GRE写作素材Section Three: Ideas_GRE写作

GRE写作素材Section Three: Ideas

　　Going hand in hand with critical thinking is tolerance for attitudes that differ from yours. Consider that many of the ideas we currently acceptdemocracy, Christianity, voting rights for women, civil rights for people of colorwere once considered the claims of dangerous and unpopular minorities. This historical perspective helps us accept a tenet of critical thinking: What seems outlandish today may become widely accepted a century, a decade, or even a year from now.

　　Understand before criticizing

　　When encountering any new viewpoint, were obligated to agree. Even so, critical thinking demands that we take the time to understand an idea before rejecting or modifying it. One mark of skilled debaters is that they can sum up the viewpoints they disagree withoften better than the people who hold those viewpoints can.

　　Strictly speaking, none of us lives in the same world. Our habits, preferences, outlooks, and values are as individual as our fingerprints. Each of them is shaped by our culture, our upbringing, our experiences, and our choices. Speeches, books, articles, works of art, television programs, views expressed in conversationall come from people who inhabit a different world than yours. Until were lived in another persons world for a while, its ineffective to dismiss her point of view.

　　This basic principle is central to many professions. Physicians diagnose before they prescribe. Lawyers brief themselves on the opponents case. Effective teachers find out what a student already knows before they guide her to ideas. Skilled salespeople find out what a customers needs are before they present a product.