Writing Feedback / [IELTS]: "throw-away" society and solutions [NEW]

We have developed into a "throw-away" society and are filling the environment with rubbish that we cannot fully dispose of. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion? What measures should be taken to combat this problem?

Environmental issues remain a subject of discussion, considering the life style of people as 'replace' that is widely adopted around the world. Some people argue that our society and environment has been strongly influenced by this phenomenon. I totally agree with this view and will give feasible solutions to this problem.

Over-consumption and excessive production of cheap, short-lived items have resulted in our throw-away society and been detrimental to the environment seriously. Many businesses produce more affordable, disposable items instead of making an expensive product that will last a long time, considering that people always desire to own the latest products. For example, items like mobile phone covers and cases that change the look of handsets have always been replaced by people after a short-term euphoria being experienced. However, even those short-lived items are told to be 'disposable' by advertisements, many of them cannot decompose easily. For instance, an aluminum case or can will remain in the earth's landfills for hundreds of years still similar to the one which was placed there in the first day. Furthermore, non-degradable solid wastes in landfills will produce carbon dioxide and methane, both of which are extremely powerful greenhouse gases that are depleting our ozone.

From my respective, in order to solve this problem, some measures could be effective. Firstly, minimize the consumption of short-lived products for individuals. Thus, people should be encouraged to spend money on long-lived items, rather than constantly replace things. Meanwhile, the decrease of consumption could contribute to the reduction of the production. That is, businesses would be forced to invest money in making the products with higher price but more functionalities and longer lifespan if the demands of customers changed. Last but not least, recycling and reuse can also assist in alleviating this problem. Instead of throwing away or disposing off 'unwanted' items to the second hand shops, it would be beneficial to the environment if people can reuse some products. For instance, outmoded T-shirts could be used as cleaning clothes and empty cans could be used as simple vases or pen containers.

In conclusion, despite the truth that throw-away life style is detrimental to our environment seriously, some feasible solutions such as reducing consumption of short-lived products, reusing and recycling some unwanted items would solve this problem.

Writing Feedback / [IELTS]: pubush drivers more harshly in order to improve safety on the road [2]

The only way to improve safety on the road is to punish drivers more harshly if they break the traffic law. Do you agree or disagree?

Traffic safety problems have long been the headlines in agendas for most governments around the world. Some people argue that in order to make road travel safer, stricter punishment should be stipulates for transgressors by the governments. I agree with the view that punishment can succeed in curbing road offences but it should not be taken as the only solution.

Admittedly, a harsh punishment is vital considering its deterrent effect on those who are likely to disobey road regulations. For example, Australia is one of the countries with the safest traffic all over the world. In there, traffic violators are fined more seriously than some other countries, such as people will be detained if they found to have drunk driving and a severe fine will be applied for over speeding rather than just verbal warning in some other places. Therefore, drivers and pedestrians become more aware of traffic law and comply with it better since they know the serious consequence after taking risk.

However, despite the importance of imposing harsh regulations, the authorities should not overlook other options that may sometimes achieve better outcomes. For instance, rising the legal driving age could contribute to the improvement of road safety. Young people are legal to drive motor vehicles after 16 or 17 in some countries, such as Philippines and United Kingdom. However, teenagers are usually more impetuous but less mature than adults that are more likely to disobey the traffic regulations. As a result, postponing the legal driving age, for example to 21.5, in countries with high traffic accident rates could enhance young people's awareness of traffic law since they have more time for receiving education before driving legally.

In conclusion, the apparent effectiveness of the harsher punishment measures on traffic law offenders should be acknowledged. However this is not the only way that achieves better and safer usage of roads. An integrated approach should be adopted such as rising the legal driving age.

Writing Feedback / [IELTS]: The appearance of a building is more important than its function. [4]

The appearance of a building is more important than its function. Do you agree or disagree?

A lot of modern buildings around the world are famous for their special and meaningful forms. Some people argue that the exterior of structure is prior to its function. I totally disagree with this argument because the appearance of building should be considered as same important as other architecture factors including functionality.

The purpose of constructing any buildings is for practical use but not only for just watching from the outside. For example, in practice, architects should design the buildings according to the requirements specifications of buildings. These documents usually include the purposes of the buildings, such as an office building, a house, an apartment building or a stadium, and the functionalities the buildings should have, like shedding water, heating and cooling. In addition, the design of a building involves far more than its appearance since buildings must also be safe, economical and environmental friendly. Therefore, the exterior of buildings is only one of the essential architecture factors which need to be considered and should not be dominated.

