So far, there is a very common phenomenon around us, which is that a large part of people, including college degree, who make very little money in their first job, will probably still make very little decades later. This is one result of the decline of social mobility in the USA. This is not alarmist, based on the research of professor Becker in 2014, the wealthiest 1% population of American possess 22% income of the whole country. (Becker, Posner, 2014) There are three relationship should be considered: social mobility causes society better is direct causality, better society causes social mobility is reverse, and confounding is that wealthy level of citizens both causes them.

Technically, social mobility means the movement of people to move upward or downward in society, including job, education, wealth or some other social status. For example, it could be caused by changing jobs or marrying (Kraus M. & Tan J., 2015). But now, people get fewer and fewer opportunity and chance to go upward of society. In another word, social hierarchical system is increasingly consolidated. This is called the decline of social mobility. It is commonly believed that this phrase originates from 1920s, world war increased the speed of social structure change. People started research this subject by using number (Dictionary.com). In this essay, I am going to show you the definition of what is social mobility, the description and severity of this problem; then I will list three possible solutions and choose one as practical solution by compare and contrast.

As we talk about previously, social mobility stands for the movement, change of social status. There are several different types of social mobility: Horizontal Mobility, Vertical Mobility, Upward mobility, Downward mobility, Inter-generational Mobility and Intra-Generational Mobility.

Horizontal mobility refers to one person changes his or her occupations but keep the overall social standing the same. In other words, horizontal mobility is a transition of individuals move from one social groups to another, which are both situated at the same level.

Vertical mobility means any movement in occupation, economy and social status of individual or a group that would lead them change position. In a simple words, “vertical mobility stands for change of social position either upward or downward, which can be labelled as ascending or descending type of mobility. Technically, vertical mobility is intensive in relatively open societies.” By professor Samisha (Samiksha, S, 2015). So obviously, upward mobility and downward mobility are two sub-type of vertical mobility.

Inter-generational mobility refers to one generation changes social status which is contrast to previous generation. Children could gain necessary skills by education to get employment in higher position. For example if one father is a shoemaker but his son becomes a factor, lawyer or a engineer after gaining proper education.

The last one is Intra-generational mobility. This kind of mobility happens during one person’s life span. This is very common, sometimes one brother changes from a clerk to a professor, but another may still be a clerk.

Since everyone is the part of society, we all want to gain better life, higher salary and healthier body, in other words, we want to go higher level of society. But nowadays, this kind of mobility become fewer and fewer, which cause serious polarization between the rich and the poor, and unstable between people in different race and religion. The consequence is unimaginable. (Sawhill, 2015). The main cause is increasing income inequality, and of course the educational flaw is still an ineligible reason. Obviously, the income of capital investment is always much higher than the income of labor investment. This is also related to fairness. Because the mobility slow down, people’s status passed to next generation, that is so-called the rich second generation use money and pull strings (back doors) plunder most opportunities and resources that should have belonged to normal people who don’t have power and money to compete with them.

What about the effects? First is the phenomenon I talked at the beginning, because some so-called rich second generation plunder the opportunity and job position and other resource by pulling strings. Second is Serious social conflict between different races. Because discrimination, minority of the society is always under oppressed. The last is severe polarization of wealth distribution. The middle class, which are supposed to be the buffer of hierarchy, become fewer and fewer. As a result, the gap between poor and rich will become severely bigger, the society become unstable. for example, just like the ladder, When the rungs of the income ladder get too far apart, it becomes much harder for people to climb. However, the rungs are not only widening by income, but also by family structure, parenting styles, school test scores, college attendance and graduation, and neighborhood conditions. In another word, this issue is related to almost every aspect to college student. 

The first policy that government needs to do is meritocracy. Meritocracy means distribution according to one’s performance. So what would this policy do? One is providing fair environment for people to develop, students of varying backgrounds can succeed by performing well. On the other hand, it will encourage people ambition to work hard. make them believe, harder work, better life. Another reason is that, Meritocracy is the ideal society of both capitalism and socialism. meritocracy is the develop tendency of social, people can’t be strictly controlled by government, or we can’t always rely on government manipulation, like collect higher tax from rich people and give welfare to poor people.

Another action that we are supposed to do is to invest evidence-based program. evidence-based program refers to program produces the expected positive results can be attributed to the program itself. We are supposed to invest in Education, which including comprehensive school reforms in elementary and high school, effective home visiting program, high quality pre-kindergarten. Each society have responsible to instruct and train skills to the younger generation. Only after acquiring knowledge, could we have the ability to compete with others to get higher position (Samiksha, S., 2015). If we start before they born and extending it through high school and university years, it would make a difference in children’s lives. if we invested early in their life chance and opportunities, Children born into the bottom quintile would have a much greater chance of moving up. Before the interventions, only 40 percent move into one of the top three quintiles.

The third solution is to cease segregation. Based on the research, we find that upward social mobility in becoming significantly lower in some certain regions with bigger group of African-American populations. White people in areas with large African-American populations also have relatively lower rates of upward social mobility, which imply that race problem also has some responsibility for the social mobility. We discover a strong negative relation between racial and social mobility. (Chetty, R., 2014)

The three solutions try to solve this problem from different aspects. However, from the the basic level, I think meritocracy is the best. In meritocracy, everyone has the right to express their opinions and are encouraged to share them openly, workers are stimulated to be more ambitious by incentives. Students are encouraged and have opportunities to pursuit high-payingmjobs. Apart from that, this policy is effectively applied in country like USA, because this will solve race problem, and help to promote a feeling of fairness in a multi-ethical and religion problem. In another words, this solution covers all potential information we should care. The second one and the third only solve specific aspects, like education and racial problem.

One successful example of this policy is Singapore, this country implement this policy since last century, they have less gap between rich and poor, now more than 90 percent of residents live in their own house, and another aspect is Angelo talked about yesterday, tuition fee, University tuition fees in the United States has been increasing at an alarming level, creating a barrier to less-wealthy students. But the tuition fee in Singapore is under the average in come of one family.

