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The article about organic foods
2006年5月12日, 下午 06:48:30
The popularity of organic foods can be traced to many people’s nostalgia for a simple or pioneer-like lifestyle. And many people believe that organic foods are safer than foods produced on a large scale by traditional methods. Many people also believe that these organic foods contain more and better nutrients than conventional food. In fact, plants absorb all their food directly from the soil in inorganic form, no matter where the nutrients may originally have come from. Experiments in Michigan and in England that went for 25 years were unable to find any difference in plants raised organically and plants raised with chemical fertilizers. Things that do affect nutrient content are climate, time of harvest and genetics—but no difference results when plants are grown organically. Neither are organically grown plants free from chemicals and pesticides. Some pesticides leave traces in the soil for years, and the traces may be absorbed by the plant that is “organically” grown. Rainfall may wash pesticides from neighboring farms onto “organic” field, and sprays or other applications of chemicals drift cause the same problem. Furthermore, all foods – whether grown conventionally or organically—may contain toxic substances to some degree; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains constant checks to ensure that these substances are kept at a harmless level. But aflatoxin, a mold that causes cancer, may grow on crops such as peanuts, or be present in milk. Lead and arsenic are sometimes present in bone meal or seafood. And many vegetables contain poisonous compounds such as oxalic acid and nitrite compounds. The point is, all these toxins may be present in a given food, no matter how the food was grown and cultivated. Toxic substances in food do not necessarily have to come from fertilizers or chemical sprays.

After reading this, I feel like I was a fool that, sometimes, without further studying, just believe what media educate and people say. In this information-flooding world, you’ll never know what really truth is. For example, the “stick-proof” chemical coated on the cooking ware produced by DuPont called Teflon has found that contains poisonous stuff could harm for people has been wild-used and popular among consumers around the world. And now, I become a victim of the fact though I was the lover of the product.

