Issue Topics (2002年6月新增题)

　　1. "Competition is ultimately more beneficial than detrimental to society."

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　　2. "It is more important to allocate money for immediate, existing social problems than to spend it on long-term research that might help future generations."

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　　3. "The most effective way to understand contemporary culture is to analyze the trends of its youth."

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　　4. "Academic disciplines have become so specialized in recent years that scholars' ideas reach only a narrow audience. Until scholars can reach a wider audience, their ideas will have little use."

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　　5. "People's attitudes are determined more by their immediate situation or surroundings than by any internal characteristic."

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　　6. "It is necessary for everyone to read poetry, novels, mythology and other types of imaginative literature."

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　　7. "The stability of a society depends on how it responds to the extremes of human behavior."

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　　8. "Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."

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　　9. "Education encourages students to question and criticize, and therefore does little to promote social harmony."

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　　10. "College and university education should be free for all students, fully financed by the government."

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　　11. "History teaches us only one thing: knowing about the past cannot help people to make important decisions today."

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　　12. "Competition for high grades seriously limits the quality of learning at all levels of education."

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　　13. "Governments should focus more on solving the immediate problems of today rather than trying to solve the anticipated problems of the future."

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　　14. "The depth of knowledge to be gained from books is much richer and broader than what can be learned from direct experience."

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　　15. "The increasingly rapid pace of life today causes more problems than it solves."

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　　16. "Too much emphasis is placed on role models. Instead of copying others, people should learn to think and act independently and thus make the choices that are best for them."

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　　17. "The media-and society in general-mistakenly expect an individual to speak for a particular group, whether or not that individual truly represents the views of the entire group."

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　　18. "High-profile awards such as the Nobel Prize are actually damaging to society because they reinforce an unhealthy desire for recognition."

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　　19. "High-profile awards such as the Nobel Prize are actually damaging to society because they suggest that only a few people deserve such recognition."

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　　20. "The widespread idea that people should make self-improvement a primary goal in their lives is problematic because it assumes that people are intrinsically deficient."

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　　21. "To truly understand your own culture-no matter how you define it-requires personal knowledge of at least one other culture, one that is distinctly different from your own."

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　　22. "Many people know how to attain success, but few know how to make the best use of it."

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　　23. "People have been so encouraged by society to focus on apparent differences that they fail to see meaningful similarities among ideas, individuals, and groups."

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　　24. "As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate."

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　　25. "Colleges should require students to engage in public-service activities insgroupsto assure that each student receives a balanced, well-rounded education."

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　　26. "People make the mistake of treating experts with suspicion and mistrust, no matter how valuable their contributions might be."

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　　27. "Government should place few, if any, restrictions on scientific research and development"

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　　28. "In any profession-business, politics, education, government-those in power should step down after five years. The surest path to success for any enterprise is revitalization through new leadership."

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　　29. "Spending time alone makes one a better companion to others."

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　　30. "One can best understand the most important characteristics of a society by studying its major cities."

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　　31. "In most professions and academic fields, imagination is more important than knowledge."

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　　32. "The most effective way to communicate an idea or value to large groups of people is through the use of images, not language."

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　　33. "The people who make important contributions to society are generally not those who develop their own new ideas, but those who are most gifted at perceiving and coordinating the talents and skills of others."

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　　34. "Truly profound thinkers and highly creative artists are always out of step with their time and their society."

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　　35. "People today are too individualistic. Instead of pursuing self-centered, separate goals, people need to understand that satisfaction comes from working for the greater good of the family, the community, or society as a whole."

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　　36. "Schools should be required to teach the essential interconnectedness of all human beings and thus help eliminate wars, cultural clashes, and other forms of conflict."

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　　37. "Major policy decisions should always be left to politicians and other government experts, who are more informed and thus have better judgment and perspective than do members of the general public."

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　　38. "All students should be required to take courses in the sciences, even if they have no interest in science."

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　　39. "Patriotic reverence for the history of a nation often does more to impede than to encourage progress."

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　　40. "Government should never censor the artistic works or historical displays that a museum wishes to exhibit."

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　　41. "Government should preserve publicly owned wilderness areas in their natural state, even though these areas are often extremely remote and thus accessible to only a few people."

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　　42. "In any field of endeavor, it is impossible to make a significant contribution without first being strongly influenced by past achievements within that field."

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　　43. "Government funding of the arts threatens the integrity of the arts."

