1. Should the government cover the Internet usage fee or should individuals pay for this fee themselves? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
With the advent of internet, people in growing numbers are getting addicted to logging onto the internet out of various purposes, which has aroused deeply social concern. Therefore, the issue of whether the bills of using the Internet should be paid by the government or the users themselves has been open to debate. In my opinion, it is more reasonable to require the individuals to cover the fee of internet usage, with the reasons as follows.
To begin with, the users of the internets are supposed to pay the bills in order to relieve the financial burden of government. With the popularization of the internet, the number of people going online every day has increased to a lot, which means that the money spent on the internet is tremendous. Such a large sum of money can do nothing but occupy a great proportion of the governmental expenditure, thus cutting down on the investment of government on other more pressing fields like improving the public transportation and eradicating the poverty. By contrast, if the fee of internet usage comes from the wallet of the individual, the situation will become totally different. To illustrate, the abundant financial resources of government saved by this practice can better facilitate the economic development and render the life of the mass more convenient and comfortable.
In addition, requiring the individuals to pay for the bill of internet access will help to establish better social relationship between people. As is common sense, with the wide application of electronic devices boosted by easy access to the internet, people especially youngsters are indulged in the cyber or virtual world created by the social network and various Apps on the cell phone. Consequently, it is not uncommon to observe that when a group of white collars sit at a table in a restaurant waiting for their meals, they watch the screen of their smart phones instead of interacting with the guys near them, which greatly alienates the bond between them. In this case, the free use of internet will aggravate this situation to a large extent. However, if the fee of the internet usage is covered by the individuals instead of the government, many people will be reduce their time spent in surfing the internet in order to save money. As a result, the face-to-face communication will become more frequent and thus the closer and more intimate relationship between people will be set up.
Factoring the above listed reasons, it is safe to conclude that the government should not offer internet access to all of citizens at no cost, in order to relieve financial burden of the government and to build a better rapport between people.
2. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Professional athletes or performers shouldn't be involved in politics. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Barring athletes and performers from politics involves three main problems. The first issue is differentiating these citizens from average citizens. Do we mean only famous athletes and performers, or anyone who is paid to perform? Also, many people who have an effect on the common culture of a populace such as Bill Gates do not fit into either of these categories, yet present the same concern. The second issue is their effects on politics. Is the effect of these famous people positive or negative? The last concern I raise is the ethics behind forbidding private citizens, even those with influence, from participating in politics by voicing their opinions. Through each of these concerns I believe the answer unerringly points towards allowing these athletes and performers to participate in any function they choose.
Athletes and performers are special people because their voices are heard much more widely and loudly than the average citizen. When they speak, average people listen. It is only necessary for a politician to win over one of this type of individuals, in order for that individual to win over hundreds or even thousands. However, setting rules for these types of people and their involvement in politics is impossible. If we are only describing athletes and performers, do we still allow businessmen and women, who are respected by millions of people, to speak out? Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffet have had a lifetime of success, and their opinions matter. While professional athletes are easily defined, performers are not. What about comedy shows which specialize in political humor? John Stewart and Stephen Colbert are both household names, and Colbert has specifically described his television persona as an act. Not only is this a national-scale problem, but also a small scale issue. Many towns and cities have community theaters employing full time actors. Do these people also need to keep silent when they have strong opinions?
The effect of athletes and performers on politics is real. There is a great incentive for politicians to seek out endorsements from these people due to their influence. Some may even say it is unfair for some individual citizens to have more influence on politics than others. This comes down to the argument that politics serves the people, and each individual should be equal. However, this is simply not possible. There will always be those with more influence than others. The prompt asks us to withdraw citizens from the public dialogue in order to create equality of influence. The answer to improving politics is not to forbid opinions, but to increase people’s access to information and paradigms. A government can only serve a citizenry it understands, and that can only be achieved when more voices are heard, not less.
This brings us into our third concern. Asking people to remain silent no matter their political opinions is the opposite of what any reasonable government should be doing. Even if it is a hate speech, the answer is not to forbid it. The answer is to encourage other voices of science and reason. This is especially true if we realize that putting arbitrary definitions on who has a great amount of influence and who does not. We can begin to realize that forbidding political participation to that group of people is ludicrous. The result of this policy will only lead to the government being criticized or supported by people that we do not know or trust. Criticism will be easily ignored and reasons to support will only come from the politicians themselves. This is clearly not the way to run a government
It is clear that celebrities and professional athletes should be able to voice their political opinion. Different people will always have different levels of influence, but creating a class that is not allowed to engage in their government is clearly unethical. All people should be encouraged to be politically engaged.
3. The government wants to improve the education of high school, and there are two plans:
a) choose a group of good teachers and train them first, and after that let them go back to their schools and train other teachers.
b) provide training for every teacher online, with providing online materials and let them study individually.
