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Topic153：你是否觉得动物园没有什么实际用处?
Topic153 Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? A zoo has no useful purpose. Use specific reasons and examples to explain your answer.
[参考提纲]
153、动物园是非常有用的
(1)动物园保护珍稀的动物
(2)动物园是向儿童提供教育的好地方
(3)动物园为人们提供了一个良好的娱乐场所
[托福参看范文]Topic: 153
Zoos are often controversial because many people believe they are unnecessary or even harmful If properly managed, I feel that zoos have a lot of value. In fact, I believe zoos are useful in two main ways: educating the general public and advancing scientific research.
Zoos can be wonderfully educational places. They provide a safe, controlled environment to learn about a specific species. Children can feel safe exploring the world of the chimpanzee there, and adults can learn about and see types of birds they've never seen before. Unlike in the wild, there's no worry of being physically harmed by an animal.
Zoos are also important for the research opportunities they provide. Research is safer and easier to conduct than in the wild. Scientists can feel secure in the confined area of the zoo. For example, while conducting a medical experiment in an open field, scientists have to worry about both the animal they are working with, and also other animals nearby. In zoos, however, they need only worry about the research subject.
In the wilderness, animals are also much harder to track and monitor. Zoos make research less time-consuming and expensive. Long term follow-ups are easier too, since even with monitors, wild animals often are killed or disappear. In zoos, researchers can observe an animal's entire life span.
Overall, I feel that properly managed zoos provide excellent opportunities for education and research, and are therefore very useful.
Topic: 153
Children like to go to the zoo on holidays. They find it interesting to watch monkeys or bears doing funny things. But how many adults go to the zoo not for children's sake? I think few. Because we finally find that a zoo has no really useful purpose and it's not a truly fun place for us.
When a person breaks the law, he will be thrown into prison. But the animals in the zoo have done nothing to deserve being locked in a small cage. No plants, no water, just brick walls and floors. Every animal is in the same environment and can do no other things except for wandering around in the little space. Do you think that's what an animal should look like? And after visiting such a living place of animals as a zoo, no one would ever be left a nice impression of beauty and harmony of the nature that the zoo tries to demonstrate.
In addition, going to the zoo is not a good chance for educating children. Childrn see animals being tamed and locked, just for people to watch and have fun with. That will give the wrong impression to them that animals are ought to be like that. In such an artificial circumstance, they don't realize that animals and people are friends and they are just as important in the ecological system as we are.
The last but not the least, animals in the zoo are often treated badly by the visitors. People like to feed them with whatever they bring with them: hamburgers, popcorns, or even paper. Animals are not able to distinguish which food is bad for them and thus they eat too much unfitable food. It is very harmful to their health.
So I don't see any useful purpose to build up a zoo in a city just for people's entertainment, but to sacrifice the animals' health and freedom. And it does no good to teach our children to have animals as our best friends.
Topic: 153
Every city has one or more zoos. There is no denying the fact that whether a zoo is useful or not is a popular topic which has caused heated debate over a long period of time. Some people think that establishing a zoo of course has its advantages, while others think it makes no sense. And for a while, people think that a zoo is no useful purpose. As far as I am concerned, I disagree with this opinion. There are no less than three reasons to disagree with the opinion as rendered below.
One chief reason, which can be seen by every person, is that children can obtain direct knowledge about a variety of animals. They can see what tigers like, hear various sounds of birds and differ one animal from another. If there is no such a place, how can they make direct impression of animals. They may never have a chance to see various animals even though they learn many from book.
A further reason why I disagree the statement is that most of us live in cities and have many things to do. We must work for living and learn for obtaining a better job. Everyday we live with a rapid pace and we want to relax. A zoo of course is a good place for us to have a relaxation. There are so many lovely animals and so beautiful environment in which we can learn more things about animals as well as relax ourselves.
Finally, to be frank, there is also a more personal reason why I think a zoo is useful. When I was a little girl, I liked animals very much, especially birds. But I could not feed them for myself, so the zoo which was located near my home was the place I went to most frequent. And I really love these places.
Based on what has been discussed above, I may safely arrive at the conclusion that a zoo has its useful purpose.