A. Read the following text.

Then, answer the questions

......................................................
A few year ago, distance learning was seen as an inferior way. Nowadays, even famous
and established traditional colleges and universities are providing distance learning courses and
it is generally considered a way to improve one’s life.
However, people still argue whether distance learning has more advantages or
disadvantages. Some of them who see the benefit of distance learning will say that distance
learning needs no commuting. Of course, it saves money and time that students would take.
Furthermore, distance learning can be done at any student’s convenience. The classes of distance
learning are mostly a synchronous. It means that students do not have to attend a lecture at a
fixed particular time and place. Students can review the assignments and do their homework
during off-hours or from home. In addition, distance learning provides more accessibility. No
one can deny it. People with limited mobility may encounter the problem when they attend
traditional classes. With the online class system, the problem solved.
Despite the many advantages, other people will see that distance learning is costly and
needs complex technology. To attend online learning, a student must have a computer with
access to the internet. Admittedly, such technology devices are not always available for common
students. Another disadvantage of distance learning is that it does not provide immediate
feedback. Unlikely traditional classroom, students have to wait for the feedback and comments
until the instructor has reviewed the works and sent responses to them. Most of the time, the
students will study alone. Distance learners may feel isolated or miss the social interaction that
comes in a traditional classroom.
Regarding the individual’s learning style, many students are able to learn when there is
live interaction between them and the available accompanying teacher while others don’t really
need it. So before deciding a choice of attending distance learning or not, each student needs to
do a fair analysis regarding the kind of person he/she is.
1. What is the title of the text?
2. The text discusses that distance learning benefits students who ....
3. What is the main idea of paragraph two?
4. According to the text, one of the disadvantages of distance learning is that it ....
5. People with limited mobility may encounter the problem when they attend traditional
classes.
The similar meaning of the underlined word is....

B. Learn the following explanation.

Discussion Text Type

The purpose of Discussion Text is to inform readers about a particular topic, issue, or question
by presenting different perspectives, opinions, or arguments.
Generic Structures
– Issue : stating the issue which is to discussed
– Argument For : presenting the point in supporting the presented issue
– Argument Against : presenting other points which disagree to the supporting point
– Conclusion / recommendation : stating the writer’ recommendation of the discourse
Language Features of Discussion Text
– Introducing category or generic participant
– Using thinking verb; feel, hope, believe, etc
– Using contrastive conjunction; however, on the other hand, but, in other side, although, etc
– Using modalities; must, should, could, may, etc
– Using adverbial of manner; deliberately, hopefully, etc
– Simple present

C. 1. Analyze the following text based on the generic structure.

2. Underlined the language features of the text.
Video Games
___________________:
Nowadays, the video games industry is developing rapidly. It becomes a multi-billion dollar
industry. Video games have become an important part not only in the children’ life, but also in
the adults’ life. Nevertheless, there is an argument whether video games bring good or bad
influences on children.
____________Pros_______:
People who have a pro argument claim that video games give a lot of benefits, playing video
games is a good way to kill children’s boredom. It can refresh the children’s mind after a tiring
school day. Moreover, they also argue that video games can trigger children to be more creative
because the games provide challenging ways to win. In other words, they believe that the video
games can actually sharpen a human’s brain.
______________cons_____:
Conversely, some people believe that video games make children lazy. They argue that playing
video games is addictive. As a consequence, most of the children prefer playing video games to
studying. These children find it hard to concentrate on their study because they always think
about how to spend more time playing video games. In fact, there are also some children who
skip their extracurricular lessons, just because they want to play video games. In addition, most
of the video games often expose too much violence. Two years ago in the USA, for example, a
student shot his teacher and some of his friends. Newspapers said that the boy was deeply
influenced by the actions in the video games he used to play with.
_______________recom____:
It is obvious that video games have more disadvantages than advantages. Therefore, parents
should be very careful in selecting the appropriate games for their children.