Furthermore, excessive design in architecture needs special techniques and much more time and material resources to achieve than usual. But sometimes it may not be satisfied by the public if the safety issues are concerned. This can be best illustrated with the example of a famous modern building in Beijing - CCTV new site, which has a marvelous form with a large area impending in the air. Due to its unique design of appearance, the total cost is more than 20 billion dollars and it takes more than 10 years to complete. However, most people in China do not seem to be interested in the appearance of this construction but worried about its safety since it had experienced a serious accident several years ago. Moreover, even if the building have been proved to be safe now, people who sit in the impending offices could feel nervous that cause negative effects on their working efficiency.

In conclusion, admittedly people do like buildings that have aesthetic appeal, but it should not come at the cost of the appropriate function, time, financial resources and safety. Consequently, architects need to find a balance between architectural idea and built reality.

Writing Feedback / [IELTS]: Should unpaid community service be compulsory for secondary education? [2]

Unpaid community service, such as teaching local children sports skills, working for local charities and improving neighborhood relations, should be a compulsory part of secondary education. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Participating in volunteer community services is common in most universities in western countries as optional courses. However, some people think this activity should be promoted early for children from teenage and listed into the compulsory curriculums in secondary educational program. From my perspective, I do not agree with this suggestion and will prove it based on my knowledge and experience.

It is very difficult for secondary schools to arrange proper projects for young student as students in an early age cannot be competent in most volunteer works. For example, teaching children in community on physical training and holding activities to give out things to needy and homeless are very common community services which depend much on good communication skills with children, basic teaching skills and efficient organizing abilities of volunteers. However, teenage students are not mature enough who are still in the stage of being helped and educated. Therefore, rather than gaining valuable experiences or being taught something important from volunteer works, young students could give little help the community and waste time due to the unqualified and inefficiency working competence.

In addition, volunteer works might not be beneficial if it becomes compulsory. Unpaid community services such as cleaning trash on the highway or cleaning up local charities could contribute to the mental development of volunteers as to be with compassion and optimistic attitudes. However, once it become obligatory which means students are forced to work for the public for free otherwise they cannot graduate in the end. This mandatory policy bores the students who might deal with the works mechanically without any initiative and enthusiasm. Consequently, students involved in community works are wasting time which could help nothing to both themselves and employers at all.

In conclusion, even though unpaid social services could help needy while benefit giver, students at teenage seems too young to those works as age limit is one of the working requirements of most community activities. Furthermore, schools should not accept volunteer experiences as one of the compulsory conditions of graduation since it ruins the essence of volunteerism.

Writing Feedback / [IELTS]: Telecommunications technology - making lives more exciting and efficient? [5]

The development of telecommunications technology has enabled people to perform many tasks, such as shopping, banking and business transactions, without meeting each other face to face. What are the effects of this trend on individuals and on society as a whole?

Modern telecommunication enables the remote exchange of information that changes the way people interacting with each other significantly. This essay will analyze the profound effects of telecommunications technology on the whole society, and give author's opinion.

Telecommunication technology benefits the society in various areas. In education, people who are living in remote areas are now able to have contact with the outside world and can even go to school or study for a degree online. For instance, the Open University in the UK provides a variety of online courses to students all over the world and is popular in many countries, including China. In addition, in business, trade has expanded because of the ease of ordering over the internet, such as Amazon and EBay, and also the ability to immediately reach to clients through the internet has made it easier to solve problems. Therefore, admittedly, telecommunication technology boosts the improvement of the whole society greatly.

However, the negative effects from the development of telecommunication on society cannot be overlooked. First of all, since modern technology enable people to exchange information via network cable without meeting each other in person, the trust between each other are threaten. Some unscrupulous individuals have been successful in stealing someone's communication application accounts and pretend them to ask financial help from their friends on list. Due to the difficulties in distinguishing identity via internet, lots of cases of commercial fraud have happened. Besides that, due to the widespread of latest telecommunications skills, people are increasingly willing to meet others on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, by cell phones or computers. As a result, normal social intercourse by face to face has been replaced by text communication or talking with emotionless machine; therefore, the practical distance between each other is closed, however the emotional distance has been widened.

In conclusion, admittedly, modern telecommunications technology makes our lives more exciting and efficient. However, we cannot ignore its potential hazards in terms of the financial fraud and detrimental impact on people's socializing. Consequently, utilizing this technology moderately by individuals and enhancing regulations and fines by the governments over the network would be the solutions to the problems, in my opinion.

Writing Feedback / IELTS: Public libraries, learning materials, and limited resources on Video, DVD [4]

The main purpose of public libraries should be to provide books. Public libraries should not spend their limited resources on computer software, videos or DVDs. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

With the development of information technology, lots of public libraries have various electronic learning materials such as software and videos accessible to the public. However, in order to save resources, some people argue that the original function of public libraries - only provide books - should not be changed. From my perspective, I totally disagree with this idea and will prove it with evidence.

