GRE写作素材SectionSix:Politics

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-15 12:52:21

下面的材料旨在丰富学生在是非问题写作方面的思想和语言，考生在复习时可以先分类阅读这些篇章，然后尝试写相关方面的作文题。

学习语言的人应该明白，表达能力和思想深度都靠日积月累，潜移默化。从某种意义上说，提高英语写作能力无捷径可走，你必须大段背诵英语文章才能逐渐形成语感和用英语进行表达的能力。这一关，没有任何人能代替你过。
因此，建议你下点苦功夫，把背单词的精神拿出来背诵文章。何况，并不是要求你背了之后永远牢记在心：你可以这个星期背，下个星期忘。这没有关系，相信你的大脑具有神奇的能力。背了工具箱里的文章后，你会惊讶的发现：I can think in English now！
1. Proverbs

* The ultimate responsibility of a leader is to facilitate other people’s development as well as his own.

* The leader’s task, then, is to create an environment that is conducive to self-motivation.

* If people are coming to work excited… if they’re making mistakes freely and fearlessly… if they’re having fun… if they’re concentrating on doing things, rather than preparing reports and going to meetings-then somewhere you have a leader.

* As a manager, the important thing is not what happens when you are there but what happens when you are not there.

* To be a leader means willingness to risk-and a willingness to love. Has the leader given you something from the heart?

* A business is a reflection of the leader. A fish doesn’t stink just from the tail, and a company doesn’t succeed or fail from the bottom.

* Perhaps more than anything else, leadership is about the “creation of a new way of life.”

* The world of the ‘90s and beyond will not belong to managers or those who make the numbers dance, as we used to say, or those who are conversant with all the business and jargon we use to sound smart. The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders-people who not only have an enormous amount of energy but who can energize those whom they lead.

* There are countless ways of attaining greatness, but any road to reaching one’s maximum potential must be built on bedrock of respect for the individual, a commitment to excellence, and a rejection of mediocrity.

* The first and last task of a leader is to keep hope alive—the hope that we can finally find our way through to a better world—despite the day’s action, despite our own inertness and shallowness and wavering resolve.

* Leadership is a sacrifice—it is self denial—it is love, it is fearlessness, and it is humidity, and it is in the perfectly disciplined will. This is also the distinction between great and little people. The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

* The role of the leader is to enhance, transform, coach, care, trust, and cheerlead. The activists of the leader are to educate, sponsor, coach, and counsel using appropriate timing, tone, consequences, and skills.

* Leaders know that the higher up you go, the more gently down you reach.

* I’ll tell you what makes a great manager: a great manager has a knack for making ballplayers think they are better than they think they are. He forces you to have a good opinion of yourself. He lets you know he believes in you. He makes you get more out of yourself. And once you learn how good you really are, you never settle for playing anything less than you’re very best.

* The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the leader is a servant.

2. What Makes a Leader?

Practically every human endeavor requires leadership. Zig Ziglar says, “Even a two-car parade gets fouled up if you don’t decide ahead of time that’s going to lead.”

Once we know who is leading, it is critical for the leader to know how to lead. What qualities do effective leaders possess? How do they go about managing the affairs of the company while maintaining the loyalty of employees? What sets apart the mediocre from the excellent leader?

Harold Green, who built ITT from a little company into a massive conglomerate, provides a suitable introduction to this issue of leadership. In his book, Managing, he says this about the art of leadership: “Leadership is the very heart and soul of business management. No one really manages a business by shuffling the numbers or rearranging organizational charts or tallying the latest business school formulas. What you manage in business is a person… To my mind, the quality of leadership is the single most important ingredient in the recipe of business success.”

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-15 12:52:22

Leaders lead people. A leader is one whom others consistently follow. People follow because they have a brief in the direction, integrity and competence of the one leading.

Irwin Federman, president and CEO of Monolithic Memories, one of the most successful of the high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, illustrates this brilliantly in the following quote: “If you think about it, people love others not for who they are, but for how they make us feel. We willingly follow others for much the same reason. It makes us feel good to do so. Now, we also follow platoon sergeants, self-centered geniuses, demanding spouses, bosses of various persuasions and others, for a variety of reasons as well. But none of those reasons involves that person’s leadership qualities. In order to willingly accept the direction of another individual, it must feel good to do so. This business of making another person feels good in the unspectacular courses of his daily comings and goings is, in my view, the very essence of leadership.”

