小作文
In-class writing
• Extract: Catch-30: Impatient with devoting
ourselves to the “shoulds,” a new vitality
springs from within as we approach 30.
Men and women alike speak of feeling too
narrow and restricted.
• Questions:
• 1) Explain “a new vitality” and “narrow” and “restricted”
• 2) Provide an example of a catch-30 situation.
• The word catch in “catch-30” means “a
hidden problem or disadvantage in an
apparently ideal situation”.
• People at this stage feel “too narrow and
restricted”. They find themselves in traps
or getting caught. The choices they
made in their twenties, which used to be
demanding and exhilarating, have now
become hindrance to their development.
To leave or not to leave?
• 25 “I’m considering leaving the firm. I’ve been there four years now; I’m
getting good feedback, but I have no clients of my own. I feel weak. If I wait
much longer, it will be too late, too close to that fateful time of decision on
whether or not to become a partner. I’m success-oriented. But the concept
of being 55 years old and stuck in a monotonous job drives me wild. It
drives me crazy now, just a little bit. I’d say that 85 percent of the time I
thoroughly enjoy my work. But when I get a screwball case, I come away
from court saying, ‘What am I doing here?’ It’s a visceral reaction that I’m
wasting my time. I’m trying to find some way to make a social contribution
or a slot in city government. I keep saying, ‘There’s something more.’ ”
• To leave: feel weak; bottleneck
• Not to leave: monotonous
• Example of broadening oneself professionally
In-class writing
• Extract: A stormy passage through the Pulling
Up Roots years will probably facilitate the
normal progression of the adult life cycle.
• Questions:
• 1) Explain “stormy” and “pulling up roots”.
• 2) Provide an example of a challenge that individuals in the
"pulling up roots" stage need to overcome.
In-class writing
• Extract: Science, in its most fundamental
definition, is a fruitful mode of inquiry, not
a list of enticing conclusions.
• Questions:
• 1) Explain how science is described as a "fruitful mode of
inquiry."
• 2) Provide an example of a "fruitful mode of inquiry" and
contrast it with a list of enticing conclusions.
In-class writing
• Extract: Before analyzing these three tantalizing
statements, we must establish a basic ground rule
often violated in proposals for the dinosaurs’
demise.
• Questions:
• 1) Explain what is the basic ground rule often violated in
proposals for the dinosaurs’ demise.
• 2) Cite a theory that either supports or refutes a coordinated
explanation for the extinction of dinosaurs coinciding with the
disappearance of various other species across different habitats.
In-class writing
• Extract: Yet one represents expansive
science, the others restrictive and
untestable speculation .
• Questions:
• 1) Explain expansive, restrictive and untestable.
• 2) Cite an example of expansive science and restrictive
and untestable speculation.
In-class writing
• Extract: For the foreseeable future, our survival
demands that we govern our actions by the
ethics of a lifeboat, harsh though they may be.
Posterity will be satisfied with nothing less.
• Questions:
• 1) Explain the ethics of lifeboat.
• 2) Provide an example of lifeboat ethics and discuss its
importance in addressing our survival demands and ensuring the
well-being of posterity.
In-class writing practice
• A world food bank is thus a commons in disguise.
• 1) Explain why world food bank is a commons in disguise.
• 2) Cite an example of a commons and how can it lead to tragedy.
In-class writing
• Extract: The fundamental error of spaceship
ethics, and the sharing it requires, is that it
leads to what I call “the tragedy of the
commons.”
• Questions:
• 1) Explain the tragedy of the commons.
• 2) Cite an example of commons and explain how it leads to
tragedy.
In-class writing
• Extract: The spaceship metaphor can be dangerous when
used by misguided idealists to justify suicidal policies for
sharing our resources through uncontrolled immigration
and foreign aid.
• Questions:
• 1) Explain the spaceship metaphor.
• 2) Cite an example following spaceship ethics and explain in what way it is
dangerous.
In-class writing
• Extract: The harsh ethics of the lifeboat
become even harsher when we consider the
reproductive differences between the rich
nations and the poor nations.
• Questions:
• 1) Explain the lifeboat metaphor.
• 2) Cite an example of lifeboat ethics and explain how it
becomes harsher due to reproductive differences between
nations.
