64. Be self-employed, work for someone else, or own a business? - TOEFL Writing Topics 064

TOEFL Writing Topic #064

64. Be self-employed, work for someone else, or own a business?

Some people prefer to work for themselves or own a business. Others prefer to work for an employer. Would you rather be self-employed, work for someone else, or own a business? Use specific reasons to explain your choice.

There are advantages to all three kinds of employment. Owning one's own business might very well be the fastest way

to fortune. Working for an employer, on the other hand, is often less risky and usually there are fewer responsibilities. However, I would like to be self-employed. Being self-employed would cater to my strength of working independently, it would give me a maximum of professional and personal freedom, and I would not have to take responsibility for the continued financial security of any employees and their families.

I am a perfectionist and enjoy working by myself. When I work in a team or together with a group of people, usually the others' quality standards are much lower than my own. Furthermore, I like to be involved in every step of the development process. For example, if I could become a journalist I would like to be self-employed because I would be responsible for researching, writing, and editing. At most major newspapers and magazines these are three different areas.

Another great benefit of being self-employed is the ability to balance personal life and career. When working for a major company I would have to work on assignments that don't interest me very much. Also, it would be difficult for me to take vacation time whenever I needed. However, as a self-employed person I can decide which jobs I want to take and which jobs to reject. Nobody would order me around. Also, I could design my own work schedule and adjust or change it if it interfered with my personal life.

Lastly, as a self-employed professional I would neither have to give orders nor take orders. After all, I don't work for anybody and nobody works for me. As I am not very fond of managing people and even less interested in being bossed around, the independent or self-employed work would suit me just fine.

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49. Is face-to-face communication better than other types of communication? - TOEFL Writing Topics 049

TOEFL Writing Topic #049

49. Is face-to-face communication better than other types of communication?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Face-to-face communication is better than other types of communication, such as letters, email, or telephone calls. Use specific reasons and details to support your answer. Page 52 of 201

While many modern forms of communication like phone calls, email, and letters, are extremely convenient, in my

opinion, nothing beats speaking to another person face-to-face. Face-to-face conversation is the ultimate form of human communication because it is interactive, and allows a broader range of possibilities for communication in the intricacies of tone of voice, body language, and can add the intimacy of touch.

The first and most obvious advantage that face-to-face communication has over a letter and email is that there is the ability for an interactive conversation. If the sender of a letter or an email does not write clearly, or the recipient does not understand part of the correspondence, then much time must be spent to clear up the misunderstanding. In a face-to-face conversation, misunderstandings are easily dealt with because of the immediate and interactive nature of a face-to-face conversation.

The argument might be made that telephones and instant messaging services like MSN and ICQ are equally viable formats for interactive conversation, with the added benefit of being available over long distances. I would still argue that face-to-face conversation is better because you can see the other person. Not all communication is verbal; the meaning of much of what we say depends on our body language and tone of voice. Joking and irony are particularly difficult to express, identify, and enjoy without seeing the expression on someone's face, or watching the movements of their body.

Finally, if the goal of communication is to maintain or deepen a relationship with someone, business partners, friends, husbands and wives, or parents and children, face-to-face communication offers the option of communication by touch that is unavailable even if we could communicate by video. Trust and respect between businesses partners can be established with a firm handshake. No amount of body language can convey the excitement of a high-five between friends, and no number of words can communicate the comforting embrace of a loved one. Touch is the first foundation of our human relationships, before spoken language, and it is only available when people communicate face to face.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 065

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 065
Author: Li Xiaolai

65. Insects are often regarded as pests because some bite, sting, spread diseases, or compete with humans for crop plants. Nevertheless, without insects to pollinate flowers, the human race would soon run out of food because many of the crop plants that we rely on would not be able to reproduce. In addition, insects are of aesthetic importance — some insects, such as dragonflies, beetles, and butterflies, are widely thought to be among the most beautiful of all animals.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 064

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 064
Author: Li Xiaolai

64. The praying mantis is a carnivore that feeds on smaller insects, such as flies, crickets, and grasshoppers. Its name reflects the prayer-like posture it assumes while waiting for its victims to venture within reach of its long, barbed forelegs.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 063

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 063
Author: Li Xiaolai

63. For sheer variety and abundance, insects rank among the most successful animals on Earth. Dragonflies, unlike butterflies, do not create a chrysalis and undergo complete metamorphosis. Instead, they undergo a series of small transformations until they finally develop into the imago – the adult, winged form.

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48. Reasons why people work other than earning a living - TOEFL Writing Topics 048

TOEFL Writing Topic #048

48. Reasons why people work other than earning a living

People work because they need money to live. What are some other reasons that people work? Discuss one or more of these reasons. Use specific examples and details to support your answer.

One of the most overlooked reasons why people work is to help other people. Government officials, social and charity

workers, and religious organizations, and others all work not only for their own salaries, but also work for the common good. They labor for others because of their moral convictions, for reasons of personal reciprocity, and because they want to make society more stable, thereby benefiting themselves and others.

Some of the most famous charity workers in the world have been affiliated with religious groups. For instance, many of the foreigners living in the poor regions of Africa are doctors, teachers, and other professionals who are paid by religious organizations to help the poor, sick, and needy people there. These professionals could make much more money if they worked in rich countries. They have chosen to help poor people because they believe their religion tells them to help people who cannot help themselves. They are working for others for moral or religious reasons.

Some people work for other people because at some time in their lives, someone else has helped them. Many teachers can tell stories about a particular teacher who changed their lives. The gift a great teacher gave to them inspired them to become teachers themselves. Likewise, many people become doctors because a doctor saved one of their family member's life and they felt like they owed a debt of gratitude that money could not repay. To such people, the motivation for working is not the paycheck at the end of the month, but the smile on a child's face when they read their first book, or the look of joy on new parents' faces when they see their healthy newborn baby.

Finally, some people work for others because they believe that society is only safe and stable when all of its members are happy. These people include good government officials who try to make policies that benefit the poorer classes of society. They know that only by making policies that help poor people live richer, happier lives can they lower crime, sickness, and poverty rates, and make society safer and happier for all citizens.

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63. Can difficult experiences become valuable lessons? - TOEFL Writing Topics 063

TOEFL Writing Topic #063

63. Can difficult experiences become valuable lessons?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Most experiences in our lives that seemed difficult at the time become valuable lessons for the future. Use reasons and specific examples to support our answer.

Sometimes experiences that are supposed to be easy and enjoyable turn difficult because unforeseen troubles arise.

At other times problems simply turn out to be more difficult than expected, and this, in turn, causes great frustration. However, most difficult experiences will become valuable lessons for the future. They help us anticipate and prevent future mistakes, they allow us to recognize and solve problems more quickly, and they also make it easier for us to endure hard times.

After our family car broke down in the middle of nowhere, my father realized that he had taken his toolbox out of the trunk earlier that day. He, my mother, and I spent nearly the whole afternoon in the sweltering summer heat of late July waiting for the car mechanic to arrive. It turned out that there was only a minor problem with the engine that my father could have easily fixed himself had he had the right tools. That evening he put the toolbox back into the car and vowed never to make the same mistake again.

Math used to be a very difficult subject for me, but once I learned how to identify and distinguish the individual equations it became a whole lot easier. While I used to sweat blood and tears of frustration over my textbook, because I could not figure out where to begin, I am now familiar with the problems. As a result I solve them in less time and I am much less frustrated.