Civic problem is always under controversy, because it is too complicated. Sometimes a slight move in one part may affect the situation as a whole, just like the butterfly effect. So after all, the people and the government should work and make effort together. Only in this way, everything inrational will fall, and from the ashes of the outdated system, can we will build a better one.

Work cited

1.Becker, Posner,(2014) Social Mobility and Income Inequality, Retrieved from: http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2014/02/social-mobility-and-income-inequalityposner.html 

2.Becker, Posner, (2012) Meritocracy, Social Mobility, Intergenerational Mobility, Retrieved from:http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2012/12/meritocracy-social-mobility-intergenerational-mobilityposner.html 

3.Chetty, (2014) Improving Opportunities for Social Mobility in the United States, Retrieved from: http://penniur.upenn.edu/publications/improving-opportunities-for-social-mobility-in-the-united-states 

4.Kraus M., Tan J., (2015) Americans overestimate social class mobility, Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103115000062 

5.Sawhill, I. (2015) Inequality and social mobility: Be afraid, Retrieved from: http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/social-mobility-memos/posts/2015/05/27-inequality-great-gatsby-curve-sawhill 

6.Samiksha S. (2015) Social Mobility: The Meaning, Types and Factors Responsible for Social Mobility, Retrieved from: http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/social-mobility-the-meaning-types-and-factors-responsible-for-social-mobility/8539/

picture link

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=social+mobility&view=detailv2&&id=65E42468980030C3B7D454393D383C542DCFD739&selectedIndex=3&ccid=YAffCKXD&simid=608000523715611507&thid=OIP.M6007df08a5c37a968c5cdfaf6a2be8a0o0&ajaxhist=0

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=social+mobility&view=detailv2&&id=4545DC9623ADEA8FD0CB2512C18F6DD3E19AA033&selectedIndex=115&ccid=jV8Ph5Bn&simid=608025065158806830&thid=OIP.M8d5f0f8790677dc72af5a5073d9173bco0&ajaxhist=0

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=social+mobility&view=detailv2&&id=932D325F384AECE3E2FD13E961903CF2699B74E0&selectedIndex=49&ccid=qoz8rryy&simid=608008971905338842&thid=OIP.Maa8cfcaebcb2c3eeb50de877ba05a21ao0&ajaxhist=0

With the well-development of our society, people prefer to travel all around the world, and begin their career not only in their own country, but also overseas. However, according to BBC, there are 7000 different languages in the world, and, even only for main languages, there are still ten languages need to be apprehended. When we want to live or start business in other countries, language is first thing need to be considered. But some scientists discover an interesting phenomenon that it seems like new language is easier for baby to pick up than adult. Studying this strange question, scientists propose some researches and experimental data to explain. Back to class material, there are three relationships of this topic. The direct causality is that easier for younger age baby to learn language, the reverse causality is that language is easier for younger age baby, and third variable is organization of brain related to both of them.

According to Sharon Perkins , studioD’s study  ( link at the end of blog ), young people are hard wired to learn new language in the first several years of life. When they born, if they are frequently taught two languages, baby will memory and acquire these languages unconsciously ( native language ). On the contrary, adult and older children consciously study language. Dr. Paul Thompson at UCLA states that people’s center of brains whose age is above 11 will stop grow. Comparing to infants, adults’ unconscious language learning skills won’t growth rapidly anymore. If adults want to acquire new language, they only can depend on their studying skills to memory grammar and pronunciation rather than deep motor area of the brains.

In addition, the definitions of comprehend language are different. I mean only have ability to speak new language can be known as comprehension, can both write and speak new language also make sense, and understanding new language like linguists is another view of comprehension. Baby don’t need to learn some confusing grammars or abstract meanings of sentences like adult, and they just need to speak some simple sentences and grammars. Obviously, the language learned by adult and baby have different level, and it’s acceptable that adult normally pay more time and energy to acquire new language. In other perspective, there are much more time available for baby to be familiar with their native language. In general, adults are required to work in most of times, and they can’t approach new language they learned during working. Fortunately, language can be studied and be exposed to baby all day, and their whole time are filled with locale. With the time goes by, baby can acquire second language better than adult.

What’s more, language is different from other subjects, because learner can’t discover some new things during learning like math. While mathematician try to explore new knowledge, they don’t need to keep communicating with others all the time. They are supposed to self-work, and do calculation on computer. Compared to math subject, the most effective way to improve language skill is communicating with native speaker. One thing should be noticed that baby don’t fear to make mistakes or mispronounce word when they are communicating. It’s not hard to hypothesis that if an adult often pronounces words wrong, he will be shy and he will be afraid of communicating with others in the future. According to a article ( link at the end ), positive feedback is extremely influential for people’s confidence and passion. If negative feedback gotten by adult during his daily communication in most time, his heart will unconsciously refuse this language, even give up studying. Nevertheless, I believe no one will mock baby for his language mistakes. Conversely, baby’s parents would like to encourage his baby for tiny achievement. Scientists holds the view that positive feedback can stimulate baby’s learning desire dramatically, and that’s why baby can easier grasp new language.

In conclusion, baby under 11 years old do have genetic superiority than adult. When adults plan to learn new language, their brain are much more complex than baby. For example, adult try to combine his native language to new language unconscious, but, in fact, this action will make brain more confusing and create negative impact on learning new language. In other perspective, excluding genetic influence, adult have some positive prerequisites than baby. From now on, there are still have no enough evidence to proof baby in studying language field is more clever than adults. If we hypothesis that providing adult same learning situation to baby, it’s hard to predict who can comprehend a new language more rapid and easier.

