english 101 series 101 model answers for ielts writing task 2 set 2

327 words Some people believe that educating children altogether will benefit them.Others think intelligent children should be taught separately and givenspecial courses.. I think that i

English 101 Series: 101 model answers for part 1 of the IELTS speaking moduleEnglish 101 Series: 101 model answers for part 2 of the IELTS speaking moduleEnglish 101 Series: 101 model answers for part 3 of the IELTS speaking module

English 101 Series: 101 model answers for IELTS writing task 1English 101 Series: 101 model answers for IELTS writing task 2

English 101 Series: 101 phrasal verbs (set 1)English 101 Series: 101 phrasal verbs (set 2)English 101 Series: 101 slang terms (set 1)English 101 Series: 101 slang terms (set 2)English 101 Series: 101 conversation phrases

English 101 Series: 101 connectives

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Table of ContentsPreface

Author

Preface

The model answers are intended as a guide Candidates can use the ideaspresented in the essays in their own writing In addition, candidates may findthat the vocabulary and structures used in the answers help them to create theirown essays

The 101 essays have been divided into 12 topic areas Note that there are a largenumber of questions related to education This is not surprising considering thatIELTS involves many teachers and that most candidates are taking IELTS inorder to further their studies Therefore, the education questions have been sub-divided into 2 groups – general education questions and those relating morespecifically to the curriculum and teaching of particular subjects

Similarly, the group of essays relating to animals has been sub-divided from theenvironment Health and sport have been collated since questions on those topicsare usually closely related

The views expressed in the essays are not necessarily those of the author

The ‘back to top’ feature you can see below allows you to return to the contentspage from the other parts of this book

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Education

What is your opinion on the issue?

Like most British children, I attended a day school However, a minority ofchildren do go to boarding schools, sometimes because parents believe theschools are better In this essay, I would like to look at the advantages that eachsystem offers

Boarding schools are ideal for parents whose work takes them abroad or who areotherwise unable to offer their children a ‘normal’ home life after school and atweekends The children are looked after by professionals and the children learnto be independent of their parents from an early age These same three reasonslead many parents to send their children to such schools even if they do not needto because of work

Another reason that boarding schools are an attractive option is that they offer amore disciplined atmosphere, with children’s time allotted to certain activitiesfrom the moment they rise in the morning until they rest at night This isconsidered by the parents to be useful later in life

Boarding schools are expensive, so demand for them is usually limited to highincome families As they have more money, they can provide better facilities andattract better teachers with higher salaries This leads to greater opportunities forpersonal development for pupils

To conclude, I believe that both types of school have advantages in differentareas Families should decide for themselves which type they prefer to send theirchildren to

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Nowadays, fewer young people are willing to consider a career in teaching.

What do you think are the causes of this?What can the government do to encourage young people to becometeachers?

If fewer young people are moving into teaching as a profession, there could beseveral reasons for this trend and hence several ways to encourage them into it.In this essay, I will look at two of the possibilities

When people are choosing a career, they understandably take into account therates of pay of various jobs Teachers in my country are reasonably well paid,

Another reason could be the supposed difficulty of the job Many newspapers inmy country publish articles about the problems that teachers have maintainingdiscipline in the classroom and the criticism they receive from parents whobelieve teachers are doing a bad job of educating their children Potentialteachers reading such articles may well be put off the profession as a result Ifthe articles are correct, then the government (as the main employer) needs tolook at ways of supporting teachers I their work If the articles are only tellingpart of the story, perhaps teachers could be encouraged to contribute articles tonewspapers highlighting the positive side of their work and the satisfaction itbrings

To summarise, the government needs to discover why young people are notinterested in a career in teaching It is the government’s responsibility because itis the main employer of teachers Once it has found out the reasons for this, itcan support policies that encourage young people into the profession In myopinion, higher pay rates might be hard to introduce given that governmentsusually have tight budgets, but portraying a more positive image of teachingneed not be so expensive

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Disruptive school students have a negative influence on others Studentswho are noisy and disobedient should be grouped together and taughtseparately.

