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406_RUMO9012.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
To say the truth it took me much time to think over this state - ment, mayby because in our country the problem of feminism is not so popular as in Europe or in the USA. It happens that it is accepted to suppose that after the Great October Socialist Revolution men and wo - men are equal in their rights. And it was really like that. With the 20ies we were in the era of the "emancipated" woman. The had the vote .
She also had short hair and lipstick. Young women with jobs did not have to marry the first man who asked them. There were also protests over inequities of jobs and wages and there was a hard-fought battle paralleling the current strugle for abortion reform over birth cont - rol. Then it was the War which drew women into industry and for the first time in history into the armed forces on a par with men. As for the present I am a woman and I do not feel any infringement of my rights only becaus I am a womam. As for the civilized countries I think it is just the same: women are challenging and overturning the status quo in all fields from politics and business to sports and me - dicine, reshaping and recasting the social, political and economic trends of the day. Now the statementthat all that the women wish to have must come through a single channel and single choice: wealth, po - wer, social distinction, fame and even home and happiness, reputation, ease and pleasure, their bread and butter - all must come to them thro - ugh a small gold ring - is really out of date and unpopular. In this case if a woman can be elected to higher office, can occupy top corpo - rate posts and own successful business she can do whatever she wants and she has the equal rights with men, I do not see any reasons for feminists to be indignant. So if we are talking about the present I do not think the feminism has done either harm or good, but if we are talking about the feminism in the historical aspect I am just sure that it has done only good. Let's look at the social image of women in the last several generations. The first thing we discover is that the scholary historians who deride the idea of a special history of women are quite correct. Women have not been trend-setters, activists in the drama of great events. If they turn up in the middle of some climalic scene they are likely to have got there by the accident of marriage or occasionally of birth. Women-monarches have inherited power under laws made by men, not laid hands on it themselves. The history of women has not been made within their own ranks but has followed from the ma - le-initiated proced. Women's history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of othere. As for the fight of women for their rights it involved more then a struggle for tangible goals like equal pay, equal opportunity, the vote it self. It was a fight for the very right to fight, to declare that one's ambitions and needs are as im - portent as those of men. Women were so isolated that the world could practically run without them exept for their services as domestic drudges. Millions of women knew from their own experience that "equal rights for women" was a phrase but not a fact. The women's movement was a search for a more honorable and worthy life. Yes it "was" and maybe now it is just the time to stop the search and look around, may - be it is the time when men and women should bury the hatchet and live in peace and harmony. Now women are vital, courageous, independent, fully equal strong but at the same it seems they do not have delicacy, sensitivity and gentleness without which our sexiness and strength, courage and independence are a hollow pose. So I do not deny femi - nists' services I just want to say that women should not forget that they are women and should nurture in themselves a kind of indomitab - le, gentle spirit that must be made more widely available, in order to, inspire a new generation of women, not by glossing over the dark rea - lities we can not afford to ignore, but by reminding us that reality is both dark and bright, and that to live with both requires courage .
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407_SEBG1008.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In his novel 'Animal Farm' George Orwell wrote 'All men are equal but some are more equal than others'. How true is this today?
In his seminal work, Animal Farm, George Orwell presents an elaborate system of allegory depicting, perhaps better than any documentary account ever could, the sinister ideology already in place in Stalin's Soviet Union, one of hipocricy and brutal repression, all in the name of progress. While filled to the brim with quotable aphorisms, one quote in particular seems to have captured the zeitgeist perfectly: [Quotation] . While this applied to the pseudocommunist system of the Soviet Union, a case can be made that it can also be applied to today's western liberal democracies, the validity of which application shall be discussed herein .
Does global capitalism today not precisely follow the logic of Orwell's pigs, creating an atmosphere of fierce and often unfair competition, where the losers are deemed lazy and unworthy, and the winners showered with praise as job creators and visionaries? Global inequallity is a topic that has only recently begun to be tackled by some of the foremost minds in both economy and philosophy, and it will take a long time before the solutions, if discovered, percolate down to the political decision makers whose job it is, at least nominally, to resolve these issues. Let me first remark upon the fact that in developed countries, such as the U.S, the vast majority of both wealth and income are hoarded by the very richest of the rich, who pay little to no taxes to the state, due to tax loopholes and offshore tax havens, thus being privileged in comparison to the middle and working class .
The extremly wealthy also wield undue political influence. Through lobbying and campaign contributions, corporations and individuals are able to bribe politicians into acting against the interests of the country and the people, and for their own (getting re-elected), and those of their benefactors. In fact, it has been ruled that corporations are effectively people, which gives them the right to free speech, and opens the floodgates of unlimited money flowing into Political Action Committees, thus tainting the political process .
On the other hand, it could well be said that we are living in a time of unparalleled social changes, a world of tolerance and social acceptance. Certain unalienable human rights have been introduced and adherence to the conventions concerning those rights are monitored across the world. The sudden and tempestuous rise of LGBT rights across the developed world is a good example of this emerging tolerance. With same-sex marriages becoming legal in the U.S. and many other countries, including Ireland, which is the first country to vote in favour of such a proposal on a referendum, LGBT rights are set to become a part of the new global order of tolerance. Women's rights have also been largely established, but there is still a rather jarring pay gap between women and men for the same amount of work. Different religious beliefs and customs are also respected in modern societies, in spite of the rise of xenophobic far-right groups across Europe and the U.S. due in large part to the migrant crisis raging through Europe .
The results of the previous considerations can be summed up as follows: equality has largely been achieved in the stratum of social equality with regard to race, sexual orientation and religion, but remain unobtainable with regard to economic considerations. So in effect, Orwell was both right and wrong, and only time will tell whether we shall one day truly live on an Animal Farm .
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408_SEBG1014.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song "Money is the root of all evil". Agree or disagree?
In today's society where capitalism dictates everything from the way in which we spend our time to our thoughts and feelings it is hard not to become a slave of money. We have to use it in almost every sphere of our life. Even though it can bring us innumerable benefits, it poses a great threat to our well-being and sense of self.
Our lives can be enriched by many experiences and products, such as travel, sports, makeup and more - most of which cannot possibly be attained without the help of money. Since ancient times, people have been using money for trade of their possessions. Instead of giving their goat for a bag of rice, they started using different types of coins - gold, silver or more recently, paper notes. This has enabled them to estimate the exact value of their possessions, thus allowing them to trade more fairly. With the use of money, we can also buy plane tickets and just in a few hours reach the most exotic destinations on our planet, stay in the most luxurious resorts and afford relaxing spas. Money can be often viewed as a well-deserved reward for our hard work. It often enables us to buy appliances and electronic devices which make our life easier, such as computers, mobile phones and washing machines. Having enough money offers you myrriad of choices in life and provides you with a possibility to see the world and get to know people from different cultures and walks of life.
Despite these benefits, there is however the other side of the coin - money often can and does become poisonous. We can see this notion reflected in many parts of our life. Many relationships have been ruined because the people in it could not agree on the division of money between them. Further, people from the upper class are often frowned upon when they decide to date someone from the lower social group. Girls often do not look for real values in potential partners - like honesty, courage and goodness, but instead just search for someone with a big wallet. Money brings about huge gaps within society - the differences between the elite and the poor are sharply defined and walls are not to be crossed. Worst of all, money causes terrifying wars all over the planet and provokes the worst in people - greed and selfishness. Smart children are frequently not given the access to the best education simply because they haven't been born in the rich households. There is also a saying [Quotation] - and it is true, we work more, spend time with our friends and family less just because we have a nonsencial desire to accumulate our possessions. As a result, we get more anxious, tired and bitter. Nature is being destroyed because of the human greed, air is getting more and more polluted - all of it because humans are making factories everywhere, factories that are there to help us accumulate more useless possessions. People have forgotten to love, to rejoice in simple things, to live in accordance to the nature, all because of money.
Even though it is probably impossible to banish money completely, we should all strive to find meaning in other spheres of our lives for the more noble purpuses - such as helping the poor or investing in hospitals or orphanages. In conclusion, although the statement may seem too extreme, money can sometimes indeed be "the root of all evil", as the old song has it.
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409_SEBG1015.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
Society has been punishing people proven to be guilty of all possible serious and less serious crimes since the age of the first human beings who had walked this planet. As only living beings with a conscience, we have the inate ability to tell right from wrong and are taught about moral principles and what is considered "good and bad" behaviour from an early age. We've developed a legal system that enforces punishment appropriate for the committed crime and to discourage potential future criminal behaviour in order to keep people under control. The system has greatly evolved since its beginning but is it efficient enough and does it truly serve its purpose?
Many will argue in favour of the prison system not being rigorous enough due to the continuously raising rime rates all over the world. It is well known that the main rule is that "the punishment must fit the crime" but the crime victims or their closest friends and family are often dissatisfied with how the criminal is dealt with. This results in many people blaming the law and the law enforcers for being incompetent, not doing their jobs or simply the prison system being completely disfunctual. People seem to think that there would be less crime if the punishments were more severe and served as a more convincing deterrent.
While that argument might be somewhat acceptable, people seem to forget that even when a person commits a crime, no matter how serious, they are still a person. Instead of forcing criminals to pay for their crimes by simply putting them in prison, we should try a different approach such as trying to rehabilitate them. People who commit crimes are like open wounds - if we just put a bandaid over it without treating it beforehand, it will not heal properly and even if it does look healed at first glance, there'll always be a chance of it ripping open again or something even worse happening on the inside which we don't see. All people have a conscience and we should put in effort to help some of them get in touch with their's if they lost their way. Putting people away in prison is the quick and easy way of "solving" a problem, but is it the right one? If the crime rates keep going up even though we all know what awaits people who break the law, then maybe that's a sign that our methods are not efficient enough and instead of making the punishments more extreme, we should try doing the opposite - actually helping them overcome whatever issues that made them do what they did. People don't commit crimes because they are evil but because they are unhappy with themselves, their lives or have severe psychological issues possibly caused by traumatic experiences or the conditions under which they've spent their lives.
To conclude, no matter how awful the crimes committed by people are, we need to remember that it still is people who do them and therefore they should be treated as such and not just cage them like animals gone mad. This method may not always prove to be 100% succesfull, but there is no excuse for not at least trying. The goal is to heal and mend the problematic members of our society and not just isolate and punish them consequently making them feel worthless and disposable. We should want to find long term solutions to problem, not just for the time being.
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410_SEBG1032.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In his novel 'Animal Farm' George Orwell wrote 'All men are equal but some are more equal than others'. How true is this today?
The question whether equality among people exists and to what extent, has occupied minds of thoughtful individuals for milleniums. Its definition, number of layers and the way it is perceived across different cultures all add up to the complexity of this theme. Shadding the light of present day capitalism (with all of its atributs) onto the matter, we might find different peculiarities there and make a number of conclusions .
I strongly believe, and there are many evidence in support of my belief, that Orwell was right: some people are indeed more equal than others. Firstly, the most common "diferentia specifica" nowadays among people is money. The more you have it, the more protected you are, in almost all possible ways. The question "what's his/hers net worth" has become so common in the States that it is not considered unusual let alone unethical or rude to ask it on your first or second date. My country is no exception. Being a member of certain political parties in Serbia entitles you to have access to different kinds of power: jobs, opportunities, money... In addition, gender (in)equality must be given special focus. Women work just as much as men do, but they earn approximately 1/3 less. Finally, as a member of minority group, I occasionally experience national and religious bigotry and ignorance. All mentioned above led me to believe that we live in a truly inequal world .
However, things are not all that black and white, and there surely are examples of equality. Studying English at this University has thaught me that equality does exist: it doesn't really matter to professors who you are, what do you wear and what is your social status, but rather you performance and knowledge. Furthermore, people are equal in pain, love, hate, grief... You can't possibly avoid any of them no matter what. The ultimate equality marker we also can't possibly avoid is death. In the words of famous Serbian poet Jovan Ducic, [Quotation] .
To sum up, even though there are things that can lead us into believing that people are equal, it is imensely important to be able to tell the difference between equality in abstract things (we are all capable of by nature), and equality in real life terms. Infortunately, due to many causes, most of which are of economical and political nature, equality in real life will remain to be just another utopistic idea that individuals will spend time debating on .
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411_SEBG2014.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
The term feminism firs appeared in the 20th century and was associated with groups of women who organized protests and rallies to fight for women's rights. The most famous group was the Suffragette movement which was notorious for being the most radical of them all. This was considered the first wave of feminism by many historians and sociologists. They brought the traditional patriarchal system to its knees and said: "We will not be treated like cattle, we are human beings like everyone else, and we deserve equal rights." Although I must agree that first wave feminism created a better world for women and gender relations in general, I believe without a doubt that third wave feminism, or modern day feminism, seeks to damage these relationships that the first wave so desperately sought to create and in a way, unconsciously maybe, tries to destroy it .
On one hand, feminism should provide a safe haven for weak individuals, some modern feminists include men as well, and give them strength and ambition in life. Feminists today are seen as strong excentric individuals, male and female, who fight for equality because they believe that this goal is still not achieved. With the help of social media third wave feminists have gathered many followers all across the world and are supported by many different social justice groups which help them in battling their issues. There are numerous social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube where they share videos in which they spread their messages of equality and justice. There are numerous TV channels that broadcast talk shows where top feminists are invited to talk about social issues. The Internet is the true battlefield for feminists and social justice warriors, who fight against inequality and the horrible patriarchy .
On the other hand, I believe that this movement only consists of groups of attention seekers who are trying to become famous for doing something for the society and gender relations when in fact all they talk about are already resolved issues. Their most frequently used argument is the gender pay gap. They argue that every woman earns 74 cents for every man's dollar, but they fail to reallise that this issue has already been resolved a long time ago and that women actually earn more than a man does. The second argument is the white male privilege argument. They claim that white men are being treated than white women, or women of different colour, by having more rights and being offered better job positions. The thing one, and probably the one most feminists and social justice warriors use in everyday communication is the "man constantly rape" argument. This argument creates the biggest problem for gender relations as it is, as mentioned before, forced through the media and social networks by highly respected feminist celebrities worldwide. The problem is that they claim that every form of sexual harassment, be that verbal or physical, or any kind of misconduct towards women should be considered rape and should be legally punished. Unfortunatelly, this lead to cases where women sued men under the claim that the fact they had too much to drink on the night when they had intercourse is sufficient enough of an excuse to prove that they did not give consent. Feminists even agree that this should apply to married couples as well .
In conclusion, it is my honest opinion that third wave feminism creates, or happens to create unconsciously, a world where gender relations are broken, unsafe, unsecure, and without trust which is crucial for healthy relationships by promoting a form of propaganda throug liberal media and social networks .
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412_SEBG2027.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In his novel 'Animal Farm' George Orwell wrote 'All men are equal but some are more equal than others'. How true is this today?
The Middle East crisis, terrorism threats, immigrant crisis, economies which are standing on a slippery slope, it seems as though the worldwide turmoil has no intention of settling down. And just as the world is suffocating in problems, the humanity stands its greatest test, are we looking past the skin color, religious belief, genders and all other categorizations, or are we still guided by the common human vanity and egoism?
Trouble and misery have always brought people together, as the old saying goes [Quotation] . And it might sound harsh, but there is something beautiful in seeing people come together, united, just for one cause - to help one another. The sense of equality which floods the masses gathered around the ones in trouble may be one of the requisites of the 21st century. We have all witnessed it. Last year we were all Charlie, Je suis Charlie, couple of years before that the world had turned all of its compassion to Japan, watching in dread the catastrophic events following the earthquake. And what about the crisis in Middle East and the rivers of people escaping the war, gushing at the borders of Europe. At first all of the border countries welcomed the immigrants, sensibly right?! [Quotation] these were some of the comments heard in every day's chatter... For a second it looked as the world had got a message, and that there were no stopping for the spirit of unity, equality, humanity and all thee unfaithful to the goodness in people would be converted.
But then, the rivers of people wouldn't stop gushing, and the world became afraid. The borders started to close for some of the refugees. It soon became clear that the selectiveness of the "gate keepers" was instructed from the high above, the politics and economy (read - money) had the key to better life. The humanity soon abolished their hope in equality which has become obsolete. The fear conjoined with the vanity of the people and the prejudices took place to common sense. Instead of uniting, the world is dividing, it seem that now more than ever the categories are visible, nationalities, skin color, religious beliefs, careers we are in, the money we earn. The xenophobic societies finally have finally arose as something acceptable. More than ever George Orwell is right: [Quotation] . We have put a value to human life. Simply it is not the same if a white European (or for that matter - American) person dies, or the Middle Eastern person's life is in question.
Even though one might argue that the dreams of equality are possible, and that we have achieved a lot in that area, still it is inevitable to notice all the inequality and selective practice of the basic human rights nowadays. There is no value to human life, we are all the same, the same food feeds us and the same diseases kill us. Who is to say that one is better than the other? Well, I'd like to say no one, but you and I know this is not true.
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413_SEBG2046.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
Nowadays, most of us can't imagine their lives without technology. We have been using it on daily basis, for work, education, communication etc. It helped us and made our lives easier in many ways, but it also has its disadvantages .
Science, technology and industrialization improved our lives in number of ways in many different areas. I believe that if we use it right, not only that it doesn't limit our imagination, but it can actually inspire us to dream bigger, broad our views, make us think and become more creative and imaginative. First of all, most of us have computers and internet at our homes. Thanks to these, we have access to the latest news, so we can stay informed; to social networks, so we can stay in touch with people or even meet new friends online; to many e-books and audio which we might not find in the bookstores in our country, to many online courses of languages, science, etc. which we can attend for free, in case we can't afford them. Therefore, technology can be incredibly useful. We can discover new things every day, stimulate our gray cells and thus become more creative, innovative and come up with amazing ideas. Second, we can say thanks to science for being able to cure many deseases which used to be considered deadly a few centuries ago; for explaining what is going on in the world around us (quantum physics, space exploration...) all of this inspires us to learn more, maybe discover our hidden talents, dream about things we thought were impossible. It can inspire us to do great things, maybe write a fantasy novel, become an astronaut or define new laws of physics. Third, when industrialization began, it was developing rapidly, because every invention and a machine inspired people to create more of them and make their lives easier. Every scientist, inventor or engineer must be a dreamer and have creative spirit. They all dream of making this world a better place for every human being .
On the other hand, science, technology and industrialization have their disadvantages too. First, some people might use scientific breakthroughs for their own hidden agendas. Not everyone wants to do good. They might use science to harm people, destroy nature or fulfill their childhood dream of rulling the world. Second, people might start relying on technology too much. They can become lazy and refuse to use their brains, their imagination. They just do not want to be bothered, because for some reason, they believe they already have everything they need and that they know everything they need to know. They have no desire to explore further and discover new things. Also, when it comes to industrialization, people think that machines we already have are good enough, that there is apsolutely no need for improvement or adjustments. Therefore, we can see that, in a way, technology can be dreadful for our dreams and imagination, it can stop us from striving for better, because we think we already have everything and that there are no mysteries left to be discovered .
To conclude, if we know how to use technology for self improvement and development, if we want to use science to make this world a better place and do good and if we are able to use the advancement of industrialisation to make our lives easier this can only benefit us and our brains. It can motivate us, educate us, make us become better people, strive for better and dream bigger .
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414_SEBG2050.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song "Money is the root of all evil". Agree or disagree?
We live in a world where everything seems to be revolving around money and making money. Industries and businesses are flourishing at an unprecedented rate, and we seem to be losing ourselves in this vicious circle of making more and more profit. Our society has become industrialised and materialistic to an extent that has never been seen before, people are judged or appreciated depending on how rich they are. Although money is necessary for most essential things in life, I strongly believe that it is money that in fact is the root of all evil, or at least, the root of most of it .
Money makes the world go round they say, and this is a fact well known nowadays. It is essential for everyday life, we need it for clothes, food, hygene, to begin with the small things, but also rent, bills, gas, and similar expenses. But money has much more power than to just be used for mere expenses of our daily life. Money is the fuel which makes numerous great things possible, such as all sorts of cures for illnesses, materials for technological equipment, medical equipment, different research projects and experiments which may change the world in the future. And although they say that you can't buy the most important things in life such as love, happiness or health, the sad truth is that if you are well-positioned in society you will have more friends, be able to afford more things and also be more likely to be healthy since you will have the option to choose healthier options in your alimentation, because we all know how pricey eating healthy can be. And, bottom line, if you happen to get ill, you need money for medication or in the worst case a surgery, so if you wanted you would be able to choose a better medical institution to go to than the state hospital .
However, in spite of all the perks of money, I strongly believe that it is the money and wealth that are the causes of world's biggest evils. Starting with ignorance, far from me saying that wealthy people are ignorant, but some of them set a very bad example for their children by giving them too much freedom and no responsibilities. This we can see in various examples, such as the "Rich Kids of Tehran" profile on Instagram which first came to my mind. They show off their wealth, their collections of gold watches, the piles of dollar bills, the luxurious cars and mansions, but what they don't show off is class, modesty or knowledge. They grow up to be pompous daddy-sons and daughters and few of them become scientists, explorers, writers, or contribute in any way to their society, and that is just the ignorance which money causes. It causes far worse things, and one of them is pollution. Our environment is getting more and more polluted and industry is becoming more and more developed nevertheless. The ozone layer is ruined, the climate is changing and all most people care about is not losing money. The air and water are severely polluted, but all we see is more cars and more ships. Where this will lead our future generations, we are yet to see. But the worst thing that money causes is war. Were it not for money, would there be nuclear weapons, or any other kind of weapons with the power to destroy the entire planet? Hardly. Greed in itself is not sufficient anymore, you need money to make anything possible, especially war. The saddest thing is that human lives have become to be valued through money and if a soldier dies in war, his family will receive a certain amount of money for their loss .
We live in a modern age where everything and anything is possible, and it is possible thanks to money. We see all the grand shiny things money has made possible, but few of us will actually think of what we've lost because of money. And we've lost a lot. Should we continue following this path, soon enough we will lose ourselves .
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415_SEBJ1030.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In his novel 'Animal Farm' George Orwell wrote 'All men are equal but some are more equal than others'. How true is this today?
In the 21st century, we are facing extreme materialism and it is obvious that most people only care about power and money. Every day, we witness many cases of workers being abused and made to work more than they are paid for. This, as well as other occurrences lead us to the conclusion already given in the title "All men are equal: but some are more equal than others."
A good example to illustrate this statement could be politics nowadays. Wealthy countries dominate the poor ones; even though slavery and colonialism are far behind, we still see that oppression is happening in a subtle way. For example, Africa's natural recources are widely exploited by more powerful countries; sometimes even wars emerge whose true cause are those resoruces - but this is only one thing people do in order to gain more money. We hear statements promoting equality of all people every day, but those are only words; in real life, the situation is quite the opposite. Also, the taxes people pay to their countries should be collected for public expenses, but many politicians neglect citizens' welfare and secretly spend the money for their own needs.
Children and teenagers also face different situations proving that not all people are equal. In schools, the only important thing for pupils has become to look good, have expensive clothes, smartphones and even expensive cars in some cases. The worst thing about that is that a great many parents encourage this in a way and spend a lot of money on their children. It is surprising that even some teachers prefer rich pupils to those who are not equally wealthy. Those who can't afford expensive things are rejected and looked upon as people who don't deserve the same treatment like others. They often have to try much harder, and even in that case success is not guaranteed.
More importantly, in a society where capitalism dominates, workers don't have the rights they should have - they are not paid enough, they perform many jobs simultaneously and they often work longer than they should. An employee in a coffee shop often has to serve thy guests, clean and do any other work necessary. This is another way for more powerful people to make fortune by using others' abilities and hard work. The law is also corrupted and it doesn't protect those people who are forced to work in those harsh conditions in order to make a living. Not only do they have to work hard, but they are not treated equally when they try to get a job - we often hear that somebody had paid a specific sum of money or that they are employer's cousins and were employed owing to these facts.
However, in the last few decades there have been considerable changes concerning women and ethnic minorities, for example. In the past centuries, women had barely any rights; they were not allowed to vote during elections and were not paid as highly as men. That is all in the past now and the situation concerning the equality of sexes is getting better. Also, some ethnic groups were discriminated by the society until recently, but now this is changed and these people can claim their rights as well. Also, some political associations such as the United Nations help to promote human rights and assistance between countries.
Many organizations have been founded recently whose goal is to help poor people and there are always new campaigns promoting human rights and equality of all people. Many people are willing to help and they often donate money and other necessary things useful for those who need help, not taking their race or nationality into consideration. For example, the Red Cross is an international organization whose aim is the benefit of old, sick and poor people from around the world.
To sum up, equality is certainly promoted in the society, but it is controversial and also raises questions about how true this is in real life. Even through media, we are faced with numerous prejudices and attitudes that show us that some men truly are more equal than others. Unfortunately, all these prejudices are mostly based on money as an indication of how valuable people are.
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416_SEBJ1039.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: In his novel 'Animal Farm' George Orwell wrote 'All men are equal but some are more equal than others'. How true is this today?
Equality. That is what we all talk about every day and what people have been fighting for for ages, but, when we take everything into account - do we really see and respect all people equally?
There is no doubt that, overall, the question of equality has raised to a much higher level. However, statements, comments etc. we get to hear from some people make us think that there are still problems regarding that, and that there always will be. How can someone, e.g. say they support this and that activity, person, but then, when for a certain group, a religion or nationality, that same person says negative things about people belonging to those groups, based on some things s/he heard before about them. I would know what this feels like, since coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is most likely always going to be labeled as "the war country where everyone is still killing everyone", makes me come across people who write the worst things about my country and nationality online, calling all of us "criminals, killers, maniacs" etc. Is that the equality some are asking for?
Speaking of the world in general, I can't help but feel that, in a way, people rate one's life more than another's. People seem to choose whose life is important, and whose is not. I was raised that way to see every life equally, every innocent life lost as a tragedy, no matter where that innocent life came from, what color it was, what religion... This might be a bit egoistic, but, how don't all people have this view on one's life like me, since they're already raising their voice for equality?
The recent Paris attacks that were a huge tragedy and brought sadness to everyone, are an example how this world chooses who to care about and pay attention to. That same day, there were attacks, big murders and disasters in a few different countries on other continents. How many people posted something about those tragedies on their social media? Barely anyone, or a really small number, compared to the ones focusing on Paris attacks only. Of course, there is never a BUT for the innocent human victims, because every life matters the same, or at least that should be the case. But, there is a BUT for people who choose to cry over one specific group but totally ignore the others, since they are "irrelevant" in their eyes. Why is it so?
We can blame it on the media. Sure, media divide people into important/not important groups and so they present stories following that order. It is already known that people mostly believe in those things that are "served" to them, without thinking twice or trying to find out more. So, if the media only talk about one tragedy or attack - people will only care about that. However, we use the Internet every day, how can't we notice that there are other people who suffer and die every day? I might be rude, but, it seems like we don't care. People care about the "big" countries and cities and nations, yet others who they are not familiar with are completely ignored and their tragedies are barely even mentioned anywhere. Where's that famous "equality" in all of that? How can one call himself "a fighter for equality" if he/she still labels people based on their differences, no matter what they are? If one sees an entire group of people through some bad individuals, what exactly is that equality they're fighting for?
