FIRST SPEAKER: CASON YONG KWAN XHEN

Good afternoon respected judge, my honorable opponent and members of the audience.
Today, we are indeed honored and privileged to stand before you to present our views on
the debate entitled measurement are meaningless if standard units are not used.'
First, let me introduce my team. I am Cason Yong Kwan Xhen and I am the first speaker. I will
define the key terms of the title and set the boundaries for my team's debate. My second,
third and fourth speakers will strengthen our arguments by presenting various points
supporting our arguments. My last speaker will summaries our team's arguments and firmly
state that measurements are indeed meaningless if standard units are not used in our society.
1. Now let me define the key terms of the title.
2. "Measurement ,meaningless ,standard units and used" are the key terms of
3. the title in our view. The word measurement according to Wikipedia on
4. the internet refers to the size, length, or amount of something, as
5. established by measuring.

The word meaningless in the case of the title means without any purpose or reason and
therefore not worth doing or having according to the Oxford Advanced Learner's English-
Chinese dictionary. What about the word standard units? It means A type unit whose unit-
type code and movement characteristics are described in the type unit characteristics file
and last but not least, the word ' used' means that 'has been belonged to or been used by
somebody else before.'
I strongly speak for the opposition that If standard units are not been used in our society,
measurement is absolutely meaningless as this may seriously caused confusion and
disagreement among people that are using different units of measurement throughout the
world. Thank you.
SECOND SPEAKER: NGU JUN LIN
With the key terms explained, let us examine our title once again. Measurements are
meaningless if standard units are not used.
In the light of our definitions, is this a valid proposition? Let us consider some arguments in
favour of this proposition. Argument #1, If you use units of measurement that aren't standard,
you may end up with a inaccurate result, or a result that no one else would understand.
As an example, If your watch ticks at 47 times per minute and you use your watch to time
something, your result would be pretty useless to someone whose watch ticks at the
Standard International(SI units) 60 times per minute. Besides that, "How long is a piece of
string!" is another way of saying measurements can't be accurate unless standard length
and measures are universally accepted and used.
However, They need not be meaningless. It is simply that the meaning may be apparent to
only a small number of people. If I said "twice as large as my garden", most people who
knew me would know what area I meant - but nobody else would. So it does have meaning,
but only to a selected group. If I don't have a ruler, I might choose to measure the length of
a table in terms of my hand spans. It is a measure that has no meaning to people other than
me, but for me, it works just as well as a measure of "4 feet" would do. So, it may not be
meaningless, but may cause misunderstanding and confusion towards others.
Therefore, this is my argument towards the motion. Thank you.
THIRD SPEAKER: LEE WOEI JIE
Besides the two arguments given by my team member, Ngu Jun Lin .I , Lee Woei Jie will be
giving a speech regarding the pro and cons of using different units of measurements in the
following situations, like shopping at the supermarket, buying cloth at a tailor's shop and
distance to a destination.
First of all ,shopping at the supermarket. Imagine that you are in the supermarket buying
groceries, and 1 kilogram of chicken meat costs RM50! It may indeed astonished you, but it's
a real scene that will happen if standard units are not being used. So, one of the
advantages is we can avoid getting cheated by the dishonest businessman that wish to
earn more profit and money. Other than that, if standard units are properly used, the price of
the product is more fair and reasonable, and because of this, we can reduce our
unnecessary expenses. Besides that, we can also avoid arguments among the people in a
society because of getting different results.
Then, buying cloth at a tailor's shop nearby. The tailor is measuring a client's waist using
improper measuring tools like strings or ropes, and measured out few different solutions. Thus,
using standard units can make a tailor's job easier to convert into different kinds of SI units,
like 1m=100cm, 1cm=10mm in a fast and easy method. Next, we can also get an accurate
measurement after many times of observation and experiment. Besides that, we may avoid
various problems arise when different units are used in our daily life.
Last but not least, distance. Distance is very important to us. So, accurate standard units are
being used to measure distance between a starting point to a specified destination. If
standard units are used, we can ensure that the arrival time to the destination ,so we will be
punctual and have a good time management in the future. In fact, it is more easier to
understand and remember the relationship between two units and convert the units into
different forms. Other than that, if we know the actual distance between two points, we can
cut down the unnecessary costing and expenses wisely. At the same time ,we will save the
money in case for emergency too.
This, therefore is my explanation and arguments regarding those situations given. Thank you
very much.


FOURTH SPEAKER: MOK KEEN CHUNG
Dear honorable judge, fellow debaters and members of the floor, I have presented my
arguments for and against the topic. However, I ,Mok Keen Chung would like to conclude
my speech by firmly stating my stand about the title. I believe that measurements are
meaningless if standard units are not being used .
It is very important to use a standard sets of units and there are a couple of good reasons.
Imagine that a large group of people trying to work together, to solve a problem or build
something big, but doing so in many different kind of languages. If everyone uses the same
system of units, then there is less likelihood of mistakes.
Secondly, it is just easier to communicate and get your idea across. Simply put, if you have a
large number of workers working together, it is best if they can fluently speak a common
language. This is basically why scientist the world over try to use standard units. Or at least it is
why I wish we all use standard units.
Lastly, Some of the problems that may arise if Standard International (SI) units are not used
include conflict or discrepancies in data collection since there is no standard measurement,
conflicting results amongst the various research personalities as well as inaccurate
representation. These are basically the derived units that are mostly expressed in terms of the
base units.
This, therefore, is my stand that measurement is meaningless if standard units are not used.
Thank you very much and have a good day.