Although I agree that there are some situations where disruptive school studentsneed to be grouped together and taught separately, I think that there may be othersolutions to this problem which also need to be examined and evaluated

Obviously, disruptive students are a major problem in schools By interruptinglessons they reduce the time available for students to learn, possibly to the pointof harming their chances of doing well in examinations and thereby reducing theprobability of them going on to further education or getting the jobs they want.In addition, disruptive students have a negative effect on teachers, perhapsmaking them frustrated This in turn could make potentially talented teachersthink twice about going into the profession

However, I think that we need to look a little more closely at the reasons fordisruptive behaviour in classrooms Some students might be bored by theclasses It might be better for them to learn different subjects It may be possiblefor the teacher to introduce more interesting teaching methods into the

classroom Other students may be disruptive because they do not understand thematerial they are being taught In that situation, it might be better for the schoolto stream students according to their ability

Where students are committing criminal actions, such as violence in theclassroom, I think that it is absolutely necessary to remove them and have themeducated separately However, once again, we should look at the causes of thispoor behaviour Is there a family problem? Is the pupil associating with peoplewho have a bad influence on them? Is the pupil using illegal substances? Oncethe causes have been identified, there is a real chance of resolving the issue andgetting the young person back into the classroom with other students

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Some people believe that educating children altogether will benefit them.Others think intelligent children should be taught separately and givenspecial courses.

Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

I think that it is better for children to be educated in groups according to theirability, but there are people who disagree In this essay, I shall take a look at bothsides of the debate

Some people believe that, if children of different abilities are educated together,all of the children will benefit The idea is that the less able children will

improve because they can learn from the more able ones At the same time, themore able children will learn to co-operate with others and learn from helpingthe other children I think that this method can work quite well if the differencein ability amongst the children is not too great

However, if there is a great difference in ability, problems may develop First ofall, the more capable children may become bored with lessons that they havealready mastered Meanwhile, the less capable children might become frustratedthat they cannot grasp the material as well as the other children One method thatteachers frequently use in a situation where there are children of different

Another problem is that parents of the more able children may think that theirchildren are being held back by the less able children In such a situation theymay demand that the children be split into different classes according to ability,with special courses for particularly gifted children On the one hand, this allowseach group of children to study at their own pace On the other, some parentsmay feel that their children deserve to be in a higher level group

Overall, I think that the strongest argument is that children should learn at a pacethey are comfortable with If there are big differences in ability in a group ofchildren, I think that dividing the group according to ability, and perhapsoffering special courses, is the best option

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Schools should stop using books for teaching children, if they find themboring, and use television, films and computers instead.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

I think that, with the development of technology, it might be possible to stopusing traditional books for teaching school children, particularly if the childrenfind those books boring

Tablets, laptops and the like can frequently be used in classroom situations byboth teachers and children Some such devices have even been specificallydesigned for children of particular ages These are usually pre-loaded withsuitable learning materials and educational games There is no reason whyclasses couldn’t be taught using these devices, again, with the proviso thatparents have the financial means to buy them Teachers might find this useful asthey can give each child a copy of the class materials

Television and films have been used for decades to teach children Manycountries have made educational programmes and films about science,geography, history and other subjects If children find these more interesting thanbooks and they can be shown to improve their educational experience, I do notsee any reason why they shouldn’t be used It is worth remembering that manychildren may be visual learners who can learn better via such methods

Overall, I think that the use of technology such as television and computers foreducating children is a great idea and can certainly be used instead of books AsI mentioned, there may be a financial issue in some cases However, I predictthat there will be more use of technology instead of books in future classrooms

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To what extent do you agree or disagree?

