Consequences of Reading Less Literature (Entry #24) Comparing a passage and a lecture: It is true that many people today tend to read less literature novels or plays. However, can we really suggest that it will lead to cultural downfall and ruin the future of literature itself? I beg to differ. First of all, intellectually challenging tasks are not limited to literature. Although, literature does encourage intellectual challenges, but it is not the only source. There are many splendid books about diverse subjects, such as science and history, which are indeed, significantly challenging for the mind. Next, we have to consider how culture is going through a change as time goes by. Paying attention to other forms of culture, like music does not lower our cultural standards at all. People do not waste their time by listening to brilliant pieces of music instead of reading literature novels. There is no evidence that diverting time spent in reading literature is a will decrease the level of culture in general. Finally, we cannot blame the declining rate of literature writings on the readers. In fact, authors' style in writing has changed in a way that is no longer able to attract audience. By writing books that are difficult to read, one has not made a contribute to the literature. The difficulty level of understanding a book will not determine it being known as a prominent piece of literature. + Thanks in advance for the corrections :)

The Effects of Playing Computer Games in Children's Life (Entry #23) I do not believe that playing computer games is a waste of time for children and that they should be banned from it. In fact, they can gain many benefits in doing so. Firstly, the concept of playing itself requires you to be creative and makes you plan and think about your activity. Therefore, playing can be considered a classroom where children learn many new things and also train to be creative in solving problems and making up solutions, while they enjoy having fun at the same time. Actually, having fun while learning new material is a way to increase the speed of the learning process and this way, children tend to remember these materials more precisely than they would in a boring classroom in where they are forced to attend and do a lot of assignments. Many might think otherwise, however, banning anything for children will only increase their curiosity and make them want to do that thing even more. This is worse, because they might want to hide that they play computer games from their parents and it will cause many negative psychological effects on their minds. Moreover, if we are considered about the content and also the time-consuming aspect of the computer games, there is always a solution: management. That is what parents are for. They play a significant role in moderating the time that their children put on the computer games. They have the power to decide which game their children play and for how long. In fact, the main reason that playing games might waste the kids’ time is that their parents are not responsible enough to control and optimize their children’s lives. Furthermore, they are the role models for their children and they can efficiently teach them how to manage their time. In conclusion, I suppose that it is not the computer games that are bad for children, but the parents who forget to teach their children responsibility and moderation in life. + Thanks in advance for the corrections :)

The Reason Behind Reducing Population of Sea Otters (Entry #22) Comparing a lecture and a passage: Many investigations show that it is actually predation that affects declining population of sea otters off the Alaskan coast, rather than the pollution hypothesis supported in the passage. First of all, water pollution caused by oil rigs or industrial chemical substances may not be the only reason to explain this situation. If it was the water pollution that caused this decline, then why we could not find any dead sea otter bodies washed up on the shore? We know that if they were killed by certain predators, no one would expect to see dead bodies on the shore and as a matter of fact, this is what really happened. Next, the orca used to hunt large prey, like other whales. However, recently the whales have been disappeared in that region. Therefore, the orca had to change their diets. That is why they started on eating smaller animals, such as sea otters and sea lions. This will explain why mammals other than sea otters were doomed to decline too. Finally, the uneven pattern of otter decline, in fact, supports the predation hypothesis. Actually, the locations where the orca could easily access are the same as those where we observe the population decline occurrence. + Thanks in advance for the corrections :)

More Advanced Technologies, Less Creative Children (Entry #21) I totally agree with the fact that technology has made children less creative than they were in the past. I believe that the great amount of technological resources today are one of the main reasons why children are actually very lazy and have little sense of creativity nowadays. To begin, let us talk about the influence of movies and animations on children's lives. They not only take a great deal of time of the children, but also quench their sense of creativity. It's OK to watch movies and animations at times, and actually it is really helpful for the growth of their personalities, but nowadays, there are so many sources available that children spend so much of their time watching television. They omit helpful activities of every day, like spending time with friends and family, reading story books, doing homework, and participating in physical activities and instead, remain in their chairs watching TV. Also, too much of these TV programs will make kids lazy in thinking on their own and making up stories with their own imagination. When you read books, you have to build the world of that book in your mind with every detail possible, which improves creativity at a young age. Whereas, watching movies of that book or other TV programs, does not require that level of imagination. Everything is already made up for the children to watch. Moreover, whenever children need some sort of information for any purpose, they tend to look it up online. This abundance of available information is not as efficient as we think they are. This will make children addicted to online sources. Children have a false reflection that they know everything just because they are connected to the internet. So, they lose their sense of curiosity and will not learn new stuff and be able to keep them in their long-term memory. Overall, I think that even though we live in the age of advanced technologies, we might be losing more precious matters in life. So, I suppose it is best to keep an eye on our children's lifestyle, if we want them to use their abilities utmost. + Thanks in advance for the corrections :)

TV Advertisements towards Young Children (Entry #20) I suppose it is best to ban television advertising directed towards young children in the age of two to five. There are many reasons why I believe such restrictions in advertisements are essential. First of all, children at the age of two to five are not completely aware of their own situation in life. They are heavily dependent on their parents for virtually everything, such as health products, garments, and etc. They can never decide what is good or what is bad for them thoroughly and in every aspect. Thus, parents should be the ones who make such decisions for them and that's why the television advertising for young children should be directed towards parents, instead of their kids. Moreover, young children tend to follow bright colors, happy songs, and fun shapes. The advertisements designed for these ages often contain at least one or two of the mentioned elements. In this way, the advertisements will attract a lot of young kids and develop in them, a feeling of urge to have those products for themselves. This is indeed a clever idea for companies to sell their products, however it is the poor parents who have to pay for them, even though they know that they are no use for their kids. In other words, they are forced to buy them and please their children, and that is not really fair. Also, if parents are not convinced to buy a product, regardless of their kids insisting, this might cause a negative psychological effect on the children and even remain with them until adulthood. These children might suffer from sadness, jealousy for other kids who have those products, deprivation, and lack of attention from their parents. At last, I believe that directing advertisements towards young children to sell them products can not be very wise. In fact, companies need to focus their budgets on advertisements that will gain the attention of the parents that are the actual buyers. + Thanks in advance for the corrections :)

