The Collection of TOEFL Model Essays: Topic 7

How do movies or television influence people's behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

Suggestions

Essay 1

Do movies and television affect our behavior? I believe that movies and television do influence our behavior, both for the better and for the worse.

Movies and television influence our behavior because they make us less active. Looking at films is a passive activity. If we watch too much, we become unhealthy, both mentally and physically. We stop using our own imagination when we see things acted out for us. Mental laziness becomes physical laziness; we'd rather watch sports on TV than play sports ourselves. We'd rather visit with the characters on "Seinfeld" or "Friends" than go chat with our own neighbors. Imaginary people have exciting lives. Is it any wonder that some people would rather live a fantasy life than their own? Movies and television also can make people more violent. The more we see violent acts on television, the less sensitive we become to them: Eventually violence doesn't seem wrong. We may even commit violent acts ourselves. This is especially true because we don't always realize that violence has consequences. Actors can be killed and come back for another movie. Sometimes we confuse that with reality. We forget that killing someone is permanent.

Of course, watching movies and television can also be good for us. It can give us a broader
window on the world. For example, seeing movies can expose us to people of different races and cultures. We can then overcome some prejudices more easily. Recently there have been more handicapped people in films, and this also helps reduce prejudice.


The best influence on our behavior is that movies and television reduce stress. Watching films, we can escape our own problems for a little while. Also, sometime movies show positive ways to resolve problems we all face. While TV and movies shouldn't be a way to hide from life, sometimes they can help us cope.

It is true that movies and television can influence our behavior negatively. However, I also believe that they influence our behavior in positive ways. How they affect you depends on how much you watch, what you watch, and how you respond to what you watch.

Essay 2

Hesitating I enter my house, the light outside is dimming and the shadows make everything appear unfamiliar. I know that my husband has not returned from work yet, simply because his car is not in the garage. I am alone. I carefully check all the rooms, almost expecting something to happen suddenly. I hold my bag in my hand as if it were a weapon. After the whole house has been declared "clear," I start to breathe normally again and a smile appears on my face as I realize, once again, how a simple movie seen at the cinema a week earlier can modify my actions.

Sometimes I wonder if I should watch TV, with all its shows that make me wonder whether I exercise enough, whether I am slim enough, or whether I treat my pets with the care they deserve: am I really concerned about their mental health? Not to mention the hundreds of commercials that try to make me believe I need a water purifier to remain alive since the water I am currently drinking is heavily polluted! And countless are the times when I have heard people talking by quotations learned from movies. We need to watch shows and films to know what to say, how to be, how to act. We are so addicted to all this that it almost seems like we cannot think on our own.

I cannot help thinking about what happened to me some days ago, an example that clearly shows what kind of power TV has over people. My husband and I were in a restaurant when I heard my young neighbor pronouncing violent words in a low angry voice. Surprised, I turned to better understand the situation and I saw that he was holding a fake military device and was acting as if he were filming a war movie. I am sure that if I had been a little be more updated about this type of movie, I would have recognized what he was saying as a quotation. Now, I wonder if he uses such a language also with his friends and with his parents, if he is aggressive, and if so, whether his attitude has really nothing to do with what he watches on TV.

That same evening on the way home I saw two cars stopped one next to the other at a traffic light and as soon as the light turned green they started racing, in the middle of town. In this case not even a major knowledge of movies and TV programs would have helped me: there are just to many of them on the market showing the exact same thing: people racing with cars.

I am sure that everybody, if asked, could easily list many other examples of how TV and movies can modify our behavior and therefore our life but, I wonder, if we will always be able to draw the line between a TV show and real life, between what they make us think we want and what instead we really need and are and believe.

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The Collection of TOEFL Model Essays: Topic 6

If you could change one important thing about your hometown, what would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

Suggestions:

Essay 1

Everything in the universe is in constant change. And everything needs continual improvement if the ever changing and increasing demands of humankind are to be met. If I am ever given the chance to change one important thing about my home town, it would be internet service.

Needless to say that nothing generally revolutionized the way we live as internet in the past decade. Thus, an improvement in this vital service would mean an even more, unheard betterment to the people in my home town.

It is said that information is power. True saying indeed! I can envision how everything in my home town could improve dramatically if the internet service in it were made free, fast and staying out there like electricity, telephone or water all the time. One thing, a fast free and reliable internet service could improve in my home town is the way people work. If there is a this said service people in my home town must not necessarily commute to a far place to do their job. This in turn would mean less traffic jams, spacious work place, more time for family and recreation and so on.

The way people learn would be another important thing that a fast, free and reliable internet
service could better in my home town. People will have the chance to go through tremendous and different information resources in a very small amount of time. They, apparently will also take less time to share it. This assures a more fulfilled life for my home town people.

Since its advent, internet touched every part of our life. It in a dazzling way improved the way we do business, learn and communicate. A change in internet service implies good way of living for every one in my home town.

Essay 2

If I could change one important thing about my hometown, it would be air pollution problem, and I will give the following reasons to explain why I want to solve the problem.

The first and most important reason is that I hope that my hometown can become a beautiful city. As an old industrial city, my hometown has made a great deal of contribution for the country’s economic development. At a result, the natural environment of the city has been badly damaged. The forest has disappeared; the mountains have become bald, and the most awful thing is that the air quality becomes more and more worse. People seldom see the blue sky during most time of year.

