free_LUNCH

Without new ideas, any society will stagnate. New ideas can only be introduced in a society that permits freedom of expression. Therefore, if a society is to thrive, all limits on freedom of expression should be eliminated.

The argument that eliminating all limits on freedom of expression will lead to new ideas being borne leading to a thriving society is not entirely based on logical facts. There are many holes in this argument that needs patching up before it can be truly substantiated.

Firstly, providing complete freedom can have a reverse effect on the development of the society. It is wrong to assume that all ideas are good ideas. There are many ideas which are not good and they are based on very narrow views and ideologies. Radical and extreme groups will go to all extents to propagate these ideas. For e.g. we see such ideas being propagated by the Islamic fundamentalists in countries like Iran and Iraq. These ideas of freedom has not only led to 1000s of innocent people being killed but has also reduced their once beautiful country to rubbles.

Secondly, complete freedom is too extreme a theory to be put into practice. There has to be a governing body to decide on what is right and what is wrong. Not only that, there has to be certain checks and balances in place to ensure that wrong messages do not fall into the hands of immature people. Such people can be easily misled and can cause a lot of anxiety for their family members and community around them. Certain popular artists while expressing their thoughts, exercising their freedom of expression, have managed to influence teens to such an extent that they have turned murderers before they could turn 20.

Lastly, we all know that for a society to thrive, it is important to have cooperation among the elements that make the society. There has to be a feeling of brotherhood and each individual member has to contribute towards the growth and well-being of the society. The argument mentioned above fails to answer how eliminating limits on freedom of expression lead to such a productive environment. If an environment of sharing and caring is not created, then the argument does not hold true at all.

Thus, the argument is not entirely convincing. To strengthen in further, the argument should talk about what kind of ideas will enable the society to thrive, how can we distinguish and filter bad ideas from good and how can we take care of radical elements who may take unnecessary advantage of this freedom thus causing a reverse effect on the growth of the society. Unless these questions are answered, the argument in its present form fails to convey the message convincingly.

Most of his stories are believed to be true.
You should not worry about the outcome because what matters is the effort.
Bach’s music is significantly different from that of Beethoven’s.
Most politicians prefer not to be associated with the Mafia.
Eduardo wasn’t sure whether he could make it to the party. (‘whether’ when there are two possibilities).
If Edcardo comes to the party, he will bring a bottle of wine. (‘if’ in conditional statements).
The mule, like the donkey, is a close relative of the horse (‘Like’ indicates that two subjects are comparable).
I have purchased many types of cameras, such as Nikon D70 and Canon Powershot (‘Such as’ is used when giving examples).
Success of iPod can be attributed to its design and simplicity of use.
The CEOs remarks were primarily targeted at the middle managers.
You are required to take off your sandals before entering the temple.
You should think of him as your father.
You have a responsibility to take care of your parents.
The more you work, the luckier you get.
You are forbidden to enter this room.
Movies by Satyajit Ray are far superior to those of Mr. Singh’s.
He was so late that he missed the title song.

On average, middle-aged consumers devote 39 percent of their retail expenditure to department store products and services, while for younger consumers the average is only 25 percent. Since the number of middle-aged people will increase dramatically within the next decade, department stores can expect retail sales to increase significantly during that period. Furthermore, to take advantage of the trend, these stores should begin to replace some of those products intended to attract the younger consumer with products intended to attract the middle-aged consumer.

The argument that replacing the inventory catering the young consumers with that catering to middle aged consumers just because the latter’s percentage spending is more is not entirely based on logical facts. There are many holes in the arguments that need filling to support this conclusion.

Firstly, nothing is mentioned about the absolute number of young people with respect to middle-aged and how will that change in the next decade. Currently, it is possible that the total number of younger consumers far outnumber the middle-aged consumers. The percentage figure may not give the right picture. If such is the case, then it is wrong on the part of department stores to think that most of their products and service are bought and utilized by the middle-aged group. Also, no mention is mentioned about what would be the relative growth of these groups. If the younger age group is going to increase faster, say because of baby boom, then the forecasts made by the department stores would need correction.

Secondly, the fact that trends in shopping change with time as well as innovation in products has not been taken into consideration. What is true today may not be so tomorrow. Moreover, like the department stores, other stores may at be focusing their energy as well to attract more middle-aged customers. If this effort is successful, then the department stores could see a decline in the middle-aged expenditure levels at their stores. We know, for instance, that in today’s world, people are more attracted to specialized stores for their purchases than towards a have-all department store. They expect to get better range of products as well as expect better service and assistance. For eg, Wal-Mart sales have fallen within the last quarter because people are moving on to more focused stores like Best Buy etc. for their purchases.

The most important fact that is neglected in this argument is that replacing products may result in department stores losing the younger consumers all together and if the trends with the middle-aged group changes then the stores will be left with inventory that they may have to liquidate or sell at very low price to make place for new inventory. It can be too risky for the department stores to specifically cater to one portion of the demography and neglect the other half completely. Essentially, they would be placing all their eggs into one basket which is not a clever strategy. The argument should provide evidence through statistics/surveys to enforce the fact the middle-aged consumers will continue to shop at the department stores and that their percentage is liable to increase.

This, the argument is not entirely convincing. To strengthen it further, the argument should all talk about the net quantity involved and should not just talk in percentages. Also, the argument should present analysis of the trends in marketing to make a calculated discussion. They should talk about their competitor’s strategy to fine tune their own decision.

