Topic 74. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The best way to travel is in a group led by a tour guide.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The best way to travel is in a group led
by a tour guide. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Sample essay 1.

There are a lot of views whether the best way to travel is in a group led by a tour guide. Different
people has different viewpoint. In my opinion, a group led by a tour guide is the best way to travel. The argument for this view goes as follows:

In the first place, there are many advantages when people travel in a group. First, people will not
feel boring in a long trip. People can talk, laugh and make joking like a big family. Second, the
group will help you a lot when you have any emergency. The people in the group could help you
figure out the awkward situation that will be unimaginable when you travel alone. Third, with the
group discount, such as the discount for airplane ticket, the hotel, and the admission ticket,
travelers can save a lot of money when they use the group discount.

In the second place, there are many advantages too when people travel led by a tour guide. The
tour guide will arrange all the details about the trip in advance. The traveler need not worry about
where to find the hotel, where to rent the car, and how to find the direction. It will make the trip a
little bit easy. Another advantage is that led by a tour guide will save much time than traveling
alone. With the professional knowledge, tour guide will make the smartest schedule. I would
never forget that one of my friend, a city tour guide in the Shanghai, China, said that she can lead
traveler to visit the whole city by one day which people should spend two or three days to finish
it.

In conclusion, there are many advantages when people travels in a group led by a tour guide, such
as save money, save time, do not feel boring, and is easy to take care of. Therefore, I strongly
agree that the best way to travel is in a group led by a tour guide.

Sample essay 2.

No doubt,I do strongly advocate this idea that the best way to travel in a group led by a tour
guide. There are numerous reasons why I agree with this opinion, and I would in here explain a
few of the most imporant ones.

At first, I can get many conveniences if I travel in a group led by a tour guide. I don't worry about
some things such as residence, transportation, and eating. During the whole journey, I can
completely enjoy the pleasure of traveling without being disturbed by some trivial things.

Another reason why I agree with this idea is that traveling with a group people is more enjoyable
than traveling alone. We can share with the beautiful view each other and can express our feeling
each other. In addition, if I encounter certain difficulities, there will be many people to help me.
So, this traveling pattern will also more safe.

The last reason is that a tour guild will let us learn more knowledge about where we will go
because we aren't familiar with that place. Maybe due to our ignorance, we will miss many
interesting places without a tour guild.

Understanding the reasoning above, it is quite safe now to say: the best way to travel is in a group
led by a tour guild.

(This is a 5 point essay)

Sample essay 3.

Some people may think that the best way to travel is in a group led by a tour guide, but it is just
where I differ from those people. I think the best way to travel is to travel alone. If I travel alone,
I can enjoy the pleasure of meeting new people, trying new things and totally relaxing. However,
if I am to travel with a group led by a tour guide, this pleasure seems impossible.

Travel alone means that I can meet new people more freely. I can meet not only the other
travelers, but also the local residents whenever I travel to a new place. If the person I want to
meet is not available at the present time, I can even reschedule my time. But if I travel in a group
led by a tour guide, I have to stick to the schedule. I have to take other people’s time into
consideration. That means I will lose a lot of chances to meet new people.

Travel alone also means I can try new things personally. I can go anywhere I want and do
something different from my lifestyle. However, if I travel in a group, the place where I go and the
things that I will deal with are all arranged and fixed in advance. I have no choice but to follow.
That will be miserable for me as a traveler.

When I finally mange to take a travel, I want to relax myself totally. Work is too hard to do and I
am really eager to have an enjoyable break. However, I am in a group and I have to stick to the
travel schedule, to consider the other group members’ feelings, to go wherever the tour guide
leads to. That seems just like I am on my duty at work again. I cannot really get relaxation.

I always prefer to travel alone. I would like to meet a lot of different people, experiencing new
things on my way in traveling. I think that only scheduling my travel time more casually can make
me relax completely. Would not that be the only purpose of traveling? I would like to encourage
you to travel alone too. In any case, do not travel in a group led by a tour guide.

Sample essay 4.

There are basically two ways of traveling: traveling in a group led by a tour guide, or traveling
independently. There are advantages and disadvantages of the both. By traveling in a group, you
will enjoy the companionship, comfort and safety of group travel, and learn more information
about the place from a tour guide; while traveling independently, you can maintain the freedom,
flexibility and individualism. Some people say that for most people, the best way to travel is in a
group led by a tour guide. I agree with this opinion.

Firstly, you will enjoy the companionship when traveling in a group. Usually a tour group consists
of around 20 people. These people travel together, eat together and stay in the same hotel. During
the trip, you can always find someone you like to talk with, and you will never feel lonely as when
you are travelling alone.

Secondly, you will enjoy the comfort and safety of group travel. When traveling in a group,
everything is pre-arranged by the travel agent, and you do not have to worry about booking a
ticket, finding a hotel, decide what places to visit, and so on. In the meantime, as you are not
preoccupied with arranging the trip by yourself, you may find yourself concentrate more on the
trip itself and enjoy it more. In addition, it is much safer to travel in a group. Your personal safety
is always taken cared of by others.

Thirdly, you can learn more information about the place from a tour guide, and not worrying
about missing an important spot. The tour guide will take you to each spot that should be visited,
and give you detailed information about the place you visit. You never have to find information
about the places you are going to through the Internet or buy a book from the bookstore.
Traveling in a group can save you time and money on information searching.

In conclusion, there are many advantages of traveling in a group. Although for young people,
traveling alone is more advantages and stimulating, for most people, traveling in a group is the
best choice.

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Topic 73. Some people say that computers have made life easier and more convenient. Other people say that computers have made life more complex and stressful. What is your opinion?

Some people say that computers have made life easier and more convenient. Other people say
that computers have made life more complex and stressful. What is your opinion? Use specific
reasons and examples to support your answer.

Sample essay 1.

The use of computer is increasingly popular in modern society. Some people think that the
computer makes life more convenient and easier because they can compile documents, buy goods
through the Internet and do other works on the computer. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the
computer makes life more complex and stressful. There are many instances supporting my
opinion.

Before the computer was invented, people only need to learn the knowledge of mathematics,
physics, chemistry and so on. However, today people have to learn how to operate the computer,
to use a variety of software and if the computer does not work, people have to learn how to repair
it. People have to learn not only the knowledge of software but also that of hardware. No ending
learning makes people exhausted and their life more complex.

The computer also makes life more stressful. The society in which we live is called "information
society& quot ;. Thanks for the development of the computer, the rhythm of life are increasingly
rapid. The business men has so many meetings to attend, so many e-mails to deal with that they
have no time to have his lunch. Some students have to work late on the computer to do the
homework at night. There are more and more people struggling from the nervous sickness and
complaining the "busy life".

The rapid development of the computer makes people feel stressful, too. The new generation of
the software and the hardware, the update of them, all of these make people have to pay more and
more time and money on their computers.

Although the computer has become an indispensable part of our life, it can be concluded from the
above statements that the computer makes life more complex and stressful.

Sample essay 2.

Some people say that computers have made life more complex and stressful, but I totally disagree.
In my opinion, computers have really made our lives easier and more convenient in
communicating, getting informed and doing research work, if you have known how to work with a
computer.

