国際教養学部AO入試 reference, "war on terrorism"

Islam, violence and the West
First, do no harm
Jun 27th 2015, 9:21 BY B.C.    The Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2015/06/islam-violence-and-west

TOEFL, iBT, Independent Writing, Facilities or professors? - rewrite -

Writing Topic

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. It is more worthwhile for a university to spend money on improving facilities than on hiring high-quality professors.

☆Let’s Think

This question is made up of a comparison. It compares the importance of facilities and professors for a university. Both of them are important for a university. With excellent facilities like beautiful buildings and sophisticated equipment, students can make the most of their academic life. On the other hand, professors are some of the best, or at least most interesting, minds students would meet in their whole lives. They are the top level researchers and teachers: human beings with amazing brains, often unforgettable personalities, and the same feelings as anyone else. Which is more important for a university?

Let’s think about the relation between facilities and faculty (professors) by analogy. Professors can be to facilities what the software is to the hardware of a system. Good software performs exquisitely even the hardware looks miserable as long as its specifications are above some level, while even the high-end hardware would be a junk of steel if the software is not good. Without good equipment, professors cannot perform well, but abundant information that the sophisticated machines can provide is useless without a person who knows how to use machines and how to interpret information they produce. The main purpose of a university is research and education. Then, good professors are more important for a university than anything else. 

On the other hand, a university as an entity to make profits needs a different perspective in investment. They need to attract as many students, their customers, as possible. They need to have features that average people are attracted to. Students who are purely interested in the subject they are going to major in would choose a university with famous professors in the field of their interest, but you see only a few people like that. University facilities include those mainly for students such as dormitories, gyms, and so on. Good facilities can attract larger percentage of the young, especially those who go to university mainly to enjoy the last page of their adolescence. Students who live away from home might take good dormitory facilities into consideration in choosing a university that they should attend. Students who enjoy sports would choose the university with good facilities for sports.

☆Paragraph development

A paragraph of the body of an essay often develops its main idea as follows:

【Main Idea】 (主張)

【Explanation】 (主張の説明)

【Detail / Example in general】 (一般的な例)

【More Specific Detail / Example】 (より具体的な例)

【Conclusion】 (結論)

♦Sample Paragraph Development 

【Main Idea】 (主張)

For the primary purpose of university, facilities come next to professors.

【Explanation】 (主張の説明)

University is the place for research and development and for training people to be creative, so that we need people who know how to use facilities to make good results.

【Detail / Example in general】 (一般的な例)

University needs people who know what to look for and what has been found.

【More Specific Detail / Example】 (より具体的な例)

Insight to build a theory, devise and conduct the method to prove it, and analyze the collected data would be crucial to discover something. Professors with deep understanding of the world backed by wide knowledge covering not only his own field but also many disciplines have shrewd insights and make suggestions on what to study and where to look at.

【Conclusion】 (結論)

Universities need smart people who can use resources well to benefit society.

♦Your test paragraph development

Now let’s practice paragraph development. Choose one of the reasons you have come up with, make it the main idea, and develop it using the following form. As this is a tentative part of your real essay, use simple words and sentences for supporting details and focus on the logic and ideas.

【Main Idea】 (主張)

【Explanation】 (主張の説明)

【Detail / Example in general】 (一般的な例)

【More Specific Detail / Example】 (より具体的な例)

【Conclusion】 (結論)

♦Essay-writing procedure

Let’s review the procedure that could help you finish writing the full essay before the time is up, meeting the minimum 300-word requirement. One good point of this procedure is that with this you can avoid forgetting or missing time to write the conclusion.

1.    Read the writing topic carefully.

2.    Brainstorm, typing down the would-be points for the essay.

《The image of typing down the would-be points for the essay》

@@&!*&

$$$$

#`*&%#@&%

$BB

3.    Put the points in order. (They will make the topic sentences of the paragraphs of the body.)

《The image of putting the points in order》

【Point 1】#`*&%#@&%

【Point 2】@@&!*&

【Point 3】$$$$$BB

4.    Write the topic sentences of the conclusion and introduction paragraphs.

For example.

1)    Write the conclusion topic sentence

【Point 1】#`*&%#@&%

【Point 2】@@&!*&

【Point 3】$$$$$BB

【Conclusion = Wrap-up】Because of #...and @,,,, it can be concluded that facility is more important than the faculty for today’s university.

2)    Write the introduction topic sentence

【Introduction = Outline】I think it is more worthwhile for a university to spend money on improving facilities than on hiring high-quality professors because of # and @.

【Point 1】#`*&%#@&%

【Point 2】@@&!*&

【Point 3】$$$$$BB

【Conclusion = Wrap-up】Because of #... and @,,,, it can be concluded that facility is more important than the faculty for today’s university.

5.    Develop body paragraphs.

The image of developing the first point (The first paragraph of the body).

【Introduction = Outline】I think it is more worthwhile for a university to spend money on improving facilities than on hiring high-quality professors because of # and @.

