the work |
| | of forgotten nineteenth-century provincial photographers. |
| | Photographers and viewers of photographs, it seems, need |
| (55) | periodically, to resist their own knowingness. |
1. According to the passage, the two antithetical ideals of photography differ primarily in the
| e. | way in which each defines the role of the photographer |
| e. | unrelated to changes in technology |
Posts
All Comments
