#003: Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare.

**synthia** · 08-24-2002, 01:22 AM

Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Hi,

Another TOEFL essay for review.

PRACTISE ESSAY 5
TOPIC:

Nowadays food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Give reasons and examples to support your answer.

ANSWER:

Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. This change has definitely improved the way people live. Cooking is an art and has seen a tome of changes over the ages. Primitive man ate his food raw. Slowly, eating cooked food was considered. Later several techniques of cooking were developed. At first the process was tedious due to the lack of modern gadgets and equipments. Nowadays, cooking has become a paltry.

Several modern cooking utensils have been developed. The microwave oven, electric cooker, coffee maker, ice-cream maker, juicer are but a few in the long list. These have made cooking very simple and efficient. No more tiresome cooking hours. A few minutes are more than sufficient. Another advantage that these equipments offer is that, constant supervision is not required. Once the dish has been placed in the gadget, the person can carry on with some other chore. The dish gets cooked and the equipment automatically switches off. With such sophisticated equipment, cooking has surely become extremely simple. The time consumed has been reduced considerably. The strain on the chef has also come down.

Though some people still prefer authentic cooking methods, these are highly impractical in the fast world that we live in. In the present living style, man finds very little time in his hectic schedule to stop and cerebrate on each and every detail. He happily welcomes anything that could save him time and energy. This is why easier cooking techniques have been adopted. This has surely improved man’s way of life. With cooking taking up lesser time, he finds more time to spare. Now, he can eat awhile and enjoy his meal too.

Furthermore, faster cooking allows lesser nutrients from being destroyed. This becomes an essential criterion as far as health is concerned. With man taking to a sedentary life nowadays, exercising has become a rarity. So, to compensate for this, dieting and healthier foods are preferred. This can be obtained from foods full of essential nutrients. This is possible only when foods are cooked to the right extent. This is easily made possible in the techniques that we adopt nowadays. Any time duration of cooking can be selected and efficient cooking can be done.

Thus, considering all these factors, we can say that man’s way of living has improved with food preparation becoming easier. Adapting to environmental changes is an inborn nature in all beings. In these lines, changing our cooking habits has also been natural. Thus, the change has occurred only because of the presence of an underlying need. So, we can say that this change has had a greater positive influence on man’s life.

**vertical_horizon** · 08-25-2002, 03:52 AM

Synthia, where do you get this one? Is is a sample essay? or your own one?
I myself like it vrey much

.

verhor

**Vaya** · 08-25-2002, 07:56 AM

Hi synthia!

First of all, I want you to read two sticky topic in this forum (one is about 'how to post essays' and other contains all TOEFL topics and their numbers) just to make sure that you know rules

Your essays are long. Do you know that you have only 30 min to complete it on actual TOEFL test? Are you sure you wrote these essays within 30 min limit? If the answer is NO, you should practise to write an essay in 30 min. If the answer is YES, where have you learned to type so fast?

Your essay has great vocabulary (to sophisticated for me to understand). I also think that grammar is ok. My dream isn't to write such essays but ... to understand them completely! :o

Anyway, what I whant to say is that despite sophisticated vocabulary and grammar your essay is slightly off-topic (this is only my own oppinion).

When I read the intro I thought your essay is going to be about cooking history...

The 2nd para persuades the reader that cooking really became easier. (the topic doesn't aks you to do that)
The 3rd para is more about why new cooking techniques have been adopted and the improvement of human life is mentioned in 'BTW' style. (sorry, but that's how it looks for me)
The 4th para again is more about new cooking techniques and their advantages. No human life inprovement mentioned, but of course everybody can feel it 'between lines'.
The coclusion is superb philosophycal, but as far as I understand it could be the next body para. You write 'man’s way of living has improved'. Then you write another argument support it: it's natural change and natural changes are always good. (BTW, I disagree with it) Well, this is a kind of conclusion, a kind of body para... It's complicated.

BTW, I feel we should think about the slight difference between 'easy to prepare food' (i.e. junk food) and 'easy preparation of food' (i.e. microwave ovens).

To sum up, I don't see your clear view points. I want a list of improvement: more time, healthier nutrition, etc. and I want one body para about one of these points.

I want to emphasize that this post contains only my own oppinion. I can be wrong - I am not a teacher.

Let me know all questions, doubts, and remarks you have.

HTH! Renata

**synthia** · 08-26-2002, 05:48 AM

Hi Vertical Horizon,

Thanks for the comments. I wrote the essay alright. But,it took me a little more than 30min
May be that is a big drawback!

**synthia** · 08-26-2002, 05:58 AM

Hi REnata,

Wow is what I can utter!! How can u be so perspicacious in thy analysis? I appreciate it very much.