Management consultant and author, Joe Batten, wrote: “The tough-minded leader always gives high touch primacy over high tech. in short, people first—technology second.”

J. Willard Marriott, chairman of the board of the enormously successful hotel chain, was asked: “How do you manage to be fair and nice with people and yet demand excellence from them?”

“Well, it’s tough-minded management, which basically says that you treat people right and fair and decent, and in return they give their all for you.”

Leaders love people. They expect the best from them. Sensitivity to employee needs, wants and concerns is at the top of their priorities. The courage to make decisions based on “what’s right for people” governs their day-to-day responsibilities. People respond to such leadership.

John W. Gardner, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare pinpointed four moral goals of a leader:

1. Releasing human potential,

2. Balancing the needs of the individual and the community,

3. Defending the fundamental values of the community, and

4. Instilling in individuals a sense of initiative and responsibility.

These values prompt people to respond positively. When lived, and not just preached, people realize their best interest is being considered. Leaders who sincerely activate Gardner’s goals will experience an upsurge in employee productivity.

Lieutenant General Zais provided this challenge: “I leave you with the one piece of advice which I believe will contribute more to making you a better leader, will provide you with greater happiness and self-esteem, and at the same time advance your career more than other advice that I can provide you.

And it doesn’t call for special personality or for any certain chemistry. Any one of you can do it. And that advice is: You must care.”

Zais continued, “You cannot expect the soldier to be a proud soldier if you humiliate him. You cannot expect him to be brave if you abuse him and cower him. You cannot expect him to be strong if you break him. You cannot ask for respect and obedience and willingness to assault hot landing zones, hump back-breaking ridges, destroy dug-in emplacement, if a soldier has not been treated with respect and dignity which fosters unit spirit and personal pride. The line between firmness and harshness, between strong leadership and bullying… is a fine line. It is difficult to define. But those of us who have accepted a career as leaders must find that only people can lead, not judgment and concern for people are involved in leadership that only people can lead, not computers. I enjoin you to be ever alert to the pitfalls in too much authority. Beware that you do not fall into the category of the little man with a little job and with a big head. In essence, be considerate, treat your subordinates right, and they will literally die for you.”

“Treat people as adults,” says Tom Peter of In Search of Excellence fame. “Treat them as partners, treat them with dignity, and treat them with respect, treat people—not capital spending and automation—as the primary source of productivity gains. These are fundamental lessons from the excellent companies’ research.”

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-15 12:52:23

Zais and Peters provide an apt reminder that leaders have the responsibility to treat people with the utmost respect and dignity. Every leader works with things, ideas and people. Without ideas, things are not created and without people there are no ideas. To achieve their goals, smart leaders recognize that the morale of their people is of paramount importance. In What Works for Me: Sixteen CEO’s Talk About Their Careers and Commitments, Thomas R. Horton quotes Richard A. Zimmerman, chairman and CEO of Hershey Foods:

Among the CEOs I know, the most successful ones have a very positive outlook. Every CEO has to be a cheerleader. At times you may feel that you can list a series of disaster scenarios for your company, and certainly you are in the best position to do that; still; you have to be a cheerleader at least part of the time…OK, we know it is going to be tough, but let’s get at it! You need always to be encouraging and perhaps that is one of the most admired attributes that I see in most CEOs.

To ensure high morale, the Tandem computer company adopted this simple five-point creed:

1. All people are good.

2. People, workers, management and the company are all the same thing.

3. Every single person in the company must understand the essence of the business.

4. Every employee must benefit from the company’s success.

5. You must create an environment where all of the above can happen.

Jim Treybig, President and CEO of Tandem Computers, substantiates this credo by declaring, “Everything starts with the manager. Does he care about people?”

And, from the ancient philosophy of Lao Tzu comes this modern advice:

The group will not prosper if the leader grabs the lion’s share of the credit for the good work that has been done.

The group will rebel and resist if the leader relies on strict controls in an effort to make things come out a certain way.

The group members will become deadened and unresponsive if the leader is critical and harsh.

The wise leader is not greedy, selfish, defensive, or demanding. That is why the leader can be trusted to allow any event to unfold naturally.

