• Writing IELTS: When a country develops its technology, the traditional skills and ways of life die out.

    Writing IELTS

    When a country develops its technology, the traditional skills and ways of life die out. It is pointless to try and keep them alive.

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

    Nowadays, technological advances and their rapid and wide applications are having a significant impact on a nation’s traditional skills and ways of life. Some argue that such impact is so extraordinary that it would make conventional skills and life styles obsolete. However, I believe they would continue to thrive by providing alternatives to modern ways of life, and innovative ideas for modern technologies.

    First of all, traditional skills and ways of life are becoming an alternative solution to the problems caused by “mainstreamed” ways of life which are greatly influenced by modern technologies. For instance, a cozy restaurant where traditional, home-brewed beer is served, offers another experience to people who are bored with branded beers that have the same flavor and come out of mass production with new technologies. It is in such a venue where traditional skills are preserved, people become relaxed and educated. Providing diversity and thus enriching modern ways of life, such traditional skills and ways of life would continue to have their place.

    Furthermore, conventional skills provide innovative ideas to the development of modern technologies. For example, sparkled by how the word “Love” is traditionally knitted into a sweater by some ethnic minority women in some parts of Asia, some business managers from textile industry have developed some production lines by applying the traditional skills to Computer-Aided Designs (CAD). The products have boosted the companies’ sales which in turn have increased their investment in preserving traditional skills for further developing their technologies.

    To conclude, traditional skills and life styles are increasingly becoming a useful alternative to the homogeneity brought by global applications of modern technologies. However, the evolution of technologies is a selection process, whereby some would become obsolete, but there is no doubt that some would thrive when their roles are appreciated.

  • IELTS Writing: Do the dangers derived from the use of chemicals in food production and preservation outweigh the advantages?

    IELTS Writing:
    Do the dangers derived from the use of chemicals in food production and preservation outweigh the advantages?

    Most foods that are purchased these days in small stores and supermarkets have chemicals in them as these are used to improve production and ensure the food lasts for longer. However, there are concerns that these have harmful effects.  In my opinion, the potential dangers from this are greater than the benefits we receive.

    There are several reasons why chemicals are placed in food. Firstly, it is to improve the product to the eye, and this is achieved via the use of colourings which encourage people to purchase food that may otherwise not look tempting to eat. Another reason is to preserve the food. Much of the food we eat would not actually last that long if it were not for chemicals they contain, so again this is an advantage to the companies that sell food as their products have a longer shelf life.

    From this evidence, it is clear to me that the main benefits are, therefore, to the companies and not to the customer. Although companies claim these food additives are safe and they have research to support this, the research is quite possibly biased as it comes from their own companies or people with connections to these companies. It is common to read reports these days in the press about possible links to various health issues such as cancer. Food additives have also been linked to problems such as hyperactivity in children.

    To conclude, despite the fact that there are benefits to placing chemicals in food, I believe that these principally help the companies but could be a danger to the public. It is unlikely that this practice can be stopped, so food must be clearly labeled and it is my hope that organic products will become more readily available at reasonable prices to all.

     

  • Writing IELTS: animal experiments are widely used to develop new medicines

    Writing IELTS:  animal experiments are widely used to develop new medicines

    Nowadays animal experiments are widely used to develop new medicines and to test the safety of other products. Some people argue that these experiments should be banned because it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer, while others are in favour of them because of their benefits to humanity.

    Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

    It is true that medicines and other products are routinely tested on animals before they are cleared for human use. While I tend towards the viewpoint that animal testing is morally wrong, I would have to support a limited amount of animal experimentation for the development of medicines.

    On the one hand, opponents of animal testing opine that there are clear ethical arguments against animal experimentation. To use a common example of this practice, laboratory mice may be given an illness so that the effectiveness of a new drug can be measured. Opponents of such research argue that humans have no right to subject animals to this kind of trauma, and that the lives of all creatures should be respected. They believe that the benefits to humans do not justify the suffering caused, and that scientists should use alternative methods of research.

