Hi vincent,
I just wanna my grade going up, so I rewrite those. can u just spend a little time see this. :-)
Thanks a lot!!!
have a good night! ^^
caplin
Summary 2:
The author of “Air pollution” argued that once people
have lived in the world, there would have different kinds of pollutions to
cause the global warming. As stated by the author, the first greenhouse gas is carbon
dioxide, and the carbon dioxide is the main pollutant to the warming earth. The
air was clear and fresh before, but in the past 150 years, human have continued
producing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere due to variety of activities. The
second greenhouse gas is methane, which can affect the earth’s ozone layer. The
third one is called sulfur dioxide, which is a component of smog and can cause
acid rain and cool the earth. Volcanoes are the main sources of the atmospheric
sulfur dioxide, and the lower sulfur dioxide levels could make global warming
worse. In the end, the author said that there are different ways for humans to
curb the global warming, especially to reduce the ‘carbon footprint’. Governments
now have two ways to control the ‘carbon footprint’, one is through the Kyoto
Protocol, and the other is to add tax on carbon emissions or to increase tax on
gasoline.
Argument: Should we
reduce the use of cars to reduce the air pollution?
No matter where we are and what we do, we are surrounded
by air. We must breathe air every moment, but some of the impurities in the air
might make us sick, so we should need the clean air. Unfortunately, the air
pollution is now globally and becomes worse and worse. According to a research
in China, car exhaust is the top one factor to cause air pollution, and the
growth of car usage is inevitable. So I agree that we can reduce the air
pollution by decreasing the usage of cars.
Although some people think car is necessary for them
because of its convenience, I do believe that there are many other ways we can
use to replace cars. Walking, cycling, and public transport can reduce the car
exhaust and we can still go everywhere we want. Also, the air pollution caused
by car exhaust could reduce people’s immune system and many people have
suffered from health problems. Walking and cycling can make people exercise
more and strengthen people’s body. In a word, reduce the use of cars can not
only eliminate car exhaust also is good for people’s health.
Reducing the car use is also good to the environmental
protection. Natural gas and oil would be less used while fewer cars are used.
According to the figures from the Energy foundation in the U.S., 20.5 million
people have cars in China and those cars have consumed 85% of the China’s oil
output. China has consumed about 5.4 million barrels of oil per day and the
gasoline has accounted for 26%. Therefore, reduce the car use can decrease the
use of oil and gas at the same time to protect the environment.
Some people think car exhaust is not really effect the
air. I don’t agree with that. In the past, air quality was much better because
there were no cars at that time. So the use of cars now is an important factor
to cause air pollution indeed. Heavy fog caused by car exhaust can be seen in
many cities in China, especially in Beijing. If we still don’t have any action
to reduce car exhaust, reduce energy consumption and protect the environment,
the air pollution would be much more serious.
Since we have
recognized that car exhaust is a major cause of air pollution, we should take
some actions to reduce it, and that’s why I agree with the statement to reduce
the air pollution by reducing use of cars. Maybe we can launch a ‘Car Free Day’
activity, which I think could help to reduce the air pollution somewhat.
The Tipping Point
Chapter 6: Case Study: Rumors, Sneakers, and the Power of Translation
In the case study-oriented chapter, Gladwell discusses the rise and decline of Airwalk shoes. In
the beginning, the brand was designed towards the skateboarding subculture of Southern
California, but then it was sought to transcend this niche market and became
popular in the world. The Airwalk shoes succeeded because of their endeavor and
help from an advertising agency which helps influence public’s perception of “coolness”.
Also, the marketing campaign exploited several timely avatars of coolness such
as Tibetan Buddhism, pachuco gang culture, and hipsters’ ironic embrace of
preppy culture, rendering Airwalk shoes cool by association in the process. The
strategy of the company is to offer unique products to boutique stores and
mainstream shoes to department stores to keep cutting-edge hipsters and
mainstream. However, Airwalk began providing all its distributors with a single
line of shoes at the end, which made the company’s products cool in the public
minds was disturbed and sales declined.
After read this chapter, I learned that a company should
not only cover the mainstream products to customers, sometimes the unique and innovative
products can also attract many customers and make the brand more well know to
the public. In this case, the company was famous because of its coolness, so
that many people would notice this brand and both its unique products and
mainstream shoes can be sold to different groups of customers, thus its sales
had increased. However, a single line of products seem to be simplex and cannot
attract many customers. The single cannot make the brand to be specific and
special, the company lost its potential customers and that’s why the sales
decreased. This case also makes me think about something else. It is good for
us to only focus on a specific topic or item, but it might even better for us
to broad our views if we can know and understand some other knowledge.