People leave or love their jobs for a number of reasons. Considerable research has been conducted to determine how companies can increase their intention rates. Aside from massive data, a simple question will address both loving and leaving a job. How important do people feel in their work?

What have you as a leader done to show your employees how important they are?

When was the last time you made it possible for people to be proud of their achievements?

How often do you celebrate success? Pass on authority? Provide recognition for a job well done?

What are you as a leader doing to make work satisfying, challenging, and interesting?

Robert Townsend, former CEO of Avis Rent-A-Car, summarizes and encapsulates our thinking on what makes a leader with this comment:

The real essence of leadership is to care about your people, to help them get as much as they can out of the business environment, and to have as much fun as they can. Anybody who can do that—and really mean it—is a leader.

3. What Derails Fast-Track Executives?

Why do some executives perish while others flourish? The American Management Association conducted in-depth interviews with 41 executives and found that these traits often lead to failure:

1. Insensitivity to co-workers.

2. Aloofness and arrogance.

3. Tendency to misuse information conveyed in confidence.

4. Inability to control ambition.

5. Inability to delegate assignments or promote teamwork.

6. Inability to staff effectively.

7. Inability to think strategically.

8. Overdependence on mentors.

4. A Leader

I went on a search to become a leader.

I searched high and low. I spoke with authority. People listened. But alas, there was one who was wiser than I, and they followed that individual.

I sought to inspire confidence, but the crowd responded, “Why should I trust you?”

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-15 12:52:24

I postured, and I assumed the look for leadership with a countenance that flowed with confidence and pride. But many passed me by and never noticed my air of elegance.

I ran ahead of the others, pointed the way to new heights. I demonstrated that I knew the route to greatness. And then I looked back, and I was alone.

“What shall I do?” I queried. “I’ve tried hard and used all that I know.” And I sat down and pondered long.

And then, I listened to the voices around me. And I heard what the group was trying to accomplish. I rolled up my sleeves and joined in the work.

As we worked, I asked, “Are we all together in what we want to do and how to get the job done?”

And we thought together, and we fought together, and we struggled toward our goal.

I found myself encouraging the fainthearted. I sought the ideas of those too shy to speak out. I taught those who had little skill. I praised those who worked hard. When our task was completed, one of the group turned to me and said, “This would not have been but for your leadership.”

At first, I said, “I didn’t lead. I just worked with the rest.” And then I understood, leadership is not a goal. It’s way to reaching a goal.

I lead best when I help others to go where we’ve decided to go. I lead best when I help others to use themselves creatively. I lead best when I forget about myself as leader and focus on my group their needs and their goals.

To lead is to serve to give to achieve together.

5. Watergate
Under the relentless prodding of Judge John J. Sirica, one of the Watergate burglars began to tell the full story of the Nixon administration’s complicity in the episode. James W. McCord, a former CIA agent and security chief for the Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP), was the first of many informers and penitents in a melodrama that unfolded over the next two years, which mixed the special qualities of soap opera and Machiavellian intrigue. It ended in the first resignation of a president in American history, the conviction and imprisonment of twenty five officials of the Nixon administration, including four cabinet members, and the most serious constitutional crisis since the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.
UNCOVERING THE COVER-UP The trial of evidence pursued by judge Sirica, a grand jury and several special prosecutors, and a televised Senate investigation headed by Samuel J. Ervin, Jr., of North Carolina, led directly to the White House. No evidence surfaced that Nixon had ordered the break-in or that he had been aware of plans to burglarize the Democratic National Committee. But from the start Nixon was personally involved in the cover-up, using his presidential powers to discredit and block the investigation. Perhaps most alarming was the discovery that the Watergate burglary was merely one small part of a larger pattern of corruption and criminality sanctioned by the Nixon White House.

The White House had become committed to illegal tactics in May 1970 when the New York Times broke the story of the secret bombings in Cambodia. Nixon, by nature a man possessed by insecurity, had ordered illegal telephone taps on several newsmen and government employees suspected of leaking the story. In 1971, during the crisis generated by the publication of the Pentagon Papers, a team of burglars under the direction of White House advisor John Ehrlichman had broken into a psychiatrist’s office in an effort to obtain damaging information on Daniel Ellsberg, the former Pentagon employee who had supplied the press with the secret documents. By the spring of 1972 Ehrlichman commanded a team of “dirty tricksters” who performed various acts of sabotage against prospective Democratic candidates for the presidency, including falsely accusing Hubert Humphrey and Sen. Henry Jackson of sexual improprieties, forging press release, setting off stink-bombs at Democratic gatherings, and associating the opposition candidates with racist remarks.