My mother once told me that I was a much more difficult and painful birth than my younger sister. She joked with me that, as a result, I should treat her better and I was supposed to do more chores around the house. However, when she saw how upset her off-hand comment made me, she hurriedly explained that, while the time of delivery and other circumstances were nearly identical, being pregnant with me had prepared her for my sister's birth. The birth of her second child was easier to endure.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 062

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 062
Author: Li Xiaolai

62. The availability of new and more effective drugs – substances that affects the function of living cells used in medicine to diagnose, cure, prevent the occurrence of diseases and disorders, and prolong the life of patients with incurable conditions – such as antibiotics, which fight bacterial infections, and vaccines, which prevent diseases caused by bacteria and viruses, helped increase the average American’s life span from about 60 years in 1900 to about 78 years in 2005. During the 20th century, drugs enabled the eradication of smallpox, once a widespread and often fatal disease. By the early 21st century, vaccines had led to the near eradication of poliomyelitis, once feared as a cause of paralysis.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 061

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 061
Author: Li Xiaolai

61. Among the most important classes of biomolecules are nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. & (1) Nucleic acids are responsible for storing and transferring genetic information. They are enormous molecules made up of long strands of subunits, called bases, that are arranged in a precise sequence. These are "read" by other components of the cell and used as a guide in making proteins. & (2) Proteins are large molecules built up of small subunits called amino acids. The proteins of greatest interest to biochemists are the enzymes, which serve as catalysts, of chemical reactions. & (3) Carbohydrates are the basic fuel molecules of the cell. they contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in approximately equal amounts. Green plants and some bacteria use a process known as photosynthesis to make simple carbohydrates (sugars) from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. Animals, however, obtain their carbohydrates from foods. Once a cell possesses carbohydrates, it may break them down to yield chemical energy or use them as raw material to produce other biomolecules. & (4) Lipids are fatty substances that play a variety of roles in the cell. Some are held in storage for use as high-energy fuel; others serve as essential components of the cell membrane.

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47. A large company or a small one, which do you want to work for? - TOEFL Writing Topics 047

TOEFL Writing Topic #047

47. A large company or a small one, which do you want to work for?

Some people prefer to work for a large company. Others prefer to work for a small company. Which would you prefer? Use specific reasons and details to support your choice.

While some people enjoy the relative comfort, stability, and prestige of working at a large company, I prefer to

live life on the edge. Given the choice, I would much prefer to work at small company where I could have more responsibility, more excitement, closer relationships with my coworkers, and a greater sense of accomplishment than I could have at a big company.

If I worked at a large company, my role at the company would be highly specialized and narrowly defined. At a smaller company everyone has to take on extra responsibilities to make the business work. For instance, if I worked at a small computer software company as a programmer, I might not only program, but also have to make trips to potential clients for sales. At a large company, the sales department would talk to clients, and I would be stuck in the same boring routine every day with less responsibility. I might less in touch with what the clients wanted if my responsibilities were limited to programming.

I crave excitement, so the idea of working for a small company particularly suits me. While working at a large company can offer more job security, workers don't usually get any of the annual profits. But if you work for a small company, profits are more likely to be shared at the end of the year. This means that the harder you work, the more potential there is to make a large amount of money. It is also especially gratifying when you can see how your hard work helped to build or save the company, a feeling of accomplishment that is difficult to attain when working in a large company.

Finally, working together in a small company creates a sense of special closeness between colleagues. You have to both trust and depend on each other for everything. This closeness is not only between people within the company but can also extend to your clients and suppliers, all of whom you can get to know on a first name basis. Business deals become less impersonal and more pleasurable when you work with people you trust and like. This trust is both deeper and easier to build when you work for a smaller company.

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46. What makes a good son or daughter? - TOEFL Writing Topics 046

TOEFL Writing Topic #046

46. What makes a good son or daughter?

What are the important qualities of a good son or daughter? Have these qualities changed or remained the same over time in your culture? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

In traditional Chinese society, a person's most important relationship was that between a parent and a child. The

only measure of whether a child was good or bad was whether or not they were obedient to their parents' wishes.

Traditionally a Chinese family had many children. Boys were expected to go to school and, after they grew up, to have a son of their own, and to manage the family's affairs. When his parents grew old, a son was expected to live with and care for them. A girl's parents would usually arrange her marriage to someone who she did not love and without consulting her. After she was married, she was no longer a part of her biological family; instead she became an adopted daughter of her husband's family and had to respect her husband's parents as she would her own parents. She was also expected to bear her husband a son. A child who broke these norms, defied or disrespected their parents was seen as worthless or immoral at best, and could legally be killed by their parents in extreme cases.

Today of course, China is very different. Chinese children are still expected to respect their parents, but society is not as conservative as it used to be. When a Chinese son gets married, he will often prefer not to live in the same house with his parents, although he might still feel quite obligated to care for them in their old age. The greatest strides have been made by Chinese women, who now hope that their daughters grow up to marry someone that they love, and who is able to take good care of them.

The major revolution in the Chinese family since 1980s has been the introduction of the one-child policy. Since Chinese families are now usually only allowed to have one child, the roles of parent and child have almost been reversed! Today's children in China, while still expected to treat their parents with respect, have become the "little emperors and empresses" of their families. Many "little emperors" are so doted on by their immediate and extended families that they become very spoiled, demanding toys, candy, and attention all day long. Because of the changing structure of the Chinese family, the bonds between parent and child, while still of primary importance, are characterized less by rules and respect and more by love.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 060

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 060
Author: Li Xiaolai

60. Virus, infectious agent found in virtually all life forms, including humans, animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria, consist of genetic material — either deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) — surrounded by a protective coating of protein, called a capsid, with or without an outer lipid envelope.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 059

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 059
Author: Li Xiaolai

59. Bacteria lack a true nucleus, a feature that distinguishes them from plant and animal cells. In plants and animals the saclike nucleus carries genetic material in the form of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Bacteria also have DNA but it floats within the cell, usually in a loop or coil. A tough but resilient protective shell surrounds the bacterial cell.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 058

Author: Li Xiaolai

58. Flower, is the reproductive organ of most seed-bearing plants. Flowers carry out the multiple roles of sexual reproduction, seed development, and fruit production. Many plants produce highly visible flowers that have a distinctive size, color, or fragrance. Almost everyone is familiar with beautiful flowers such as the blossoms of roses, orchids, and tulips. But many plants — including oaks, beeches, maples, and grasses — have small, green or gray flowers that typically go unnoticed. Whether eye-catching or inconspicuous, all flowers produce the male or female sex cells required for sexual reproduction. Botanists call the cone — bearing plants gymnosperms, which means naked seeds; they refer to flowering plants as angiosperms, which means enclosed seeds. Flowers typically are composed of four parts, arranged in concentric rings attached to the tip of the stem. From innermost to outermost, these whorls are the pistil, stamens, petals, and sepals.

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45. Which kind of life do you like, get up early or get up late? - TOEFL Writing Topics 045

TOEFL Writing Topic #045

45. Which kind of life do you like, get up early or get up late?

Some people prefer to get up early in the morning and start the day's work. Others prefer to get up later in the day and work until late at night. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice.

When I was a kid and didn't want to go to bed early, my father always used to say, "The early bird gets the worm." I

certainly knew what he meant: people who stay up late at night aren't able to get up early and take full advantage of the new day's opportunities. I'm not sure how wise I am, but I can certainly feel that getting a good night's sleep and an early start help's me do a full days work. I

However, every job or task always has unforeseen problems and complications. A trip to the] post office seems simple enough, but could be complicated and lengthened by heavy traffic, forgetting to bring money or addresses, or long lines. When I need to do many things in a day, a| delay at the post office can negatively affect all of my other tasks. To minimize these potential negative effects, I try and get an early start that leaves me plenty of time later in the day to finish my other tasks.

Another important reason to get up before 8:00 a.m. is that businesses usually start their workdays by 9:00 a.m. at the latest. A person who wakes up at 10:00 a.m. has already lost two precious business hours. This gives them less time to go to the bank, the post office, or deal with any company or government office that keeps regular business hours. People who get up early have the extra benefit of all of the hours of a full business day during which they can be more productive than they can during non-business hours.

