GRE作文范文 Issue-31

“Scandals – whether in politics, academia, or other areas – can be useful. They focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could.”

嘉文博譯Sample Essay

Charismatic leaders and ultra-popular figures in society undoubtedly have the ability to redirect our attention towards some specific problems. But there is no doubt that a scandal in any aspect of a society may be a useful and powerful attention-getter that can motivate people to sit up and take notice of a previously unknown or little-discussed problem.

To begin with, a scandal cannot actually exist if no one knows about it. Normally when one hears of a scandal, it is caused by someone’s truly outrageous behavior. It is quite often someone of a least some celebrity status that is the offender; thereby making the scandal an even bigger news story than the conduct itself would have been in the first place. Just looking at the news worldwide, one can see that, many times, the news covers a particular political or societal scandal. The very fact that a scandal mesmerizes and titillates a society makes it an ideal motivator for focusing public attention on a particular problem within that society.

As one example, the recent scandal involving sexual abuse by Catholic priests and officials focused the world’s attention on the problem of pedophiles in high-ranking positions of authority. Although there had been such allegations and even lawsuit settlements in the past, it took a large-scale scandal to really focus the public’s attention on the problem. When only a few people had previously spoken out, very little attention was directed towards the potential problems. Then a massive scandal broke out involving hundreds of priests and victims, internal cover-ups and the Church’s admission of the moving around of accused priests from parish to parish. The public was outraged, causing the problems to be addressed at the highest levels of the Catholic Church, including an announcement by the Pope, the leader of the Catholic faith.

In an example from academia, a scandal over world famous author Stephen Ambrose focused the academic world’s attention on the previously little-discussed problem of plagiarism. Although allegations of plagiarism had arisen in the past, there had been no scandal created because those accused were not well known and had mostly written little work of any consequence. On the contrary, Mr. Ambrose had been cited as an expert authority on history and had sold millions of best-selling books worldwide. The ensuing scandal that erupted over his admitted (and supposedly inadvertent) plagiarism probably focused attention on the problem of misappropriating the writings of others in a way that no individual could have done.

A further example of the impact of scandal on society can be found in the history of the public’s reaction to the AIDS virus. In the early 1980’s, the general population was not concerned about the disease as it was seen mainly as a homosexual problem with little risk to so-called “normal” people. But when famous movie star Rock Hudson died of AIDS, followed by the resulting scandal over his previously little-known sex life, the public’s attention became more focused on the plight of people with the deadly disease. Many individuals had spoken out on the potential problems caused by AIDS before his death. But it was the scandal caused by revelations over Mr. Hudson’s life and death, followed by the similarly scandalous deaths of other celebrities that tragically brought home the reality of the disease – everyone could be at risk.

In summary, there are potentially many very charismatic and influential people that can be truly motivational leaders and focus a society’s attention on a particular problem. But quite often it takes a scandal and the accompanying publicity to make the public truly take notice and actually contemplate a specific issue.

(603 words)

參考譯文

丑聞，無論出自政治、學(xué)術(shù)，還是其它領(lǐng)域，都可能是有用的。它們以任何發(fā)言人和改革者都不曾做到的方式把我們的注意力匯聚于某些問題。

社會里具有領(lǐng)袖魅力的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者和非常知名的人物，具有把我們的注意力重新導(dǎo)向某些具體問題的能力。但是，毫無疑問，社會里某一領(lǐng)域的丑聞可能成為一個(gè)有用的且有力的引人注目的事物，它可以激發(fā)人們拍案而起關(guān)注一個(gè)以前聞所未聞或很少談?wù)摰膯栴}。

首先，一個(gè)丑聞，如果不為人知，是不可能實(shí)際存在的。通常，我們所聽到的丑聞往往是由于某人的無恥行為而造成的。通常，某個(gè)至少擁有一定名人地位的人是丑聞的制造者，這里，從而首先就使得這一丑聞變成一堆比那行為本身甚至遠(yuǎn)大得多的新聞猛料。看一看世界各地的新聞我們就知道，很多情況下新聞都包括一個(gè)政治的或社會的丑聞。丑聞能夠吸引并激發(fā)一個(gè)社會群體的極大興趣這一事實(shí)，使丑聞成為把公眾的注意力引向某一社會問題的理想因素。

例如，最近的丑聞涉及天主教教士和官員的性傷害，它把整個(gè)世界的注意力集中在上層權(quán)威人士中戀童癖患者的問題上。盡管從前曾經(jīng)有過指控甚至訴訟判決，但是，只有對丑聞的大規(guī)模宣傳才能把公眾的注意力集中到這一問題上來。過去只有小部分人仗義執(zhí)言時(shí)，也只有很少的注意力被引向這一潛在問題。之后，一個(gè)巨大的丑聞爆發(fā)出來，涉及數(shù)百名教士和受害者，內(nèi)部的掩飾，以及教會允許受指控的教士從一個(gè)教區(qū)轉(zhuǎn)到另一個(gè)教區(qū)繼續(xù)任職等。公眾被激怒了，問題被提交到天主教會的最高層來處理，其中包括由代表著天主教信仰的領(lǐng)袖教皇所發(fā)表的聲明。

在一個(gè)學(xué)術(shù)領(lǐng)域的案例中，涉及世界知名作家Stephen Ambrose的丑聞，把整個(gè)學(xué)術(shù)界的注意力匯聚于以前很少探討的剽竊問題。盡管對剽竊的指控以前曾經(jīng)有過，但是并沒有造成丑聞，因?yàn)槟切┍恢缚卣叽蠖疾惶?，而且也沒有寫過有什么影響力的作品。Ambrose先生被公認(rèn)為史學(xué)界的權(quán)威專家，有數(shù)百萬冊暢銷書在全世界銷售。接蹱而來的便是有關(guān)他已承認(rèn)的(而且據(jù)稱是非故意的)剽竊所引起的丑聞，這一丑聞可能以前所未有的力度使人們關(guān)注盜用他人寫作成果這一問題。

另一個(gè)說明丑聞對社會影響的例子，是公眾對愛滋病毒的反應(yīng)。在20世紀(jì)80年代早期，大眾并不關(guān)心這一病癥，因?yàn)樗徽J(rèn)為主要是同性戀問題，對所謂的“正常”人并沒有什么危險(xiǎn)。但是當(dāng)著名的電影明星Rock Hudson死于愛滋病，緊隨著是他從前鮮為人知的性生活的丑聞的披露，公眾的注意力才更多地匯集到患有這一致命疾病的人們所處的困境。在Hudson死之前，許多人已直言愛滋病所引起的潛在問題，但是正是有關(guān)Hudson先生的生活和死亡的丑聞的披露，以及隨之披露的其他名人要員的類似丑聞，才悲劇性地揭示出這一疾病的現(xiàn)實(shí)：每個(gè)人都有可能受其危害。

總之，潛在地會有許多具有領(lǐng)袖魅力和有影響力的人物可能成為真正的激發(fā)人們興趣的引導(dǎo)者，把人們的目光聚集到某個(gè)特定的問題。但通常，需要一個(gè)丑聞以及相應(yīng)的宣傳才能使公眾真正地注意并認(rèn)真地思考某個(gè)具體問題。