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  3. Claim: While boredom is often expressed with a sense of self-satisfaction, it should really be a source of embarrassment. Reason

Claim: While boredom is often expressed with a sense of self-satisfaction, it should really be a source of embarrassment. Reason

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问题 Claim: While boredom is often expressed with a sense of self-satisfaction, it should really be a source of embarrassment.
Reason: Boredom arises from a lack of imagination and self-motivation.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
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答案 In the fast-paced modern-day life, people sometimes feel bored by their daily routines. Should boredom be viewed as an expression of self-satisfaction or should it be considered a source of embarrassment? While in certain cases boredom is the result of repetitive, non-inspiring activities, most cases boredom indeed originates from a lack of imagination and self-motivation. As a result, boredom under many circumstances should be a source of embarrassment because it means that one has not done his or her best. That being said, I do not agree with the claim that boredom is often expressed with a sense of self-satisfaction. First let’s begin with the reason. Some may challenge the proposition that boredom arises from a lack of imagination and self-motivation, something related to our internal motives. Instead they view boredom as the inevitable consequence of external pressure. As a result, one’s expression boredom cannot be attributed to his or her own mental qualities. For example, in his classic pantomime Modem Times, Charlie Chaplin vividly illustrates a streamline worker devoid of personalities and becoming a single piece of a greater, collective machinery. Even to date, many white-collar workers today are overburdened with the amount of work they have to deal with, most of which is repetitive and not intellectually stimulating enough to spark aspiration. Overtime, such uninspiring work makes them numb and start to feel bored. In this case, it is hardly their fault or their lack of imagination that leads to the feeling of boredom, at least at first glance. From my point of view, the lines of reasoning above seem to be convincing, but in reality, those who feel bored by their work are still entitled to choose other more challenging and rewarding endeavors. For example, those white-collar workers could quit their job and start working on what is truly of interest to them. However, such actions take courage and motivation because of the risks in initiating the changes. A corollary hence follows: a lack of change from those who feel bored implies the absence of such motivating characteristics. As a consequence, while boredom can appear to originate from external factors, our own characteristics, such as imagination and self-motivation plays a more direct role in causing and getting rid of the feeling of boredom. Now that we have demonstrated the origin of boredom being a lack of imagination or self-motivation, should it be considered a source of embarrassment? My answer to this question is yes, although I need to point out that boredom is not always expressed with a sense of self-satisfaction as some people may have claimed. Their main argument is that boredom is the direct result of feeling satisfied by what one has accomplished, and hence its expression implies one’s success in certain fields. I cannot fully agree with this view; instead, from our discussion above, in many cases the expression of boredom actually reflects one’s dissatisfaction of the present. At any rate, even though various reasons are capable of invoking the emotion of boredom, one should indeed feel embarrassed by such a feeling, because feeling bored means that one has forsaken his or her options to make change to life. That is, boredom is a passive and negative reaction to the external stimuli, be it positive or negative. On the other hand, true warriors of life will neither be self-complacent by their previous achievements, evidenced by the likes of Elon Musk, or become disgruntled by life, such as Dr. Martin Luther King. Elon Musk is a serial entrepreneur who instead of becoming merely satisfied by his early successful investment holds a greater vision, while Dr. King is an activist who has committed his entire life to the cause of civil rights movement. Instead of getting bored of the status quo, both chose to challenge to the equilibrium and made a difference in history. To sum up, while boredom may seemingly arise from external factors, I consider its primary cause to lie within our mind and heart. That being said, boredom is not always expressed with a sense of self-complacency, but in many cases with dissatisfaction as well. Either way, though, boredom should indeed be a source of embarrassment because it means a lack of courage to change what makes people feel bored. (707 words)
解析     这又是一篇非常抽象的题目，题干中“枯燥无聊”“自我满足”“羞耻”“想象力”“自我激励”这一系列词汇都是容易让人不知所措、无从下笔的关键词。下面我们来讲解如何搞定这篇难度极大的文章。
    题目分成了claim和reason两个部分，所以我们也将这两句话分别来看。首先看reason，一个人感觉到枯燥乏味是因为缺乏想象力和自我激励吗?在这里，不同的世界观和价值观会有不同的回答，具体来说分为外在因素和内在因素两种观点。本文认为感到枯燥其实是内在因素主导的，是因为我们对于生活失去了奋发向上的勇气，从而不去改变现状，久而久之难免对现状产生厌倦感。的确，这是很多都市生活的青年人面临的问题，即所谓的“厌世”。
    在确定了reason之后，我们再来看claim的立场，它说“尽管感觉无聊通常被认为是自我满足的表达，但其实应该成为羞耻之源”，我们要将其拆分来看。对于后面这一句是否应该感到羞耻，延续上文我们可以得到一个肯定的结论，无聊是一种消极的反应。但是无聊是不是真的如题所述的那样是表达自我满足呢?这里本文提出了异议，认为无聊并非自我满足，可能更多时候只是牢骚罢了。但不论是自满还是抱怨，无聊和枯燥的感觉归根到底还是自身缺乏改变现状的勇气和决心。文章举了马斯克和马丁.路德.金的例子，这些被世人钦佩的人物都有一个特质，那就是不安于现状——不论这个现状是好的(对于创业成功的富翁马斯克而言)还是不好的(对于权益受到压迫的黑人金博士而言)。
    除了对于claim的拆解之外，本文能够拿高分的另外一个原因是对于reason部分的论证。在第一个主旨段中，本文提出了敌方观点，认为在我们身处的时代，个体非常容易感到无聊——这也许是工业时代下个体价值越来越小的必然趋势，每个人都是工业链条上可以被替代的一环。但在第二主旨段中，我们马上对这种观点进行反驳，并认为外界的客观因素的确会带来枯燥，但是个体不去进行改变才是这种无聊心态的根本原因。通过引出敌方观点并进行驳斥，我们可以更好地建立起己方观点，这是一个值得认真学习的Issue论证技巧。
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