GRE写作优秀范文：技术进步之社会影响

　　Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics.

　　技术不仅仅影响而且实际上是决定了社会传统和道德规范。

　　Taking a brief glance at history of human existence, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion that technology, defined as the application of science and knowledge, has played an important role in bringing transformation and improvement to society. I agree with the above saying in the topic that technology should be regarded as a determinative factor which not only influences but also, and more importantly,determines the social custom and ethics.

　　People, generally speaking, would not doubt the perspective that technology exercises enormous influence on the custom and ethics of mankind. Before the Industrial Revolution, women in Britain were not allowed to work outside apart from some comparatively enlightened places; yet waves of women went into spinneries as cotton spinner after the jenny were universally utilized around Europe. The reason why factories preferred women rather than men in the Industrial Revolution lies in the development of technology, which decreased the physical weakness of women, raised the social awareness of the advantage of women worker such as more carefulness and patience, changed the traditional industrial configuration in the proportion of females and males, therefore transformed the cliche ban of women's outside working. Same analysis could be applied on feminism campaign. With the purpose of sexual equality and personality liberation, feminism campaign is based on the development and betterment of the equipment from this point of view. In a word, all these changes in social custom and ethics owe to the development of technology.

　　But why, someone may ask, should technology be mentioned as the determinate factor,not merely an infective ingredient? The answer comes from the difference between quantity of effects that influence and determination separately raise. As dictionary refers, the effect of influence is indirect and comparatively weaker; while that of determination is direct, basic and strong. From the examples given in the above paragraph, agreement may not be difficult to reach that the impact of technology on social custom is direct and enormous. Without technology in medical, people today might still hold the belief that spread of plague is the punishment from God and the sick are unforgivable sinners; in industry, the popular concept of global village and the social consciousness of racial equality might never exist; in sociology, women cannot get the opportunity to realize their own values as an independent individual through working. To sum up, technology is the determinative factor to change the social custom and ethics.

　　However, question may still be raised why it is the technology determines the social custom and ethics, rather than human beings or other factors. Admittedly, it seems much more of sense that human beings make the social custom and ethics by themselves. But it does not imply that human beings determine the trend of social custom, since the formation of a social custom and a principle of ethics is based on the level of technology at that time by which majority of people can measure what can be done while others cannot. Admittedly, often human activities such as Renaissance and World War 2 seem to influence the social custom more obviously and to a greater extent than technology does. But when considering why such activities happened on a specific time in a specific place, one still have to turn to technology for further understanding. Thus, the social custom actually should be regarded as fruits, if the human activities are taken as trunk; technology should be considered as the roots of the tree which determine whether the tree can live and what it can produce.