EDUCATION

1. Q1: In some countries boarding schools are getting more popular. Is it a positive or negative
development? What are the reasons behind it?

It is a positive development:

 Living at school without parental care -> youngsters take care of themselves. This will build up some
necessary skills for their future.
 Children have to share their room with other friends, so they can learn how to work and live in
harmony with others, improving their social skills
 Roommates share learning materials or develop study plans for each other, helping them to get
better learning results.
 Living in school can save much time for commuting to and from school, so Students can concentrate
more on their studies

It is a negative development:

 Because of mental immaturity and the lack of parental supervision, it is easy for children to be lured
into social problems.
 The costs of housing and schooling fees may become financial burden for students’ families.

Reasons:

 In some parts of a country, there are a few schools located in the centre => students’ long
commuting distance every day to get school => a demand for boarding school.
 Running a boarding school is a profitable business => many entrepreneurs open private boarding
schools to make more money.

2. Q2: Some people say that history can teach us many important values and lessons, but others
think it is unnecessary to learn from the past. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

History teaches us many important values and lessons:

 History teaches individuals about the contributions and sacrifice of our forefathers in the national
building and defending process.
 Young generations will not forget about their origin and take responsibility for maintaining and
promoting these national values for next generations.
 Through historical events, youngsters can improve their knowledge of their national cultures and
customs.
 History demonstrates bad behaviors or failures in the past, so the young can draw lessons to avoid
similar outcomes in the future

It is unnecessary to learn history:

 Computer engineers need computer sciences and show innovative abilities in technological fields,
which may be unrelated to historical lessons.
 Learning History in many schools is all about memorizing dates and numbers -> irrelevant to their
future lives as life keeps changing

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 3. Q3: Some people believe that students at schools and universities can learn more from teachers
than from the internet. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Students at schools and universities can learn more from teachers:

 Teachers understand learners’ abilities, study habits, personal aptitudes to apply the most suited
learning methods in classroom
 Teachers know how to motivate and encourage them to focus on study and help students to solve
psychological problems.
 The internet provides lots of information related to almost every field of life, but teachers play an
irreplaceable role in orientating students towards some focal points.
 Without the teachers’ careful guidance and encouragement, many students can ignore study and not
show all abilities to make their dreams come true.
 From their experience, teachers can give valuable lessons about how to overcome life problems to
become stronger in their life.

4. Q4: Some universities offer online courses as an alternative to classes delivered on campus. Do you
think this is a positive or negative development?

This trend is good:

 This trend creates more educational opportunities for people, especially people from remote areas,
helping to enhance citizens’ educational level.
 People can arrange their suitable time to attend online classes without interfering their other
activities.
 Online learning, especially at tertiary level will relieve various problems in big cities such as traffic
jam, housing shortage (universities are located in city centres)

This trend is bad:

 Internet disconnection can interrupt their learning.

 Too many distractions at home -> lower learning productivity and morale
 A decrease in face-to-face interaction between students -> soft skills, such as verbal communication
and empathy are affected
5. Q5: Some people think teachers have a greater influence than parents on the development of a
child’s intelligence and social skills. Do you agree or disagree?

Agree: Teachers have more effects on the development of children’s intelligence and social skills:

 Children spend much time at school, so they often learn and interact with their teachers => teachers
have great influence on them.
 Teachers have professional knowledge of teaching methodology so they know how to work with
students effectively and develop their skills.

Disagree: Parents have more effects on the development of children’s intelligence and social skills:

 The intelligence of a child can be inherited from parents

 Children are closest to parents at the very early age when they are likely most curious and keenest to
learn => they tend to absorb almost everything their parents teach them.

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 6. Q6: Some people think parents themselves need to spend time reading or telling stories to
children, while others think children can read by themselves through a variety of sources such as
books and the Internet. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Parents should read or tell stories to children:

 Parents can choose suitable books or stories to tell to their children and help them to draw lessons
from stories, enabling children to expand their knowledge.
 When parents spend time on reading or tell stories to children, their relationship can be tightened.