Which one do you think is better? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
As is generally recognized, school education contributes tremendously to the promising future of the human society. The overall quality of young students is intimately associated with the teaching level of school teachers. In the face of the ceaseless changes in the new age, all responsible educators should take immediate precautions against the backwardness of knowledge taught in classrooms. Moreover, continuous evolution of teaching methods are also demanded. In order to improve the education of high school, the choice A in the title would be a better solution.
In the first place, choice A provides teachers to teach each other and update pedagogy. Knowledge accumulated in a teacher's school years is far from sufficient to solve new problems. No matter which subject this teacher is responsible for, there might be periodical updates and revising of contents in textbooks and teaching materials. The former concepts are likely to become outdated and the old ways to solve problems may prove futile. Besides, teachers themselves are powerless to renovate the past teaching plans to the best degree. Professional consultation is the most effective way to overcome such an obstacle. Thus, it is a wise choice for schools to send their teachers to attend different courses. Take politics as an example. The government is implementing new policies from time to time. The contents in the textbooks might be extensively revised every year. Thus, it is a must for politics teachers to join in related courses to update their former storage of knowledge.
In addition, not only could new knowledge and more advanced teaching skills be gained in class, teachers are also endowed with the opportunity to exchange thoughts with their counterparts. Through profound discussions and attentive learning, new teaching plans with the highest standard could be completed afterwards. Normally, a teacher who is capable of teaching in an innovative manner wins the hearts of students. If schools are unable to provide the best teaching quality for the masses and fail to build a more advanced teaching troop, the dominant position held by the traditional form of education might be replaced by others. Such a possibility truly exists, thus deserving the focused attention of the authorities.
To conclude, one can never stop the pursuit of fresh knowledge no matter which professional field he is engaged in. In a sense, school teachers are in the best position to learn and there should be no border standing between teaching and learning. That government choose talented teachers and set them as role models could be the effective way to ameliorate the education of high school.
4. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? It is better to finish a project completely and then begin another project than to work on two or more projects at the same time. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer
While we were taught from a young age that efficiency means multi-tasking, certain projects should be completed one at a time. Such practice ensures the quality of the final product and prevents from one having to redo certain parts of a long process. It also ensures the safety of those who will ultimately be the users of the final product.
A person has a limited attention span, and a sole stress of efficiency often results in a compromise of quality. In projects that are highly detailed and require a lot of careful attention, a person must devote his full attention to the task in order to not make any careless mistakes. Take, for example, a biology project involving the genetic engineering of a human cell line. A lot of initial planning is involved in selecting the right cells suitable for growing in a laboratory and capable of modification. The cells must then be carefully monitored in a controlled environment to keep them alive. The genes to be altered are analyzed before there are delivered in a viral vector to the desired cells. All of steps toward achieving the final product are laboriously planned out and executed. Any small mishaps along the way can easily force the scientist to start the process all over again and waste months of previous work.
Some projects are assigned with specific instructions for those involved to not take on any other projects. Such projects often involve products that will affect the safety of a large number of individuals. In the field of architectural design, a public structure to be used by thousands, even millions, of people every day will require that the initial project be carried out with care. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a public infrastructure completed in 1950 along the Puget Sound that was considered a monumental feat of engineering in its day. The twin suspension bridge, spanning 5,400 feet, took years of planning and construction by teams of architects, engineers, and construction workers. However, because the Department of Pacific Northwest Transportation was taking on several projects at the time and couldn’t simply focus on the bridge, the group of engineers failed to take the aerodynamics of the bridge into consideration during the design process. The gusts of wind along the Tacoma Narrows brought the structure to a collapse within months of the bridge’s opening, resulting in a catastrophe that is still remembered to this day as a classic example of failure of engineering.
As the two examples show, the projects of certain highly skilled professions require careful attention to detail and must be completed one at a time. Trying to couple several projects simultaneously will only result in one having to redo a lot of work due to careless errors or worse, a devastating loss of lives.
5. Students aged 13-18 are taught different subjects by different teachers while younger students are taught by only one teacher all day long. Some people suggest it would benefit young students to be taught by different teachers. Do you agree with this view? Why or why not?
There is quite a strange phenomenon that students who are under teenage are treated differently just due to their "particularity". It is true that the teachers of younger students are given special mission but, contrary to the opinion from most people, I insist that younger students can be better educated if they have different teachers.
The first benefit is that they can experienced various teaching method from different teachers. Under the schooling of single teaching method, students' mind will be limited deeply, which decrease their creativity and cut off the possibility to further development. Worse still, if the only teacher go something wrong, there will be no chance to correct the mistakes due to absence of comparison. On the contrary, if several teachers show different personalities and characters to students, they will know comprehensively about the world, the people and themselves. Time and time again, they will be arguably equipped with the skills to tell right apart from wrong. Since our civilization allows diversification, the growth that younger people are expected with should also be diversified.