When some people hear where you're coming from, they make a picture of you and your country and it's usually going to be a stereotyped one, so if you are, like me, from a "notorious" country, the first images people will get of you won't be the brightest. Trust me, I've faced this.
The quote by George Orwell, [Quotation] is still accurate and, unfortunately, will be for a long time. I wish I was wrong, but there's nothing telling me that this will change. Since I can't always think about what other people think, I will focus on myself and be happy to say I'm not one of the people who treat others differently based on who they are and where they come from.
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417_SEBJ2007.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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C1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Is capital punishment defensible?
Capital punishment is a form of punishment where the perpetrator is sentenced to death. Throughout the history many execution methods were used, such as beheading, hanging, guillotine, crucifixion, gas chamber, firing squad, etc. During the middle ages different techniques of torture usually preceded the death penalty. Today mostly lethal injection and electrocution are used as execution methods in the USA. Some other countries that retained the death penalty are People's Republic of China, North Korea, Japan, Somalia and most states in the Middle East. Whether this is a justified decision remains a debatable issue .
It could be argued that death penalty is defensible. Committing offences such as murder or rape demands justice to be served. Many people believe that such offences should be punishable by death. They claim that capital punishment can set an example for other criminals and help the crime rates decrease, as crime in their countries is increasing. I would disagree on this and state that there are no statistics that prove that capital punishment helps when it comes to countering crime. If a person decides to commit an offence, he or she will do that regardless of circumstances, so the statement that capital punishment will frighten possible perpetrators is not reliable .
Furthermore, opponents are sure that it is cheaper to execute a person than to make them serve a sentence without parole. This argument is invalid since there was a study done in California which discovered that it was more expensive to execute a person than to keep them in prison for life .
In support of death penalty some may say that legal system is fair. However, there is a racial bias in the USA where most countries which used to belong to The Confederacy perform executions. Majority of those who are put on death row are African Americans. Additionally, most of those who are put on death row are poor and cannot afford a good defense attorney .
[Quotation] . This is the lesson of nonviolence which leader of Indian independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi, tried to teach us. By killing someone we display exactly the same behavior, proving that we are not better than those who committed crimes. This means that by killing those who kill we became killers as well .
Death penalty eliminates all possibility for rehabilitation. If we murder murderers, we are not solving the problem of high rate of serial killers, but vaguely disguising that problem is being solved. If we want to abolish death penalty, we have to offer some form of alternative. One form of replacement may be prison sentence without parole, but one could refute this by saying that this is no solution since prisons are already crowded. The proper solution would be rehabilitation of perpetrators in the form of expert help from psychologists and psychiatrists. In addition, help of religious kind can be useful for some of the convicts. There are many examples where religion helped people change for better. To conclude with, death penalty does not represent a solution to problems but only an easier way out. We must consider more humane and moral ways of dealing with crimes against humanity .
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418_SEES1009.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Is capital punishment defensible?
There are many moral, practical, and economic reasons to oppose the death penalty. To introduce the law which allows someone's life to be taken is not an easy decision to make and many sides have to be examined before making final decision. It is not just the question of the money, or of racial issues, or complex moral dillemas, but all of this these combined, and many more. What does many more exactly mean? Let's find out .
Moral arguments which oppose death penalty that have to be considered are various. Besides the obvious, but complex dilemma as to whether anybody claims the right to kill somebody, no matter what the accused did, there are many other problems to face. First of all, one has to ask himself, "would bringing this law be direct assault on the free will, which is the basis of the modern society?" Any kind of radical restriction of human behaviour could produce a devastating effect, and shake the already loose foundations of the existing world. Furthermore, many, if not all religions profess non-violence, and we must admit that our society is still not completely secularized. Hence, new issues on that front would appear. Lastly, but not least, it has been shown throughout the history that revenge and retaliation were almost never a good solution. Indeed, moral aspects seem as too much too swallow in order for capital punishment to be introduced .
On the another side of this problem lie practical reasons that oppose the introduction of the death penalty. Many studies have been published, but still there are not many, or any viable ones, that confirm the effectiveness of the capital punishment. There is no confirmed data that any of more than 30 countries around the world that practice this type of sanction, including PR China and the USA, have smaller crime rates than the countries which abolished it. Moreover, countries with distinct racial and economic differences, have a hard time providing equal defense for each of their residents, hence many poor people and members of minorities (or both) are more prone to be condemned than the rich, who are often protected by their wealth, and by the country itself. It is not hard to see that anyone defending the death penalty would have to tackle great practical obstacles .
Finally, there is an economic aspect of this problem. Death penalty takes much of the taxpayers' money. It come as a surprise, but it is a truth that it costs less to incarcerate offenders and feed and clothe them, then to send them on a death row. Most of the world economies are already struggling, so any new expense is not welcome. Thus we can say with certainty that death penalty is not economically viable .
To sum up, death penalty brings more harm than good. Morally, economically and practically, consequences of its introduction are vast and it looks as another way has to be found to treat dangereous criminals. This one just affect us too much, both in our minds and our wallets .
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419_SEES1020.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: In the words of the old song "Money is the root of all evil". Agree or disagree?
An old song of the Andrews Sisters "Money is the root of all evil" gives us a few reasons why this is incontestable true. Of course there are many more reasons unrelated to song but this time I will single out just few of them from the song in order to show you why I agree with this words. So, in the song we can find that money gives us just a temporarily satisfaction, deprives us from emotions and true values in the life, and finally it contaminates us with higher desire for it. Let me give you more details .
So as I mentioned this song tells us that money gives us a just temporarily satisfaction and I completely agree with it. We all know that money's duration is not long. There are many cases where somebody won the lottery or got the money in some other way, and soon thereafter spend all that money. There is no proper way to save that money if you are not satisfied with things that you already have. Therefore this bring us to another reason why money is the root of all evil .
The second reason that shows us all the evil of the money is closely conectected to previous one. Better said, while the money gives us a just temporarily satisfaction it deprives us from emotions and true values in the same time. The best explanation is given in the words of song: [Quotation] . So it shows us which are true values that we need to respect and also shows us that these values you can not buy. You can possess all the luxury but if you don't have inner satisfaction all that luxury is not important. But the most difficult is the way to cognition. Lot of people spend a big part of their lives in attempts to get more money and in last years of their lives they realize that all the effort was wasted. So all these attempts to get more money represent one more reason why the money is the root of all evil .
In the words [Quotation] is shown how the money contaminates us with higher desire for it. We all start with small desires but as we fulfill them our desires become higher. In this way our desire for money constantly increasing. And again it is connected to previous reasons why the money is the root of all evil. With our desires for money we forget true values. So everything this represent a vicious circle in which we are loosing ourselves just for higher desires .
So to sum up, all these reasons that are given in the old song of the Adrews Sisters "Money is the root of all evil" and about which I said before, give us a true image of money. I've wrote how I experienced this song and lessons that I've learnt from it. I hope you agree with me at least in some statements .
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420_SEES2001.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
As the world's developing grows incredibly fast, we are not even aware of all of the changes that is bringing to us. Science achievements, technology inventions and huge industrialization, each of them affects on each of us. It is clear - there are consequences, but they are expectable and reasonable consequences and results are both good and bad and their influences are more or less equal. However, we should finally distinct them and provide all of the good and bad sides of this modern age. Are we completely overtaken by modern achievements? Are we robots, machines, emotionless and programmed or they still haven't got such a hold on us? If they have, how to deal with it and what to do?
Has the science reached its own top? Look around. Science is everything and everywhere. Technology is everything and everywhere. Industrialization too. We are surrounded by mobile phones, computers, all of the kinds of machines. Those machines are working and living with us and for us. I can not imagine spending only one day without my phone. On the first place, because of communication, on the second place, because of the information - some things for school and education and for my personal interests. And that's brilliant! Being able to talk with a friend who's miles away. Being able to see a friend, to share photos etc. Furthermore, whenever we need to know something, which we knew but forgot or we simple want to know, we can just ask "Google". "Google" knows. We are completely informed, completely protected and we have completely solved our lack of knowledge. Or we at least think we have.
The internet opens a whole new life and a whole new world to us. There is no single thing that we can not find on the internet. Internet's options and knowledges are endless. In this connotation, we can not see bad sides of technology. Various kind of social media, "Facebook", "Youtube", "Instagram", people, (mainly young people) find very useful, productive and interesting. Some of them are quite inspirational, which gives the ideas for people to think more, to create more, to search more, to develop more. We have a numerous examples everywhere, of people who started working on internet. At the beggining, it started as a hoby, now, they have already earned a bunch of money.
Every day we are exposed to the influences of social media. We are living our lives there. Fortunatelly, not all of us but there's already a quite big number of those who are affected. People are not aware that the things we see out there, they are all fake. Most of the time. Following celebrity profiles, seeing the kind of life that they're living, seeing the way they look alike and as the result - wanting to be them, wanting to be like them. Although it's impossible, and completely ridiculous, young people are giving their best to make the exact copy of life their idol has. Young girls are constantly on diets, constantly under make-up and constantly taking photos of themselves - all in order to get more "likes", more "followers" and to make people like them. It's insane. Number of young girls doing this is already huge and they are giving all and living for "likes".
Is there still a room for dreaming, imagination and creation? Sure there is! Those who were born to dream and to create, they'll always find a way to make a wonderful things and to say them. There will never be such technology or industrialization that is going to kill people's tendency for dreaming. What's more, they'll always be making new invents. Those who dream are those who brought and who are still bringing the greatest achievements in all fields of science, technology and industry.
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421_SEES2005.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
The media is everywhere and takes up a great deal of people's everyday lives. Nowadays, technology is advenced that much, that sometimes is impossible to imagine life without it. People depend on the media to provide them with the information that otherwise would be hard to get. My opinion is that technology, science and industrialization can have positive and negative effects on society. We can take Mass Media as an example .
First of all, I want to mention that media affects society in many different ways, such as: businesses use media to promote their products, the media effects communication and the media affects body image and behaviour of people in society. When we talk about business, we can say that companies use the media to convince consumers to buy their products. Since the start of Mass Media, companies have used communication to broadcoast to large numbers of people about their product. Companies use online advertisement to influence people to buy their products. Also, a lot of people are influenced to buy a product because of post on social media websites by their friends. So, that is how the media spreading new products and attracts consumers to buy it .
The people of society, use the media to communicate with friends, family and people all around the world. In modern world we can not imagine life without technology. In the past 50 years, the media has grown its influence significantly with the changes in new technology, starting with the telegraph all the way to today's internet. Due to the rapid spread of media to all parts of the world, the access to information is easy and fast. Owing to web technology almost everyone has access to information from anywhere in the world .
On the contrary, there is also negative influence of media. When we say there is no longer place for dreaming and imagination, that is true. Nowadays, people are so dependent on social media they are becoming more and more disconected with the world around them. They are always on their phones or other form of communication device, causing people to become disconnected with what is happening around them and not to live in the moment. Our ideas are changed with the influence of media. We are neglecting much important things such as knowledge, education, friendship... Because the influence of media on teenagers, kids, society is huge they need to be informed on how the media actually works .
We also can not have our own opinion, dreams and illusions if we are only leaning on the media. We are determined that we are going to find everything we search for on the Internet and than there is no need to have your own imagination. Also, media influences the way people look at themselves and how they behave. It is no secret that advertisers use photoshop to edit photos to make the person in it look more appealing. It can take years or even longer people to come to the realization that the images they see are manipulated. Living in society where most of the images people see may not be real is damaging .
In conclusion, the media and technology in general affects society in many different ways. People use the media in their everyday lives to communicate with each other, and to know what is happening in the world. The media can have negative influence too, on the way people view themselves and how people behave. So we can say that in modern world the media has both positive and negative influence on society .
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422_SEES2022.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
The world is full of criminals and their work never stops so we are in constant struggle in making decisions how to deal with them. One thing is sure, current prison system is heavily outdated with some basics that should be kept. Constant deaths in the prisons, people being tortured and raped all over the world just prove this theory and the another theory that not every criminal can be rehabilitated. Also, not everyone deserves a second chance too .
The biggest crimes that the man can imagine can not be justified thus the criminals don't deserve a chance to be rehabilitated. Mass murderers, terrorists, people who steal from the poor, drug lords and many more can not be rehabilitated simply because they don't deserve it. They have done to much harm to be treated with respect and simpathy and they deserve to root firstly in prison and in the hell afterwards. Constant beating, deaths and torturing suits them perfectly but it is important to say that not everyone deserves the same .
People make mistakes. That is the fact. Someone, steals in order to feed the family, someone kills in self-defence and there is a whole bunch of young people outside, watching "Godfather" trilogy and in order to be "cool", do some crazy stuff. That people need someone and to teach them what is good and what is bad. Personal note: even me and my friends were on the trial when we were young, for robbing one house we were thinking it was empty. We got our lesson and since that time, we were never ever in contact with any criminal or even thinking of doing one ourselves .
Money. So important thing but for some reason when it comes to the prison system issue, people tend to forget to mention it. Paying for the clothes, paying the guards, the staff of the prison, food and many other things, costs every country a fortune. Do not forget about the special prisons with television, internet, and a lot of things that average citzen can not achieve. We could instead force the prisoners to work for the country. Let them work on the fields, clean the streets and by doing that, make some money for the country. Let them repay what they stole, if they did, or let them try to wash their sins by helping the society. Do everything to make them better people for the good of the community where they live. There are some rumours that Americans did some experiments to their prisoners but that is too brutal and not a good example, not much money in it .
Rehabilitation is often just an exuse by the prisoners or their lawyers in order to make their clients look better in the eyes of the judge, and a free ticket out of the jail. It is silly to talk that someone can change after a few years in prison by being surrounded with heavy criminals. It is absurd, speaking of which, we need specialized facilities for rehabilitation and a huge number of people willing to help the criminals. The people in charge have to be sharp-minded because it is nothing for one murderer to try to lie that he is "cured", because some believe in theories that some people are born for criminals and they will try to decieve so we need to be careful. On the other hand, a lot of prisoners became a well-known and respected citzens and we should strive for it .
In order to change the prison system, we need to change the laws too. Legalize the weed, make some verdicts that sent you the prison to be payable instead because to pay hurts the most for certain people. This shouldn't be taken lightly and we the best people specialized in law to work on this. Make the prison days productive and meaningful but lower the durations of the verdicts lower, but make them remember every single day spent in prison .
Fear is the biggest reason why people will try to be good. Use propaganda in a good way, educate children, reward good examples and there won't be criminals in the first place, so no one to rehabilitate or only a few stubborn people. Prison system must be changed as soon as possible with the help of every citizen of the country, for the greater good, for the generation that is coming. We have experience and solid ground, let us show that the human is the most inteligent being on the planet. After the dolphins .
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423_SENS1016.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
|
learner
|
C1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song "Money is the root of all evil". Agree or disagree?
One could hardly ever imagine the world we know without the green blood that runs through the veins of what we know as economy and at the same time, it acts as fuel for the engines of industry and ever-changing technology, and that of course is money. The statement that money is the root of all evil, when looked at logically, is only true to a certain degree. Instead, I would argue that money is purely a tool, it shapes people and exposes their hidden desires, wishes and character traits by either corrupting them as it is most often the case, or for those people that are truly inherently good, it liberates them and allows them to help those who truly need it .
Firstly, it would be wrong and utterly foolish to blame the evil of this world on money, even before money, there was the lust for power in men and that is what causes the corruption. Corruption and political affairs are the primary means through which the consequences of this power-lust are reflected on average people and their everyday lives. One could go on for days counting the instances where individuals sold their ideals, beliefs and took up a cause for the side that was harmful to few our people, and this is especially evident in the Balkans and felt up to this day. There are consequences for everything we do, however, those that are to blame would never admit their guilt and it is our own fault as a collective of all human beings for the attrocious conditions of our lives. It is tremendously easy for those in power to control the people when people are so weak-minded .
However, no matter how degenerate and desperate the times we live in seem to be, there will always be a handful of people that well remain pure and untouched by powerlust. Examples are people like Mother Tereza, when she received the Nobel prize for her work and a million dollars that go with it, she gave all the money to the cause of buying food for the starving people, a million dollars worth of rice and had a second of doubt about it .
Finally, even with all this said, there remains a grim picture of what awaits us in the future. Humans have reached a treshold and become stuck in a nut, and there is only the path of downfall if we don't change our consciousness from the core because whether there be money or not, the problem lies in all of us .
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424_SENS1027.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song "Money is the root of all evil". Agree or disagree?
Money is the most ridiculous thing that has ever been invented since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Money is one of two main reasons why we are going through such struggle these days. The second reason is people's enormous thirst for power. However, these two are closely related. I went to the secondary school of economics and I still remember when we learned how money was invented in Italy somewhere around 13th century, I believe. What I remember best is that the invention of money imediately triggered some conflicts among people. It does not matter which form money takes, the consequences are the same. However, people often have to accept things as they are. In other words, we have to get up at 6 AM each morning, work all day long until a woman from a political party calls us and asks us to vote and to join one of those political satanistic organizations. If there were no money, there would be no politics and our life would be perfect. If people weren't greedy and shared food and properties, there wouldn't be a need for something like the money is. Money is just a physical form of human greed, which is one of seven deadly sins. Every time I try to read news, I end up with reading either about some wars somewhere in the world or about amazingly bad political situation in my country. Everything is the consequence of human greed, gluttony, lust, and many more "virtues" that will lead this world to an end. Therefore, if someone asked me how to try to define money, I would say that it was a piece of Satan's hand. Every single war after WW2 started by offering enormous sums of money to some people that were "chosen" to do their job. But I must admit that it works perfectly. Now they legalize weed only to earn some profit, even on their own kids. It has gone too far, in my opinion. I should be politically correct and say that the money can be good, too. No, it is awesome, because you can buy sausages, gallows, or even duckling. It is true, but they are using it to buy armor and guns, to build their new airplanes and to support the world's progressive degradation and destruction. It doesn't matter who is who - all people are the same - they tend to destroy everything. The most evil consequence of the use of money is the change in personality of a certain person. Money changes people and they are never again the same. What they want is always more, and more, and more. This leads us to conclusion that those people are not so happy as it may seem. It is very interesting that many rich and successful artists died of some very expensive drugs and later it was discovered that they were depressive for some reason. That reason can easily be the money. The more you have - the more you want. People forget why they wake up and they lost their purpose in life beside that much euros and dollars. However, I still believe that things can change. The money was not dirty and bloody until people made it be like that. The only reason why I like money is the word money, because if money had not been invented, Pink Floyd wouldn't have been able to make one of their best guitar solos of all time besides "Comfortably Numb". Everything other about money is bad because bad people use it for bad purposes. The others use it to buy bread, which is fine.
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425_SENS2032.txt
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en
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icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song "Money is the root of all evil". Agree or disagree?
The saying that [Quotation] has probably never been more true than it is in our time. Money is a crucial aspect of everyone's lives and it can be said that it controles our lives. After all, we need money to provide the basic things we need in order to survive: food, water, shelter, as well as all the other things we need in everyday life. Money is also probably the main reason people have jobs; in order to have money we have to earn it by doing something which can be valued. Being such an important part of our lives, it is no wonder people think that "Money is the root of all evil" and I tend to agree with these words and will explain in this essay why .
One of the first things which come to mind when thinking about how money is the root of our problems is the different ways people get it. Having the importance that it has in our lives, it is easy to understand why some people would do almost anything to gain certain amounts of it. Not everyone is ready to work the same way as most people do, to have a job which benefits the community in some way, but choose to do things which are in our society considered as illegal or unethical. Those things can range from petty crimes to serious offences which can harm someone's life, but what they all have in common is that they harm our community and the rules we chose to live by, all because of money .
Another claim for money being the cause of all bad things in this world is our dependence on it. Money is so integrated in our way of living that today nobody can function without it. People need money in order to have drinking water and food, healthcare and homes, not to mention all the other things needed for a person to be a part of the society. To have a normal life, one needs money, which is why we are all as a society obsessed with having it .
One another reason for seeing "money as root of all evil" is the status and importance we have become accustomed in ascribing to it. Money today has a god-like importance to people. Their value is often measured with the amount of money they have or do not have. Many people see it as a solution to all of lives problems and the lack of it as the end of the world. Money is often the reason of numerous family fall-outs, ended friendships and relationships. This status and importance we give to money leads many people to value it more than the things which in truth are much more important than bank notes .
All in all, there are many reasons why money can be seen as the root of all bad things in the world, including the ways some people get it, our dependence on it and the status and importance we give it. Greed for money only brings out the worst in people which shows that, truly "Money is the root of all evil".
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426_SENS3012.txt
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en
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icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song "Money is the root of all evil". Agree or disagree?
Does money cause all our problems? It is a very frequently asked question these days, with a plethora of different answers and opinions. Some claim that with money everything is easier; some claim that a piece of paper cannot make your life better. But, one cannot deny, the whole world spins around money.
There are actually two different worlds - the rich one and the poor one. In the world full of money, expensive cars, luxurious mansions, glamour and glitter everything seems to be perfect. Looked from the outside, it really does seem perfect. However, there is much deeper and darker side hidden beneath all that shine. If you look closer into lives of, for example, famous persons, it is not happiness that you see. No. It is dissatisfaction, anger, helplessness. One cannot resist asking "Why? Why, when they have everything they want?" Now comes the question of what is really the thing humans want. Cars? Clothes? Expensive hotels? Overloaded bank accounts? People who have all these things do not actually care about them. They are slaves to their fortune. What is the purpose of a huge house if you live there alone? What is the purpose of millions and billions if you have no one to spend them with?
Next are a little less rich people, those who own companies or have well paid jobs so they can afford themselves a luxurious life. Those are people who are never at home, who pay a babysitter to raise their children because they are too busy with earning money. Those are lonely men and women who left their beloved ones or were left by them because they missed every birthday and anniversary, because they were working late. No matter how much money you have, you can never buy time. The true values do not lie in money and in things you can buy with money. Only those who have it know that.
On the other hand, there are people who have so little, almost nothing, speaking materialistically, but actually they have everything. How comes? Well, maybe a mother cannot afford to buy her children the latest phone, but she can spend some time playing with them, she waits them with hot lunch on the table, she is there to kiss them goodnight. Maybe a boyfriend doesn't have money for expensive dinner, but he will make one by himself. Maybe a father cannot buy his son a new car, but he will come to every football mach his son plays. That is the true luxury. It is shame that so many people never realize that, or when they do, it is too late.
Money is an addiction, a sickness. No matter how much you have it, it is never enough, you always want more and more. But it is not money to be blamed. After all, it is nothing more than a piece of paper. The true evil lies in people themselves. Human's greed and envy are the biggest evil force in the world. Money is not alive, it cannot consciously cause you troubles and bring you misery. It is simply a means to an end, and you are the one who decides what that end will be. The best things in life come for free, it has always been like that, and it will always be.
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427_SPM01005.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
The statement "feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good" is false. In fact, feminists are the ones who have fought and managed an improvement of women's situation in society, although there is still a hard work to do. In order to support this argument, we are going to review the following subjects: Labour discrimination, the right to vote, the fight against male chauvinist behaviours, the representation of women in important political charges and the recognition of the sexuality in woman .
Nowadays, the Spanish Law penalizes sexual discrimination as for labour. The last sentences are becoming favourables to women. A few weeks ago, for instance, an enterprise has been charged with paying more money to men than to women, when both accomplished the same work. Other theme to be discussed is the women's right ~o vote, which has to do with the equality in the rights of the State. feminist pressures were used for the recognition of women's sufrage in Spain, in 1931. Besides, thanks to the fight of feminist groups, more reactionarity male shauvinist behaviours are denounced, the agressions are reported, and rapings are punished with greater severity, although there are exceptions, as always. To take an obvious example, a few years ago, and even today in some cases, the girl who wore a mini-skirt was the real guilty of her raping. Moreover, in the present political parties (especially in those which are situated in the center-left wing), women begin to be considered when taking important decisions. In an increasing way, women request more participation in the direction organs. In Spain we have three women who hold the charge of ministers in our government. But the world of women is still a dropout in the political world. At last, we must state that it is due to the feminist struggle that the sexuality of women is put on the same level as masculine one, and it is not so hidden. Before this, man could enjoy with his sex and be proud of his potency (or prepotency} whereas woman, had as her only function in society, that of procreating. With the sexual liberation, women advanced towards the knowledge and experimentation of their own body .
Therefore, the equality of wages, the right to vote, the consideration of women as inferior and less intelligents beings, the higher percentage of participation of women in charges with power of decision, and the fact of recognising their own sexuality are some of the consequences of the feminist fight since it, the oldest revolution of this century, began. Two weeks ago, I concentrated with some women to protest against two men who had raped a girl. They are free because she was scared and left to her country; therefore, the denounce has being stopped. Then the evidence is clear , there is no doubt that there was a rape, even from the point of view of the law. But in a legal way there is nothing to be done: only to demonstrate your rage for another injustice committed against women. This act has done more harm to the cause of women than good: from the rapers' point of view. That's why I am a militant feminist .
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428_SPM01013.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
C1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
The cliché that "money is the root of all evil ' has become in human history much more than a saying picked up by chance from an old song, but a reality which even more noticeable in modern times .
Money is generally regarded as a priceless key to unlock the slammed-shut doors which one encounters in daily life. Hence there is nothing that materialistic people would not be willing to do to obtain it. There exist positive means of earning money; working with endurance, integrity and good motivation seem to be the most worthy. Nevertheless exist other means of obtaining it which are not so honorable, but quicker. These means have become prominent in present day society .
These days society is evidently led by tendencies of consumption unknown before. During the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and The lndustrial Revolution for instance, the boundaries between classes were completly separated and only a few fortunate members of the groups in power were aware of and could enjoy the delights wealthiness could provide. Today the means of communication transmit the excelencies of a glamorous world to those who find it hard to make ends meet. Hence the phrases ' I own", ' I possess" are becoming the guiding lights of a broad sector of society .
It is an unknown fact that to own and to posses one has to buy and that requires money. How does one find money? It is precisely at this point that evil is likely to make its apperance onto the stage especially because the cycle of money dictates that when money enters the hands of one it leaves the pocket of another. The trick is how to convince others to let loose their pockets. Even with in the limits of the legal methods of finding money there exist hidden tactics to seize the money of others. For instance, marketing is a means of making a piece of merchandise look wonderful and absolutely necessary for our existence, when the truth is the contrary. Are these methods of using propaganda in adverdsing to sell at all cost absolutely legal?.
However publicity and marketing are minor "crimes" when compared to violence, death, war, deprivation of human rights and other horrors which are aimed at the attainment of money, it seems that the value of human life diminishes as the value of money increases. It is then that homo lupu homini est may be applied to the definition of human behaviour. At this disgraceful view of human nature, man's blood stained hands rise proudly showing their ignominious award .
Nonetheless, it may be adduced that not always behind a violent act is an uncontainable lust for the acquisition of money or power. It may be alleged that nonmaterialistic ideological motives can prompt persons to get engaged in actions which endanger other people's basic rights even that of life. However, how many of those people do not conduct themselves by an ideal, but are subtly manipulated by the desires to accomplish the aims of an economical gain?.
In spite of all the vile acts and corruption which surround the world of money, it would be unfair not to acknowledge the altruistic purposes which lead some individuals or organisations to put their or other's money at the service of the needy ones .