Another reason why I want to change my hometown’s air pollution situation is that the city’s development needs clean and tidy environment to attract investors. Nowadays people have come to know that the city’s environment, which is so called “software facility of the city”, plays an important role in the city’s future. For example, due to the fact that the environment of the city is very poor, many local students who pursue their study out of the city would rather find themselves a job in other cities than coming back to their hometown after they graduated.

In addition, nowadays people have paid more and more attention to their health. If air pollution problem cannot be solved as quickly as possible, people’s requirement for a healthy body will never be realized.

In my mind, changing air pollution will apparently be my first choice if I can change one
important thing about my hometown. Fortunately people in my hometown are gradually aware of the serious problem.

Essay 3

If i could change one thing about my hometown, i would like to build up some useful and
advanced facilities for their use. A modern library, an advanced broad band system and an
integrated gym may bring a lot of changes to people living in my hometown and keep them up with the latest information and technology.

In my opionion, a modern library in my hometown can provide a good environment for the local people to study and upgrade themsevles. There are a lot of newspaper, magazines and reference books for their use. They can know what happened around the world and keep up with the fast- pace of this developing world. From lots of cultural books, they also can own a good habit of reading and learn to get knowledge from books. "Knowledge is strengh". Knowledge can give us guidance to overcome problems we meet in the daily life.

To popularize the broad band at home also is a quick access to Internet and movie channel, which can give people much more chances to choose their entertainment. Because of the Internet, our lives have been changed a lot no matter whether we accept or not. We can read news, buy items from e-commerce companies, send a free e-card to our friends, mail our beautiful photos to anyone we like or watch the movies online. Anyway, Internet brings us obvious changes. Additionally, broad band also can provide movie channel to users. Can you imagine that you can watch the movies you like just by cliking one button? It provide different types of movie for you to choose. People have more choice to enjoy the life and advanced technology at home.

Besides important information we need to know and advanced technology we use, we also need to do exercise to keep our healthy life. This is the reason why i want to set up an integrated gym in my hometown. Through doing many various exercises, such as, swimming, jogging, playing badminton or tennice, peopple can enhance their ability to resist the virus and enjoy the life happily. Furthermore, people who often do exercise have positive attitudes towards life although when facing difficulties. This is really what i hope to see.

In summary, i want my hometown to be a city equipped with a modern library, an advanced broad band system and filled with people liking exercise, loving life and possessing positive attitudes towards life. Thus, i want to build up above-mentioned facilities first.


Essay 4

With the developement of my hometown in the past few years, the population is expanding very fast. The city is expiriencing not only a higher birthrate than ever, but also waves of immigration. The streets in the city are crowed or even jamed during the rush hours. If I could change one thing about my hometown, I would develope an advanced public traffic system.

In order to hold such an exploding population, the city has extended miles by miles without much plan. It is common for people to travel from the southmost part to the northmost part of the city to go to work everyday. They have to spend three hours or more on the way they go to work and come home. Eight hours' work is a heavy burden, while people have to spend hours before and after the work. A subway running through or around the city can solve the problem. People could live further away from the downtown without worrying about spending too much time on the way.

Some people buy their own car or take a taxi to work everyday. It's really expensive for most of the people in the city. They can't afford paying so much on traffic fares. Many civil engineering experts advocate that sharing a public traffic system is the most efficient way. People could reduce their fares a lot by using the public traffic system, and they can spend the money on some other things.

Even there are more and more people who can afford buying a car or taking taxi everyday, It is still suggested to using the public traffic system. Because the road developement can never keep up with the demand of the increasing cars, the cars may jam on the roads during rush hours. Usually, the speed of the car in that time is no higher than a bycicle! And pollution is another concern. So many private cars running in the city will bring us an environmental problem. On the other hand, the pollution from the public traffic system is much lighter.

All in all, an advanced public traffic system time efficient, cost efficient, and pollution preventing. This is the trend of advanced cities.

Essay 5

I am from Arroz e Feijao, a small town in the northeast of Brazil. Building a factory in there will bring a lot of advantages and disadvantages, but I believe that Arroz e Feijao will mostly benefit from the building of a new factory because it is largely populated by poor people and the factory would bring many benefits to this small town. However, of course, a factory has disadvantages as well.

As you know, factories usually bring pollution. If this factory is not managed very effectively and efficiently according to specific rules, it's prone to polluting the local air and water. What's more, factories usually make noise. Beside clean drinkable water and fresh air, an ideal community should be quiet. If the factory cannot maintain this situation to the community, it will not last long. A factory that is too noisy or pollutes too much will eventually be relocated to a new area.

On the other hand, a factory could bring a lot of benefits to the community. So I would support the plan to build a factory to my community for all the reasons I will describe below.

First of all, the factory's construction will surely improve the local infrastructure. To run smoothly, the factory will have to have a steady, reliable supply of water and electricity. Some old pipes will be changed, and some facilities will be renovated. The residents' living standard get improved as a result of these widespread changes, an important benefit in Arroz e Feijao, where many people do not have access to clean water.

Secondly, to make the employee commute more convenient, the local roads will have to be rebuilt and broadened, resulting in improved public transportation. The town's residents can take a public bus to go shopping or go to work. As a result, air pollution and fuel consumption might be reduced.

Most important, a factory's establishment will bring up a lot of employment opportunities for the community. A factory need experts from various fields. The residents can take just a few minutes to go to the factory to work. So, the local residents can get great benefits from this factory.

