Overseas companies heed 'go west' call
 
The table indicates thatsome foreign companies are making significant commitments to the Chinese central government's "go west" initiative. As leading transnational companies, Siemens and Coca Cola have long been committed to the development in western China. Recently,Motorola has established its network research and development centre in Chengdu. The table also reveals that together with Siemens, Coca cola and Motorola, other transnational companies such as Enron, Shell, Vivendi-Generale des Eaux have invested in many fields—energy, water conservancy, transportation and other projects in the western region.
From the table it can be seen thatoverseas companies heed the central government's call for all-out efforts to develop the vast western regionsince the implementation of the western region development
 
 

Prediction

 

 
 
 
 
strategy will bring with it abundant commercial opportunities which attract foreign businesses.
To sum up, based on the trend the table shows,more and more foreign investors will heed the "go west" call. So long as the investors can make full use of the western region's advantages and grasp the pulse of the market, they will be rewarded with handsome economic returns.






 
These two arguments not only represent different sides in the current debate about nuclear power, they also illustrate different methods of argumentation. The method of the first argument is inductive; the method of the second is deductive.
An inductive argument is based on examples. To prove that nuclear power plants are fundamentally unsafe, the writer of argument 1 cites five major accidents that have occurred at them since 1957. These examples do not necessarily prove that all nuclear power plants are unsafe; they show only that major accidents can occur at such plants, but taken together, the various examples support the conclusion that nuclear power plants are accident-prone.
A deductive argument is based on one or more assumptions, one or more points that the writer takes for granted and does not try to prove. Argument 2 is based on the major premise — the assumption that a three-year, four-million-dollar study led by an M.I.T. professor of nuclear engineering is fully capable of determining just how dangerous nuclear power plants are. The statement of this assumption is followed by the minor premise — a statement of fact — namely, that the study reached a certain conclusion. Taken together, the assumption and the statement of fact constitute the premise of the argument — the statement from which the conclusion is drawn. If you assume that the study is reliable and you accept as a fact the statement about its results, you have to accept the writer's conclusion. In simplified form, the argument looks like this:
 
Assumption: The study is reliable.
Statement of fact: The study found that nuclear power plants are fundamentally safe.
Conclusion:Therefore such plants are fundamentally safe.
 
A deductive argument, then, is one in which the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises —from the combination of one or more assumptions with one or more statements of fact.
The two methods, though often used, have their advantages and disadvantages respectively. Another way of putting this is to say that effective arguments usually combine deduction and induction, carefully stated assumptions and apt examples. Consider these two arguments:
 
Passage one:
 
Whenever an American company helps to create a better standard of living for the poorer people of a foreign country, it should be allowed to stay there. In South Africa, American companies are improving the conditions of black people. Therefore, American business should be allowed to stay in South Africa.
 
Passage two:
 
Whenever an American company helps the people of a foreign country to achieve a better standard of living, it should be allowed and encouraged to do so. In South Africa, American companies are improving the conditions of black people. In Tubatse, for instance, 175 miles northeast of Johannesburg, Union Carbide employs about four hundred blacks, pays them well above the government's minimum wage, has put many of them in supervisory jobs, and provides housing, school, and recreational facilities far superior to those provided by a local South African company. In Port Elizabeth, on the southeastern coast, the Ford Motor Company has actually encouraged black unionism in defiance of South African law, and is now training blacks for a wide variety of supervisory posts ―including jobs in which they will supervise whites. Altogether, more than a hundred American firms operating in South Africa now subscribe to the so-called Sullivan principles, which call for increased pay and opportunities for blacks, integration of black and white workers, recognition of black unions, and general improvement of the workers' lives. For all these reasons, American business should be allowed to stay in South Africa.
 