These non-profit organisations are the most outstanding proof of the praisable actions which can be carried out thanks to money. Money can help to mitigate manu disabilities, calamities and much suffering where its lack is source of a continuous state of misfortune and afliction .
In conclusion, it must be taken into consideration that although the allure of money compells human beings to do wrong beyond any limits, in the long term money is neither good or bad itself but persons and their actions determine the role money play in the world .
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429_SPM02004.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
Money is necessary in order to live in our modern society. It is obvious. Commerce and Economy are based upon money .
When people have little money, this money is more likely to be spent in primary needs (just to eat, dress; That's to say "to live").
The other way round can occur when money is easily obtained. I mean, when a person is rich from his birth .
I think that money gained without much effort is possibly to be spent inadequately. In these cases, money turns out to have little value, and rich people can often appear as money-slaves. These people may create some needs that don't really exist. And this is a closed circle in which they have to consume more and more, but without feeling pleasure in this consumerism .
Money can also be a vice. The one who has money wants more and more, and no-one is happy with what he-she has .
Money is not bad in itself. But the way one uses it can make noney appear as dangerous. Money is behind the majority of murders, assassinations, robberies, assaults...
Rich Nations-poor Nations: And here it comes the exploitation. It is a serious problem. Money is in between too .
This exploitation is specially dramatic when it has to do with children. There are lots of children without hope .
Within every poor country, there are a few people, mainly the Governors, who are very rich, while the rest of the country is dying because of staruation, lack of water, diseases such as diarrhea and deshidration, due to contaminated food and water. Measles and tetanus, along with diphtheria, whooping cough, polio and other diseases, are preventable through immunization, again relatiuely cheap .
Countries spend great amounts of money on military expenditures and, at the same time, people live at or below the poverty line .
If this trend continues, millions of children will die, most of them unnecessarily, of illness or famine, or malnutrition .
There is a neglection by Governments, more preoccupied with politics, guns and national debt, and they doesn't care .
Some children, to escape from misery, have to work from a very early age. But the people uho employ them doesn't care. In some cases, the types of work these children are offered, are very risky ones .
The majority of them are low paid. They must work to stay alive. They have no option .
Drugs are also a very serious problem, and it is in some way, related to money as well. Drug adicts need money in order to buy drugs. And it's a great business for drug-dealers .
Experts note that passport and inmigration controls have never been very helpful in stopping drug-dealers .
Inmigration is due to lack of resources, lack of resources, lack of money as well. Poor people cross borders to escape from poverty. Although they know it can be risky, they take these big risks. For example, people from Cuba try to go to The United States by boat, and the same happens to people from Morocco trying to go to Spain by boat. Some of them die; others are taken back to their countries, and those who have better luck, succeed in their purpose .
They look for a better life, but it is not very easy. They'll find a lot of troubles and problems, specially at the beginning. Then, they'll get used to their new life, and things will go better for them .
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430_SPM02011.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
Just a few words before...
When we speak about feminism we always get very different opinions, even among those who call themselves feminists. Some of these opinions can sometimes be controversial. Considering myself a non - archetypal feminist, my own opinions could happen to be a bit contradictory sometimes .
The examples I'll mention in this essay will be mainly referred to feminism in Spain and England, as I have more points of reference with regard to this two countries .
Talkinq about feminism .
One of the most important protest campaigns in Britain was the Suffragette Movement. At the beginning of this century women couldn't vote in British elections. The Suffragettes wanted to change this. We will never know how successful the Suffragettes were, because in 1914 the First World War started and the protests were stopped. During the war many men's jobs were done by women, because men were in the army. The war changed people's ideas about many things. When it ended in 1918 the vote was given to all men over twenty - one and to women over the age of thirty. A few years later it was given to all adults over the age of twenty-one .
There has been similar movements in other countries and women have been, little by little, gaining ground. But it's still true in some places that women have to carry on jobs which, historically, have always been asigned to males, like farming, working in the fields, etc, and have, at the same time, to do the housework, taking care of the kids, etc .
It's not only in the country that women have to develop these multiple roles. An average family nowadays consists on a "he", who, whether has or doesn't have a job, uses to let all the housework be done by "her", and occasionally gives a hand in enough simple tasks to keep his brain safe against headaches; and a "she', who can sometimes stupidly assure, very proudly, she is a "superwoman", and therefore can afford all sacrifice and work twenty five hours a day, going to work, taking care of "he" and the kids, and showing everybody her shiny kitchen, and taking his time as well, to do the shopping, having coffee (or whatever) with her mates, and ocasionally having time to spend with a nice lover that offers her all that necessary things (???) that "he" can not give her .
This examples only come to show there is still a lot of work to be done, and what real feminists should try do do first is to change female's mind, and then do the same with the male's, ' cos there's no way we could change something unfair if we, women, are not the first ones who become aware of what is fair or not, and the only way of stopping them patronizing us, either considering us as fragile china miniatures, or simple "bimbos" (sexual objects whith an absolute lack of brains).
And that's why, in my opinion, the first feminists did a lot of good to the cause of women, getting for us at least to be considered as people (that is, animals with a brain able to think and decide, for instance, which politician would, in our opinion, do less harm to our country).
Feminism nowadays is another story, specially when talking about Spain. Objectives are not that clear, victories are not that convincing and there are some not too obvious points, like the abortion law, even for some who consider themselves as feminists. This law was a victory of feminism in England a long time ago. In fact, if that country advantages us in something, it is in showing consideration for women and respecting and even imposing women's rights, although it's still a long way off the day we will see thousand of us elected to ministers, to Parliament and the European Parliament, the day we won't suffer any kind of discrimination .
Anyway, although I don't think feminists are doing any harm to the cause of women, I do believe the kind of propaganda some feminist groups of them use to display is not effective at all. Each womann has to realise she can fight her particular battle on her own, not showing everybody how week they are and joining groups to get stronger .
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431_SPM02015.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
It's obvious that the governments of all the countries in the world have to defend people from all those those things that endanger not only their lives but also their possessions .
All through the history of mankind there have been several ways of punishing murderers and thieves, depending on the different cultures, races and religions of that specific group of people. But I am not going to talk about the past. What I am going to talk about is the fact that today, at the door of the 21st century, men haven't been able to find a humane way of solving this problem .
Nowadays, when a person is found guilty of murder or robbery, three things may happen to him/her: - be released from prison by paying bail .
-be sent to prison for a shorter or longer time .
-be killed (death penalty).
Of course, the third possibility is the least frequent, but it is sometimes carried out (more in some countries than in others) and, in my opinion, it shouldn't. It would be extremely risky to put someone to death because we can never be sure whether a person is completely guilty of a crime. I'd think of life inprisonment as a last resort, but trying to rehabilitate the criminal, not abandoning him/her in a locked room .
I read somewhere, I don't remember in which newspaper or book exactly, that some of the murderers who are killed on the electric chair in the U.S.A. are mentally ill. I prefer not to investigate whether it is true. I would get depressed .
We must neither punish murderers nor send them to prison. We are all responsible for the existence of crimes and robberies in the world and we are the only ones who have the power to turn murderers in human beings. If they kill because they are crazy, we will take them to a hospital to take care of them, not to the electric chair. If they kill because of political reasons, jealousy, longings for power of money, etc... we will have to rehabilitate them, not to punish them. Death penalty and life inprisonment will never reduce the number of crimes (I even think that the number would increase).
The only problem is that this way of dealing with criminals requires a lot of money and a big effort on the part of the society, but I think that both the expenses and the effort would be worth .
Apart from all this, I'd like to add that the current prison system we have in Spain makes rich people not to spend more than three nights in prison. They are usually released in a few days by paying bail. Let's remember how many days Mariano Rubio spent in prison .
Therefore, the society is letting people with a lot of economic power take advantage of a system that perhaps was created by themselves, and this means that the society is controlled by them, because unfortunately, the ones who have the money are the same as the ones who have the social, political and ideological power over the entire society .
In short, the current prison system is not only OUTDATED but also completely UNFAIR.
A fair distribution of goods and a higher level of civic education will undoubtedly make a much better world .
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432_SPM03020.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
People find their happiness in different ways. Some meet it going to different place from they usually live one. Others are happier buying an expensive car to fancy. Still others like to make presents to others for seeing how they are happy. Most people who find happiness meet it having a mint of money to not limit what they wnt to do each time .
The variety of ways to be happy in the life are nealy ever derivated from money since it is esential in many cases. Why do some persons say "money is not happiness"? They ought to add-happiness is easier by the aid of money .
Does "giving your money" make sense anymore? You do not want Isabel Preisley is going to lay on heating in the palace of her dog means by your money in some degree but yor can not do it is not being so .
The best path of the event is when T.V. notice us a new tax is appearing. You have to go down your dear dog because you are badly off .
The following month you are getting to know about the governor has just buy a beautiful cottage. Then you realize people are playing with economy .
What can you do about it?
In order to have an important sum of money, people do barbs. Nowadays earning money is waging war. Firstly men of means scorn men without money then the last ones hate for well-off ones. At the beginning money caused a fight between men but after the bathing has increased and its spirit still animates both face up to themselves. Today it is not a fight today it is war. Otherwise you only think how earning money. Firstly you play a football pool and it may be you happiness but you are not lucky. The best thing is steady something such as a specualtion of jewels for instance, that is acquiring the jewels with certain money and after this selling it at a more expensive prize .
Bit by bit you do not know what to do for increasint this amount. It can arrive at the extent of being provide by someone with money When someone has a bit monely useually will be an ambitious person. Money always becomes little money. It starts being a big problem to try. You think the easiest approach to earn it. One comfortable way to make both meets end at home could be putting on sale different kind of drugs in suitable places for it .
When the amount of money is going to become enough high you could work with very important people. People who can help you to earn more money and so it can become your obsession .
To sum up we can say that the main purpose from men in the life is being happy mainly means by money since money helps to leve better .
Men want to earn money is the root of all evil, these are the words of the old song and of the one sad reality .
It seems men are not still very intelligent. Perhaps in the twenty one century they will be!!!.
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433_SPM04003.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
It has usually been said that feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good. This may be true, but had it been ever thought the reasons of this assertion? First, I would like to make a distinction between the concepts of "liberated woman" and "feminist": The former is the woman who has realized of her condition in this world and tries to improve it without wanting to replace men, whereas the latter is more radical and wants to replace men .
Men had always been considered as the only one source of income and, therefore, of some stability in the family. This comes from the early times of the Humankind in the world and the constitution of the family. Since men were much stronger than women, they were suposed to be hunters for the group, whereas women were suposed to take care of the family, to take care of the "home fire".
It is very difficult to have the certain knowledge about how their feelings were developped and how all these feelings became what they were centuries ago and they are nowadays. We can see it in the language. The human beings have always felt the necessity of talking to others, which was stronger when they started to hunt. Language evolved very quickly, then. However, we cannot think that language evolved in the same way for men and women, as men must use a certain type of vocabulary related to hunt and animals, whereas women's vocabulary related to home, fire, etc .
Jointly with the question of language, a certain personality was developped, too. Thus, women were less socialbe than men were because they didn't need to communicate themselves outside their homes as much as their partners. So, from those times up to very recent times (we must remember the Middle Ages), women have been suposed to be silent, discreet and friendly:silent and discreet because it wasn't considered as well that a woman spoke and told great things about philosophy, etc.; friendly with the men, above all. It is a very complicate way of feeling. They must think that a friendly, complaissant woman gave them the rest they need: when the hunter came back to his cavern, he, a primitive man, would find a sort of real rest and home into this cavern, beside the less sociable, with a worse easiness to communicate woman and then, they got used to it, making an idealization of their partners .
The problem was that later women became sociable than before; this silent and prudence was beginning to disappear as well as men's structures. Woman have always had a very difficult access to the world of knowledge. The ones who wanted to investigate and become doctors were called witches; a woman writer is very difficult to find until the XVIII and XIX centuries. She couldn't say what she tought in public: a woman had to be silent. Men evolved, but they kept with themselves this idealization as a rest of their old work as hunters and family supporters. However, this work is not so old: they still were the strongest; the only ones who could work and say great things were them. Fortunately, the world has being continually changing, and nowadays we cannot think of such conditions of life for women, although there is still a rest of all this in our present world .
As the world was changing and women were feeling the necessity of communicate themselves, basicly in order to improve their life conditions, they had to use another language and therefore, change the structures long-time stablished. This was considered a man's work. We must remember the "fin ' amor", in which man had to challenge the marriage structure; later, it became a structure in the Middle Ages .
Unfortunately, not only men had this structure: women had it, too. The mothers or grandmothers tried to make young girls follow it. So liberated woman had a double work to do:fight against men and fight against other woman carried it, too and try to make them realize of their bad situation. And because it was not an easy task for them to do, they had to persist very much in their aim. So the adoption of a language and behaviour strange in the female sex and the perseverance which they carried it with, had the whole world to marginalize them. Yet, the world got nothing because women continued defending their ideas. They often had to do it very hard against other human beings. This led some women to want to be in the places occupied by man, firstly, Men's "ego" got very hurt and so this prevailed until right now .
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434_SPM04022.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
Most University degrees are theoritical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are, therefore, of very little value. Students graduates with excelents academic curriculums are not enough prepared for the job that it is supposed thay have to develop, because in most universities there isn't any practise at all, practically the whole of the classes are thoretical and fills the student mind with a lot of knowledge that, in the most of the cases are not practise. In fact, when these excelents students finish their degrees and go to asking for a job they are always asked the same question: "and, what do you know to do?, do you have any experience or any practise?". The answer in the most of the cases are "No".
There are some Universities that can not to offer any practise to their students for several reasons: first, there are too much students, and they can not offer practise to all of them. Second, this practise implies a cost that many Universities can not pay. Another reason is that private enterprises sometimes don't want to proporcionate facilities to the University for their student's practices, but, maybe, it is not a problem of the University but the private enterprise. In the cases that this enterprises accept students for doing practices, these students are not payed at all, and they are taking the job of the other people. The students are sometimes exploted, and therefore, they are not motivated. These preactices are not such practices in some cases, because the enterprises don't let the student to asume any responsability and s/he doen't learn very much. Sometimes the practices are not related with their degrees .
The University should be prepared for proporcionate all the students the necessary practice for developing their future work in the best way possible. In scientifices degrees, for instance, is very important that the student had enough practice. Do you imagine an engineer that does't knew what is a screw?!. It must seem like a joke, and it is exagerate, of couse, but it is true that students of scientific degrees haven't seen a laboratory the enough times that they need .
In the Humanities degrees the situation is worse, if it can be. These students have a very few practice. They have to memorize too much theory that it is useless. In degrees like Laws, the students have to memorize all the codes, all the laws, the civil law, the labour law, the criminal law, and so on. The lawyers don't need all this things because they are all in the books. On the other hand, they need to practice their knowledge in order not to forget it, and for being objectives in their work, and, in sum, for being a good lawyer. The students of Laws don't have any practice in their degrees, but they are exiged two years of experience to enter to the laboral world. How can we explain it?
In studies of languages, the University doesn't proporcionate the students enough facilities for studying in a country in which the language they are learning is spoken. That is essential for the preparation of the student. The student have to search and to pay for their studies in other countries in the most of the cases, excepting all those very good students, of course .
In fact, the practice is adquired with the years, and one is better in his/her job with the years of experience, however, one must have a minimun of practice when s/he finish his/her degree. Some degrees are too long and of very little value, in some cases is a waste of time to be in theUniversity five or six years, studying something that it is not usefull at all. I think that is urgent to find a solution for this problem. The world demands new graduates with a lot of characteristics and qualities that the graduate doesn't have because the University hasn't given it. That is not for the own graduate's blame, but the Educational System, the Goverment, or I don't know the really blamer of this situation, but, one thing is clear: it is needed a reform urgently .
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435_SPM04023.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good .
I think that feminists have contributed to the improvements in the life of women .
At the beggining of this century, women in Britain couldn't vote, stand in public office, enter any of the professions or most well-paid jobs, be awarded a university degree, control their fertility, or share guardianship of their children. The brave women who campaigned for these rights were ridiculised and those who took vident actions were imprisoned. The campaign of these women over many years eventually won them equal rights. They were fighting not onlythe prejudices of their own times, but a legacy of thought which had for centuries defined women as inherently inferior to men and sought to control them by making them the virtual property of their fathers and husbands .
From the early 1890s, the debate about the lack of political rights of women was a live issue on which most people had an opinion. Two groups of women made sure that women's suffrage was kept in the public eye .
The suffragists believed that law'abiding campaigning and appeal to reasonableness in men would eventually win women the vote. Led by Millicent Garrett Fawcett, they organised a network of local National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, arranged meetings and rallies, lobbied Parliament and published their own newspaper .
There were militant suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union, led by Emmeline and Christobbel Pankhurst, were more impatient with the lack of progress for women and organised more dramatic demonstrations. On Derby Day 1913, one suffragette, Emily Davidson, threw herself under the King''s horse and was killed .
However, in the event, it took a world war to win British women the vote. Both wings of the suffrage movement encouraged women to engage in war work. Women responded in large numbers and by the end of the war 90% were doing work done by men, though far less pay. Having landed their efforts, it was difficult for the Government to deny them political rights, though initially the vote was only granted to women over 30, so they wouldn't outnumber male voters. It was necessary ten years before women won the vote on the same terms as men .
Women have for a long time been active in the organisations which have grown up to improve and protect the environment in which we live, physical and social .
Thereare now around ten million women in paid employment. Many women work part time. Those who work full time earn an averaged two-thirds as much as men. There are fewer women involuntarily unemployed .
Jobs done mainly or wholly by women are paid relatively low rates, perhaps because they are done by women whose bargaining powers have been relatively weak. Women work less overtime .
In education the great majority of class teachers in the primary schools are women. In 1960 a quarter of all university students were women .
The new women graduates of the 80s and 90s will probably soon change the balance of the sexes in the higher jobs .
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436_SPM04033.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
The aim of the present essay is to explain what reasons provoke nowadays the lack of dreaming and imagination in our society. In the modern world the advances in technology and industralization have imposed a particular life style that has provoked that people scarcely have time to do what they would like to. In spite of this, people find some time to do it .
First of all, I'd like to point out the importance in the present time of the incorporation of high technology in most of jobs. New techniques are incorporated; for example, in the case of computers, new programs are created to facilitate the way people work. These incorporations oblige people to learn new things very frecuently in order to be prepare enough; so, besides of learning, they have to work and (usually in the case of women) they have to attend the house also .
In consequence to this, people are very busy and tired. Moreover, the pressure at work provoke competence between the workers. So they are worried because they have to work hard in order to get a promotion or simply in order to keep the job. This tense situation creates anxiety, stress and nervousness .
The next reason is related to the developments of cities in the modern world. Most of people live far from the inner city and they have to drive to the place they work in. So, everyday they have to wake up very early and have to suffer the huge traffic jams during at least one hour, what produces anxiety and nerves again. On the other hand, if they live near the inner city they will have to wait for the subway or the buses in the crowed platforms during the peak hours, if they decided not to take the car in order to arrive sooner at work .
All I have mentioned before implies that people are frecuently very tired at the end of a working day. All they want to do in this situation, when they finally arrive at home, is try to sleep .
This frenetic life style has made people worried about promotions, money, new techniques etc, and it seems like if they were no longer worried about anything else. But, in spite of this, I think people still today spend some time dreaming or imaginig. Everybody needs time to relax thinking about a good place to do to in vacation. Everybody needs to forget the stress and to escape, at least for a while, from pressure, hurry, noises, smoke... Otherwise, they wouldn't go to see films from time to time, they wouldn't read novels, they wouldn't travel or they wouldn't walk with a friend .
In fact, these frecuent activities is what most of people life to do in their free time. All of these imply dream or imagine in some way. This prove that eventhough our modern world imposes us a busy and stressed life people find time to do what they like to .
To sums up, all I have mentioned before lead us to the conclusion that if our lifes were a little "easier" and we wouldn't be dominated by a world that is constantly changing, due to new techniques and industrialization, we could enjoy doing things as dream and imagine more frecuently. Dreaming and imagining are human "necessities" and still in our stressed lifes we can go it; at least during the weekend or in vacation .
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437_SPM04043.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
I can only say that this statement is completely true. I agree with this so much that I could not avoid choosing this topic. I am at a working with computers or other kinds of "modern technology". Well, maybe it is just that I am not really interested in learning much about it. Technology is the future and I recognize this. I know that, in the end, I will have to learn just like everyone else .
Technology has gone so far that the question is: Where does the man end and where does the machine start?. I do not want to be pessimistic, but progress is transforming us into machines. Nowadays, we do not think for ourselves. Everything is already done for us. It used to be that it was our brains that did the work. People used their imagination trying to explain misteries without visible solutions. Now, it seems like people have become tired of doing so much work in a day with only 24 hours. One of the principal roots of the problem is time. People felt that they did not have enough time so they invented computers to help them out. However, despite the additional help of the computers, people feel as pressed for time as ever. It seems that we spend so much time trying to get the computer to do what we tell it to that it would be easier if we just did the work ourselves. It is a long time since there has been no room for dreaming and imagination in society, and, in 1996, still less .
Can we imagine a world without computers or without advanced technology?. Could people survive?. Personally, I think that I could. Just imagine for a minute that we have gone back to the 17th century. It is the century in which the first novels were published. People dreamt about them and they imagined fantastic vorlds where they were the heroes and the heroines of stories of wonder. They knew nothing about computers and I am sure that they were as happy as we are. I am not saying that industrialization is necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary!. The question is finding the balance between the time we spend dreaming, and say the time we spend enjoying some computer game .
Another subject that I think is important is the relationship between children and technology. When I was a child, I used to read short stories or watching cartoons. I was happy. Nowadays, children depend on television more than my generation did. They do not watc wholesome shows like Sesame Street anymore; instead, they watch shows based on violence like Power Rangers. They do not have time for dreaming because they are always in front of the television or playing with the Game Boy. Maybe this is their way of dreaming but everything that comes to their eyes is violence. The computer games are about fighting or race cars... Children like these games because they are the most entertaining. Does technology and progress promote competition between children?. Maybe it does but I think it would be a sad way to encourage competition. If the younger generations do not know anything about dreaming, how can we blame them?. They have not been taught by their parents but my machines. I believe that with the passage of the time, we will be dominated more and more by the very machines we thought would be of help .
To conclude I have to say that when I hear the words "dreaming" and "imagination", I think of books, of films, of all those fantastic realities that still survive. Of course there is still a place for these things in our everyday life. What we have to do is to be careful not to let computers gain ground .
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438_SPM04048.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
From the beggining of the society there are the problem of the money. All the people wants to be richer than his neighbour. People accept jobs according to how many they pay him but not according to his preferences. People tends to think that the more important is the money but they tell you that it is the health .
Money is the real problem of the society in this world, because it determines the great real problem in the society nowadays: the avarice. But it is not a problem that only appears now, but it is a problem who begins since the man is a man. When the man thought like an animal, he still have the instinct of survice, with no matters if other person lived better than him. He changed his elephant peel for a hen, without thinking if, maybe, the the peel could have more value than the hen. He thought: "I needs this hen in order to survive, and, as I don't need this elephant peel I could change it". But, in a indeterminated moment of the history of the human beings - it would be interesting that the cameras had record this moment-, one man said "my peel is most value than your hen, if you want me to give you this peel, you will have to give me two of your hens" - even knowing that it would be worse for the three children of the man. This poor man accept the change, and from this moment begins the avarice. This fact could make us thing that the real guilty of the beginning of the greed was... the man who accepted the first avaricious treat, but it would be accept that all the humanity is guilty and... it's so true .
It's so true because only a very rather small group of people has denied to following the rule of the greeds. And we can see it along the history of the humanity, and it is the reason why we following with the rough history of the world .
The people who begin to restore the avarice in the world sow that the best vehicle to keep that has born: the money. We can think that the reason of the creation of the money was good, in order to value the things you need and to prevent people to buy things according to its prize, but as the good ideas uses to finish in bad results, as we can see with the invention of the powder, the result is a invention, that instead of help society, damage it .
People left his desires and became to work in those work where they can buy more money. This wasn't very dangerous if some people doesn't follow this parameters, but the 99% of the population of the world begin to believe to this way of live "less pleasure and more money". This situation produces that people who coudn't earn the same money as their neighbours, get greed, and even they would not tell you nothing about it, they didn't mind if their neighbours didn't earn so much money .
But this fact doesn't finish here, because people, when they have a relevant and important work, they treats to better their entrances making "dark business". This phenomenon is relevant nowadays, as we can see in countries as Spain, Itally, EE.UU. or Great Britain, where politics, don't agree of what they want, prefer to put in dangerous his liberty in order to buy a luxury apartment with two hundred bathrooms. Then people thinks: "if the politics, who had teorically to be honest, because they represent the whole country, they don't, then, why I cant do it!". Then, people begins to declare to the government less than they really earns, and the snow ball begins to be more and more big .
Children will born in this state of greed, and from the beginning, they will prefer the money instead of the love of his family and this will produce a lost of the old values, than, even when we thinks that this values don't help us and it would have to be changed by new values, they help us to keep a bit of humanity in our souls .
If this ball keeps its rhythm, we will return back to the wilderness, because wars will be more frequent than nowadays, and we will live as animals, with only a diference, animals never hurts animals of his own blood .
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439_SPM05011.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
The aim of this paper is to discuss whether the prison sy system is outdated and what should a civilised society do with its criminals to rehabilitate them . Does prison system rehabilitate indeed ? What are convicts situation within the prison like ? Is there a real alternative to rehabilitate criminals ? Why does public opinion show no interest at all in this subject ? In my opinion it is quite clear that there must be found new means to deal with such a serious problem .
According to researchs , studies , and statistics , most of the criminals are not rehabilitated by means of prison system , since during their time in prison , they are isolated from the rest of the world and society . Logically , that is not the best way of rehabilitating criminals for the society , by isolating him or her . Nevertheless , when criminals are released , they find themselves even more isolated than they were before . The isolation is due to people behaviour to them ; they are notsupported but rejected . Once they get out of prison , they find it difficult to integrate into society again so they have agreat deal of problems such as getting a job , and so on . Some former convicts' testimonies say that they do not feel very confident , and confortable when joining the society again . That is way the only solution for many of them is crime , breaking the law; thus probably , getting back to prison .
Everybody knows that a great majority among imprisoned people are drugs addicted and some of them being seriously sick , even infected with AIDS . Some of this sick people are there because of their addiction . In many places they do not have appropiate medical care . There are differences between people imprisoned in the so-called third world , and those in the developed countries . Although , that should not be a reason to support prison system whereever it were . Those people imprisoned in the underdeveloped world , are living under subhuman conditions ; thousands of people piles up , struggling with hunger and without health guarantees al all . Besides this , in these places human rights are not taken into account .