The e-mail service and Internet based on computer make us communicating with others much
easily and conveniently. In the past, we have to write letters or meet in person in order to
communicate with others. The mails seem to take forever to arrive and meeting in person means
to put out a lot of efforts. Now, the e-mail lasts only a few seconds to send and to receive and we
can always meet new people even foreigners in chat room whenever we set up our computers. It
really makes our socializing easier.

The news on the Internet is being broadcasted 24 hours everyday and tailored to your specific
interests. You can always connect your telephone and modem with a computer to read them.
Listening to radio or watching television can be informed with what are happening around you
conveniently too, but just on the computer can you easily read the specific news in which you are
interested without having to buy newspapers. So, up to now, it is the most convenient way to read
news at home.

Besides, it is very convenient and much easy to do research work with a computer turning on.
You can save your work on computers too easily more than just typing a few letters, no matter
what your work is, even audio or video data. You can also type a few keys to print them out
neatly. Also, you can search whatever materials you want without the trouble of looking for books
or magazines in libraries.

Some people think that computers have made life complex and stressful. They may not be very
familiar with computers or do not know how to work with a computer efficiently. It does not
matter. Only after a few weeks of training, they can probably easily enjoy the convenience of
computers in socializing, reading news and doing research job.

Sample essay 3.

Some people believe that computers provide easier and more convenient lives for them. In their
opinion, computers help them surf internet and share information. They may communicate
directly by E.mail. But others hold that computers have made life more complex and stressful and
they point out that computers bring many bad effects to human beings, such as information
security problem because of hacking attack and environmental pollution because of irradiation. As
far as I concerned, I prefer the first opinion rather than the second view.

My opinion comes from following three aspects. First of all, computer made life more efficient
than before. For example, people might access websites, gain a lot of valuable information and
contact each other around the world. Secondly, computer made life more relax and easier.
Computers provide varity kinds of games and people could enjoy and relax from them everyday.
Finally, compute help people solve many complicated problem by software, such as investment
and finance. Therefore, people’s life become more simple and convenient.

However, just as what other people say that computers give us some negative effects in the
meantime. For example, Irradiation does harm for our bodies and eyes, so we can not made
people seat too long in front of computers. Hacking is a really trouble, and we are supposed to
enhance computer control and technology.

In general, computers give people an easier and convenient life. Although there exists some bad
effects of computers as mentioned above. We are supposed to do our best to solve the problems
and pay more attention on their good effects. I believe that our society will benefit more from
them in the future.

(This is a 5 point essay)

Sample essay 4.

Nowadays some may hold the opinion that computers have made life easier and more convenient,
but others have a negative attitude; they say that computers have made life more complex and
stressful. As far as I am concerned, I agree that computers have brought more advantages than
disadvantages to our life. My arguments for this point are listed as follows.

One of the primary causes is that computers have improved the quality of life in our society. They
have brought to us more conveniences than ever before: whether we book a plane ticket, arrange
a travel to foreign countries, or hook up a telephone line, with the help of computers and modern
technologies, they can be done in a few minutes by simply a phone call or a few key strokes; we
will not have to run from one place to another, and wait for thousands of years before we can get
the services we want.

There is a further more subtle point we must consider. Because computers can make use of more
personal details about people, companies can provide customers with more individualized service
than before. Take booking for a plane ticket for example, as soon as the operator input our name
and telephone number into the computer, the system can retrieve our information from the
database, and it will analyze our previous traveling patterns and habits, and decide the best fair,
airline, traveling time and seating for us. The computer can also arrange accommodations after we
arrive at the destination. All these can be done in just a few seconds.

What is more, computers give people more convenient access to useful information and services.
Nowadays computers and internet is ubiquitous in every corner of our world. We use computers
in libraries and public agencies to check up for useful information and the books we need.
Furthermore we access internet or CD-Rom to get whatever information we want. Before
traveling to a new place, we can check on the computer what the place looks like, what spots are
must-sees, and how we can get there. We can get information from the internet on how to get a
drivers license, how to write an article on a topic, and even take simulation tests on a specific
subject. The computer is such a great learning and information tool!

Recognizing the fact that computer is so indispensable to our daily life, we can safely conclude
that computers have made life easier and more convenient for us.

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SEQUELS

There are in my view both real sequels and quasi sequels. A real sequel is when the author of a book, say, Margaret Mitchell, or someone else writes a novel about what happened to Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler after Gone With the Wind. A quasi sequel is really a repeat appearance, as when Conan Doyle or J. K. Rowling writes another Sherlock Holmes or Harry Potter fiction, about the hero’s further, new adventures.

Both phenomena come about when a beloved protagonist elicits a repeat performance of some kind. Personally, I am no great fan of these procedures. But sequels of either kind have been wildly successful, and are in fact a tried old stratagem, as the careers of, for example, Balzac and Alexandre Dumas pere compellingly illustrate.

All very understandable, given the hard world in which fiction writers operate, although the same phenomenon prevails in spades at the movies and, to some extent, even in the theater, just ask Neil Simon. And now there is a stage version of Harry Potter in the planning. But isn’t a novel, say, a complete entity, self-sufficiently featuring a beginning, middle and end, and in no need of further elaboration any more than a lyric poem does. Although there is such a thing as a sonnet sequence—just ask William Shakespeare.

What is it exactly that hates endings and gives rise to sequels?  First of all, it is popularity. Why wouldn’t the cherished scoundrel Vautrin figure in several Balzac novels? Why shouldn’t beloved Harry Potter make more millions for J. K. Rowling? Why shouldn’t there have been a series of ever longer novels about the three beloved musketeers—really four, counting d’Artagnan—and their descendants?

Popularity, i.e., sales, have much to answer for, as well as the fact that it is safer to bring back a well-regarded fictional hero than to invent a new one. But something else also plays a part here: human inquisitiveness. Just as we are curious to know more about friends, enemies, celebrities, we are curious about what happened to fictitious characters after, say, they married and “lived happily ever after.” Tolstoy to the contrary, happy families are not all alike, if for no other reason than that, in real life, they seldom remain blissful forever. If, God forbid, there were a sequel to War and Peace, would everything be hunky-dory for Pierre and Natasha?

And to think that even Goethe saw fit to write a sequel to the so very satisfactorily completed Faust part one with a Faustpart two. And, as we all know, Shakespeare brought back the rogue Falstaff in a sequel, The Merry Wives of Windsor, whether or not, as reputed, at Queen Elizabeth’s request, hardly matters. (The groundlings’ request, more likely.) Success plus curiosity begets sequels.

But there is a further trigger for sequels: our fear of mortality, our conscious or unconscious wish to live forever. Somehow or other, the persistence through sequels of a fictitious character translates into a sense of our own not coming to an end. I fully believe that young persons reading about Huck Finn’s striking out for the Western Territories suggests to them that he is immortal, and that they themselves will be around reading about his further adventures someday, somewhere.

To be sure, there are readers who don’t want sequels of contemporary novels. They are the ones aware of the backlog of great classics they haven’t read yet and want to catch up with more Dickens or Dostoevsky or D. H. Lawrence. They are very happy that, for instance, Robert Graves stopped at two Emperor Claudius novels: one sequel was quite enough.  But young readers especially crave sequels, and thus for example Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking novels have had sequels upon sequels in print, film and television series. For young German readers, there were (are?) the Wild West novels of Karl May that kept bringing back the great white hunter Old Shatterhand and his Indian chief friend, Winnetu. They can be thought of as very persistent, very numerous sequels.