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-15 12:52:25

</p>The cover-up unraveled further in April 1973 when L. Patrick Gray, acting director of the FBI, resigned after confessing that he had confiscated and destroyed several incriminating documents. On April 30 Ehrlichman and Haldeman resigned, together with Attorney-General Richard Kleindienst. A few days later Nixon nervously assured the public in a television address: “I’m not a crook.” But new evidence suggested otherwise. John Dean, whom Nixon had dismissed as presidential counsel, testified before the Ervin Committee and a rapt television audience that Nixon had approved the cover-up. In another “bombshell” disclosure a White House aide told the committee that Nixon had installed a taping system in the White House and that many of the conversations about Watergate had been recorded.
A year-long battle for the “Nixon tapes” then began. The Harvard law professor Archibald Cox, whom Nixon had appointed as a special prosecutor to handle the Watergate case, took the president to court in October 1973 to obtain the tapes. Nixon, pleading “executive privilege,” refused to release them and ordered Cox fired. In what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” the new attorney-general, Elliot Richardson, and his deputy resigned rather than execute the order. Cox’s replacement as special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, proved no more pliable than Cox, and he also took the president to court. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the president must surrender the tapes. A few days later the House judiciary Committee voted to recommend the three articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice through the payment of “hush money” to witnesses and withholding of evidence; using federal agencies to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights; and defiance of Congress by withholding the tapes. But before the House of Representatives could meet to vote on impeachment, Nixon handed over the complete set of White House tapes. On August 9, 1974, fully aware that the evidence on the tapes implicated him in the cover-up, Richard Nixon resigned from office.
EFFECTS OF WATERGATE Vice-president Spiro Agnew did not succeed Nixon because Agnew himself had been forced to resign in October 1973 when it became known that he had accepted bribes from contractors before and during his term as vice-president. The vice-president at the time of Nixon’s resignation was Gerald Ford, the former minority leader in the House, whom Nixon had appointed with Congressional approval, under the provisions of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1967). Ford insisted that he had no intention of pardoning Nixon, who was still liable for criminal prosecution. “I do not think the public would stand for it,” predicted Ford. But a month after Nixon’s resignation the new president issued the pardon, explaining that it was necessary to end the national obsession with the Watergate scandals. Many suspected that Nixon and Ford had made a deal, though there was no evidence to confirm the speculation. President Ford testified personally to a congressional committee: “There was no deal, period.” But suspicions remained.

If there was a sliver lining in Watergate’s dark cloud, it was the vigor and resiliency of the institutions that had brought a president down the press, Congress, the courts, and an aroused public opinion. The Watergate revelations provoked Congress to pass several pieces of legislation designed to curb executive power in the future. The War Powers Act (1973) required presidents to consult with Congress before sending American troops into combat abroad and to withdraw troops after sixty days unless Congress specifically approved their stay. In an effort to correct abuses of campaign funds, Congress enacted legislation in 1974 that set new ceilings on contributions and expenditures. And in reaction to the Nixon claim of “executive privilege,”

Congress strengthened the 1966 Freedom of Information Act to require prompt responses to requests for information from government files and to place on government agencies the burden of proof for classifying information.

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-15 12:52:26

The nation had weathered a profound constitutional crisis, but the aftershock of the Watergate episode produced a deep sense of disillusionment with the so-called “imperial presidency.” Coming on the heels of the erosion of public confidence generated by the Vietnam War, the Watergate affairs renewed public cynicism toward a government that had systematically lied to the people and violated their civil liberties, said one bumper sticker of the day: “Don’t vote. It only encourages them.”
Nixon’s resignation pleased his critics but also initiated a prolonged crisis of confidence. A 1974 poll asked people how much faith they had in the executive branch of government. Only 14 percent answered “a great deal”; 43 percent said “hardly any.” Restoring credibility and respect became the primary challenge facing Nixon’s successors. Unfortunately, a new array of economic and foreign crisis would make that task doubly difficult.

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[GRE写作] GRE写作素材SectionSix:Politics