In my opinion, saying that children should never be educated at home by theirparents is too definitive I can think of several situations where home schoolingmight be more advantageous than sending a child to school

One situation where it might be better to educate a child at home is where thatchild suffers from a physical or mental disability and appropriate school facilitiesare not available within a reasonable distance In many situations, it might be tooexpensive to provide special educational facilities catering to only a few

children Of course, if it is possible and the parents wish, a child with a disabilitycan go to the same school as the other children in the area However, placing adisabled child with other children is not always possible or appropriate

In some parts of the world, families might live in isolated areas As a result, theparents might feel that educating their children at home is better than sendingthem to boarding schools very far away Nowadays, technology has made this amore viable option In the past, Australian children living on isolated ranchesreceived education via radio Nowadays, the Internet and television can be usedin addition

Many parents may feel that they can do a better job of educating their childrenthan the locals schools can There may be a variety of reasons for this Perhapsthe quality of the local schools is not very high Perhaps the parents are qualifiedteachers The child might be particularly gifted in some way, so the parents maywant to nurture this ability outside the mainstream education system

schools are the best places for children to learn, but this is not always possible orappropriate

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Parents who do not send their children to government financed schoolsshould not have to pay taxes to support government financed schools.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

I have some sympathy with parents who claim that they shouldn’t have to paytaxes to support government financed schools After all, why should they pay forsomething that they do not use? However, I think that there are additional factorsto consider

A lot of people believe that private schools should not be permitted, as theyencourage elitism and give children from wealthier families an added advantagein their formative years I think that these arguments have merit, but that it isnatural for parents to want the best for their children and that they should bepermitted to pay extra for it if they desire Besides, private schools almostalways offer several free places to particularly able children from poorer familiesand/or places at reduced fees

However, if parents could then claim tax refunds from the government becausethey paid for private educations, this could have serious consequences First ofall, other people might try to claim tax refunds for other reasons Some people

Moreover, since the parents sending their children to be educated privately arevery likely to be wealthier than average, perhaps they could look at their taxcontribution to the state funded education system as a ‘wealth tax’ The fact thatthey are not using any of the state education budget should also mean that thereis more money per child in the state system, which will hopefully be used toclose the qualitative gap between private and state schools

Furthermore, a better government funded education system also benefits thewealthy who send their children to private schools A better educated societygenerally leads to lower crimes rates, better health, better employment

opportunities and the creation of a larger tax base All of these benefits accrue toeveryone in society

In conclusion, I can see the logic of the argument that people who send theirchildren to school outside the government funded system should not have tocontribute tax revenue towards it, but that there are stronger arguments in favourof them doing so

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Some people think it is better to educate boys and girls in separate schools.Others, however, believe that boys and girls benefit more from attendingmixed schools.

Since parents are worried about giving their children the best education, therehave recently been many arguments about the best ways to achieve this Onesuggestion involves sending boys and girls – especially those in their teenageyears – to different schools I disagree with this suggestion and will outline myreasons below

First of all, I think that providing the best education to every single child isvirtually an impossible task Since different children learn, behave and think indifferent ways, I believe that making a general statement that they learn better atsingle gender schools is unhelpful Some will find single gender schools betterenvironments for study and others will not Therefore, I think that the decisionshould be left to parents, after discussion with their children

Secondly, educating boys and girls separately may work in the cities where thereare many schools to choose from, but what about in the countryside where theremay only be one school for many miles? The two solutions are too build manymore schools, which would be expensive, or to have one gender travel muchfurther to school

Thirdly, education for boys and girls at separate schools will reduce the amountof contact boys and girls have, which could have negative results later in life.Parents often seem to take a very limited view of education – that it is only aboutsucceeding at examinations This is particularly surprising considering that mostparents work and should know that high exam scores do not guarantee success

To conclude, it seems to me that the arguments for the separate education ofboys and girls fail to take into account the individuality of young people, thepracticalities of providing schooling and the realities of life

Education – Subjects

What is your opinion on the issue?