And sequels persist. They may have not much more in common than an imaginary town or region, as the audiences of Horton Foote or readers of William Faulkner well know. It could be argued that a Steinbeck locale is at least as real as his characters, and that geography itself can provide sequels. In any case, continuum is a great human desideratum, and sequels of whatever kind cater to it.

Speaking for myself, I’d be perfectly happy if there were no more sequels, though I can also live with them. Among sequels I now include also revised second editions of previously published books. Scholarly works, dictionaries, encyclopedias keep coming out in new, more up-to-date, or merely expanded, improved editions, and such reissues can be infuriating.

What am I to do if I spent a tidy sum on, say, a history of the printed book, or of Shakespeare stagings, or of the Paris underworld through the ages, and out comes a new, presumably improved edition a few years later? Throw out the previous version, even though it was a first edition, and maybe had a finer binding, wider margins, better paper and larger print? Do I simply ignore the revised version and merely scowl at the one on my shelf as a sort of intellectual coitus interruptus?

I count myself lucky for not being a completist, and can ignore such sequels as the complete Waverly novels of Sir Walter Scott. Yet I cannot but admire anyone who  has read them all. Then again, there was the fellow who, seeking employment in a college English department, spouted excerpts from the least known ones among them, thereby conveying the impression that he knew the whole lot intimately from alpha to omega--without even having glanced at the rest.

And then there is that most pernicious kind of sequel, as when a major author revises a lengthy fiction of his own and both versions are considered important enough for us, if we are serious academics, to have to read hundreds of pages in quasi duplicate. This is very much the case of Moerike’s Maler Nolten. Or what about Great Expectations, for which Dickens first had a less happy ending, but at Bulwer-Lytton’s urging came up with a happy one? We have here a work that is its own sequel, and are we now, as teachers, responsible for both versions?

Nor let us forget that late nineteenth-century novels tended to come out on the installment plan, several chapters at a time over a long period, earning payment for each segment, and so prompting the author to make his novels doorstoppers. Robert Graves memorably came up with a considerably shortened version of one of the Dickens novels (David Copperfield, as I recall)) just by cutting the word “little” each time it occurred.

The matter of sequels makes one wonder: Is shorter better? Would Proust’s magnum opus, In Search of Lost Time, be better if it were less literally magnum? It is really a series of novels, each a sequel of the preceding and sizable in itself, with quite a parade of more or less ancillary characters. Yet these sequels with their large casts are in order, for we thus get a panorama of how personalities evolve and relationships change, and how memory in pursuit of the past rounds out our brief term on earth. Better than perhaps anyone else, Proust has validated the sequel.

But this does not mean that we want sequels from lesser writers. Do we need a tetralogy from Jeffrey Eugenides? Do we want Erica Jong to dredge up her checkered past for us in ever more novelistic searches? How many times do we wish Margaret Attwood to reinvent herself? Isn’t even late Hemingway an unnecessary sequel to  earlier Hemingway? To say nothing of Thomas Mann’s Joseph novels, of which even one may be de trop. How many epigones will grind out posthumous James Bond tomes? How often did Updike have to go Rabbiting without a strong case of sequelitis?  But at least his are bona fide, thought-through sequels. We have too many writers nowadays who don’t even know that they are writing sequels. 

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1/2 Million Hits and Happy Holidays to All

Some houses in NOLA need no decorations! 

A few years ago, I set out to write a little blog about my experiences here in New Orleans, and temper that with a few tips and tricks for our prospective and current students. 7 years later, this here blog has developed a nice following in the world of college admission, and today it got its 500,000th hit. For that, we here at Tulane owe all of our blog readers, applicants, parents, family members, students and friends a great deal of gratitude!

As we close down shop here at Tulane 'till the New Year, I'll leave you with a few of my favorite shots I took this week around town of New Orleans in her holiday glory.



From all of us at Tulane, we wish you a safe and happy holiday and a fantastic New Year!

There is always a little unspoken competition with the hotel lobbies in New Orleans to see who can decorate the best. The Roosevelt always wins.

Gibson Hall + Lights 

The French Quarter looking festive. Never mind that it is 75 degrees here today. 

Bows in Jackson Square 

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Topic 72. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Grades (marks) encourage students to learn.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Grades (marks) encourage students to
learn. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Sample essay 1.

Many people in the world share a belief that grades make students work hard. I agree with the
above statement because I believe that high grades are more helpful in getting a bright future.

One of benefits of the high grade is that it promotes a learner's interest. Interest is the best
motivation to encourage students to learn. If a learner has a good score in English, he will find that
English is a beautiful language. For example I love to learn math, because it brings me happiness
when I get a high score in a math exam. When I went to university, I select mach as my major.

The second reason is that schools give us a chance to learn knowledge, why not try our best to get
it. In our lives these knowledge has important effect on our mind which need be wise by an by. In
addition, self-credit may be instruct by good marks. It is also important to our life.

A further solid argument for the high grade is that it means a good future career. Many companies
would rather hire students who are with high grades.

As far as I am concerned, I come to the notion that there are main reasons why I support that
grades encourage students to learn. Firstly, high scores spring learner' interests. Secondly, students
get self-credit through it. Furthermore, A good job may wait these students who have high marks.

(This is a 5 point essay)

Sample essay 2.

In many schools, teachers evaluate students by their grades. Many people think that it is unfair
and one-sided to evaluate students by grades and will discourage students to learn. I believe,
however, grades encourage students to learn. The reasons can be analyzed as follows.

To begin with, using grades as standard to evaluate students can give students stress of learning.
No stress, no motivity. In order to get high grades, students must study hard. They must read more
books, do their homework carefully. Stress makes them learn more knowledge. Stress of grades
simultaneously force and encourage students to learn.

Grades can encourage students to compete with each other. The modern society is full of
competition. Students can learn the concept of competition through grades. At the same time, they
can learn the spirit of competition. To compete with others and obtain good evaluation, students
must learn many techniques and get high grades. Competing grades in schools can make students
more adaptable to the society.

Grades can also give students the feeling of success. When they get high grades through hard
work, students may think that they make a great achievement. The feeling of success will
encourage students to study harder and harder. At the same time, the successes in schools
encourage students to find chances to succeed in society.

From the above analyses, it is not difficult to get the conclusion that grades encourage students to
learn. Grades give students the stress and make them compete with each other so that they must
study and work hard to succeed.

Sample essay 3.

Almost in every modern society, grades play an import role in assessing students' academic
ability.There are all kinds of tests to winnow out weak students. Knowledge itself is so complicate
and vast, each one of the test usually can't cover every aspect of it. So I wonder whether grades
can really encourge students to learn.

The basic reason why I disapprove of the title statement lies in the belief that grades usually don't
have positive impact on student who is strong or weak alike. Take the example of student who has
high grades: If Tom got good grades in the class, normaly he can't feel conceited. This situation
certainly won't lead him into finding some blind spots or weak points in his study. And he won't
realize that may be just his good memorizatation helps him a lot or this kind of test suits him well.
Let's us look another example: Suppose Johnny isn't good at memorization, but he is at home with
analyzation and deduction. Unfortunately, he got poor grades in tests facilitate memorization. One
can foresee what harm will bring to him due to the poor grades. In all these cases, the grades play
a negative role in encourging students to learn.

