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

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 wonderwhether 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 too 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.

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

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 hometown 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 everyone in my home town. 

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.

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. 

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?

People always are learning and practicing through their whole lives. From reading words in text book such as toy, car, train etc., people have the concept and ideas. They further understand the actual meaning of these words by playing toys and riding or driving cars, trains etc. Education (books) and experience are the main two channels for People to gain their knowledge. Each play different roles for people. In my opinion, knowledge from experience is more important than that from books. Experience first can prove if the knowledge form books are true or false. Textbooks are very wonderful in teaching people essential principles, how is the world looks like? what is the basic law of change of people and things? We can learn a lot through primary school, secondary school until university. However, people can only understand the really meaning of those form books and justify them if they are right through practices. A few hundred years ago, people learnt from text book that the earth was flat. However scientists found that was wrong through observations and measurement. The knowledge from experience can improve and advance the world and our society. As books have limitation, they only teach us the what people found in the past. The knowledge from the books are constrained to the certain conditions and environment. For example, mould and tools design for plastics industry, the university course only taught me very simple cases, most knowledge are obtained from various different and complicated cases in my career. There are a lot new inventions and new products which could not be found from textbooks. Our society and world are developed through continuous practices, those knowledge, never found in books, such as internet, e-business etc. are all developed through new practices."The truth comes from practices and experience", people are continually discovering new things and assessing the creditability of the knowledge written in books. The knowledge from experience help us much more than those from books.

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

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 lose 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.

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

Obviously, 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. Almost for sure 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. 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 no toriously 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 families, still makes our parents very good teachers and advisers at any time. In conclusion, 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.

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.

College is a place that the students can learn more and new knowledge and experience in it. Of course, different people have different reasons to study in college. For example, some people want to be to go on a further study after they graduate from college; some people hope to find a good job after studying in college and also some people wish to exchange their present situation through studying in the college. In my opinion, no matter what reason people study in the college for, studying in the college is just a preparation for their future life. First of all, students can gather new knowledge and experiences from studying in the college. There are many teachers, professors with abundant teaching experience who teach students lots of new things and help them to solve the problems in their studies. With their help, student can learn a lot of useful basic and professional knowledge which is very helpful for their future’ work and study. After they finish their study in the college, students go to work in industry and society and contribute to the different fields. Secondly, students can learn how to arrange their own time reasonably. Before their studying in college, their life often arranged by their parents and their study often arranged by their teachers. It is very different for them to live and study in college, because students studying in college have to arrange their lives and study by themselves. They have right to arrange their part time, such as when to get up, when is the sport-time, when to finish the assignment etc. This is very important work and life in the future. Secondly, studying in the college make students having opportunity to live with other student and learn how to cooperate with other people. Usually, people often have uncomfortable feeling to live with a stranger, because they do not know each other and perhaps their habit and personality are different. But for the long run, it is good for them. They have to cooperate with each other and solve a lot of problems they will face together. Gradually, they can learn how to care and understand other people. It is a preparation for students to go to cooperate with other people in the society. All in all, students not only can learn lots of new knowledge from the books but also can learn much more necessary experience such as how to arrange time and how to cooperate with other people. It is very important for their future work and life.