classification_sample essays

Three Kinds of Organism in Ecosystem
The earth is the home for countless organisms. They live in harmony with their surroundings and help the environment reach a balance. According to their function in nature, the organisms on the earth can be divided into three types: the producer, the consumer, and the decomposer.
The producers refer to all green plants, one-celled alga and some germs. They all contain chlorophylls, which enables them to convert the energy of the sun into chemical energy through photosynthesis. Green plants absorb between 20% and 30% of the sunlight that reaches the earth. Only 2% of the energy from the sunlight that reaches green plants is stored in the body of the plant. The producers make their own food in this way and also provide food for other organisms in ecosystem. They play an indispensable role in the ecosystem. Without them, nature will be destroyed.
The consumers are mainly animals. They eat the producers in order to get their energy. There are three types of consumers: primary consumers, secondary consumers, and third consumers. The herbivores fed on plants, such as grasshoppers, are called primary consumers; carnivores fed on herbivores, such as frogs, are called secondary consumers; animals fed on carnivores such as snakes, are third consumers. Unlike producers, since they cannot get and use the energy from the nature directly, they have to feed on other organisms. But they are not as necessary as the producers. Without them, things still go on.
Decomposers are all kinds of animalcule that can break down dead plants and animals, such as flies, wasps and earthworms. They also break down the waste of other organisms, like certain kinds of fungi. In these two processes, a decomposer can both return the energy to the producers and make energy for itself. Because of their decomposition function, they are very important in ecosystem as they play a vital role in nutrient cycles. Without them, the plants would not get essential nutrition, and dead matter and waste would pile up.
The producers, consumers, and decomposer have different functions, but they are dependent on each other. They establish the food chain that allows the energy flow freely and efficiently in the world. Their interaction among each other makes the ecosystem work properly. So, every life form has its profound significance in nature. As human beings, a superior species who seem to have the power to alter the nature, we should respect every kind of organism and treat them friendly and equally.
Three Types of Monks
Monks are always seen as sacred people who rise above innate drives. However, as a follower of Buddhism, I find that it is not the real situation. Based on my observation and communication with monks, I find that monks fall into three types. Each type has a different attitude towards mundane life.
The first type of monks have great self-control over mundane life. They stick fast to the principles. As extremely pious followers of Buddhism, they bear in mind every
bit of Buddhist tenets and have a special respect for the disciplines. No smoking, no drinking, no eating meat, no indulging sexual desires, all these and a lot more taboos are to be found carved in their minds. They willingly abandon elaborate mundane life because they believe that all those desires and pleasure-seeking activities are evil. Desires and pleasure-seeking activities are unlikely to affect them. Steady steps, profound eyesight, merciful facial expression and penetrating preaching, all these are the reflections of their self-enlightening accomplishments.
Unlike the first type of monks who are extremely self-disciplined, the second type of monks are still driven by desires and tempted by pleasure. They are still lingering over mundane life and sacred life. In the struggle between self-discipline and self-indulgence, they sometimes transgress the taboos secretly. They are just ordinary people in a monk’s clothing, chanting scriptures and preaching whole-heartedly. They become monks only to convince themselves that they’re resisting the temptations and to appear as a respectful person. Besides Buddhism classics, beautiful women’s posts, pornographic magazines or videos, and packs of cigarettes may all be found in their personal collections. They’re cheating others as well as themselves. But not all of them are to blame; it’s understandable that some young monks still in their adolescence fail in resisting some temptations.
The third type of monks are neither serious as the first type nor hypocritical as the second. They’re not so serious about disciplines and taboos. They enjoy life just as ordinary people do, and place the Buddha only at heart, just as a Chinese saying goes: “Eating meat, drinking wine, with the Buddha in mind.” This kind of monks goes beyond forms and conventions. In fact, the disciplines and taboos are only ways to help followers get enlightened. A sensible follower should not be a slave of forms. But that can’t be used as an escape clause. Only when one wholly understands Buddhism can he be free from the aid of disciplines. There’s a famous Buddha representing this type-Jigong, the symbolic image of whom is a tottering beggar, a bottle of wine in hand, mixed expressions of pain and joy on face. This type of monks might be the most respected but also the hardest to be.
All those three types of monks possess the same name “monk”. But they’re indeed different in dealing with mundane life. In the Buddhist practice, there’re various ways to get self-enlightenment. However, a true follower should always be honest and follow the right path in order to set himself free.
Three Types of Children’s Personalities
Anyone who has spent time with or around children will notice that each one has a special personality all of their own. Children, like adults, have different traits that make up their personalities. Experts have researched this phenomenon in detail and classified children into different categories, named “flexible,” “fearful,” and “feisty.” The first personality type is called flexible. This is the most common of the three types. About 40 percent of all children fall into the flexible or easy group. These children usually handle feelings of anger and disappointment by reacting mildly upset.
This does not mean that they do not feel mad or disappointed, they just choose to react mildly. These actions mean the flexible child is easy to take care of and be around. They usually adapt to new situations and activities quickly and are generally cheerful. They are subtle in their need for attention. Rather than yelling and demanding it, they will slowly and politely let their caregiver know about the need. If they do not get the attention right away, they seldom make a fuss.
The next temperament is the fearful type. These are the more quiet and shy children. This makes up about 15 percent of children. They adapt slowly to new environments and take longer than flexible children when warming up to things. When presented with a new environment, fearful children often cling to something or someone familiar. Whether it be the main caregiver or a material object such as a blanket, the fearful child will cling to it until they feel comfortable with the new situation. This can result in a deep attachment of the child to a particular caregiver or object. Fearful children may also withdraw when pushed into a new situation too quickly. They may also withdraw when other children are jumping into a new project or situation they are not comfortable with. These children may tend to play alone rather than with a group.
