Sample essay 14: Band 7: The Internet and communication

 The Internet and communication

Some say that the Internet is making the world smaller by bringing people together. To what extent do to you agree that the Internet is making it easier for people to communicate with one another?

A global village, that is certainly what the world feels like nowadays. With the help of the world wide web, you can reach out and get to know people you might never have met in person. Articles can be co-authored, business deals can be finalized, degrees can be earned and at times even medical advice can be given- and all of this is just a click away.

Electronic mail, instant messages, web cameras and microphones; all these gadgets and programs make the presence of the other person more real. Who knows; with the help of visual reality you might even get a 3-D image of the speaker! I believe that the Internet is one the best inventions of the last century, you can hardly get to miss anyone and nobody is really out of reach. You can keep in touch with your friends, and be able to do your work from your bedroom in your pajamas!

However, the internet can also be a major source of harassment. Spammers and hackers can invade your privacy and get personal/confidential information, which otherwise they will never get access to. You are never out of anybody’s reach, unless you make a conscious decision of not checking your email, there can be always more work waiting for you in your inbox and you might never have a moment to yourself. Worse yet, if you were a workaholic, you might never experience that stress-free vacation ever again in your life – simply, because you have your mobile workplace with you at all times.

As a romantic, I will always look forward to getting an occasional letter in the snail mail. A personal letter, where I can sense the mood of the writer by the slants in his/her handwriting and get to know him/her better. But as a type A personality person, the internet gives me all what I dream of in terms of communication – the speed, reliability, and convenience of time and place. I can certainly tolerate its shortcomings any day, as long as it keeps me close to my loved ones.

(345 words)

Sample essay 13: Band 7: News on TV

 News on TV

News editors decide what to broadcast on television and what to print in a newspaper. What factors do you think influence their decisions? Do we become used to bad news? Would it be better if more good news was reported?

News editors decide what to broadcast on television and what to print in a newspaper. There are two factors that influence their decisions. The first is the kind of customers they aim at. Because each kind of readers and watchers has its own features. For example, if your customers are almost entirely teenagers, you have to concentrate on something attracting them such as stories, photographs of singer stars, film stars, funny tales, and fashion. It will be very silly if you try to provide teenagers with economic or politic news. On the contrary, besiness men and politicians may never read news about James Blunt or Keira Knightley. Therefore, what influences news editors’ decisions the most is the taste of their customers.

The second factor is the hot, the attraction of the news. Who will reads or watch your news if it happened a year or a month ago or even last week? The answer is nobody absolutely. In the energetic and competitive world nowadays, people always ask for a really new news. So that to satisfy customers, there is a pressure on all editors to find continually what has already happened not only yesterday but even an hour ago. Or else, they may lose their customers. None of editors wants that bad future.

On television or in newspaper, we seem to become used to bad news. It is a little of difficult for us to come across a piece of good news. We can’t deny that bad things occur on Earth day by day. However, news editors try to gain more and more customer, which means more and more money, using bad news as a magnet. Because bad news makes us curious. We want to know why it is bad, what it is about, whether it influences us or not. As a result, we will buy newspapers or watch television to find out. And the happiest people are, of course, news editors.

I think it would be better if more good news were reported. Bad news makes us worry and sad. Whereas good news makes us happy. There should an equal amount of good and bad news. In that way we can give something bad a lot of thought while still being happy about the good news. Any inequalities between good news and bad news should be avoided. That is the best solution.

Now, we can’t live without news. Thereby, the role of news editors is very important. We should support them. And what they have to do is try their best to provide us with useful news, both good and bad.

  (432 words)

Sample essay 12: Band 7 Environmental problems

 

 Environmental problems

Nowadays environmental problems are too big to be managed by individual persons or individual countries. In other words, it is an international problem. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

An essential problem of the 21st century is world pollution. Currently the environment is so contaminated that urgent measures should be taken. A single individual cannot be blamed for the world pollution, however every person should take care of his or her habitat. In addition, it is vital that environmental issues are treated internationally.

Lately, many presentations, conferences and international summits are held to deal with waste treatment, recycling, and soil and water contamination. For sure joint efforts and consolidation can only help in the mutual war towards the ongoing environmental disaster. For instance, governments should offer support to companies and organizations, involved in manufacturing, industry or agriculture in order to find environment-friendly approaches. These could be special law regulations, recycling programs, helping courses in order to implement ISO certificates and many more.

However, the influence of individuals over environment should not be ignored. If we do not confess that our planet is our home, we will never be able to take adequately care of it. We have to contribute every day to the preservation of nature and environment. For example, always remember to save energy by switching off lamps, computers and everything that we do not use. Our next obligation is to separate waste and throw bulk only in the designated areas. Driving vehicles can also be environment friendly. For example, we have to avoid accelerating the engines too rapidly or using the air conditioning in the country, where it would be better to save energy and simply open the windows.

To sum up, environmental problems should be handled by local and international authorities as well as individuals. Every single person should take care of the environment, moreover we have to bring up our children to be conscious citizens of a clean and preserved planet. 

Sample essay 11: Band 7: Should tobacco be prohibited?

 Should tobacco be prohibited?

Should the same laws which prohibit the sale and consumption of heroin be applied to tobacco? Discuss.

Recently, a heated debate arouse when a few reputable health organizations suggested the application of a similar act of heroin selling and usage prohibition _. In this assay, I will analyze why the adoption of such a law could be a breakthrough in our youngsters’ safety, according to my vision.