This may provide reliable test scores but …
… it absolutely makes no sense for any test prep software not to show the answer details (in practice tests). You want to finish the test and then know why your answers were wrong, but GMATPrep offers no such help. It just tells you what the correct answer is. Absolute lack of common sense.
… it does not save your practice test answers. C’mon !!! The two essays that I wanted to post here are gone.

First test today …

Quants – 48, Verbals – 38, Score – 700

the more … the better

hope for something to happen … hope to do something

exchange for with

afflicted with from

… is likely to be …

closer than as

Such … like

regarded as

considered as

not only … but also

as long … as

plays … as

at a rate of

prefer … to

from attending

The following appeared as part of an annual report sent to stockholders by Olympic Foods, a processor of frozen foods.
“Over time, the costs of processing go down because as organizations learn how to do things better, they become more efficient. In color film processing, for example, the cost of a 3-by-5-inch print fell from 50 cents for five-day service in 1970 to 20 cents for one-day service in 1984. The same principle applies to the processing of food. And since Olympic Foods will soon celebrate its twenty-fifth birthday, we can expect that our long experience will enable us to minimize costs and thus maximize profits.”

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.

The argument that only long experience can lead to an organization to increase its profits and maximize costs is not entirely based on logical facts. There are many gaps in the argument which needs to be filled up to support the conclusion.

First, the argument fails to mention whether there were any improvements in technology which could have enabled an organization to reduce its operational cost. For eg. modernization and automation could have led color film processing industry to have reduced the man hours hence reducing the capital expenditure. This in turn could have resulted in quicker delivery time and hence increased profits. It is incorrect to assume that food industry is also undergoing the same change.

Secondly, the reduction in cost and maximization of profit could have been a direct outcome of improved people skills and effective training supported by a better work flow management. With time the color film industry might have seen the same workers doing the same work over and over again thereby being able to do the work faster. They may have been skillful enough to devise new ways of achieving the target which could have resulted in reduced processing time. Same cannot be said about Olympic foods or the food industry in general. No new process improvements may have taken place and it is highly possible that the experienced work force have all quit the organization.

Finally, it is possible that the huge rise in use of cameras have resulted in the increase of sales in the film processing industry. People from various age group, of various demography have been able to afford cameras and are hence going for color film development. This may have led to increased profits and reduced cost to the industry in face of the huge demand. Nothing of such has been mentioned about the food industry. Nothing has been mentioned about the volume of sales of Olympic foods increasing in time so as to provide larger profits.

Thus, the argument is not entirely convincing. The evidence presented to support the conclusion does little to prove that time and time alone is the key to maximize profits and minimize costs. Ultimately, the evidence could have been strengthened by making it evident that the food industry has undergone significant modernization, that Olympic food has a wider consumer base and that processes have been improved to maximize productivity as well as profits.

In some countries, television and radio programs are carefully censored for offensive language and behavior. In other countries, there is little or no censorship.
In your view, to what extent should government or any other group be able to censor television or radio programs? Explain, giving relevant reasons and/or examples to support your position.

The issue regarding the extent to which television and radio programs are censored is a debatable one. On the one hand, there are countries/groups that completely censor any kind of offensive language and behavior or even more. On the other hand some countries have permitted the use of freedom of speech to such an extent that there is little or no censorship. In my belief, there has to be calculated amount of censorship which does not breach the freedom of speech nor allow negative elements to portray their views in an ugly and vulgar fashion.

Primary reason for my belief is that media plays a very important medium for spreading knowledge, information and facts. There are many people who watch or hear these shows and are radically influenced by these thoughts. Talking ill of any religion, taking undemocartic stance in politics and staging mockery of world leaders have been known to create unrest among people and societies. If such messages continue to be shown verbatim, soon the world could be on the verge of a war. At the same time, inportant facts have to be shown to the public so as to enable them to have logical viewpoints about their own world.

Secondly, these mediums are becoming more and more accessible to children. TV and radio are the most important form of entertainment today. If there is too much violence shown in television, it can influence the soft malleable minds of children very easily. For eg. it has become very common to hear about children carrying guns to school nowadays. In fact, in some instances they have used the firearm to fatally injure fellow students and teachers. Where is it all stemming from? I believe that it is the result of all the violent movies that are telecast on TVs. Similarly, more and more adolescents are becoming pregnant before marriage and are falling under the influence of drugs. Aren’t the dirty and vulgar soap operas, movies the cause of all this? Yes, they are.

Lastly, I feel that such mediums are right now in the hands of such people who will show and telecast anything to make as much money they want. These people play on the sensitive side of the human mind by showing them programs that influence the common mass in a very negative manner. The reality shows, for eg., that show all kinds of inexplicable things, that make immense use of offensive language have started to make people think and act differently. People everywhere have changed their vocabulary to match the dirty language spoken on these shows. This gives them a feeling of being ‘cool’.

My strong belief is that even though these programs cannot be eliminated completely, there should be some mechanism to restrict their access. Either it should be made costly to procure such materials or there should be a way to control their viewership. Various rating systems have to be developed and enforced strictly to ensure such materials do not fall into the hands of children. Parents also, along with the censorship authorities, have to take strict action to prevent their children from getting exposed to such offensive material. Hence, on the basis of these explanations, I strongly believe that a middle path should be taken in this argument and there should be some form of calculated censorship.