    On the other hand, supporters of the use of animals in medical research believe that a certain amount of suffering on the part of mice or rats can be justified if human lives are saved. To put it simply, reliable alternatives to animal experimentation may not always be available, so this issue may be a necessary evil where new drugs and medical procedures are concerned. They argue that opponents of such research might feel differently if a member of their own families needed a medical treatment that had been developed through the use of animal experimentation.

    To sum up, I personally agree with the banning of animal testing for non-medical products except for vital medical research until equally effective alternatives have been developed.

  • Writing IELTS: The football World Cup and other international sporting occasions

    Writing IELTS: The football World Cup and other international sporting occasions

    Popular events like the football World Cup and other international sporting occasions are essential in easing international tensions and releasing patriotic emotions in a safe way.

    Every four years, the whole world stops to watch international sporting events such as the Olympics and the Football World Cup in which athletes show their best performance to make their country proud of them. These sporting occasions have proved to be helpful in easing international tensions in difficult times when powerful leaders were trying to control the world?s economy and other governments were fighting over land.

    The Olympic Games are one of the best examples which prove how sporting events can bring nations together, at least temporarily. From ancient History, when Greeks and Romans would interrupt battles to participate in the games, to the more recent international disputes, when athletes from Palestine and Israel would forget their differences, compete pacifically and even embrace each other after an event. Moreover, these popular events have called the world?s attention to the terrible consequences of wars; thus some leaders have tried to accept agreements to end their dispute and live peacefully.

    Similarly, international sporting events show benefits in some developing countries which live in a daily internal civil war. For example, Brazil has a high rate of unemployment, lack of education, hunger, crime, poverty and corruption which leads to an immense embarrassment of being Brazilian and a low self-esteem. However, when the Football World Cup starts, the Brazilian squad, which is considered the best team in the world, provokes an amazing feeling of pride in their country. Most people seem to forget all their problems and even the criminal activity decreases. They paint roads with the national colors, use wear the Brazilian team shirt and buy national flags. Moreover, the competition brings families and neighbors together and even rival gangs watch the games and celebrate peacefully.

    In conclusion, popular sporting events play an important role in decreasing international tensions and liberating patriotic feelings as History has shown.

    This is a great essay, the ideas, language, structure of paragraphs and sentences, grammar show high level of English. In my opinion it is Band 8. Keep up the good work.

  • Writing IELTS Task 2: Why criminal acts are committed by teenagers?

    Writing IELTS Task 2:
    In some countries, a high proportion of criminal acts are committed by teenagers. Why has this happened? What can be done to deal with this?

     

    Today, youth crime is rife. Theft, burglary or even murder are now committed by people of younger and younger ages. The aim of this essay is to investigate the factors responsible for the increase in juvenile delinquency and put forward a number of ways to appropriately punish young offenders.

    It is observed that extreme behaviours are exhibited by most children from dysfunctional families. Without the supervision from parents or caregivers, children’s extreme behaviours such as aggression, hostility or defiance are given free rein to develop in their later lives. In addition, there is a direct correlation between the lack of engagement in educational activities and serious criminal offending in children. Out of boredom, children befriend with antisocial peers and will gradually copy their behaviours. Media also plays an enormous role in shaping children’s criminality. For example, games such as grand theft auto can desensitise younger players to extreme acts of violence and cruelty, encourage them to commit crimes while giving them the impression that it is morally acceptable to do so.

    Imprisonment is often cited as a way to punish juvenile offenders. However, it is my view that this approach can produce extremely destructive effects. The youth can potentially be victims of physical or sexual abuse from older prisoners, as well as can adopt their negative behaviours. I feel that the better cure for young criminals is rehabilitation. Throughout education and training, the youth can realise their wrongful actions and be given opportunities to turn over a new leaf and transform themselves into useful members of society later in life.

    There are reasons to explain why today antisocial behaviour among the youth nowadays has reached a historically unprecedented high and rehabilitation is the answer for this. 

  • Writing IELTS Task 2 (educating criminals in prison)

    Writing IELTS Task 2


    Studies show that criminals get low level of education. Some people believe that the best way to reduce the crime is educating people in prison so they can get a job after leaving prison. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

     

    Education for offenders during imprisonment as a method to reduce the rate of crime has evolved as a major topic of concern in today’s society. While I agree that such a solution is effective to reduce crime, I am convinced that it is far from being the best method and there are many better ways of reducing crime.