School time is valuable since it is limited There is so much to learn, but simplynot enough time to study everything As a result, schools and governments haveto make tough choices about which subjects and which subject matter are mostimportant and useful Some people believe that studying international newsshould be a school subject, whist others disagree

I think that the main advantage of studying international news as a schoolsubject would be that students would gain a wider perspective on the world Partof this wider view would come from the fact that international news draws

together several different subjects – history, geography, science, economics,sociology and politics – and demonstrates how those subjects are relevant to thereal world It would show students how past events and developments haveshaped our current world and how we might be able to shape our future world

Another advantage is that it would give students a greater understanding of othersocieties and people from different countries In the modern world, where trade,communications and travel are so much faster and more important than in thepast, such knowledge would certainly be useful It could also have other effects,such as breaking down barriers between countries, cultures and people It mightalso increase the prestige of the country, since foreigners would see that weknow about events that are happening around the world and take an interest inthem

In conclusion, I think that studying international news would be advantageous tostudents and that it would not be a waste of school time to include it in the

timetable

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The only reason for attending a university course should be to becomebetter educated in a particular subject.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

I disagree with the statement that the sole reason for taking a university courseshould be to become better educated in a subject

Of course, like most people, I do believe that becoming better educated shouldbe a major reason for taking a university course Universities are, after all, placesof higher education They offer specialised courses for people who have alreadyshown an aptitude for learning, usually at secondary school Universities alsooffer further education for people who have worked in particular fields for manyyears and who need to develop their knowledge, particularly as fresh

developments have happened in their areas of expertise

Furthermore, taking a university course provides people with the opportunity tomix with other students and academics They can share ideas, theories and otherinformation People taking university courses can develop professional

relationships and personal friendships with others These may then help them inlater life, particularly with their careers

In conclusion, I think that a better education is a key reason for taking auniversity course, but it is frequently not the only one In fact, I think that takinga university course purely for the educational benefit is rather sad

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Some people think that school subjects are too academic and that childrenshould learn more useful subjects such as home management, personalfinance and interpersonal skills.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

I believe that schools should try to offer children a range of subjects, includingboth academic ones and those that are not so academic, but offer ‘life skills’ tochildren

However, I also think that there is real value in some more modern subjects.Let’s take the three mentioned in the statement Home management could beuseful to everyone (as we live in homes!), but it could be helpful to people whoare considering certain kinds of work, in hospitality for example I think thatthere is a strong argument for making personal finance a compulsory subject.Many adults in my country are in debt Many find it difficult or even impossibleto understand credit card terms and conditions Teaching personal finance couldreduce this problem and provide employment opportunities for people as

advisors As for interpersonal skills, we all need those

I think it is clear that there is a place for newer subjects such as personal financeon the school curriculum However, I would prefer to see these subjects added tothe more traditional ones, instead of being used to replace them

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Many people say that personal finance should be a compulsory secondaryschool subject If it was a compulsory subject, what do you think should beincluded on the courses?

First of all, I would definitely include an overview of bank accounts Morespecifically, I would make sure that students are familiar with basic bankingterminology and the different banking products and services that are available,such as debit cards, credit cards, fixed term deposit accounts and the like Iwould advise that particular attention be paid to credit cards as they are not onlycommonly used in my country, but can be a source of high debt if not usedjudiciously

Secondly, I would include several classes on investing in the stock market,focusing on the potential risks and benefits and, as with banking, on theterminology used in the field The classes would include the mechanics ofbuying and selling shares, information about dividend payments and the use ofstatistical information to help people decide when to buy and when to sell Itmay also be a good idea for students to learn about the role of stockbrokers andfinancial advisors

Thirdly, I believe that some classes about creating and keeping to a familybudget might be useful These classes might be simpler and not involve toomany financial terms, but they could be useful for many students in their futurelives The classes might also add a practical aspect to the teaching of

mathematics at schools Furthermore, students might be able to use some of thislearning immediately, using their families as examples

Finally, I would include classes on avoiding scams and about online securitywhen using online banking or purchasing goods and services online Nowadays,this has unfortunately become a commonplace problem, so we should ensure that

I am sure there are many other things that could be included in the courses, butthose are the four main areas I would focus the curriculum on

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Some people believe that unpaid community service should be a compulsorypart of high school programmes (for example working for a charity,

improving the neighbourhood or teaching sports to younger children).