Given the professional knowledge in different fields, teachers should also be asked to do what they truly major in. We always expect that a man should be generalists rather than specialists, but the fact is the formers usually do the things worse and, in other words, less professionally than those specialists do to some degree. Similarly, the teachers who are skilled in logical thinking like math and science may be poor at art and music. With the help of those teachers, students surely receive better education and learn deeply in each subject, despite their interest and preference. Clearly, professional events suit those professionals.
Some may claim that as a result of their young age, younger students are more likely to have close relationship with the one who they think are reliable. However, is that good news? Kids who are always regarded over-dependent to someone are under overprotection actually. Relying on certain and being afraid of learning new things from other "strangers" largely reduce their process to view the world, which stop them from being mental mature and being independent. After all, regardless of their young age, students are not toddlers anymore.
All in all, given their comprehensive development in knowledge and personality, students should be surround by many teachers who have their own traits.
6. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Sometimes people think nowadays the media (TV, newspaper, Internet) are less concerned about the accuracy of news than in the past, and the incorrect information may cause more problem to the public.
It was recorded that the amount of information in recent two decades took up 70% of that in human history, but simultaneously, the number of people who claim that the news is far from truth also tops 70%. Contrary to their statement, my opinion lies in the fact that today's information from new medias are quite reliable and the contemporary are not as blind as they are regarded.
Large ranges of medium do not provide so much fake information as the accuracy one due to the inter-contradiction. The distorted details from certain journalist about the battles in Libya may be soon clarified by the news agency in another part of the earth. The amount of incorrect coverage and even the fabricated affairs may easily be in the spotlight but before long, repudiated by factual accounts. In this situation, something misleading and bogus cannot survive awhile.
Apart from the self-cleaning capacity of the press, those who want to break the code of conduct will also be stifled in the cradle by censors. The sound laws and stricter ethics limit the space for news outlets to blow things out of all proportions. According to the annunciation of SARFT (The State Administration of Radio Film and Television), 15 well-known newspaper offices and more than 17 copywriters were charged for they fabricated some gossip that sway negatively among the public in first half of 2017. That is, whether medium or individuals need to restrain themselves and have no possibility to achieve attention by virtue of media hype.
Granted, some experts insist that the abundant news contain large proportion of inaccurate news that may misrepresent the public. Nevertheless, they, to a large extent, look down on the present education. People today are well-educated enough to tell right from wrong, thereby, in fact, coming up with more suspicious question about the information. That is about the details, the cause and effect and anything apocryphal. Time and time again, a news who want to be the headlines must tell the truth.
To sum up, given the rules of press circles, supervision of authorities and intelligence of human, the information in new medias is largely believable.
7. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Modern agriculture methods damage the environment, but providing food for the growing population around the world is more important than protecting the environment. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Modern agriculture methods like the use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers are widely used around the world. Along with such brings forth negative effects. The most obvious and detrimental impact of modern agriculture methods is environmental degradation. Many people believe that the environmental risks should not be taken into consideration since many people are suffering from the lack of food. I certainly disagree with this.
To begin with, despite the fact that there are people who suffer from starvation, the reason is not because of the lack of food. As a matter of fact, tons of grains and corns are wasted every year. If the government and the general public really care about starving people, they should have enough ability and adequate materials to offer help. People suffer just because of bad management, worldwide corruption, and terrible indifference. So there is no need to destroy wilderness areas or use environmentally-damaging agricultural methods to increase productivity. The world nowadays has more food than we need. As long as corruption and bad management are eradicated, the world would see less people starving.
Besides, the statement asserts that providing food for a growing number of people is more urgent than the protection of environment. I find this statement totally unconvincing. People’s survival depends on the environment. More often than not, whenever the environment gets damaged, the deleterious effects are always irreversible. In other words, once the environment on which we depend on is disrupted, our lives are placed at risk. Modern agriculture, although it provides enough food, has contaminated the water and soil. When people eat crops grown with polluted water and soil, diseases will break out sooner or later. Genetically modified crops, although their negative effects are not obvious and not yet confirmed, should also be treated with great care, for it is reported that dogs, cats, and other pets become sick after ingesting GM food. If human beings are negatively affected by modern agriculture, untold dire consequences will arise. People will suffer from diseases and the government will shoulder considerable medical bills. Worse, the society may become unstable and inharmonious.
From the above discussion, I can draw the conclusion that there are other more effective methods to address starvation. No matter how much food we produce, as long as corruption and wasteful use exist, there will always be starving people. Besides, a healthy natural environment is a basic requirement of our survival. We cannot increase food production at the expense of our environment, lest we are bound to suffer for our inconsideration and recklessness.
8. If you were the leader of a city, which would you do to ensure the prosperity and success of the city?
A. creating job opportunities for the unemployed;
B. lowering food price;
C. providing affordable housing
In a society changing amazingly, that how to guarantee the prosperity and success of a city, the common target of all citizens, has always been brought under the spotlight of the massive media. When talking about which factor plays the most crucial role in ensuring city's smooth development, among creating job vacancy, lowering food price or adjusting housing price, people’s notion varies from one to another. From my perspective, providing job opportunities for the unemployed is the best choice.