Finally, getting up early and going to sleep early is a fairly standard schedule to which most of society adheres. If I adhere to it as well, I will have more time to spend with my family and friends. If I get up late and stay up late, I will not only lose opportunities to interact with others during business hours, I will also lose chances to interact with people because they are asleep! This would, be all right if I were a hermit, but since I enjoy the company of others, I prefer to be an "early bird."

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62. What do you appreciate most in a friend? - TOEFL Writing Topics 062

TOEFL Writing Topic #062

62. What do you appreciate most in a friend?

What do you want most in a friend — someone who is intelligent, or someone who has a sense of humor, or someone who is reliable? Which one of these characteristics is most important to you? Use reasons and specific examples to explain your choice.

I appreciate all three qualities in my friends. It is important to me that my friends are intelligent, because I

value intellectually stimulating conversation on meaningful topics. On the other hand, a friend with a good sense of humor can entertain and understands how to ease my sorrows by making me laugh in difficult times. However, only the reliable friend, by virtue of his dependability and loyalty, is guaranteed to stand by me in difficult times, and thus reliability is the most important characteristic I look for in a friend.

In my last year of senior school my three friends and I decided that we would study together for the college entrance exam, but my smartest friend hardly ever showed. She was extremely intelligent and everybody, including our teachers, was certain that she would be admitted to one of the best universities in the country. As a result, she did not bother to study much. At our study sessions she would appear occasionally, but more often than not her visits would distract us rather than help us. We would end up talking about metaphysical concepts like the existence of god instead of studying our lessons.

My humorous friend attended most of our meetings, but usually he was unprepared and we had to spend a lot of time getting him up to speed. He made us laugh, and he joked about how much better we were learning now that we had to teach him. Maybe he was right, but his constant lack of preparation became a steady source of frustration to the other two of us.

However, my third friend and I were able to rely on each other. We overcame our common frustrations and fears by completing the tasks we set out to do. During those long evenings when the work seemed unbearable we cheered each other up and kept working hard. Meanwhile our intelligent friend was minding her own business and our humorous friend was making somebody else laugh.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 056

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 056
Author: Li Xiaolai

56. Three major forest areas exist in the United States. The western forests of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast are coniferous and contain Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, western white pine, Engelmann spruce, and white fir. More than half of the softwood lumber yield of the United States comes from the productive Douglas fir forests of the Pacific Northwest. The South Atlantic and Gulf states account for most of the remaining softwood lumber, chiefly from longleaf, shortleaf, loblolly, and slash pines. Hardwoods, yielding about one-fourth of the total production, are found in the eastern half of the United States, with particularly dense stands in the area surrounding the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. Among the many hardwood species are oaks, black walnut, yellow poplar, and sugar maple.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 055

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 055
Author: Li Xiaolai

55. Forests may be divided into the following eight general types on the basis of leaf characteristics and climate. & (1) Deciduous forests of the temperate regions are the typical formation of the eastern United States. & (2) Deciduous monsoon forests are characteristic of Bengal and Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and common throughout Southeast Asia and India. & (3) Tropical savanna forests are found in regions such as the campos of Brazil, where forest and grassland meet. & (4) Northern coniferous forests form a worldwide belt in subarctic and alpine regions of the northern hemisphere. & (5) Tropical rain forests are characteristic of central Africa and the Amazon watershed. & (6) Temperate evergreen forests are found in the subtropical regions of North America and the Caribbean islands that have a warm maritime climate. & (7) Temperate rain forests, with broad-leaved evergreen trees, are common on Mediterranean coasts. & (8) Tropical scrub forests occur in regions of slight rainfall, bordering wetter forests.

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44. Do you travel alone or with a companion? - TOEFL Writing Topics 044

TOEFL Writing Topic #044

44. Do you travel alone or with a companion?

Some people like to travel with a companion. Other people prefer to travel alone. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice.

The biggest inconveniences of traveling are high expenses and safety concerns. Traveling with a companion may solve

both of these problems and at the same time adds to the enjoyment of the trip.

Part of the joy of traveling is the sense of discovery felt when seeing a completely new place. Traveling with someone else compounds that sense of wonder. When you see or experience something new you can share it with your travel companion. Likewise, when you are traveling with someone else you get the benefit of another pair of eyes and ears, and you are more likely to notice interesting things when you are not traveling alone. When I was hiking in Yunnan province with a friend, she spied a frog sitting by the edge of the trail. Had my friend not been there, I would not have seen it, and missed part of the natural beauty of Yunnan.

Traveling companions not only enrich the experience of travel, but also make it safer. According to police statistics thieves, rapists, and murderers are all much more likely to target a single person walking alone than to target a group of two or more people. To save money, a person traveling alone might sleep in a dorm room. Apart from the noise and inconvenience of sharing a room with a large number of strangers, travelers also have to be constantly vigilant to prevent other people from stealing your belongings. When traveling with a companion you can take turns watching each other's valuables on trains, restaurants, parks, and other public places frequented by tourists.

Finally, traveling with a companion is also cheaper than traveling alone. A hotel room for one person might cost 100 yuan, while a room for two at the same hotel might cost 120 yuan. If you have a companion you can each spend 60 yuan per night, rather than both spending 100 yuan if you traveled separately. It is also cheaper to eat in restaurants and you get to sample more kinds of food when two people order. When bargaining for souvenirs, each person can save a little money if you offer to buy more than one. Traveling with a companion can easily cut your travel expenses in half, while doubling the fun of trip.

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43. The attractions of dangerous activities - TOEFL Writing Topics 043

TOEFL Writing Topic #043

43. The attractions of dangerous activities

Why do you think some people are attracted to dangerous sports or other dangerous activities? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

People engage themselves in dangerous active ities for various reasons, which probably includes money, pleasure, and

perhaps ironically, nescience.

Perhaps the most direct drive might come from money, which is needed for everyone, any time and everywhere. People have enough wit to balance their certain choices, especially when they fa danger and money. Those stunt men or women in Hollywood movies, photographers who shoot sharks or crocodiles, or those who participate in stock car racing, are always sophisticated enough calculate whether the outcome overweigh the risk. If they are willing to take the risk, they must have evaluated well. They know exactly the rule: the more risks they take, the more they might get.

There also is another kind of people in this world. Money is of almost no importance to them They perform dangerous activities just for their own pleasure. Perhaps the most appropriate example involves sports. Actually every kind of sports is dangerous, and even can be deadly. Danger always exists, but people tend to simply ignore it. Take parachuting for example, who can refuse the fascination of flying in the sky like a bird? On the other hand, it seems that danger itself makes the activity so fascinating as too hard to refuse. To conquer is the very nature of human being from the very beginning. Pheidippides said seconds before dropping dead two thousand years ago, "Rejoice,] we conquer!" And it seems perfectly logical for some people that celebration follows conquer.

Ironically, sometimes blind brave comes out of nescience. Sometimes people simply don't know the activity is hazardous or how perilous it exactly is. It can be exemplified by a recent incident. Five students (three of them have a master's degree) lost their lives in a mountaineering expedition. Those students reportedly didn't, and it seems highly probable, make an adequate preparation before expedition, which made the tragedy ineluctable. People always praise alpinists with words such as strong, brave, courageous, but in this case none of these words is appropriate Those young students traded their springtime with blind brave, and died in vain.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 054

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 054
Author: Li Xiaolai

54. Plant cells have all the components of animal cells several other added features, including chloroplasts, a central vacuole, and a cell wall. Chloroplasts convert light energy — typically from the Sun — into the sugar glucose, a form of chemical energy, in a process known as photosynthesis. Chloroplasts, like mitochondria, possess a circular chromosome and prokaryote-like ribosomes, which manufacture the proteins that the chloroplasts typically need. The vacuole, a membranous bag, crowds the cytoplasm and organelles to the edges of the cell. The central vacuole stores water, salts, sugars, proteins, and other nutrients. In addition, it stores the blue, red, and purple pigments that give certain flowers their colors.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 053

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 053
Author: Li Xiaolai

53. The nucleus is the largest organelle in an animal cell. It contains numerous strands of DNA, the length of each strand being many times the diameter of the cell. Unlike the circular prokaryotic DNA, long sections of eukaryotic DNA pack into the nucleus by wrapping around proteins. As a cell begins to divide, each DNA strand folds over onto itself several times, forming a rod-shaped chromosome.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 052

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 052
Author: Li Xiaolai

52. The eukaryotic cell cytoplasm is similar to that of the prokaryote cell except for one major difference: Eukaryotic cells house a nucleus and numerous other membrane — enclosed organelles. Like separate rooms of a house, these organelles enable specialized functions to be carried out efficiently. The building of proteins and lipids, for example, takes place in separate organelles where specialized enzymes geared for each job are located.