The third temperament type is called feisty. About 10 percent of children fit into this category. A feisty child expresses their opinions in a very intense way. Whether they are happy or mad, everyone around them will know how they feel. These children remain active most of the time, and this causes them to be very aggressive. Feisty children often have the tendency to have a “negative persistence” and will go “on and on nagging, whining and negotiating” (“Facts About Temperament”) if there is something they particularly want. Unlike flexible children, feisty children are irregular in their napping and feeding times, but they do not adapt well to changes in their routines. They also tend to be very sensitive to their surrounding environment. As a result, they may have strong reactions to their surroundings.
Generally speaking, children can be divided into these three groups, but caregivers must not forget that each child is an individual. Children may have the traits of all three of the personality groups, but they are categorized into the one they are most like. Whatever their temperament, children need to be treated according to their individual needs. When these needs are met appropriately the child will be happier, and those around the child will feel better also. (536 words)
Colorful, Colored, and Colorless Words
The writer builds with words, and no builder uses a raw material more slippery and elusive and treacherous. A writer's work is a constant struggle to get the right word in the right place, to find that particular word that will convey his meaning exactly, that will persuade the reader or soothe him or startle or amuse him. He never succeeds
altogether - sometimes he feels that he scarcely succeeds at all - but such successes as he has are what make the thing worth doing.
There is no book of rules for this game. One progresses through ever-lasting experiment on the basis of ever-widening experience. There are few useful generalizations that one can make about words as words, but there are perhaps a few.
Some words are what we call "colorful." By this we mean that they are calculated to produce a picture or induce an emotion. They are dressy instead of plain, specific instead of general, loud instead of soft. Thus, in place of "Her heart beat," we may write "Her heart pounded, throbbed, fluttered, danced." Instead of "He sat in his chair," we may say, "He lounged, sprawled, coiled." Instead of "It was hot," we may say, "It was blistering, sultry, muggy, suffocating, steaming, wilting."
However, it should not be supposed that the fancy word is always better. Often it is as well to write. "Her heart beat" or "It was hot" if that is all it did or all it was. Ages differ in how they like their prose. The nineteenth century liked it rich and smoky. The twentieth has usually preferred it lean and cool. The twentieth century writer, like all writers, is forever seeking the exact word, but he is wary of sounding feverish. He tends to pitch it low, to understate it, to throw it away. He knows that if he gets too colorful, the audience is likely to giggle.
See how this strikes you: "As the rich, golden glow of the sunset died away along the eternal western hills, Angela's limpid blue eyes looked softly and trustingly into Montague's flashing brown ones, and her heart pounded like a drum in time with the joyous song surging in her soul." Some people like that sort of thing, but most modern readers would say, "Good grief," and turn on the television.
Some words we would call not so much colorful as colored - that is, loaded with associations, good or bad. All words - except perhaps structure words - have associations of some sort. We have said that the meaning of a word is the sum of the contexts in which it occurs. When we hear a word, we hear with it an echo of all the situations in which we have heard it before.
In some words, these echoes are obvious and discussable. The word mother, for example, has, for most people, agreeable associations. When you hear mother you probably think of home, safety, love, food, and various other pleasant things. If one writes, "She was like a mother to me," he gets an effect which he would not get in "She was like an aunt to me." The advertiser makes use of the associations of mother by working it in when he talks about his product. The politician works it in when he talks about himself.
So also with such words as home, liberty, fireside, contentment, patriot, tenderness, sacrifice, childlike, manly, bluff, limpid. All of these words are loaded with favorable associations that would be rather hard to indicate in a straightforward definition.
There is more than a literal difference between "They sat around the fireside" and "They sat around the stove." They might have been equally warm and happy around the stove, but fireside suggests leisure, grace, quiet tradition, congenial company, and stove does not.
Conversely, some words have bad associations. Mother suggests pleasant things, but mother-in-law does not. Many mothers-in-law are heroically lovable and some mothers drink gin all day and beat their children insensible, but these facts of life are beside the point. The thing is that mother sounds good and mother-in-law does not.
Or consider the word intellectual. This would seem to be a complimentary term, but in point of fact it is not, for it has picked up associations of impracticality and ineffectuality and general dopiness. So also with such words as liberal, reactionary. Communist, socialist, capitalist, radical, schoolteacher, truck driver, undertaker, operator, salesman, huckster, speculator. These convey meanings on the literal level, but beyond that - sometimes, in some places - they convey contempt on the part of the speaker.
The question of whether to use loaded words or not depends on what is being written. The scientist, the scholar, try to avoid them; for the poet, the advertising writer, the public speaker, they are standard equipment. But every writer should take care that they do not substitute for thought. If you write, "Anyone who thinks that is nothing but a Socialist (or Communist or capitalist)" you have said nothing except that you don't like people who think that, and such remarks are effective only with the most naive readers. It is always a bad mistake to think your readers are more naive than they really are.
But probably most student writers come to grief not with words that are colorful or those that are colored but with those that have no color at all. A pet example is nice, a word we would find it hard to dispense with in casual conversation but which is no longer capable of adding much to a description. Colorless words are those of such general meaning that in a particular sentence they mean nothing. Slang adjectives, like cool ("That's real cool"), tend to explode all over the language. They are applied to everything, lose their original force, and quickly die.
Beware also of nouns of very general meaning, like circumstances, cases, instances, aspects, factors, relationships, attitudes, eventualities, etc. In most circumstances you will find that those cases of writing which contain too many instances of words like these will in this and other aspects have factors leading to unsatisfactory relationships with the reader resulting in unfavorable attitudes on his part and perhaps other eventualities, like a grade of "D." Notice also what "etc." means. It means "I'd like to make this list longer, but I can't think of any more examples."
- Paul Roberts。