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

In this essay, I shall explain why I think that it is a good idea for secondaryschool students to do compulsory community service

In this essay, I shall explain why I think that unpaid community service shouldnot be compulsory for high school students

For me, the most important reason why community service should not becompulsory for high school students is that they should be focussing on otherthings I think it is much more important for high school students to studyacademic subjects – like maths, languages, science and computing – that will

Of course, there are some students who would like to do community service andwould find it useful in their future careers They could do it during school hoursif they wish However, this does not mean that it should be compulsory for everystudent In fact, making it compulsory could have negative effects if the studentshave to do work that they do not want to do or do not see the use in doing

Students who want to do community service can also easily find ways to itoutside school hours, e.g in the evenings, at the weekends or during the schoolholidays

To conclude, I strongly disagree with the idea that unpaid community serviceshould be compulsory for high school students, but I think that communityservice is a good thing for society and should be available to high schoolstudents who want to do it

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Some people think that universities should provide graduates with theknowledge and skills needed in the workplace Others think that the truefunction of a university should be to give access to knowledge for its ownsake, regardless of whether the course is useful to an employer.

What, in your opinion, should be the main function of a university?

Some people believe that universities should provide students with the

Many university students do not study a subject at university and then go on toget a job directly related to that subject A brief review of leaders of majorcountries reveals that not all them have only studied politics For example, HuJin Tao, former leader of China, was an engineering graduate As an Englishteacher, I know that most of my colleagues do not have an undergraduate degreein teaching or English Other people may study a particular subject at university,then get a job directly related to that subject, but then make a career change laterin life

My second point is that many subjects are not even available at degree level atuniversity, such as policing or being a DJ This is because, for many jobs, therequired knowledge and skills cannot easily be put into a degree course or can belearnt by anyone wishing to put in the required time and effort In addition, itshould be noted that most employers find it better to hire people with thedemonstrated capacity to learn new skills and train them on specially-designedcourses or ‘on the job’ rather than to only look at graduates who have studiedparticular courses

To conclude, I strongly believe that universities should provide knowledge andskills that a variety of workplaces need, meaning that some things students learnmay not be directly related to a particular job

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Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

In this essay, I shall explain why I think that it is better for children to beginlearning foreign languages at primary school than at secondary school

The main reason that I believe this is that the children at primary school areyounger than those at secondary school and, in my experience, younger childrenlearn languages faster than older children Of course, this does not mean that Ithink that children at primary schools should be taught the complex aspects offoreign languages, but they can easily be taught some simple vocabulary andgrammar structures By beginning to learn foreign languages at primary school,when the children move to secondary school, they have the basic knowledge ofthe foreign language and can start to learn more complex vocabulary and

sentence structures This means that, by the time they finish secondary school,they have a greater ability in the foreign languages they have learnt

Some people think that children at primary school level might confuse theforeign languages with their native language or not fully understand thedifferences between the foreign languages and their own language I disagree Inmy experience, children can confuse languages if they learn two at the sametime, but this is temporary and easy to correct I do not think that it is necessaryfor children to fully understand the differences between languages When adultslearn a few phrases in a foreign language, they do not have this understanding

To summarise, I think children should start learning foreign languages at primaryschool rather than at secondary school

Some people think it would be a good idea for schools to teach every youngperson how to be a good parent.

Do you agree or disagree with this opinion?Describe the abilities a person needs to be a good parent.