Most important of all, the grades usually a convenient way of assessing a student's academic
ability. But it is by no means a scientific one. Teachers can't determine from the grades whether
the student is hardworking(diligent) or out of cram. The tests given to all students regardless of
their individual's character traits, just like force everyone to wear shoes of same size. Famous
educationist Confucius said two thousands years ago: "Teach students in accordance of their
aptitude". Our world is a colorful world, so should be our educational world. Grades especially
poor grades will frustrate greatly potential successful students to learn. It will give them a flase
impression that their intelligence may be inferior to other students.The worst thing about poor
grades is that it may have repercussions in a underachiever's heart when all his fellow students and
teacher have long forgotten. In fact, the potential talent of a student will be strangled by those
poor grades. A real pity to the student himself and the society.

Last but not the least, there is some advantage in taking grades as a tool to evaluate students'
academic performance. As in my humble opinion, they should be combine with other scientific
methods to encourge students to gain knowledge but not solely focus their energy on how to win
high grades. After all, it is the knowledge that it is power, not the grades.

Sample essay 4.

A lot of people claim that marks in tests encourage students to learn. I agree with this statement,
because examinations are a good way for a student to review what students have learned; test
scores are a standard measurement for students’ learning ability and knowledge level; and the test
system can benefit their future.

First of all, tests are important for students’ learning. Attending classes is not enough for students
to learn the subjects no matter how carefully they listen to what teachers say. They need
examinations to review the lessons. In most cases, grades or marks are the only means by which
teachers measure students’ learning ability and learning progress. Therefore, grades encourage
students to study for examinations, and it is good system for them to learn the subjects.

Secondly, test scores are a standard measurement for students’ learning ability and knowledge
level. Most people would agree with this, therefore universities all over the world take test results
as a standard measurement to give admission to new students, to offer fellowships, and to decide
whether to grant a student graduation. High school teachers use test results as a means to evaluate
the effects of teaching, and students’ learning progress. By test scores, teachers also know each
individual student’s ability to learn.

Thirdly, test results can stimulate a student to work hard on his courses. The testing mechanism
encourages students to work hard in order to achieve a better result; they will devote more time
on study, and develop a "never give up" spirit. This will not only benefit their study, but also teach
them a truth, that everyone needs constant learning and hard working in order to be useful to this
society. Students who have developed such learning habit and never give up nature will not only
have good performance in schools, but can also superior to others in other aspects; for example,
such natures are important factors even after finishing schools. I believe most students understand
the importance of these qualities and impacts on their life; therefore they know how important it is
to work hard and try to achieve a better score.

In conclusion, marks can stimulate student to learn, and good marks can give them advantages in
going to a good university and finding a good job. Therefore I strongly support the statement that
marks can encourage students to learn.

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Topic 71. Which would you choose: a high-paying job with long hours that would give you little time with family and friends or a lower-paying job with shorter hours that would give you more time with family and friends?

Which would you choose: a high-paying job with long hours that would give you little time
with family and friends or a lower-paying job with shorter hours that would give you more time
with family and friends? Explain your choice, using specific reasons and details.

Sample essay 1.

There is much discussion on the relationship between income and leisure hours. Some people like
high-paying jobs that demand so much work time that little time can be shared with family and
friends. However, others choose lower-paying jobs that give them more leisure time.

Admittedly, by earning more money, one is able to purchase more expensive things, like a large
house with luxury decorations. The moment he get those, he may feel great fulfillment. However,
an ironic question comes up to him immediately: does he have enough time to enjoy what he has
earned? Just imagine that this person spend as much as 60 percent of his life on work, while the
rest 30 percent is taken up by his sleep. Whether the house is large enough makes no difference to
him, and let along the decoration — he has no time to appreciate it at all. What he really need at
home is only a comfortable bed. Similarly, it is true that he has sufficient money to taste delicious
foods in different restaurants, but only 10 percent of his life is left for eating, so that the only
choice for him is the cheap fast food sold near his work place.

So people should ask themselves such a serious question, “What is the purpose of our hard
work?” One of the most important answers is for a better life. Maybe sometimes people make less
money with shorter work hours, but they have more free time to spend with their beloveds, to
experience the best moments that life offers them. An ancient Greek philosopher said, “Happiness
is doubled when shared with others.” With enough leisure time, they can watch sunrise at
seashore with their lovers, or count stars at a mountaintop; they may eat a wonderful dinner at
their little cozy homes with their family, chatting about amusing things. All these do not need
much money, but a great deal of time.

Furthermore, family and friends give people vital emotional support. There are countless annoying
things happening in everyday life. When people drag their heavy feet back home, the warmth of
family help to dispel most of their tiredness and worries. Also, when they encounter frustrations,
they can confide their troubles to their friends. The consolation and encouragement from friends
will turn into strings of miraculous notes to disperse their uncomfortable feelings. With little time
shared with them, one will bear more and more pressures and bitterness, and run out of powers
eventually.

From what has been discussed above, in order to lead a meaningful and pleasuring life, I prefer a
lower income job that gives more free time to me to spend with my family and friends.

Sample essay 2.

Some people may prefer to have a lower-paying job as long as the job asks for shorter working
hours so they can have more free time spending with their friends and family. However, I would
rather be given a higher-paying job with longer hours, even if I would have little time with my
friends and family. I do not much care about the free time spending with my friends and family
nowadays; I really care about the money. Besides, all my friends and my family members are
usually busy in working. Furthermore, if I do not earn a lot of money, I cannot spend my free time
with my friends and family happily.

I really care about the money because my budget is too tight nowadays. I am so poor a student.
The tuition is too high, but I have to pay it. I also have to pay my rentals of room and pay the
board. I have to pay the transportation fares, the books, the clothes and a lot of daily supplies. All
these seem to be a heavy financial burden to me. So, I have to look for a job that could offer me
higher salary.

My friends and my family members are all very busy all day long. Some of them are busy in
working; others are busy in studying. They are usually having little free time to spend with their
friends and families, including me. If I were given a shorter hours job and more free time, I could
not meet them frequently either. But the money I would have lost.

Besides, even if my friends or my family and I have managed to find out some leisure time to
spend together, if I have not gotten enough money, where the fun will be? Any meeting or party
costs a fortune, even the simplest picnic. If we have no money to be spent for our gathering, we
have to just sit over there and chat. We will feel boring sooner. Knowing this, I am eager for a
higher-paying job so that I can get the money ready for the meetings in the future.

For all these reasons, I would like to have a higher-paying job to support myself and earn enough
money to meet my busy friends and family someday later. Although this job cannot offer me more
time to spend with my friends and family now, I believe that I will compensate it after I have
become some kind of millionaire in the future.

Sample essay 3.

Between a high-paying job with long hours and a lower-paying job with shorter hours, I will
definetely choose a high-paying job with long hours, although I might have little time to spend
with my family and friends.

Firstly, money can help my dreams come true. I need a lot of money to do many things. For
example, I want to buy a huge house with a garden and a swimming pool. I also want to have an
expensive car. Maybe my relatives need my financial assistance. Especially, I hope my family can
have a kind of comfortable life. My children can go to a famous private university to get excellent
education. If I have no money, all of my dreams cannot come true.

In addition, to me, making a lot of money is a sign of success. I think that no one respects a poor
man in today's society. From newspaper to television, almost all media focus on wealthy people
instead of the poor. I cannot let the others consider me an incompetent man.