In the first instance, offering job vacancies to the laid-offs will not only guarantee the social security and safety but also strengthen the purchasing power of the public. For one thing, given the indisputable fact that the unemployed without any income are likely to commit crimes such as theft of wallets or burglaries due to lack of daily necessities, it is self-evident that the greater the number of laid-offs is, the more unstable our society will become. Therefore, after satisfying their basic needs of life with the income from the job offered by the government, they will no longer be a threat to the stability of the whole society, which is the solid foundation for social progress and prosperity. For another, as long as citizens with jobs have more free disposable money and thus possess stronger purchasing monitory power, the various industries will be stimulated and propelled to a large extent. To be specific, with the accruing wealth, an increasing number of people will purchase a private car to commute to their office, with the result that the whole industry of automobiles will experience a booming period. The same logic can also be true of other industries and fields.
Furthermore, there are obvious disadvantages of the other two policies, lowering the food price and making the price of house affordable. Despite the fact that keeping the food price low and providing affordable housing will lessen the financial burden of the dwellers in the city in a short term, these two practices would hinder the future success of the whole society. To illustrate, the low price of food will definitely decrease the income of food producers, especially the farmers who support their family by selling what they plant and raise. As a result, they are likely to have great difficulty in making their ends meet, thus ending up becoming homeless or jobless. Also, in a long run, increasing housing affordability will put a damper on the citizens’ passion for creating wealth and thus decrease the dynamics of the whole society. Specifically speaking, when the price is so cheap that nearly everyone can afford it with ease, no one will work hard any more.
In a nutshell, I am convinced that the most effective and efficient way to boom a city is to create more job opportunities for the jobless.
9. Do you agree or disagree with the statement? The reading students do on their own is as important as or more important than that assigned by their teachers.
By doing it on their own and doing it according to instructions from teachers, students can develop their reading skills to feed the academic minds, while beating the influence of television. In the process of learning, self-motivated reading, like eating nutritious food, can be especially beneficial to those young "couch potatoes". In comparison, reading as homework sounds like doing it for school exams, and reading independently sounds like doing it for personal pleasure.
To start with, it is important that teachers should give reading tasks in order that students, who prefer watching TV to reading at home, can at least learn to read to reach an expected level. In this case, the purpose is of course trying to make everyone a good reader, by obligation if needs be. It may be said that different books, like different kinds of food, appeal to different tastes. Sometimes, reading material as assigned by teachers may happen to be particularly boring to the point of torture. So much so, obliging students to read is similar to forcing them to eat what they do not see fit to digest with pleasure. Nevertheless, such example does not indicate that reading as course-work is a bad practice, but that the mixed results are not exactly as good as hoped because of lack of interest on the part of certain students.
At the same time, no less important for students is reading to learn on their own, in a way as if they were choosing their favorite restaurants and later feel entertained and happy. This is why students should not only be allowed but also encouraged to do more reading more extensively for increased knowledge in a wide range of disciplines. When students are constructing the habits of reading out of their own wills, they are sure to gain more confidence and self-esteem, which is part of the fruits of education that can lead to an intelligent lifestyle. Besides, to enjoy reading is to reduce TV screen time. Believe it or not, it is possible that ideas contained in many books being well read in spare time are worth more than have been presented in the entire history of television.
After all, whether doing it for exams or for enjoyment, reading makes fuller students in their pursuit of academic success at various stages, from the primary school right to the university level. Just as food is good for the health of the body, so is reading good for the health of the mind. At this point, nothing can please teachers more than to realize that their students are doing more reading on their own than are assigned.
10. Which way do you think is the best way for a student to make new friends?
-joining a sports team;
-participating in community activities;
-traveling
Friendship is one of the greatest things in life. Good friends bring a special meaning to us. That’s why people constantly look forward to making new friends. Different people find their friends from different activities and situations such as traveling, taking part in community activities. For me, the best way to cultivate friendship is joining a sport team. My writing will thoroughly look into some typical reasons for this.
First and foremost, what I put as my priority is same interest. The fact is that people joining a sport team always have something they are both passionate about. They do not need to worry about lack of topics to talk. The games they are involved will bring endless discussions. For instance, my younger brother is an introvert. When he was in high school, he did not become friends with anyone. He often kept quiet and felt difficult to communicate with people. However, when he entered university, he joined the football club. One day, I was so surprised he brought home a group of friends in his club. They were very active and kept talking about the last football match they saw in television. My brother was so passionate when he talked about football, the famous soccer he admires, which team would get the champion. Without doubt, sports are likely to make people close together and shorten all the distance between them.
In the second place, time that members in a team spend with each other is undoubtedly of paramount importance. It cannot be denied that there are many activities in a sport team that members do together. These activities can be practicing, taking part in competitions, shopping to buy sport facilities, cleaning courts… For example, last semester, I joined a badminton club in my university to prepare for the university badminton tournament. I had a lot of activities with the members in our club. We practiced two hours every day for a month before the competition. After practicing hours, we went to the cafeteria in campus to have drinks and chat with each other. It was fun. I had many good memories with people in this club. With no doubt, by joining a sport team or club, people stand a golden chance to have great time with friends.