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传媒类1．宣传技术(propaganda techniques)Today’s AdvertisingPropaganda is not just the tool of totalitarian governments and dictators. Rather, propaganda is all around us—in the form of commercials and advertisements. The author of this selection shows how Madison Avenue uses many of the techniques typical of political propaganda to convince us that we need certain products and services. American adults and children alike, are being seduced. They are being brainwashed. And few of us protest. Why? Because the seducers and the brain washers are the advertisers we willingly invite into our homes. We are victims, content—even eager—to be victimized. We read advertisers’ propaganda messages in newspapers and magazines; we watch their alluring images on the television. We absorb their messages and images into our subconscious. We all do it—even those of us who claim to see through advertisers’ tricks and therefore feel immune to advertisers’ charm. Advertisers lean heavily on propaganda to sell their products, whether the “products” are a brand of toothpaste, a candidate for office, or a particular political viewpoint.Propaganda is a systematic effort to influence people’s opinions, to win them over to a certain view or side. Propaganda is not necessarily concerned with what is true or false, good or bad. Propagandists simply want people to believe the messages being sent. Often, propagandists will use outright lies or more subtle deceptions to sway people’s opinions. In a propaganda war, any tacit is considered fair.Indeed, the vast majority of us are targets in advertisers’ propaganda war. Every day, we are bombarded with slogans, print ads, commercials, packaging claims, billboards, trademarks, logos, and the designer brands-all forms of propaganda. One study reports that each of us, during an average day, is exposed to over five hundred advertising claims of various types. This saturation may even increase in the future since current trends include ads on movie screens, shopping carts, videocassettes, even public television. Advertisers use seven types of propaganda techniques: 1)Name callingName calling is a propaganda tacit in which negatively charged names are hurled against the opposing side or competitor. By using such names, propagandists try to arouse the feeling of mistrust, fear, and hate in their audiences.Political advisement may label an opposing candidate a “loser”, “fence-sitter”, or “warmonger”Products: An American manufacturer may refer, for instance, to a “foreign car” in its commercial—not to a “imported” one. The label of foreignness will have unpleasant connotations on many people’s mind.2)Glittering GeneralitiesUsing glittering generalities is the opposite of name calling. In this case, advertisers surround their products with attractive--and slippery—words and phrases. They use vague terms that are difficult to define and that may have different meanings to different people: freedom, democratic, all-American, progressive, Christian, and justice. Many such words have strong, affirmative overtones. This kind of language stirs positive feelings in people, feelings that may spill over to the product or idea being pitched. As with the name calling, the emotional response may overwhelm logic. Target audiences accept the product without thinking very much about what the glittering generalities mean—or whether they even apply to the product. After all, how can anyone oppose “truth, justice, and the American way”?Politics: The ads for politicians and political causes often use glittering generalities because such “buzz words” can influence votes. Election slogans include high-sounding but basically empty phrases.Products: Ads for consumer goods are also sprinkles with glittering generalities. Product names, for instance, are supposed to evoke good feelings.3)TransferIn a transfer, advertisers try to improve the image of a product by associating it with a symbol most people respect, like the American flag or Uncle Sam. The advertisers hope that the prestige attached to the symbol will carry over to the product.Product: Lincoln Insurance shows a profile of the president; Continental Insurance portrays a Revolutionary war minuteman.Corporations also use the transfer technique when they sponsor prestigious shows on radio and televisions. These shows function as symbols of dignity and class.In this way, corporations can reach an educated, influential audience and, perhaps, improve their public image by associating themselves with quality programming.Politics: Ads for political candidate often show either the Washington Monument, a Fourth of July parade, the stars and Stripes, a bald eagle soaring over mountains, or a white-steepled church on the village green. The national anthem or “America the Beautiful” may play softly in the background.4）TestimonialThe testimonial is one of advertisers’ most-loved and most-used propaganda techniques. Similar to the transfer device, the testimonial capitalizes on the admiration people have for celebrity to make the product shine more brightly—even though the celebrity is not an expert on the product being sold.Print and television ads offer a nonstop parade of testimonials: here’s Cher for Holiday Spas; here’s basketball star Michael Jackson sings about Pepsi.5)Plain forksThe plain folks approach says, in effect, “Buy me or vote for me, I’m just like you.” And how do these folksy warmhearted (usually saccharine) scenes affect us? They’re supposed to make us feel that AT&T—the multinational corporate giant—has the same values as we do. Similarly, we are introduced to the little people at Ford, the ordinary folks who work on the assembly line, not to bigwigs in their executive offices. What’s the purpose of such an approach? To encourage us buy a car built by honest, hardworking “everyday Joes” who care about quality as much as we do.Politics: candidates wear hard hats, farmer caps, and assembly-line coveralls. They jog around the block and carry their own luggage through the airport. The idea is to convince people that the candidates are average people, not the elite—not wealthy lawyers or executives but the common citizen.Bandwagonuse many people have deep desire not to de different.Politics: Political ads tell us to vote for the “winning candidate.” The advertisers know we tend to feel comfortable doing what others do; we cant to be on the winning team. Or ads show a series of people proclaiming, “I’m voting for the Senator. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t.” Again, the audience feels under pressure to conform.Why do these propaganda techniques work? Why do so many of us buy the products, viewpoints, and candidates urged on us by propaganda messages? They work because they appeal to our emotions, not to our minds. Often, in fact, they capitalize on our prejudices and biases. For example, if we are convinced that environmentalists are radicals who want to destroy America’s record of industrial growth and progress, then we will applaud the candidate who refers to them as “treehuggers.” Clear thinking requires hard work: analyzing a claim, researching the facts, examining both sides of an issue, using logic to see the flaws in an argument. Many of us would rather let the propagandists do our thinking for us.Because propaganda is so effective, it is important to detect it and understand how it is used. We may conclude, after close examination, that some propaganda sents a truthful worthwhile message. Some advertising, for instance, urges us not to drive drunk, to become volunteers, to contribute to charity. Even so, we must be aware that propaganda is being used. Otherwise, we will have consented to handing over to others our independence of thought and action.

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Teaching students to write clearly and effectively should be a central objective of the school.

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Scientists and government officials have known for several years that radiation causes the
mutations I have described, which lead to illness, genetic damage, and death; yet, they continue to allow the unsuspecting public to be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, and to have their food, water, and air contaminated by it. Ernest Sternglass made the comment that because of man’s fascination with nuclear power, “it appears that we have unwittingly carried out an experiment with ourselves as guinea pigs on a worldwide scale.” Millions of innocent people have paid the price of nuclear power through their suffering and untimely deaths. By inheriting genetic damage caused by radiation, the future generations of mankind may bear the burden as well. A multi-million dollar settlement was awarded to Utah residents who proved that their cancers were caused by radioactive fallout. Whether or not radiation is indeed responsible for my own illness may never be proved. Nevertheless, the image I once had of my grandparents’ farm in Utah as an unspoiled, safe haven, untouched by the tainted hands of modern evils, has been forever changed in my mind.