【Point 1】#`*&%#@&%. This means that #`****&###```&%%%%. For example, □△○. This is especially true in the case of □*△*○ because …. It cannot be denied that ■▲● happens, but in reality, □◎◎. Therefore, it can be said that #`*✿&%#@&%□☉✿.

【Point 2】@@&!*&

【Point 3】$$$$$BB

【Conclusion = Wrap-up】Because of #... and @,,,, it can be concluded that facility is more important than the faculty for today’s university.

6.    Develop conclusion and introduction paragraphs.

7.    Go over the whole essay, focusing on one thing such as a grammatical mistake you often make.

Note: You do not have to follow this procedure when you take the test. This procedure might be useful for a writing topic that is somewhat rather difficult to deal with. Also, you do not always have to stick to the basic essay and paragraph structures. The important thing to remember is to make the points clear before telling their details and to deal with the expected counterargument in an appropriate part of the essay..

国際教養学部AO入試 reference, current issues in Japan

弁護しドットコム News
http://www.bengo4.com/topics/

国際教養学部AO入試 reference, racial discrimination, the USA and its gun violence

The Charleston shooting
At half-mast
The unexpected consequences of a young man’s murderous rampage    The Economist
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21656137-unexpected-consequences-young-mans-murderous-rampage-half-mast


Mass shootings and gun control
A culture of violence     The Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/06/mass-shootings-and-gun-control

国際教養学部AO入試 reference, Noam Chomsky, humans, language, interdisciplinary study environment

Revolutionary Methodological Preliminaries  by Geoffrey Pullum
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2015/06/22/revolutionary-methodological-preliminaries/

English Reading, 中・高生向け補助教材、The basic words of physics and astronomy

Answer the following questions in English using any resource including the material provided if necessary by filling in the brackets.

1.    Newton’s first law of motion:　Unless there is some force working on it, a moving object will keep moving and a still object will stay still. This is called the Law of (                     ).

2.    Newton’s second law of motion: An object attracted by gravity will move increasingly faster as time proceeds. The rate of change of velocity is called (                              ). It will be directly (                    ) to the acting force and (                             ) to the mass of the body.

3.    Newton’s third law of motion: If you push something, you will be pushed back exactly to the opposite direction and with the equal power with which you push it. These opposite and equal forces are action and (                    ).

4.    (                         ) is the word for the speed of a thing in a certain direction?

5.    It takes the earth about 24 hours to (                                   ) once on its axis.

6.    The apparent year-round changes of the positions of constellations happen because the earth (                     ) around the sun once every twelve months.

7.    (                 ) , or (                   ) is the star in the north sky which is on the extended line of the rotation axis of the earth?

8.    There are 8 (            ) in the solar system.

9.    The earth is the (                ) planet in the order of the proximity to the sun.

10.  (               ) is the next to the earth but far from the sun and its much colder than the earth while s(                       ) is also nest to the earth but closer to the sun and its much hotter than the earth. Neither have life on them.

11.  Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are (                           ) planets. All the other planets outside of Mars are (               ) planets.

12.  Pluto is not considered as a planet. It is classified as a (                         ) because it has not cleared its orbit, meaning it has a lot of rocks scattered in its way around the sun. In other words, Pluto is one of the rocks that make a huge belt surrounding the solar system.

国際教養学部AO入試 reference, financial meltdown

1. In A.I.G. Case, Surprise Ruling That Could End All Bailouts
The New York Times    JUNE 15, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/business/dealbook/surprise-ruling-finds-bailout-shorted-aig.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0


2. Goldman Sachs Plans to Offer Consumer Loans Online, Adopting Start-Ups’ Tactics
By MICHAEL CORKERY and NATHANIEL POPPERJUNE 15, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/business/dealbook/goldman-to-move-into-online-consumer-lending.html?ref=todayspaper

English Reading, 中・高生向け補助教材、The basic words of biology 2

Answer the following questions in English using any resource including the material provided if necessary. Write the answer in the space below the question or fill in the brackets.

1.    What is the important process that takes place in the green parts of plants exposed to sunshine and that makes the foundation of food chain?

2.    What is the green pigment that makes the process of Question 1 possible and in what body is it?

The green pigment is (                            ).

It is in (                           ).

3.    The following is the equation used to express (                          ).

                             (             ), or sunlight

(                    ) + water ---------------------→ sugar  + (                  )

                                 (                )

4.    This process has two stages. In the light reaction, (            ) splits one molecule of water to release a hydrogen ion and one electron. In the dark reaction, carbon dioxide molecules are used to make sugar molecules known as (                         ) .

5.    What is the theory established by Charles Darwin that accounts for the origin of species?

6.    Both man and the anthropoid (man-like) apes are classed in the animal kingdom as (                      ).

7.    The common ancestor of two different species is called the “                                .“

8.    The (                           ) tail is the anatomy of man that is supposed to be the remnant of the movable tail man’s ancestors possessed.

9.    The early stage of the (                             )s of animals look alike. For example, At some point, all of them have gills or “gill slits.” This shows that all terrestrial animals have a common ancestor that came from the ocean.