Of course, making this choice means that I have to pay a price. Perhaps, I cannot spent too much
time with my family and friends. But I never regret my decision because I believe that both my
family and my friends can understand me. For my family, I think they should know whom I do
this for. For my friends, they will think how success I am and they will proud of me.

In conclusion, money is so important to me that I must choose a high-paying jod regardless of the
consequences it will cause.

Read More →

Three Perfect Meals in New Orleans

A few years back, I posted what became a very popular blog all about food in New Orleans. NOLA consistently ranks on top ten lists for the best food in the world. In fact, in this week's Travel + Leisure's America's Favorite Cities guide, we ranked in the top 10 in nearly all the food categories (not to mention #1 in Friendly, Proud of their City, Live Music Scene, People Watching, etc... but I digress.)

Okay, back to food. According to this excellent article in last month's New York Times (which you should definitely go and read right now, if you have not already. Go on... I'll wait), New Orleans has 70% more restaurants now than she did prior to Katrina. As such, it's time for a brand new edition of my Three Perfect Meals blog. You can check out the original post here, but have a look and see what our students, alumni and locals would do if they had one day to eat their three most favoritest meals here in town. Ready? Hope you're hungry...

This is a burger from the Company Burger.
It will be the best burger you ever eat in your life. Period.
photo from their website

Me:
Breakfast: Bananas Foster French Toast from Stanley
Lunch: Caesar salad with turkey from Satsuma when I am healthy and a Company Burger when not.
Dinner: Prosciutto Pizza from Domenica and the cauliflower side

Rachel Rosenberg, senior
Breakfast: Pancake of the day from Satsuma
Lunch: Mozzarella sandwich (turkey instead of ham) from St. James 
Dinner: Steak topped with brie and lobster from Dick and Jenny's

Sarah Weinberg, senior
Breakfast: Corn Beef Hash with a biscuit (duh) from Surrey's
Lunch: The Blue Heeler and a Butterscotch milkshake from Milk Bar
Dinner: Crabmeat Sardou from Galatoire's;
Dessert: Chocolate Gateau from Stella!

Clark Castle, local food expert (and blogger too)
Breakfast: A bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from Majoria's Commerce.
Lunch: A burger from Patois.
Dinner: Pork shank from Borgne.

Erica Rose, Tulane grad
Breakfast: grits and a ham biscuit from Mothers
Lunch: fried shrimp&oyster po-boy from Domilises or fried chicken from Willie Maes;
Snack: oysters from Casamentos;
Dinner: anything from Patois

Here is a prosciutto pizza from Domenica. You'll notice Domeinca is on this list frequently. For good reason.
photo from their website

Laura Manning, Tulane grad
Breakfast: Migas from Surrey's (biscuit and bacon are required) + Iced Coffee,
Lunch: Mango Salmon Roll and noodle salad from Hana
Dinner: Lobster and Mushroom Risotto from Clancy's
Dessert: Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding from Boucherie

Jessica Friedman, Tulane grad
Brunch: Dominica - anything on the menu, really
Lunch: Lebanon Cafe -Hummus w lamb and pita
Dinner: Ninja- ninja salad, rock n roll, miso roll, tuna box, rainbow roll!

Maggie Mae, no longer a local but probably wishes she still was
Breakfast: bacon cinnamon roll from Dante's Kitchen
Lunch: crawfish poboy with green beans from Coop's Place
Dinner: alligator cheesecake and literally any entree from Jacques-Imos
Dessert: black and gold crunch milkshake from Creole Creamery

Mara O'Brien Hahn, student and curator of our current photo contest
Breakfast: Huevos Rancheros with a biscuit on the side from Riccobonnos 
Lunch: Surf and Turf Po'boy from Parkway Bakery & Tavern
Dinner: Duck Pizza from Domenica
Dessert: Flourless Madagascar Chocolate Cake with Dulce De Leche Ice Cream from Peche.

Mmmmm Parkway Po'Boys.
Photo from their website

Allie Zodin, student and also employee of Lululemon where you can buy my Xmas presents from
Breakfast: migas with a biscuit on the side at the Ruby Slipper
Lunch: a cheeseburger with bacon and garlic mayo, side of sweet potato fries OR onion rings at Company Burger 
Dinner: fried kale and margarita pizza at Domenica
Desert: Krispy Kreme bread pudding at Boucherie.

Michael Lamb, alumni and former Intern here in the Office of Admission
Breakfast: Bacon, Egg & Cheese at Slim Goodies 
Lunch: Capedeville Burger and Truffle Mac and Cheese at Capdeville
Dinner: Pork Cracklin' and Sweet Potato Beignets at SoBou

More Mmmmmm Po'Boys, this time from Domilice's
Photo from their website 

Sophie Cranin, junior, (tag-teaming with her friend Jacob)
Breakfast: Creole or Veggie Slammer from Slim Goodie's.
Lunch: a Luke burger and fries.
A dinner in three parts: 1) Pre-app: A dozen raw oysters from Galatoire's. 2) Appetizer: Blue crab and black truffle gnocchi from August 3) Entree: Herb-crusted rack of lamb from Gautreau's.
Dessert: Cheese plate from St. James. (We like to eat.)

Butcher, another popular spot.
Photo from their website

Sally Baker, two time Tulane grad (she's in med school here these days)
Breakfast: sweet potato waffle with duck hash and praline bacon from Elizabeth's
Lunch: the gambino and Mac and cheese from Butcher
Happy hour: Calabrese pizza from Domenica
Dinner: Roast Duck with Ginger Peach sauce from Upperline

Adam Griego, senior and NOLA local. Oh, and Homecoming King.
Breakfast: bacon,eggs,waffle from Camellia Grill 
Lunch: Surf N Turf Po Boy from Parkway Tavern
Dinner: Burger with baked potato from Port of Call
Dessert: Beignets at Cafe du Monde

Owen Knight, THE Tulane Owen
Breakfast: Tex-Mex slammer from Slim Goodies
Lunch: Hook's Cheddar turkey sandwich from St. James Cheese Co.
Dinner: raw tuna, fried brussels sprouts, and baked drum from Peche.
Dessert: Ice cream from Creole Creamery
F&Ms cheese fries as a late night snack

David Shulman, went to LSU but don't hold that against him
Breakfast: Croquenut from District Donuts
Lunch: The daily special from Wayfare
Dinner: Peanut butter burger from Yo Mama's
Dessert: Xocolate from Sucré
Late night: beignets from Café Du Monde

Sam Chassé, senior
Breakfast: Slim Goodie's Tex-Mex Slammer
Lunch: Voodoo BBQ Signature Pulled Pork w/ side of Sweet Potato Souffle
Dinner: Herbsaint - the Chicken w/ Bacon

Jill de Rosa, junior
Breakfast: eggs Elizabeth with praline bacon from Elizabeth's
Lunch: Guinness dog with all the fixins and cheddar bacon ranch fries from Dat Dog (this is when I'm on a diet)
Dinner: chicken under a brick from Dante's
Dessert: Krispy Kreme bread pudding from Boucherie is life changing

Mitchell Baker, Tulane alum
Breakfast: Three little pigs omelet from Ruby Slipper
Lunch: Empirely Delicious from Milk Bar
Dinner: Filet de truite aux ecrevisses from Antoine's
Dessert: Bananas foster from Court of Two Sisters
Also, anytime appetizer: Rum House nachos. best nachos in all the land

Will Brightman, recent Tulane grad who tries to come back to NOLA every weekend
Breakfast: praline bacon and omelet from Elizabeth's
Lunch: Turtle soup, grilled cheese with crawfish and bread pudding soufflé at Commanders
Dinner: sweet bread with crab, sautéed snapper, and creme brûlée at Gautreau's

Cowbell Burger
Photo from their website 

Colby Woodis, senior, also- raised on a farm.
Breakfast: General Lee from Oak Street Cafe
Lunch: The Truth Burger from TruBurger w/ Peanut Butter Shake
Dinner: Mahi-Mahi Toulouse from Ralph & Kacoo's w/ a Cajun Stuffed Potato and Bread Pudding with Big Al's Whiskey Sauce
Second Dessert: Lavender Honey Ice Cream from Creole Creamery
I'm always down for some fried pickles w/ the house sauce from the River Shack. Those things are the bomb.