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42. One skill needed to be successful in the world today - TOEFL Writing Topics 042

TOEFL Writing Topic #042

42. One skill needed to be successful in the world today

What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and use specific reasons and examples to support your choice.

People succeed not merely because they have one or more certain skills. However, if I have to choose one skill which

is supposed to be useful to success, I think it should be the ability to convince or persuade others.

By convincing or persuading we get what we want from others. When we were children, we always managed to persuade our parents to buy us candies; when we were in the high school, we had to persuade our classmates to play with us; when we applied for a job after graduation, we had better be able to successfully convince the employer that we are qualified employees. Besides, some day, we will all have to convince a person whom we love that we are in deed outstanding husbands or excellent wives.

By convincing or persuading we become more and more sturdy and powerful. Nobody is capable of doing every thing perfect. By persuading others to cooperate with us, we can achieve much more than we could only by ourselves. Mr. Yu Minhong, CEO of Beijing New Oriental Education & Technology Group, had successfully convinced his alumni including Mr. Wang Qiang and Mr. Xu Xiaoping to strive after an ideal—to build a most influential private university in China, and today, they have been so close. Mr. Yu, while answering a journalist, said that he once persuaded Chinese students to go abroad, his current work is to convince those students to return to their homeland with their enhanced intelligences.

Ironically, it is ourselves who need us to persuade and convince most. We by nature are weak, yet have to be stronger to face up to tough surroundings. All too often we need encouraging. Amazingly enough, it is ourselves who can in deed encourage. When we are in trouble, we need convince ourselves not to give up, when we are in plain sailing, we need persuade ourselves no to be negligent. By convincing ourselves, we become more and more independent, and more and more robust, both of which are characteristics essential to success.

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61. Should adults make important decisions for their older teenage children? - TOEFL Writing Topics 061

TOEFL Writing Topic #061

61. Should adults make important decisions for their older teenage children?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents or other adult relatives should make important decisions for their older (15 to 18 year-old) teenage children. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Parents or other adult relatives should not make decisions on behalf of their older teenage child. Nevertheless,

they must take an active part in the decision-making process of their offspring. They can use their knowledge and experience to prevent their teenager from making costly mistakes while allowing him/her to gain confidence and learn from his/her smaller errors so that he/she will be able to make mature decisions of his own in the future.

Teenage children often lack the experience and knowledge to make sound decisions, and here their parents' input is valuable and necessary. Finding the right university or the right job after graduating from senior school is an example for this. A teenager has not worked before and never attended a university, and thus his knowledge in both areas is extremely limited. Here the parents should advise their child and ensure that he/she makes the right decision.

In order to be able to make sound decision in the future a young adult must gain confidence, and parents can help by engaging him/her in dialogue and providing him/her with all the necessary information. A child between the ages of 15 and 18 will be able to recognize the best arguments and reasons. Through the parents' guidance he/she will arrive at the correct decision and feel as though it was completely his/her own. Not only will he/she continue to seek the reliable advice of his/her parents, but the self-confidence gained from this experience will make it easier for him/her to make decisions in the future.

While parents should guide or direct their child, sometimes it is helpful to allow him/her to make a mistake. This will teach the child to live with the consequences of a wrong decision and also to ponder future choices more carefully. For example, a child might ignore his/her parents' advice and pick a summer job that sounds very interesting initially, but which he/she comes to loathe almost immediately. This experience will be invaluable when the child grows up and has to find a real job.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 051

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 051
Author: Li Xiaolai

51. The components of cells are molecules, nonliving structures formed by the union of atoms. Small molecules serve as building blocks for larger molecules. Proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids, which include fats and oils, are the four major molecules that underlie cell structure and also participate in cell functions.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 057

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 057
Author: Li Xiaolai

57. To be classified as a rain forest, a forest must have a closed canopy, in which the treetops, or crowns, touch each other, creating a shaded forest interior. In addition, temperature and rainfall must be high and relatively even throughout the year. Forests that meet these criteria are found flanking the equator in South and Central America, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

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41. Land for human needs or endangered animals - TOEFL Writing Topics 041

TOEFL Writing Topic #041

41. Land for human needs or endangered animals

Some people think that human needs for farmland, housing, and industry are more important than saving land for endangered animals. Do you agree or disagree with this point of view? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

When making decisions about land use, some say that human needs should come before animal needs in every case. While

I agree that human needs should have primary consideration, humans have a special responsibility to protect the land that endangered animals call home.

Animals adapt very slowly to sudden changes in their environments. Many endangered animals can only live in one place, or in a specific type of place. Humans, on the other hand, have a special ability to adapt quickly to changing and hostile environments. For instance, if humans need to live in a very dry environment they can use technology to locate and drill for water, or build pipelines to bring in water from outside. Thousands of years ago the residents of Xinjiang province dug underground tunnels hundreds of kilometers long to carry water to oasis towns like Turpan. Because humans are thus flexible while many animals are not, humans should make an effort to use up all available space before encroaching upon the habitats of endangered animals.

One of the important reasons to protect endangered animals is that the delicate ecological balance of an area might be irreparably harmed by their extinction. For example, if humans chop down forests and use the land to grow corn, they might simultaneously destroy the habitats of a kind of bird that eats locusts. The next year because the locust population can grow unchecked, locusts might destroy the entire nearby corn crop. Not only do the birds lose their homes, but humans are also harmed. The ecological balance of many natural habitats is still not well understood and humans interfere in it at their peril.

Finally, humans have much to learn from endangered species. One example is in the field of medicine. By observing a particular species of endangered monkeys in South America, scientists have discovered that monkeys eat a certain kind of plant when they get sick. Through research the scientists discovered that this plant also has medicinal value for humans. If the monkey's habitat had been destroyed to create more farmland, not only would we lose the plants and the monkeys, we would also lose life-saving medicines and the potential for medical research.

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40. Do we need "Never, never give up"? - TOEFL Writing Topics 040

TOEFL Writing Topic #040

40. Do we need "Never, never give up"?

The expression "Never, never give up" means to keep trying and never stop working for your goals. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Near the end of the Second World War, Churchill delivered his most famous and the shortest speech: Never, Never Give

Up. The British and people in many other countries were tremendously encouraged, and finally went through the hardest period in human history.

"Never give up" represents a strong and positive life attitude. Some people are ready to quit when they feel they cannot endure the difficulties of some work or they think they cannot find a way to finish the required task. Such people usually become upset and disappointed and lose their self-confidence, although they virtually can do every thing well simply by trying once more. In cases such as acquiring second language, most people failed simply because they had given up. Acquiring second language might be the easiest task among diverse academic curriculums, because one can be successful only by plain repetition, though it is painstaking and time-consuming.

Never give up. Such strong belief often gives us the second chance. The fact that we fail-somewhere does not mean we are going to fail everywhere, and especially it does not necessarily mean that we are deprived of opportunities to win there. There probably is a second chance. Many successful people did fail before. Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental School, was able to study in Peking University only after three attempts. He wasn't reckoned as successful after graduation, among many signs is the fact that almost all his classmates went abroad while he w~ each and every time refused by officials in visa-granting office for unexplained reasons. Yet he never gave up, which makes his later success inevitable.

