中澳移民留学

 Some people think all lawbreakers should be put into prison. Others believe that there are better alternatives. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

The pie charts demonstrate how water usage in Sydney was divided up by four different industries and civilian use, in 1997 and 2007.

 This line graph gives the number of foreign visitors who came to a European country from 1987 to 2007. Visitor numbers to three different places (the coast, the mountains and the lakes) were recorded for each year.

First, we can see that there was a general increase in the total number of visitors to this European country, from about 70 million in 1987 to about 155 million in 2007. But looking more closely at the number for each area, we can see some different patterns of change.

 Nowadays, some buildings such as offices and schools have open-space design instead of separate rooms.  Why is it so? Do you think that this is a positive or negative development?
 
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.
 

Essay by Jeenn Lee Hsieh:
 
These days, it is common to see an increasing number of open-plan offices and schools, particularly in most major cities where there is limited area for buildings.  The main reason for this trend is cost, of course, since the value of floor space has been rising.  While having an open-space design is usually cheaper, it is worthy of more research on the pros and cons of this development.
 
To begin with, being cheaper in cost is certainly not the only positive aspect about the growingly popular open-space concept.  Regarding the construction of schools or universities, the open-plan design is meant to play the dual role of social interaction among students and environmental enhancement on a compact campus in the urban setting.  This is made possible by eliminating barriers such as walls, fences and hedges that traditionally used to separate distinct functional areas.  Meanwhile, such advantages may as well happen to the office floor.  It is argued that there are better interaction between staff, less distinction between different rankings of co-workers, more flexible space, and more natural light because of the removal of inteior walls.  All these serve to explain the popularity of the open-space design.
 
As often as not, the open-space design may just turn out to be a negative development leading to stress, if nothing else.  On the campus, it is reported that students are exposed to high levels of stress in their learning activities.  Surveys repetively show the majority of them are experiencing significant stress as a result of interpersonal conflicts, self-esteem complexities, time constraints, academic frustrations and emotional problems.  Similar effects are even more apparent in the working environment on the office floor.  For instance, it is hard for staff to concentrate due to lack of privacy and feeling of being watched.  What is more, problems of constant noise are likely to lower staff performance.
 
To sum up, there are both good things and bad things about open schools or open offices.  While the recent trend toward the open-plan design can be explained as at least cost-efficient, it is also important to know that those benefits are typically offset by myriad distractions and stressful situations.  Independent of the cost factor, not all people like the open-space design.  (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh

In many countries, the proportion of older people is steadily increasing. Does this trend have more positive or negative effects on the society?

Coupled with the rapid development in medical science and life quality, people are able to live longer, and the proportion of old people are rising at a steady pace. However, whether it has more positive or negative impacts is certainly a contentious one.

Granted, with the increase of senior citizens, the younger generation acquire more opportunities to spend time with their senior relatives. They could enjoy a large family gathering, sharing their happiness, sadness and problems  with the their great grandparents, during which time they might occasionally acquire several pieces of valuable advice. The rich experiences of the senior members could possibly inspire the junior ones to develop a different way to  cope with grumpy superiors in workplace, for example,writing a long and heart-touching email to an angry boss rather than confronting with him directly. 

However, beneath the seemingly advantageous surface, tremendous negative impacts are troubling and even possibly haunting both individual families and the whole society.  Chief among the problems is the huge financial burden imposed on the younger parents who have to support four or even more orderly members along with their children. They have to pay the utility bills, buy daily necessities,  pay for the intimidating medical expense, or even hire nurses to help them to take care of their senior members, the expense of which could sometimes exceed their yearly income. Another negative influences of rising ratio of old people is that the development of society are slowing down. In particular, the lack of vigorous work force (beyond doubt, most of the elderly are weak in physical strength and not able to engage in labor demanding jobs) are hindering the development of social economy and industry. For example, in China, though it has the largest population in the world, there is a serious shortage of labor-intensive workers in most of areas including construction sites and factories, hindering the further advancement of country.

By way of conclusion, the problems involved in the continuously climbing proportion of aged people far outweigh its benefits, considering the undue financial pressure on families  and the slower development of society.

 Task One
The table outlines the number of cars made in three countries (Argentina, Australia, and Thailand) from 2003 to
2009.
It is evident from the table that Thailand produced by far the largest number of cars over the six-year period, with
a total of almost 3 million. Meanwhile, Australia produced the smallest number of vehicles, having a total of just
under 1 million. Argentina came in a close second with a total of approximately 1.1 million cars produced.
Argentina had the lowest production total in 2003, but almost tripled its amount by 2006, and continued to grow
to over 512 thousand by 2009. Thailand began with the highest production total in 2003 of around 742 thousand,
and similarly saw a sharp increase by 2006. However, Thailand’s production numbers slipped to under 1 million
by 2009, nevertheless maintaining its position as the producer of the most cars out of the three countries.
Australia is the only country that experienced a steady decrease in production over this period. Starting at 413
thousand, Australia’s numbers decreased by approximately 100 thousand every 3 years, finishing with a total of
around 227 thousand in 2009

十年前流行写博客，曾经的博客中国可以说风头不亚于现在的新浪微博。当时注册一个博客，写写日志记录生活。其中这篇关于英语枪手的帖子，也是当天帮人代考完英语，夜里睡觉前记录了一下当天英语代考的过程。 

Nowadays, both men and women work full-time. Therefore, they have to share household tasks equally. To what extend do you agree or disagree?

Nowadays, some buildings such as offices and schools have open-space design instead of separate rooms.  Why is it so? Do you think that this is a positive or negative development?
 
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.
 

Question：Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Society benefits more from works 

of great artist than from political leaders. 

sample answer：