Blake DiMarco, Tulane alum
Breakfast: Bayou Breakfast & praline bacon from Elizabeth's
Lunch: The W Special from The Joint
Dinner: Whole Grilled Snapper from Peche

Greg Miller, Tulane alum and my little brother in Sig Ep, kind of.
Breakfast: chef special all the way at Camellia Grill. Preferably eaten as the first meal of the day at 4PM. Lunch: as much food from Bruff as you can stuff your face with.

Various deliciousness from St. James Cheese Company
Photo from their website 

Dinner: Cafe Nino's combo meal. The veal Parmesan with spaghetti and lasagna as your sides. A plastic cup of red from Niño to polish it off.

Chase Giovanni,  senior
Breakfast: The Hurricane from Slim Goodies;
Lunch: Cheeseburger and mac n' cheese from Cowbell;
Dinner: Goat cheese stuffed pork tenderloin from Dick and Jenny's OR the Bacon-wrapped shrimp and grits from Mr. B's
Dessert: Chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich from Dick and Jenny's. I'm right.

Samantha Gould, senior
Breakfast: french toast from Surrey's
Midday snack: chocolate croissant from Maple Street Patisserie
Lunch: bacon cheeseburger from Camellia Girl- with a chocolate cherry shake!
Dinner: shrimp with grits from Martinique Bistro. 
Dessert: anything from Sucre!

Trey Holmes, sophomore
When my parents are paying:
Breakfast: Beignets and a Cafe Au Lait from Cafe Du Monde
Lunch: Pastrami Sandwich from Cochon Butcher
Dinner: Filet Marchad de Vin from Galatoire's 
When I'm paying: Breakfast:
Breakfast: Big Breakfast Sandwich from City Diner
Lunch: Fried Oyster Po Boy from Adams Street Grocery
Dinner: Alligator Sausage topped with Crawfish Etouffee and Cheese from Dat Dog (during happy hour, of course)

Lotta talk about the praline bacon from Elizabeth's. Here she is in all her glory.
Photo from their website

Rachel Romero, junior
Breakfast: Crab cake Benedict at Panola St. Cafe
Lunch: Damn good nachos at Rum House
Dinner: charbroiled oysters and lobster Marco (lobster stuffed with shrimp pasta) at Drago's
Dessert: lemon ice and a cannoli from Brocato's

Taylor Feingold, junior
Breakfast: Fried Green Tomatoes eggs Benedict at Cafe at the Square
Lunch: Pesto Torellini at Reginelli's 
Dinner: Filet Mignon of Black Angus Beef at Commander's Palace

There you have it! Now I'm hungry.

Read More →

Topic 70. Some people think that the automobile has improved modern life. Others think that the automobile has caused serious problems. What is your opinion?

Some people think that the automobile has improved modern life. Others think that the
automobile has caused serious problems. What is your opinion? Use specific reasons and
examples to support your answer.

Sample essay 1.

I support the statement that automobile has caused serious problems. While automobile has
brought us many conveniences, it surely has brought us many undesirable consequences, of which
three can be singled out: traffic congestion, air pollution, and highway accidents.

Automobiles have congested City streets. The problem is more obvious when the masses of motor
vehicles enter or leave cities at peak traffic hours. The constantly growing number of automobiles
throughout the world has made the congestion program worse and worse because planners and
engineer simply cannot find a solution to keep up with the increasing volume of the traffic growth.
The widespread use of automobiles for business travel has also led in many cities to a decline in
public-transit systems, which result in more and more use of private cars, and exacerbate the
congestion problems.

Air pollution is another program caused by the automobile. Automobile exhausts commonly
contribute half the atmospheric pollutants in large cities and even more in cities where
atmospheric and topographic conditions cause the smog formation. Although many cities require
the installation of catalytic converters and other controls on motor vehicles to restrict the emission
of pollutants, the concentration of many thousands of motor vehicles in large cities has given the
problem a new dimension.

Highway accidents create a distressing toll of fatalities and injuries wherever there is widespread
use of automobiles. Each year there are hundreds of thousands of motor vehicle fatalities
worldwide and about 50,000 in the United States alone. The social and economic costs of such
accidents are enormous. Efforts to improve highway safety have been successful in most
countries, but a reduction in the ratio of fatalities and injuries per distance traveled is often offset
by increases in numbers of accidents because of the ever-growing use of motor vehicles.

In short, automobile has brought us more bane than boon. We should take public transportation
whenever possible, and reduce the number of cars running in urban streets.

Sample essay 2.

Although automobiles have improved our modern life in some way for its speed, convenience, and
capacity of carrying things, we have had to pay the price for it. Now, as more and more
automobiles have been putting into use, the problems that the automobile has caused are seemed
to be more and more serious accordingly. These problems, in my mind, like the accidents, the air
pollution, the damage of the ozone layers should be given more attention than anytime before.

There are a lot of problems that has been causing by the automobile. It kills hundreds of thousands
of people and disables many more every year. It drinks up our precious fossil fuels that cannot be
replaced. New roads for the automobile also eat up our precious farmlands while many children
are starving all around the world. These problems are really serious and upsetting many of us.

The most serious problem caused by the automobile is the air pollution. It is said that it emits
millions of tons of harmful gas into the air everyday. The dirt air harms our human beings health
badly. It can cause a variety of diseases such as plumbism, insomnia, mental disability and even
certain kinds of cancer. That is really terrible.

Air pollution caused by the automobile can give rise to even more serious consequences. One
thing, it will destroy the ozone layers that protect the lives on the earth from the hurt of the strong
and direct ultraviolet rays. Much more ultraviolet can also destroy the fragile ecosystem on the
earth. It is just the life circle in which we survive. Another thing is that the air pollution caused by
the automobile can lead to the global warming. If the weather is getting warmer and warmer, the
icebergs scattered in both of the two poles of the earth will be melted, which will cause the sea
level rising and flooding all the cities and villages along the seashores. The lost of the lives and
property will be countless. That is really a tremendous disaster.

I do not mean to deny the fact that the automobile has improved our modern life in many ways. It
acts a vital role in our social life. It also supports our industries. It is indispensable in our modern
life. We cannot imagine how we can live a modern life without the automobile. However, the
problems it has caused today, such as the lives and properties lost, the dirty air and the
consequences of the pollution, seems to be more dangerous and obvious than anytime. Therefore,
it will never over do to emphasize the seriousness of these problems and urge the governments
and other responsible organizations to solve them.

