TOEFL ESAYS 081-090

Agreeing or Disagreeing 81

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Technology has made the world a better place to live. Use specific reasons and examples to support your statement..

Technology has made our lives better in many ways, but it has also made them more complicated. Technology is often expensive to buy and run, it can be difficult to use, and it often isn’t easy to repair.
Technology isn’t cheap. The more technology we depend on in our daily lives, the more money we have to spend. Everyone wants a modern TV, a digital camera, a DVD player, etc. Even though these things might be considered luxuries, people want them. In addition, some technology is more than a luxury. For example, teachers nowadays expect their students to have computers at home for their schoolwork. Parents have to buy the latest computers so their children can keep up with their classmates. This can be a real hardship for some families.
Technology isn’t always easy to use. In fact, it is getting more and more complicated. The computers of today do many more things than the computers of even just five or ten years ago. That means a lot more things that computer users have to learn how to do. Even a simple thing like using a VCR to record a movie takes some practice and learning.
Technology isn’t easy to repair. If the average person has a problem with his computer or DVD player, he probably doesn’t know how to fix it himself. He’ll have to spend time and money taking it to a place to get fixed. In the past, a lot of people enjoyed doing routine maintenance work on their cars. Modern technology has made today’s cars more complicated. It is harder to learn how to repair and maintain them.
People think modern technology has made our lives easier. In a way this is true, but in other ways it has made our lives much less convenient. Modern technology costs us money and time and can add complications to our lives.
(313 words)


Agreeing or Disagreeing 82

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Advertising can tell you a lot about a country. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Advertising is like a window onto the life of a country. It tells a lot about the people there. Advertisements show what kinds of things the people in a country like to buy. It shows what kinds of situations are attractive to them. It even shows whether or not the people tend to be affluent. You can learn a lot by looking at advertisements.
By looking at advertisements, you can see what kinds of things people like to buy. Are there more advertisements for soda or for juice? For movies or for music? For vacations or for furniture? You can see what kinds of food people prefer, how they like to spend their free time, or what they save their money for. You can learn just about anything about the average lifestyle in a country.
By looking at advertisements, you can see what kinds of situations are attractive to people. If an ad shows someone driving a car freely down an open highway in beautiful scenery, you can see that people value feeling free. If an ad shows a professional-looking person in an expensive car in front of an elegant house or office building, you will know that people value success.
By looking at advertisements, you can know whether or not a country is affluent. If ads are usually about food, clothes, and other necessities of life, the people in the country may not have a lot of money. If more ads are for luxury items and expensive, high-quality products, then you know that more people in that country have money.
Advertisements can tell you a lot about a country. They show how the people there live. They show what the people want to buy and can buy. Ads give a picture of a country’s daily life.
(297 words)




Agreeing or Disagreeing 83

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Modern technology is creating a single world culture. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Modern technology is creating a single world culture. This is because it is now much easier to communicate with people who are far away. Satellite TV, modern transportation, and the Internet have all brought people closer together. People the world over share the same sources of information and this leads to the creation of a simple world culture.
Because TV is broadcast by satellite, TV programs can be received anywhere in the world. Now people in every part of the world can have access to all the same TV programs. Everybody knows that TV is one of the biggest cultural influences there is. When people everywhere see the same news, educational, and entertainment programs, they move toward the development of a single world culture.
Because modern methods of transportation are fast, a trip to a faraway place becomes easy. People