Psychology teaches us that we do get what we want, if we know exactly what we want and want the right thing. First of all, we must make sure that our clearly defined goals are achievable, and that our carefully designed means are practicable. A superficial claim like I want to be a millionaire brings nothing. And an unrealistic goal like inventing a perpetual motion machine is absolutely meaningless. But if we want to acquire a second language, it is both realistic and meaningful. By careful planning, and relevant persistence we have no reason to fail. And numerous examples tell us that even if the methods are problematic, many still finally attain great achievements. Therefore, in most cases, the belief "Never, never give up" is really something that we should always bear in mind.

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39. Technology, students' helper or not? - TOEFL Writing Topics 039

TOEFL Writing Topic #039

39. Technology, students' helper or not?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? With the help of technology, students nowadays can learn more information and learn it more quickly. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

It is undeniable that continuously developing technologies have brought tremendous benefits, especially in learning area. Learning has in many ways become easier than has ever been before. Take learning English for example. In the past, few students owned tape recorders, and learning materials were scarce as well. But today, tape recorders get more and more inexpensive, and diversified learning materials are readily available. On the other hand, new devices, such as MP3 or MD players, are offered in market, and relevant learning materials (MP3 files) are easily and freely downloadable from the Internet. Page 43 of 201

However, it is a little bit haste to assert students can learn more information and learn it more quickly simply because technology helps, since technologies, as always, contribute both benefits and detriments. For example, computers, as have been mentioned, help students a lot in various ways, but at the same time have many negative even harmful impacts on the users. Most students nowadays play computer games, sitting before the table, staring at the screen, clicking mouse button, and the outcomes are cerebrum fatigue, visual deterioration and another day of waste. Chatting on the Internet is another great way to kill precious time, and one of negative side-effects of key -board dependence is that students nowadays can seldom spell correctly. Worst of all, investigations have shown that more than half of time that students have spent online was exhausted on browsing porn movies, pulp fictions or erotic photos and so on.

Students certainly want to learn more and to learn more quickly. But merely technology itself is not the solution. Learning itself is a skill and it only develops by practice. Computers and other devices can certainly help, but they won't make study any less painful, and technologies in fact provide no solution to overcome indolence that everyone has. Learning has never been easy, and will not be easier merely because of technologies. It always requires tremendous efforts and determination to learn something well. Too much advocacy on the fancy benefits of technologies will mislead much more than virtually help.

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60. Are games equally important for adults and children? - TOEFL Writing Topics 060

TOEFL Writing Topic #060

60. Are games equally important for adults and children?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Games are as important for adults as they are for children. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Games are fun. This is true for adults and children alike. However, games also teach a variety of skills and they

further every domain of a person's development. This is particularly important during the early stages of life. Through games children learn gross motor and fine motor skills, they practice and develop the ability to use language, and they learn important interpersonal and social skills. Adults can use games to strengthen these areas, but their abilities are already much more advanced, and therefore games are more important for children.

In play a child learns gross motor skills such as walking or jumping, which an adult has already mastered. Pushing a shopping cart, for example, teaches a toddler to balance his/her weight and to use his/her legs to support his/her body. This activity is game and exercise at the same time, but it would be completely unnecessary for adults. Similarly, fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination are areas in which a child has much more to learn than an adult. Thus playing catch with a baseball has a much greater benefit to the young and inexperienced person.

Language games allow children to practice and strengthen their language skills. Even simple singsong or rhyming games aid in this development. Needless to say, due to their advanced language ability, adults would not get much out of these simple ditties. In comparison, adult language games such as scrabble don't build but fine-tune language ability. Children are not able to compete here because they have not yet amassed enough knowledge.

Elementary interpersonal and social skills ranging from communication to cooperation are also developed in play. Children learn systems of social rules when engaging in simple activities like pick-up football games. For example, they learn how to control themselves and to tolerate their frustrations around others. They also learn how to work in a team. These, of course, are abilities that are extremely important for adults as well, but, once again, children have more to learn.

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38. Does history have any value for people living in the present? - TOEFL Writing Topics 038

TOEFL Writing Topic #038

38. Does history have any value for people living in the present?

Learning about the past has no value for those of us living in the present. Do you agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

People live in the present. They plan for and worry about the future. History, however, is the study of the past.

Some people might ask, "Given all the demands that press in from living in the present and anticipating what is yet to come, why bother with what has been? Given all the desirable and available branches of knowledge, why insist—as most American educational programs do—on a good bit of history? And why urge many students to study even more history than they are required to?" However, it's undeniable that learning about past has its value, it will help us understand people and societies, and it will help us understand change and how the society we live in came to be.

History helps us understand people and societies. In the first place, history offers a storehouse of information about how people and societies behave. Understanding the operations of people and societies is difficult, though a number of disciplines make the attempt. An exclusive reliance on current data would needlessly handicap our efforts. For example, how can we evaluate war if the nation is at peace—unless we use historical materials? How can we understand genius, the influence of technological innovation, or the role that beliefs play in shaping family life, if we don't use what we know about experiences in the past? Consequently, history must serve, however imperfectly, as our laboratory, and data from the past must serve as our most vital evidence in the unavoidable quest to figure out why our complex species behaves as it does in societal settings. This, fundamentally, is why we cannot stay away from history: it offers the only extensive evidential base for the contemplation and analysis of how societies function, and people need to have some sense of how societies function simply to run their own lives.

History also helps us understand change and how the society we live in came to be. The second reason history is inescapable as a subject of serious study follows closely on the first. The past causes the present, and so the future. Any time we try to know why something happened—whether a shift in political party dominance in the American Congress, a major change in the teenage suicide rate, or a war in the Balkans or the Middle East—we have to look for factors that took shape earlier. Sometimes fairly recent history will suffice to explain a major development, but often we need to look further back to identify the causes of change. Only through studying history can we grasp how things change; only through history can we begin to comprehend the factors that cause change; and only through history can we understand what elements of an institution or a society persist despite change.

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37. Is progress always good? - TOEFL Writing Topics 037

TOEFL Writing Topic #037

37. Is progress always good?

Do you agree or disagree that progress is always good? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Progress can be measured in many ways, but one very tangible way to measure progress is by looking at economic

development. In these terms, progress can be seen as a very positive force, helping many people rise up from poverty. But history shows that progress, even as measured by economic progress, always has its cost.

Take Germany in the 1930's for example. Humiliated by unequal treaties after World War I, the German people were suffering from a terrible economy and massive inflation. Then Hitler took power and mobilized the German economy, in several years the Germans economy had recovered and was actually becoming among the most powerful in Europe. But Hitler's economic miracle came at a terrible price. His plan was to use Germany's economic power to finance its military power. Germany's aggression sparked World War II, a catastrophe that killed tens of millions of people all over the whole world, including countless millions of civilians. When progress serves evil, the result hurts.

Likewise the progress of America, arguably the most advanced of all nations, has come at a heavy price. America used to be the land of native Americans. America's current "progress" would probably not have been achieved if most of the land in America still belonged to the Native Americans. From their perspective, America's current progress is their profound loss.

Finally, China's economic growth over the past 25 years has been truly remarkable. Standards of living have gone up dramatically, but the progress has negative aspects as well as the obvious positive ones. As income gaps between the rich and the poor widen, social problems like crime and poverty become more pronounced. The damage done to the environment by factories and "progressive" human activity might not be undone for hundreds of years, affecting the lives of Chinese people for generations to come. If these problems are not addressed, our grandchildren might truly come to regret current alleged "progress."

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36. A transportation vehicle that has changed people's lives - TOEFL Writing Topics 036

TOEFL Writing Topic #036

36. A transportation vehicle that has changed people's lives

Choose one of the following transportation vehicles and explain why you think it has changed people's lives.• automobiles• bicycles• airplanesUse specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Automobiles, as the exponent of modern transportation vehicles, virtually have contributed to modern life more than

most people have imagined, even though automobiles, as is true of all other technologies, have also created many problems.