Sample essay 3.

Since the first automobile was introduced to our life, we can notice that there are a lot of changes
happened around us. As a modern transportation, it not only brings convenience to our daily life,
but also enhances the efficiency.

One of advantages of using the automobile is that it can give the users much more convenience
compared with other transportations, such as bike or bus. For me, I like to go to supermarket once
per week and normal buy majority foods at one time. Can you imagine that I need to carry a lot of
foodstuff and maybe take a crowded bus to reach home. How is it inconvenient! Suppose that I
have a car, and then I will feel very relaxed because what I need to do is to put all my stuff at the
back of the car. I can go back with nice music and happy mood of just shopping.

On the other hand, the automobile can save our time and energy. Driving the automobile, we can
go wherever we want or even further place. We can decide the destination and reach there faster
than other transportations. Assuming that a train takes about two hours to reach Suzhou from
Shanghai, but a car only needs about one hour. So we can use the balance one hour to do any
other things or enjoy the views first. After all, time means a lot to modern people now. It can
mean money to businessmen, knowledge to school students and profit to companies. By means of
cutting time with the help of the automobile, we can increase the efficiency in a society.

Of course, I must admit that in the meantime the automobile also brings out a lot of problems such
as traffic jam and air pollution. But these outcomes cannot be avoided during the development of
a society. I believe we will have a better solution to solve all these problems.

Generally speaking, I would like to say the automobile has improved modern life through
providing more convenience to people and enhancing the efficiency. We should encourage
society to support automobile industry and develop different kinds of automobiles to meet various
customer needs.

Read More →

#New2TU

It's back! Our Admission Letter Photo Contest!

You know that Tulane acceptance letter your parents have been proudly whipping out and showing to everyone who will stand still long enough to listen?  Well now it’s time to put it to good use.  Take a creative picture of yourself holding your acceptance letter and send it over to us.  All entries will be placed in a photo contest album on the Tulane University Admission Facebook page as they are received, and on May 1st we will count the number of "likes."  The photographer whose entry receives the most Facebook love will win a $200 gift card to Barnes and Noble, which can be used at the Tulane bookstore!  Only one student per entry.

So to review:
1) Get snapping!
2) E-mail your photo entry to mobrienh@tulane.edu.
3) Share the link to your entry and encourage all of your family and friends to "like" it.

Good luck and congratulations on being #New2TU!

Check out some shots from last year here:

Andrea Dean

Peter Gray

Ruger Pearson 

Bryn Dragalin and Arielle Barrow 

Talia Latch

Nicholas Green

Elana Maiman

Allison Wegner 

Marron Frith 

Read More →

Topic 69. If you could study a subject that you have never had the opportunity to study, what would you choose?

If you could study a subject that you have never had the opportunity to study, what would you
choose? Explain your choice, using specific reasons and details.

Sample essay 1.

In a modern society, most people are easy to change jobs. However, they may feel that they don't
have much confidence when facing a new job, not because of a new enviornment but also a lack
of knowledge about the new job. Due to different requirements from different backgrounds, I
think vocational educatin is in need. The reasons are as follow:

Firstly, vocatinal education can help us adapt to a new environment fast. Although one is doing
the same job in a field, there are also differences exsiting in different fields. For example, an
English translator needs different background knowledge if he is working in chemistry and IT
field. When he translates some articles or does some interpretations about IT field, he needs to
know the knowledge about IT, like the technical terms. Suppose that he doesn't know any
technical terms, how can he understand some special meanings of these words, or even do a
translation successfully? This is the reason that he needs some vocational training about IT, such
as basic skills or common terms. Once he knows more, he will adapt the new environment fast and
have a confidence in doing his job.

In addition, vocational education can increase a person's value. As a humanbeing, we are learning
everyday. No matter what kind of knowledge we learn, as long as they are good, we can benefit
from them. This society is full of new technologies and new inventions. Of course we cannot
finish learning all when we are in school. But we also cannot give up learning when starting a job.
We still need to upgrate ourselves to get used to this fast-changing society. In order to achieve this
goal, we need vocational education to help us. They are more practical than the knowledge we
learned from schools because this knowledge you need to use everyday. Only mastering it firmly
can we do the job well.

Last but not least, vocational education can help us to be promoted to a high level. As we know, a
person to be promoted to a manager or director needs to have a thorough understanding about the
job and the field he is doing. By understanding the knowledge or skills he needs, he has a strong
competition against other people. In other words, he has a priority to be promoted if he knows his
job well through vocational education.

In short, without vocational education people use what they have already learned, but they won't
focus on what kind of knowledge they should learn in order to adapt their new environments, add
their values and increase their competitions. Above explanations are reasons i think vocational
education is very important to us. Thus, if i could study a subject that i have never had the
opportunity to study, i will choose vocational education.

Sample essay 2.

If I could study a subject that I have never had opportunity to study, I would choose to study how
to use the Internet. There are a lot of advantages that the Internet can bring to us. For example, it
can get us informed timely, expose us to a lot of chances of knowing other peoples and their
cultures, and help us obtain the materials for our studies conveniently. If I know how to use it, I
can take the advantages of it.

The Internet can get me informed timely. There is always a lot of news on the Internet that is
broadcasting 24 hours everyday and updating timely. I can read the headlines, the financial news,
the sports points, and the weather reports every time when I connect my phone modem with my
computer. From reading the news on the Internet, I can know everything happening around me. It
is very important for me to deal with my daily life with this information. It gives me a lot of
chance to know different peoples. I can know what they are thinking about and how they are
living their lives. The World Wide Web Sites include all of the countries and religions’
information. I can tour internationally on Net without going out of my house. From visiting their
pages, I can know more details about them. That is helpful to us since all of the peoples in the
world should understand each other to make sure that we could live together peacefully.

The Internet gives me the convenience of getting almost any useful materials for my study. I can
just type a few letters and click the search engine to get them. I can do them in the early morning
in my pajama while having my breakfast at the same time. Nothing could be more convenient than
the Internet in doing research work like this.

In short, if I could choose one subject to study, I would definitely choose to study the Internet for
its timely updating news and its convenience. I would also like to travel to new worlds and meet
other different peoples. That will be really helpful for me to live a life successfully.

Sample essay 3.

If I could study a subject that I have never had the opportunity to study, I would choose computer
programming, because computer programming is so vital to today’s society.

Firstly, computer programming is important to our daily life. With the advance of technology, we
are practically facing an information age; every piece of information today is stored in the
information highway, which consists of computers and networks as hardware, operating systems
and software. Without software installed in these systems, the computers are like bodies without
soul, and will not be able to function at all. Only with programming languages, information can be
retrieved and stored into the information highway. Whether we hook up a phone line or television
cable, book a ticket, travel to a foreign country, apply for a passport, an operator will immediately
check our information from the computer network. If the computer systems are down, we cannot
go anywhere or do anything. We can safely say that computer programming languages are
ubiquitous in our daily life.

Secondly, computer programming is important to technological success. With the skill of
computer programming, scientists can write programs to monitor their scientific research and
experiments, to analyze the trend of technological development, and to forecast the future.
Computer programs can simulate a scientific experiment in a much cost-effective and timely
manner, thus can save scientists a lot of time and money, therefore it can greatly faster the pace of
the development of technology. For example, a civil engineer can use a modeling program to
simulate the water flow of an urban area; when there is a storm, he can quickly know which parts
of the city have the danger of being under the water and dispatch his crew to that area to prevent
the disaster.