Work cited

1. http://oureverydaylife.com/easier-child-learn-new-language-adult-15590.html

2.   http://bookboonglobal.com/giving-positive-feedback-and-why-it-is-so-important/

3.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10315238/Are-children-really-better-at-foreign-language-learning.html

4.  http://blog.thelinguist.com/do-children-learn-languages-faster

5.  https://www.brainscape.com/blog/2015/12/adults-kids-learn-languages/

6.  http://www.ef.com/blog/corporate/is-it-really-easier-to-learn-a-language-as-a-child-2/

picture credits

http://blog.thelinguist.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2013/08/Children-learning-languages-faster-than-adults-.png

https://www.google.com/search?q=baby+learn&biw=1670&bih=763&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjs9Y7Out7PAhVCcD4KHTnXBG4Q_AUICCgD#imgrc=mw4YpBFhI0-whM%3A

https://www.google.com/search?q=baby+learn&biw=1670&bih=763&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjs9Y7Out7PAhVCcD4KHTnXBG4Q_AUICCgD#tbm=isch&q=adult+learn&imgrc=3Zc4jNl9khevcM%3A

In China, people consider clothes, food, residence and transportation as four main aspects of daily life. And I believe transportation is significant when people think about where to live. “More than 75 percent of Chinese people surveyed said they consider traffic the most important factor in creating livable cities.”(Xinhua News Agency, 2016, July 5) I think cities that have good living conditions are livable cities. The survey revealed that a large number of people lay emphasis on traffic. So I selected how to ease traffic congestion in Beijing as my topic. Because Beijing is the capital city of China which has severe traffic congestion, and if we can solve this problem in Beijing, it would much easier to solve the problem in other cities or countries. Considering three relationships around traffic jam, I think direct causality should be explained by more cars causes traffic jam, reverse causality is traffic jam causes more cars, and confounding is transportation laws both causes the more purchase of cars and traffic jam. 

The first possible solution came to my mind is improving public transportation such as bus, subway, viaducts and highway. “Beijing depends heavily on its subway to ease traffic, and will extend one existing line, start building 2 new lines, and speed up work on 16 lines under construction, with 40 lines covering a total of 609 miles planned by 2020.”(Xinhua News Agency, 2016, Feb 7) There are a great number of people take subway to go to work because it is more efficient than driving cars. So it will be very crowded in subway in rush hours. But there are some citizens cannot go to work by subway due to the limit subway lines and stations. In this way, if Beijing government plan to extend and construct more subway lines, traffic congestion might be alleviated because more people will have the option to take the subway to avoid rush hours. However, the truth is that a lot of viaducts and highways in Beijing are also faced with traffic congestion. People even joke that those are parking lot rather than viaducts and highways. “The automobiles are increasing five times faster than the streets.” (Owen, C. J., Smith, A. C., 1962, January) Because the construction of improving public transportation certainly will take a long time and the number of motor vehicles is still increasing. So this solution also has some limitations. Traffic congestion is a problem demanding prompt solutions.

The second possible solution is implementing a congestion charge. This is a solution which Beijing is going to be carried out. “The Beijing municipal government is discussing the possibility of a congestion charging regime similar to the one in London”.  Congestion charge is a daily fee for driving a vehicle within the charge zone during the settled hours. It was implemented in London in order to ease traffic congestion as well as improve air quality. In London, this solution made real sense. It not only cut the pollutants produced by vehicle emissions because it almost reduced 70,000 cars a day entering central London but also improved public transport capacity and performance. And it even reduced road traffic casualties. (Qureshi, M., 2016, Jun 8) But I doubt that if this solution proper for Beijing. As we all know, the population in Beijing is much larger than London. So if we implement a congestion charge on several busy roads. It may cause the other roads which don’t have this charge crowded. In this way, it is not likely to solve traffic congestion. Moreover, “some members of 12th Beijing Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) expressed their concerns on easing the jam in the capital by charging congestion fees and limiting people’s use of private vehicles.”(China Daily, 2016, July 24)

The third possible solution is vehicles license plate number traffic restriction, which has been carried out in Beijing and some other cities in China. It is an effective solution in short run because it immediately cut down the number of vehicles driving on the road. In 2008, Beijing carried out vehicles license plate number traffic restriction in order to alleviate traffic congestion and improve air quality during Olympic Games. And in 2014, this policy turned out to be effective and the air quality became excellent during APEC meetings. And we called the rare blue sky in Beijing “APEC blue”. However, this efficient solution cannot last for a long time. If the government just limit the driving right of citizens, they may buy more cars to gain more driving time.

The forth possible solution is draw restricted purchase of motor vehicles, which is a policy in Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. When Beijing citizens want to buy a car, they need to have a license plate. They need to draw by lot to obtain the license plate which is equal to the chance to buy a car. In fact, the majority of people have to wait for a long time to buy a car. This solution control the growth rate of the number of cars. But there are some “scalpers” who sell the license plate in a high price. I believe that the government do not mean to increase the costs of buying cars. The government just want people to wait in line. But the life span of a car is much longer than the time people that waited for. In this way, the number of motor vehicles will keep increasing thus traffic congestion will be worse and worse.

The fifth possible solution is to encourage companies to change the work hours. This staggered rush hour plan was implemented in Beijing in a small range. In the morning peak and the evening peak, the average car speed is 22.61 km/h in 2015 (Xinhua Agency, 2016, Jan 21), which means that people need to spend twice as much time to go to work or go home. If some companies can delay their work hours for about one hours, their employees will get away from rush hours. They will also don’t have to suffer from the crowded subway. And there will be less cars on the road in peak hours. This solution need more time to be carried out because the government and some relevant departments need to coordinate different work hours among companies as well as the schedule of subway and bus.

I am in favor of the first solution currently. From my perspective, this solution is a long term solution that can solve traffic congestion completely. It does need a lot of time to achieve the goal, but it is not realistic to limit the right of buying and using cars for a long time. And the congestion charge seems like to restrict people using roads.