Generally speaking, I agree with the plan to build a factory near my community. If the factory can be managed successfully, the factory and local residents can have mutual benefit.

Essay 6

Have you been waiting for buses at bus station for an hour in an extremely hot day? Have you been staying in a car waiting hours for the heavy traffic? Have you seen the scene that tons of people are crammed on a small bus? Maybe you think that’s incredible, but it’s true in my hometown. So the thing I want to change most about my hometown is the mass transportation system.

Mass transportation system is a very important part of a city. It influences people’s daily life,
work and entertainment. An effective mass transportation system can save people’s time so that people can do more work hence to increase the city’s efficiency. If you were the mayor, would you like the people in the city to sit in the cars or stand at bus stations wait for hours or would you like them to sit in the offices or stand in factories work for hours?

Moreover, a city with bad mass transportation system can’t be qualified as a good city, regardless how rich the city is and how big the city is. It’s essential for a city to have a good mass transportation system to be qualified a good city. For example, big cities such as Toronto, Tokyo, New York all have very good mass transportation systems which can bring people anywhere they want in a short time. A bad mass transportation system would limit the city to grow and it would be a handicap for the city to develop in the future.

Finally, as we can see, if my hometown can improve the mass transportation system, people will appreciate it a lot. It will be a great thing which benefits everyone in the city and makes our lifes more convenient. Read more

The Collection of TOEFL Model Essays: Topic 5

A company has announced that it wishes to build a large factory near your community. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this new influence on your community. Do you support or oppose the factory? Explain your position.

Suggestions:

Essay 1

I have been living in a peace and quiet town for about 10 years. All people around here is so kind, and the landscape is so beautiful that I love this town very much. Recently I heard news that a company will set up a new factory near my community. I was shocked and I hold a negative opinion about this decision.

The main reason why I oppose this plan is that establishing a new factory will cause air pollution. As we know, a factory will give off a lot of waste air which is harmful to people's health. Even though the factory will take measurements to purify the air, it can not make the air as clean as before. It is no doubt that people's health will be affected by the air emitted from the factory. Another reason is that a factory makes too much noise. My community is always a quiet place and this is just what I like the most. A factory will cause the town to become too noisy. For example, every morning, we can be awake from our dreams by the noise of buses which take workers to the factory. The noise of engines will also influent our temper, and may cause us susceptible to anger, and easily lose temper.

Furthermore, a strong reason to oppose this idea is that building a factory will destroy the
landscape of this town. Most people living in this town make their living by cultivating and
harvesting crops. The factory is inappropriate with the landscape of the town and it will occupy the land that is used to farming.

Of course, building a factory also has advantages to some extent. For example, it will bring more working opportunity for local people, and also it will help developing the local economics. But comparing with the disadvantages, I strongly oppose the idea to build a factory near my community.

Essay 2

I support the idea that a factory to be built near our community. I list my reasons as follows.
Firstly, a new factory near our community helps to improve living standard of people in our
community. The factory will employ a lot of workers. As a consequence, the unemployment rate will drop significantly. Many people in our community will find a job in the factory. As people's income increases, they will be able to spend more money on their food, clothing and leisure time, and the quality of life will be increased.

Secondly, a new factory will bring prosperity to our community. The tax collected from a factory is an important source of revenue for our town. As people have higher income, income tax collected will also be increased. The town will be able to spend more money on infrastructures and other development. Moreover, in order to accommodate more workers, more homes and stores will be needed. This will boost real estate development in our community.

Some people say that a factory would bring smog and pollution, and destroy the quality of the air and water in town. This is not the truth. Modern technologies have made today's factories technology intensive and brought pollutions to the minimum. There are also worries that the social structure of this community will be changed and the traditional life will be affected. We should understand that society needs to evolve and we cannot always stay in the old time.

Of course, there will be some drawbacks of building a new factory here. But in my opinion, the benefits outweigh the dangers. I strongly support to build a factory here, and hope that others feel the same way.

Essay 3

If a large factory is going to be built near your community, is it good or bad? It’s a quite difficult question to answer. Because there are many aspects to take into your consideration, the advantages and the disadvantages. Let’s talk about that.

First, a large factory, especially a large chemical factory is quite harmful to our environment when it is built near our community. It will affect our daily life a lot. All the chemical factories will produce a lot of waste and most of the wastes are harmful to the environment, including poisonous gas and liquid. Some of them can not be entirely broken down. If they are released into the air or the river, it will affect our health. And also the factory may produce a lot of noise. The environment we want to live in is a quiet and peaceful one, so the noise will be quite boring. And yes, noise also affects our health.

Still one thing, a factory can be very dangerous. Because a fire or a explosion may break out in the factory. If it’s very near our home, it’s quite dangerous.

But in other hand , a factory may be a good news to us. It can provide more jobs for us, especially for the young people in our community. Since the factory is near, it’s so convenient to go to work.. and the factory will get more chances to our area. It will help to develop our area. So if the factory can bring us a lot of chances, we will agree to build one. But the most important things are:

1. Build the factory in a safe distance from our community, not too near.

2. Make sure that the factory can deal with the waste properly. Do not release the poisonous gas into the air, and not release the waste water into the river nearby.

3. Make sure the security guard in the factory works very well.

Essay 4

A company has announced that it wishes to build a large factory near our community. To be
frank, I have mixed emotions about this.