Last but not least, trust holds no less an important role. Obviously, trust is essential to any friendship. It is even more important between teammates in a sport team. In a sport team, people are encouraged to trust each other. Players need to help their teammates and let their teammates help them. A person should always be sure that he or she always has friends after his or her back. Beyond any doubt, a sport boosts trust between friends and encourages them to become wonderful friends.
All in all, same interest, good time and trust are convincing reasons I hold the strong belief in advantage of taking part in a sport team to make friends. I strongly recommend everyone to have an appropriate decision when choosing an activity to join to meet new friends.
11. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents should allow their children to make mistakes and let them learn from their own mistakes.
Children from time to time make different kinds of mistakes--initially many of which are natural but later other mistakes could turn out to be undesirable. For that matter, as parents you had better be somewhat paradoxical in your attitudes toward raising children from stage to stage. The paradox is like that, at an early stage, children are always expected to stand up and walk as well as to open the mouth and speak; while at an older age, children are often asked to simply sit down and shut up.
Normally, mistakes that toddlers make are infantile events given them to grow up. For instance, you would never tie a rope to a baby and teach it to climb stairs by hauling it up by the rope. Nor would you spank a baby for not leaning to speak quickly enough. It is because babies learn by their own errors. So, if there is no learning happening, mistakes would have no worth at all. As can be imagined, mistakes might cause pain or impatience, and yet they could provide opportunities for growth. In this respect, only very small children should be allowed to make mistakes 'unconditionally' because this process of 'trial and error´' makes walking possible and speech possible.
While making mistakes is a fact of life, it is your response to the child's error that counts. When children should come to the age to start learning to distinguish right from wrong, you ought to explain what sorts of mistakes should not happen, being conditioned under different circumstances. Even though mistakes show what they need to learn, actually they need not learn every lesson the hard way or the wrong way. In other words, not trying to avoid situations in which children might commit 'dangerous' or 'immoral' blunders could be the biggest mistake of all on the part of parents. Therefore, it is not the right thing to do to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to some of children's serious mistakes because in any case it is important to put kids on the right track.
In a certain sense, for younger children there are no mistakes, save one--the failure to learn from a mistake. From stage to stage, children make mistakes of different sorts, to be sure; nevertheless, parents should learn an effective strategy to help their children move on, leaving mistakes far behind which might otherwise unfortunately become crimes in the future. Accordingly, the key to good parenting is not to see a child's 'negative' mistake every time as an end product, but rather as a 'positive' beginning for progress in life.
12. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Children benefit in important ways by taking care of pet.
Nowadays, pet raising has walked into the public spotlight. Debate on whether children could achieve benefits from taking care of pets has been heatedly discussed. Whether some people claim that it is a waste of time to raise pets, I disagree. In my opinion, raising pets could be an effective way to benefit children.
To begin with, during the course of pet-raising, children would realize how to maintain the responsibility. They would learn to cherish the hard work of their parents and become more considerate. Outwardly, taking care of a small anima appears to be a simple task. Only after assuming the duty could a child fully sense the difficulty in doing it well. Each step needs to be followed cautiously. He has to commit a series of complicated duties, including learning about habitual nature of the pet, preparing for the suitable amount of food to feed it in time, doing cleaning and even playing with it. These may remind them of what parents would do while taking care of their child. It is likely for the little pet owner to thoroughly understand the hardships his parents have undergone to bring him up. Accordingly, he will try to respect and cherish the hard work of their parents more than before. This should be the sign of his progress toward maturity.
In addition, raising pets allows children to experience the happiness of being devoted to others. No matter how many troubles they have encountered to feed their pets, these efforts shall never be made vainly. The process of care-taking fills them with enormous happiness. For example, my cousin brought home a schnauzer last summer and named it Coco. Every morning, he had to walk it in the park and feed her food and water. If he did not have to go to school, he would bring her to the lawn in the park and played Frisbee with her. In the evening, he might take a shower with her as well. According to him, Coco is a company for him, and she is indispensable for him. Evidently, the wholehearted devotion granted to animals makes children appreciate the real essences of happiness. They may also realize that being devoted to others could make one’s life both meaningful and joyful.
In brief, taking care of pet animals could benefit children in two ways. On one hand, children could learn to maintain responsibility; on the other hand, they could also experience the sense of devotion, both of which are priceless value that might play important roles in their life.
13. Some people always follow their dreams even if the dreams are ambitious. Some think we should focus on achieving realistic goals. Which do you agree with?