    I accept that education for prisoners may contribute to the reduction of the crime rate. The primary reason is that such a form of education could provide offenders with the working skills that are essential when they return to the community. With fortified job prospects, prisoners may therefore earn a living after leaving the prison and are less likely to commit a crime again. Another significant reason is that education could show the offenders that they are still appreciated by society. By this way, they may feel an enhanced sense of humanity and community, and become better citizens after their prison years. These people may then inspire many others in the public to live without crime.

    However, I am firmly of the opinion that education for offenders is not the best solution to reduce crime. This form of education is offered only to those who have committed a crime, and therefore has far less preventive value, compared to other stronger solutions. For example, severe punishments such as longer imprisonment for criminals could deter criminal acts by many people in the public who have the intention to carry out a crime. There are also other educational methods that may have a stronger and more long-lasting impact on the reduction of crime. An excellent example of this is crime education at school, which helps equip students with the necessary knowledge about crime and crime prevention. This measure is undeniably a more sustainable crime-fighting solution than education for criminals.

    To conclude, I firmly believe that although educating prisoners is an effective way to reduce crime, it is not the best solution, as there are more preventive and sustainable measures such as crime education at school and stricter punishments for criminals.

  • writing sample task 2 (Balanced approach)

     writing sample task 2 (Balanced approach)

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

     

    There is no cast of shadow that environment-attributed challenges are such big menaces to the whole world, yet the question is whether they ought to be tackled individually or internationally. Although each and every one of us can play a key role to address the issue, global institutions can and should perform a much more crucial duty in this regard.

    As far as individuals are concerned, they should acknowledge the fact that “our planet is our home”, to be more specific regardless of what administrations can do to resolve the matter, the dwellers of every single city and town ought to be required to comply with environmentally-friendly standards in their life one of which is relying on public transportation to commute to curb emission of green house gases as a major source of air pollution. Take Scandinavian states as a case in point where a large proportion of residents either walk or take their bikes both to wander around and go to work. Moreover, these people show no interest in utilizing fossil fuels to keep their houses warm and they have already started to install solar panels on their rooftops to harness solar “green” energy.

    Naturally enough, international organizations namely the United Nations as well as the International Monetary Fund are able to have a much more prominent role via holding global conventions and summits in which representatives of different states participate to express their concerns and coordinate their efforts with other officials and executives bodies, which are definitely prosperous enough to afford exorbitant expenses of conducting universal environmental campaigns. For instance, had it not been for the climate conference in Paris in 2015, none of those 170 states would initiate their anti-global warming schemes whose positive results will be shown in long-run.

    Having considered all the above-mentioned facts, I personally concede not only the public but also the global community must be obliged to take responsibilities to fight against constant environmental threats.

     

    Word count: 360

    Time: 45′

    Hamid Mollazadeh

  • نمونه مقاله آیلتس شماره ۳۰

    نمونه مقاله آیلتس شماره ۳۰

    Advantages and disadvantages of paying taxes, especially by the rich.

     There is no cast of shadow that taxes are the price we pay for the country we love. Taxes are normally charged based on individuals’ income. To be more specific the more people earn, the more taxes they are levied. Not only individuals but also countries as a whole will benefit from such an approach, yet some may suffer from the disadvantages as well.

    To begin with, taxes help governments to keep our streets safe, provide our children and families with free education and health care in addition to promoting welfare services including public transportation. Comparing the states where higher taxes are imposed on those whose income are better with the ones in which tax evasion is commonplace it is clearly evident that taxes can play a significant role in economic and business development. Needless to say, it helps countries thrive in a competitive global economy, Canada is a case in point.

    Furthermore, paying taxes can translate into saving necessary infrastructures and natural resources for the future generations that is our children and grandchildren. Our ancestors paid taxes for what we have today and our taxes today allow us to pass along those benefits to the generations to come. When the public, in particular the rich, are willing to pay taxes, official will be enabled to meet the country’s needs via importing rather that exploiting useful land and minerals such as coal and oil that can be used to increase its wealth in the future.