Here both writers take the same sides, arguing that American business should be allowed to stay in South Africa. But while argument 1 is purely deductive, argument 2 combines deduction with induction. You will accept the conclusion to the first argument if — and only if — you accept the premises: the assumption made by the first sentence and the statement of fact made by the second. But many readers may not immediately believe that American companies really are improving the lives of South African blacks. So argument 2 uses induction to defend that point, giving specific examples before presenting the conclusion. And since the examples strongly support the point in question, the second argument is more convincing than the first.
Refutation
 
In refuting an opponent’s arguments, one ought to recognize that seldom is one side completely right and the other completely wrong; usually taking sides should be a matter of weighing merits and demerits and then deciding which side has more advantages. If the writer has honestly done this, he need have no fear of admitting a few merits of the other side or the disadvantages of his own position. The writer of the following paragraph admits to that China's entry into the WTO will benefit the economy of China in the first place, but he revalues the WTO and is convinced that the WTO entry is a double-edged sword for China. With the evidence, the writer supports his own argument which is convincing.
 
                                     WTO Entry: Double-edged Sword for China





 
However, arguing by analogy is very dangerous because we cannot always prove our propositions by this method. Read this argument:
 
The people of a country are just like the members of one family. The President is therefore like the head of the family. Children should not speak of their parents disrespectfully so, therefore, the citizens of the country should not speak of their President disrespectfully.
 
What the writer is saying may or may not be true, but he is wrong to use therefore in the second and third sentences. The people of a country may be like a family in some ways, but also unlike one in others —you cannot prove anything from this analogy. Arguing by analogy like this example is unsound.
 
Avoiding arguing unsoundly —fallacies
 
False arguments include not only false statements of fact, which we have already discussed, but also fallacies — that is, unsound or illogical ways of arguing. To help you avoid the most common fallacies, we describe them here.
      
                           
         ·Avoiding arguingby analogy
         ·Avoiding arguingby association
         ·Avoiding arguing by assuming what is to be proven
         ·Avoiding arguingad Hominem
 
 

Avoiding arguing by analogy
 
Newspaper should be forbidden to criticize the president of the United States. The only one who can fairly judge the performance of a president is a former president, for he alone knows the burdens of the office from his own experience. When a newspaper reporter attacks the president, or tries to give him advice, it's like a nurse telling a doctor how to perform an operation. Nurses often watch operations, but without surgical training or experience they have no right to give advice about them. And a reporter has no more right to criticize the president.
 
Like the above example, this passage is another one that shows an illogical way of arguing by analogy.
 
Avoiding arguing by association
 
It is well known that Senator Blank is a critic of the Chilean government. We also know that Latin American Marxists are critics of the Chilean government. It is clear, therefore, that Senator Blank has Marxist tendencies.
 
Here a deductive argument is misused to promote guilt by association. Because the conclusion to this argument does not follow from its premise, it is unreasonable.
 
Avoiding assuming what is to be proved
 
Women and men make up the human race. In this sense they are alike. They have feelings, expressed and unexpressed, due to their various upbringings in our society. People have challenged men's superiority because women have begun to fend for themselves and to seek a larger role in society. They are better able to cope with the difficulties of social acceptance and equality than men are because they have been allowed to express their feelings in the past. Men have it a bit harder. They have to learn to accept themselves as feeling human beings and to deal openly with their emotions instead of repressing them.
Men and women are emotional and intellectual equals. Neither sex is superior to the other.
 
The writer clearly wants us to believe that men and women are equal. Yet nowhere does the passage give us reasons for believing this statement. On the contrary, the passage seems to say that men and women differ, that women are much more willing to release feelings than men are. The emotional and intellectual equality that concerns the writer is not at all self-evident, and it is not proved by the statement that men and women both “make up the human race”.
 