In conclusion, traffic congestion is a big question in China which need time, cost and patience to solve it. In long run view, “the municipal government shall continue to adhere to giving top priority to public transportation development” (Beijing Municipal People’s Government, 2009, April 3), such as subway and bus lines as well as viaducts and highways. If public transportation is so convenient and efficient that can cater to the fundamental purpose of driving private cars, more and more people will turn to public transportation. They even don’t have to worry about where to park their cars. And as far as I am concerned, the staggered rush hour plan should also be taken into consideration. Because it can alleviate the congestion in rush hours. While in short run, congestion charge, vehicles license plate number traffic restriction and draw restricted purchase of motor vehicles are possible solutions. The “APEC blue” evidenced that vehicles license plate number traffic restriction is effective. But APEC meetings will not hold in Beijing every day, so we should focus on the long run solutions. Maybe in twenty years, people in Beijing and even in China will not suffer from traffic congestion any more.

Work cited

1. Traffic, environment biggest concerns for livable cities: survey. (2016, Jul 5). Xinhua News Agency. Retrieved from http://infoweb.newsbank.com

2. Advisers differ on solutions to reduce traffic in Beijing. (2016, July 24). China Daily. Retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn

3.Beijing Municipal People’s Government. (2009, April 3). Circular of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government on Further Implementing Traffic Management Measures. Retrieved from http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/Elementals/Bulletin/t1124581.htm

4. Owen, C. J., Smith, A. C., (1962, January). The Transportation Dilemma of Greater Metropolitan Areas, p. 5.

5. Worsnop, R. L. (1963). Mass transit vs. private cars. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com. 

6.APEC Blue http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-18/beijings-blue-sky-act-for-apec

Picture link

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=traffic+jam&view=detailv2&&id=C5E50DD25D2F2BD57B33D76622B700B9FDE385BD&selectedIndex=72&ccid=%2b1q0zWt3&simid=608010814447291909&thid=OIP.Mfb5ab4cd6b77c1e372bd0ff9f93e5da5o0&ajaxhist=0

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=traffic+jam&view=detailv2&id=956743D0B476DD013E86DE85EDE2A2335A81F98A&selectedindex=74&ccid=hH5wYw4D&simid=608006815832344700&thid=OIP.M847e70630e03442f81919004e69c2c20o0&mode=overlay&first=1

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=traffic+jam&view=detailv2&id=CB92E1CDC1B4B82BC2404722ECED2DB89DF48E38&selectedindex=109&ccid=nnrQ1fo1&simid=608041003777526018&thid=OIP.M9e7ad0d5fa35821aae1f3f02d81aa2f1H0&mode=overlay&first=1

with smog problem for several years and in December 2015, Chinese government triggered the first red-alert warning for smog in Beijing. ( Lowenberg, 2015) The air quality index (AQI) was over 250, more than twenty times the level recommended by the World Health Organization. Smog problem exerts tremendous influence on citizens in Beijing and the government has been making efforts to mitigate this problem. Plus, there are three things with relationships mentioned in class ought be noticed here. The industrial pollution causes smog is direct, the smog makes more industrial pollution is reverse, and Chinese government air law which relate to both of them is confounding.

Nowadays, people in China are increasingly aware of the smog problem because personal health is a priority. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it can be dangerous to breathe in too much smog. Smog contains a health-harming pollutant called ozone. Elevated levels of ozone have been shown to cause a variety of negative health effects in the lungs such as coughing and throat or chest irritation, worsening asthma symptoms and difficulty in breathing and lung damage. Beijing is seen as a showcase city to prove China’s development to the rest of the world. However, it is notorious for air pollution in recent years.( Freeman, 2016) Industrial smog is one of the biggest components of smog in Beijing. In this essay, I will analyze three possible solutions to smog problem in Beijing and try to figure out the best one.

The first solution I want to introduce is government establishing some laws and regulations in order to reduce industrial air pollution. Industrial smog problem is an environmental issue which can not be solved by individual. It is necessary for government to introduce policies as well as enact laws. With the soaring development of economy in Beijing, hundreds of companies especially heavy industries are making money at the cost of environment. The entrepreneurs may only focus on short-term profits and ignore the environmental costs but the government should not. It is government’s duty to make laws and regulations to prevent individuals and companies from polluting the air. Some other cities have tried this method when they were in the similar smog situations and it proved to be effective. London suffered from a thick and pollutant-laden fog for four days in 1952 and approximately 4000 people were killed. The Government passed the Clean Air Acts in 1956 and 1968 which introduced a variety of measures to reduce pollution. After the Great Smog in 1952, London still struggled with smog but the air quality was improved and industrial smog problem was alleviated. Another note-worthy example is Los Angeles of 60 years ago. An economic boom and a rapid population rise, the same reasons of Beijing’s smog, made Los Angeles have the dirtiest air in the world. The federal Clean Air Act which was first launched in 1963 contributed to recovering the city’s air, although it is still one of the most polluted cities in the US, according to the America Lung Association.( Shekhtman, 2015) It can be concluded that laws and regulations are necessary and can mitigate smog problem to some degree. However, the smog problem still exists after the implementation of laws. Moreover, China already had some relative regulations such as air quality standards for coal-fired power plants but the industrial smog problem is still becoming heavier. Li Shuo, senior climate and energy policy officer at Greenpeace East Asia, said: “ China’s environmental laws have historically served more as political statements than as a tool to effectively utilize in addressing issues.”(Li, 2015)

The second solution is relocating industry. Beijing is not the only big city that struggles with air pollution because of the soar of economy. As the economy of a big city is developing, there must be a wide range of polluting industries including manufactures and petrochemistry to boost economy. When the big cities notice that their environments are too bad to keep supporting high-polluting industries, they will probably relocate those industries to surrounding areas. In this way, the industrial smog problem in big cities will be alleviated. It seems that this is the most efficient solution and Mexico City used this method in1992 when the air quality was extremely terrible. Given the air quality record in 2012 which shows 248 “good” air days (in 1992 there were only 8 “good”), Mexico City has solved its smog problem properly. However, relocating industry was only one of several methods to reduce air pollution. Mexico City also tried to kick clunkers off the capital’s streets, encourage cleaner technologies, and expand public transit and cycling options.( Shekhtman, 2015) Beijing has tried this measure in recent years by relocating high-polluting industries to its already smog-hit neighbor Hebei but the result was not satisfying. People in Beijing still can hardly see blue skies at present and Hebei province now has seven of China’s 10 smoggiest cities.( Stanway, 2015)