Children should read by themselves:

 This develops children’s self-study and their activeness.

 Children can find books or stories they enjoy, helping to nurture their love for reading.
7. Q7: In many countries, more and more young people are unable to find jobs after graduation.
What problems do you think youth unemployment will cause to the individual and society? what
can be done to cope with this problem?

Some problems come from youth unemployment:

 Jobless youngsters will not have money to cover their living cost and become a burden for family.
This can make these people pessimistic and stressed.
 Governments may waste much national budget for unemployed youth, causing the lack of funding
for other important areas.
 To have money to support their own life, many jobless youngsters are liable to commit crimes. This
may cause an increase in the crime rate.

Some solutions to deal with this problem:

 Youngsters should be equipped with more knowledge and skills to be able to be suitable for many
different jobs.
 Youngsters should accept jobs even in remote areas instead of only finding jobs in big cities.
 Governments can create better conditions for companies to develop and expand their scale of
production. This can offer more job opportunities for young people.

8. Q8: Some teachers argue that students learn more effectively when they study in groups, while
others believe that it is better for them to study alone. Discuss both views. What is your opinion?

Students should study in group:

 Some hard-working or positive students in the group can give other teammates motivation to make
progress.
 Each group member who has different strength can support each other to better individual’s learning
result.
 Students can have a chance to communicate and share with each other, enabling them to have more
friends and learn how to listen to and help others.

Students should study alone:

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  Learning alone, students can focus more on learning instead of chatting or playing games while
working in a group -> improving productivity.
 Learning alone can develop students’ self-study and make them more independent.

9. Q9: In some countries, young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing
high school and starting universities. Discuss both advantages and disadvantages for young people
who decide to do this.

Advantages of having a gap year before going to university:

 Young people may have more knowledge and real-life experience when having a gap year before
attending university. -> become more mature and independent.
 They may have time to do temporary jobs -> save up money for university, helping their parents to
reduce worries about finance.

Disadvantages of having a gap year before going to university:

 After a year without learning, the young may lose their learning momentum and they do not want to
continue studying.
 Graduate one year later => miss some job opportunities.
10. Q10: Many people who leave school hold a negative attitude towards learning. Why does this
happen? How should the problem be solved?

Reasons:

 These people are probably stressed by high requirements of subjects and many continuous
examinations.
 They may face school violence from friends and teachers.
 Some subjects may be boring to students, so they are not interested in studying.

Solutions

 Teachers should reduce the number of tests in an academic year make them more suitable for
students' capacity.
 Violent actions among students have to be punished heavily and teachers should give constructive
comments instead of using corporal punishment.
 Teachers can often organize many exciting but educational games so that students can be more
engaged in the lesson.

11. Q11: Higher education is funded in several ways: all costs paid by the government; all costs paid by
students; all costs paid by students with a government loan which must be repaid after graduation.
What are the advantages of these options? Which is your choice?

Government granting:

 Economic benefits: There are more students going to university, so the quality of national labor force
can be improved

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  Social benefits: higher educational levels -> form a more civilized society -> fewer crimes and social
issues

All costs paid by students

 Governments, without aiding money for students, will have more budgets to develop other
important fields.
 Students take more responsibility towards learning -> Better academic performance

Government loan:

 All students have a chance to attend university.

 Students will try their best to study so that they will have a job after graduating and pay all debts.
12. Q12: Memorization of information by frequent repetition (rote learning) plays a role in most
education systems. Discuss the usefulness of this method of learning and its demerits, and give
your own opinion.

The usefulness of rote learning:

 Students can quickly remember knowledge without having to think critically.

 This learning method is easy for most primary students to apply to remember information.

The demerits of rote learning:

 Students may not deeply understand the knowledge, leading to quickly forgetting knowledge after a
period of time.
 As a result of getting knowledge without understanding, students get difficulties in using them in
doing exercise or in reality.