The advancement of modern transportation, certainly including that of automobiles, has made more goods available in local markets. For example, in China, some fruits are only cultivated in the southern part of the country and not in the northern, such as litchi, sugarcane, pineapple—partly due to sheer gradient of temperature. Thanks to the advancement of modern transportation system, people in the northern part of the country can now get those southern cultivated fruits readily available in almost every local market. In the far past when such system didn't exist, when goods could be transported only by primitive tools such as carts, some fruits such as litchi were the privilege of imperial household.

At the same time, the development of modern transportation has also made goods in local markets much less expensive. Take litchi for example again. Two decades ago, litchi was pretty expensive, and was a luxury. But the development has made the transportation easier and the cost lower and lower. On the other hand, due to previous factors, more merchants are engaged in the business that simultaneously intensified the competition, which certainly affected the prices. Thus, the price of litchi subsequently dropped. The same goes for other goods as well. Today, people are able to buy almost any goods they want no matter where the origin of the goods is, and to make choice among more counterparts, and the best of all, to take the goods home with less expenditure.

Moreover, advanced transportation vehicles such as automobiles have to some extent made people more independent than before. It is not hard to imagine that 50 years ago a young widow who lived in a small village and whose husband had died when she was 23 had little chance to get married again, for the sake of the tradition or culture, or whatever. But if that happened in the present day, things would be entirely different. Advanced transportation vehicles being readily available, she could easily get to another city within at most 2 days and by lower expenses, say from the small village located in the north east of China to the far southern city, Guangzhou - several thousands of miles away. That's a big city, that's a new city, and nobody knows her there; she has a brand new start, and she is entirely independent.

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59. Live life in a hurry or at a slower pace? - TOEFL Writing Topics 059

TOEFL Writing Topic #059

59. Live life in a hurry or at a slower pace?

Some people are always in a hurry to go places and get things done. Other people prefer to take their time and live life at a slower pace. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

I used to live at a frantic pace. My wristwatch dictated my life, and the hands of the clock pushed me forward to my

next appointment, my next assignment, and my next social engagement. However, I have managed to relax. Now that I live my life at a slower pace I have become a better student, a more reliable friend, and a person who enjoys life much more than before.

Living life at a slower pace has allowed me to pay much more attention to detail and to work through my assignments at school more thoroughly. Before I was always rushing through my reading and my writing, and my concentration was not very strong. The clubs and sports teams I belonged to demanded a lot of attention. After I decided to get rid of some of the more involved activities I had more time to focus on my studies and the results have shown in my marks.

While I am still busy with school and extra curricular activities, I also make a point of slowing down and taking a step back in order to prioritize the things in my life. This allows me to evaluate how much time I should spend on one thing or another. For example, while I was hurrying through my schedule I often lost track of my friends. I forgot about dates that we made and things that I agreed to do for them. This will not happen now. By slowing down the tempo and realizing how important my pals are to me, I have once again become a reliable friend.

Lastly, living life at a slower pace allows me to appreciate the good things in my life. In the past I would only think about the things I would have to get accomplished next. This anticipation did not allow me to concentrate on the moment, but now I am able to enjoy a family dinner or an afternoon at the movies with my friends without worrying about what I am supposed to do next.

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35. Live performance or television broadcast, which is more enjoyable? - TOEFL Writing Topics 035

TOEFL Writing Topic #035

35. Live performance or television broadcast, which is more enjoyable?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Attending a live performance (for example, a play, concert, or sporting event) is more enjoyable than watching the same event on television. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

While watching live performances on television is convenient, it cannot compare to attending a I live performance in

person. Live performances, whether artistic, sporting, or entertainment, offer unique sensations apart from the performance itself, and encourage a greater level of participation I as well as a better understanding of the event than a television broadcast could.

The wonderful sensory experience of a soccer match begins before the game starts. The smell of popcorn and street food wafting through the air, the crowd roaring and waving like an ocean, and the excited songs of the fans are all part of the experience that adds to the enjoyment of watching the game in person. A rock conceit is not just hearing the music; it is the feeling of standing in a crowd: that is moving together like one living body to the beat of the drums. These experiences are all important parts of the experience of an event, and cannot be felt when watching the same event on television.

When watching a performance in person, a viewer feels a closer sense of connection to the event. Every fan in the stadium will always leap to their feet when they see their favorite team score a goal in a soccer match, while only a few people might jump up watching the same goal at home. Watching a music performance on television wouldn't necessarily make people want to start dancing, but hearing a jazz band play live would start every foot in the room tapping, just itching to dance. Live events seem to invite the active participation of the viewing audience, while television is a medium that encourages passivity on the part of the viewer.

The understanding of a performance viewed on television is usually limited. A rock performance viewed live has ear-shatteringly loud music. While some people might not enjoy this, it is a part of the experience that television filters out. At any given time during a sporting event there are many different things going on at once. Because television cameras can only focus on one event at a time; a live viewer can take in a larger field of vision, and potentially understand more about the events. Finally, live viewers' understanding of live performances is increased because live performances are not interrupted with commercial breaks every 12 minutes.

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34. Should businesses hire employees for their entire lives? - TOEFL Writing Topics 034

TOEFL Writing Topic #034

34. Should businesses hire employees for their entire lives?

Businesses should hire employees for their entire lives. Do you agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

The decision to hire an employee for life is a serious commitment on the part of both parties. For the employee,

such an arrangement means lifetime job security. From the perspective of an employer, however, the deal is not so sweet. Guaranteed lifetime employment, or tenure, at a company, can promote bad work habits, prevent innovation, and lead to potentially disastrous personnel problems.

When a workers' employment is contingent upon their job performance, they will tend to work diligently. On the other hand, if workers know that no matter how hard they work, they will receive the same amount of money and have no chance of being fired, there are no incentives for them to work. For people to be model workers they need compelling reasons to work hard and produce work of the highest quality. A tenure-system promotes laziness, inefficiency and low-quality work because it fails to offer incentives for good work, and fails to offer compelling deterrents against bad work.

Secondly, companies that offer lifetime positions to employees cannot adapt to a rapidly changing world. For instance, if an employee who was hired by a company twenty years ago might be too old to effectively learn new computer-related skills. In today's modern office environment, companies that cannot make effective use of new technology are at a severe disadvantage to those that can. In this case, a company that does not have the freedom to restructure, hiring and firing employees, in accordance with shifting demands is likely to fail. A company that provides its employees with tenure effectively locks out new blood and runs the risk of being paralyzed by a staff unable to change with the times.

Finally, offering tenure to employees is a major risk because of unforeseeable personnel problems. Every office, no matter how well managed, is bound to have personality conflicts. In many cases, personality conflicts can lead to one of the feuding parties leaving the company. But if the conflict involves two tenured employees, the business might be seriously affected, even destroyed. Despite the uncertainty it brings to workers lives, the company must look out for its own best interests first and not allow this disastrous situation to occur by not instituting a tenure policy.

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33. How to deal with a gift of money? - TOEFL Writing Topics 033

TOEFL Writing Topic #033

33. How to deal with a gift of money?

You have received a gift of money. The money is enough to buy either a piece of jewelry you like or tickets to a concert you want to attend. Which would you buy? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

It seems not a difficult decision for me. But if I was given the gift of money in different time, I would have

different answers.

If I was given the money when I was in my high school, I would buy a ticket to a concert. I had been longing for attending concerts of famous artists to enjoy those transcendent pieces such as saxophone of Kenny G. , rock and roll of Cuijian, and romantic songs of Luo Dayou. Unfortunately I just was not able to afford those exorbitant prices. The given amount should be better if it is enough for several tickets so that I could take along my best friends, whose situations were much similar to mine.

