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  3. The following two excerpts are about whether donations by celebrities should

The following two excerpts are about whether donations by celebrities should

游客2024-11-06  0
问题    The following two excerpts are about whether donations by celebrities should be made mandatory. There are enthusiastic supporters of this opinion but there has also been criticism about the coerced attempt to push celebrities to donate.
   Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 WORDS, in which you should:
   1.   summarize the different opinions about celebrity donations and their justifications, and then
   2.   express your opinion towards this issue, especially whether the attempt to make donations by celebrities mandatory is justified.
   Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
   Write your article on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
   Excerpt 1
                                          On Donations by Celebrities
   In China, big-ticket donations by rich business people are becoming more and more common but charitable giving is not yet a habit. Many people still feel awkward about it, despite their growing prosperity. China’s GDP per person is about one-seventh of America’s. But in 2014 the Chinese donated 104 billion yuan ( $ 16 billion) to charity, about one-hundredth of what Americans donated per person. The top 100 philanthropists in China donated $3.2 billion last year, according to Hurun Report. That was less than the amount given by the top three in America.
   In face of this problem, there is a call for celebrities to donate to charity causes. People often talk about the amount they donate in the event of natural disasters and those less generous are severely scolded by the public. They think that the celebrities’ involvement with charity makes the public more likely to donate or give their time for the cause. It’s usually thought that celebrity endorsements help to raise the profile of charities, making the cause more recognizable to people and therefore making the chance of donation or involvement higher. For example, in 2014, Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba, an e-commerce company, created a philanthropic trust. He set a good example for other affluent businessmen who were more enthusiastic about philanthropy than before. Besides, there is a popular opinion that the noble action of donation should be promoted or upheld as one of the standards in measuring a person’s ethics. As billionaires and zillionaires, they have the wealth and resources beyond common people. Therefore, the rich minority should help the socially vulnerable as a way to improve their own profiles as well as reward the society.
   Excerpt 2
                             Donation Is and Should Be a Voluntary Act
   Many organizations, companies and celebrities have generously donated to help the victims of last week’s explosions in Tianjin. But reports of blackmailing tactics or force being used to get donations have shocked people.
   School teachers in Nankai District of Tianjin were reportedly asked to donate a certain amount of money, or to be exact have the amount directly deducted from their salaries, as donations for the blast victims. After the move was severely criticized on the Internet, the Nankai District government said on its official Weibo account that the donation " campaign" was organized at the behest of the local Party officials.
   Besides, the deadly explosions also sparked an online debate on whether or not Jack Ma, China’s second-richest man and founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, should donate a big amount to help the Tianjin victims.
   The reasons netizens have cited for Ma to donate are roughly of two kinds: Ma should donate because he has tons of money or because other wealthy people and celebrities have already donated. Some netizens have even threatened to quit using Taobao, Alibaba’s online shopping site, if Ma doesn’t. What the netizens refuse to acknowledge is that donation is not a legal obligation for anyone, the rich included.
   Donation should be a voluntary act. No one can coerce a person into donation for a cause no matter how noble it is. Any force applied to extract a donation from a person is a violation of the Welfare Donation Law, which says "donations should be made on a voluntary and non-reimbursable basis" , and " any forced apportion or any covert act of apportion is prohibited". Therefore, no one has the right to ask an individual to engage in philanthropy against his/her will or, to be more specific, to donate money no matter how wealthy he/she is.
选项
答案    Donation Shouldn’t Be Compulsory
   Whether celebrities should be coerced into philanthropy has been dogged all the way by controversy. Supporters think celebrity ties help awaken the public awareness in this aspect with their outstanding influence. Besides, such noble actions should be promoted as a way to set celebrities’ ethical profile and a timely way to reward the society. Yet, supported by the donation law, opponents argue that donation should be a voluntary act however affluent celebrities are and however noble the cause is.
   In the event of natural disasters or a public meltdown, there is always a huge hullabaloo about prodding celebrities into donating large sums of money. As witnesses to the luxury cars and helicopters, designer clothes and beach houses, some people urge the affluent to give out more money to help the needed. This seems justified. On second thoughts, however, this is nothing but a moral abduction. In my view, donation should be a voluntary act for two reasons. Firstly, cynical as this may sound, anecdotal evidence shows that the so-called star power does not necessarily make the cause more recognizable nor raise the chance of public involvement in philanthropy. As often as not, the inevitably promotional opportunities accompanying these generous acts, if mishandled, may turn people off charitable giving. Secondly, the mandatory diktat of donation will certainly trigger off celebrities’ repulsion and push them to the opposite direction. Though at the leeward side of fortune, celebrities have legally earned their lustrous living. They have the very reason to donate or not, which shouldn’t serve as the criterion for judging their ethics. Nor should they feel the senseless squeeze of forced apportion.
   Maybe in times of a lackluster market for the noble philanthropic causes, rather than pay lip service to this cause or remain a mere cheerleader to others’ corresponding acts, we should, first and foremost, take our own responsibility in reaching out our hands to those needed even if our hands are a bit small and shaky. From a simple act of feeding a stray dog to donating a generous sum of money to the socially disadvantaged creatures, all these have the same merit in essence.
解析    是否应该强迫名人捐款是本题讨论的话题。选段1首先引用了数字说明中国慈善款项收入不高，接着谈到为了解决这个问题，应该号召甚至强迫名人捐款，并从两个方面论证了强迫名人捐款的合理性。选段2则认为捐款应该是一项自愿的行为，并从两个方面批驳了强迫名人捐款的不合理性。本题的写作重点在于首先概括是否应该强迫名人捐款的不同观点及原因，然后重点论证强制名人捐款的行为是否合情合理。
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