In this essay, I will say why I disagree with the idea of schools teachingparenting and outline the skills a person needs in order to be a good parent, inmy opinion

I believe schools should focus on academic subjects, such as maths, languages,science and humanities, rather than on teaching non-academic subjects, such asparenting There is limited amount of space in the school timetable and thismeans that a clear line needs to be drawn somewhere In other words, it isunrealistic to expect schools to be able teach everything, meaning that certainthings must be left to parents

Since schoolteachers are almost always knowledgeable in their particular subjectareas, they should focus on these However, on issues such as parenting, it isgenerally accepted that much depends on parents’ morals and opinions Althoughteachers may make suggestions, they cannot present solutions to parenting

problems without detailed knowledge of the situation within a specific family.For example, some children require strict discipline, but other children are self-disciplined and thus only require minimal supervision by parents

In conclusion, I believe that it is better to leave the development of parentingskills in children to parents rather than teachers and that honesty and trust are themost important things in the parent-child relationship

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Economics and Business

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

I believe that some people working in health, government and education maydeserve to receive higher salaries than some celebrities However, this is oftennot something that actually happens I shall examine a few of the key reasonsbelow

First of all, I find the statement to be too general Does the statement mean thatno celebrity deserves a higher salary than any person working in health,

government of education? This seems rather extreme It would mean that thebest, most deserving celebrity could not earn more than the worst teacher So, forthe purpose of this essay, I shall take it to mean that the average salary of

celebrities should not be higher than the average earned by people in health,government and education

Many, perhaps most, people would agree that people like doctors and nursesprovide society with essential services On the other hand, celebrities provide uswith non-essential things, primarily entertainment Therefore, people working insocially essential fields should have a claim to higher salaries than those in non-essential ones However, perhaps unfortunately, society doesn’t quite work thatway

Since celebrities can easily spread their status across a population, for exampleby entertaining large numbers of people using modern media, they can earnhigher salaries than most health workers, who can only attend to a relativelysmall number of people each day Most Justin Bieber fans have given their idol

To summarise, celebrities may not deserve higher salaries than people workingin other fields, but, since they can easily leverage their earnings, they often doearn more

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Celebrities such as singers and film stars earn too much money, buy toomany goods and care too little about other people.

To what extent do you think this is true? Should anything be done to changethe situation?

Here, I am going to examine each of the three parts of the statement in turn,giving my opinion on each of them

I am not a big follower of celebrities, but I think that many of them earn far moremoney than they deserve They certainly make more money than most people,such as their fans However, it is worth remembering that one reason thesecelebrities are what they are, is that they lead a celebrity lifestyle, which is oftenexpensive Should anything be done to change this? It would be difficult Itwould be very difficult to cap their earnings Increasing their tax bills is morelikely to result in them employing skilled tax consultants or moving to a territorywith a lower tax regime Perhaps a better solution is to work against the celebritycult by pointing out how little these people really contribute

Frivolous spending could engender a backlash by fans

I think that the last question is the most difficult to answer Some celebrities do alot of charity work Others create awareness of pressing social issues People likeSting and Bono spring to mind However, it is not always clear whether this isentirely altruistic Perhaps the celebrities are primarily creating more publicityfor themselves Again, changing the situation is difficult Forcing celebrities tocare about others is unrealistic, but it would be nice if celebrities themselvesjoined together and agreed to do a certain amount of community service

Generally, I agree with the statement, and think that it would be good if thingschanged However, I cannot think of any way to do this without infringing toomuch on the individual rights of celebrities

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Many people say that we now live in 'consumer societies' where money andpossessions are given too much importance.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

First of all, we can see that politicians in my country are encouraging people toconsume, claiming that we can increase economic growth by spending more Iam not an expert, but I think that there is a certain amount of logic to this Byspending money, we create jobs in various sectors of the economy However, byencouraging people to buy, the government seems to be ignoring the fact thatpeople also need to save money, perhaps for large purchases or for theirretirement With people living longer, a lack of money in retirement couldbecome a very serious issue

Secondly, there seems to me to be far too much advertising, further encouragingpeople to spend These advertisements often suggest that not having or using aparticular product makes you unworthy or bad in some way Frequently, thisadvertising is directed at people who have less money than most, such as theyoung and less well paid As a result, many people run up debts that create notonly financial problems but also emotional ones This can lead to crime and thebreak up of families in some cases

Thirdly, there is the issue of the environmental sustainability of the consumersociety Since such a society requires people to spend money, it means thatpeople need to be constantly persuaded (usually through advertising) to get rid ofold items and purchase new ones This leads to the issues of how to dispose ofthe waste, the constant need for fresh materials and the use of energy resources

To conclude, I think that my country is a consumer society, like many othersaround the world, and that this has profound negative implications

Some people believe that it is better if there is a smaller gap between richand poor in society.