It is obvious , there is no interest , neither authorities nor on citizens part , in solving this question or in presenting it to public opinion . So , we have got to wonder what is the reason for it . I suppose , the reason could be that neither conservative nor liberal people are interested in having criminals wandering around , thus being a threat for society . The society would be more confident having criminnals in a safe place , therefore , there would be no risk for anybody . I am sure, a great majority agree with the idea that prison is the best place for criminals to be and that there would be no better place for those breaking the law . Evenmore in some places still exist popularly supported death penalty. It is obvious that in in that places there is the thought that the prison system is outdated; ; since , those nations get rid of its criminals . So the conlusion is : the more criminals staying imprisoned , the better for the society . There is the feeling that once crimminnals have infringed law , they do not belong to society anymore . According to this toughts, politicians do not include the prison system question in their electioneering , at least including progressists proposals . Supporting such ideas is unpopular and would not be good for their images . Even , most of them may think there is no need to change prison system .
As far as I am concerned , there are not many proposals saying how rehabilitate criminals abolishing prison system . The proposals held , such as , engaging those infringing law in social works , are not accepted , indeed . In spite of it , we should continue supporting that imprisonment is not the right way of facing this problem . As we have seen , the solutions is quite difficult to find , evenmore when nobody looks for it. Maybe we should wonder what is going wrong with our society , when it produces people having to survive by any means necessary , even outside the law .
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440_SPM07005.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
In our society, an university degree is becoming more and more important each day as it is very difficult to find a job, especially for young people .
You are asked for an university degree in many jobs, even though this has nothing to do with the work you must carry out .
This is the mean reason, I think, because of people, nowadays, want to take an university degree .
The problem is that most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. In most of cases, when you start in a new job, you are lost because although you have a good formation, this is a theoretical formation and probably will not be as useful as it should be. What most of firms do is to impart the courses that are needed in a particular job .
I think that people should be formed in a more practical way when they are studing at university, so they can put into practice what they have learned in their theoretical lessons. In my opinion, this is one of the better ways of learning .
However, in our educational system, this is very difficult because one of its greatest problems is the lack of money, and money is essential as it is necessary for the manteinance and improvement of the laboratories, the informatic rooms, etc, and for everything that is needed for a good practical formation at the university; and to realize another practical tasks outside the university (in a firm, in a museum, in a factory or in anywhere).
This is the reason because many people have to complete their education, after having finished university, with complementary courses or masters in relation with the career they have studied which, in the most of cases are not free, and eve many of them are so expensive that only a few people can study them. This makes that not everyone has the same oportunities when they are looking for a job, because if you have a master or a prestigious course in your curriculum vitae, you have more posibilities to be employed that if you don't .
In spite of all these reasons showed, I don't think that university degrees are of very little value, because they are very useful as a good formation .
"University is the school of life". As this saying, I think that, in some way, university is the school of life, although this should be applied to the university of some years ago, when it was more difficult to take an university degree because parents could not afford to send their children to study at university .
Nowadays university is not the school of life in the same way as it was a time before, because it has become a school where many people study to pass and to take an university degree, and only a little minority studies to learn, to acquire a solid formation and to prepare to real world .
I would like to say to conclude that, in my opinion, university degrees are of a great value as an academic degree and also as an important advantage when you are looking for a job, because, in most of cases, you will find it before than you have not an university degree .
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441_SPM07011.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
Most of the people who is in prison can be rehabilitated and so they can improve their quality of life. There are lots of methods and a profesional equipment who is prepare to help them. But this doesn't mean that a person who has commited a crime isn't found guilty because he is insane, for example. In my opinion, a person who is in prison owing to a major offence, should be in prison the years he deserves. If we used rehabilitation with the people who are in prison, all of them would declare insane and none would be convicted. In this way, a person who has raped a girl, could be in his house after a rehabilitation in which the therapist is never sure this prisoner isn't going to rape any more .
However, in many cases we can use rehabilitation with people that has commited a minor offence can go out of prison only when the therapist is sure that the prisoner isn't dangerous for the rest of the population. An example of this are drug addits. We all know that there are lot of people in prison because of drugs. Maybe they were only children or teenagers when they were offered a kind of drug that they didn't refuse because their friends didn't persuade him. At that moment they could feel that they need that substance more and more because it made them feel better .
Many of the drug addits have legal problems because they steal money for buying the drug that is in many countries, like Spain, illegal. They have social problems too because people are afraid of them and the drug addits isolate temselves. Another difficulty is that, because of drugs, they lose their work and begin a life as homeless. All of this means that rehabilitation musn't only set out for distinguishing the drug habit but inserting this kind of people in society and in a job .
This example shows us that with rehabilitation many people would go out of prison and make a normal life besides it would improve our society .
None the less, in a country like Spain, is very difficult rehabilitation because it supposes a lot of money to spend on. I don't think that the prison system could change to introduce rehabilitation that is, in my point of view, an Utopian word, by now .
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442_SPM07019.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
Our modern world is dominated by science technology and industrialisation. Many years ago, the men and women, were ruled by the forces of nature. They had to work very hard in order to survive the dangers of the nature. They had to hunt, for getting food. They depended of the weather, for being comfortable and hot. In case they had some disease, they would die, because they had not knowledge of medicine. They thought that the storms, the illnesses or any other power of the nature were prices or punishments of the Gods for being good or bad .
Most of the time, they lived afraid, or working or fighting against their hungry, their thirsty, and their illnesses. Fighting against their need of hot, and shelter, in order to protect them from the natural elements like the storms, the wild animals, the absence of food and water, and other "natural" disasters .
Usually they were always occupied with these hard tasks and dind't have any time for thinking or dreaming. In my opinion, their only dream how surviving this day and the next, this hour and the next, this minute and the next, this second and the next. Such was their fear and anxiety that they couldn't think in another thing than to stay alive one minute more .
In case they were quiet and without any danger, probably they could think and eat and sleep quietly, and in that case, they could dreaming and thinking about how to get food and store it, in order to protect them against the rain, the storms, the wind, the cold, the wild animals, and many others natural elements that threatened their lives .
So the humankind, began to habit in caves, discovered the fire and used them to warm themselves, and to drive away savage creatures. They invented primary weapons wich allowed them hunting more easily. So they had more free time for sleeping, eating talking between them and of course thinking and dreaming .
The more free time they had, the more they thought and dreamed, and the more thing they discover or invented .
In that sense, the progress of the humankind, has been continuous, but slow .
The human societies have been every century, more and more complicated. While some persons dedicated their time at hard woks, like building temples pyramids, palaces, houses, etc, others had more free time for thinking, dreaming and inventing more devices that gave them more free time .
In the last two centuries, the progress of the humankind has been vertiginous, specially in western societies. Every decade, more and more persons have more free time, and the hard jobs, is done by machines. In the last fifty years, every year, the men and women dedicate more time to intellectual task, and less time to manual and hard works. The expectation of life is longer and longer, and men and women have more time to invent, think, imagine, dream etc .
In that sense, I think that science, technology and industrialisation have done more opportuneness for dreaming and imagination .
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443_SPM07023.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
In the words of the old song "Money is the root of all evil".
It's not exactly what headline said, I think, but some of this is true .
We know God told to the man that he would earn his food with swear of his forehead; in other words, without work there isn't food. We must understand that food is between all necessyties men have. Consecuently everything men have more than they need are for their amusement .
And here is where starts the trouble .
It's very good for men all kinds of amusements but when their amusements are more than thoses they need men start to try other things generally prohibitive. And ¿why men try to find other things they don't need? ... Because he has money .
There are lot of things men can buy, can do, can try, can ... etc... that aren't necessary either. But if men haven't money they can't do prohibitive things .
On the other hand, wasting more money meaning way to try to obten more. so it's going to be a circle that can not end .
Then come the necessity to earn more and in this way it goes to ambition, and ambition is blind when it takes root in the man .
There is anything can stop then when men are blind with ambition .
We have heard sometimes that who has too much likes to have more and more and we always want more and more, because ambition never find his end .
Solution for that kind of problem is given for us by lot of very prominent persons who tell us that in the middle way is where we can find virtue. So if we have more money we need what we have to do is to invent, to spend in something to help people or to make lif better. Why there are wars ... why there are hungries...
It's not because there aren't money but because we don't distribute well money .
But it is true that sometimes we have more money because it gives us security and, importance, etc... and we don't like lose that because if we lose that other will be over us. We have fear too. And it is true that when some people lose their ones gain .
How many wars, how many problems have had men with money...
After a war men think, are more careful and goods are better distributed; but little by little, step by step, ambition gives taken root in men again .
It is a very serious thing to think about. We all have to contribute for that. We all have to take mesures to solve the problems in the best way we can .
Every rich country helping the poor one; every rich man to the poor one too. And not only with money but in all kind of things although money can solve lot of them .
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444_SPM10005.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value .
Nowadays, most of young people go to the university; some of them go there because of the prestige, others are obliged by their parents and so on .
There is just only a minority who decides to study practical subjects such as plumbing or carpentry. These kind of students know from the very beginning that the aim of their studies is to be prepared for the real world .
On the other hand, students, who go to the university, think that they are going to learn theoretical and practical aspects of their subjects. It is supposed that they will be experts in the matter of their studies at the end of the course .
However, most of universities give theoretical rather than practical lessons, maybe because it requires an explanation, books, fotocopies ... Material which is finally considered easy to acquire. But give practical lessons is a difficult matter, because it requires specific didactic material, small groups of students, laboratories, etc .
Actually, there are some agreements between big companies and universities; they give the opportunity to some students to work as assistants. But the number of vacancies is limited and lots of students apply for it .
What happens with the rest of students?
They have to look for some training by their own, in this sense, they are confused because they do not know how to prepare a curriculum vitae, to which department they must go or how to make an interview and so on, so forth .
Although problems go on, when you find a job you are Iost because you have lots of information, but you do not know how to use it. For example a teacher knows things about teaching, but he/she does not know how to talk to the pupils. Or a doctor is an expert in medicine, but he/she does not know how to treat his/her patients .
In this sense, you can observe that theoretical knowledges must be supported by practical cases. However, these practical cases take you a lot of time and maybe you can not go every day to the university, and then you have a lack of theoretical knowledges. In other words, there must be an equilibrium between theoretical and practical lessons .
The lack of balance is directly related to some studies, but even more, students are not really prepared for the real world in any matter, for example, most of them do not know how to open a bank account and so on, so forth .
Finally, it does not know which is the best solution, the problem could be a lack of money, the system...
In spite of all these problems students go still to the university .
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445_SPM10006.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
In the past, it is true that those people who had university studies could get a good job easily, mainly because there were not many people in the University due to economic reasons. Another important aspect is that there was not such a variety of studies and almost everybody became teacher, doctor, lawyer,... no matter if the degrees were based on theory. So, it was more a question of prestige .
Nowadays, finding a job is not that casy and lt is becoming more and more difficult even if you have recelved an universlty education. One of the causes of this problem could be the way university degrees are structured .
lt is supposed that university degrees should he geared to professional future. Since many of those degrees have several openings, in my opinion, there should exist a practical specialization for each of these openings and therefore, students would finish knowing what they will have to do when they find a job. lt is obvious that to get this aim, the syllabus should be checked and corrected, or even, rewritten .
The ideal way of studying could be giving just the necessary theoretical keys so as to be able to apply them in practical situations, the more similar to reality, the better. For instance, in the case of language university studies, the syllabus should include, at least, one subject on that language per year, since languages are changing all the time and besides, by not practising it, students forget basically, vocabulary and expressions .
As far as my personal experience as an university student is concerned, I find necessary to have a deep look into the whole syllabus in order not to repeat any subjects, to reduce the number of them, to organize them in a way that the study of them is logical, whether it is chronological or simply a question of sense and, of course, to include a number of hours dedicated to practice .
For instance, lt is the case of that student of Chemistry who has never been to a laboratory. He/she may know all the formula and theoretic explanations, but, when dealing with a real experiment or investigation project, reallze that he or she is not sure of which formula to apply. Or the situation of someone studying journalism who has never been, for example, to a radio programme .
lt is true that some degrees also consist of practical training in enterprises, schools, hospitals or wherever, as long as it is related to the studies, but there are many more which are just theoretical. The trouble is very serious because when you flnlsh your studies and have to ' face up to the world', you realize that the first thing you are asked in an application for a job is lf you have worked in that field before. Of course, if you are in your early twenties, lt is very probable that you have never had an employment. However, all those people who have had practical training after their studies can say they have experience or even have the possibility of keeping on working in that enterprise where they took their practical lessons .
Recently, there are the so-called ' Módulos', which are more concrete and aimed at a specific professional opening. From my point of view, they are quite well structured, since they are about two years long and you do not obtain your title unless you fulfil a certain number of hours of practical training in real entreprises and dealing with cases of the real life .
As a conclusion, I would like to say that nowadays, to have an university degree is not a question of prestige but, practically, a need, since when looking for an employment, you are required as many titles as possible. Thus, the ordeno of the studies should be better established so that the title would correspond exactly to our level of knowledge, and thís includes practical knowledge .
(NOTE: Although I do not agree very much with the syllabus of rny studies, I want to say that I like what I am doing.)
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446_SPM10010.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
Feminism can not be considered as a movement with a concrete beginning and a concrete developement. There has always been something of a feminist in all those women who all along the history did not submit to their excluding role of mothers and wives. Women who aspired to get something more in life than a happy husband and a tidy home .
Unfortunately, during many centuries those women were not understood, not only by men, but also by other women. Other women, whose minds had been so deeply influenced by society, and by society here I mean men, that they had get to believe that was their only place in life, that they were not independent persons with own aspirations and objectives .
Women have always been opressed, in different ways and different degrees, and ignored as valid "thinkers" and "doers", and still are today. This situation, as all unnatural and forced situations, was condemned to explote one day or another .
Although, as it has been mentioned before, feminist tendences have been observed in all periods and societies, it can be considered that the movement as such was born at the end of the eighteenth century in the frame of the French Revolution. Feminism was, from its origin, a social doctrine that admitted that women have the same capacities and, therefore, the same rights as men .
The majority of women never questioned the position that had been imposed to them, and accepted it as normal and natural, overall because nobody ever asked them for their opinions and so, they did not feel in the right to express them. But after centuries of opression and unjustice some women started to think that maybe they also had something to say, not only about their own situation but about life as a whole: politics, history, economy...
Obviously, these new proposals, and even exigences, carried out by these women were not listened nor respected. And it was then when they had to start fighting to defend those rights that they considered they have and that society was denying them. Their ideals were vindicated with words, but as these words did not produce any effect they started to be expressed by deeds, and often, violently. Violence can hardly be justified but sometimes it is the only mean to be listened and taken in consideration. All groups of opressed people, all minorities in some moment or another had to recur to extreme means, as violence, to attract attention, to be heard, and so did feminists .
As all social movements, feminism had some radical and extreme manifestations, women who thought that in order to defend their rights and ideas it was necessary to reject men. This led to a misinterpretation of both the term and the movement, and because of that, many people (of both genders) during many years have had a wrong concept of what feminism was, and is nowadays, and have thought that feminists were just a group of crazy women or lesbians (or crazy lesbians) who thought men should be eliminated from the Earth because they were all unfair, uncivilised and unnecessary and, of course, inferior to women .
And that has nothing to do with reality because a movement that is trying to prove that women are equal to men can not be claiming that men are inferior than women. If the aim of feminism would have been to demonstrate that women are better than men, it would have been excluding one of the genders again and, therefore, placing women in an isolated position once more, which is exactly what they were trying to avoid .
So, this interpretation of feminism is wrong, and has been the one which has given the term a negative and peyorative aspect, and maybe, according to this interpretation "feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good". But if we consider feminism as what it actually is, it can not be denied that it has done much more good than harm .
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447_SWUL1001.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
It is difficult to imagine this world of ours unimaginative and dreamless. In fact I would think it to be quite impossible to excist in this techologycal world without any kind of dream or imagination. I would say that it takes a lot of it to even live in it .
But the question is, do we have the time to dream, is there any place for it in our lives? Well, to find this out we must compare our modern world with the times before it turned into what it is today, industrial and technologycal .
In the earlier days people did not have all the stress on the assembly line like we have today. I guess that that gave them more time to think and dream. They lead a more simple life with out any interference from the world outside their own and I am quite sure that this is affecting our dreams .
Our dreams may have changed, our wishes is sometimes quite different from the earlier days, but I guess that we still have some dreams in common. We still dream about true love, fortunes and eternal life. These wishes are not fulfilled more frequently today than they were berore. But some of the dreams and the wishes we have today are fulfilled thanks to our modern technology and I think that we should be thankful for that. For there is no point in dreaming if you can not get one single dream realized in your whole life .
Modern technology has damaged our childrens ability to imagine things. They are incapable of playing with things like LEGO and bricks and other toys that demands a bit of imagination. Today toys has to be developed in detail. Everything has to be formed in plastic with strict playing rules and instructions on how you should play leaving no room for you own imagination. With commercials and advertisements you are told what is inn and cool to play with. Disney figures casted in plastic, Barbie and her friend Kent, Ninja Turtles, Batman and heaven knows what!
Children can not be blamed for their lack of imagination. They can not help all this garbage is being thrown upon them. Business men in the industries should be blamed for it. They are the ones who are making big profits selling interior decorations for Barbie one year and miniature Batmobiles the next .
Men and women dream about different things. Men are dreaming about their careers, money and red sports cars! Maybe I'm being a bit prejudiced and not very deep. But I have not yet meet a man who would not like to change his car to a newer and faster one!
Women they still dream about children and homes. Again I am taking the risk of being accused of being prejudicedand I would therefor like to point out that women have approached a few male dreams. Like the dream of a great career and being independent .
We all dream about the future and try to imagine what it might bring us. Dreaming is hoping and hoping means faith in life, so if we stop dreaming we will stop living .
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448_SWUL1003.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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C1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
The world of today is basically demythologized, still quite a few people are interested in myths because the myths have a message for them. As a matter of fact they are stories about rules of living. What we learn in our schools today are not words of wisdom. We learn technology, we get information. Our world seems to have been drained of spiritual values. People feel powerless. That is precisely what I believe is modern society's curse, this powerlessness, the weariness people feel, the alienation from the world that they live in. A social stagnation with artificial life and false life span, which has taken over. Maybe we need a hero that will give expression to our deepest yearnings .
Does society need heroes? Yes, I think so. Because needs images that will keep all the disrupted tendencies together and gather them into a purpose. The myths help us to realize that there is a possibility to achieve completion, to be able to use all our strength and to bring joy into the world. To kill the monsters and the fire-spitting dragons is to defeat darkness .
What happens then, if society does not have any powerfull mythology anymore? Our teenagers loose faith in the religions in which they have been raised and turn inward. They often do this with the sopport of drugs. Society has not assigned any rituals that will make them members of the tribe and the community. This is the essential meaning of the initiation ceremonies. In primitive societies they strike out teeth, inscribe scars on their bodies and practise circumcision etc .
In modern cities like New York for example teenagers create their own rites. That is why there is graffitti all over the city. They have their own gangs, their own initiation rites, and their own laws. But they are dangerous, because their laws are not the laws of the city. They have not een taken up in the society .
Is modern society so devoid of hope then? I do not think it has to be that way. In our technological society where most of our dreams and fantasies are represented in films and videogames, there is a growing tendency to create new factasies of our own. People are getting tired of having everything served on a silver plate. We need to create new myths and at the same time to look back in search for old lost ones .
In the myth, there is no argument against industry and science. When you plunge into a totally unknown adventure and make a path, Wheater it is some sort of technological breakthrough or simply a new way of living, you run the risk of getting too enthusiastic or to neglect certain mechanical aspects then you will most certainly fail. When assenting to one's longings, enthusiasm, and feelings you have to keep your head cool, so that it will not lead you straight into calamity. I cannot recognize any opposition between science and mythology. Science itself is now drawing nearer the dimensions of mystery, soon it will have reached the border. The border between that which can be understood and that which will never be clear, because it is a mystery that is beyond the reach of human reseach. For instance; we do not even know what a nucleus is, if it is a wave or a particle - maybe it is both .
What kind of myths will incorporate the machine into our new world? The cars are already there in mythology that is. They are in our dreams. Airplanes too, play an important role in the service of imagination. The voyage of the airplane represents the liberation from earth, in a way pretty much like birds symbolizing freedom. And now it is also time for the computor to introduce itself in the world of fantasy. The computor that many people regard as omnipotent god, with its software going in and out of it, as if they were angels bringing information from earth .
Not only do I believe that there is a place for imagination in our technological society, but furthermore I am quite convinced that it is neccesary for us and future generations to keep on dreaming. Really one of the most important differences between machines and humans, is that humans are capable of imagining things, while a machine is directed by certain signals and commands. In order to be master and inventor of our technological devices, we must continue doing what humans have done for several thousands of years - that of dreaming and imagining .
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449_SWUL2011.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
Our world today does look a lot different from the world a hundred years ago. Not only are there more people populating the earth but the terms of existing have also changed rapidly. To people in the western world these changes have usually meant that new technologies have been introduced, mostly in order to facilitate life. There is no denying that much of the technology has facilitated life. For example cars and planes, but also telephones have shortened the distances and made places accessible with, relatively speaking, little loss of time. If we move into the kitchens of modern homes many of the appliances visible there are indeed time-saving (e g the microwave oven) and do facilitate life to many busy people .
Now, I have talked a lot about time-saving and facilitating technologies because indeed I think that is what much of modern technology aims at today: to make it possible for us to save time. But then the question arises, what are we saving time for? The simple, but somewhat dejecting, answer to that question is, I think, we do not know what we are saving our time for, or rather we have forgotten why we started to save time in the first place. The next question then to demand an answer is, how does this time-saving menatality affect us? My opinion is that it has affected our way of thinking, dreaming, and imagining in quite a serious way .
I do not want to maintain that our ancestors had a more refined manner when it came to dreaming and imagining. Neither do I want to argue that modern men and women do not dream and imagine things at all. I am quite convinced that most of us nurture dreams and hopes for the future just as people always have had dreams and hopes for the future just as people always have had dreams and hopes for a better future for themselves and their children. In short, the content of our dreams and imaginations has not changed, but the manner in which we dream and imagine things have. The reason for this could be traced back to the impact of modern technology .
As I mentioned earlier, today's technology aims at saving time. But, in doing so it also makes everything go faster. And, in going faster it makes us believe that it is a good thing if we manage to get more done in the same time. This is the crucial point, because I believe that our dreaming and imagination have changed along this line so that we do not take the time to finish our trains of thought because we try to "stuff" our dreams with as much input as possible .
The problem isn't that there isn't any place for dreaming and imagination; the problem is that there are far too many places, and far too many ready dreams served us through the television and videos and far too little time to finish our dreams. Although technology has made it possible for us to save time with different kinds of machines, it has not enabled us to take the time to slow down and spend our saved-up time on finishing our dreams in our thoughts .
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450_SWUL3007.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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C2
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
In our world where technology is an important factor it's hard to believe that there's any place for imagination and dreaming, but in my opinion there is. Science and imagination go hand in hand and it's thanks to scientific progress that some of our dreams can come true. If we look at the things that science has accomplished to satisfy the needs of human race they are innumerable .
A long time ago when man realised that he couldn't walk on water he invented something that could float on the surface so he could cross the watercourse without getting wet. If people in those days weren't able to imagine themselves going over water staying dry they would continue to swim over. In our time era the old raft has turned into a yacht but it's still because of our imagination. If we didn't have time to dream we would have kept on crossing rivers with a raft .
The train is another example of what dreaming and imagination have provided us with. The general opinion is that speed and dreaming don't go together at all when they in fact do. It's possible to dream away even at high speed. To go by train is actually quite pleasant. You can lean back and just watch the landscape pass by and daydream. The only thing you have to worry about is what station you're getting off at. This shows that not only can technology provide means of transport but also places for us to dream in .
The ability to fly has probably been man's greatest dream ever since he was put on this earth. We have always envied the birds and their freedom to fly away wherever they want and whenever they want. For many years men and women have pondered over how to make it possible for man to fly and they succeeded. It's now feasible for us to fly, not by our own machine though, but with a little help. We can sit in an airplane and travel around the world thinking about life's mysteries at the same time. It's a great combination! There's almost never a dream that technology and science can't turn into reality. But, of course, it depends on what your dreams are and I can only talk for myself .
The fact that many people claim that there's no room for dreaming in this world has very likely derived from fear. They're afraid that technological advances will take over too much and leave them without something to do. People are afraid of feeling inadequate and no longer being needed. Dreaming is one way to get away from it all and since they can't relax they have to blame it on something, namely development. Technology doesn't keep us from dreaming, it clears the way for more and higher striving dreams .
The reason for people feeling that they don't have enough time for fantasies and imagination is all our obligations. Everyone of us has things that we have to do, whether we work or go to school. So even if we want to devote a large amount of time to imagination it's just not conceivable and it has nothing to do with our well-advanced world .
Something that has to be taken into consideration is why technology is moving so fast. It isn't something happening by itself, we are all a part of it. Our aspiration for a more convenient and carefree life is a reason for the fast-moving progress within technology. Since we're helping science on it's way to become dominating, maybe without knowing it, we can't blame it for not giving us enough time to dream away .
Another aspect to have in mind is why we feel the need for imagination? Is it because we like the idea of imagining things that can never be for real or is it to dream about things that actually can happen if we just put our minds to it? If the last reason is the most probable or common one there is no reason why technology and imagination can't be two parts of a united whole. After all, society would not be so high developed and advanced if it weren't for our imagination and striving for a better world .
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451_SWUL3027.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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C1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
Many people claim that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialization there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. Those who do, however, lack even the most basic knowledge of what our western society in fact is based upon and what it is that actually urges people to go on in their lives. It is fairly obvious that they know nothing about the close connections between people's dreams of individual success, their needs to "dream away" and scientists ability to use their imagination, and our modern high-tech society. There is no exaggeration to say that society is based upon these two factors and that without either of them it would not be as extremely advanced as it is - it would be a completely static one .
Ever since the beginning of the history of humanity the main issue has been how to find ways of surviving under the often very harsh conditions that earth exposes its inhabitants to. Today the problem has been more or less solved, however, and this is mostly due to the fact that people throughout the centuries have used their imaginative skills to develop more and more advanced tools to be used in everyday life. A side effect of this is that more time has been allotted to dreaming .
Two of the major dreams in our modern age are to be successful at work, or to become financially independent. But in order to reach these goals people must use their imagination and dreams since they are what spurs them in their stives towards their goals .
But dreaming and imagination are also useful tools to "get away" from a dreary job or the conflicts with other people that modern life often subjects us to. In these cases they work as "healers" in which exhausted human souls can find peace and which allows them to dream away to other more exiting jobs, or into a world of sympathetic fellow human beings .
Even though personal achievements form a large part of the purpose of dreaming and imagination in a modern society, they are also useful in areas where society as a whole benefits from them. Scientists can be said to belong to a category of people of which a genuine interest to satisfy other people's needs is their guiding light. But to reach success in this area a true interest in helping is not enough, a "free" mind - one that has the capability to develop entirely new trains of thought in fields that have never been explored before, is demanded. Perhaps the most significant difference between a good scientist and a genius can be said to be their personal capacity to use their imagination .
Dreaming and imagination are natural parts of the human character and people's ability to use these resources are in fact what distinguishes them from all other living creatures on earth. They in themselves are important forces which help people to go on in life, assist them in their need to escape from a sometimes too demanding reality, or participate in exploring entirely new areas of science and technology. Yet, scientists are ordinary humans with dreams of money and fame, and perhaps it is not only their wish to aid humanity which spurs them, but also the dream of making the ultimate achievement and gaining public recognition - the dream of one day being rewarded with the Nobel Prize .