Firstly, tobacco does not differ much from heroin when it comes to the addictive effect. Nicotine , the active ingredient in tobacco, exerts its effect by acting directly on smoker’s brain cells. Numerous experiments carried out by scientist on animals, specially rats, proved that this toxic chemical does lead by time to dependency, just similarly to the effect experienced with heroin.

Secondly, the restriction on cigarettes selling would surely show an instant decline in tobacco smoking. ” Having easy access to cigarettes puts a tremendous pressure, especially on teenagers,to resist such a temptation” Dr.Hisham , head of Psychology department at Alexandria Medical college , states firmly. “Giving the new generation the sense that the severity of smoking is equivalent to other lethal drugs usage would be a life saving step, they will thank us for as they get older.” he continues.

To recapitulate, applying of a futuristic law such as the suggested one will definitely have a positive impact ,not only on young people’s health but on our society as a whole.

Sample essay 10: Band 7: Capital punishment

 Capital punishment

Without capital punishment (the death penalty) our lives are less secure and crimes of violence increase. Capital punishment is essential to control violence in society. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Capital punishment is always associated with ignorance and intolerance. In fact, we must acknowledge that some people disagree with this kind of penalty, but others vote in its favor. Portugal was the first European country to end this kind of penalty. Since the 19th century, tolerance and respect for life are important values. Moreover, we can affirm that all the Europe remains under the same codes. Maybe because of a religious view point, the respect for life is a typical value in the Old Catholic world.

Those who are in favor of capital punishment mostly live in developing countries. However, this is not just an image of the Third World countries. Actually, the USA is one country where this kind of punishment has its higher rates of application. The state of Texas, in particular, is at the top, supporting this measure against crime, especially those involving serial killers and crimes against children. In a society dominated by fear and government control, it is foreseen that this penalty will continue into a future next.

Maybe this is not a simple question. As we can see there are several values here and of course cultural behavior. The roots of the question are religious, cultural, ethical and even geographical. The world is divided and the law systems show this division. The solutions, however can lead us to other questions concerning revenge and justice. It will be better to kill a person because of his crimes? Can we admit that a life sentence could be a much better sentence? In fact, rehabilitation is the right way especially with an accurate psychological evaluation first. Some people are lost forever, and in my opinion some murderers and other criminals will suffer more in jail. In this sense, capital punishment is an easy way out. 

Sample essay 9: Band 7: Should wealthy nations share their wealth?

 

Should wealthy nations share their wealth?

Should wealthy nations be required to share their wealth with poorer nations by providing them with things such as food and education? Or is this the responsibility of the governments of poorer nations to look after their citizens?

 I think that wealthy nations should be required to share their wealth with poorer nations. But their helping should only stop at providing such things as food and education because of the three following reasons.

Firstly, citizens of both wealthy nations and poorer nations are human beings. Therefore, we can not look at, hear of, or talk about people who lack food, education, etc... without compassion and sympathy. Sharing wealth with poorer nations is not only a good deed but is also a task .

Secondly, many nations in Africa and Asia are very very poor. Famine, diseases, crime and illiteracy are killing the citizens of these countries. In the contrary, many nations in Europe and America are too rich. If there are no actions taken, this inequality will increase dramatically. Poor countries will become more and more poorer while rich countries will become more and more richer. As a result, the poorest countries will become slaves of the richest countries. So, sharing wealth is an useful way to prevent people from that bad future.

Thirdly, although sharing wealth with poorer nations is very necessary but this help should only stop at providing such things as food, medicine and education. Or else, poor nations may become dependent on the aid. They may lose enthusiasm to build their countries by themselves. Moreover, rich nations can take advantage of sharing wealth to interfere with the governance of poor nations’. This can’t be considered a humane action and should be prevented.

In my opinion, sharing wealth with poorer nations has both a bad side and a good side. What we have to do is avoiding its bad side and practicing its good side.

Sample essay 8: Band 7: Advertising

 

 Advertising

Advertising is all around us, it is an unavoidable part of everyone’s life. Some people say that advertising is a positive part of our lives while others say it is a negative one. Discuss both views and include your own opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. You should write at least 250 words.

Many people wonder about advertisement. Some people think that it has negative impact in our life. However, others said it has been playing as positive effect on this world. This is not an easy essay to be answered, but I will look at this issue.

Why advertisement has been playing a negative effect in our life ? Of Course for several reasons: firstly, it motivates the psychological point in everyone, especially women. They will run to buy this advertised product especially if it’s from cosmetic roof, just to show their beauty to men, which will lead to more offender and raped cases. Secondly, you can sit comfortably with your family and suddenly the telephone is ringing, but it’s nothing important, it’s just another company try to convince you to buy one of their products. It is a real intrusive example of advertisement. Lastly, sometimes you do not have the financial ability to buy something, but with these new methods of advertisement, you will run to buy it, which will affect your budget.

On the other hand, there are some good sides to advertising. For instance, it compares the prices of many companies which benefit the consumer. Besides, it really opens our vision to see more products which we do not knowit unless the TV or Radio advertised them. In addition to, it breaks our daily routine and allows us to see new faces and learn the language better with the help of the daily updates they deliver through advertisement.

In conclusion, as we can see there are many aspects to this essay. I feel that we gain no benefits at all from advertisement, it plays on minds of people buy more things that they do not need it at all.