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　　44. "Young people should be encouraged to pursue long-term, realistic goals rather than seek immediate fame and recognition."

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　　45. "In any field of inquiry, the beginner is more likely than the expert to make important discoveries."

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　　46. "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."

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　　47. "Leaders are created primarily by the demands that are placed upon them."

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　　48. "College students should be encouraged to pursue subjects that interest them rather than seek programs that promise entrysintosthe job market."

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　　49. "Most people think that their deeply held values are the result of rational choice, but reason often has little to do with the way people form values."

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　　50. "Although, critics who write about the arts tend to deny the existence of any objective standards for evaluating works of art, they have a responsibility to establish standards by which works of art can be judged."

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　　51. "It is important that nations, communities, and families continue to observe holidays and traditional celebrations, for these repeated experiences validate and strengthen a sense of who they are as a culture."

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　　52. "It is unfortunate but true that political decisions and activities affect all aspects of people's lives."

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　　53. "The pressure to achieve high grades in school seriously limits the quality of learning. An educational environment without grades would promote more genuine intellectual development."

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　　54. "Governments should provide funding for artists so that the arts can flourish and be available to all people."

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　　55. "For better or worse, education is a process that involves revising the ideas, beliefs, and values people held in the past."

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　　56. "The true strength of a country is best demonstrated by the willingness of its government to tolerate challenges from it's own citizens."

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　　57. "All students should be required to take at least one course in ethics, even if taking the course means a decreased emphasis on academic subjects."

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　　58. "Instant communication systems encourage people to form hasty opinions and give quick replies rather than take the time to develop thoughtful, well- reasoned points of view."

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　　59. "The worldwide distribution of television programs and advertisements is seriously diminishing the differences among cultures."

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　　60. "The depth of knowledge to be gained from books is richer and broader than what can be learned from direct experience."

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　　61. "In any field of endeavor-the sciences, the humanities, the social sciences, industry, etc.-it is not the attainment of a goal that matters, but rather the ideas and discoveries that are encountered on the way to the goal."

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　　62. "It is possible to identify a person's politics within a very short time of meeting him or her. Everything about people-their clothes, their friends, the way they talk, what they eat-reflects their political beliefs."

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　　63. "Instant foods, instant communication, faster transportation-all of these recent developments are designed to save time. Ironically, though, instead of making more leisure time available, these developments have contributed to a pace of human affairs that is more rushed and more frantic than ever before."

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　　64. "The past is no predictor of the future."

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　　65. "Society's external rewards are no measure of true success. True success can be gauged in relation to the goals one sets for oneself."

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　　66. "Practical people, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are in fact the unknowing slaves of values and ideas that were worked out by intellectuals of the past."

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　　67. "Technology is a necessary but not always a positive force in modern life."

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　　68. "The problems of modern society have led many people to complain: 'We live in terrible times.' Yet, given the choice, no one today would prefer to live in any other time."

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　　69. "Students should be encouraged to realize that mental agility and rhetorical skill must be accompanied by sincerity and the true conviction of their own beliefs."

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　　70. "While most of the environmental problems we face result from the use of technology, society must depend upon technology to find solutions to these problems."

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　　71. "What we call progress is a matter of exchanging one problem for another."

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　　72. "Artists should pay little attention to their critics.* Criticism tends to undermine and constrain the artist's creativity."

　　*those who evaluate works of art, such as novels, films, music, paintings, etc.

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　　73. "A crucial test of character is whether one is able to adapt to changing social conventions without sacrificing one's principles."

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　　74. "Many people admire idealism, but it usually leads to disappointment or danger."

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　　75. "One of the most harmful technological innovations of all time is the automobile."

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　　76. "The most practical and effective way to protect wilderness areas is to attract more tourists to these areas through environmentally sensitive projects."

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　　77. "To guarantee quality education in elementary and secondary schools, the students' parents must be actively involved in defining the schools' educational policies."

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　　78. "Both parents and communities must be involved in the local schools. Education is too important to delegate solely to asgroupsof professional educators."

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　　79. "One often hears about the need for individuals to take responsibility for their own lives. However, 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."

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　　80. "What most people consider 'normal' or 'natural' merely reflects the unexamined beliefs and preconceptions that this person received uncritically while growing up."

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　　81. "Important truths begin as outrageous, or at least uncomfortable, attacks upon the accepted wisdom of the time."

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　　82. "It is possible to pass laws that control or place limits on people's behavior, but legislation cannot reform human nature. Laws cannot change what is in people's hearts and minds."