If I was given the money when I was in the university, I would buy a fine piece of jewelry, and give it to my girl friend as a casual present, for we might enjoy a certain concert, but hardly could it be permanently impressive. Memories are always not reliable. We tend to simply forget anything— at best, memories are somewhat distorted—if time past long enough. But if I bought my girl friend a piece of jewelry, not costly though it might be, it would be a perfect reminder, being never changed.

If I was given the money recently, it would only make me feel funny. I don't want to go to concerts anymore, because I became more and more reluctant to present in crowd public places, and besides, I have bought a super Hi-Fi which always brings me identical pleasure. And I don't want to buy any jewelry either, for it is meaningless for a man who is now solitary. Nevertheless, if I was forced to accept some money as a gift—it hardly happens—I might buy some books, after all, reading always makes me relaxed and amazed.

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58. Should businesses do anything they can to make a profit? - TOEFL Writing Topics 058

TOEFL Writing Topic #058

58. Should businesses do anything they can to make a profit?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Businesses should do anything they can to make a profit. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

The ultimate goal of every business is to make a profit. Businesses that don't turn a profit go under and dissolve,

and increasing competition on national and international markets makes it more and more difficult for companies to succeed or simply stay alive. Regardless, as members of society companies are subject to laws and regulations that they must abide by, and the people who run businesses have a personal responsibility to both their employees and the community in which they do business.

It is true that stiff competition will force companies to go to extreme measures to secure profits, but these must not. include illegal means. In the recent past, the enormous sums of money involved in contemporary economics have led CEOs and managers of businesses to bend the rules of the trade. For example, companies have deliberately ignored government standards for environmental pollution limits or tried to bribe government officials to allow mem to bypass these regulations. Such illegal means might be possible because of the sometimes tremendous social and political influences of businesses, but they are immoral, and the government should make a point of punishing violators.

Furthermore, the managers of companies must be aware that employees and their families depend on jobs for financial security. For many businesses cutting jobs or moving jobs to another country is a way to further increase profits. However, the same jobs that are being cut or moved often support entire communities. If, for example, a company closed down an entire manufacturing plant of 5,000 or 10,000 jobs in order to make even greater profits, then a community of the size of a small city would suddenly find itself out of job. The initial consequences would be mass unemployment and a sudden death for the entire local economy, and before long related social problems will surface, e.g. crime, homelessness, domestic violence, and drug abuse. These are all indirect yet devastating consequences of the business aim to increase profits. The owners and managers of the company have an ethical obligation not to ignore the consequences of their actions and should not try to maximize profits at all costs.

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32. Spend your earned money immediately or save it for future? - TOEFL Writing Topics 032

TOEFL Writing Topic #032

32. Spend your earned money immediately or save it for future?

Is it better to enjoy your money when you earn it or is it better to save your money for some time in the future? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

My mom used to tell me: "You can only spend money once." What she meant is that if you spent money frivolously, you

might really need it later and regret your earlier careless spending. After several years of managing a small amount of my own money, I have come to the conclusion that my mom was right, saving is better than spending.

No one knows what tomorrow will bring, the only thing we can do is to try to be prepared. When disaster strikes, perhaps a sudden illness in the family, having money on hand can mean the difference between life and death. When opportunity knocks, a surprise acceptance to a top university for instance, money is needed for tuition, board, and books. This is not to say that one should not spend any money because they have to prepare for every possible contingency. It simply means that one should not spend recklessly without having a substantial amount of money to guard against an unpredictable future.

The importance of saving money when young cannot be overstressed. This is because young people can tolerate higher-risk, higher return investments, and can let their investments mature longer, allowing interest on savings to compound. If invested well, $5,000 today could become $20,000 in 15 years. This concept is so powerful because the investor does not have to work for the money, the money works for the investor. Saving is not only a bulwark against an unpredictable future, it is also a way to generate future wealth.

At last, while it is true that spending money can be enjoyable, it is not the only way to have fun. The idea that we must always be consuming things in order to have a good time is a lie told to us by advertisers. These companies tell us that only when we drive the right car, wear the right clothes, and drink the right beverages will we be truly happy. In reality, each person determines the standard of his/her own happiness. For my part, I have decided that creating things, writing, painting, making music, is what truly makes me happy. The amount of money I need to spend doing these things is almost nothing, but the happiness they bring me is immeasurable. I would prefer to save money for unavoidable expenses and enjoy life by being a producer, not a consumer.

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31. Staying in one place or moving in search of another place? - TOEFL Writing Topics 031

TOEFL Writing Topic #031

31. Staying in one place or moving in search of another place?

Some people spend their entire lives in one place. Others move a number of times throughout their lives, looking for a better job, house, community, or even climate. Which do you prefer: staying in one place or moving in search of another place? Use reasons and specific examples to support your opinion.

While moving to a new place can be a traumatic experience, especially for children, I believe that in the end its

benefits outweigh its drawbacks. Moving to a new place to live increases a person's understanding of the world, offers new challenges and opportunities, and does not preclude putting down deep roots at some point in the future.

One of the greatest benefits of traveling is learning about a new and different place. Traveling to a new place to live deepens and enriches the sense of newness and learning that a visitor might feel. A new place means a new, perhaps different job, and new and different friends. Learning the diverse viewpoints of a new place not only presents totally new information; it also casts a new light on old viewpoints. Often moving to a new place teaches people more about the place that they are from. Old, seemingly mundane foods, customs, and language are suddenly new again viewed in the context of a radically different environment. Through comparisons of old and new places, friends, and ideas, people become more knowledgeable about the world and about themselves.

A new place offers interesting possibilities for personal and professional development. Even though in a new place people lacks deep connections, they also lack prejudices and rivalries. Often people move to new places to escape uncomfortable situations that have hampered their personal growth. If I have a long-standing feud with my neighbor, I might eventually move to a new place to start over in peace. New places naturally have their own local politics, but learning about them and finding a way to prosper is like starting life with a clean slate. Every opportunity is available to newcomers to pursue because the local people do not have preconceived ideas about them.

Some people would say that truly settling down in one place and making deep and lasting connections is preferable to moving every few years. I say that true friendships can be maintained over distance, and that people will be happiest when they discover a place that is truly the best for them. How can people really know what place is best for them if they have only lived in one place and have no basis for comparison? Moving once, or even several times does not mean that a person can never settle down in one, but it does ensure that he/she truly like and understand the place that he/she does settle down in.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 050

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 050
Author: Li Xiaolai

50. All living things are composed of cells. Some microscopic organisms, such as bacteria and protozoa, are unicellular, meaning they consist of a single cell. Plants, animals, and fungi are multicellular; that is, they are composed of a great many cells working in concert.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 049

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 049
Author: Li Xiaolai

49. In commercial and nonprofit theaters, the producer is the person who puts together the financing, management staff, and the artistic team to produce the show. Usually, the producer works in tandem with a general manager and others to accomplish the daily running of the production, from rehearsals to closing. In this role he or she selects a season of several plays, hires the artistic teams and technical staff, works with a casting director to audition and cast actors in the various parts, controls the theater’s funding, and acts as the final authority in all artistic and administrative operations.

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30. Do you like a new high school being built in your community? - TOEFL Writing Topics 030

TOEFL Writing Topic #030

30. Do you like a new high school being built in your community?

It has recently been announced that a new high school may be built in your community. Do you support or oppose this plan? Why? Use specific reasons and details in your answer.

The basic prerequisite of success for any community is the education of its citizens. Because the advantages of a

high school education in my town are presently available to only a limited number of students every year, I wholeheartedly support the construction of a new school facility to serve our community.

The competition to get into high school in my town is fierce. There are three middle schools in town, but only one high school. Because the number of applicants to the single high school far exceeds the available spaces in the high school, only the richest and most qualified students are able to go to school. The skills taught in high school including advanced math, analysis, and high-level reading and writing are important to every citizen, no matter what profession they later choose. Even if they are manual laborers, the ability to critically analyze problems taught in high school will make them better and more highly skilled workers.