    With respect to disadvantages, those who pay more taxes may feel discriminated against as some of them are of the opinion that taxes must be levied regardless of income different people generate, which is economically speaking not justifiable as lots of economists believe.

    Having considered all the above-mentioned facts, this conclusion can be drawn that plus points of paying taxes far outweigh its so-called drawbacks.

     

    Word count: 325

    Time: 40′

    Mollazadeh

    Your feedback will be welcomed.

  • نمونه مقاله آیلتس شماره ۲۹

    Environmental problems such as pollution and climate change affect everyone in the world. Although some effects have been made to solve these problems at a global level, few solutions have been found.

     Why have so few global solutions been found to these problems?

     How can these problems be solved?

     Ecological disasters like permanent changes in weather conditions and various sorts of pollutions have started to take their toll long time ago. Despite all desperate efforts to tackle such concerns globally, oddly enough, not so many solutions have been put into practice.

     The reason why small number of solutions have been found to address the key issue lies in two contributing factors the first of which has something to do with people’s lack of awareness regarding such serious threats. To put it simply, a lot of people have neither felt nor been informed about environmental crisis and they have the foggiest idea how formidable the problem is. Take uneducated local poachers who embark on slaughtering endangered species without knowing that the slightest alterations to life cycle can spell major disasters for not only urban but also suburban dwellers.

     Moreover, people’s being engaged with more vital issues including economic concerns has made them too preoccupied to care about environmental challenges. Take African nations who have been suffering from malnutrition for decades due to which they cannot even think about the ecological problems as long as their much-needed requirements are not met.

     To address the issue, a couple of alternatives can be adopted the most effective of which would be taking appropriate measures to boost energy efficiency to use less energy to get the same—or higher—level of production, service, and comfort. Also, not only relying on green transportation, revving up renewables, phasing out fossil fuel energy but also developing and deploying new low-carbon and zero-carbon technologies as well as ensuring sustainable development can result in curbing pollution to some extent.

    To sum up, I personally contend that climate change is and will be an indispensible part of our life as long as people are not fully informed about its drastic consequences. Nevertheless, it is very likely that its negative impacts can be lessened via introducing precautionary measures.

    Time: 45′

    Word count: 300

  • نمونه مقاله آیلتس شماره ۲۸

    Some people say that economic growth is the only way to end world poverty and hunger. Others say that economic growth is damaging the environment and must stop now.

     Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

     Day in day out, we can read or hear something about economic development in newspapers or on TV, yet whether this phenomenon is a blessing or a curse has turned out to be a controversial issue. Despite the fact that some contend economic progress can terminate poverty in the world, others are of the opinion that such prosperity will definitely have detrimental impacts on the environment, so measures should be taken to bring it to a halt.

    On the one hand, those who insist on adopting economic approaches to alleviate poverty in the world, I myself included, opine that the more economic climate prospers, the less concern people will be about economic well-being. To put it simply, what they mean is that economic boom will definitely translate into creating more jobs in the society. An illustration of this is Japan whose unemployment rate stands something in the vicinity of less than 1%, which explains why 99% of its population enjoy having access to fundamental requirement of a living a standard life, including housing, health and entertainment facilities as well as decent education, to name but a few.

     On the flip side, the opponents of developmental activities highlight the adverse effects on the environment that is why they always campaign against the destruction of not only forests but also the natural ecology of the earth. In other words, they claim that as the wheels of economic growth turn around, more fossil fuel has to be burnt, resulting in both air and noise pollution which in turn are hazardous for urban and suburban dwellers. Take China’s capital as an example where loads of people die of heart failures due to the mental and physical pressure they have to tolerate to be economically developed. It is said that If it weren’t because of life-threatening economic projects, they would live a less hectic life.  

     Having considered all the above-mentioned facts, what I personally conclude is that in this world everything comes at a price and environmental degradation is the price we have to pay to ensure economic prosperity. Nonetheless, effective measures can and should be adopted to minimize the possible harmful effects.