The third solution is using cleaner energy and encouraging cleaner technologies. China’s industrial revolution is coal-powered and has been on a striking scale and speed, resulting in serious environmental implications especially the industrial smog. Nowadays, China still relies heavily on coal but the smog problem draws increasing attention. ( Sudworth, 2015) Cleaner energy including nuclear, solar power, natural gas and hydro power will not exert negative influence on environment so if Beijing can use more clean energy than depending on coal, the air quality will likely be improved. Cleaner technologies such as developing carbon capture and sequestration technologies for coal and renewable energy technologies should also be taken into consideration. Beijing can learn from similar experiences of other cities. As mentioned before, Mexico City encouraged cleaner technologies in 1992 as one of a variety of methods to combat smog.( Lowenberg, 2015) New York is another successful example in fighting smog. In order to reduce air pollution, New York uses not only less, but cleaner sources of energy to generate electricity for its more than 8 million residents, including natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric.( Shekhtman, 2015) Beijing has already carried out this measure in small range and met mixed success: downtown Beijing no longer uses coal to heat homes. However, there is still small-scale coal burning in the peripheral areas – often using lower-quality coal that causes worse pollution.( Freeman, 2016) The weakness of this solution is that it will take a long time and cost a huge amount of money. Because the technology level of Beijing still need improving, it can be extremely costly to use clean energy on a large scale and encouraging cleaner technologies also require time and fund. We can not expect an instant change in this solution.

I support the third solution because I believe it can solve the problem at root and it is beneficial to sustainable development of the city despite time and capital are required. Coal is dirty and non-renewable and burning coal is the biggest component of Beijing’s pollution. According to estimates by Greenpeace, coal consumption accounts for up to half of China’s PM2.5.( Freeman, 2016) We should find a way to become less dependent on coal and cleaner energy along with cleaner technologies is the best choice. Given the severe smog situation in Beijing, it is high time that we should pay attention to making use of cleaner energy and developing cleaner technologies. Chinese government also tried to make long-term improvement. In Beijing in mid-October 2013 the government announced that 5 billion RMB will be allocated to curb air pollution. ( Ewert, 2013) and Beijing will allocate 760 billion yuan (about 124.64 billion dollars) to improve the city’s air quality by 2017.( McKirdy, 2014) We can see from the data that government is allocating more money to solve smog problem in Beijing. With enough time and fund, using cleaner energy and encouraging cleaner technologies can eventually be achieved and the people in Beijing will no longer suffer from industrial smog.

In conclusion, I introduced three solutions to industrial smog in Beijing. First is government establishing some laws and regulations. Government is essential in combating air pollution and laws and regulations are indispensable. However, this measure usually proved to be not efficient in many cases. The second one is relocating industry. It seems that this method can exert instant effect but it just solves local problem and the price of this solution is worsening air pollution in other areas. The third solution which I support is using cleaner energy and encouraging cleaner technologies. Although it may take time and money, it can solve this problem thoroughly and it is the best choice for long term development of the city.

Work cited

1.Lowenberg, O. S. (2015, December 21). Beijing’s red smog alert: How other cities dealt with air quality disasters. Christian Science Monitor. p. N.PAG.

2.Shekhtman, L. S. (2015, December 8). Beijing smog: What makes some cities cleaner than others? Christian Science Monitor. p. N.PAG.

3.Ewert, J. M. ( 2013, October 29) . From smog to blue sky? China’ s latest plan to combat air pollution. Retrieved from: http://www.eu-asiacentre.eu

4.McKirdy, E. ( 2014, February 25). China looks for blue-sky solutions as smog worsens. Retrieved from: www.cnn.com

5.Yu, K. (2016, January 5). Red alert, life inside the Beijing smog. Retrieved from: http://www.aljazeera.com

6.Freeman, J. (2016, January 4). Why is the pollution so bad in Beijing. Retrieved from: http://priceonomics.com

7.Li, S. 2015, Will China’s New Air Laws Solve its Pollution Crisis? Retrieved from:https://www.newsecuritybeat.org

8.Stanway, D. 2015, China capital to move more polluting industry to heavily polluted Hebei, retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com

9.Sudworth, J. 2015, China eyes fundamental shift in energy policy, retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com

picture source:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=smog+inchina&view=detailv2&&id=E61F55D58791074AA33B8886C7A42759C0AC6D75&selectedIndex=22&ccid=9b4vm0HZ&simid=608051973109058660&thid=OIP.Mf5be2f9b41d91f91abd8a2a706876119o0&ajaxhist=0

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=smog+inchina&view=detailv2&&id=717E90780B362546C7E4A61585A28FD410B10D9D&selectedIndex=173&ccid=CakbwFWB&simid=607986350313242805&thid=OIP.M09a91bc055810be3bf4012f8ac596b8bo0&ajaxhist=0

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=clean+energy&view=detailv2&&id=7C0D113355CA06AA89423D4837378FEEE276EEE3&selectedIndex=186&ccid=Rksj7aM1&simid=608033994384998871&thid=OIP.M464b23eda33534fa1481c70117179754o0&ajaxhist=0

Success is a beautiful word. Many people contributes their whole life to success, because success for them just means high social status, money, and spiritual accomplishment. Nevertheless, for my perspective, the interpretation of success not only just means substantial enjoyment, but also dedicates yourself to others. Relationships around success are inevitable, but three of them like what I mention above are core meanings. Specifically, the relationships between success, dedication, and money ought to be discussed in direct, reverse, and confounding.