Last but not least, computer programming techniques can help us earn higher salaries in our future
jobs. Since computer programming is important to our society and daily life, programmers can
usually have a higher salary than other professionals. Many people have shifted to computer
programming from other careers during the economic boom, and even when the economy is going
low at the moment, programmers and computer engineers can still live a better life than others.

From all above, I can safely draw a conclusion that if I have a chance to study, I would not
hesitate to choose computer programming.

Read More →

Topic 68. Many teachers assign homework to students every day. Do you think that daily homework is necessary for students?

Many teachers assign homework to students every day. Do you think that daily homework is
necessary for students? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

Sample essay 1.

There's much controversy about the necessity of daily homework for students. Some say
homework is necessary since only practice makes perfect, while others disagree because they
believe a student should have the freedom to study whatever in whatever forms just as he/she
likes to.

In my opinion, daily homework is necessary for students. First, a teacher could assign homework
as a guide for the students to study. To learn something. A student needs help of a teacher
because he/she does not have an overall understanding of the knowledge he is going to study as
the teacher. This means, at the begining, a student could not well plan his/her study, just as a kid
who is for the first time in a swimming pool could do nothing but play with water. And a teacher
could make a good study plan for him/her, so that he/she could learn efficiently. Secondly,
Sometimes, even when a student, especially a young one, has already understand what he/she
should do in order to master some skill or knowledge, he/she is still unwilling to do this for the
lack of motivation. Hey, don't tell me that you have never been lazy at all when you were young.
Some homework could function as a task for the student to perform which is helpful to motivate
him/her. Thirdly, homework is an important form of feedback for a teacher to understand the
effectivity of his/her work. As I have mentioned before, a teacher makes a study plan for the
students; but does it really work? or does it work for all the students? It's not difficult to know this
only if the teacher pay some attention to the homework of the students. Then he/she may be able
to find if there's some problems in his/her teaching, and make corresponding adjustment of his/her
teaching, either for all the students or for a single one. Without some feedback, it is impossible for
the teacher to do this. A test is also a good form of feedback, but obviously one or two tests are
not enough, and sometimes this kind of feedback just comes to late.

However, This conclusion might be misleading that one may believe all forms of homework are
necessary. Actually, only proper amount of homework in proper forms is acceptable; some
homework may not only fail to help the students, but on contrary bore them, so much so that they
may lose their innate interest to study. "Proper" homework, in my opionion, should vary in its
forms; it might be some extensive reading, a paper, or even just a game, as well as other ordinary
excercises. And it should leave enough freedom to the students so that they could do things they
really like to do with self-motivation, rather than unwillingness. We should always remember that
homework is something for us to guide the students, rather than drive them. Only if a teacher keep
this in his/her mind, the homework could be of most help to the students.

Sample essay 2.

"You must finish your assignment when coming back from school,"my mother always told me
when I was a child. Therefore, I am used to doing my homework as my first thing at home.

According to my habits and fondness I am unanimous with this statement that teacher assign
homework everyday. Maybe others hate doing homework everyday because they take it as a
burden which will reduce their time for playing games. Here!Let me tell you why I advocate it.

The main reason is that teachers assigning homework everyday really helps me go over my lessons
I have had on class. Through my homework I can understand the knowledge by myself and get
what the teacher said the most important things in order in my brain. I really liked playing and
postponed homework to the next day. Woo! That realize an old saying "Bite more than you can
chew" .

Another reason is that completing homework everday will help to raise habit that everyone need
think in his/her own way independently.What teacher teaches us is just their understanding track
and what we gain on class is just others' experience.

What I discussed above is just two points of many persuasive ones. To some extent,we may obey
the rule--"Always work and study makes Jack a dull boy".

But if all these factors are contemplated the advantage of asigning homework everyday carry
more weight than those of the opposite one.What I agree with is just personal idea.Maybe you can
remember this word."Going over what you've learned will give you more new knowledge."

(This is a 5 point essay)

Sample essay 3.

Many teachers assign homework to students everyday, and they seldom doubt it. However, as far
as I am concerned, it is not necessary.

To begin with, not every teacher has classes everyday. For instance, a chemistry teacher may
have no class on Monday. It makes students learn nothing new about chemistry that day. As a
result, it becomes unnecessary for the chemistry teacher to assign homework. Because if the
teacher still assigns homework, perhaps the students will not have enough time to review what
they have learned that day, such as physics and biology.

In addition, everyone must have his or her own leisure time. Students are not machines. They
cannot work without any rest. Even if a machine works everyday, its efficiency will become lower
and lower and refuse to work finally. So the teachers must let students have some spare time,
when they can play games, have a picnic and do other things they like. It is good to children’s
health.

Last but not least, assigning homework everyday is not a scientific way of studying. Suppose you
must do physics homework everyday. After several weeks, you will probably think physics is so
boring that it no longer interests you. How could one learn physics well under such circumstance?
I think the only way to solve this problem is not to assign physics homework everyday.

So from what has been discussed, one can reach only this conclusion that daily homework is not
necessary at all.

(This is a 5 point essay)

Sample essay 4.

Most students in this world struggle daily with their homework. Many teachers believe that daily
homework is the key to education and school success. I agree with this opinion. Here are my
reasons.

First, daily homework can reinforce the knowledge students learned at school. A student cannot
concentrate every minute, and remember everything that a teacher taught in class. Daily
homework is the best way for students to review what he learned during the day, and study on the
problems that he do not understand, and prepare for the next day’s work.

Second, daily homework is the bases of succeed in exams. This is especially true for those
students who are not so bright, and the only way to succeed in school is doing homework each
day. Whenever the homework flags the class behavior dips, the social behavior is muddled, and
the grades take a nosedive. No matter what the ability of a student, daily homework is the key to
students’ school success.

Third, daily homework can help students develop good learning habits. Learning is not always an
enjoyable experience and students always need to spend hard time on it. Daily homework can
form a kind of habit of learning for students. Once a habit is formed, learning is not such a painful
thing and a student can find it more and more interesting. Obviously this will greatly benefit to a
student.

In conclusion, daily homework is crucial to students’ success. Life requires us to keep learning in
order to catch on with this fast pacing society. A good learning habit and method that we
developed when we are students can benefit us for the rest of our life.

Sample essay 5.

I do strongly this idea that teachers should assign homework to students every day. There are
numerous reasons why I advocate the attitude of assigning homework everyday, and I would in
here explain a few of the most important ones.

At first, homework is helpful for students to recall the knowledge that they study at the same day.
In general, students would like to play. After going home,if there is no homework, they will only
play all kinds of games. Maybe they will forget all knowledge. But homework will force them to
sit their chairs to review what they learn. So, homework will help students study better.

Secondly, homework will help teachers understand how their students study. Through examining
their students' homework, they can know whether their students understand what they teach in the
class. I feel that it will help teachers improve their educational quality.

Of course, there are some people who contradict homework because they think that assigning
homework everyday will enhance the students' load. But I feel that study is the most important
task of a student. After going home, they should spend some time reviewing their knowledge.
Only like this, they can acquire progress.

After understanding the reasoning abrove, I think that nobody would doubt this idea that teachers
should assign homework everyday.

(This is a 5 point essay)

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