Essays 136-140
136 EX
You have decided to give several hours of your time each month to improve the community where you live. What is one thing you will do to improve your community? Why? Use specific reasons and details to explain your choice.
Volunteering a few hours each week to some community activity is an important way of investing in the future of our society. I chose to spend my time working with elementary school children helping them to learn to read. Developing good reading skills will help these students keep up with their classmates, open new worlds to them, and help them succeed in life.
Students who are not good readers cannot keep up with their studies. They will not understand the lessons; they will come to school unprepared; they will not be able to perform. By learning to read, students will be on equal footing with their classmates. They will be active participants in class.
Books on different lifestyles, occupations, cultures, or governments will open new doors to students. Students who can’t read will only know what they see around them. Students who can read will be able to travel to new worlds and experience new ideas without ever leaving their classrooms.
Today, a person who can’t read is severely handicapped. A non-reader will have to work at the most menial jobs. Readers, especially good readers, have the whole universe open to them. They will have the possibility to learn any job that interests them.
By volunteering to help an elementary school child learn to read, I am helping him or her not only today, but for the rest of his or her life. I am helping them keep pace with their peers and explore the world and themselves through books.
137 MA
Your school has enough money to purchase either computers for students or books for the library. Which should your school choose to buy—computers or books? Use specific reasons and examples to support your recommendation.
Our school has been given a grant to make necessary improvements to its facilities. We can spend it on new books for the library or on more computers. Our school already has books in its library and it already has computers. Since we have more books than computers, I think that new computers will benefit the student more.
Computers can access up-to–date information on the Internet. Right now, the reference books in our library are very outdated. Our encyclopedia set is eight years old. But if every student had access to a computer, we all could have the latest facts and figures on everything.
Unfortunately, giving every student a computer means we need a lot of computers. Right now, the ratio of computers to students is one to twelve. This means students only get to work on the computers three or four times a week. But if every student had a computer, we could use it whenever we wanted.
“Information on demand” should be our slogan. Students today need lots of information right away. Life goes by too quickly to wait. It takes forever to identify a book that you think might have the information you need. Then you have to go to the library and look for the book. Usually it’s not even there.
With a computer, information searches are instantaneous. If we all had computers, we could access more information and access it faster by computer. We could have all the information we needed for our schoolwork. We could all improve our grades. For these reasons, I feel that purchasing more computers will benefit us more than buying more books.
138 MA
Many students choose to attend schools or universities outside their home countries. Why do some student abroad? Use specific reasons and details to explain your answer.
Although students can get a good education in most subjects at their home universities, it is important to study abroad for some or part of one’s college education. Study abroad can give a student competency in a new language, familiarity with a different culture, and a chance to grow in different ways.
One cannot deny that it is important to be bilingual or even multilingual in today’s fast-paced world. We have a global economy and communication by Internet and satellite TV means we must be familiar with other languages in order to keep up with new developments.
Knowing another culture is also important today. Respect for other people and their traditions will foster cooperation and peace. We should all do our part to make sure the world is safe for our children. It will only be safe if we understand and respect other people and their culture.
When we are out of our environment, we feel freer to experiment with different ways of doing things. We are all individuals and we need time to be on our own, away from our comfortable nests. We may try different things and reject them. We might also adopt them. People can change and it is easier to change when you are away from your family surroundings.
Study abroad can be enriching. Not only can we learn a new language, understand more about a different culture, but we can learn more about ourselves too. At the same time, of course, we are getting an education in the formal sense.
139 EX
People listen to music for different reasons and at different times. Why is music important to many people? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice.
Music seems to be a natural need for people. I’ve read that from ancient times human beings have produced sounds from “instrument” like rocks or skins stretched over a wooden frame. Music is something most people want and need. I think it’s important because it can be a major part of both community and individual experience.
Music is a way of sharing a common bond or feeling. When we’re children, we learn very simple songs called nursery rhymes. These songs help make us part of our culture by telling us what’s acceptable and what’s not. We play and sing music in our religious ceremonies because it enhances the worship experience. We play music when we’re going to war or celebrating the fact that we’re won a war.
We have national anthems to share our love and pride for our particular country. We have music we play for our school, and music we play for our athletic team. In fact, music has become a big part of athletic games. We use it to taunt the other team as well as celebrate when points are scored for our team.
Music is also a major part of individual experiences. When we fall in love, music is usually a part of that experience. People talk about having “our song.” That means the song that was playing when they met or a song they both liked when they fell in love. When we get married, we play music before and after and sometimes during the ceremony. It expresses how we feel. We play music to calm our nerves or to stimulate ourselves to get on with a task. We also play music for the simple enjoyment of listening to the sounds.
Music is special to us because it expresses our connection with our culture, and because it enhance our individual experiences. Nothing else seems to capture our feelings quite so well.
140 EX
Groups or organizations are an important part of some people’s lives. Why are groups or organizations important to people? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your answer.
Groups or organizations are an important part of our life because we are social people. We like to get together with people whose attitudes and beliefs are like ours. The most important groups for us are our families, our religious organizations, and our political organizations.
Our families are obviously our most important group. You will never find the physical and emotional support from any other group that you will find in your family. Your family is part of you; you are tied to them by blood. They will always be there for you.
Similarly our religious organizations can provide comfort for us in times of stress. When we are with people who have the same beliefs, we feel better. Our beliefs are based on tradition. These beliefs have been tested over time. These beliefs tell us how to respond and how to act.
Our political organizations change as we change. Some years we may feel conservative; other years we may feel more liberal. Whatever our political philosophy, we can find a political organization that matches our thinking at the moment. Those political organizations help us be a part of the larger community.
Whether the group is tightly knit like a family, spiritual like religion, or secular like politics, they all serve a function in our life. They all help us feel as if we belong.
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