Question one: Q #1. Perception Isn’t Reality, Or Is It?
Recently I heard a time-honored trick in car dealership: car salesman lures the customer with the deal; reveal it doesn’t apply to the car being considered; then have a word with manager, who – hallelujah! – agrees to an exception, and customer, with a great relief, happily buy the car with the price originally intended by the car dealer. So, change perception, change reality.
I also heard that happiness equals reality minus expectation. So you will be less miserable if you don’t go to the Facebook to be constantly out-shined by your fantastic friends.
Is there any particle of truth in the statement that “perception is reality?” If not, why do we often forget that it isn’t and, reject others’ reality as “nonsense” and insist our reality as the only legitimate one? How does our imperfect perception system get us into trouble in our interaction with others? How could we put our perception in perspective so we can enter a reasonable negotiation with others in regard to whose reality is more accurate?
Use your life experience, news stories, and others’ research to make a measured argument.
Question 2: Q #2. Gender role and cultural war
One of the most important family patterns is the teaching of accepted gender roles. In any society, gender is a key feature of a person’s social identity; gender differences are more influenced by culture than biology. In the past 100 years, we saw great shift in gender roles all over the world. Cultural wars are waged regarding to the shift and further rip open the old fabric of the culture. Tell me the positive thing about the shift. Is there anything negative about the shift? How does our mass media system and politics enter the fray and make it more complicated (I mean America is so gender divided not knowing our true enemy is not our man and our woman – I might wrong)? Do you believe technology and social media will make major alteration to gender roles in the next ten years? Why or why not?
Guidelines for response:
*answer the questions head-on rather beating around the bush.
*completely answer the questions raised in the prompt rather than partially answer the question
*argue logically, i.e. points driving points with strong evidence to support the claim.
*fresh idea and independent-thinking, not platitude and parroting.
*write with style: good diction, compelling rhetoric, and concision.
*being conscious of grammar, punctuation, and citation.