Firstly, the materials that public libraries provided should not be restricted to books as reading is only one of various ways that people can acquire knowledge. For example, in order to illustrate knowledge vividly and make learning more interesting, the official journal 'National Geography' has made hundreds of videos relevant to the topics in its paper magazines and developed computer programs which enable people to search knowledge of geography online quickly and easily. Since the public libraries is an organized collection of resources made accessible to the public for reference or borrowing, all kinds of ways to acquire new information and knowledge including reading, watching and hearing should be enabled by providing both physical and digital materials.

Secondly, electronic learning materials will not demand much for the budget public libraries. Since e-books and videos provided in public libraries are stored in the database of library which can only be modified by librarians via computers, the cost brought by damage and stealing on these kinds of materials can be ignored. In addition, although libraries need to spend money on purchasing some copyrighted softwares like Microsoft Office Suite in the beginning, the future use and update of those softwares are totally free. Last but not least, the electronic storage of information is a clearly space-saving option for the public libraries. For example, the size of a DVD is much smaller than that of a normal sized paper book, however the data capacity of the former is hundreds of times bigger than the latter.

In conclusion, in my opinion, public libraries should provide all kinds of learning materials to the public and enable various kinds of approaches available for people to acquire knowledge since the contribution of modern learning styles and materials both the public and libraries is much more than their real cost.

Writing Feedback / IELTS Topic: Predict a child to be a criminal in the future by studying his behavior [4]

Some scientists believe that they can tell whether a child will grow up to be a criminal by studying his or her behavior at the age of three. What is your opinion?

Reports of criminal behavior appear in the papers or on television on a daily basis from the theft of a garden gnome to serial killers. In order to stop crime, some experts claim that they can predict whether a child would be an offender in the future by analyzing their behavior in their early childhood. In my opinion, this criminal detection method should not be utilized at this moment.

Behavior analysis of each child for determining potential criminal contributes nothing to crime prevention at present. For example, if a child has been proved to be a prospective criminal throughout complex analyzing, on the basis of respect for human right, the most ideal treatment currently is receiving education both in family and school on avoiding crime, however, which has already been provided to most children around the world for many years. Therefore, since children definitely cannot be arrested in their three years old and no biological method has been proved effective in reducing crime, this criminal detection method is useless.

Furthermore, rather than stop crime, this kind of criminal detection analysis could even increase crime rate in some cases. For example, parents could be anxious and pessimistic about the later lives of their children if the analysis results are negative, while children could have the sense of Inferiority or fear about the future from an early age since the criminal gene cannot be modified at this moment. Therefore, criminal behavior caused by the desperation to the future and jealousy of other eugenic children could be committed by all the family members.

In conclusion, regardless of the cost and accuracy of this criminal detection method, treatments to those 'potential' offenders can see little difference between universal propaganda and education work of crime prevention by the governments. In addition, negative analysis results would detrimentally affect the whole family and raise crime rate. Consequently, this method should not be utilized by government to stop crime until new biological interventions to reduce crime has been developed.

Writing Feedback / IELTS Topic: How do organizations give help to poor countries [3]

Topic: International organizations should provide poor countries with technology and practical advice rather than financial aid. To what extent do you agree or disagree.

Giving financial support to the countries in poverty directly is a kind of way that some international aid organizations usually give help in. However, some people argue that rather than money, actual suggest and technical support are more useful to those poor areas. I totally agree with this argument and will prove it by evidence.

Money in a certain amount, admittedly, could solve the serious poverty problems in a short period, however, what is needed for those poor countries is the sustainable and independent way of development which can only be contributed by the improvement in all aspects of society, such as technology, education and medical care. For example, China has been giving help to Africa for several decades. In the first decades, supports from organizations in China including money, cloth and food had been sent to some poor areas in Africa, however, people there were still suffering from poverty and hunger due to the lack of self-development ability. In order to solve this problem at the root, a technology in agriculture has been introduced to Niger and Nigeria by the Desert Control Research Institute of Gansu, China, aiming at curbing desertification and improving corn crop harvest, which has been proved effective in local areas. Therefore, those places will be less dependent on food importation from outside and release hunger problem gradually.

On top of that, practical suggestion and help will benefit the poor countries more than financial support in some cases. Take the medical condition in Africa as an example. There are a big number of people died from the deficiency of basic medical care every year in Africa even under the financial aid from other countries. This is mainly because the governments there are lacking practical and effective experiences in social administration, such as education popularizing and medical construction. Therefore, volunteer doctors from Red Cross or any other organizations and international exchange on country development are more important than money to those places in poverty as experienced doctors could help in improving local medical services and good examples on social medical construction from other developed countries are essential to be learnt.

In conclusion, any kinds of supports from worldwide organizations should be respected while in order to solve the problems in poor countries at the root, rather than money, the supports in improving technology, such as the skills in boosting local agriculture, and practical suggestion on social administration like medical care improvement are more desirable and useful.