Talking a well-known sentence: let others be happy with you, I want to pursue the meaning this quotes. Success means what? For example, your family or your friend are in trouble, and you are the first one they want to depend. Because in their brains, you have ability to help them out, and you are willing to help someone who need help. In my family, my father always teach me that the success person never focus on how much money you have, and concentrate on how much you dedicate for other people around you. When I was young, I totally don’t know the meaning of this sentence, but from now on, I realize that what my father told me is absolutely correct. In this way, success is let others respect you, and everybody thinks your are the perfect model to mimic on the way to success.

In addition, as we all know John D. Rockefeller,(reference one)  the most rich man in nineteen century. There is no doubt that he is a successful man, because he is emperor in crude oil field of America. Anthropologist not only just use unbelievable bank deposit to describe him, but also dedication, clever, and generous. Many people block him when he create his business career. But since Rockefeller became successful and got accomplishment, he didn’t want to eliminate his business enemies, because in his philosophical dictionary, what doesn’t kill you make you stronger. His parents actually didn’t support him to be a business man initially, because he was born in a not rich family. Never give up, ignore the negative force, and don’t pay attention to your background, success will available for everyone. The quotes given by Rockefeller. The success prerequisites are be attribute to spiritual field, but not related money. In my thought, success is master of money, rather than the slaver of money.

What’s more, success is comparable. (reference two)One thing ought to be noticed that success is not absolute. If we just compare with the best-known people, it’s impossible for us to get satisfaction feeling. Six billion people in the whole world, you don’t need to compare to everybody. I mean success is also equal to self- satisfaction. (reference five) When we face difficult problems, we should know how avoid it, and try another way to walk for success. It’s ridiculous that only use one thought to accomplish your goal. Talking about success, realization of your own success is also important. How much money you earn means success? No result for this obvious question. For normal worker, have a good family may be means success, but for business man, have one hundred million may be equal to success, etc. Some people pursue the absolute success in whole life, until they died. They don’t think they get success even thought others think so. In this way, whatever how much money they make, they are not successful, because they don’t know self-satisfaction. Comparing to the people just hard working, I prefer success with satisfaction. Happy is he who is contented with what he has. That’s why sage is always happy. I holds my view that the success is variable, not monotony forever.

Success is magical, and anthropologists try to summarize the perfect definition of this word, because success is the core of people’s evolution since people have thoughts.(reference four)  When people don’t live like animals, success is always available to people. Since people start to explore the attractive success, the real definite meanings of success becomes variable, money to dedication, high status to low key, and virtual greasiness to current life. In conclusion, personal success equals to what you contribute for this incomplete society and fragile hearts of human rather than how much money you earned in your life.

pictures link

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=success+picture&id=5A9BA47C49E9193FA6B376495A50F04300DBB5C7&FORM=IQFRBA

references

http://www.biography.com/people/john-d-rockefeller-20710159#early-years

http://www.success.com/article/4-steps-to-stop-comparing-your-success-to-others

https://hbr.org/2012/10/the-true-measures-of-success

http://www.samithpich.com/why-success-is-so-important-in-life/

http://www.woodencourse.com/woodens_wisdom.html

Nowadays, guns are controlled in many countries such as China because it’s dangerous for public to use it. To be historical, even though china has invent original guns’ model in 12 century, guns were popularly used in modern wars one century ago by England. After one century, advanced technology makes guns developing more and more fast. For invading or defending today, gun is the most common weapon for army. Nevertheless, in united states, guns are available not only for army, but also toward normal people. According to some popular and reliable news, guns ,in recent time, are began to threaten public’s life that some criminals who purchases guns are trying to make harmonic society to become chaotic, and using guns to do anything illegal.

Guns in large amount of countries are forbidden for normal people, because guns are dangerous in three aspects that normal people without special trainings don’t know to use it, different people have different minds, and it’s easy when shops sell it, but it’s difficult for government to confiscate it back from public.

First, as we all known, guns have varies types. Compared to normal people, army focuses on how to use distinct weapons, and fighting strategies all days. Obviously, army is more sophisticated on guns’ using. It’s ridiculous to regard normal people and army as same in guns’ using field. In addition, for my perspective, it’s superficial if we believe that guns are dangerous for normal people just in external using field. Thinking more on psychological reason, normal people have no mental training that if they face something precarious, they are too nervous to know how to handle it. Guns in that times are more dangerous than in peacetime for them. In policy makers’ initial thought, guns are used just for self-protection, but I don’t think normal people can fulfill this purpose in dangerous situation. Despite self-protection intention, there is no other positive statements to support normal people to own guns.

What’s more, I holds my view that guns can be purchased by everyone who has permission is inappropriate. Almost all people in American is positive, and friendly, but we ought to admit that there are still some bad guys who own guns existing to threatens society. According to a survey, guns owned by per 100 residents are 112.6 in America. This incredible high number means we live under guns every hour and moment. More and more shooting news reminds us society is not harmonic enough, and there are still chaos and inequality exist. We don’t know each person’s aim when they buy guns. Self-protection is reasonable enough to hold guns, but it’s not only purpose for everyone. We have no technology to predict people’s intention when they purchase gun, and it means we can’t separate good or bad guys(criminals). Like a quote says, the most difficult thing is to forecast human’s heart.

Finally, once policy allow shops to sell guns, it’s simple for people buy it with money. One thing should be noticed that policy can let legal shop sell it immediately, but if government decides to revoke this policy in the future, criminals won’t return guns back to government. After many gun violence things, US government has made a vote that whether guns are available for normal people from now on. It’s no doubt that legitimate citizens will follow government’s new policy and are willing to hand in their guns as soon as possible, but this predication won’t toward criminals. However, since government promulgates the law that confiscating all the guns owned by normal people, it will last long time to come this law true because of criminals. Avoiding gun violence, government ought to modify laws about gun’s control. Although crimes, including shooting, violence, and coercion, won’t be totally eliminated by law of control guns, the dangerous circumstances happened in America will be relieved.