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452_SWUL4001.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
Our world is dominated by technology. Not a day passes without us being reminded of this fact by what we see or use .
The fact that science, technology and industrialization are so dominating in our society is a threat to our future happiness. The dominance makes us feel safe, since it is we ourselves who have created it. This feeling of security is false. Progress does not only bring good fortune, however we, with our blind faith in the future, seem to be wearing blinkers .
For instance, industrialization does not always bring progress of a positive nature. Think of the workers who are being made redundant as a result of it. Having to work under the threat of being made redundant is not living a life at ease. Consequently the employees perform badly due to their uneasy existence. Thanks to science and research new projects are being launched everyday. Projects which lead to several new places of employment in the end .
You see, we are all puppets in a theatre, and whoever pulls our strings does so without thought to our mental keep. Driving to work, working in the treadmill, keeping quiet and doing as we are told, that is how we live our lives .
The scientists come up with extraordinary, new findings. However, the truth of the matter is that it is no longer a question of developping new machines for our needs, but of developping new human needs for the machines. Of course, technology has given us a lot for which we are thankful, e g air-conditioning, and other things which we do not find that necessary, e g the egg-boiler .
In the hectic society of today the room for imagination is not as large as perhaps it used to be. People can not survive without any recreation or amusement and consequently find different ways to cope. There are, I find, three different categories, as follows: Firstly and largest is the category of people who have to look for ways of expressing their imagination in their spare time, since their trade gives no oppurtunity during working-hours. Therefore, even if they go at it from dawn to dusk, they always find themselves some diversion in leisure hours. The negative aspect of this is that due to the shortage of spare time, some of the diversions found are not good for them, i e alcohol, drugs. To take care of these poor creatures a whole industry is created in the form of health centres and spas. At these centres the "guests" are encouraged to give a free rein to their imaginations and get to know themselves in order to submit to their fates .
Secondly, there is the category of people who need imagination to be able to perform their work, e g designers, architects, artists. Those who have creative jobs have the advantage of being able to unfold their dreams during working-hours. Consequently they do not have any imagination left when they come home after a hard days work. They get bored easily and look for diversions, which they easily find at each other's cocktail-parties. And the result of too frequent partying is a visit to a spa .
Thirdly and finally, there is the category of people who have a balanced degree of imagination divided evenly between working-hours and spare time. This is where the majority of us belongs. The people who keep the society going, pay our taxes and take care of our fellowmen of the other two categories .
To conclude, there are pros and cons with the dominance by technology as it is with so many things. I am certain we do not want to be without it. Imagination will always have its natural place in our modern world. It is only through our imagination that technology and science will find further progress .
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453_SWUL4026.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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C1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
Some people hold that there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination in our modern society. Sadly, I must admit that I agree with them .
From my point of view, the deprivation of imagination starts already in early childhood. Parents buy ready-made and elaborate toys for their kids, instead of encouraging them to create their own. The children get used to being provided with playthings and thus gradually lose their power of initiative and inventiveness. I also believe that television can have devastating effects on children. Today a lot of kids prefer watching television to playing games or reading books. I fear that this development will deteriorate their creativity and reading ability even more .
Since efficiency and productivity are maxims of our society, there is no time and space for imagination in people's professional lifes either. A case in point is the situation of the industrial workers. Not only have they got monotonous and stressful jobs, they have also been deprived of the creative satisfaction and pleasure of manufacturing. In our society the pursuit of profit is considered far more important than creating stimulating jobs .
It is also disquieting that we have become so dependent on scientific expertise. An illuminating example is our faith in Western medicine. In former times people believed in knowledge based on experience; today everything has to be scientifically proved. Is medicine made by artificial means more reliable than Nature's own resources? I don't think the women used Thalidomide in the 60s would agree with that. As far as I am concerned, it's a con, and behind it is the pharmaceutical industry, trying to manipulate people in order to make more money. Thus a lot of innocent people are being deceived and prevented from using their own intuition and imagination when it comes to healing .
Finally, as for dreaming, some people might claim that it is not possible to deprive a person of his dreams. i venture to say that it is. Mass media and the advertising industry are constantly trying to influence and form our dreams. They decide how to dress, what to eat, how to furnish homes, where to go on vacation; they even decide what kind of friends and partners you should have and how they should look and behave in order to please you. Eventually you get so confused that your no longer know of your choices and values are your own or if they have been affected by the advertising industry .
To sum up: I don't believe there is a place for dreaming and imagination in this vacuous society of ours, and I doubt there will even be one if we don't stop submitting to this oppression of our spiritual needs. Only when we cease living up to society's expectations will we be able to fulfill ourselves .
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454_SWUL4029.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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C1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
In the beginning man was nothing more than a quarrelsome animal which had the ability to speak and think but did not exhaust himself in doing either .
Then one glorious day, one man invented the wheel and although his neighbours probably complained about his usage of the sacred symbol of the sun, he kept using his invention and one by one his neighbours became convinced of the advantages of the wheel .
Many thousand years later the first cars began to use the roads in Europe. In some countries legislation forced the driver to have a man with a red flag walk ahead of the car to warn the road-users .
Nowadays, some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialization, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. But that complaint is totally irrelevant. Imagination has given us technology and science and they have in turn furnished us with time saving gadgets, fastfood, nuclear power-plants and genetically manipulated tomatoes-to name only a few inventions. These inventions have two side-effects, the first is that we have more time to dream if that is how we elect to spend the time we have saved and secondly, imagination has become more important than ever in almost every line of business .
Furthermore, technology provides us with a large portion of the stuff that dreams are made of, for example: in the film Jurassic Park technology both makes it possible for us to get an idea of how dinosaurs looked like and it also gives us the reason to believe that the resurrection of the dinosaurs really could be done, which is half the thrill of the film .
Technology can also be used to make our dreams come true by finding cures for diseases which cannot yet be cured, and many other things which we only have to conceive to realize. As a character says in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle: [Quotation] In a wider perspective technology may be seen as our only realistic way of achieving a kind of eternal life, of course not for ourselves but for the intelligent robots we might produce in the future and thereby continuing the evolution that created us .
Unfortunately, technology does have its drawbacks, especially when it is handled carelessly as in Chernobyl or viciously as in Nagasaki, but it is not technology in itself that threaten us, it is the inherent malevolence in each of us. If there were no weapons we would be killing each other with toothpicks-if there is a will we have always had a knack of finding a way! It seems as if imagination is a bigger threat to humanity than technology is .
Still, there is the question of industrialization, a thing that frightened people at the end of the 19th century, because the machines took their jobs and often made their places of work perilous since safety routines were non-existent at that time .
However, nowadays industrialization only takes away boring and unhealthy jobs and if anyone complains about that, it is because he is in urgent need of money and not because he likes the job .
Accidentally, this brings to my mind the technocrats, who during the 30s, 40s and 50s had a persisting dream to replace bank managers, civil servants and other bureaucrats with impartial, logical and unselfish robots that would do their job swiftly and efficiently and with little cost to the tax-payers. It is a beautiful idea that certainly deserves to be tested .
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455_SWUL4032.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
In a world dominated by technology, science and industrialization some people think that there is hardly no place at all for dreaming * and imagination. They claim that technology has a checking effect on dreams and imagination. But there are from my point of view less things supporting than opposing this theory .
Technology and science has originally come from peoples' dreams and their ability to imagine things. Take for example the aeroplane. People have been dreaming of flying for centuries, and they have tried to invent wings for just as long. Finally someone invented an aeroplane. And the dream grew bigger and today we can even walk on the mon, all just because of an old dream. Most inventions, I guess, have been developed like this .
Nowadays people have everything, some people say, but if we did there would be no more inventions, and there defenately are. There are new inventions every day, big or small, and I do not think there would be if we did not dream anylonger .
Thanks to modern technology we can today share our wildest imaginations and take part of others' with the help of for example films, music-videos or pictures. A hundred years ago there was no such way of showing one another personal thoughts like that even if they wanted to. Today we can do that(with the help of for example special effects), thanks to technology and science .
Dreams are something that nothing or nobody can stop, I think. People will keep on dreaming what ever happens. There is for example an apparent piece of evidence which proves this: lottery. A lottery works well no matter what times are like. In fact there seems to be more people betting on different lotteries when times are rough than during good times. People dream of becoming millionaires; of traveling around the world; of having a new car and so on, and that has nothing to do with technology or science. We have been dreaming of the same things for ages, but nowadays there is a bigger chance of these kinds of dreams coming true. It is easier and not so expensive to travel or to get a new car today than it was for about a hundres years ago .
I have known people who are afraid that people of today, especially children, do not think enough by themselves. They think that for example video-games or computer-games are dangerous for their childrens' minds, and they think that their imagination will stop developing. Others think that these sorts of games are helping our imagination to develop There are actually no evidence at all that they are not imagining as much when they play video-games as when they play with dolls or with toy-cars .
Even though I agree with the later statement I would like to add that imagination and dreams have to be nourished, not to survive but to develop. They have to be nourished not only by watching films, reading comic-books, playing video-games or such things, but also by reading books .
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456_SWUL5017.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
The science and technology of the 20th century have made it possible to study and explore the world we live in from the minute parts of an atom to enormous cosmic phenomena such as supernovas and black holes. This knowledge has helped us understand how the universe works and made our lives easier by preventing disease and famine in many parts of the world. Our understanding of the world has made us re-think the way we look at it. Things that were previously regarded with fear and superstition are put in a context which make them understandable and natural. But perhaps modern science has also taken away some of the magic and mystique of our world. Maybe our increasing knowledge of things has made our world a smaller and duller place to live in .
The author Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, spent a large part of his childhood during the mid 19th century in the small town of Hannibal, close to the Mississippi river. To the young Clemens the great Mississippi river represented beauty and excitement; his greatest childhood dream was to work on one of the river boats that were sailing on the Mississippi. After a series of odd jobs he managed to fulfil his dream and became a river pilot. Later in his life Samuel Clemens described this choice of career as a big mistake. No longer would the Mississippi be the romantic and exciting place of his childhood, instead he know saw it with the professional eyes of a trained river pilot. The river had been transformed from a fantasy inspiring playground to a workplace where everything had to be evaluated and measured. Maybe we all lose something when we get our romantic impressions altered by changes in our life .
Does this mean that knowledge and experiences destroy our dreams, and that we in this technological age are entering an era where there is no place for dreams and imagination; a time when everything is explained and analysed into insipid familiarity? Personally I think that if there is anything that is losing ground in today's society, it is reality .
Science has been able to explain to us the way things work, unfortunately this is not the way most of us would like it to work. We know that the world's energy resources are not inexhaustable, that faster-than-light speed is not possible and that our current way of life is destroying our planet. But knowing this has not made us less inclined to dream of things that cannot be, or imagine how thing could be if the impossible was possible. People's need to escape reality has not diminished with time, and never before have people had such a wide variety of ready-made escape routes available to them. Science and technology have provided us with designer drugs, computer games and cable TV with quintillions of channels .
Technology and scientific progress have not changed peoples need for dreams and imagination, or made it harder for them to create dreams or use their imagination. However, the form of the dreams or fantasies have changed; gnomes and trolls have been replaced by aliens and UFOs. The increasing specialisation has made it harder for laymen to understand the theories behind the scientific advances, and the scientist has become to be regarded as modern day magicians: doing things very few people understand and accomplishing amazing results The dreams and imaginations of men and women will change with the time they live in, but I am convinced that no matter what society look lik people will always make a place for dreams and imagination .
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457_SWUL6001.txt
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en
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icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Marx once said that religion was the opium of the masses. If he was alive at the beginning of the 21st century, he would replace religion with television
Karl Marx once said that religion was the opium of the masses. One does not have to be a Marxist to understand what he meant; that religion was an escape from the hard everyday life, making people ignorant and insensible to the wrongs that existed at that time. Religion thus made it easier to control the masses - even if that was not the purpose of the rulers. Today, our society - at least in our western world - has become much more secular than in Marx's days. We could thus conclude that the masses have been liberated from their "opium"? Alas, if it were so good! The days of religious dogmas and conformity may be gone, but a new altar has emerged that has taken religion's place as an opium: television. In the four decades that has passed since the TV set first appeared, it has become an indispensable part in the daily lives of most people. Today, small children find it hard to believe that mankind had to live without television less than a generation ago - how could one live without such a "necessity" of life?
The average time spent watching television is about two hours a day, and it is augmenting. This is probably one of the reasons why the problem of overweight is increasing in our society - especially among children. The time that used to be spent outdoors playing, is now spent in front of the TV set. The time used in from of the box is, however, not primarily used for enlightenment .
When television - and before that the radio - appeared, it raised great expectations among some people. The new medium of communication was to be an excellent tool for education and enlightenment of the masses. Theatre performances, which used to be performed before only a minor part of the population, could now be broadcast into every home. Education would change, since there would be less need for the interested audience to be physically present in the same room as a lecturer - now, a lecture could be broadcast to all who were interested but who could not afford to move to a university city .
Such hopes have not been totally unfulfilled, but in general, television has become a different medium than what once was expected. Most programmes are produced to provide cheap entertainment for an audience as large as possible, thus maximising the income from advertisements. The outcome consists of soap operas, that provide an escape for the masses from the everyday life, quiz contents and - for children - cartoons. Television has become almost an addiction - like opium - that prevents people from taking own initiatives and keeps them indolent and "uneducated".
It would be rather straightforward to assume that Karl Marx, had he lived today, would have said that television is "the opium of the masses". Although television does have some good sides, those sides are not the primary use of the medium today. In our democratic society, it may not be the purpose of television to function as an "opium", but we must be aware of this side effect if we want our society to remain democratic .
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458_SWUL6004.txt
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en
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icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
How do we obtain a society with equality, not only in terms of the freedom of religion and the same legal rights for people of different colours and different sexes, but also in everyday life? I will here focus on the sex equality. There are a number of different ways to proceed in this work. One way is the feminists' way, by trying to build a wall between sexes and to accuse the men for the history. To say to a man that he as a man is responsible for all evil that men have done and do, with sexual abuse, war and violence, will not help anybody. Even if the feminists might not think that they really accuse the single man, I know men that feel accused for what other men have done, but do not feel more responsible for that than any woman. Instead, they themselves feel trapped in a role that they have not chosen, like many women feel this way. Therefore, I feel that in some respects the feminists have done harm to the cause of women, even if they by doing this have focused the problem, which of course is of importance .
Even if the feminists' way was the right to start with, to make people aware of the problem, their way is not the right anymore. I don't feel that it is leading to my goal in this question. My goal is to get mutual understanding and respect between people, independent of sex. For me, it is important not only that women get the same chance in working life, but also that men get the chance to take care of their children. In this chance is of course also a responsibility for women as well as men. Women have to take and get responsibility at work and dare to take the chance when for example offered to be promoted. This includes that the other women at the workplace support the woman that dared instead of saying that she is not good enough, because I think that there are higher demands on women than on men in the same position. It also includes that men accept women as bosses and accept to give them responsibility as well as pay them the same salary as they pay men with equal work. At the same time, men have to take more responsibility for the every day things in a household. This is a question of women letting the men take the responsibility as well as a question of the men taking it. If we respect each other as equal and try to help each other and to take responsibility in all aspects of life, I think it will do good to the cause of women as well as the cause of men .
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459_SWUV3004.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
How can one say that feminists, who fight for the rights of women and against all kinds of discrimination against women, have any harm at all to women?
If it weren't for feminists, women would probably still not have the right to vote or to decide over their own bodies, to mention only these two issues. Today we find it ridiculous that women, half the population, should not be allowed to vote. And what about their own bodies? Well, not too long ago, during the 70s I think, a woman could still be raped by her husband and that was not a crime, in Sweden .
In my opinion, we still have some way to go regarding the freedom of women. It makes me furious when I hear how young girls and women are insulted and mistreated because of their sex, their looks, their way to behave and dress . "She was asking for it." - words to explain why a young man has harassed a young woman. Can it ever be OK to hurt somebody? That day will come when women will be able to walk home at night without fear of being molested. However, things don't change by themselves. You have to point out where the problems are to those who can't see them. That is why we still need feminists to do that .
It's definitely my opinion that equality between men and women, when it comes to the same possibilities for both sexes to make choices in life, has not been reached yet. More important is that we must not take for granted the gains in "equality up to this date. Human rights and democracy must be fought for. The debate must continue. The awareness must be transmitted from generation to generation .
An example to illustrate: A couple, a man and a woman, with small children. Both parents want to work on their careers. Who is likely to stay home with the small children? Do they actually have the same possibility to choose as we think they do?
Let's say both parents are offered fantastic jobs. Who will take the responsibility for the children?
Nowadays it's unfortunately not only the echo from our parents' generation which speaks of the natural thing about being a woman, which says that it's natural for a woman to take care of the children. This has been the tradition and female role for generations. This means that being a woman implies following convention and tradition, to stay Woman. Then, if you don't take care of the children, you choose your career instead, you are not a woman, in that sense .
I couldn't disagree more. We need feminists, men and women, to keep this debate alive, to keep a look-out for when the winds are changing, because in the end, this is a matter of human rights and discrimination. We all need to be awakened now and then .
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460_SWUV3008.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
Money is necessary to survive. That is a fact in today's society. Money can do a lot of good We need money to buy clothes, and food for ourselves and our families. Money can help us pursue our dreams and travel around the world, in the hope that with a greater understanding of other cultures we can hopefully be able to avoid conflicts. This is not all, in return for money we can get medical aid and send a letter from one part of the country to another. Sending money to charity organisations is an easy way for us to help people in need, who lack all that which we in the West take for granted. We can also buy fancy cars and have plastic surgery to make us look better and to make us more attractive for the opposite sex. We can buy swimming pools or spend money on Beluga caviar. This is where the problem begins. When you have money you can buy beautiful, expensive items to impress your friends. However, they, in turn, will also try to make as much money as possible to become even more rich, more powerful and to be able to be looked up at by more and more people. Greed is known as one of the mortal sins, and it is fairly easy to understand why. If everyone could make as much money as they wanted to, its value would quickly be lost, which is why the amount of pounds, dollars and yens in the world hardly changes. Thus in order to get really, really rich, you have to get your money from someone else. In our greed we look the other way while the earth's natural resources are depleted, the rain forest destroyed and the polar ice melts, only because we simply must have that mahogany desk since it would go so well with the wallpapers, and because we would not look half as attractive if we tried to survive without the hair spray containers. The fact that they contain CFC:s is of no greater importance. Unfortunately, what we seem to have forgotten in our hunt for money, and the power that comes with it, is that the most valuable commodity of them all is the one that we walk on every day. That is right; Earth. So far, we have not managed to invent a way to leave this planet to settle on another one, once this one has been completely destroyed. So until we have found a way to evacuate the entire population of earth, we ought perhaps to think twice about what we are spending our money on and how that item can help, not only ourselves but Mother Earth .
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461_TRCU1001.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Capital Punishment
In the world, most of the countries have death penalty, especially the countries which are in the east. The countries which are in the west don't apply this punishment for a crime .
In Turkey, we have death penalty. When a person made something illegal which are spying, killing someone, trying to separate their countries, the government have rights to use capital punishment the government punishes the guilty who is punished with death penalty by the government. Instead of applying this punishment the government put the guilty in jail until die as a punishment. The government don't hang or kill the guilty .
I think the reason why there is death penalty, the people who lived at the past wanted to teach the rest of the people what would be them when they do the same crime. They wanted to warn the people .
On the other hand, the people may thing that who has right to kill someone because of his crime. In my opinion, nobody has right. Killing someone is a crime, when someone kills somebody he is guilty, but when the government apply this punishment, it's not a guilt. It means that it's unjustice .
If a human being has a brain and hearth, he can't accept this punishment. The fact that a person has brain and hearth so him may feel himself in trouble .
In spite of punishing the guilty the government should research the reason why the people commit a crime. Everybody has some kind of problems, because of this problems the people commit a crime. At this point, the role of the government is to find the solution of this problem and then according to the founded solutions the government should solve the main problem. It may cause to decrease the crime rate .
In the undeveloped, uncivilized countries, especially in the east apply death penalty to punish the guilty. The government also announces to the public to invite them to watch the guilty while he hangs on. They meet together and the guilty is hanged in front of the public. None of them say something they only watch. But what they can do. It's related with their government and their rules. Maybe that's why all the people in the world call them undeveloped and uncivilized .
Besides that the developed, civilized government in the west have human rights. According to them everybody has right to live. Nobody can interfere the other's right. If a man attracts to interfere someone's right they are first warned then they may apply some punishment. But it's not death penalty .
At the same time, there is another factor that death penalty is unacceptable which is the religious and conscience part. We all know that we are created by god and we believe god. None of us can deny this truth. Therefore nobody can judge someone because of its crime by themselves by hanging or killing them. There is no human being in the world as right to punish the people by giving capital punishment. God gives us this life and only god can take our life whenever he wants. There is nobody much more powerful than god and god doesn't give mission to punish his creation. In addition we all afraid of god, and all religious books say there is hell and heaven in the other world. In hell we will burn and in the heaven we will live in wonderful world. If it's like this I think no one can wants go hell .
To some up, god gives this life and only god takes again. Anyone who kill someone will be punished by god in the hell .
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462_TRCU1046.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
If people are asked what the most important thing in life is, most of them give the same answer: money! The response to the question what their aim in life is, is somewhat different: happiness. Here, one might think, "where is here the similarity?"
The answers are similar, in that for most people happiness depends upon money. In a way this is not very surprising, as generally happiness is received through power, comfort, pride, and popularity .
First of all, to achieve these aims a lot of people are ready to make a hard and merciless journey through life tasting the bitterness of ambition, fraud, jealousy and lies, which in this case seems very sweet to them. It is obvious that all these features have negative associations. But how can a person leave the fingers from money when you can not even make a step without it?
Secondly, some people just want to make so much money as to stay alive. Therefore they are ready to work hard, and sometimes this readiness turns to unconsciousness. People forget their real aim in life and being unaware of it they glide in to a vicious circle without an escape...
A next issue to be taken to consideration is need. There are a lot of people in the world who do not even find a piece of bread to stop their hunger. What shall these people do if they can not find a job to work in and if the government do not have the power and organization to support them? It is a fact that these people do not think of the moral aspects of their decision. These people find an only way for solution, and this is theft!
As a result, it can be said that the proverb "Money is the root of all devil" in the original meaning of the word is right. However, it depends on the propriety of its use .
If people are after money just because they can not get enough, and if they lose control over themselves then the devil is at work. And in most cases stopping this devil is nearly impossible. The more money is earned or "not earned", the more is wanted by people. It is just the ambiguity that awakes the devil, not the money itself. And this ambiguity is created by people, not the money. In the business to make as much money as soon as possible, people forget their real aims in their lives and suddenly they find themselves in a competition against the whole world. The will to be better than the others, to have a more luxury life, to own the most expensive things and thus to be more powerful than the others, leads people who are not able to keep their limits to deeds that are not well - seen in the society. But as long as every individual knows his or her limits and do not lose the control over his or her life, money will just serve for peoples' advantages .
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463_TRCU1047.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
Money! For some is everything and for some is nothing. What can be done with money and what can't be done with money is always a question in mind. Can we say that money doesn't effect our life? Or can we say that every thing is based on money? Another question which is always asked is ;can money alone bring happiness? All of these are always asked and people always wonder the answer .
It is usually said that money is the root of all evil. When thought about this deeply I think everyone will agree. Can we think or a life without money? Of course no. Nothing can be done without money. If you have money you are everything. You can do anything you want and nobody can question you because you have money and you are the king. Every body bows in front of money and people can do many things for money. If you have money you are respected by everyone and have prestige in every encounter. We can see this in everyday life very obviously. When a well-dressed person enters a shop every body tries to help and respect that person. But if a very ordinary looking person enters the shop no body bothers to help unless they are asked. Another thing is if you have money and if you are ill all the doctors work for you. Nothing would be impossible. You can see the best doctors and be cured in the best way. Your children can get the best education opportunity and all doors would be wide open for you. They can go to the best colleges, have extra lessons, attend many social activities and even if they cant enter a good university they can go to private ones. You can buy everything your child wants and let him life the most comfortable life .
When looked from this perspective everything is fine but there is the other side of the story. What about the poor. Don't they have the right to live a well life. But no, if you don't have money you are nothing. You are not respected and always seen as a third class. When a poor person is ill his only opportunity is to go to state hospitals and as we know there they act as if we are animals. Why? Because you don't pay so they don't care whether you are ill or not. Every time the doctors do the same things. Just examine you a few minutes and say "you have nothing". Your children don't have the right to get a good education. Because they pay little to teachers in state schools and so the teachers don't care. Why should they work hard for so little? There are many families that can't afford to send their children to universities. They can't make life worth living for their children. Doesn't this annoy the parents. Of course they feel sad not to be able to do what their children want .
As we see the great contrast between the rich and the poor we can easily see the bad effects on money. Poor people when realize the things that can be done with money they would want to live in the same way also. And what are the ways to be rich quickly. Of course stealing or killing for money. People would rob, steal to have a better life. They may kill each other to get money. They may give their soul for money even. So very bad things can be done in order to have more money and these are evil things .
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464_TRCU1051.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
The problems have started by the use of money-which is much more practical instead of settling method. As time passed, with the developing of societies and with the increase of needs, that is, when the living conditions have got harder, money's become the root of all evils. At this position, it has gained importance how money is earned and for which purposes it is used. If a person gives harm not only to himself but also to the others and neglect social and ethic rules, it means that he earns money in wrong ways. When we think like this, money has become the reason of several evils. This is because of that money is a magical key which opens many doors. This is also because of the conditions of today. In today's conditions, they aren't nearly given any right to live like human-beings to the poor. However, people living in a society have the same basic rights such as to be educated, to be cared by hospitals and like these, money spoiled this equality and cause inequality. That is, in every stage of social life, the one who pays the piper calls the tune. People give bribe in order to be the owner of many things and to conceal their offense. If there's a need to give an example, a person who commits a traffic crime and gives bribe to conceal his crime will be a good example. This is only a small example. This kind of impropriety has taken place even in the government, which should be the most respectful institution. At the same time, people are murdering each other, they are smuggling narcotic and weapon. This means the complete ignorance of social and ethic rules. In other words, money has taken the place of humanistic values. For the sake of money, people sell their bodies, children and wives. Moreover, in order to survive, they sell their organs, such their kidneys, which has a vital role for their survival. These are organized by groups which are named as Mafia. In other words, this has become a sector .
When people aren't able to achieve the necessary conditions to survive as human beings, that is, when they aren't able to bring bread to their homes, when they can't shelter in appropriate conditions, when they couldn't send their children to the school, when they couldn't respond to his family's needs of health and when they couldn't respond to other needs of their family and most important, when they haven't got a job to achieve all these kind of needs, in societies people can be dragged to suicide. People even commit theft. I want to state that the sanction of social rules isn't important when people find themselves in these conditions .
Because of that money is an important commerce tool, it is an important element of our lives. In other words, in today's hard conditions, people venture everything in order to earn money and survive. They can easily make concession .