Obviously, there are some advantages having such a factory nearby. For example, it can provides more job opportunities and many people may work in the factory. What is more, it also gives a good chance for the development of other business in our community such as shops, theatres and restaurants. Furthermore, the products the factory manufactures will improve our quality of living.

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages building a factory here. First, it will disturb the quiescence of our community. Once the factory is set up, a lot of people will rush into our community to work, and the road will get crowded. To transfer the raw materials the factory needs, there will be many trucks coming and going through the streets, and the noise will disturb residents and it is unsafe for our children who always play freely in the streets before.

Second, the factory will produce many waste products each day, and there will be much waste water coming out from the factory and it will pollute our rivers. We do not want to have to see hundreds and thousands tons of waste piled near our houses, and we do not want to see our nearby rivers turning into black dishes either.

After weighing the advantages and disadvantages, I decide to oppose to set up such a factory near our community because we need quiet surrounding, blue sky and clean rivers.

Essay 5

Weather it is beneficial to build a large factory near our community is a prevalent topic
undergoing serious debate. Two different opinions obviously exist to support and to oppose. After pondering the opinions from several aspects, personally, I agree with the idea that it is beneficial to build a large factory near our community.

By comparing the advantage and disadvantage they will get, people judge which role they should hold. In my opinion, the advantage in this case is superior than the disadvantage. we can see it below.

The main reason for my propensity for the choice is that the factory will supply lots of
employment opportunities for society, especially the people of the community nearby. The unemployment will decrease and the people’s standard of living will increase in some degree. so, no doubt, people will accept the factory willingly and rapidly.

Another reason why I prefer to the statement lies in the fact that with the developing of the
factory, many other establishments will be founded around it. These establishments will make the lives of the people of the community more convenient. For example, drugstores, restaurants, even hospital, new bus stop will be built up. People here will enjoy the convenience the factory brings. It is undeniable that the factory will bring some problems, such as the noise, air pollution. Whatever, these disadvantage will be limited into a low level so that they can not contaminate the environment of the community.

From what has been discussed above, we can safely draw the conclusion that it is beneficial to build a large factory near our community. Read more

The Collection of TOEFL Model Essays: Topic 4

It has been said, "Not everything that is learned is contained in books." Compare and contrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books. In your opinion, which source is more important? Why?

Suggestions:

Essay 1

There are two main channels for people to learn knowledge –from books and from experience. Generally, knowledge gained from books is theoretical, that gained from experience is practical. It is difficult to answer which is more important to we people. It depends on the phases and events of our learning.

Knowledge learned from books is instructive, which perhaps cannot learn directly from experience. We often hear thunders and see lightning in the sky, and we can easily find that lightning will be seen sooner than sound will be heard. According to our experience alone, we cannot tell why it had happened. But when we learn some physics in textbooks, we will find the answer clearly that because light travels faster than sound does, it takes less time for light to travel the same distance than for sound. Therefore, book knowledge can inform us some useful theories that can give us general ideas and help us understand the real phenomenon better.

In turn, practice knowledge check out the theories gained from books. There is an old Chinese saying that practice is the only criterion of inspecting the truth. So not all knowledge from books is credible, even false. When Aristotle wrote in his transcripts that the earth is the center of our planets, no one doubts this for centuries. However, when Galileo read about it, he did not suspect it at first, but when he made some observation and research, he found it is not the truth. Then comes the new theory—Sun center theory.

In our daily life, we can learn much information from practice. To learn swimming, it is useless to be absorbed in reading skills written in books. Only when you learn it in a swimming pool, can you make it. There are still a lot of things you must learn from your own experience, such as driving a car, riding a bicycle, operating a machine. And the most important is that it is often easier learn knowledge from practice than from books. As far as the average people are concerned, it is natural to learn from experience. Primitive people learned skills hand by hand which is the way they were handed down from one generation to another.

Modern people also learn things in practice. In workshops, leading workers teach apprentices
carefully; in activity clubs, teachers teach youngsters to be familiar with their hobbies. It is
obvious that all of things considered knowledge gained from practice is more close and direct than from the books.

Therefore, two kinds of knowledge has importance. For research people , knowledge from books is more important, while for our average people, knowledge from practice is more important. As students, we must first learn knowledge from books well, and at the same time we must have the good sense to tell from what is right and what is wrong.

Essay 2

We gain our knowledge about the world and our life from two sources: from experience and from books. These two resources are both important, but which of them is more important?

Knowledge from books forms a very important part of our knowledge structure. In schools and colleges, we learn knowledge which is fundamental to our future career. We learn knowledge from books in order to make our contributions to this society in the future. A student learns mathematic equations and other scientific knowledge and become a scientist or engineer. We will be illiterate and ignorant without learning knowledge from books. Moreover, we acquire knowledge about life and the world by reading books, magazines and newspapers. This is also very important as we cannot experience everything all by ourselves. Therefore books are a very important source of knowledge.

On the other hand, we can't learn everything from a book. “Experience is the best teacher” is an old cliché, but I agree with it. The most important, and sometimes the hardest, lessons we learn in life come from our participation in situations. We learn how to get along with others or how to have self-respect from our experience, not from books. We cannot learn emotional feelings, such as love and care, through books; they come from our real life experience. Knowledge from experience is also a very important supplement to knowledge from books.