Dreams demonstrate us with the overall picture of how we want our lives to be. People always admire those who can realize their dreams, and these people are also considered as lucky ones. When it comes to personal goals, some are afraid of to think boldly because of lacking confidence. However, from my perspective, I think ambitious dreams prepare us to be successful as long as we dissolve the impossible mission into small phases, which finally helps us to achieve what we want in the end.
Being ambitious does not mean you do not have a plan. On the other hand, it just means that you are on your way to figure out what you really desire to do. Facing a challenge project, you will begin to make plans. You can mold our dreams with logical and analytical thinking. Say you want to be an astronaut? First, you should be a straight-A student in high school and take relevant courses. You then go to college with professional training or strong research team regarding this field. Someday you may join the Air Force after finishing your curriculum. In this way, dreaming itself becomes an inspiration to push one to act on every divided step.
Another important reason lies in the fact that being too pragmatic may lead to mediocre life. We all have some friend around us telling us how different his life would be if he had worked harder when he was younger. In fact, it may be true that such person was too conserved to leave his comfort zone to chase his dream by ignoring realistic concerns. Carroll Bryant once said, “The only thing standing between you and your dreams is reluctance”. I have a friend who wants to become a singer, and she has learned singing for years and spent numerous nights in a street bar to sing for people who hardly can appreciate her great voice before she actually signed up her first contract with a record company. Such stories are not rarely seen in daily life.
Dreams may seem vague and unfocused at first, but it is the dreamers’ job to make dreams come true with their insightful thoughts and efforts. With open-minds, any success can be expected.
14. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Teachers’ performance should be evaluated by students rather than by other teachers.
The quality of teachers determines the development of education of any country and the constructive evaluation of the performance of teachers will greatly contribute to the education betterment. Here comes a voice that their colleagues should have the last word on the achievement of teachers in their educational activities for co-workers know each other well and would offer sincere advice. I disagree. I believe that judgments from student will be of actual value.
To begin with, objective feedback from students can boost the improvement of teachers ‘teaching activities. English classes serve as typical examples. Students in the classrooms are experiencing their teachers’ teaching activities and methodology, from text explanation and pronunciation to in-class exercise and daily assignment. However, whether the knowledge is effectively delivered and students’ academic ability is enhanced through all these teaching processes could be only assessed by students. With the audience’s comments, teachers can make relevant adjustment on their focus, like diverting time previously spent on vocabulary instructions to writing mechanism, and in this way, English classes will deliver better results.
What’s more, students’ evaluation can build up the bridge of understanding between teachers and students. It is because from their remarks, teachers could know the favorable communication method for students and locate the problems in their daily contact. For instance, students will all make various mistakes in their school years, such as, being late, failing to hand in assignment in time, or even cheating in exams. And teachers have to talk to them as the problems occur. If students could also give teachers evaluation periodically on their communication effectiveness, teachers will find out whether their students like their communication ways or not and make changes if necessary.
Admittedly, we could not ignore the benefits brought by fellows’ remark on teachers’ performance. The reason is that education co-workers always provide many professional suggestions on teachers’ daily work in evaluation process. For instance, guidance on dealing with troublemakers from senior teachers is always bliss for green hands and time allocation reminder could also help teachers to arrange their class activities properly. However, these abilities and methods do not have to be acquired through colleagues’ judgment; they could be obtained through many other channels, such as seminar or reading pedagogical books.
In conclusion, though other teachers’ evaluation could generate some minor merits for teachers teaching activities, this benefit could be achieved by many better methods. On the contrary, the advantages of asking students’ comment on their teachers’ performance should not be replaced, for it can enhance the quality of teaching activities and promote the communication between teachers and students.
15. Do you agree or not agree with the following statement? It is usually not a good thing to move to a new city or a new country because of the loss of old friends.
With the rapid development of technologies, the process of globalization is progressing quickly. People have become more likely to move to another city or country in pursuit of their goals. Some people contend that it is a bad idea to move to a new place because those who relocate lose their current friends. I strongly disagree with this statement for several reasons.
People who move to new locations do not need to lose their friends, as they can take advantage of technologies in most countries to keep in touch. People can use numerous means of making contact, including telephone, e-mail, and online chat software. These technologies easily allow one to maintain relationships. For example, my family moved from Hengyang to Changsha several years ago due to my parents’ work assignment. Since our move, I have preserved my relationships with my old friends in Hengyang by chatting online; we even see each other often through video conferencing. In addition, as the transportation system has expanded quickly, it is very convenient for me to take trips to visit my old friends now and then.
Furthermore, moving to new places broadens people’s horizons, supporting their personal development. By traveling internationally, one can gain a better understanding of various customs, histories, religions, and cultures. With a broad view, people become more optimistic and active. My uncle, for example, used to be very shy and unsure of his purpose when he was young; he became much more confident and positive after he finished his undergraduate program abroad. He has always said that his four years of campus life abroad changed his way of looking at life.
Though technologies allow people to connect with old friends at a distance, they do have some disadvantages. For instance, when friends who live in different cities cannot communicate face to face, they may have unnecessary misunderstandings and disagreements. Despite these challenges, I insist that it is not bad to move to other places, given the enormous benefits that relocating can bring.