Beyond teaching practical skills to more local children, another high school will give children more opportunity to attend college. Holding a college degree is almost the only way a person can be assured of getting a stable, high paying job. Even a degree from a two or three year junior college can mean the ability to make a salary thousands of yuan annually higher than a high school diploma.

Because our current high school is so small, many bright children with promising college careers ahead of them have no way of even obtaining the high school diploma! We must make sure the road to higher education remains open for as many young people as possible.

Finally, if we cannot afford to open this high school, our town will have a serious problem with the number of unemployed youths who graduate from middle school with nothing to do. If they cannot find good jobs, they might be tempted to commit crimes, use drugs, or, if they are girls, engage in prostitution. Giving these children another option would both save them and help society.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 048

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 048
Author: Li Xiaolai

48. Directors assume responsibility for the overall interpretation of a script, and they have the authority to approve, control, and coordinate all the elements of a production. Throughout the ages, performers have been jugglers, mimes, minstrels, puppeteers, acrobats, clowns, singers, dancers, and amateur and professional actors. The first performers were most likely singers and dancers, as the first performances had no spoken dialogue.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 047

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 047
Author: Li Xiaolai

47. Theater can serve many ends. It can be designed to entertain, instruct, motivate, persuade, and even shock. But whatever the intentions of the director, performers, and crew, the result depends on the interaction with an audience. The audience affects the performance by providing the performers with immediate feedback, such as laughter, tears, applause, or silence. Each night there is continuous interaction between the auditorium and the stage. Ultimately, audiences make their opinions known through their attendance or nonattendance. They support what appeals to them and generally fail to support what they find distasteful, offensive, or incomprehensible.

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57. Movies: serious or entertaining? - TOEFL Writing Topics 057

TOEFL Writing Topic #057

57. Movies: serious or entertaining?

Some movies are serious, designed to make the audience think. Other movies are designed primarily to amuse and entertain. Which type of movie do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

The question of what kind of movie to watch is a familiar one in my home. While my father does not care for movies a

great deal, my mother is very fond of this kind of entertainment. Unfortunately, her tastes are very different from mine, and she mostly likes movies that fall into the light entertainment category. I, on the other hand, do not enjoy watching movies that aim only to amuse. Generally, I derive a greater sense of enjoyment from movies that get me to think, because I can find better light entertainment elsewhere and I consider movies a serious art form.

Sometimes, of course, I enjoy movies that amuse or entertain lightly in order to distract myself from the seriousness of everyday life. Humorous movies such as slapstick comedies are my favorites amongst the amusing ones, and every once in a while I even enjoy a romantic comedy. These movies offer a kind of escape. However, there are other ways of distraction that I prefer. For example, I enjoy taking long walks or listening to music much more than I enjoy watching a flick that means to accomplish nothing more than diversion. Movies, to me, are serious business.

I tend to look at movies as an art form that should engage its audience and also challenge them. Of course there are different ways to accomplish these two goals. A director might make creative use of stylistic means such as editing or lighting or camera movement. Together with the screenwriter he/she might find ways to present a relationship between classical or stereotypical characters in a complex and innovative way. Ideally, he/she will present an important social issue from a point of view that has not been thoroughly discussed. Thus, through his/her work, he/she will make his/her audience think about questions they had not considered before. Thereby, they will add to the discussion and make a contribution to culture and society. In my opinion, this is the goal of all art and thus it should also be the goal of movie making.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 046

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 046
Author: Li Xiaolai

46. In addition to the actor and the audience in a space, other elements of theater include a written or improvised text, costumes, scenery, lights, sound, and properties (props). Most theatrical performances require the collaborative efforts of many creative people, including dramaturge, craftspeople, designer, composer, or choreographer and managers working toward a common goal: the production. The performance is very often a play — a tragedy, comedy, or musical — but it need not be. Theater performances include vaudeville, puppet shows, mime, and other forms of entertainment. Theatrical texts, often referred to as drama, usually provide the vital framework of a performance. In Aristotle’s famous definition, drama is an imitation of an action that is whole, complete, and of a certain magnitude or scope.

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27. Should people sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing? - TOEFL Writing Topics 027

TOEFL Writing Topic #027

27. Should people sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People should sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

We live in a world in which every one wants to be successful. Nothing is wrong about the desire to be No. 1, and

there is no doubt that being successful is enjoyable. Nevertheless, it is somewhat childish to think we can be finally successful by only doing what we enjoy doing. People often are amazed by the glorious appearance of a skyscraper, however they at the same time forget the fact that the skyscraper had taken a long time to construct, maybe much longer time to design, and possibly even cost people's lives during the constructing process!

We may categorize things into two groups, the enjoyable and the unenjoyable; at the same time, another category can be made: the necessary and the unnecessary. The point is, things that are necessary are not always enjoyable and things that are enjoyable sometimes may be unnecessary. Doing things that are necessary rather than those that are merely enjoyable is not only helpful, but might also be indispensable for individual success. We all admire even envy those who now have attained great achievements, such those famous stars as Jacky Chen, Jet Li. We should, however, be aware of the exorbitant prices they have paid for their present glories. Jacky Chen once told that when he was still a teenager, he and his partners were required to practice more than 12 hours a day; and it was said that Jet Li was sent to be an apprentice when he was hardly four years old! Apparently, those seemingly cruel hardships have turned out to be the best gifts years later. But for yesterday's struggle, today's glories could not exist.

Things that are both enjoyable and necessary or both unenjoyable and unnecessary virtually seldom exist. We may dislike some curriculums in university, such as mathematics or history, but they are necessary; we may prefer leisure times to work days, but the latter are indispensable. Pursuing a successful life is nothing more than making wise decisions, and by "wise" we mean the choice of doing the necessary first.

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iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 045

iBT TOEFL Topic Vocabulary Breakthrough Unit 045
Author: Li Xiaolai

45. Anthropologists and theater historians trace the origins of theater to myth and ritual found in dances and mimed performances by masked dancers during fertility rites and other ceremonies that marked important passages in life. Imitation, costumes, masks, makeup, gesture, dance, music, and pantomime were some of the theatrical elements found in early rituals.

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29. Does human activity improve or damage the earth? - TOEFL Writing Topics 029

TOEFL Writing Topic #029

29. Does human activity improve or damage the earth?

Some people believe that the Earth is being harmed (damaged) by human activity. Others feel that human activity makes the Earth a better place to live. What is your opinion? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

The environment is usually changed to benefit human life. Cars and roads make transportation fast and easy,

factories make products that make our lives more comfortable, public services in cities like water treatment, electricity, and waste disposal make our lives more convenient. All of these advances, however, come with a significant environmental cost. Human activity does significant damage to the Earth.

One of the main effects of human activity on an area is water pollution. Dumping waste materials from human activity into rivers and streams is popular because the waste seems to disappear downstream. The main sources of water pollution are factory waste, oil and gas runoff from highways, and untreated human waste. When this waste dumped into rivers, the water downstream becomes undrinkable and unusable for agriculture, and also kills plant and animal life in the rivers.

Clean air and water is a prerequisite not only for human life, but also for all life on the planet. But air is now being polluted by modern transportation, notably gas-powered automobiles, as well as electrical generators that burn fossil fuels and pour polluting chemical waste into the air. This makes the air much less healthy to breathe. The air-borne pollution also falls back to the earth in the form of acid rain, which destroys plant life and human buildings.

Another serious long-term effect of air pollution is global warming. For the past several decades scientists have noted a disturbing rise in the average temperature of the earth that caused by the rise of greenhouse gases, air pollutants created by burning fossil fuels, in the atmosphere. Scientists believe that if humans continue to increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the temperature of the earth will continue to rise. Eventually, this could melt the polar ice caps and cause devastating costal flooding all over the world. Major cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Dalian might be totally destroyed.

Therefore, I believe human activity has caused serious problems while it has improved the world in which we live. It is time to realize this hazard and take action to prevent further disaster while making progress.

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