Needless to say both learning sources, books and experience, are very important to us. But in my opinion knowledge from experience is more important, because without knowledge from
experience, it is impossible to get a real understanding of knowledge from books, and how to
apply this knowledge to real world situations. Read more

The Collection of TOEFL Model Essays: Topic 3

Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Suggestions:

Essay 1

Man, through the ages, has undergone many changes, from a period when he hunted for his food to the present era when man is dependent on preprocessed foods. During this period not only has man changed his mode of eating but his whole lifestyle as well.

In pursuit of more in this competitive world, man no longer has time as he once had. He is caught in a race against the clock. A person who finishes more in lesser time is considered more efficient. This pressure to do more in less time has affected his eating habits as well and, as a result, man no longer has time to cook food. Early man's only objective was to seek food to sustain him and his family. Nowadays finding food has taken a back seat to other priorities, such as career and education.

Food is no longer of that importance. This is not an encouraging trend. People are too dependent on preprocessed or precooked food, which no longer has the freshness it once had. Such foods loose their mineral and vitamin content and are not as healthy as fresh food. That is why the number of diseases is also rising. People have also shifted to high calorie content food like French fries, pizzas, and ice cream, etc., which is causing obesity, fatigue, etc. As man is becoming busy and too involved in his busy schedule, he has no time even to take care of his own personal needs.

Furthermore, cooking is an art which is dying out. People once enjoyed cooking . It was a means of eliminating stress and tension. People were once able to relax during this time and reflect on their lives.

People may tend to argue that by using precooked and preprocessed food they are efficiently
using time and can use this precious time saved for other purposes. But is it really worth it? This is a question whose answer can invite much speculation about whether by saving this little time we are inviting lots of other problems, which could easily be avoided. It is actually making our lives not simpler but more complicated. We have lost many of the simpler things in our lives, like the simple acts of selecting our evening meal, preparing it, and enjoying it with our loved ones, and we are worse off for it.

Essay 2

Nowadays, wherever we turn our gaze, we can see different types of food that are easier to
prepare. For instance, we can buy frozen foods in a supermarket and just prepare it in a couple of minutes, whereas before it could have taken us maybe hours to prepare this kind of meals. I would accept that this so-called improvement has changed our lives, but I believe that there are some drawbacks as well.

It is true that these kinds of food do not involve hard work to prepare, but food that is easy to
prepare generally has some artificial ingredients mixed in it that makes it "easy-to-cook". If we take time to read the ingredients, we would definitely come across words like preservatives or artificial flavorings. It was just a couple of days ago that I came across a newspaper article which stated that someone was poisoned because he ate this type of food. He was hospitalized for almost a month.

Not having to cook has also taken the fun out of cooking. Cooking is an art, but in today's world, this is no more true. People are so busy with their work that they just rely on this simple foods. The invention and production of this foods have made people lazy not only for cooking but also for a well family get-together. It was not like former times when families would sit together and eat freshly baked food. Instead, they are getting these artificial things with minimal nutrients in them.

Cooking in the yesteryears was much better than today's. People would spend more time in the kitchen, preparing the food in the way that they liked it. This brought families closer together and also contributed to the high quality and nutrition of the food. Granted, people are busier nowadays and do not have as much time as they did in the past, but I believe that people have forgotten the importance of healthy, fresh food and of the time a family spends together preparing the food. So, I would say that having food that is easy to prepare has had many disadvantages.

Essay 3

It can not be doubted that our eating style has encountered a revolutionary change in the last few decades. It is the change in the type of food that has had the greatest influence. Not only have the recipes of certain food types have been altered, but also absolutely new ones have been created. Examples include yet are not restricted to beef hamburgers, potato chips, and cola drinks. All of these changes contribute to making food preparation as fast and easy as possible. It cannot be neglected that modern cooking facilities play a dramatic role in this trend.

Some people regard this trend as a spoiler of our lives. Their argument focuses on two main
points. First, many newly emerged types of food have not the essence of a "complete meal" as defined by nutritionists. To add to the problem, these food types are often served alone. In fact, there are many medical reports warning people from depending upon such fast meals in their food. Other reports indicate a high potential of malnutrition among those who are "addicted" to the common duet of burgers and cola.

Second, the advantage of gathering family members around a meal at home is lost. Fast prepared food types are usually eaten outside home. With the absence of regular family meetings, relationships are likely to be weaker.

Others think that fast prepared food types do improve our style of life. This opinion comes
especially from busy people, working wives, and younger people. They believe that we have many things in life more important than eating. Time spent on food preparation is considered wasted by them. Wives will have more time to take care of their families' souls not just stomachs. Family relationships will get stronger. Business men and women will have more time to concentrate on their business without worrying about food arrangements. In general, people will have a greater opportunity to take care of their minds and hearts. Reports estimate the time spent on food arrangements as a large percentage of our lives.

I agree with that food preparation should take its necessary time and care. Otherwise, the time saved in food preparation can lead to longer times of headache or even of staying in hospitals suffering from malnutrition.

Essay 4

The twentieth century has brought with it many advances. With those advances, human lives have changed dramatically. In some ways life is worse, but mostly it is better. Changes in food preparation methods, for example, have improved our lives greatly.