13. Q13: Many people today find that the cost of attaining a university-level education is extremely
high for the students and their families. What are the causes of this situation, and how can
governments, universities and the students themselves overcome the problem?

Causes:

 In some countries, governments tend to reduce the financial support, so students and families have
to pay almost all the school fee.
 University education requires advanced facilities and modern equipment to support students to
prepare for their future career, which demands investment.

Solutions:

 Governments should grant students with a low-interest student loan, especially the poor students.
 University can offer many scholarships to lower the financial burden on students.
 Students may have gap years to earn enough money before going to universities.

14. Q14: Some people believe that a college or university education should be available to all students.
Others believe that higher education should be available only to good students. Discuss both
views.

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A college or university education should be available to all students:

 When all students have a chance to study at university, the quality of labor force will be raised,
leading to well-trained workforce -> boost the economy.
 Students, especially those who are poor can expand their knowledge and skills => get a job
 improve their life quality in the future

The availability of university is only provided to ONLY good learners:

 This policy is likely to encourage students to try their best to get good learning results.
 With a limited state budget, it is impossible for government to help all students.
 Good students are worth to attend university without paying schooling tuitions as recognition for
their effort and diligence.

15. Q15: Some people believe that university students should be required to attend classes. Others
believe that going to classes should be optional for students. Discuss both views and give your
opinion?

University students should be required to attend classes:

 The requirement of constant attendance at classes may form students’ learning habits and make
them more responsible for their study.
 Attending classes regularly can help students maintain the interaction with their classmates coming
from different places => improve their communication skills and expand their knowledge about
different cultures and traditions.

Going to classes at university should be optional:

 Many learners already have great knowledge about some subjects; therefore, it is time-consuming
for them to attend these classes.
 With the assistance of modern technologies, students may take part in online classes at any places
without being involved in classes in schools.

16. Q16: Some people think that university students should live in university dormitories. However,
others believe that it is a good idea for students at university to dwell in apartments. Discuss both
views and give your opinions?

Students at university should live in university dormitories:

 Dormitories are often built in university campus, so students can save time for going to classes or
libraries.
 Dormitories require students to follow a curfew or regulations under the control of supervisors. This
can make their parents less worried.
 The renting price of dormitories is probably low, so parents can reduce a part of financial burden.

University students should live in apartments:

 They will have a private space for their personal activities because of not having to share living space.

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  They will not be restricted about their time, which create favorable conditions for them to do part-
time jobs to get more knowledge and skills.

17. Q17: Some people think that examinations have some bad effects on both students and teachers.
Some people say they do a good job in the evaluation of students’ performance. Discuss both
views.

Examinations affect badly on students and teachers:

 Many students are heavily stressed before examinations take place.

 Many pupils only learn with the aim of getting high scores instead of understanding their knowledge
=> They cannot apply knowledge in real life.
 When teachers teach theoretical knowledge for testing yearly, they may be deprived of the
opportunities to enhance their expertise.

Examinations can evaluate students’ performance:

 Examinations can test students’ understanding and let them know whether they are getting better or
worse in study.
 The results of examination can show the quality of learning and teaching of students and teachers.
 Exams help students to know their mistakes to correct, enabling them to make progress.

18. Q18: Some people think that, in order to improve the quality of education, students should be
encouraged to evaluate and criticize their teachers. Others feel that this will result in a loss of
respect and discipline in the classroom. Discuss both view and give your own opinion?

Students should evaluate their teachers:

 Listening to students’ feedback enables teachers to understand more about their students’ needs
and difficulties.
 Students’ feedback helps teachers find suitable teaching methods or improve the quality of lessons.
 Feedbacks from students help teachers to develop their strongpoints and correct their weakness in
their professional skills and knowledge

Students should not evaluate their teachers:

 Students have little knowledge, so they cannot evaluate exactly their teachers’ professional skills and
knowledge or even give wrong comments which can affect these teachers badly.
 To get good feedbacks from students, some teachers may not be strict to their students.
 Some students may take advantage of feedbacks to give harsh or disrespectful criticism to their
teachers, which proves that there is no discipline at school
19. Q19: Some people think the university education function should prepare the students for
employment but others believe university education can offer many other functions. Discuss both
views and give your own opinion.