What is your opinion on this issue?

I agree with the idea that a smaller gap between rich and poor is better for asociety and will outline my reasons in this short essay

In recent years, there has been a growing body of statistical evidence to supportthe benefits of having a society where wealth is more evenly distributed Thedifference in wealth between the richest and the poorest in society is oftenmeasured using the Gini coefficient Countries with low Gini coefficients arefrequently regarded as the best places to live The Scandinavian countries areoften cited as examples

Countries with less of a gap between rich and poor generally have lesscorruption and lower levels of crime and social violence This trend can even beseen within countries, as US states with more equality have less gun crime.Again, the Scandinavian countries regularly score lower than other countries interms of corruption These kinds of statistics could revolutionise governmentpolicies all over the world

Some people, including many politicians, seem to have the idea that reducingfinancial inequality will result in lower economic growth or a less prosperouseconomy This is clearly a misconception, given that some very wealthycountries (on a per capita basis) have more equality than many poor ones In

A high gap between rich and poor seems to be a recipe for social unrest.Governments should pay attention to this fact, since many governments thatfailed to deal with high inequality between the rich and the poor fell as a result.Almost all people are prepared to accept a certain degree of inequality, especiallyif they know that the rich deserve what they have The problem arises when therich appear to have become rich undeservedly – perhaps through corruption oran unfair social system

I am not advocating a completely equal society, but one that is fair and has areasonable gap between those who deserve to be rich and those who are not sowealthy is, in my opinion, acceptable

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In some countries people pay different rates of tax depending on theirsalary, in other countries everyone pays the same rate.

Which do you believe is the best system?

In this essay, I will explain why I believe that a tax system where everyone paysthe same rate of tax is better than one where different people pay different rates,according to their incomes

However, there is now mounting evidence that a progressive income tax mightnot be the best way to achieve greater income equality or to reduce social unrest.Several countries, such as the Baltic countries, have a flat tax, whereby the taxrate is same, regardless of income One reason is that citizens who are liable forhigher tax rates often employ various methods to help them to avoid the higherrates Some even go to live for most of the year in a foreign country where thetax is lower

This can result in a situation where a higher rate of tax results in lower revenuefor the government This clearly defeats one of the main points of having aprogressive income tax system As a result, many policymakers suggest a flat taxcombined with a higher tax threshold, i.e point where income tax becomes

payable on income This is a simpler system, less expensive administratively, yetit still allows the government to reduce income inequality via the threshold

To conclude, I am in favour of a flat tax on income over a progressive one

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In many countries, an increase in the standard of living seems to havebenefited cities more than rural areas.

It seems that in many countries which have developed relatively quickly inrecent years there is marked difference between the living standards in urbanareas when compared with rural areas Why has this difference arisen and isthere anything that can be done to reduce it?

One reason why the standard of living has risen faster in cities than in rural areasis that central governments often use the cities as “showcases” to illustrate howwonderful a country has become This is for both the citizens of the country –often to increase national pride – and for foreigners, so that they will get theimpression that the country is a worthwhile place to invest in

Another reason is that it is often easier to focus on developing a city rather than arural area Cities in less developed countries generally have better infrastructurethan rural areas This makes them better locations for factories to produce

exports, for instance Furthermore, the education and health infrastructures aregenerally better, making cities better places for most employers

Reducing these differences may require radical solutions Some people,including many experts, say that government interference should be minimal,since the increased standards of living in cities will eventually flow to ruralareas This may be true, but it appears to condemn many people living in ruralareas to lifetimes of relative poverty

One thing that governments could do is encourage businesses to relocate topoorer, rural areas, perhaps by giving them tax incentives Another possibility isto improve transport links from rural areas to nearby cities, which would make