The convenience of preparing food today is amazing. Even stoves have gotten too slow for us. Microwave cooking is much easier. We can press a few buttons and a meal is completely cooked in just a short time. People used to spend hours preparing an oven-cooked meal, and now they can use that time for other, better things. Plus, there are all kinds of portable, prepackaged foods we can buy. Heat them in the office microwave, and lunch at work is quick and easy.

Food preparation today allows for more variety. With refrigerators and freezers; we can preserve a lot of different foods in our homes. Since technology makes cooking so much faster, people are willing to make several dishes for even a small meal. Parents are more likely to let children be picky, now that they can easily heat them up some prepackaged macaroni and cheese on the side. Needless to say, adults living in the same house may have very different eating habits as well. If they don't want to cook a lot of different dishes, it's common now to eat out at restaurants several times a week.

Healthful eating is also easier than ever now. When people cook, they can use new fat substitutes and cooking sprays to cut fat and calories. This reduces the risk of heart disease and high cholesterol. Additionally, we can buy fruits and vegetables fresh, frozen or canned. They're easy to prepare, so many of us eat more of those nutritious items daily. A hundred years ago, you couldn't imagine the process of taking some frozen fruit and ice from the freezer, adding some low-fat yogurt from a plastic cup and some juice from a can in the refrigerator, and whipping up a low-fat smoothie in the blender!

Our lifestyle is fast, but people still like good food. What .new food preparation technology has given us is more choices. Today, we can prepare food that is more convenient, healthier, and of greater variety than ever before in history.

Essay 5

There are two main channels for people to learn knowledge –from books and from experience. Generally, knowledge gained from books is theoretical, that gained from experience is practical. It is difficult to answer which is more important to we people. It depends on the phases and events of our learning. Knowledge learned from books is instructive, which perhaps cannot learn directly from experience. We often hear thunders and see lightning in the sky, and we can easily find that lightning will be seen sooner than sound will be heard. According to our experience alone, we cannot tell why it had happened. But when we learn some physics in textbooks, we will find the answer clearly that because light travels faster than sound does, it takes less time for light to travel the same distance than for sound. Therefore, book knowledge can inform us some useful theories that can give us general ideas and help us understand the real phenomenon better.

In turn, practice knowledge check out the theories gained from books. There is an old Chinese saying that practice is the only criterion of inspecting the truth. So not all knowledge from books is credible, even false. When Aristotle wrote in his transcripts that the earth is the center of our planets, no one doubts this for centuries. However, when Galileo read about it, he did not suspect it at first, but when he made some observation and research, he found it is not the truth. Then comes the new theory—Sun center theory.

In our daily life, we can learn much information from practice. To learn swimming, it is useless to be absorbed in reading skills written in books. Only when you learn it in a swimming pool, can you make it. There are still a lot of things you must learn from your own experience, such as driving a car, riding a bicycle, operating a machine. And the most important is that it is often easier learn knowledge from practice than from books. As far as the average people are concerned, it is natural to learn from experience. Primitive people learned skills hand by hand which is the way they were handed down from one generation to another.

Modern people also learn things in practice. In workshops, leading workers teach apprentices
carefully; in activity clubs, teachers teach youngsters to be familiar with their hobbies. It is
obvious that all of things considered knowledge gained from practice is more close and direct than from the books.

Therefore, two kinds of knowledge has importance. For research people , knowledge from books is more important, while for our average people, knowledge from practice is more important. As students, we must first learn knowledge from books well, and at the same time we must have the good sense to tell from what is right and what is wrong.

Essay 6

We gain our knowledge about the world and our life from two sources: from experience and from books. These two resources are both important, but which of them is more important?

Knowledge from books forms a very important part of our knowledge structure. In schools and colleges, we learn knowledge which is fundamental to our future career. We learn knowledge from books in order to make our contributions to this society in the future. A student learns mathematic equations and other scientific knowledge and become a scientist or engineer. We will be illiterate and ignorant without learning knowledge from books. Moreover, we acquire knowledge about life and the world by reading books, magazines and newspapers. This is also very important as we cannot experience everything all by ourselves. Therefore books are a very important source of knowledge.

On the other hand, we can't learn everything from a book. “Experience is the best teacher” is an old cliché, but I agree with it. The most important, and sometimes the hardest, lessons we learn in life come from our participation in situations. We learn how to get along with others or how to have self-respect from our experience, not from books. We cannot learn emotional feelings, such as love and care, through books; they come from our real life experience. Knowledge from experience is also a very important supplement to knowledge from books.

Needless to say both learning sources, books and experience, are very important to us. But in my opinion knowledge from experience is more important, because without knowledge from
experience, it is impossible to get a real understanding of knowledge from books, and how to
apply this knowledge to real world situations. Read more

The Collection of TOEFL Model Essays: Topic 2

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents are the best teachers. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer

Suggestions:



Essay 1



Who teaches you to walk? Who teaches you to speak? It is your parents who teach you to do these basic things in your life. So don't you think that parents are the best teachers!



Firstly, parents know us very much. Parents give us life, and I think that we will spend large amount of time with them. So they know our merit and demerit in details. Meanwhile, they will help us to get rid of our demerit.



Furthermore, parents possessed many experiences. Since they are older than us, they have experienced many things. Sometimes, they are just like our models. And as the saying goes: "Example is better than precept." So we will unconsciously copy some of our parents' habits and styles of behavior, i.e. we can learn many things from them.