As I stated before, it is important how money is earned and for which purposes it is used. So, it will hinder people to suffer if it isn't used in the way of its purpose .
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465_TRCU1064.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of little value.
I do not have any specific information about the education system of other countries and the basic features of their universities. But it is so clear that anyone from any other country foreigner can see that the education system and most of the universties in Turkey are theorethical and do not prepare the students to the real life. It is easily understandable that the universities in our country have two main problems; Monetary problems and the other one is the education system in our country .
The first reason which do not give any right to prepare the students to the real life is sourced from the state universities in Turkey have very low aid from the government. They do not take enough money to povide real environment to the students. The monetary problem is limited the practical sides of the science. For instance; The classrooms are not decorated appropriate for using real means interested with the lesson. So, most of the time the lesson has to be passed over lightly. Absolutely, this problem is not sourced from the teachers or the students, the real responsibility is in the government's hands. Surely, the government wants to do some regulations to broaden the rights of both the teacher and the student. But they do not mention the payment that they should give the universities. Most of the time the students passed over their training period without doing extra studies interested in their field or do something for themselves for pleasure except passing the exams. It is really a big problem that the tutors only full the student's mind with mostly unnecessary things which only works with the student job, they do not add maybe can not add anything except this .
Our second problem the education system in Turkey apart from the monetary problem of the state universities, is a big problem which must be handled immediately. The system in education is very strict, it uses the student only as a model. It does not wait or want any aim from them. If you are in class and can answer the questions which directed to you at least half of the questions, you are expected to be a hardworking student. Your social life, your expectations are not mentioned and have no importance most of the time. It is really a teacher and lesson oriented system .
Although the government in Turkey has some sayings about education as "the education is our necessity like food and water" it is a real observation that it has been never ever given the real importance to the education even from the first grade to the last grade. With this perspective we can still see our second problem about the universities are theorethical because of the education system in Turkey is right. If the government do not do any payment and if the students are not rich enough to pay high taxes (in reality, in Turkey it is taken in low rate while many European countries do the opposite, they give allowance to the students) the tutors, teachers have to obey the rules and use the means that they have in their hand to enlighten their students .
In conclusion, in Turkey most of the universities are not prepare the students for real world it is so clear that all of them are theorethical. The young generation in Turkey want much more reality in their lesson and real environment. Only if the government can help the universities and provide healthier systems and regulations for education, be the universities on the right way. Parallel with this right way the enrichment of the people and the country will be in a better line much more quickly .
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466_TRCU1065.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
Today, universities whose numbers are more than thousands all over
the world are significant education institutions that educate people
according to profession fields. So which factors make these education
institutions so important? Maybe the first factor is that it educates human,
the other one may e its professional education, and third one is most
probably its academic characteristics .
The quality of education of a country goes together with the
development level of that country. If universities' goal is to prepare the
people according to their professions, their first target should be to make
these people professionally competence. Therefore; the education system
is very important . " How to supply education to the students? ", " Should
the students be directed to the memorization? ", " Should the students deal
with unnecessary items? Or "Should they take knowledge related with the
real life and abstain from extras? "
It is wrong to put all universities in the same boat. I am talking
about the most of them. Today in many universities the education is
presented to the students theoretically. The students are rather passive
many times. They come to the class, just listen the lesson and then go .
At the end of the lesson most of the knowledge they acquired is staid on the
notebooks. However, if they were presented the lesson practically not
theoretically, the knowledge will be more permanent in their minds. They will
be willing to have that lesson again, get more pleasure of it .
In my opinion the knowledge which is learnt theoretically, is exposed
to be forgotten and its permanence is very little value. However, I think if we
present education in a practical way and enable their participations to the
lessons, it will be more permanent .
This example will enlighten you. Suppose that you are asked for your
comments about a country or a city which you have not been and not seen .
But you are limited what you have already read about it. Besides suppose
that you have been or seen that country or city and had experience of it .
In which way would your comments be effective? Can you see the
difference?
We can see this difference in our country ' s universities more clearly .
Many lessons in most departments are unrelated with preparing the
students to the real life. The students are surrounded many unnecessary
knowledge. So how much of these knowledge will be acquired in their
profession life? When will the individual apply to these unnecessary
knowledge? This is nothing more than consuming time and labor .
I have mentioned about the balance between the quality of education
and development of a country at the beginning of my essay. Let ' s talk about
it some more. There is no need to discuss the importance of the education in
determining the fate of the country. If you look at the improvement projects
of the countries, you can see the innovations that will be done in the field
of education at the top of lists. The universities whose aim is to educate
qualified people should set up their own education policies regarding to
these criteria. Unfortunately, this lack of the universities effects not only
the fate of countries, but also the history of human. Have you thought
about this problem before?
We are in the technological era. We are making our lives easier and
more practical by means of the innovations of the technology. So why do not
we enable this practicality in the education system? The universities' aim
should be educating people for the sake of the development of whole world .
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467_TRCU1072.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
The education in university is important for many people all around the world and so many people are giving effort to take a place in university classroom. In addition to this three questions come in to our mind. Firstly, why do people want to go university? And then is the education given in universities enough? Does the universities really prepare students for the real world? I will try to answer these questions in this article .
The answer to first question is having a better job. The university degree provide people a statue and a chance to have a job wherever they want. When you apply for a good job, in a company the first question is wheather you have university degree or not. I think the reason of this is having many unemployment people and this is a good way to choose which person is more qualified. That's why you need a university degree. In contrast to this, having only degree is not a criteria . also, you should develop yourself too. When it comes to the second question which asks whether the universities' education is enough or not. Answer is both yes and no depending on department and quality of the university. Students learn everything about their department in class environment. Mostly they don't use what they have learned practically. In exams mostly theoritical questions are asked and students recite and answer .
Education is enough in regard to theoritical knowledge, on the other hand when it comes to practising they fail. Of course it isn't like that in each department of the university. For instance in Medical Department students take both theoric and practical knowledge. Especially during last two years they start to behave as a doctor. But in Engineering Department students make every projects on a paper. I didn't see an engineer candidate make a real robot or machine . If we think about teaching department practicum education is not enough. Whatever students learn important or unimportant, they have less chance to use them. They also attend practicum school but i think it is not enough. In lessons most of them can tell the course but it is different to teach young learners then advanced ones. I don't know whether there is a solution to this or not. Of course experts know better then me. As you see from the examples education in university are different in each department .
Third question looks for whether the universities prepaire students for real life. My answer is yes. Students cannot have practical knowledge. But university is a good chance for a person to grow himself and to learn how to stand on their own foot. University life have both happy times and tough times. Students may feel themself alone, bores , sort of money, crazy, strong, weak...etc. I have encountered all these situations in my university life. Moreover, students are trying to have a relationship with the people who have different characters. So that they learn hhow to tolerate people, not to trust everyone except themselves. However the most important thing is whatever you face, you learn how to stand on and how to survive .
To sum up, university is a part of our life. We have taken theorical knowledges and we have gone to school just the purpose of going but what we have gained is we have learned many things in university life without realizing. I don't agree that universities doesn't have value. In contrast, university has so much value in all over the world. Otherwise why do people spend so much effort to be able to a university student?
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468_TRCU1103.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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C1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Capital Punishment
The death penalty is a necessary evil that has a positive effect on society today. It is an effective deterent of crime as well as a safeguard for society. It also helps to keep order in our cities. Furthermore, I fell it is a just and effective punishment for those who have commited crimes heinous enough to deserve death. Does the death penalty truly deter crimes and murder? This question is at the heart of a heated political controversy over the punishment. Opposers to the death penalty say no because of the large amount of people on death row today .
Imagine, a good friend of yours. Better yet, imagine a loved one, perhaps a little brother or sister or son or daughter. Now try to imagine life without them, simply because the murderer thought that he was above the law. Who knows, maybe he or she was just bored and decided to take a life. What if someone took the life of your child or loved one? What are we to do about the person (s) , such as these murderers who decide that they can take a loved one's life. Obviously, anyone who takes one's life, other than self defense, should not ever be let out into everyday society to function in everyday life, because such as this are from normal. Those that prey on the weak will always prey on them. A majority of those convicted and sentenced to capital punishment were repeat offenders that continually prey on the weak and innocent
I think the capital punishment is applicable in cases involving murder, but it becomes clearly easy to come up with this suggestion of punishment in cases involving the murder of the ones put in charge of protecting us and our community. Killing a cop is like shattering or killing that thin blue line that seperates between civilization and anarchy. Police officers are the ones who keep the streets safe for our society and uphold our society's beliefs. It is just I know better than anyone else and nobody is going to tell me what to do .
The deterrence factor is the likeliness of one not to committ a crime as a result of being aware of the consequences of the crime. Many argue that the death capital punishment does not deter. However, by simply convicting a person to confinement for a certain crime with an easy sentence, is much like receiving a simple slap on the wrist for committing serious crimes. Punishment, when speaking on serious terms, is socially valuable because it deters criminals from repeating their crimes and may keep others from repeating the same acts. If in fact the deterring effect misses its point, it is the fault of the justice system the all the red tape found behind it. At its current standing, the system is viewed as a joke because no authority is taken, no one believes, let alone fears, the system. Both the lengthy time and the high expense result from innumerable appeals, including many technicalities which have little nothing to do with the question of guilt or innocence. If these wasteless
amount of appeals were eliminated or at least controlled, then the procedure would be much shorter, less expensive and more efficient .
Many argue that the capital punishment violates human rights, yet, they do not question the reason or action that got the convict on death row in the first place. Every person has an equal right to life, until they take another's life, then all bets are off . Society does not understand that when a convict on death row is executed it is because they, themselves took some innocent person's life which caused them to be put there. The only impression given about the capital punishment should be the fact that murder is a crime punishable by death. The capital punishment is in no way hypocritical it simply shows a country that murder has very serious consequences and has a fit and just punishment. The main purpose here is to instill fear in other men, to show that this will not be tolerated and justice comes first, always .
Anger is simply an expression of caring about one's moral community and society needs more men and women who care for each other and who do for the sake of others. It is passion which allows us to act for reasons having nothing to do with selfish or mean calculations. Nothing but the simple desire for justice to be served influences the upholding of the capital punishment. Punishing is the only way we have any chance at preserving our moral community and passion also acts as a protector. The capital punishment is not a settled issue and, indeed, continues to an issue of enormous emotion and importance. It, therefore, will always accompany controversial and difficult debate .
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469_TRCU1104.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics of the world that effects the international relations of Turkey. It is a form of punishment that has gone on for many thousands of years. There are some countries that have abolished this form of punishment because they say it is inhumane, and immoral. Also religious people have fought against this sort of punishment. And some people believe the saying "blood for blood" . And some say that the people are getting what they deserve. In Turkey there are basically two groups of people. One group is abolitionists who are opposed to capital punishment and the other group is retentionists who support capital punishment .
For the abolitionists , the main reason they are opposed to the capital punishment is that because it is morally wrong and it is irrovocable. And besides, they believe that the criminal can be used for restitution to the victim's family .
In spite of all; capital punishment is a very essential issue of criminal punishment because our country does not rich enough to feed those criminals all his life and the government must protect the society from those dangerous people . And we are living in a country where there are millions of people classified as "poor" and thousands of people who are starving and in need of bread. In such a case, the government should spend the budget for feeding the poor , educating the children and by this, prevent them becoming a potential criminals for the society not waste it for feeding a hated, sinful person and even spend more money to make him/her good citizen .
From my point of view, spending the budget for improving the general wealth of the country is certainly much more prior to spending it for a criminal sentenced to life imprisonment .
Besides, there are different definitions of murder I think. Some people believe that killing anyone or anything is murder. Some of them say , murder only applies to killing humans. My definition of murder is more strict. I think murder is the killing of an innocent human being, not in the attempt of self-defense. This is important because there are many people that are against capital punishment and argue that the government is committing murder. But I say "not so", because , the person who is being executed has convicted of a big crime and he/she is no longer "an innocent human being" . Therefore the execution is not an act of murder any more .
Now let's get deeper into the issue ; If one asks what the purpose of any punishment is , the response should be to rehabilitate the individual. The reason for any punishment is to change the individual and so that they can go back into society and be beneficial for the society. Now, if someone cannot be changed , is most likely to going to be changed , then the state can lock them up for life and they would still be no threat to society. That is the argument most often used by the people against capital punishment . I would like to know , what benefits can that one person who is locked up for life can do ? ? ? And those people locked up in maximum security prisons take up over thousands of million Turkish Liras a year .
I think that price is ridiculous to spend on those that have killed others. I mean, the government does not even spend that much money on the common good citizen, how can it afford to spend that much money on those that have taken other people's right to live?
To sum up, I should say that capital punishment is necessary for our country so that the government can spend the budget trying to feed the innocent people and educate the children and there would not be killers out there . . . . .
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470_TRCU1106.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
|
B1+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Capital Punishment
All around the world people are punished when they commit crime or do
something illegal. There are many punishments. One them is capital
punishment. There are many ways to kill the convicted as Hunter claims in his
article . -There are many kinds of killing a convicted: Hanging is one. In this
method death comes quickly. The electric chair is another way. The exact time
of death is unknown but four to ten minutes is reasonable. Firing squed is
the most disgusting. The gas chamber takes various minutes of misery agony
before the convict dies. Lethal injection is another way of killing the
convicted. When used guillotine, a french invention, death comes rapidly. As
the last method of killing is stoning which is used in Muslim countries-. No
human deserves to be killed by any human. Whatever s/he does s/he has right
to live. governments may have to punish people who commit crime but the
punishment should not be killing them. In addition to this cost of a capital
punishment is much more then sentencing a person to life prison. Also life of
human is given by God and it is right to be killed by God. On the other hand
some people believe that paople should punished according to the rule "eye
for an eye" but it is very cruel .
In every where people are given capital punishment because of their
illegal behaviours such as murdering and adultry. However it is not a good
solution to prevent people doing such things. This is just made because of
man's blood lust and need for revenge. As [Reference] But killing
someone is not a human behavior .
People live and may do illegal things through their life but it should not
mean to lost your life because of your only one wrong behavior because we
are human and we may make mistakes, we are not God! So all human beings
deserve to live as [Reference]
There may be some crimes to be punished severely, but the punishment
shouldn't be a murder . [Reference] .
The cost of a capital punishment is higher than a life-sentence in prision
for the government . [Reference]
Life is a present from God to human. God gave it and God should get
it . [Reference]
By giving capital punishment, also the government make a negative effect on
society as [Reference]
Another reason not accepting capital punishment is that the person who is
sentenced may be innocent. A person's life shouldn't be relied on a person's
words coming from his/her mouth. In countries where capital punishment is
used, this means that the value of their lives depends on their race and the
jury's opinion of them .
On the other hand, some people claims to give punishment with the rule
"eye for an eye" for the people who commit crime . [Reference]
Every human has the right to live whatever their crime is. Giving life
sentence in prison is a good alternative punishment instead of capital
punishment. Also this punishment (life sentence in prison) much more cheaper
than capital punishment for the government. In addition to these God has
given life to human and its His right to take his life away. Nobody can
decide another's ending. Capital punishment is very cruel and inhumane .
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471_TRCU1107.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
All human beings always find reasons for all the happenings. May be it is the easiest way to feel ourself better in negative situations. We blame money for all evils since it can give people a comfortable life. Most of the people want to get it in an easy way and they commit all kinds of crimes for the evil money. Money enables gaps between people, it leads people to commit crimes; it causes deaths, it is the reason for people's losing their human values .
Money enables gaps between people. Yes, there are really gaps between rich and poor people. Rich people are respected by all the people around them. People address them restpectfully. It does not matter whether they are good or bad. The only important point is their being rich. People do not respect to poor people. Even poor are insulted by people around them. I saw people behaving tovards people according to their wearing. This is really a stuation to pity on. We are human beings but we neglect human values because of this evil money. I belive that rich people are lack of important values. They only order. They do not think the problems of people around them. This is not valid for all rich people but for the general. This situation is the same for all the rich nations too. They do whatever they want. They win the wars. They have more opportunities in agreements after the wars .
Money leads people to commit crimes. Everyday we are reading from the newspapers or watching on television the crimes committed for money. There is nothing that human will not do for money. Some people are robbing banks without hesitating. They do not care whether they injure people working there. Some are robbing people walking on the road. There are people who are breaking into houses to steal something. They are again giving harm both the people living in those houses and the goods in that house. They are doing all tese for money. People are sometimes committing crimes for very small things such as something to eat or something to wear but these are again because of being lack of money. Everyday such crimes are getting more and more commen. Because there is an economy problem at everytime in everywhere , so people are committing crimes. There was a broadcast on TV which was wery tauchy and a stuation to think about deeply. There was a family: parents and three children. The
youngest child was very ill. He need an operation to survive and the operation was costing too much money to this family. Father was not earning enough money to pay for this. He tried to rob a bank but he could not achieve his goal. Police caught him. After this new, a few rich people helped them and the child had the operation. Some people are committing for they really need, but some are doing this for they have endless demand for money. Drug sellers are the best example of this situation. People are making smuggling or they are selling drugs to earn money. They do not think whether the drugs they sell giving harm to the young bodies or not. They only think the money they will earn in this illegal ways. As we see from the examples the demands are also killing the human values .
Money causes lots of deaths. We are again hearing and watching the people committing suicides because of the money. People especially businessmen who go bankrupt again finding the suicide as the only solution. People who have big economical problems are trying to solve their problems in the same way. In such situations people are living a great depression. They hate living. And they hate all the people around them too. They do not want to live anymore .
Money is also the reason for people's losing their human values. Especially rich people are lack of all the nice emotions. They only order they think they can solve all the problems with their endless money. This is general idea for rich people but it is not for all the rich people. People are also behaving each other according to their richness. Rich people are more important than poor people. Rich people are more respected ones. They are luckier everytime then others. I have heard that people are deceiving eachother by seeming as a lovely friend to steal eachother's organs in order to earn money. Yes, people are so bad when the subject is money .
Consequently everybody has a demand for money. This is normal because we need it to live, but the important thing is not to lose our human values for this evil money!
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472_TRCU1108.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: In the words of the old song: 'Money is the root of all evil'
With the invention of new things and the development of technology, some values like honesty, respect, kindness and friendship begin to lose their importance day by day. People give importance money than the other things . They are filled with desire and ambitious , and they become like doing everything to gain the money .
Money is the root of all evils. We will examine this under different categories. There are some people who have to do harm, for they are in a bad condition . They are indeed not bad people but as life is very difficult , it drags them into a bad situation . They do crime in order to survive. On the other hand , there are some who want more and more although they have . They are full of badness. In spite of everyting , they do not become satisfied. They can think of nothing else except money, they like it very much. It becomes their friend, in another word, it is everything for them. Money is like a breathe for them. They are excessively fond of money. There is a proverb about this situation; there is something about money that
is very alluring .
Variety of crimes like murders, robbery, theft, bribery, gambling, smuggling and prostitution are the result of money. People do these crimes to gain the money and become rich in a short time. We see and hear a lot of things on TV every time that many people kill even their relatives and friends to take their money .
I think that money causes not only crimes but also the destruction of the relationship between people. It can cause friends to lose their friendship . Nowadays, since money takes place everything , they do not care about values like friendship. If you have money , you have many many friends, you are the boss and you are the most important and valuable person in the world. For your money , they serve you with utter faithfulness and obedience; on the other hand, they can sell you even your friends .
Unemployment is the most important reason that people may do a crime. Because it drags them into a depression. As a result, they commit a suicide to go on living. Last week, while I was watching news on TV, I saw a man who was arrested because of robbery . His excuse was known; he lost his job owing to economic crises, so he had to do this. He took the responsibility for his wife and three children .
We can give Argentina as an example , too. As we know, Argentina had an economic crises last year. The most important result of economic crises in Argentina was the social deststruction. There were many crimes like plundering . People attacked to the shops and plundered the things. Furthermore , for years , money have caused the countries to lose their relationship. That one country thinks of what will benefit itself and wants to enlarge their land, causes wars,
I will give an another example about theft. I read a news on newspaper that two men who wanted to take the bag of a pregnant woman attacked her. Also , the sister of the woman who tried to help her was attacked. The woman was taken to the hospital, because she was seriously injured. She was about to die and had to stay at the hospital for days. As her life was in danger , doctors did not let her give a birth . Otherwise, she would lose her life. I do not understand these people , how they can attack a person to take her money .
As we see , all of the bad things are the result of money. It has become our most important need like water and food. People speak most of the time about it, because everything depends on money. The one who pays the piper calls the tune. However, we do not know how to use. As we give importance money than the other things , everything becomes unbalanced. If we can balance everything and use the money properly , there will be no badness in the world .
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473_TRCU1125.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
|
B2
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of little value.
We are living in a very big world as a human beings. There are many new things which appear every second in our life as a technology, science, math, etc . . . So we must be ready for all those conditions to adapt easily without hesitating . In this section, the universities enter and play an important role in our life for adaptation. They have got many aims but one of their most essential aim must be include to prepare quality graduates. Now, we will analize whether the universities have these approaches or not .
In our country or in abroad there are billions of universities which have got billions of students. Each person goes to university for different purposes. These aims can be to have a job, to have knowledge for the rest of their life or to earn money. Here, maybe the most important idea comes to the minds like these companies prepare their customers to the real life or not. When we ask this question to students we got many responses. Some of them said that they were given enough information for the future and the education was not only therotical . However there are some similar answers, a large number of student claimed that the education was not good to be ready for every circumstances in their coming life .
They have got some reasons to have an thought like the universities are not enough. First of all, they argue that they have not got any modern lab as a visual aids. Even though they learn theoretical information it is meaningless without doing any practice in labs or in any other conditions. Some of them also added however there are some labs but they are not equipped with the machines of their fields. Morever there are not enough seats to sit down, they can not attend to the classes . This condition is really serious for a university because the meaning of education must include every circumstances and be able to give every single knowledge to the students. So, the labs must be an important issue and donated according to the recent improvements in technology. Especially the students of Engineer Department claim that a lot of problems are waiting for them when they graduate .
When we continue to talk with students we meet with a different subject which is related again with the little value of universities. They said some unnecessary lessons make them busy, so they spend their time with meaningless subjects. According to them, these kinds of lessons are just for doing something silly. In addition to this they said when they look at the subjects in textbook they can not see any useful information which are related with their department. Also when midterm or final exams come they have to memorize all those things for nothing .
If we continue to ask the same question , maybe we will get similar or same
answers. Therefore the universities claim that they have not got enough capital, it must not be a reason. The world needs human beings who are aware of their environment and be ready for every chancing. As a conclusion we do not see defending people with the events, in contrast logical and smart people who adapt themselves to every conditions. Knowledge might not be only therotical but also practical .
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474_TRCU1130.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of little value.
In all nations and education systems. universities are one of the favourite topics which are always criticized. Some says university degrees are therotical. some says not. But to say that they have totally little value in our lives will be a very faulty belief. Therefore. there are some points that explain us why they can be therotical and some points that prove us having a university degree a good helper all time. In this study . you will see all these points related to both of these sides from perspective of a university student .
When we look at its positive sides. firs of all. we see that therotical lessons must be included in evey department. It is nonsense to think that university students should only learn practical lessons. Of course. we study our lessons therotically. and the area we will practice them will be our lives. For example. in ELT Department. there are some pedegogial lessons. in which we learn about psychology. especially psychology of students. Since we will be english teachers. we will practice them in schools. If we don't have enough knowldge. what will happen in the future. in our bussiness life. So. theory means that enlarging knowledge about our own area and practice means that applying these knowledge into real life .
Another side. which prove us university degrees are not therotical. is that a peson have to know all the details of his/her job. Again for our department. only knowing the language is not enough itself. We have to know literature and cultue of the country that we teach its language. Practicing these in our lessons will be very benefical during our teaching life after the university .
Also. there is one more positive aspect of having univesity degree. Universities are a good chance to enrich our knowledge about life. A person graduates from univesity with a lot of expeinces; not only about his/her profession. but also about people and social life. In our country. a freshman comes to school about 18-20 years old so this is the first step of him to real life. He experiences living far away from his family. He learns how to struggle against life on his own. He meets a lot of people and lives a lot of thing with them. He transfer new information from them to his own pesent life and keep some of them to use in his future life. Because of all these reasons. it will be wrong to think that having university degree has little value. and doesn't prepare us to real life .
On the other hand. if some conditions musn't be provided. university degrees become therotical. First condition is that. lessons given in universities have to be suitable to the nation's characteristics. in which univesity is settled down. For instence. in our department. we have Material Development lesson. In this lesson. we learn preparing materials suitable for classes contain 20 or 30 student. In contrast. in Turkey it is almost impossible to have classrooms in this number so we will never use information that we learn in this lesson .
Second condition is that . some departments need some equepments. If goverment doesn't provide them these tools. teching university becomes therotical. For example. Could it be thought that a computer engineering department without computers? What will do they in the lessons? Only they get some infomation from their books and unfortunately. since they don't know how to use information. they will fail in real life. And people among them think that going to university useless. university graduates don't know any thing .
Thirdly. a university has to change itself accoding to time. While eveything is changing and new things are being invented. for a university staying at the same point with same information will be a big demolition for its students. If a student gain new things from shool. it will be easier for him to practice them in real life. But if university give him infomation from his big . big grandparents' time . it will be end both university and student. Because he got therotical knowledge from university which he never use. And again university become therotical and its degree will have little value in student's life .
As a conclusion. universities are not valueless institutions that never prepare their graduates for real life. It is us that make universities therotical. When we - nation and goverment-give enough importance toour universities . we will have sophisticated university graduates who have enough knowledge about their job and life .
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475_TRCU1131.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
I agree with the statement that most university degrees are theoretical and don't prepare students for the real word and therefore they are of little value. However, this never means that university education is not so useful and important. Conversely, it is necessary and it is the base step for the real world since it supplies students with jobs in their future life. However, because of some reasons the value of most university degrees decreases .
First reason is that most universities give importance to only theoretical information. They don't pay attention to practice. Although they are both necessary in a sufficient and efficient education and they are a unit together, they only supply the students with the theoretical part of what they need. However, in such a system the students are led to memorize and especially in the exams they do so only to pass the class. But, such a system never works. Because, theoretical information is easily forgotten after a time when it is not turned into practice. That time, the student are deprived of both practice and theoretical information. So, many lessons they have taken become meaningless and therefore university degrees become of little value since they don't reach the aim of preparing students for the real world .
Second reason is that some universities provide a chance for students to practice what they have learned, but I think they are not valid. Because the students practice in nor real conditions. As an example, I can give the teaching practice made in education department. Because the students make a role-play while practicing. I mean, instead of real students who will learn the subject, they practice with their friends. Therefore, they don't meet a real problem that they can face in real conditions. They don't have a chance to see their weak and strong sides in teaching. Everything seems all right although in real conditions it may not. Besides the materials they use in teaching may not be available in their teaching and so they may be obliged to tell a lesson without some materials. Therefore they can have some difficulties. Expect these practices made in classroom, the students also go to training to the schools. However, I don't think they are enough. Because they go to training only one
time a week in their second year of education and they only observe what the teacher does. They get a chance to tell a lesson in real conditions only in their fourth year, but they don't teach everytime they go to training. It is sometimes and I think it is not enough for the students to be well-prepared for their real teaching .
