musingbird
07-07-2004, 11:50 AM
Hello, everybody. I'm an English learner. I wrote the following piece and awiait your comments. Your comments would be highly apprecited! Thanks..
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Once there lived in a village a group of monkeys. At first, all the monkeys lived in harmony, caring for each other and sharing whatever food they could get. If some mischievous monkey would behave in a way that might affect the group¡¯s interests, all the monkeys would sit together and decide what punitive measures were to be taken.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡But as time went by, several monkeys, who were ¡°smarter¡° or ¡°stronger¡°, formed a clique, to which they gave the name ¡°party¡°, achieved greater social prominence and claimed to be the rulers of this village.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡In order to consolidate their ruling, these ruling monkeys established a ruling hierarchy. They picked some monkeys to be the ¡°police¡°, whose duty was, in their words, to protect the mass monkeys and ensure public security, although in fact they were employed to suppress any opposition should any monkey felt inequality; They also set up another organization to collect food, which they cunningly named ¡°tax¡°. They announced all the food collected were allocated equally among all the monkeys. They had also established a lot of other agencies which together formed a monkey government.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Thus the monkeys¡¯ peaceful life was disturbed.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Those monkeys in the ruling class could get the best food and those in the running class, like the police and tax-collecting monkeys, could get the second-class food, while those in the bottom of the hierarchy could only get whatever was left, usually the worst quality and not favored by those in the ruling and running class.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡So every monkey now aspirred after a post in the running class, if not the ruling class. That way, they could also enjoy privileges in selecting food. And some monkeys with ¡°connections¡°, a synonym for a family member, a friend or an acquiance, managed to send their young ones into the top hierarchy, usually by giving some food (which the human beings call ¡°bribes¡°) to that ¡°connection¡° and some other connections of that connection.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Those monkeys with no connections felt wronged. More and more monkeys sensed injustice.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡This emotion caused a threat to the ruling class. So the ruling monkeys had a meeting and decided to set up still another organization to show all the monkeys how ¡°just¡° this government was, they gave this organization a name: ¡°media¡°.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡So from then on, the media monkeys said day after day how perfect this government was, how they represented all the monkeys, how... and how... All the monkeys listened and listened, some believed, some didn¡¯t.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡One day the media monkeys said: ¡°all monkeys are created equal¡°. A monkey in neither the ruling nor the running class thought: ¡°Yes, but aren¡¯t some monkeys more equal than others?¡°
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Once there lived in a village a group of monkeys. At first, all the monkeys lived in harmony, caring for each other and sharing whatever food they could get. If some mischievous monkey would behave in a way that might affect the group¡¯s interests, all the monkeys would sit together and decide what punitive measures were to be taken.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡But as time went by, several monkeys, who were ¡°smarter¡° or ¡°stronger¡°, formed a clique, to which they gave the name ¡°party¡°, achieved greater social prominence and claimed to be the rulers of this village.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡In order to consolidate their ruling, these ruling monkeys established a ruling hierarchy. They picked some monkeys to be the ¡°police¡°, whose duty was, in their words, to protect the mass monkeys and ensure public security, although in fact they were employed to suppress any opposition should any monkey felt inequality; They also set up another organization to collect food, which they cunningly named ¡°tax¡°. They announced all the food collected were allocated equally among all the monkeys. They had also established a lot of other agencies which together formed a monkey government.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Thus the monkeys¡¯ peaceful life was disturbed.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Those monkeys in the ruling class could get the best food and those in the running class, like the police and tax-collecting monkeys, could get the second-class food, while those in the bottom of the hierarchy could only get whatever was left, usually the worst quality and not favored by those in the ruling and running class.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡So every monkey now aspirred after a post in the running class, if not the ruling class. That way, they could also enjoy privileges in selecting food. And some monkeys with ¡°connections¡°, a synonym for a family member, a friend or an acquiance, managed to send their young ones into the top hierarchy, usually by giving some food (which the human beings call ¡°bribes¡°) to that ¡°connection¡° and some other connections of that connection.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡Those monkeys with no connections felt wronged. More and more monkeys sensed injustice.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡This emotion caused a threat to the ruling class. So the ruling monkeys had a meeting and decided to set up still another organization to show all the monkeys how ¡°just¡° this government was, they gave this organization a name: ¡°media¡°.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡So from then on, the media monkeys said day after day how perfect this government was, how they represented all the monkeys, how... and how... All the monkeys listened and listened, some believed, some didn¡¯t.
¡¡¡¡
¡¡¡¡One day the media monkeys said: ¡°all monkeys are created equal¡°. A monkey in neither the ruling nor the running class thought: ¡°Yes, but aren¡¯t some monkeys more equal than others?¡°