The purpose of higher education is to prepare students for employment:

 Students get professional knowledge from university so they can be well prepared for a job.
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  They have more experience and necessary skills through extracurricular activities for future career.
 Many universities cooperate with companies to make sure that their students have more chances to
be employed.

University education provides other functions:

 It helps students to make more friends.

 Students can understand more about their own passions, strengths or talents. This may help them to
make their dreams come true.
 There are many clubs giving chances for students to help other people. This can contribute to
developing students’ moral awareness and responsibility to community.

20. Some children think that some subjects such as mathematics and philosophy are too difficult for
them to study at school, so they should be made optional rather than compulsory. To what extent
do you agree or disagree?

Students should be free to choose subjects:

 Choosing favorite subjects can bring motivation to students, so they can focus on lessons and try
their best in studying. That enables them to get good learning results.
 Forcing students to learn subjects which are unnecessary for their future jobs may waste their time
and efforts.

Students should be forced to learn Math or Philosophy:

 Learning Math can develop students’ logical thinking, which is the foundation to learn other subjects
well.
 Philosophy teaches students some basic principles of how things develop in life which can be used to
explain matters and solve problems in many professions.

21. Some people believe that the subjects and lesson contents should be decided by the authorities
such as the government. Some people argue that teachers should make the choice. Discuss the
both viewpoints and give your opinion.

The government decides the subjects and lesson contents:

 Educators and scientists have expertise and know global development trends, so they can decide
educational curriculum best suited for learners
 With the same national curriculum, it is easy to evaluate and rank schools or educational activities

Teachers select the lesson contents:

 Teachers spend much time with students => understand learners’ dreams, personal abilities and
family backgrounds. So, they can decide what should be taught for students at school
 Example: Teachers can choose relevant practical examples or local events to put into lessons so
students can link between theoretical knowledge and real life situations.

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COMMUNICATION, TRAVELLING

22. It is now possible for scientists and tourists to travel to the outer space. Do the advantages
outweigh the disadvantages?

Advantages of space exploration:

 This is a newer and more interesting experience for visitors because travelling around the city or to
other nations have become too common
 Thanks to flights exploring space, scientists may provide more knowledge of the universe to the
public.
 In some cases, they may find new planets for human beings to live in so people can avoid potential
disasters which may happen to the earth.

Disadvantages of space exploration:

 Travellers can face health problems because of extreme weather conditions in outer space.
 Travelling to the outer universe can pollute spaces when space craft discharge lots of gas emissions.
 This kind of travelling only benefits a small group of individuals (the rich and scientists)
23. Some people think travelling abroad is a valuable experience for young people. Others think it
wastes too much time and expense. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Travelling abroad is a valuable experience for the young:

 The young can know and understand many foreign cultures, traditions or customs, helping them to
adapt to changes or tolerate differences.
 This is a chance to learn, practice and improve their foreign language skills in real-life situations with
native speakers.
 Travelling overseas give the young a chance to meet new friends, eat many kinds of food. These are
unforgettable and valuable experiences in their life.
 This is a chance for the young to know how to buy a plane ticket, book a hotel room, choose food
stores, visit magnificent scenes, which makes them independent and grown up.

It is expensive and time-consuming to travel overseas:

 Tours to foreign holiday destinations waste too much time to stay in their seat and sleep on the
plane.
 The prices of food or souvenirs at tourist destinations are higher than usual.
 Famous overseas holiday resorts often provide high-quality entertainment and accommodation
services, so the costs are too expensive

24. Some people point out that there will be less international travel in the future. Do you think it is a
positive or negative trend?

Less international travel in the future is good:

 There will be a remarkable fall in the use of transportation for global travel, so the amount of toxic
emission could decrease.
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  Plastic and other kinds of waste, which are thrown away thoughtlessly, in the tourist attractions, can
be reduced in large numbers.