Avoiding arguing ad Hominem
 
A furor about the American funeral customs ... has been created by Jessica Mitford's book The American Way of Death. [Pertinent here] are some facts about Jessica Mitford Treuhaft, which were reported in the November 5, 1963 issue of National Review. Several people "under oath before legally constituted agencies of both federal and state governments" have identified Jessica Mitford as a member of the Communist Party. In fact, according to the National Review, both Mr. and Mrs. Treuhaft have a long record of Communist activities.
Jessica Mitford's Communist connections are pertinent because they place her book in perspective as part of the left-wing drive against private enterprise in general and —in this case — against Christian funeral customs in particular.
—Rev. Irving E. Howard, review of Jessica Mitford's, The American Way of Death
 
Jessica Mitford's book argues that funeral directors are greedy and exploitative. But instead of answering the argument itself, Irving Howard attacks the maker of the argument, labeling her a Communist and hence an enemy of free enterprise and Christianity. This is an example of argument ad hominem (“to the man” —i.e., “to the person”), argument focused not on a point but on the person who made the point.
 
Argumentative indicators
 
Certain words signal an argument. These words include:
 
        because                    consequently
        as                              therefore
        since                         thus
        for                            hence
        so                             accordingly
 
Such words as since, for, and because, may be used not only to argue but also to explain:
To argue:  American business should be allowed to stay in South Africa because they help to raise the standard of living for black people there.
To explain:     President Carter opposed U.S. participation in the Moscow Olympics because he wanted to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
 [page]
IV.  Comparison of different types of writing
      
When dealing with the four types of writing — narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive, the students are often confused about their purposes, structures and other aspects. The following table is meant to show the differences in purpose and structure among narrative, expository and persuasive writing.
 
       Purpose and Structure
 
             
                        Narrative writing   Expository writing                 Persuasive writing

 
To tell a story         To inform sb. of sth.         To persuade sb.
Purpose       To teach sth.          To convince sb.
To explain sth.

 
Context                  Topic sentence                 Theme or sub-theme
     Structure      Plots                            Supporting sentences        Evidence
Climax                  Concluding sentence         Conclusion

  

The table shows that each type of writing has its own purposes and structure. When you are going to write, choose the appropriate structure based on your purpose.
 

       Topic Sentence vs. Theme

 
The key to writing a good exposition is to write a good topic sentence and the key to writing a good persuasion is to write a good theme. There are some similarities between a topic sentence and a theme. For example, both are a complete sentence containing the topic and the main idea that control a whole paragraph, neither too narrow nor too broad. The following indicates their differences.
 
              Topic sentence                                        Theme
 
To expound facts, events, knowledge, etc.  To comment on ideas, propositions
To provide information                             To show one’s stand and point of view
Without obvious stand for/against sth.         With obvious stand for/against sth.
Nothing to be countered                                Different ideas and attitudes to be countered
             
Example:
 
       Expository writing
      
              Topic sentence                                           Features
       Certain colors have a profound                         ·  a complete sentence
         influence on our bodies.                            ·  covering the whole paragraph
       Owning a car is expensive.                           ·  general
       There are some differences in                       ·  indicating the development
         living in cities and country side.               ·  mostly, facts

  

       Persuasive writing
 
              Theme                                                Features
       Nuclear power plants are fundamental-       ·  a complete sentence
  ly unsafe.                                           ·  covering the whale paragraph
       Though some people think hunting              ·  general
is nothing more than wholesale,           ·  indicating the development
         and wanton destruction of living creatures,·  mostly, opinion
         hunters actually help to ensure                  ·  implying different opposite idea
         the health and survival of wildlife
      
Sometimes, you can, based on a sentence, write an exposition by example, reason and other methods of paragraph development, and you can also write a persuasion based on the same sentence by induction or deduction. Therefore, when you are going to write, first of all, you have to take the purpose of your writing into consideration. Second, choose the proper type of writing. Third, write a good topic sentence for your expository writing or write a good theme for your argument. Finally, develop your paragraph by corresponding methods.
 
V.    Reading practice
 
1.  Analyzing categories of prose: Read the following paragraphs by Mark Twain, and be prepared to answer these questions: Are these paragraphs narration, telling a story in a time sequence? Are they description, appealing to the senses? Are they exposition, explaining or informing? Are they persuasion, asking readers to agree with the author? Or they combine two of these modes? If they are a combination, which part fits which category? Do they have topic sentences, and if so, where are they? How has Mark Twain organized his supporting details?
 
