GRE写作优秀范文：现代社会

　　So much is new and complex today that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present.

　　现代社会是如此的崭新和复杂以至于回首了解过去对于当代生活已经没有太大帮助了。

　　Generally speaking, by saying looking back we general refer to look in retrospect about history, which, as claimed by British philosopher Francis Bacon, makes men wise.Concerning about history, the speaker maintains that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present since so much is new and complex today. In my view, although the speaker's statement is not without support from daily experience, it misses the point of the function of history.Let me illustrate it as follows.

　　Admittedly, during past decades we witness a great deal of changes and advance with an ever-greater speed that no any experience can serve as a panacea for any problem.It is because that the people living in the past time were not so intelligent as those living in the contemporary world, and their tunnel views can never stand comparison with our broad horizons. Thus it is reasonable to claim that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present. For example,how can we turn to history for the moral risks we face posed by cloning, if in retrospect no such a technology ever existed in the past times? And, how can we find answers about solving the psychological problems springing from increasingly fast living pace since in ancient no one would have ever imagined live in such a fast pace? So in this respect the speaker's claim that it is of little use to look back for guidance of living in the present, since so many problems that people living in the past simply could not imagine, not to mention leave a certain solution for their future generations.

　　Notwithstanding the foregoing concession, I fundamentally disagree with the speaker that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present. In other words, history has little to do with present life, as the speaker asserts. History, in the first place, provides us some lessons which will help us make correct decisions when facing stubborn problems. After all, human knowledge is a cumulative database, and without the endeavor of past generations, such a fortune can never be found by people living in modern times. History informs us that any endeavor, policy, regulation trying to regulate morality will undoubtedly fail, as aptly illustrated by the Prohibition in 1930's in U.S. and recent fail in regulating marital issues via internet. And we also slowly learn from the history lessons that any monocrat will doubtlessly fail, for the reason that the advance of society and human beings calls for a more civilized, democratic policy that those monocrats simply cannot bring about. For example, Hitler, Stalin, and many ancient emperors all failed with their despotic policies. In sum, history teaches us important lessons with the help of which there will be fewer mistakes in modern society.