In the conclusion, shooting is now popular in America because everyone can buy guns with firearm license. Protecting normal people’s lives, and making American society more harmonic, government ought to amend laws about gun. For me, It’s fact that gun can protect individual’s legal right, but it also can damage other’s lives. Plus, nobody want to work or study without safe guarantee because nothing is more important than life for human.

Here is a link to for first shooting news, second news is shown here.

     Space junk refers to space debris, junk, waste, trash, or litter is that the collection of defunct man made objects in space-old satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments from disintegration, erosion, and collision, including those caused by debris itself. Generally speaking, the source of space debris falls into four major categories. Ever since the launch of the first spacecraft Vanguard by the United States in 1958, a large quantities of man-made crafts have been sent into the space to help humans explore the universe. Union of Concerned Scientists 16 July 2009. That is to say, uncountable dead spacecraft remained defunct in the space forever. Besides, a lot of space debris derives from lost equipment during space missions either from astronauts or man-made crafts. More fragments are the products of explosion due to rocket upper stage, namely boosters. The last debris source comes from the test of anti-satellite weapons; the disintegration of a satellite by missile will create dangerous space debris that would hardly return to Earth. Altogether, as a whole, according to NASA’s statistics recently, there are about 4000 satellites and rocket residues in operation in earth orbit, besides there are about 6000 pieces of space junk that can be seen and tracked, space junk moves with highly fast speed, which poses a fatal threat to unmanned and manned spacecraft, space shuttle missions, international station, Earth and so on! Throughout history, humans have eye witnessed many space junk accidents.  

This thesis is going to explore three possible solutions in terms of the disposal of space junk as proposed in my topic proposal. First of all, with a brief background of the cause of space junk and current situation of it, I will state solution one which is changing spacecraft’s working orbit to avoid space junk along with its positive and negative results, then analysis and conclusion will be drawn accordingly. In addition, solution two discusses a kind of military technology by means of launching missiles to explode space debris with relevant positive and negative factors, followed by analysis and conclusion. What’s more, solution three pays attention to the natural process of burning space junk while going through the atmosphere with both positive and negative effects, attached with analysis and conclusion. In the end, in comparison with solution two and three, my final analysis is in favor of solution one. A reasonable final conclusion also will be drawn to bring the research essay to an end.

For solution one, nowadays, Space junk can be monitored and tracked, so out of three proposed solutions to deal with space junk, the first one lies in the method of changing spacecraft’s working orbit to avoid potential risks. ESA, October 2012). With the fast development of space industry, scientists have invented many precise instruments such as astronomical telescopes and space models, which enable launchers to detect actual positions and rotating orbits of different debris floating in the space, thus preventing large man-made space shuttles, rockets, crafts from being hit or hitting space junk. To be positive, economically, monitoring or tracking space debris’ orbit is a sort of saving of time, money and labor. It only requires the observation of the location of space junk in a certain orbit via telescopes and calculation of upcoming collision between a space craft and debris. Then before the launch of a space mission object, the orbit can be altered to stay away from hazardous space trash. For negative side, without being able to remove space litter, changing a spacecraft’s orbit serves only as a palliative method. For as time goes by, more space missions will take place in the near future, that is to say, inevitably, an increasing number of space trash is to accumulate. In the long run, a space crowded with large quantities of space junk will be a disaster to space mission launches.

Plus, solution two as a perfect combination of military weapons and space science, some advocate that launching missiles to destroy debris might be a new solution to look at. As a tube-shaped weapon that travels to reach its target, missiles are designed to lock on any moving target with almost 100 percent precision. Not long ago, in 2007, China launched a missile to destroy a weather satellite named Fengyun-1C that had already become out of service for so long, but at the same time (click here for specific information). Solution two is great in technical aspect that to eradicate large defunct satellites by means of missile explosion is no doubt a perfect resort. Satellites share similar orbits and have a direct impact on the orbit of other satellites that are followed. With the explosion of missile, these dead satellites fall apart and the broken pieces have a fat chance of deviating from original orbits. Unfortunately, shattered pieces of satellite fragments are not likely to be neglected at the same time. (David, 2 February 2007). Vividly if seen from a 3D picture, orbit planes are filled with debris from satellite disintegration. As a vicious circle, debris of satellite continues to rotate.

As for solution three, some debris tends to be burnt out into ashes when they travel across the atmosphere because of the atmosphere’s highly scorching heat. When space junk goes across the atmosphere at an amazingly fast speed, the force of friction between the junk and the atmosphere generates so astonishingly high temperature that space junk melts and disintegrates in no time. Truthfully, rather than intervention, humans don’t need to get involved in the process of disposal. In this way, all necessary actions that are supposed to take can be omitted, what scientists have to do is nothing but sit and wait for the friction to burn everything into particles. Seemingly, humans don’t have to engage in the course of the removal of space trash, but as a matter of fact, waiting without taking any actions to cope with space litter is not going to make any difference.

Finally, in comparison with solution two and solution three, solution one has an advantage over two and three in light of positive factors. While the collision of missile explosion will only incur more debris and depending on the atmosphere to burn out space junk is somewhat equal to chronic suicide. The only available solution now is taking precautions beforehand to pre-calculate the orbit of debris so as to avoid the collision.  clicking here to see NASA’s solution.

In conclusion, due to the limit of space technology at present, except for avoiding space junk, there is no the so called solution to remove or take back roaming debris. Unlike the complication of solution two and the inaction of solution three, solution one is superior and effective as a perfect saving of time, money and labor. But I will be looking forward to the revolution of super-advanced methods in the future to wipe space junk away and create a clean and safe space. 

Here is a link to see the space junk.