     Passage one
 
The most useful and interesting letters we get here from home are from children seven or eight years old. This is petrified truth. Happily they have got nothing to talk about but home, and neighbors, and family — things their betters think unworthy of transmission thousands of miles. They write simply and naturally, and without straining for effect. They tell all they know, and then stop. They seldom deal in abstractions or moral homilies. Consequently their epistles are brief; but, treating as they do of familiar scenes and persons, always entertaining. Now, therefore, if you would learn the art of letter-writing, let a little child teach you.
                           —Mark Twain, “A Complaint about Correspondents”
 
     Passage two
 
Alexandriawas too much like a European city to be novel, and we soon tired of it. We took the cars and came up here to ancient Cairo, which is an Oriental city and of the completest pattern. There is little about it to disabuse one's mind of the error if he should take it into his head that he was in the heart of Arabia. Stately camels and dromedaries, swarthy Egyptians, and likewise Turks and black Ethiopians, turbaned, sashed, and blazing in a rich variety of Oriental costumes of all shades of flashy colors, are what one sees on every hand crowding the narrow streets and the honeycombed bazaars. We are stopping at Shepherd's Hotel, which is the worst on earth except the one I stopped at once in a small town in the United States. It is pleasant to read this sketch in my note-book, and know that I can stand Shepherd's Hotel, sure, because I have been in one just like it in America and survived.
                                                 —Mark Twain,"The Benton House" 
 
2.  Exposition: Read the following passages and analyze each by asking yourself whether it uses narration or description or a combination of narration and description, and in what sequence it develops.
    
     Passage One
 
                                     How Did Advertising Come About?
 
Advertising is a way of informing people of something. This can range from telling them of a product for sale, of a service, of urging them to do something, or even to bring one’s name before the public. So advertising came out quite naturally and took many forms from the very beginning. For example, there is a papyrus discovered at Thebes offering are ward for a runaway slave. It is three thousand years old — and it is really an advertisement! Signboards that notified people of services available were placed outside doors in Greece and Egypt around 1500 B.C. — a form of advertising. With the invention of printing, advertising began to take on new forms. About 1477, in London, the first printed advertisement in English announced a prayerbook sale. The first newspaper advertisement appeared on the back page of a London newspaper in 1625. It was not until 1704 that paid advertisements were printed in the United States. By 1771 there were 31 newspapers in the Colonies, and all of them carried advertising. Today, of course, we know that advertising is done not only in newspapers, but also in magazines, on the radio, and on television, the first “commercials” appeared on radio about 1920. Commercials on television developed mostly after World War II. The idea spread very quickly and today the advertising that is done on TV is so familiar to all of us that many people can remember the commercials even better than the shows they see!
                                          English Salon, March 2000
 
     Passage Two
    
                                         Birth of the Red Cross
 
In 1859 a young Swiss businessman saw something which was to change his life and influence the course of history. The young man was Henry Dunant who witnesses the carnage following the Battle of Solferino, in Italy. He was deeply moved by the dreadful suffering of the wounded from both sides who were left largely uncared for. This appalling scene was the birthplace of a magnificent human idea. Henry saw every country creating a body of trained volunteers who would care impartially for the wounded of all sides, protected by international agreement. His vision led directly to the founding of the Red Cross, the signing of the First Geneva Convention, and the adoption of the Red Cross, and later the Red Crescent, ad international symbol of protection. Today the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is the world’s large voluntary organization, with a global membership close to 250,000,000 and a National Society in almost every country of the world.
                              English Salon, April 2000
 
3.  Narration: Read the following stories and analyze the context, plot, climax and purpose of each.
 
Passage One
 
                                  Pickup in the rain
 
One night, at 11:30 PM, an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young while man stopped to help her —generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab. She seemed to be in a big hurry! She wrote down his address, thanked him and drove away. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man’s door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached. It read: “Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes but my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband’s bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others.
                                                 Sincerely,
                                                        Mrs. Nat King Cole
                                          (From English Salon, May 2000)
 
       Passage Two
 
                                   Food for Thought
 
There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us.” Show your friends how much you care. Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND.
                                          English Salon, March 1999
 
4.Description: Read the following passages and discern what objects the writers are describing and how they are doing them.
 
