GRE作文范文 Issue-31

“Scandals – whether in politics, academia, or other areas – can be useful. They focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could.”

嘉文博译Sample Essay

Charismatic leaders and ultra-popular figures in society undoubtedly have the ability to redirect our attention towards some specific problems. But there is no doubt that a scandal in any aspect of a society may be a useful and powerful attention-getter that can motivate people to sit up and take notice of a previously unknown or little-discussed problem.

To begin with, a scandal cannot actually exist if no one knows about it. Normally when one hears of a scandal, it is caused by someone’s truly outrageous behavior. It is quite often someone of a least some celebrity status that is the offender; thereby making the scandal an even bigger news story than the conduct itself would have been in the first place. Just looking at the news worldwide, one can see that, many times, the news covers a particular political or societal scandal. The very fact that a scandal mesmerizes and titillates a society makes it an ideal motivator for focusing public attention on a particular problem within that society.

As one example, the recent scandal involving sexual abuse by Catholic priests and officials focused the world’s attention on the problem of pedophiles in high-ranking positions of authority. Although there had been such allegations and even lawsuit settlements in the past, it took a large-scale scandal to really focus the public’s attention on the problem. When only a few people had previously spoken out, very little attention was directed towards the potential problems. Then a massive scandal broke out involving hundreds of priests and victims, internal cover-ups and the Church’s admission of the moving around of accused priests from parish to parish. The public was outraged, causing the problems to be addressed at the highest levels of the Catholic Church, including an announcement by the Pope, the leader of the Catholic faith.

In an example from academia, a scandal over world famous author Stephen Ambrose focused the academic world’s attention on the previously little-discussed problem of plagiarism. Although allegations of plagiarism had arisen in the past, there had been no scandal created because those accused were not well known and had mostly written little work of any consequence. On the contrary, Mr. Ambrose had been cited as an expert authority on history and had sold millions of best-selling books worldwide. The ensuing scandal that erupted over his admitted (and supposedly inadvertent) plagiarism probably focused attention on the problem of misappropriating the writings of others in a way that no individual could have done.

A further example of the impact of scandal on society can be found in the history of the public’s reaction to the AIDS virus. In the early 1980’s, the general population was not concerned about the disease as it was seen mainly as a homosexual problem with little risk to so-called “normal” people. But when famous movie star Rock Hudson died of AIDS, followed by the resulting scandal over his previously little-known sex life, the public’s attention became more focused on the plight of people with the deadly disease. Many individuals had spoken out on the potential problems caused by AIDS before his death. But it was the scandal caused by revelations over Mr. Hudson’s life and death, followed by the similarly scandalous deaths of other celebrities that tragically brought home the reality of the disease – everyone could be at risk.

In summary, there are potentially many very charismatic and influential people that can be truly motivational leaders and focus a society’s attention on a particular problem. But quite often it takes a scandal and the accompanying publicity to make the public truly take notice and actually contemplate a specific issue.

(603 words)

参考译文

丑闻，无论出自政治、学术，还是其它领域，都可能是有用的。它们以任何发言人和改革者都不曾做到的方式把我们的注意力汇聚于某些问题。

社会里具有领袖魅力的领导者和非常知名的人物，具有把我们的注意力重新导向某些具体问题的能力。但是，毫无疑问，社会里某一领域的丑闻可能成为一个有用的且有力的引人注目的事物，它可以激发人们拍案而起关注一个以前闻所未闻或很少谈论的问题。

首先，一个丑闻，如果不为人知，是不可能实际存在的。通常，我们所听到的丑闻往往是由于某人的无耻行为而造成的。通常，某个至少拥有一定名人地位的人是丑闻的制造者，这里，从而首先就使得这一丑闻变成一堆比那行为本身甚至远大得多的新闻猛料。看一看世界各地的新闻我们就知道，很多情况下新闻都包括一个政治的或社会的丑闻。丑闻能够吸引并激发一个社会群体的极大兴趣这一事实，使丑闻成为把公众的注意力引向某一社会问题的理想因素。

例如，最近的丑闻涉及天主教教士和官员的性伤害，它把整个世界的注意力集中在上层权威人士中恋童癖患者的问题上。尽管从前曾经有过指控甚至诉讼判决，但是，只有对丑闻的大规模宣传才能把公众的注意力集中到这一问题上来。过去只有小部分人仗义执言时，也只有很少的注意力被引向这一潜在问题。之后，一个巨大的丑闻爆发出来，涉及数百名教士和受害者，内部的掩饰，以及教会允许受指控的教士从一个教区转到另一个教区继续任职等。公众被激怒了，问题被提交到天主教会的最高层来处理，其中包括由代表着天主教信仰的领袖教皇所发表的声明。

在一个学术领域的案例中，涉及世界知名作家Stephen Ambrose的丑闻，把整个学术界的注意力汇聚于以前很少探讨的剽窃问题。尽管对剽窃的指控以前曾经有过，但是并没有造成丑闻，因为那些被指控者大都不太知名，而且也没有写过有什么影响力的作品。Ambrose先生被公认为史学界的权威专家，有数百万册畅销书在全世界销售。接蹱而来的便是有关他已承认的(而且据称是非故意的)剽窃所引起的丑闻，这一丑闻可能以前所未有的力度使人们关注盗用他人写作成果这一问题。

另一个说明丑闻对社会影响的例子，是公众对爱滋病毒的反应。在20世纪80年代早期，大众并不关心这一病症，因为它被认为主要是同性恋问题，对所谓的“正常”人并没有什么危险。但是当著名的电影明星Rock Hudson死于爱滋病，紧随着是他从前鲜为人知的性生活的丑闻的披露，公众的注意力才更多地汇集到患有这一致命疾病的人们所处的困境。在Hudson死之前，许多人已直言爱滋病所引起的潜在问题，但是正是有关Hudson先生的生活和死亡的丑闻的披露，以及随之披露的其他名人要员的类似丑闻，才悲剧性地揭示出这一疾病的现实：每个人都有可能受其危害。

总之，潜在地会有许多具有领袖魅力和有影响力的人物可能成为真正的激发人们兴趣的引导者，把人们的目光聚集到某个特定的问题。但通常，需要一个丑闻以及相应的宣传才能使公众真正地注意并认真地思考某个具体问题。