With the well development of our society, more and more tasks and homework come with teenagers and new workers. The large amount of people who are young now faces a serious problem that it’s difficult for them to get up in the morning. One strange thing ought to be noticed that teens with more energy than older people,  but why they seems like more exhausted than middle age people during working in the morning.

According to a reliable survey, difficult to get up is related to insomnia, but not directly. Professor Andrew told us the third way about relationship named confounding can be applied here that the reason for both of them is chronic living habit. The brain cortex of human is not constant, and if we often go to sleep early or get up late in a long period, cortex will suit this biological clock. It means that once our bodies adjust to this living habit, it’s difficult to change. In addition, insomnia is the result of giant external pressure comes from work, family, or social relationship, but difficult to get up is product of losing self-control ability. Fortunately, the people who are difficult to get up have less pressure than normal people, because they don’t need to make their brain over work all the time, and in another way, this bundle of people is reliable for friends with pure spirits. Like an investigation says, the relationship in society is filled with lying, hypocritical mind, and selfish action, but the analysis in physical field, the people who are difficult to get up are more cordial than normal people.

What’s more, there is a magic phenomenon attached to difficult to get up that biological clock can be reversed. In general, teenagers have no energy in the morning, but they have double or triple energy in the evening. When teens decide to get up and work before 10 o’ clock, their biological clock aren’t active, and their brains still like in sleeping. To be balance, their minds are incredible excited in the evening, and they can work or study more effective. One of the most famous entrepreneur and inventor in 19 century, Thomas Alva Edison, likes to work at night, and many of his inventories are came up with during the night instead of morning. As scientists mentions, people’s brains are amazing for using. In the evening, brain cells are more likely to be innovative, but in the morning, they can only follow constant orders without passion.

Finally, a survey points out that another reason why some people are difficult to get up can be attributed to romanticism such as love, and following stars. The people who are romanticism rather than realism have more soft heart, and they are not adamant. In many times, the people who get up difficult are likely to depend others. What they need is a person can wake them up on time, while clock is useless for them. Plus, on the one hand, the people with soft heart won’t get stupendous achievement in career, because they lack innovative pursuit and courage, on the other hand, the great personalities they own are loyalty, and earnest. In the morning, clock is a machine instead of reliable person such as parents, and friends for them, and they can’t realize safety on machine. Because they are romanticism, they hope their intimate friends can replace clock to wake them up. Nevertheless, when they live alone, clock is nothing for them, and if they are in lonely situation for a long period, they will be difficult to get up.

To resolve this big problem, we have two scientific solutions. First, we need a make a schedule that what we will do tomorrow.  To be essential, schedule is important for everyone, because it can let you be clearly about your future. In the meantime, only the people with strong heart can get over this problem, so as soon as you make a schedule, you ought to imply yourself that you are excellent enough to get up on time. In the prior time, even thought you are difficult to get up, you can promote yourself with strong heart and consciousness because you know what you need to do on schedule. As for solution two, the external situation of sleep is also important such as noisy, and light. The scientists recommend that the temperature of light ought to be turned to warm when you go to sleep. The warm light can make people’s brain enjoy sleeping time better, and the efficiency of sleep is same important like sleep time. Warm light makes you enjoy deeper sleep easier, and deep sleep is more appropriate for teens to relax tired brain.

The problem of difficult to get up is more and more popular in society. Click here to see it.

Why you are doing this course?

SC, science’s controversy and certainty, refers to people’s critical thinking about current science. Before I took this class, and I was in high school, I have a thought that many findings in the world now is magic. I mean nature is attractive for human, and scientists have given the reliable definitions or guess for all of the known findings such as Bermuda, aliens, and pyramids. Relying on scientific explanations, researchers make the nature more obvious for human’s curiosity.

When I was young, my parents and teachers told me that if I want to declare the things what makes me interest, I need to read books to get more knowledge. Unfortunately, the book’s knowledge is confusing for me at that time, and there is no science class in middle school and high school. It means I have no opportunity to group talking with my classmates about science questions which makes me confusing but curious. In addition, I want to share my thoughts, maybe absurd, to others who can solve it for me, and at that time, I have made a decision that I will achieve my science dream in the future.

As soon as I study in penn state, I search the class that relate to science, and I find SC200 class in surprised, because SC 200 class is not only  just relating to natural science, but also teaching us how to use critical thinking to judge current science. For my perspective, science is not just phenomenon, if I want to focus on it. Science need to be discussed, and it should have bilateral aspects. There is no absolute positive or negative science thing in the world, and people ought to use brain to think it. In the meantime, after logical thinking, getting your own reliable opinion.

What’s more, my friends who are one year older than me told me that professor Andrew is knowledge, friendly, and humorous. After their semester on SC200 class were told by professor Andrew, they said science seems more interesting and available for them. For me, professor is same important like content of class, because a humorous professor will have better influence on student than boring professor, and after three classes on SC200, I holds my view that professor Andrew is a great professor what I expect.

In the conclusion, these reasons prompt me to take SC200 course in the first year, and I believe that in this class, I can contact much fascinating science phenomenon, comprehend useful thinking skills about science, and know how to solve questions from professor Andrew.

Why you are not planning to be a science major

Nowadays, I don’t really want to major in science because I prefer making contact with people than with theories, experiments and statistics. Science is a rigorous subject that requires patience and preciseness. However, I am fond of flexible subjects like business. I find that doing experiments and analyzing data can usually be tiring for me. When choosing a major, I assert that I should take personality into consideration. I am not the kind of students who are meticulous about science and always eager to devote themselves to scientific research. Instead, I have passion in business field. As far as I am concerned, a large number of students dream of becoming scientists when they grow up but I don’t think of that now. Admittedly, science can be a incredible major for some students . I just prefer committing myself in other fields. I am not rigorous enough to consider science problem, and I believe as a university student I should learn some basic science knowledge but I don’t want to take science major because of my personality.

Link: Like what I mention above that Bermuda, aliens, and pyramids are magic for human. Clicking here to see videos about these phenomenon.