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　　83. "What most human beings really want is not discovery and change but reassurance."

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　　84. "It is dangerous to trust only intelligence."

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　　85. "If people disregard the great works of the past, it is because these works no longer answer the needs of the present."

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　　86. "Education should be equally devoted to enriching the personal lives of students and to training students to be productive workers."

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　　87. "Success in any realm of life comes more often from taking chances or risks than from careful and cautious planning."

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　　88. "It is not the headline-making political events but the seldom-reported social tranformations that have the most lasting significance."

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　　89. "The best preparation for life or a career is not learning to be competitive, but learning to be cooperative."

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　　90. "Instead of encouraging conformity, society should show greater appreciation of individual differences."

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　　91. "Truly innovative ideas do not arise from groups of people, but from individuals. When groups try to be creative, the members force each other to compromise and, as a result, creative ideas tend to be weakened and made more conventional. Most original ideas arise from individuals working alone."

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　　92. "The most elusive knowledge is self-knowledge, and it is usually acquired through solitude, rather than through interaction with others."

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　　93. "Unlike great thinkers and great artists, the most effective political leaders must often yield to public opinion and abandon principle for the sake of compromise."

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　　94. "We learn through direct experience; to accept a theory without experiencing it is to learn nothing at all."

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　　95. "As societies all over the world have more and more access to new information, the effects on life-long learning can only be positive."

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　　96. "People should not be too quick in trying to take action; instead they should stop to think of the possible consequences of what they might do."

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　　97. "Any decision-whether made by government, by a corporation, or by an individual person-must takesintosaccount future conditions more than present conditions."

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　　98. "Too much emphasis has been placed on the need for students to challenge the assertions of others so that they can learn to criticize the views of others. In fact, the ability to compromise and work with others-that is, the ability to achieve social harmony-should be a major goal in every school."

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　　99. "The bombardment of visual images in contemporary society has the effect of making people less able to focus clearly and extensively on a single issue over a long period of time."

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　　100. "Insgroupsto produce successful original work, scholars and scientists must first study the successful work of others to learn what contributions remain to be made."

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　　101. "The private lives of public officials are irrelevant to their work in governing and serving the public and therefore should not be subjected to public scrutiny and comment."

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　　102. "Now that computer technology has made possible the rapid accessing of large amounts of factual information, people are less likely than ever to think deeply or originally. They feel unable to compete with-much less contribute to- the quantity of information that is now available electronically."

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　　103. "The increase in knowledge is forcing people to specialize. As a result, the distance between fields of specialization has become so vast that specialists in different areas are unable to influence each other."

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　　104. "Learning for learning's sake is an outdated concept. Today, education must serve an ulterior purpose and be directed toward clear goals."

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　　105. "Education is primarily a personal matter; it has little to do with school or college."

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　　106. "Censorship is rarely, if ever, justified."

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　　107. "To remain vigorous, any academic field needs to be led by truly independent thinkers who are willing to ignore established boundaries and challenge long-standing assumptions."

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　　108. "The best way to learn a new subject or skill is to study small segments or details in great depth rather than to start by trying to develop a sense of the whole."

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　　109. "College students-and people in general-prefer to follow directions rather than make their own decisions. Therefore, colleges should eliminate as many choices as possible insgroupsto offer students clear direction."

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　　110. "The purpose of education should be to create an academic environment that is separate from the outside world. This kind of environment is ideal because it allows students to focus on important ideas without being held back by practical concerns."

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　　111. "Encouraging young people to believe that they can accomplish great things if they try hard enough is both misleading and potentially harmful."

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　　112. "Computers and video technology can make facsimiles of original works such as paintings and historical documents available to everyone. The great advantage of this new technology is that it will enable anyone-not just scholars-to conduct in-depth research withoutshavingsaccess to the original works."

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　　113. "Heroes and heroines are not people with outstanding strength of character; instead, they are usually just people who happened to be in the right place at the right time."

　　------------------------------ 114. "Although it is easy to respond positively to the work of another person or group, it is far more worthwhile to give negative feedback."

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　　115. "An individual's greatness cannot be judged by his or her contemporaries. The most objective evaluators of a person's greatness are not his or her contemporaries but rather those who belong to a later time."

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　　116. "Societies should try to save every plant and animal species, regardless of the expense to humans in effort, time, and financial well-being."

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　　117. "Most societies do not take their greatest thinkers seriously, even when they claim to admire them."

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