One more reason of most university degrees being of little value is due to some students and teachers. I think, many of them don't pay enough importance to education. For example, the students don't attend the lessons regularly. They either don't do their homeworks or copy it from their friends. They memorize the theoretical information given to them only to pass the class, instead of learning them and after a time they for get many of them. Besides they can also cheat in the exams. So, all of these things decrease the value of university degrees. On the other hand, some teachers don't make their responsibilities properly. Some may not come to lessons regularly and some only come, tell the lesson and go. They don't make the students to learn better. So, the teachers may also cause the value of university degrees to decrease .
To sum up, most university degrees don't prepare students for the real world because of some reasons. They don't give a chance to students to practice what they have learned theoretically. Although some of them provide such a chance, sometimes it may not valid and enough. The teachers and students themselves, also can cause the university degrees to be of little value. Therefore, the universities should make students to practice properly to be well-prepared for the real world and the students give very much importance to their education since they are responsible of their own life. The teachers should also help them as much as possible .
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476_TRCU1138.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Capital Punishment
For centuries, capital punishment has been performed all over the world in order to punish criminals. Capital punishment is a legal infliction of death as a penalty. In fact, the death penalty is the most controversial penal practice in the modern world . Whereas some of them object to this punishment, some support it. The some death penalty methods mainly used today are hanging , the electric chair, firing squad, the gas chamber, lethal injection, guillotine and stoning. For some people, capital punishment is necessary, because it is a way to provide peace in society. Unlike them, many people against to this cruel form of punishment because of several reasons .
First of all, everyone has the right to live and everyone should respect to this fact. There are many people around and they have different characters and behaviours. Although it is natural and necessary to punish the illegal behaviours for peace of society, nobody deserves to kill because of his/her behaviours. The punishment of murder shouldn't be killing, for example. It is not right the extermination of human beings in the name of justice. The government should find another way instead of death penalty such as sentencing someone in prison. Life is a present to us from God and only God should take it away from us .
Secondly, the methods of capital punishment are so cruel and they are not accepted as humane. In 1977 Oklahoma became the first U. S. state to authorize execution by lethal injection. Lethal injection is when a lethal gas is place into the convict strapped down to the table. In addition, there is recent news; a woman who has been punished by stoning in Iran, because she has a baby without getting married. This kind of penalty is cruel and inhumane and also it is contrary to Islam. Furthermore, if you watch "Green Mile" on cinema, you can see its brutality. There is a man punished by death penalty and he is strapped into electric chair and electric current is passed through his body. It is really inhumane .
Finally, there is a question comes to our minds. Is capital punishment really effective? Does this death penalty really prevent the crime in society? In fact, it doesn't work because the rate of crime is increasing day by day. Death penalty is not a prevention for criminals. For many criminals, being killed is better than sentencing the rest of their lives in prison .
As a conclusion, people who commit crime should certainly be punished in order to prevent crime in society and it is also necessary for peace of society. But capital punishment is not an acceptable because of the reasons written above. Meanly, Everyone deserves to live and nobody, including government, decides on someone's life. Capital punishment does not really prevent the crime. It is the another reason of opponents of capital punishment. Finally, because the death penalty is a cruel form of punishment, it should be abolished in the world. Today 80 notions have abolished the death penalty and they use imprisonment instead of it .
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477_TRCU1177.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of little value.
I am a third class student in ELT department and when I ask my self about the quality of the education that I have been taking , I realize that it is mostly full of theoretical information and university education does not prepare me for real conditions. In an other word university education does not provide me with the necessary experiences for teaching satisfactorily in the future. This situation decreases the value and importance of university education in my mind. So in some aspects I agree with the idea that most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for real world. They are there for of little value. The main reason for thinking so is poorly designed lesson plans of universities .
The chief reason decreasing the value of university education is insufficient lesson plans. I think being a good teacher has some important components such as knowing your subject very well , knowing how to teach it to the students , being able to sympathize with students , being able solve different problems etc . . . Sometimes I ask that how many of these features we will have when we graduate from the university as English teachers. As first I think of our subject , namely English. It could be possible to accept that at university we learn English in a sufficient way. In an other word we have the first feature , adequate knowledge of our subject , of a good teacher. But when we ask about the other components of the ideal teacher it impossible to say that we gain those features during our university education , because lessons such as teaching methods and education psychology taught at universities are designed in a poor way , and so these lessons can not go further than providing
students with theoretical information. They are just theoretical because , these classes are designed just for the ideal situation , for situation that is supposed to be , but not for the real situation .
For example; in method classes we are taught a set of teaching method. We study what these methods aim , what kind of activities they consist of , but we do not cover what kind of problems we will have while using these methods. Moreover we do not have the practicing these methods in real situations. In order to practice these methods we have some micro teaching experiences. But these micro sessions are so far from real conditions that we get nearly any profit of them. In this sessions our objects are our classmates so the level is very high and we do not have any problem while experiencing the methods. Every thing goes in a perfect way so we are not able to learn what kind problems we will face while using these methods , what kind of questions we will be asked , in which part of the subject students will have difficulty to understand etc . . . . Since we do not have any problem in micro sessions , we do not know what to do when students come up with an unexpected question , how to answer it. When I start to teach in a school and when I face many unpredictable questions , reactions etc . . , since at the university I am not prepared such kind of situations we will have to produce our own method and we will keep the methods that we study at university just as inadequate information .
An other example of poorly designed lessons is education psychology classes. These classes aim to teach us sympathizing with our students , understanding their psychology, feeling etc . . . In these classes the general image of our object , namely the image of our students is thought as the perfect children who are eager to learn whatever we telling. But in real situation we will deal with many different personalities and it certain that all of them won't be wonderful children. We will have problems with our students and we are not given any advice about what we should do when one of our students breaks the concentration of whole class in an unacceptable way or how we should react when a student reject to listen to the lesson , etc . . . Shortly education psychology classes just provides us with insufficient information
As conclusion I can say that as a result of poorly designed lesson plans of universities , we will graduate from university as insufficient English teachers. When we face a problem with our students , our inadequate method an psychology classes won't be able to help us and at this point we will try to remember what our primary or secondary school teachers used to do to solve problems or to teach a subject etc . . . In an other word we will probably be a apprentices of our ex-teachers rather than university graduated teachers as result of theoretical lesson plans of universities .
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478_TRME3006.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of little value.
Universities, as we all know, are the intuitions that supply a power of human, in many fields, to the society that they live in. A university student has the chance to learn about his or her personal development, environment, society they live in. In universities, there are many social activities for students that they can enjoy in their free time. Also psychological field help students to overcome their problems whenever they want. Beside, this institution help students to see what he wants to see or what he wants to do. But, all the while, many of us think that university degrees are theoretical and do not preparing students to the real life . Therefore they are of little value. If so, what can be done? Both as students and teachers. In my opinion, university is the place or institution that has pink clouds covering it, as real life requires many responsibilities. Being a student gives us the feeling that you don't need to search for something, you will have to teach. I can say that, as a student, we don't
like searching for something or trying to know, just somebody will give the order and then we try to learn about it or search for it. So if a graduated university student doesn't have any or enough knowledge about everything, this not only the fault of the system but also the students. For me there is no lesson that is useful to the student. All the informations are, even the minor ones that are seen unimportant, are the chains of each other. Maybe the problem is the way we teach a lesson. It's the teachers turn to make the lesson funny or boring! I want to give example from myself: in prep class I had a listening&speaking lesson. In high school almost most of us did not have any speaking activity. Grammar was the only skill that we deal with, but in my prep and first year this lesson was the most interesting lesson for me. I was finding some documents from internet and presenting them. The teacher didn't want me to speak unvoluntarily, she just give me a chance to speak and i have tried to use it in the way that is beneficial me now and in the future. Beside developing my speaking skill i have learned how to control my anger in front of the people in the class. Also i have learned many useful and interesting things from the documents that I searched from internet. İ will be an English language teacher but i do not want to be a typical one-giving a lecture, quizzing. İ want to teach my students maybe funny, interesting or useful thing about the language they learn. So this lesson is related with real life, I think. İ also want to give an example from my second year: Language Acquisition lesson seemed to me a boring lesson but time passed and İ began to understand the beneficial point of this lesson. It helped me to understand how the language is acquired by new born babies and adults. I have to little nephew and İ can see their language development by the help of this lesson. I can say the same thing for the other lessons: Literature and Culture helps me to understand or learn about the people whose language I'm learning and so on... Shortly, I don't think that the university lessons have little value. You may not use it tomorrow but there will be a time to use it. These lessons are related with people and I will be a teacher, means I will be with people. University teaches me to be able to think from other perspective, to look from other people's side. The way of life and the lessons complete each other and this is what makes university beneficial...
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479_TRME3019.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of little value.
University degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real life is a common lament of students which exactly represents human beings desire to find everything has been prepared by someone else for them to take the pleasure of. When it comes to the argument on the value of the university degrees , to make the value judgement we should make clear the answers of the following questions: What is it we name real life? What is main task of university education? And as the last question, what is the task of the student during the university education?
The term which we referred to as real life defines a complex structure within which a person may get into contact with different people with differing expectations and point of views. This variation in exectations and point of views causes various problems to come to the surface. Then if we want to find a solution to the above complaint about the universities inadequacy we need a university which gives the students a list of the possible human expectations and point of views. Furthermar, it should also be included in the list that which expectation and point of view brings about what sort of problem. Still, it is not enough. The solutions to verying problems should also be listed with a simple easily comprehensible style. That is not it! Such a thing can not even be called as utopia. Then what should be the contribution of university education to a student?
The surface responsibility of an university schedule is to supply the students with the theoretical knowledge of their department. This is the most visible but the least important task of a university education. The others, making the students gain critical thinking and problem solving abilities are the least visible but the most vital mission of university education. Students should be expased to as many different point of views about as many subjects as possible. Other than imposing certain truths the system should let the students to realize and criticise different views and construct their own point of views. The tendency of accepting all the things written on a piece of paper as changing truths should be demolished. If a person gains the ability of critical thinking then she becomes able to see the gaps not only in the point of views at other people but also in her own way of looking at life. Realizing the gaps and criticising meself brings together the change and development. A person who can develope oneself becomes a fully functraining person for the society and it beers at the same time personal satisfaction and happiness .
Additionaly, education in a university should not be taken as exposing students to a mass of knowledge to memorize. Students should not be lacked at the affective domain, they should be given the chance to apply what they be expanted to cognitive domain. This brings together the maturation of education process the role of the students also very big .
The first responsibility of a student is to determine the exact purpose of her university education. She should be able to apply her knowledge into her life and should be open to new ideas and should work really hard. She should also understand that nothing beautiful comes as ready in a big ornamented package in the real life. If one wants something she should give time and enough effort .
As a conclusion, the thing which we call "real life" is something really difficult to cape with to learn how to come over it no university programe, even the best one, is efficient enough on its own. The cooperation of the education system with students results in qualifed and skilfull students to graduate from university departments and any problem that they will come face to face in reality seems them as impossible to be solved because they would be skilfull enough to find alternative solutions to problems even the ones that seems to be impossible to come over, then the university degree becomes the most valuable thing to passess on the earth .
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480_TRME3029.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B2
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
Today more and more people from young generation are struggling in a competition in order to win the university entrance exam. Since it is their most challenging and desirable target to become a university student. When they reach their goal and begin to attend it, they see that being there is not the end of the competition. Exams continue till the graduation, till the most basic aim-getting the degree. Although youth expect a great many things such as a good future, a good life and a good career from their degree, most of the time a degree means nothing. Due to the fact that taking a degree does not mean anyone is ready for the real difficult life which gives so many responsibilities or anyone has developed appropriate character to start the new life or anyone is qualified enough to get, deserve a job in my opinion there are a few main reasons that result in these realities I have mentioned above. Firstly, most of the university students study only for passing the exams. Secondly, generally except from private universities, universities are lack of many facilities. Lastly, students do not make any effort to improve their knowledge, skills or any hobbies to add something new into their personality. These are the basic causes I will mention about which decrease the value of the degrees according to me .
To begin with we can talk about the students' studying habits. Mostly their only aim is to pass the exams. Therefore, there is no regular studying style, on the contrary, there is last night studying till the morning. What can be expected from such a studying? Because of this type of studying everything is being memorised which can be forgotten in a short time or even during the examinations namely, the knowledge of studied field is useless and futile. Students do not contribute information about their field so much to themselves .
Next, qualities are not qualified enough for the students to have an opportunity to improve themselves. Even some universities are made up of only one, two or three buildings, nothing more. Yet a good university should have a large campus which consist of illuminated libraries, laboratories, searching centers with computers and leisure centers that enable students to develop themselves. There should not be time for them to stand lazily. In contrast time should be worthy and the students should evaluate their time with beneficial interests .
Finally, students are effortless. They do not struggle with difficulties. Even though universities aren't well qualified individuals especially young individuals can achieve everything with their ambitions. Only if they can add new knowledge to their existing knowledge by making much research, new skills to their existing skills, new hobbies to existing hobbies they are well educated. All I count require curiosity. University students should be curious about all new things, but not about unnecessary things .
As a conclusion, if a graduate wants his/her degree to carry importance or real valve, he/she should have made so many efforts to deserve it. Otherwise it cannot be something other than a blank sheet .
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481_TSKC1292.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
I don't agree with the above topic because criminals do what ever they do intentionaly now why should they be taken to rehabilitation; some people have to endure the pain that they cause so they have to suffer also so that they learn what they did was wrong .
Like in our community if you go to the Kimberley General Hospital on weekends you will see that there are too much cases of assult; too much stabbing and not forgetting rape; so how can we forgive an forget so easily; when you commit a crime you have two choices eather you do that or you don't do it; they are some criminal who will say I did not have a choice I was hungry or I needed the money there is not such a thing; there are people whom don't work or are not employed but they make means of making money. God have given everyone a brain so you can think for yourself what you can do best and set your through and energy on that so that you can achieve that goal .
For example in the morning news a man have chop her mother and niece with an axe it was brutally now we the community have to let it go and take that man to rehab; that man is not sick what if that man goes free again because he was not sick he knew what he was doing and goes on to have more innocent lives on the list; these criminals have to face the consequences and go to jail not rehabilitation .
Criminals have to go to jail and when they are there they have to face hardship so that when they came out of jail they should have repend and know that they are previous live was a sin; most criminals came out repend so they can make right for the wrong doings they did; In some case criminals don't think what they did was wrong so they go on doing crime now for those criminals they do things intentionally and are proud of it .
Like last year the Goverment let all the under age criminals out of jail saying the jails are full which was wrong because those criminal are back to the street again and are doing what they did but only this time they are doing more crime than before; they are saying that they are now man enought; the Goverment should have build more jail these is a serious problem the Goverment is using money for other things which we the community don't benefit from it they should use money for important things .
Now what if the rehabilitation also get full where are they going to take those criminals set them free again no it's wrong very wrong; Let them go to jail and face what they did .
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482_TSNO1009.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
Personally I partly agree with the above statement when it says "the prison system is outdated. The way the police treat prisoners is uncalledfull. The initial establishment of this institutions, I believe was to correct these people, that is why it is called correctional services. Hence they seem to be ignoring the fact that these people (prisoners) are supposed to get out of prison, and go back to the society .
If the constitution of the country would be revisited again; the courts law or decisions be amended, maybe it would serve the purpose and accomodates, satisfy every involved party. After the judgement of the court, The magistrates together with the prison wardens must sit down and agree upon the treatment of prisoners. They must treat them equally, they must not look at which criminal offence did the person commit. Because they appear to be overlooking matters and personalising things. More that correctional services does not have the vivid information pertaining cases they only appear in picture after the person is already sentenced .
Apparently what is happening in prisons its devastating, its making matters worse. The prisoners feel they are being isolated. But they must be given reasons as to why, them specificly are placed where they are. They must be given a reason to understand, to want to see themselves again as members of the society .
Conditions within the prison cells are really harzadous, they must be impoved. Even amongst them (prisoners) its not good, they jeopardise each other's lives. Should they be given reasons to treat each other decently, there would not be killings in prison. The thing is these people lack information, they do not have hope, they need to be assured of the good things that they will be able to do when they come out of those prison doors .
The reason why I say the constitution should be revisited is that, Immediately when a person is sentenced or have a criminal case, automatically in the eyes of our country is labelled a criminal. This person cannot be granted a permission to work anywhere even if his or her qualifications allows him. Meaning is not being taken there to be rehabilitated but to be punished. That thing affects the entire life, because every single application form that you fill asks if you have any criminal case. Automatically you are not given a reason to behave well in prison, you have already lost confidence in yourself. More especially when you are sentenced for many years .
To have a criminal case it is not what you choose deliberately. It might be a conspiracy by your enemies. People should not be judged by the criminal cases that they have, rather be judged by their behaviours or the way they conduct themselves, inside and outside prison. Though there are those prisoners who a willing to change, but being influenced by others to be who they are not .
However the society plays the biggest role in determining who these people really are, after leaving prison. The society distance itself from these people, they see them as criminals, without evaluating if these person changed. Even family members they isolate you, when you are sentenced automatically they forget all about, take you out of family plans. This is really immoral its unethical. It is against the norms and value of the society, there suppose to be unity amongst people no matter what .
In some instances they cannot even be given food, they now resort back to bad things like stealing. What lead to this? The way the society Perceives them. Sometimes they even decide to make prison their homes because they are not welcomed at home. They do not see the neccesity of belonging somewhere. Sometimes even if they are at prison family members and friend do not pay them visits .
If maybe the legislature, Correctional services and the society can emerge and implement an organisation which will deal with problems and matters relating to these conditons it will serve a purpose, not excluding prisoners from this alliance, so that they can raise their concerns and grievances. Together we can make or build a better nation .
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483_TSNO1068.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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NA
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
The prison system is troubling our sisters and brothers. Just think of the darkness and the treatment at the prison. The police themselves are likery to change their attitudes towards these people. They make them their slaves by washing their clothes and these Prisoners have to make sure that these prisoners do their job well before they gave them something. I would say the prison system make these people feel that they are not human beings, part of them belongs to animals now that they are treated like animals .
For example the treatment that they receive at the prison some of them end up commiting suicide. Their minds began to change, others end up being mad asking themselves where did everything went wrong, why did She/He did that?. Other lost trust in themselves, like asking themselves how will the society take me, my family and my friends will they believe me when i say i don't know how it happened .
Prison system makes people worse, your mind function faster. You fail to believe that there is an unlocked door just waiting for you to open it .
As a result i think Society should not punish the criminals but rehabitate them. Rehabilitation is the best because You will meet professionals who knows better about human beings .
Some of them know why people behave the way they do, some of them know people think the way the do and others know why people feel the way they do .
When that person who has done something wrong enter there one of the professional (Psychologist) should ask that person to tell the truth if he/she want to get help. That person must answer Questions that the Psychologist is going to ask. Possible Questions will be why did you do that, what came into your mind, Did you know the effects of doing that? What do you want us to do? What are you going to do when you get the remedy .
Those psychologists i think they are going to make sure that the patient is cured and they will decide when to release the patient .
Finally to add on the issue of rehabilitating the peoples the psychologists there or Psychiatrists are the ones dealing with human behaviour, human emotions human mind they know better on how to deal with the person concerned .
Be .
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484_TSNO1145.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
To start with, for something to happen; there must have been a cause, like wise, for prison system to be established, there were a considerable number of factors which were mushrooming, therefore the following are some of such factors; theft, rape, tribalism, Poverty and many more others, not mentioned .
Firstly if I was cought in the act of stealing, the first thing and the best thing that the low think of is imprisonment, whereas precoution measures should have been applied, For example. I Should be asked where I come from, why I diceded to do that, and if possible be taken home so as to analyse why I came to steal. Maybe I stole becase I wanted to feed my family. If its from that angle, then I Should not be taken to prison, insted I should be given a task or work, even if I'm not educated so that I will be able to feed my poor family. If I'm doing it out of gratitude then I must be taken to prison on harsh. Conditions and if posibble one hand should be Cut off because its the one that does the stealing, if I Continue, one leg should be taken off becase its the one that does the walking. Secondly people who rape should be counselled and maybe tought with literal examples of the damage they have done on somebody, if this is to no avail, well I suggest no imprisonment, what I think should be done is cashation for both male and females to end this unclean behavior .
However this are just Ideas, but Can be of help if taken into Consideration. In Iraque I herd such punishment are used; and Rumour continues that in that Country even if you walk alone at any hour of the night, you will have peace around you; get me right, I m not saying there is no crime in that country, but minor crime is strictly dealt with, that people being packed into prison camps for little crimes .
Lastly trabalism is also a contributary factor, in that, in one Country there are two tribes with different belives, Culture, and history, and when it comes to power, however, one tribe is not fully representd, this leads to that tribe in power, electing only its own people to power on the contrary to the other one, this result in fighting, gansterish and more people being taken to prison, Some for the crimes they did not comit, but just because they belong to the minority tribe. thus prison camps are wrongly used. The fact that the prison systeams are outdated, moreover they are old and not habitable, for instance, you find that a cell or a room is in one place with a toilet, how does one eat or even sleep with a smell of stench all around him. Moreover how do fife people sleep in a cell meant for one. you will find that we are trying to solve a problem with a problem, because in those cells prosioners develop bad behaviours like a male having sex with a male, and this result in incouraging diseases like H.I.V aids and other sextually transmitted diseaseses .
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485_TSNO1303.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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NA
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
Society should not punish its criminals because when they take the law into their hands by Punishing their criminals they end up killing them. These criminals must answer for that bad things that do within the society .
If someone did wrong we must take him/her to the Police station and the court will - see whether this crimal is the one that cause the crime. If there is a lack of evidence then that crimals will set free. Some people do crime because they are short tempered. For an example a husband and wife maybe a wife can do many mistakes that her husband did'nt like it, and the husband keep on warning her. At the end he kill her. That husband he must not taken to court. He must be taken to People who will help him. Members of his family should comfort him/her. He/she must be taken to the psychologist/social workers, so that they can talk to him/her and he/she will saw his/her mistakes rather than taken to court .
When she/he will taken to court he/she will be out of bail. Then the society will Punish him/he for his/her wrongs. We should talk to him show him/her wrongs. Then I think at the end she/he ask for mercy because he/she will saw that he/she had done wrongs .
Look at the case of Mamokgethi Malebane of Katlehong Location of Gauteng Province. Someone came to fetch her at school and then he rape her. After weeks the society knows that he is the one who raped the child. Then he lives with fear. He knows that he is going to be killed at anytime .
Then he was at Prison for almost a month then out of bail. Then society did not like that thing because the child suffers some injuries the time he rapes her. For him to Protect himself One day he goes to school where child is a learner and taken her to the bush raped her again and kill her. But at the end society knows that he is the one who is responsible for the child's death .
I think that the first time when that man rape this child, he must be taken to the Psychologist so that he can speak out his problems. I think that if it was so the child will be still alive this time. We the society we must not rush into things. Let the law and Psychologists do their work. If we take crimals to the Psychologists they will try to show him/her that he/she had done wrong and show him the rights and wrongs then I thought he will came back to the society. He will be the right person again .
Many deaths occurs because we the society we do not rehabilitate that criminals instat we want to take the law into our hands .
I thought if we can Proceed on rehabilitating criminals high rate of crime will be less. No One will be afraid of one another. We can go whatever we want to at anytime. Nowerdays we live with fear. I am afraid to walk there at Mafikeng town carrying my wallet on my hands because everybody looks on it. Because if they saw it they will ask you to give it to them or they will kill you .
So I thought rehabilitation will decrease the crime and death rate. Society should not Punish its criminals let's try to talk to them. Let us show them the right way. To Punish them will not solve anything. They will keep on doing the wrongs. If you know someone with high criminal rate Please took her/her to the people who will help him/her. Don't just leave them that's why they carry on doing the same thing .
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486_TSNO1308.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
Society should not punish the criminals but try to motivate them or to bring them to their normal lives. No one is allowed to be punished, but to advised about what she/he was doing. This can be solved by inviting psychologists to give them free lessons about their behavior and also the society should be invited to tell them about how they behave in their community. As an individual, you can avoid yourself in many things for an example to be a criminal, youth group and sports should be formed .
Is a responsibility of the society to motivate the criminals, not to bring them to prison because they are human beings just like anybody. They have their needs in life, they are normal. The society should councel them about how are they doing to be in future. This, can affect them in their mentality. They can be given life sentence if they don't behave well for example if the society tell you about the advantages and disavantages of what you have being all along then you don't take them into consideration, is then that you are judged for a life sentence .
The psychologist should also invited to councel them about what is going to happen in future .
If you are a criminal, there are some forces that forced you do that, for example if you see a beautiful car, you will steal it for the purpose of money, simply means you are under pressure. They are various ways of getting money not to put yourself in danger. You can go to school and become educated and finally you can get a job .
Youth groups should be build by the society so that many people could take part. There must be some dramas or music so that they can keep theirselves busy. The aim of this youth groups is to avoid people to misbehave .
Also the society should build sports. The sports offices should be there to help people in sport activities e.g. soccer, netball, tennis, high jump etc. People should take part on this activities to keep themself healthy and strongly, because their muscle are working every day .
As a person or an individual, you have to avoid yourself in doing wrong thing. The society can call psychologist, youth groups and sports can be formed but if you don't want to change your bad attitude to people, there is nothing we can do. A person should chancge by his or her own mistakes .
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487_TSNO1403.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
The notion of prisoner rehabilitation implies that the inmate needs to be changed. From this notion, it follows that the prison is an ideal place for this change to take place. It is assumed that intensive techniques that will reconstitute the offender so he will live "responsibly" in the freeworld can be imposed on the inmate in a highly structured situation. Such notion are not illogical if one believes there is specific factors that can be administered to bring about REHABILITATION. And it is helpful if one ignores basic inconstencies in the environment in which these programs are to be instituted in an environment of fear, aggresion, totalitarianism and exploitation
Therefore, the society should not punish their criminals but rehabilitate them, because imprisonment is a waste of money. The government uses a lot of money building prisons and employing people who work in prisons. For example, in South Africa, over 3000 people are being trained to work with crime. Futhermore, the government is trying to ensure that there is no overcrowding in prison, which means it has to deal with money. In Empangeni, Qalakabusha Prison has been made bigger and the government is planning to increase also the size of Kokstad Closed Maximum and Devon Pre-Release centre near Springs .
Similarly, prisoners are bought food and clothes. In Botswana prisoners are well fed and more money is being spent also in their medical expenses. Moreover, they are bought soccer kits as their teams are in super league. In addition, their shelters are being comforted by nice beds and the houses they live in are electrified. The money the government spent in prisons could have been used in charity societies to assist disadvantaged people like old people, blinds, crippled people and orphans .
Furthermore, people's dreams are being defered. In other ways, talented people are denied the opportunity to expose their talents. For example, musicians like Mzwakhe Mbuli is now imprisoned and he is no longer singing. This is a waste of people's talents .
Prisons system exploits people in which they are separated from their families and friends .
Children miss their parents and they are being expelled from schools and they do not have anyone to pay their school fees. Some children leave school because they do not have good parental advice. Moreover, they do not have anyone to tell them how good education is .