Less international travel in the future is bad:

 The nations will collect less money from tourism because of the falling number of international
tourists.
 This trend can cause a decrease in the promotion of national cultural image across the globe and
cross-cultural awareness and understanding.

25. International tourism has become one of the biggest industries in the world. Some people think it
unfortunately causes a lot of tension rather than understanding between people from different
cultures. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

International tourism causes a lot of tension:

 Overseas trips are often too short for visitors to deeply understand cultures and customs of the
foreign places, leading to misunderstanding.
 International visitors cannot adapt to cultures or habits of local people which totally go against their
views and lifestyles.
 International visitors may suffer from some troubles like paying much higher prices for
accommodations and local products as souvenirs.

International tourism helps to link people from different cultures:

 Taking foreign trips gives visitors more chances to talk and share with people in other nations, which
may develop their mutual understanding. This helps many people to make more friends from various
areas.
 In many cases, international visitors receive a warm welcome and friendliness from the local. This
can create good relationships among those who come from different countries.

26. More and more people use private cars instead of taking public transport. What are the reasons
for this trend? How can the government encourage people to take public transport?

The reasons why more people use private cars rather than taking public transport:

 Using private cars brings users convenience and mobility.

 People use expensive cars to show off their wealth.

Some ways government can do to make people use public transport:

 Governments can improve the quality of public vehicles so that people may feel more comfortable
like free wifi.
 It is a good way to reduce the fare of using public transportations.
 Governments can organize campaigns to educate people about the good benefits of using public
transport.

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WORKPLACES, JOBS

27. Q28: Some countries have introduced a law to limit working hours for employees. Why is this kind
of law introduced? Do you think it is a positive or negative development?

Some reasons why this law is introduced:

 Parents spend too much time working and ignore childcare, leading to a large number of children
getting involved in social evils. This contributes to cause increasing crime rate.
 Employees may feel so stressed and tired because they often have to work overtime, causing a
decrease in productivity.
 Husbands and wives have less time for sharing and talking together, leading to their
misunderstanding or conflicts. This may be a main reason for a growth in the marriage break-up in
society.

This law can have both negative and positive impacts:

 Negative: Companies may get lower profits for reducing working hours of employees.
 Positive:
- Letting workers have free time to relax can ensure their healthy conditions, helping to work more
efficiently.
- Applying this policy helps adults to have time for their family so that they can take good care of
their children or strengthen family relationships.

28. Q28: As most people spend a major part of their adult life at work, job satisfaction is an important
element of individual well-being. What factors contribute to job satisfaction? How realistic is the
expectation of job satisfaction for all workers?

Some factors contribute to job satisfaction:

 Employees can feel satisfied when their effort and hard work are praised and recognized.
 Workers can receive deserving salary, even get reward for their effort, which enables them to cover
their living costs.
 Workers have a friendly working environment and are free to show and develop their skills and
abilities.

It is quite hard to get job satisfaction for all employees:

 People may have little choice of jobs because of economic crisis. Therefore, may workers may accept
jobs that are irrelevant to their majors or unsuitable for their abilities.
 Many employees get jobs that differ to their dreams, passions and abilities but are well-paid.

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 29. Q29: Countries with a long average working time are more economically successful than those
countries which do not have a long working time. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Working for a long time causes less effectiveness in work:

 Working during long hours can endanger workers’ health. This causes physical deterioration and
early retirement.
 It is hard to keep a healthy lifestyle due to the lack of physical exercise, leading to the risks of heart
diseases, diabetes and stress-related diseases.
 Working for a long time may cause the lack of time for family, so family relationships become more
and more separated.
 Many workers many feel overexploited, which make them not try to work and become less effective
in their work.

Working in long time brings productivity.

 Working for a long time means to solve much more workload, helping to increase productivity.
Therefore, business gain more profits.
 Companies make use of robots and technical production lines to lengthen working time. This helps to
increase work productivity and profits.

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