The Chevalier's Memoir (Entry #19) Comparing a lecture and a passage: Although we know that not every detail in a memoir can be accurate, the Chevalier's memoir still contains many reliable historical sources. The critics are skeptical about the accuracy of the events and conversations recorded in this memoir, but none of their doubts are in fact, based on true evidence. At first, the critics claim doubt about the financial status of the Chevalier. In his memoir, he indicates that he has spent a great deal of money on parties and gambling, however there are evidence that he had at times borrowed large sums of money from a Swiss merchant. The lecture pinpoints that getting a loan will not necessarily imply that the Chevalier was poor. He indeed possessed many assets and sometimes, to convert them into actual money was not immediately feasible, therefore he had to ask for money from different resources until he was able to use his own. Next, it is not arguable that the Chevalier met and conversed with the famous writer Voltaire. The Chevalier states that each night, after their conversations, he used to write down everything and kept his notes for many years, until he could refer to them in order to write his memoir years later. There are also many witnesses who have confirmed the existence of such notes. Finally, on the event of the Chevalier's escape from a prison in Venice, the critics think it was easier for him to use bribery to get out of there, and lying about such a daring escape was in fact, a good way to make the memoir sound more exciting and enjoyable. However, after escape, the ceiling of that cell needed to be repaired. What other reasons to repair a ceiling but because it has been broken for escape. Also a lot of other prisoners with more connections and chances for bribery could not free themselves, yet alone the Chevalier. + Thanks in advance for the corrections :)

What Is an Efficient Learning Process? (Entry #18) I believe that it is indeed more efficient for students to learn and deeply understand concepts and ideas rather than memorizing the facts. I can present many reasons why we should pay more attention to a deeper learning process in our education system. Firstly, when someone needs to learn anything, they should focus on the ideas and concepts of it in the first step. In fact, they should get familiar with the exact definition of whatever they are trying to learn and be able to explain correctly how something works or why something happens. Learning about various facts regarding this matter is a step that needs to be taken afterwards. Although knowing about the facts gives us more chance to examine what we are learning, if we are not careful, it might act as a two edged sword. I'm trying to say that memorizing facts can have many advantages, but sometimes it only causes confusion and if the learners had not built a steady foundation with understanding the concepts, they might get lost in the learning process. Moreover, memory is not something that you could totally trust. As time goes by, we tend to forget about the details of our lives and the only things that remain are bold and important events. Events like graduation, wedding, birth of a new child, and... . These memorable events resemble the concepts and main ideas in the learning process. It only feels logical to try to establish them in your mind carefully. Since, they are the stuff you will remember in, let's say, twenty years rather than thousands of facts about that concept. In conclusion, the more we spend time on learning concepts and ideas, the more beneficial the process of learning will be. Facts will come in handy to support our knowledge when we need to utilize it, but our knowledge itself is made up of the concepts we learned in the first step. + Thanks in advance for the corrections :)

Eco Certification in US Wood Companies (Entry #17) Comparing a lecture and a passage: There are many good reasons why wood companies in the United States would want to obtain eco certification for their products, contrasting to what the passage discussed about. In fact, many American wood companies are receiving this kind of certification. First of all, although American consumers are exposed to so many advertisements as the passage mentions, we should consider that the have the ability to distinguish between advertisements. They do not treat all of them the same and in fact, many ecologically-minded people will pay enough attention to ecofriendly labels in their purchases. Next, there's no doubt that there is an increase in the price of the products of the wood companies due to their payments for examinations in order to obtain eco certifications. However, the gap between two product's price -one with and one without a label- is also important. If the price gap is smaller than five percents, the consumers will consider buying products with ecofriendly labels, since many truly value the importance of clean environment. Finally, American companies need to keep up with the developments in the rest of the world regarding this matter, not because of foreign marketing, but because of the foreign competition that will surely occur. A lot of foreign companies will crowd in the American market and offer the same products, only with ecofriendly qualifications and attract more consumers. + Thanks in advance for the corrections :)

Is Life Easier Today? (Entry #16) I cannot help but agree with the fact that we are indeed living much easier and more comfortable than our grandparents in their youth, thanks to the vast advancements of technologies these days. I can think about many reasons why I would say this. My first evidence in this matter are the stories that my grandparents used to tell us. Stories regarding their daily struggles in their early lives, which include both physical and mental struggles. For example work conditions which not often met the standards, political issues that used to interfere with their peaceful lives, or how they could not afford to eat everything they desired at any time of the year. Moreover, it is obvious that more and more resources are available for normal people to use these days. You can easily buy a lot of fruits at the times of the year when they usually don't grow. You can also order online any tools or material you might need for many purposes, while your grandparents would have spent a lot of time and money on them without any kind of guarantee. Furthermore, people nowadays can not only travel to literally anywhere in the world with the fastest and most reliable means of transportation -that are planes- , but they can also reserve rooms in all kinds of hotels that they wish to and even check the conditions in advance. Our grandparents would have seldom thought about traveling, and if they did, they should have spent a lot of time on the road, risking their lives in the unsafe difficult roads, full of thieves and natural dangers. Finally, I should mention the medical improvements today which has caused decrease in the death rates dramatically. High quality of life and appropriate living conditions are luxuries that our grandparents could not afford. + Thanks in advance for the corrections :)