Similarly, if we take Zimbabwe's land reform, innocent people are being arrested because they failed to heed deadline to leave their farms. The government could have asked farmers to share their land with poor people not to take it by force. All These lead from the goverment who stepped its efforts to seize white-owned land as it rounded up more farmers defying eviction notices .
In conclusion, I urged that criminals should be rehabilitated to avoid waste of money by the government in criminal premises. An after rehabilitation criminals should ignore basic inconsistancies in the environment as it has been suggested earlier. This, as I think will decrease poverty and the country developments will not be affected as such .
Prison people are also our problem because they affect our progresses. As people we have to think about prisoners as being criminals or decrease crime rather than labelling them by name of criminals. Words like murderers and thieves should not be used as they are offensive, negative labels that demean and devalue the person as a whole .
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488_TSNO1410.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: The prison system is outdated. No civilized society should punish its criminals: it should rehabilitate them
Our prison system is an ideal place for killers, rapers and all those other monsters, instead of being a refuge for them, thus helping them to change their wicked ways. For their own good and our peace of minds, criminals should be converted into better human beings than be made into the worst and indecent human beings .
Going to prison, for most criminals, has become the best way of acquiring skills to help them be better at their deeds, when come out. Some of them commit crimes when they come out of prison because, they had been used indecently in their cells, by their in-mates or even the prison wardens. They had either been raped, burnt, or even beaten up, so they become rebellious. Others learn bad habits in prison, like smoking dagga, stealing, killing people or selling drugs. Thabo, an ex-convict, is now a thief, a gang-master and a drug dealer because that is what he learnt from prison . "The warden, Thembela, who was my buddy, used to sell drugs to us and I learnt from him, the channels and ways of acquiring them". This clearly indicates that our prisons are higher institutions for criminals .
Futhermore, James, another ex-convict who sells second hand cars, said he got his skills of hijacking cars and completely covering his tracks from a police friend, who gets thirty-five percent of the profit . "Morake has taught me well, now I can even do it without holding a gun and you would never know what hit you, then I just relax and enjoy myself with a prostitute", he boasted. Seeing the look of disgust on my face, he adds wickedly, "When the money is real good, I prefer a threesome". Despite the fact that AIDS messages are being preached everyday, he seemed not to care. As if that was not enough, he told me that the reason why he is never worried is because the victims run away without taking a good look at him or they are "never there to pull shit on me!", meaning that he kills them .
In addition to that, he said "if it's a man or an ugly woman, I kill them before they know or realise what's happening, but if it's a beautiful woman, I have a taste of that forbidden fruit first and when I've had enough, he has to die, I don't have any choice". He says that with a shrug of the shoulder as if it doesn't matter. The way he explained the whole thing to me, without even feeling guilty almost made me want to vomit. Prison has robbed criminals of their consciousness, they don't even have feelings anymore. Hurting other people or killing them is just playing soccer or playing chess to those criminals. To them, it is just normal .
One would actually ask-questions like; "If our prisons are like that, where are we headed as a society?" "When is it all going to stop, if we are making the situation bad instead of correcting it?" "Don't we think that instead of punishing those criminals, we must rathe rehabilitate them?" According to reseachers, punishing them, only makes them more rebellious, but correcting them by giving them some form of education and counselling may help them to be better members of the society. They should be taught how to earn a decent living out of the little that they have. For example, they could be taught to make hand crafted objects, or plant crops and sell them for a profit .
Lastly, I would say that not all prisoners are criminals, so, the society must not treat them like outcasts because, instead of making them it would break them. Just like new born babies, they need nurturing. They also need to know that we do care and they are our fellow human beings, our brothers, our sisters, not monsters to hate and be afraid of .
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489_TSNO1425.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
This is quite a dodgy issue. First of all we need to understand the initial intention of feminist before concluding wether they have succeeded in their mission or not. Again we need to examine wether these feminists we males of females. It is no argument that the majority of feminists are women which gives rise to the following question:"why?"
To answer that we begin by defining feminism in lame man's terms: "It is the kind of process or action that primarily concentrates promoting women issues, their rights as human, their desire to be recognised and respected, to be considered and accomodated in their society." NOW for the fact that there is a need for women to be recognised, it clearly indicates that there is a lack of such. This then ushers us into examining why there is a lack of recognition for women in our societies .
If memory serves me correct, the plight of women is only but one of the most recent occurances. You should remember that it is only a couple of years ago, when South African women went to some women Empowerment conference in Beijin (sp). That caused a lot of noise, suddenly the nation leaders and civilians were flushed with mixed emotion. Some felt demascubted, some proud of the fairer species taking their stand in the global society. And then there was a commercial craze over the matter, the music industry cashed in on it. American, South African and other European music writers and produces came up with groups Like Spice Girls, Destiny's Child and the likes .
With songs like "scrub", "Independent Women" ' men now really started to feel intimidated. It was the very industry that first started with the retaliation, a coolision led by male musicians against the women generation. I am sure u can still remember the song "scrub" and Mandoza's hit single "50/50".
From that point, the snowball began. There is nothing more dangerous than a man who feels like less of a man. Women were in parliament, the government is on the women's side, Company's top executives are on skirts, stalkings, high heels and guess what, they wear lipstick, Yes lipstick and eye shadow. To make matters worse for the Adam generation, some Adams now wantedto be Eves. What a blow to a man's ego!!! Well, the real question here, is wether what women started with good intentions, has done them more good than harm .
I would say that at this point, it still stands an untold mystery. Consider the crimes committed against women, the unspeakable violations against the girl-child. Mental prisons created by the man-people against us women is all physical. It has nothing to do with Intelligence, Integrity or any form of Godly intentions. It is all physical, it a who is stronger than who game. Men in every society have always had an upperhand and wether we'd like to swallow it in or not, even in today's society they still do. It is a sad and heart tearing idea but it is true .
It all biols down to this communication. The message women in Beijin were trying to convey to men got misinterpreted by men, No guess who is responsible, the entertainment industry. Who said we didn't want to respect our Fathes, our Future husband, our brothers or our boyfriends? It is certainly not us. But because the message was interrupted, it never did what it was intended to do, instead, it did the opposite .
Yes! Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good!
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490_TSNO1426.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
It is true that our modern is filled with scince technology and industrialisation. But I tend to disagree that there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. Look Science and technology exists in the real world, so I don't see how can it hidder something like adream or imagination which is not for real or those not exists in the physical world .
Infact the world of Scince technology and in dustrialisation help the main concept of the dreaming and the imagining world in abig way I'll give you an example, 30 years ago people wouldn't dream of communicating globaly with their counterpart from anywhere in the world. But thanks to the dreaming of people like Bill Gates who dreamnt of one day owning his own software / Computer Company which today is possible for us to communicate via E-mail of his computers .
We can travel anywhere in the world because have airplanes thanks to some one whoinitialy had a concept in his mind that one day he want to Create an airplane in order to assist people to travel anywhere in the world. So we can say that thinking and imagining is part of Scince and techology .
They go hand in hand in order for thinks that are good for industries to be established so that we can live better as people is this world .
I mean even Cellphones, telephones they were created by people out of their imagination before they were established physically. Any were Science and technology plays an important role in our lifes I may elastrated even of electricity it is amiracle that was initially part a humans-imagination or adream of saying someday I want to establish some like that .
Imean things become more easy even for people who comes from previously disadvantaged communities, door of thinking more and more are opened for thanks to Scince and technology even ifrestructure is accessed easily unlike in previous years were by if you had a poem you would have to write on a tree or stone to keep it in record .
Now you can write it on a piece of paper or preferably type in using keyboard ofacomputer thanks to technology. You see things and dreaming is no longer just unreal thing on a humans mind but they can come real this time more easier because of the concept of Scince and technology. If want to design a Car I just draft it on my P.C. and Email / it to a certain Car manufacturer if they find it interesting then my dream has now become a visual reality and changes of me getting rich are more and doing that work of designing did not cost me a fortune thanks to Scince and technology. Even lives are being save in operating theaters because if a doctor has said to practice a certain operation but he is Germany but these skills are required here in South-Africa he can be contacted by video phone or other means of visual communication so that he may assist doctors in S.A. with out being travelling all the way from Germen all in all Science and technology is good for our every day lifes .
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491_TSNO1428.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
Truly speaking, yes indeed feminists have done more harm to the cause of women in than good in our country. You get a case reported of assault everyday. I once made a research with my friend after a discussion of feminists. Immediately we went and asked why was women beaten so badly by men .
We got different answers and the most popular one was that they were not cooking and taking care of children. Rights of women, as the men said, are the once breaking the marriage, mostly these days especially at nights they forget that they have work to do, cooking and satisfying mens needs. They go out with other men while living their husbands in the house. Its not a right thing to beat a lady because she'll underestimate you as man. On the other side men are only looking for themselves, their rights. They like to exercise their rights than women. Ok women are oppressed by men in most cases .
I can say again feminist have done more harm to the cause of women than good. Sometimes men would like to have sex with wives, their wife don't feel like doing it then that's were problem start, men goes outside looking for another partner and his wife will be upset. Women have rights and men really need to take that in to consideration. The problem is, men feel like women are controlling them. Sometimes the culture, I mean the way women grew, sometimes she feels like it was rudeculous, and after marriage she finds and learn a lot about her rights, because sometimes, but always you mustn't do something that you don't like because its not going to do any good to or satisfy your feelings. Women are treated like animals and the things without them I don't think men can live without them .
Its not only that feminists have caused harm to women now; early before 1994, women were abused by men but it wasn't out like now. I think men and women should sit down together and think about their rights and what do those rights really mean and how to use freedom. Indeed rights are breaking the marriages. Women are threaghtned by men that they will divorce them if open the case against man. In most of the times women think they don't have a choice when they'll arrest their husbands because they are the only breadwinners in the house, If the husband is arrested who will support them .
As men say: the women sometimes pushes them to beat them; they will attend some occasion without telling them were they go and sometimes they'll go out with other men. Rights are really killing both women and men .
Both the other one wants this and the other one wants that thing. Maybe if will well talk to each other and try to know one another before getting into the marriage that will help us not to fight but live precious life .
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492_TSNO1431.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
I am very much for the idea that the world has been so technolized so much that there is no room for conventionalism. It is sad so see that the younger generation is so hooked onto these man-made devices, they have become dependent on modern technology such as tv. games, computers, calculators, telephones etc. to such an extend that if you asked them to perform certain tasks using basic tools they would not be able to finish those tasks .
Socially, people used to communicate by letters and word of mouth. whereas these have been replaced by telephones, computers and most recently electronic mail and cellular phones. Youngsters are now unable to utter a simple English phrase without slopping in some slang words or township lingo?s. It is my opinion that when, in the days old, people practiced languages by writting letters and so forth they improved their language skills considerably more compared to today. I believe that these inventions have spoilt the human race because we are so dependent on them we can not see ourselves doing manual things such as washing the dishes, we have to have a dishwasher to survive. This is pathetic of us, we are simply and purely becoming lazier and lazier by the day .
Educationally, when I was growing up it was my parents? duty to teach me about the world. They had time for me ? even after coming back from strenous work situations my father would sit down with me and teach me basic Arithmatic using butter beans or seeds of some fruit or sorts. When I began my Grade 1 in 1984 I could count, add, subtract and even write my name, never mind the writting of an ancient egyptian but at least I knew what letters of the alphabet constituted my name. Today?s generation need only one tool in mind, the calculator! They just punch away their little index fingers on the keys and out comes the answer. This affects them because they hardly exerase their brain cells therefore their brains become dorments. This makes it difficult for them in future because even if they knew the answer they would not how to present it because their brains have been inactive for a good part of their lives .
In the days of old kids learned by playing together in the street but today they just stare at their tv sets and instead of learning things of value, those that build character and instill good morals they watch violent cartoons which do more harm than falling while playing outside. They don?t have people who would teach by story-telling - this helped children to exercise their brains and intelligence by providing a platform for dreaming and imagine the characters in the stories told. They don?t even practice the culture of reading books for entertainment, they only read a book if its prescribed for their curriculum of when they need to research for an assignment .
One American study proved that about nine (9) out of ten (10) teenagers consume more electronic media than their counterparts ten years earlier and this proved detrimental as 60% of them ended up with offences ranging from violent outbreaks and unacceptable social behaviour some went as far as becoming juvenile deliquents. I understand, with the invention of mordernised devices, technology was meant to play a vital role in our lives, a role that would benefit the human race positively but seeing that it is doing more harm than good I think we should abolish it .
This is evident in the events of September 11, 2001 when the world remained static simply because of what happened in the U.S.A. South Africans were affected by witnessing the downfall of their currency. I believe that we should pack up all these man-made machines and go back to conventionalism. In conclusion man can no more be called the human race but the ?techno race? or ?the thumb race? as one chinese documentary puts it!
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493_TSNO1434.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Some people say that in our modern world, dominated by science, technology and industrialisation, there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. What is your opinion?
I can believe with people who say that in our modern world dominated by science and technology and industrialisation there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination, because this is what is happening in out daily lives. Now these days is seems as every-thing is now being under the technology ideas. Each and every day some scientists are trying to find some way in which they can use by means of technology. They are doing some researches, and even at some schools some students are encouraged to take some science subjects, starting from the primary level .
I think that in the late centuries there were no auto-bank machines, traffic light, Computers communication device (eg telephone lines, mobile phones radio and television) but life was good to those people who live by that time. There was a way in which they can communicate and receive information of what is going on. Now these days we have some telephones lines, mobile phones, emails, ect, is which we can stay in touch with anyone around the world. And all of these has been developed by a human being, whom we can call a scientist. By radio and television we can receive information of what is happening around as and around the world. This is by means of technology bcease the television and the radio uses siginals. These signals has been developed by some scientist .
In every day of our lives we use technology, even when we are not aware of this. When we go to the automatic bank machiens (A.T.M.) to deposit or to withdraw money, we have used our knowledge of technology to operate that machine (A.T.M.)
Some of the jobs that are advertised in some newspapers by some employees will need only you if you are computer literate. Some big industies in todays lives uses some technology to operate some of the machiens. And this means that they will not need more employers to work the because some of the work need to be done will be for done machines. It is therefore I agree with thoso people who say our modern world, is dominated by science and technology and industrialisation and there is no longer place for dreaming and imagination. I?m saying this because if you have dreamed to be in a sertain position and that position is operated by means of or technology your dreams are good for nothing .
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494_TSNO1439.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
Women are thought to be the weaker sex. It was believed that a woman?s work is to stay at home and take care of the household and family. In the Old days women were not seen in offices or did not acquire higher jobs, because it was believed that only men were suitable for those jobs. Some women did not go to school at all while some went but never finished. At that time going to school was a waste of time because they were told that they had to help their mothers with the household chores and also prepare themselve for marriage .
I agree with this motion because women were not given chance to make something of themselves. Even if they went to school and finish, they could not study for the courses that they wanted, because men ruled the universe and told the women that some courses had to be done by men only. This harmed the cause of women because they were not allowed to do what they wanted. At that time women felt that they should not question what they were not allowed to do, but ended up believing that men were the one?s in power, because men were the breadwinners of the families .
This became so simple to the feminists because they had women where they wanted them, they were like party in their own hands. The whole world also came to believe that women were weak and could not do a man?s Job or think actively like a man. This harmed women in a way that they could not do anything for themselves except to take care of the family. Women were often abused by their husbands but they never asked for help because they believed that their husbands were the men of the house and it was okay for them to beat their women if they misbehave or try to make an opinion of something. Women started to believe that they were not clever and they can?t stand up for themselves .
Women are special in our lives. They bear childrens for their husbands and takes care of the whole family. A women knows when something is not right with her family and can make thing better. If feminist continue to harm them they will end up destroying them and will have no one to take care of them .
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495_TSNO1448.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B1+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
Gender equality is what we aim to do, there will be no sexism. This is what feminists preach on a daily basis, but they never practice what they preach. Little or no change has been done .
A lot of women have been given bad treatment, and treated unfairly because of who they are. If you?re strong willed, and ambitious that is when people try by all means to bring you do. Gone are the days when men were regarded as the heads of houses. Gone are the days when this world was regarded as a ?man world?. If a woman makes it to the top, in this day in age, people still say they ?slept their way to the top?. If you?re a woman and have a high position, the men below you feel they don?t have to answer to you. As far as I?m concerned people who still think that way, have absolutely nothing going for them. They?re also disgustingly ignorant and narrow minded .
I?m not saying women should be given more power over men. All I?m saying is gender equality is what most women what. I don?t think you should be treated badly because of your gender, because you?re regarded as the weaker sex. People should learn to realise your values, your personality, they should look past your skirt. They should take time to analyse who you are, what you?re offering and why you?re really there .
Instead of being treated equally, they?re treated harshly. Because even today people are still living in the stone age, its sad but its true. I think the whole situation has gone worse. The more equality is preached, the more things deteriorate .
Something as brutal and ?spine-chilling? as rape still exists. Do you know why?, because women are regarded as weak, and the men as strong. Weak in this case because she couldn?t fight back, weak because she actually got raped. I?m not generalising, but unfortunately some people?s brains are pea-sized. So this is how they still think. Some women?s ego?s have been bruised and battered, their self esteem gone down the drain. Because subconsciouly this what they believe, that men will always be in control. That is why even today, for some women to actually make a decision they have to get the go ahead from their partners .
Some tswana cultures are to blame, to a certain extent. In some tswana cultures, you are by no means supposed to ask your husband. Where he?s been its rude, not to mention disrespectful. As well as when he verbally abuses you, you?re meant to keep quiet. Things like that were probably considered in the olden age. They shouldn?t still be considered today. Becauseb I?d like to think things have changed since those days. Or rather things should change, because if they don?t change... Then we shouldn?t ask for equality, and a better world .
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496_TSNO1457.txt
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en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
Most of students when the leave the university they seem not to know what to do when they are exposed to job situation. In most cases one will find that much time is spent on re-training them trying to equip them with relevant skills for whatever job they are to take as a career. Supervisors and other concerned parties are forced to leave their day to day activities to come to the rescue of the poor graduate who meets bottlenecks in practical exercise .
When people or colleagues find that a graduate is posted to their institution, they fill very happy and proud thinking that they are going to gain a lot from him because he would come with new ideas since he is fresh from a higher institution. Only to find that the person is vague, unskilled and expecting more from them, there is no exchange of knowledge since he knows close to nothing. He cannot perform any duty allocated to him by himself he needs close supervision which makes other people leaving their work to suffer and help the poor fellow .
Sometimes it takes time for the person to cope with the work situation, he needs time or even workshops to assist him. There would be a problem if one is posted to an istitution where members of the staff are not collaborative, they would leave him to suffer saying that let us see what he is going to do because he poccesses a degree. The graduate would feel that he is incompetent and decides to run away from his career because the university did not equip him with real work situation but theory .
Some fields such as agriculture, nursing, teaching etc need a lot of practical skills time and again during studying period at the university. Students should be taken to their relevant fields to be exposed to the work not just to be stuffed with assignments that do not do them any good at the end of the day. Expose them to the patients that they are going to nurse, to the students/learners that they are going to educate to the farms that they are going to work on .
So all in all we can say that the university is doing only 50% of the work (theory) and leave the other 50% (practical) for people in the field to finish it which is time consuming and delays productivity .
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497_TSNO1462.txt
|
en
|
icle500
|
document-level
|
learner
|
B2+
|
CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
|
Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
Three years of one's life is spent reading reading and reading, if one is at a university. Where is the fun in it if all you do is read and don't get practical?
Other people may say that it is precise. True. But the only time you get to experience what you have been reading about is only when you have completed your studies, and some degrees take four years to complete even five if necessary. An example would be the LLB degree. It has a four-year curriculum and a five-year curriculum, and do believe me when I say after you complete your degree, you still have to go to a law school in order to be considered "qualified". But that does not guarantee you a job, you still have to hunt it down. How are companies going to recognise your capability if they do not know about you? That is what I think practically tries to emphasise, "your capability".
I consider university theory sacrete. I mean, whether you pass with distinctions and understand your studies very well, who knows about it hah? Only when you have completed your degree may you be considered to be "semi-qualified". Why "Semi"? Because experience plays a major role in one's ability to get a job. So if you don't have experience, people might as well refer to you as an "amateur". One would just crack thinking of the hell one went through, all those sleepless nights, trying to get it right .
Another thing about universities is that the cost a fortune! Some may say it is a challenge that one faces to study hard and get distinctions so that one can receive a bursary. Also true. But what happens then to a B-aggregate student hah?! The only way one can get a bursary is when one gets more than three distinctions. And what do we call this "psychologically"? We call it pressure!
Just because some students manage getting more than three distinctions does not mean "One can, all can" As individuals, we are all different. That is why we are reffered to as individuals. We all have our ways of doing, observing and understanding things and those ways aren't all the same. That is why we also have another concept called "perspective" which is defined as one's mental window through which one looks at reality. That's also why our population groups are divided into two groups, the other being rich ant the other being poor. This shows that not everyone does the same things, have the same things and has the same things .
In conclusion I want to say, students should be given an opportunity to explore you know, get practical. This will serve as another way of making it in life for students, especially those who cannot afford tuition fees. At least being practical and studying has a point. This point being that one gets more educated and becomes more better at what one does. Eventually all this leads to every worker's favourite word, "a raise".
There is a difference between knowing and understanding. When you know, is when you have seen or read something. But understanding is a whole new different concept. Understanding entails experience. That is what learning is all about, learning and understanding and in my opinion, universities contradict what I have just said. Afterall, how does one know something if they haven't really understood it???
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498_TSNO1482.txt
|
en
|
icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
Most of the University degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world / their new working place where they will be employed. University is different from the colleges and Technikon because they offer a practicals on their second and last year .
Times have changed its unlike the past years where you will be asked for a [?satain?] qualification and be employed. Today the situation is different the government and most of the private sectors require a practical experience and of at least 2 to five years. Think of all the hard time's you go through and the [?expeneess?] you lose, after all the hard work for four to five years at you institution then you graduate. After all the hard work of educating you self then you go and look for a job, when you get there they ask if you have [?ana?] experience of you Qualification .
During the segregation era people where encouraged to go to School now people have the education but they are not employed. Its even worse for the university students - because they have no practical experience even their refferences can not recommend them for a working experience, unlike Technikon Students. That is why people say universities are therefore of very little value for today's life time .
It's about time all the universities starts to consider this problem or the department of education, who ever is in charge must make sure that all university starts benefiting the students. Our government says its working towards a better life for all, if thats the case they should starts with the unemployment issue first because most of our brothers and sisters are educated but their at home and I am affraid that we might fall in the same trap .
I am very concerned about the problem because it might affect some of us. The government and the private sectors must stop asking for the experience that we don't have. How can you have a working experience when you have not worked before are still fresh from the university. I Think they are the ones that have to come up with a solution to the problem e.g. when they have vacant post's they should go to the different institutions and look for student who are busy with their last year and appoint them for different positions in different departments of the government .
If these issues are to be considered the problem can decrease with a high rate and some of the students can be motivated to work hard so that they can also get a chance to be short listed for the vacant post in certain companies or at different departments of the government .
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499_TSNO1488.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1+
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Feminists have done more harm to the cause of women than good
In the time past women were oppressed by men in many ways than one. They could not be independent or even express themselves because everything or situations back then did not allow them. But now since we are living in a global world things are changing. Men did not allow women to be who they wished to be because it was [?t a worm?] that a woman's place is in the kitchen. So men generally were there main culprits as far as feminism is concerned. Even in places like a church, women were nor allowed to occypy leadership positions by men .
Today things have changed dramatically after the democratic changes in South Africa even in the World. But in Some Countries feminism is also a problem. In Communists or totaliterian countries women are still oppressed, in a way their talents are wasted. These led to women to unite against their governments .
In South Africa, during the apartheid regime women were oppressed by the government even in their communities. Bur they played a [?pivotent?] role in gaining their freedom and for their rights to be recognised. Culturally and traditionally women were oppressed by their husbands and the chiefs. It was a widespread problem for them. But they continued to fight for their independence and for to be treated as equals in the society .
After democratic elections in South Africa things changed. Women fought for their rights. In democratic countries or civilised societies women are treated as equals. Their independence helped them not to be treated as an inferior beings to men .
Unfortionately these independent women are misintepretting equality and independence as freedom. Some women feminist are out to prove a point that they can do things on their own. They don't care who gets hurt along the way. This is causing problems in the society or in many homes. Many families are broken or destroyed because women (feminists) cannot obey their husbands or atleast be mothers in their homes. They still want to exercise their new pound power over their husbands or families. So this is doing more harm than good to them because nobody wants to be with them let alone marrying them .
In Civilised societies, feminism is practiced by both men and women. We are now doing in an upnormal society because of these [/anisisfeprefations?] . Some women feminists are going for revenge against men or those who took away their independence for so long. Some spend the rest of their lives unmarried because nobody wants to be with them. Men choose to be with the less educated, rural women than with those who have many degrees / or more educated. They are bringing hot coals over themselves because of their egos. Education or [?Oudating?] big companies by these women is causing problems for them. They are materialist .
The heartbreaking issue is that of their kids. They grow up without father figures to look up to. They want to have control over everything. They are unable to distinguise their role as women in their homes as in the society. This is a problem not only for them but also for those who are close to them .
I believe women should be given a free role in the governance of the country and in their homes. But they should always remember that they are women. They need men to make things [?wornel?] for all concerned. Oppression over women is not good at all. Women's rights should not be violated. They are of course the weaker sex but they have rights and they should be respected by every body. Life is becoming unbearable because of feminism. It is doing more harm to men and women than good. We should respect each others rights. God created men and women to live together. We need each other to complement and fulfil each others abilities .
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500_TSNO1489.txt
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en
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icle500
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document-level
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learner
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B1
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CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
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Title: Most university degrees are theoretical and do not prepare students for the real world. They are therefore of very little value.
Most university degrees are theoretical in so much that they do not prepare students for the real world. When thinking of theory part of it things seem to be more difficult because children learn by doing. So I am in an opinion that students be given as much practical work as they can because from the university one need to help the society he or she is going to meet in many different ways. If you are given more practical work, you will be able to deliver the content without problems, supposing you do nursing, and just do it theoretical, how is one going to handle different people with different deseases. Teachers at all levels can't teach without apparatus for pupils to understand the lesson very well. They will be made to handle the objects so that they click in their minds. They wont even forget what they were taught at a certain standard even when they are old men and women. Practical work in an important tool. It makes one to be more capable and sure of what he or she will be doing to the nation .
There are some subjects which need more practical than theory i.e. if you take science, Agriculture and Computer lessons. You can't tell a student that there is an instrument called thermometer which is used for body temperature. How is that very particular person going to identify it if she did not handle it and use it .
Most of our work demands a lot on practicals so let this method of being theoretical come to an end not meaning that it should be abolished altogether but be limited. Students should be taught exactly what they are there for because things will be more easy for them when they go back to their work station. This is the time whereby we are going to be called dead woods because one cant be a degree holder who cant even show the lower position holders that this is what I know and what I want you to do .
You cant teach pupils how to use an instrument which you dont know and you have never come across. I stress a point of not doing practicals as a concern. Let students be given their chance. Let the concerned people not deny student their chances of being capable and knowledgeable of performing their duties satisfactorily .
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