     Passage One
 
They skip the sky and race on land
 
Thundering feet pound the hot, dry African plain. Startled by the sound, you turn around and see a flock of odd-looking birds. They are running past you on the hard-packed earth. Their heads seem too small for their bodies. Their necks look awkward. Their legs seem long and clumsy. Yet with lightning speed and surprising grace, they race by quickly and disappear. They are ostriches — the biggest birds in the world. A male ostrich stands as tall as 8 feet (2m) and weighs up to 300 pounds (136kg). Swift on foot, ostriches are too heavy to fly. Experts think ostriches lost that ability millions of years ago. To survive, they developed strong running legs and a powerful karate-style kick. In the wild, ostriches usually live in family groups or in large flocks on the grasslands and desert of Africa. As the birds roam, they feed on plants.
                                            English Salon, March 1999
 
     Passage Two
 
The Acropolis of Athens
 
The Acropolis stands 512ft. (156m) above sea level, some 300ft. (90m) above Athens. Its buildings can be seen from the hills around, standing right above the city, and they can be seen, too, from below, poking up over the fortress wall. Although the Venetians blew up stocks of Turkish gunpowder there in 1687, the Parthenon is not a mere ruin. It remains stunningly beautiful; the entire group of buildings, and their arrangement, is an architectural masterpiece. The Greeks, while recognizing human failings, believed man could achieve the greatest heights on all sides of life, an optimistic view which is somehow imparted at the Athenian Acropolis. The plan of the Parthenon is direct and immediately comprehensible. The huge Doric columns give a sense of total stability; the plinth supporting them is strong and large, and the structure of the parts which the columns support — the entablatures, the friezes and pediments — is easy to follow. The parts are unified with the simplest of means; there is no mystery, no muddle, no confusion. Greek architecture, as represented at the Acropolis, respects the sensibility and intelligence of man.
                                            English Salon, April 1999
 
     Passage Three
 
                       Reading in Bed about Foul Weather
 
There is a peculiar delight, which I can still experience though I knew it best as a boy, in cozily reading about foul weather when equally foul weather is beating hard against the windows, when one is securely poised between the wind and rain and sleet outside and the wind and rain and sleet that leap from the page into the mind. The old romancers must have been aware of this odd little bonus of pleasure for the reader, and probably that is why so many of their narratives, to give them a friendly start, began with solitary horsemen, cloaked to the eyebrows, riding through the night on urgent business for the Duke, sustained by nothing more than an occasional and dubious ragout or pasty and a gulp or two of sour wine (always fetched by surly innkeepers or their scowling slatterns), on sideroads deep in mire, with wind, rain, thunder and lightning, sleet, hail, snow, all turned on at the full. With the windows rattling away and hailstones drumming at the paper in the fireplace, snug in bed except for one cold elbow, I have traveled thousands and thousands of mucky miles with these fellows, braving the foulest nights, together crying “Bah!”
                              English Salon, April 1999
 
5.   Argumentation: What follows is persuasive passages. Reading them, you have to be aware of the theme or the point of view of the writer in each paragraph or passage and methods to argue with: induction, deduction, a combination or other methods, say, analogy or refutation.
 
     Passage One
 
Is Internet Addictive?
 