Finally, parents will teach us everything. Since schoolteachers can just teach us knowledge from the books, our parents can teach us everything. For example, I learn knitting, cooking and make- up from my mother, while learn fixing leaky faucet from my father. They are the persons who love me most, so they will teach me everything without reservations.



Just as the saying goes: "There is no place like home." And I think there is no teacher like our parents. They are the best teachers in our life.



Essay 2



Some people believe parents maybe a very important teacher for children, but will be taken place by teacher after children go to school, however, I believe parents always are the best teacher no matter how many knowledge children have acquired from school, the reasons why I think so go as follow.



First ,children always imitate their parents from birth, so the parents' influence on children is great. For example, researchers said that parents' expression can influence the growth of their children' character, if parents always smell and watch their child while he is playing, the child' confidence will be greater than other child whose parent always leave him alone at home.



Second, parents are also the best teacher for children in emotional area. For example, If a child feel oppression or feel frustrated in school, he always not talk to his teacher, at this time, parents can help him and child are also willing to tell his inner feeling to his parents.



Third, although child get many knowledge from teacher, basic skills in his whole life are come from his parents. For example, our basic language skill, basic realize skill and even basic sport skill are all acquired from parents. Because of this basic skill parents teach their child, the influence of parents will follow the child's whole life.



All in a word, the effect parents take on the child's education process is greater than any teachers in school, they are the best teacher.



Essay 3



Parents influence greatly their children for a lifetime. I think people are molded by two factors, family and the society that they are in. From birth, humans are influenced by the surrounding people for their characteristics. Parents take a big role in bringing up children, which affects their lives for a long time.



In early infanthood, babies are looking to moms and dads to learn basic manners to be accepted in society. Some of these manners include not running around in restaurants or hitting other kids. As they grow up, they learn more from parents about social etiquette, which makes them more suitable to live in society. Children tend to look to their parents for role models knowingly or unknowingly.



Besides, parents can also affect children's study habits. Children of doctors , lawyers, investment bankers, and other professionals see their mothers and fathers work a lot of time, reading books, and punching keyboards, even at home. They are showing their children how to study by their own behavior.



However, parents can also be a bad example for their kids. It is difficult for children who have abusive parents to lead a normal childhood and is possible that they may become similar to their abusive parents when they grow up. In this sense, the parents' negative role in shaping the children's personality cannot be emphasized more.



In conclusion, parents are the best teachers for their children. They leave big marks on their children's lives and are therefore more influential teachers than any others they may have in their lives.



Essay 4



Who are the best teachers in our life? In my opinion, the first teachers we have in our lives in most cases are our parents. They teach us to walk, to speak, and to have good manners before we reach "the real world. " More than even the professional teachers that we have in school, parents are generally the most involved in the development and education of children.



The main reason for my view is that our parents are the best teachers at the beginning of our lives, which actually corresponds to the parents' role in nature. Parents are most committed and involved in teaching their children; they have a kind of instinct to sacrifice a part of themselves for the betterment of their children. They love us and have great patience while passing down their knowledge to us. They wish us a success and thus will not teach us bad things. And of course, implicit learning occurs when children unconsciously copy some of their parents' habits and styles of behavior.



Also, during the second stage of child development, adolescence, parents can still be in the best position to offer advice even though the children might not accept it. In this case, perhaps the child's friends would be the best teachers. Adolescents are notoriously rebellious in many cultures and may automatically reject any advice from their parents. My first marriage for instance, was solely a matter of doing the opposite when my parents tried to intrude in offering their advice. So in such matters, parents should be much more flexible and be rather the partners with their children. So we can see that being a teacher of growing child become more and more complicated case as the time passes and many parents are simply not able to meet the increased demands.



On the other hand, I would say that parents are not professional teachers and they tend to be very biased by their love of their children. So wishing good things and an easy life may prevent children from maturation. In any case, parents usually can present only one viewpoint of the world, while good teaching should be based on different attitudes. Thus, when children go to school and have a great diversity of teachers, they learn much more than their parents could probably give them. Furthermore, once our parents get older, they become more conservative and cannot always be objective in regard to modern trends and fashions. Thus we need to take their advice with caution during that period. However, some kind of intuition which I believe shared between relatives about what everybody needs and great love which exists in a families still makes our parents very good teachers and advisers at any time.



In short, while parents are not the ideal teachers, and well-rounded children will generally need a great diversity of teachers in their lives in order to have a more accurate view of the world, parents are generally the most committed of all teachers and have the greatest emotional investment in their children and their future.

Read more

The Collection of TOEFL Model Essays: Topic 1

People attend college or university for many different reasons (for example, new experiences, career preparation, increased knowledge). Why do you think people attend college or university?
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Suggestion:

Essay 1:

People study in college or university for many different reasons. I think the most important reason is to gain more knowledge and learn more skills. Of course, there are also many other reasons that people study in college such as to get more friends, and increase one's self-confidence.

These days, most jobs require people who are educated and have good job skills. Therefore, the people who want a good job have to study hard and at least graduate with a high education. Furthermore, as technology advances all over the world, more and more education is required of people.

Some people who study in college or university want to make more friends and increase their interpersonal skills. They enjoy their lives in university or college and tend to socialize a lot. They can meet more people who have the similar interests with themselves. They can go to uni ball after school and make more friends who they trust.

The people who graduate from college seem more confident in our community. These people are more respected by society. Many people want to be respected and to be important by family, friends, their bosses, and others in their lives. They find that most of them can confidently talk and do their jobs as they are more educated. Therefore, most people want to get the confidence through the university or college study.