In conclusion, people who move to new cities and countries should not worry about losing their friends, as technological advancements can secure their relationships and moving can offer them great benefits.
16. Does technology make children less creative than in the past?
Are our kids becoming lazier and less creative, less imaginable than before as a consequence of highly advanced technology? My answer is no, and just the opposite, technology had apparently assisted our kids to become more creative.
First and foremost, technology has provided children with easy access to scientific and liberal art resources that is their best source of inspiration. For example, children could now easily gain access to academic databases through iPad screen, read classical works on Kindle, or watch historic documents on Internet. These great works are essentially helpful to arouse their curiosity and prepares them with key knowledge necessary for any creation.
However, these wonderful equipment and facilities are never as handy in the past, when kids could only reach limited resources in public libraries or schools. In this sense, technology has provided the possibility for children to be more creative.
Second, technology has equipped children with professional apparatus that could finally realize their imagination. This takes form particularly as computer software and applications, such as Photoshop for creative graphic design, overture for easily composing a piece of music, 3DMax for building up a virtual world, etc. All the software was never as handy as they are at present, and this would absolutely provide our children an effective tool for realizing their creativity.
Third, technology itself is a market place where creative ideas are economically encouraged. Steve Jobs earned millions of dollars a year for his excellent creation, and Mark Zuckberg gained his reputation for the genius social network. Therefore, technology has provided children the internal motive to develop their creativity.
However, it is undeniable that technology might make children become lazier and be comfortable with what is already available because everything is so convenient nowadays and there seems to be no way to improve them. Children lost in PC games or blindly pursuing every single piece of tech apparatus is a relevant example. Thus, it is always necessary to keep children’s mind active in the marvelous world of technology.
In a nutshell, I still regard children as becoming increasingly creative in technology development, although it might bring minor side effect. As long as we keep a balanced mood on children enjoying the fruit of technology, they are sure to contribute more to innovation than in the past.
17. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? It is difficult to be teachers who are not only popular with students but also can improve their studying efficiency. Use specific reasons and examples or details to support your answer.
At present, a teacher is required not only to know how to teach, but also to be favorable for his students. Although some people believe educators may have difficulties in achieving this, I personally believe that these two are not mutually exclusive.
In the first place, a teacher who has gained popularity among students must have a personal quality such as being patient to tolerate the students who have made some mistakes, showing enthusiasm in class, being humorous. The most important l is to love students and to love the course of teaching. As long as he has the innate love for his profession, he may have enormous zest for his students, and become a teacher favored by students. In addition, teachers like this can easily motivate students’ learning interest, thereby promoting working efficiency. That is to say, they are so trustworthy that they can guide and supervise the learners’ study efficiently.
Secondly, only a teacher who has the teaching faculty can help students develop effective and efficient study skill. In order to have this capability, a teacher should acquire enough knowledge. On the one hand, he should acquire the wide knowledge of philosophy, psychology, education (how to teach), culture, history, geography, etc. On the other hand, he must master much deeper theories in his research field. For example, an English teacher should possess the necessary skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating, among which speaking is of paramount importance. In addition, a good English teacher may have the means to activate his class and give students the opportunities to practice English. Only in this way students can use English and improve their communicative competence. Undoubtedly, these teachers who have succeeded in improving academic performance are favorable for students.
To sum up, based on the reasons I list above, I would regard teachers would achieve the required goals since the former is the foundation of the latter and without the latter, the former cannot be permanent.
18. Some people like to record their life by sharing pictures and other information on social networking sites. Others keep this information to themselves and never share it online. Which do you prefer?
The world is getting increasingly smaller with the advancement in telecommunication technology: Facebook, twitter, blog, WeChat and LinkedIn have linked people in virtually every corner of the world and brought them closer. They may see, hear, read or talk about the same thing at the same time, or, when they do not have the same thing to focus their attention on, they share what they see, hear, read or do individually. There are, clearly, upsides in this modern practice and mentality of sharing, but to me, there are too many downsides for it to be worth trying.
Among other things, it is a source of stress or burden for our friends when we post pictures or other information (about travelling, dining out, any particular service, etc.). They may feel obliged to give their comment to either avoid looking rude or to signal their concern about or interest in you. Sharing relevant information might help us to gain easier access to what we need or to provide a window into a different culture, but it could also be confusing, distracting or even misleading as well. We do not have to look far to see the point – a glance at the numerous traveling tips or blogs, with contradictory direction instructions and a variety of sentimentalities, would be more than enough to give us a severe headache.