The Internet has emerged as the centrepiece in the lives of many people, but is it addictive? People who study this issue believe that Internet addiction is as real as alcoholism. Most people will spend time on anything that is fun to do, but some Internet users have moved past fun to clinical addiction. These people are said to have Internet addiction disorder (IAD). They often lose self-control and crave surfing the Internet, much as a smoker craves a cigarette. Like others who are addicted to something —whether it be gambling or cocaine —they suffer withdrawal symptoms when they are forced to forgo the Internet. Millions of Internet users routinely go online without any detrimental effects, but the Internet still takes its toll on a small, but growing, sector of the online community. These people spend from four or ten hours a day on the Internet and will occasionally “binge” for up to 24 hours at a time. Numerous cases have been reported in which the Internet was blamed for broken marriages, for students dropping out of school, and even for illnesses that result in hospital stays. People with IAD confess their addiction on the Internet. Susie says, “I don’t eat … I’ve lost weight … I don’t sleep … I’ve been sucked into the Internet, hook, line and sinker.” Mary says, “My addiction is so bad. I’m flunking most of my classes.” John says, “I’m insanely addicted to the Internet and the sad thing about it is that I don’t even want to do anything about it.”
                                          (From English Salon, June 2000)
 
     Passage Two
 
                                          Did Tainted Meat Kill Mozart?
 
The latest theory about Mozart’s untimely death on Dec.5, 1791, at age 35 in Vienna suggests the culprit was likely trichinosis. The illness is usually caused by eating undercooked pork infested by the worm, and could explain all of Mozart’s symptoms, which included fever, rash, limb pain and swelling, says Dr. Jan Hirschmann of a Medical Center in Seattle. Hirschmann offers as evidence a little letter Mozart wrote to his wife 44 days before his illness began. “What do I smell? … pork cutlets! What a delicious taste! I eat to your health,” Mozart wrote. “If his final illness was indeed trichinosis, whose incubation period is up to 50 days, Mozart may have unwittingly disclosed the precise cause of his death —those very pork chops,” Hirschmann said. Mozart died 15 days after he became ill. His doctors offered only a vague cause of death —“severe military fever” —and no autopsy was performed. His wife, Constanze, reportedly said after his death that Mozart thought he was being poisoned, and rumors circulated that his enemies, including rival composer Antonio Salieri, may have done him in. Mozart’s grave was dug up about seven years after his death so it could be reused, and his remains were dispersed. Therefore it is impossible to get any DNA sample for test. Hirschmann acknowledged that not being able to be proved wrong “makes it much more enjoyable to speculate.” Doctors like to review the master’s death because “it’s fun and because it’s Mozart,” another expert said. “I personally think that he died because they needed a new choirmaster in heaven.”
                                         —English Language Learning,Nov. 2001
 
            Passage Three
 
Non-verbal Communication
 
It has been justly said that while “we speak with our vocal organs we converse with our whole bodies.” All of us communicate with one another nonverbally, as well as with words. Sometimes we know what we’re doing, as with the use of gestures such as the thumbs-up sign to indicate that we approve. But most of the time we’re not aware that we’re doing it. We gesture with eyebrows or a hand, meet someone else’s eyes and look away, shift positions in a chair…. These actions we assume are random and incidental. But researchers have discovered that there is a system to them almost as consistent and comprehensible as language, and they conclude that there is a whole range of body language, including the way we move, the gestures we employ, the posture we adopt, the facial expression we wear, the direction of our gaze, the extent to which we touch and the distance we stand from each other.
                                                 English Salon, June 2000
 
Passage Four: Read the arguments for and against the building of the dam here and then decide with which argument you agree.
 
     For
                
       The darter is a fish that has no food value or apparent worth to mankind. The building of the dam is 75 percent complete at this time and has already cost the regional development group over $100,000. Any change in the construction site would, of course, add to the time and to the total cost of construction .The completion of the dam would increase power capacity in the community by approximately enough power to provide light for 20,000 additional homes. The dam would provide irrigation benefits for farmers and employment to about 900 people.
 