In today's society, people need more knowledge and skills to be adapted. The university and college study is a good way to achieve this.

Essay 2:

In China, more and more people try their best to attend college or university. What are the reasons that make people long for it?

First of all, in my opinion, the most important reason is to gain competence to live a better life in the future. Competition of our days has become more and more drastic, and even a very simple job or low position will attract hundreds of candidates to apply for it. Only those who have a good education and general knowledge can gain better work. So, we should attend college or university for better competence.

Second, attending college or university can change our life. For example, to myself, I am a student from countryside. I am one of the few people who can attend college or university. Most of those who have not studied in college or university go to work early in a small factory in a small town or on a farm in their hometown. Just because I have taken higher education, I can get better chances to study or work in the capital of our country where a lot of people want to go to. Why? Good education gives me chances to change my life.

The third reason for attending a college is to increase knowledge. Study is a so interesting thing that it make our life rich and colorful. It expands our eyesight by informing us with lots of new things what we cannot gain from our common life or experience. On the other hand, by attending college or university, you can learn the knowledge or skill necessary for your future work.

People attend college or university for various reasons. Some may attend for new experiences, and others may think about other things. What I have mentioned is just very few of them.

Essay 3:

Mr.Taoxingzhi, the most famous educator in China, once said: the biggest misfortune in one’s life is that one does not receive a uniniversiy education. Needless to say, a university degree often helps a person achieve his goal with more ease. However, do we attend university just in pursuit of a degree? Does a university only provide us nothing benefieial besides a paper-made diploma? As far as I am concerned, we enjoy a university education in the following aspects which attribulates us to a university education:

Firstly, with the knowledge learned in a university,we will have a deep understanding with our society. It is ture that genuine knowledge comes from practice, but it can not be denied that genuine knowledge, tells us how to practise. A thorough study in a college or university, of course, enables us to realize how the society works and how to cope with certain problems arising from it in a more efficiently, more skillful way.

Second, an university education usually make it possible that we acquire a decent job. Because of an accomplishment of a four-year study, it is not difficult for us to find a good job in most cases. How can we imagine that a graduate majoring in astronomy has to be a vendor in the street! Undoubtfully, he/she should sit in his/her labortory, making a reseach on aircraft on a computor.Obviously, a university education assures him/her a decent job.

Last, but not the least, we can help others much better if puttiing what we learn in a university into use. A university education corrects our values, enhance our skills, and broad our horizons. With those, we are moe capable of giving a hand to those who are in need of help than before.

“Knowledge is power”.When achieving a degree in a university, we can get a better
understanding of the society, find a decent job in an easy way, and help others better. All of those are due to the knowledge learned in a university.

Essay 4:

People attend a college or a university for the following reasons, to acquire knowledge which is necessary for a career, to contribute to the society, and to experience life.

Firstly college education is a necessary step for a person who wants to start a career in science and technology areas. If a student wants to become a scientist, it is important for him to go to a science school; if he wants to be an engineer, an engineering school is the best place for him. There is no other place than a college where a student can get sophisticated education in order to be qualified to become a professional in a specific area.

Secondly, a college education can benefit both the society and the student. By attending college one can get himself prepared for and contribute to the society, which seems to demand advanced knowledge more and more. One the other hand, as knowledge plays a very important role in today’s economy, it has also become the capital and asset of the person who owns it: a college education can bring wealth not only to the society, but also benefit the individual who processes it.

In addition, college education is a wonderful experience in one’s life. Only in a college one can be taught by the finest scholars and meet with the most intelligent people in the nation. Education can also bring happiness to the student. When a student has conquered a difficult mathematical problem, he savors the joy which learning has brought to him, and feels that he is the happiest man in the world.

Of course, learning in a campus does not mean as much for everybody, but it does mean a lot to me. I was brought up in a knowledge-respecting family. My farther is an engineer and my mother is a teacher in a primary school. They are both university graduates. My father, being the most influential person in my life and the son of a poor Chinese farmer, did change the destiny of his own by learning hard to earn a university degree. Therefore he firmly believes that “knowledge can change one’s destiny and university is the best place to achieve one’s goal”. Of course this influenced me. I strongly believe that attending university is the best choice for me. I do not have a bit of hesitation to attend a university.

Essay 5:

There are many people want to go to university or college every year and they decide to do so for many different reasons. I believe there are three common reasons are to prepare for career, increase their knowledge and get new experience.

Prepare for career is very important for young people nowadays. In a competitive society, if they have not a good educational background, they will not get a good opportunity in their career or even cannot find a job, so college and university can provide them new skills to meet the requirements of career.

Also, students attend to university or college can increase their knowledge in subjects they interested, for many people, this is maybe the primary reason to go to college. There are many excellent professors and experts can give us a plenty of knowledge which including many areas. For many people this maybe their last chance for a long time to get knowledge that don't relate to their career.

Besides looking for knowledge, some people want to go to college or university because they decide to live a new life. University can support young people an environment where they can intercommunicate about many topics such as literature, goal of life, art and emotions which are hard to talked about after their university lives, so it is a special experience for young people to live and study in college or university.

All in a word, I prefer increase knowledge and get a special experience to prepare for career in university because getting good opportunities in career is partly depend on your knowledge and experiences on diverse areas. Read more