What’s worse, to post our personal information on a public domain or some social networking site is to expose ourselves or our families and friends to anyone who can get access to the site, hence increasing our chances of becoming the easy targets of cybercrimes. Online crimes such as identity theft, fraud, blackmail and credit card problems are nothing new to us. It is paradoxical that we ask for tougher measures to crack down on online crimes and for a better protection of our privacy while we eagerly expose ourselves, proudly and prominently, to the potential criminals by posting our photos or information on where we go, what we do, or whom we meet, so on and so forth.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, often challenges himself with the question put forward by Dr. Martin Luther King: The most persistent and urgent question in life is – “What are you doing for others?” When we are excited beyond ourselves about what is happening to and around us, anxious to record our life for us or for who knows who, we might as well ask ourselves the same question.
19. Do you agree or disagree with the statement: Governments have done enough to educate the people the importance of a balanced lifestyle and healthy eating?
A balanced lifestyle and healthy eating are essential things for a government to develop and advance that they are so deeply relevant for a great nation to be. In my country, I think my government is not doing enough to educate its citizens to keep a balanced lifestyle and to eat healthily.
Firstly, the government emphasizes more on the development of economy than a sound lifestyle. To be more concise, it always makes attempts to boost the growth of economy trying to prove that my country is a great one and people living on this land are happy and content. However, economy progression is not a sound indicator to this regard due to the fact that people are expected to work harder and to sacrifice their spare time in order to fulfill the anticipation of the company and the government. A balanced life means people do not just work for their career or jobs, but also for their pleasures, for their hobbies and for their family. In the society, conversely, people are educated to use all their time to work diligently at the expense of anything in their life. A so unbalanced lifestyle it is that people are under pressure, such as construction workers needing to finish building projects as fast as possible so that they can earn more money; students trying to ace the test so that they can earn more time for their tests by sacrificing the time of exercising and spending time with their friends and family. Hardly do they take a rest to lead a balanced life because they are not educated to do so for a better living.
Secondly, the government tends to ignore the fast development of unhealthy chain store. The food industry has a tremendous influence on the issue of healthy eating. However, it is so powerful that this great empire spends millions of dollars on advertisement, medium, movies or even on schools, for they are sponsors of certain school activities. So, most of the people are not educated well enough to eat a diet that is beneficial and wholesome to their physical condition. What they are “educated” instead is to eat in a fancy place and get their meals as fast as possible as in chain fast-food restaurants. As we all know that fruits, vegetables and water are essential elements for a healthy eating habit, yet the government seldom educates us to consume those things in our daily life; instead, unhealthy chain stores are taking the hand of the government in educating us what seems right to eat due to the ignorance of the rampant development of ill-nourished food industry.
Admittedly, some people may still think our government has done its role of educating citizens to eat healthy and keep a balanced life. For instance, in the school, students are taught what nutrients are vital to our physical condition and some of the governmental organizations, taking Healthy and Sanitary Department for example. It is holding some activities to teach citizens what to eat to keep in a good shape and live healthily. However, to me, this is not enough. Greasy food and sugary beverages are still sold in the school due to its high profits. Salty food, high carbohydrate diets and fried products are not a rare sight when people go to supermarkets or when they turn on the TV or read the magazines.
In conclusion, even though my government is trying its best to educate people to eat right in some fields, this is not sufficient and not effectual. The government is still trying to focus more on the development of economy and people are still bombarded with the advertisements of the food industry, so people eat by the “trend,” rather than by the “nutrition facts” from food. Hence, I think my government is not educating their people enough concerning a balanced life and a healthy eating concept.
20. Do you agree or disagree with the statement? Most business people are motivated by the desire for money.
When talking about whether most of business people are motivated by money to run companies, you may find it in dense with opinion that agrees this statement. However, some argue that many business people are actually not motivated by money.
I would agree the second opinion. To illustrate my points, I have a couple of reasons. Admittedly, it is necessary for business man to pursue money. If not, the company may not be able to pay salaries or even worse, go bankrupt. Our society, obviously, relies on well running companies and no one can deny that running companies requires desires of business men to earn money. However, it's hard to say that for many business men, pursuing money is their only purposes.
The first reason lies on the fact that the internal driving force of some business men is to provide the best products to the world. Steve Jobs is the best example. For Jobs money is almost meaningless because he became the richest man on 25 years old. However, he had a long-held dream to offer the best and user-friendly computers to people. Even he was forced to leave the board of Apple, he didn't give up this dream. No one can deny that it's his strong desire to provide the best products that people do have chances to use great products such as iPhone, iMac and iPad. Thus, it makes no sense to say that earning money is the first priority for most business man.
Another reason is that business men benefit from the fast-development of economy and some of them have desires to give back to society. For example, Hua Lee runs a very successful company in my hometown. At the same time, he is, in particular, willing to sponsor the education programs for local communities, which provide fund to primary schools for facilities upgrade and teachers for training. That's because he was born in the rural area of China and didn't receive good education at that time. He has a strong desire to help children who can get opportunities to receive good education. That's why I am greatly convinced that business man may not always pursue money.
In conclusion, it is true that business men do have internal forces to pursue money since that's the basic rules to run a company. However, taking all aspects into consideration, I can hardly agree that most business men are motivated by the desire for money.