     Against
 
Though the darter is today considered valueless, it is not known what value it actually has in the balance of nature. It is foolish to make the decision that a species is worthless, because the biological world is immense and not all of its elements are completely understood. A species that is considered worthless may be found to have some importance in the future. A study of the dam construction has shown that the present site has little flood control value. The dam could be redesigned around another nearby river where its danger to the environment would not be so great. By redesigning the dam, the regional development group could then save the project without causing the extinction of the darter.
 
6.  Combination: Read the essay “The Green Banana" carefully and answer the questions following the essay.
 
                                         The Green Banana
                                                  By Donald Bachelor
 
Although it might have happened anywhere, my encounter with the green banana started on a steep mountain road in the interior of Brazil. My ancient jeep was straining up through spectacular countryside when the radiator began to leak, ten miles from the nearest mechanic. The over-heated engine forced me to stop at the next village, which consisted of a small store and a scattering of houses. People gathered to look. Three fine streams of hot water spouted from holes in the jacket of the radiator. “That's easy to fix,” a man said. He sent a boy running for some green bananas. He patted me on the shoulder, assuring me everything would work out. “Green bananas,” he smiled. Everyone agreed.
We exchanged pleasantries while I mulled over the ramifications of the green banana. Asking questions would betray my ignorance, so I remarked on the beauty of the terrain. Huge rock formations, like Sugar Loaf in Rio, rose up all around us. “Do you see that tall one right over there?” asked my benefactor, pointing to a particular tall, slender pinnacle of dark rock. " That rock marks the center of the world."
I looked to see if he were teasing me, but his face was serious. He in turn inspected me carefully to be sure I grasped the significance of his statement. The occasion demanded some show of recognition on my part. “The center of the world?” I repeated, trying to convey interest in not complete acceptance. He nodded. “The absolute center. Everyone around here knows it.”
At that moment the boy returned with my green bananas. The man sliced one in half and pressed the cut end against the radiator jacket. The banana melted into a glue against the hot metal, plugging the leaks instantly. Everyone laughed at my astonishment. They refilled my radiator and gave me extra bananas to take along. An hour later, after one more application of green banana, my radiator and I reached our destination. The local mechanic smiled. “Who taught you about the green banana?” I named the village. “Did they show you the rock marking the center of the world?” he asked. I assured him they had. “My grandfather came from there,” he said. “The exact center. Everyone around here has always known about it.”
As a product of American higher education, I had never paid the slightest attention to the green banana, except to regard it as a fruit whose time had not yet come. Suddenly on that mountain road, its time and my need had converged. But as I reflected on it further, I realized that the green banana had been there all along. Its time reached back to the very origins of the banana. The people in that village had known about it for years. My own time had come in relation to it. This chance encounter showed me the special genius of those people, and the special potential of the green banana. I had been wondering for some time about those episodes of clarity which educators like to call " learning moments," and knew I had just experienced two of them at once.
The importance of the rock marking the center of the world took a while to filter through. I had initially doubted their claim, knowing for a fact that the center was located somewhere in New England. After all, my grandfather had come from there. But gradually I realized they had a valid belief, a universal concept, and I agreed with them. We tend to define the center as that special place where we are known, where we know others, where things mean much to us, and where we ourselves have both identity and meaning: family, school, town, and local region.
The lesson which gradually filtered through was the simple concept that every place has special meanings for the people in it ; every place represents the center of the world. The number of such centers is incalculable, and no one student or traveler can experience all of them, but once a conscious break-through to a second center is made, a life-long perspective and collection can begin.
The cultures of the world are full of unexpected green bananas with special value and meaning. They have been there for ages, ripening slowly, perhaps waiting patiently for people to come along to encounter them. In fact, a green banana is waiting for all of us who leave our own centers of the world in order to experience other places.
 
(1)   What is the overall style of writing, narration, description, exposition or argumentation?
 
(2)   Are there any paragraphs which are developed in narration, description, exposition or argumentation? What are they? In what way they are developed?
 
(3)   What is the author's purpose? And what is the main idea of the whole essay?      
 
V.    Writing assignments
 
When writing the following paragraphs, you have to keep in mind your audience, purpose, tone and style.
 
