GRE作文范文 Issue-14

　　“The well-being of a society is enhanced when many of its people question authority.”

　　嘉文博譯Sample Essay

　　A society is made up of individual people, no two of whom are exactly alike. Some are smarter, some have more money, and some are docile and blindly follow leaders while others are more vocal in addressing the topic of authority. In most cases, it is better when many of a society’s people are questioning authority. Generally, the more the people that are questioning authority, the more the society’s people care about what that authority is doing. Centuries ago, there were many reasons why a society should not question the controlling authority. Even today there may be some cases where fewer questions are better, but for the majority of the world’s people, it is true that a society is made better by asking questions of the authorities that control them.

　　In the past, emperors, kings and queens controlled much of the world with an authority that could not be questioned. In some cases, the leaders were deemed o be heavenly deities that could do no wrong, therefore purely blind allegiance was both expected and demanded. In some cases, the entire existence of a society would depend on the unquestioning loyalty of the leader’s subjects. Hundreds of years ago this type of leadership made sense as people were generally poorly educated and would have been much worse off without such a strong leader. Uneducated peasants were mainly farmers and could hardly be expected to know how to keep a society together. Their leaders were expected to protect and defend the society from roving gangs and armies from other countries. The sustained success of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire and centuries of rulers in China and Japan show the necessity of having authority that was beyond question.

　　As time passed and people became better educated, the reasons for having such leaders became fewer and fewer. Along with the Industrial Revolution came the need for more and more people to have a voice in their own governments and chosen leaders. No longer bound to one particular piece of ground by the earth that they farmed, people could move about and learn more about what was happening both in their own societies and those nearby. Feudal kingdoms began dying out. People began to realize that their leaders were not “heavenly chosen” but merely fallible human beings just like themselves. With the growing realization that these leaders were not perfect came the idea that questioning authority might not be such a bad thing after all.

　　Certainly in the past one hundred years there have been continuing dictatorships that have suppressed millions by wielding absolute authority. In some cases, people were executed for daring to question authority. Even recently, the Taliban in Afghanistan ran an oppressive form of government that was beyond question to its society. If no one ever dared to question the authority, people would have less reason to believe that anything was wrong with their government. But every time one person would speak out, another person or two was probably inspired to do the same. One voice could inspire many other voices. Man’s right to self-determination should be an inalienable right, but remaining silent is not the way to assert that right. One voice or a few voices may be silenced, but eventually the authority being questioned will be forced to answer.

　　In general, the more people that question authority, the more likely the society is to get real answers. Questioning authority is the best way to keep a government honest and accountable. No government official should be afraid to answer the question “Why?” If a society has people that are willing and able to question authority, they are much more likely to determine the course of that society. People in a self-determining society have the best opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

　　(653 words)

　　參考譯文

　　“當社會中的許多民眾敢于對當權(quán)者提出質(zhì)詢時，整個社會的福祉便能得以提高。”

　　社會是由個人組成的，他們中絕無二人是截然相同的。有些較為聰明，有些較為富有，有些較為馴順，會盲目追隨領(lǐng)袖人物，而有些則在對待政府當局這一論題上顯得更能言善辯。普遍而言，對政府當局質(zhì)疑的人越多，這表明社會民眾就越關(guān)注政府當局在做些什么。數(shù)個世紀以前，存在著許多的理由，致使一個社會無法對控制著政權(quán)的政府進行質(zhì)疑。即使在今天，可能在某些情形中，人們提出的質(zhì)疑越少越好。但對于世界大多數(shù)的民眾而言，有一點似乎是確鑿無疑的，即整個社會通過對控制著他們的政府當局提出諸多質(zhì)詢，這個社會就會變得更好

　　昔日，皇帝、國王、王后們控制著整個世界的大部分，其權(quán)威不容置疑。在有些情形中，這些領(lǐng)袖人物被視若上界的神靈，絕不可能鑄成任何錯誤。這樣一來，臣民們不僅僅被期望，而且亦被要求去對領(lǐng)袖們絕對盲目地效忠。在某些情形中，社會的全部存在完全有賴于領(lǐng)袖人物的臣民們不加質(zhì)疑的絕對忠誠。數(shù)百年之前，當民眾普遍沒有接受過良好的教育時，這樣一種類型的執(zhí)政風格尚有其合理之處。設(shè)若沒有這樣一個強有力的領(lǐng)袖人物的話，整個社會的狀況可能會糟糕得多。我們不可能期望那些沒有受過教育的農(nóng)民去懂得如何來統(tǒng)轄整個社會。這樣，這些農(nóng)民的領(lǐng)袖們則被期望去保護和防衛(wèi)這個社會，使其免受匪邦或敵國軍隊的侵擾。羅馬帝國、奧托曼帝國以及中國和日本數(shù)個世紀的統(tǒng)治者們持久的成功表明了擁有一個不容置疑的政府當局的必要性。　　 隨著時間的推移以及人們?nèi)遮吺艿搅己玫慕逃?，擁有昔日那種領(lǐng)袖人物的理由也變得越來越少。伴隨著工業(yè)革命，對越來越多的人來說，有必要在其自己的政府中和他們所選擇的領(lǐng)袖們身上體現(xiàn)出自己的呼聲。由于不再為他們所耕種的大地羈絆于任何一片特定的土地，人們可以自由流動，并更多地了解到有關(guān)他們自己社會中以及鄰近社會中所在發(fā)生的一切。封建王國開始分崩離析。人們開始意識到他們的領(lǐng)袖并非是“神授”的，而只是一些也有可能失誤的凡夫俗子，與他們自己毫無二致。隨著人們漸趨意識到這些領(lǐng)袖人物們并非完美無缺，一種新的理念便告誕生，即對政府當局進行質(zhì)疑或許并非是一件十分糟糕的事情。　　毫無疑問，在過去的一百年中，出現(xiàn)過持續(xù)不斷的專制政體，通過行使絕對權(quán)力而壓迫天下百姓。在某些情形中，人們?nèi)舾屹|(zhì)疑政府當局，便會遭到處決。即使在不久之前，阿富汗塔利班實行一種鎮(zhèn)壓民眾的統(tǒng)治形式，不容社會有所質(zhì)疑。如果沒人敢質(zhì)疑政府當局，人們就越是沒有理由去相信其政府運轉(zhuǎn)正常。但每當一個人敢于直抒己見時，另外一二個人或許會受到感染而同樣行事。一個人的聲音會喚起無數(shù)其他人的聲音。人類自決的權(quán)力應(yīng)成為一種不容剝奪的權(quán)力，而保持沉默永遠也無法行使這一權(quán)力。一個人的聲音或少數(shù)幾個人的聲音可以被扼制，但最終，遭到質(zhì)疑的政府當局將被迫作出回答。

　　普遍而言，人們越是質(zhì)疑政府當局，一個社會就越有可能獲得真正的答案。對政府當局質(zhì)疑是使一個政府誠實和負責的最佳途徑。所有政府官員都不應(yīng)懼怕去回答“為什么?”這一問題。如果一個社會擁有愿意且能夠質(zhì)疑政府當局的民眾，他們就更有可能確定該社會的發(fā)展方向。生活在一個自治社會中的人們享有最好的機會去追求生活，追求自由，追求幸福。