Exercise 3-1         Narrative paragraph
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Write a brief anecdote or narrative paragraph about a personal experience that taught you an important lesson or helped you to understand human nature. Some topics are provided for your reference:
 
*     World Cup Trophy
*     Giving Blood
*     A Horrible Accident
       My First Career Experience
       An (Bitter or Unforgetful) Experience in My Childhood
       Bicycling in the Countryside
       Against a Robbery
       Hurrying Home in the Rain
       An Awful Day When Everything Goes Wrong
 
Exercise 3-2      Descriptive paragraph
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Write a paragraph of about 150 to 250 words describing a place that your reader would find unusual, an event they might have enjoyed, or a person they would probably admire or dislike. Using specific details, create a single impression. Try to appeal to more than one of the senses —vision, hearing, smell, feeling, or even taste, if appropriate. Strive for variety in the details you observe. In choosing words, prefer the specific to the general. Also some topics are for your choice in the following:
 
*      H-bomb Victims
*      Floods
        Martin's Apartment
        An Absent-minded Person
        Some of My Classmates
        New Foolish Old Man
        College Campus
        Wuhan —The Super Metropolitan
Use the map of the city to describe the super metropolitan. Terms of spatial relationship are used in describing location.
            Two Characterized Faces
Write a brief description of the two faces pictured. Terms listed besides each drawing may help you in writing the description.
    
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        Microscope
             Describe the object — microscope.
 
 
           
*     Describing a graph
                                                   More Beijingers Taking Trips
Rate of Beijing Residents Who Travel out

                                                 during Major Holidays

                      The New   Spring    May 1   October 1

                   Year’s Day  Festival    
 
Exercise 3-3Persuasive paragraph
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Write a paragraph of about 150 to 250 words in which you argue about some point of view to persuade your readers to accept it or agree with it. Define your theme and develop it in a logic way: induction — using examples or reasons, deduction —using assumption, or a combination of both or other way, say, refutation. Again some topics are provided as follows:
 
*   Can Wisdom Be Taught?
*   Education of Public Order Should Be Reinforced
*   Passive Smoke
     The One-child Family
     Is Tourism a Good Thing?
     It's Never Too Late for Success
     We Should Build the Three-Gorges Dam
     The Other Side of City Life
     Dance or Not Dance
     People Learn More Outside the Classroom
     Going Abroad to Study
     Value Your Time
 
Exercise 3-4      Composing an argument
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Following is a description of a nuclear power plant proposed for construction in New Hampshire. Using all of the facts given in this description, develop an argument for or against the building of the new plant.
 
In 1976 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gave the Public Service Company of New Hampshire permission to build a nuclear power plant in the town of Seabrook, forty miles north of Boston, on New Hampshire's seacoast. The proposed plant would house twin reactors with a total capacity of 2300 megawatts, which is enough electricity for a city of 2 million. In the new generation of nuclear plants, Seabrook would be of merely average size. it would cost, by the latest estimates, $2.6 billion, and it would occupy some forty acres about a mile and a half from the ocean. The reactors would be cooled by seawater, approximately a billion gallons of it a day. The water would be taken in and then discharged, with its temperature elevated some 30 or 40 degrees, through two long, deep tunnels running under salt marsh and clamflats out to a point nearly a mile offshore. Biologists have expressed considerable uncertainty about the effects of this heated water on marine life. In addition, the plant would lie in an area where a significant earthquake could occur, and within five miles of some very popular beaches.
                              —Tracy Kidder, “The Nonviolent War against Nuclear Power”
 
Exercise 3-5      Writing 4 categories
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Write 4 categories of paragraphs on the topic: "How to be a Good Doctor". You can make some change in the title to fit your category while you write it. Some possible titles are presented for your reference:
 
             How to Be a Good Doctor      (expository)
             (Being) A Good Doctor    (narrative)
             A Good Doctor I Know   (descriptive)
             A Good Doctor               (persuasive)