About the time I take for my essays, I think i am almost on time ( around 35min).

I just wanted the intro to be nice. But honestly, I do think it is slightly misleading.
I tried to list out the improvements, as u said, time and nutrients in the 2nd and 3rd paras. But, may be it is not to the point!!

anyway REnata, thanks a lot for the comments. I'll surely try to implement this in the next essay.

P.S.: About natural changes influencing man, I personally feel it is true.But, now that u have pointed out, I do find it contradicting my original statement. What I actually meant to say was that man has taken the changes in his stride and that faster cooking is one of it.... well forget it. i am very bad at making my point!!
HEE HEEE

**Vaya** · 08-26-2002, 03:54 PM

About the time I take for my essays, I think i am almost on time ( around 35min).

Wow!!! I had a heart attack and almost died... That is impossible! I couldn't even type such a long essay in 30 min not mentioning thinking about ideas, grammar and political correctness... Wow!

Good luck in your tests.

Renata

**synthia** · 08-27-2002, 01:00 AM

Hi Renata,

Thanks a lot!!!

**gautam** · 11-26-2002, 02:05 AM

Hey,
Even I have written a TOEFL essay on the same topic, please critically evaluate it.

Thank you
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the modern day world, man has furnished himself with all the necessary comforts. Today he cannot live without the television, Air Conditioners and even without the microwave. The luxuries of yesterday have become a necessity today.

With progress, everything is becoming easier, even preparing food. The market today caters to all kind of varieties. "Time is money" is a common saying in the business world. Canned food allows us to save the time of preparing on a gas stove. The microwave generates enough heat to attain the required temperature in seconds and hence enables us to cook our food in no time.

In the past, we started with the sticks to light fire to cook our food. This was not only a time consuming but also a very laborious and unhealthy process. Lighting fires within the house was also a dangerous task. With time we invented the gas stove which made use of kerosene which made life a little easier to all of us. As technology progressed we came up with gas stoves which made use of LPG which were much easier to use and saved us a lot of effort. The most important invention probably would be the microwave which allows us to prepare nutritious food in a matter of minutes.

Nowadays, people are very health conscious. Before consuming any edible product, they are more keen to look at the ingredients and the calorie content. Frozen food, canned food etc have only a limited amount of calorie but at the same time have ample of protein content and thus give good nutrition on consumption. Usage of microwaves enables us to reduce the oil content in the food and thus take care of the cholesterol level.

Technology has allowed us to improve our way of life by providing us better nutrition. It has also helped us save time and effort which now can be put into other aspects of development and help in the future of our country.

**vemvin** · 12-09-2002, 03:48 PM

Hi All

I'm back, this time in the TOEFL forum.

You guys were a great help (I can't say how great!) for the GRE. And now it's TOEFL. And the test is just two days away!! The worst part is, I'm unable to come up with classy essays as I sometimes used to for my GRE AWA. Anywyas, here's one on this topic. All ye great brains, please read this one and let me know what's right/wrong and what needs improvement, ASAP if you please

Erin, I'd be really very happy if you could grade this essay.

Thanking you all in advance,
Happy reading!
-vemvin

Modern day gadgets and processed food have revolutionized the way we cook. In my opinion, the fact that preparation of food has become easier has certainly improved the way people live.

Preparation of food is no longer a time consuming process. Due to the availability of food that is ready to be eaten or that which only needs to baked before it can be consumed, has made life simpler. Prior to the availability of such foods, people had to spend a lot of time in the preparation of food. Due to this, the task of cooking was entrusted to one person, whose absence left others helpless. But now, the burden no longer lies on one person. The preparation of food is now a more personal activity than a communal one, thus giving individuals more freedom to choose the kind of food they eat.

Modern gadgets have played a major role in simplifying the process of preparing food. Cooking is no longer a complicated process, the forte of only a few people. Prior to the existence of electric grinders, ovens and stoves, cooking was not only a tedious and laborious task but also a process which required the cook to be experienced enough to produce good food. For example, before electric ovens with temperature control existed, the baked product’s quality largely depended on the ability of the baker to maintain the appropriate temperature. But now, this task has been handed over to machines and the dependency on the baker has reduced.

Thus life has improved, as food became easier to prepare. People no longer have to depend entirely upon the expertise or the availability of a cook to be able to eat good food. Cooking, in the present times, is viewed more as a hobby than a tedious task.

**ciquita0** · 12-10-2002, 06:52 AM

Hello there,

I think that you should delimitate your ideas...the essay has to be easy to read and follow: first of all, to begin with, second of all, moreover, finally, as a conclusion and so on.

Than, I think that you should review the structure and make out of the two long paragraphs, three (easier to follow).

And I do believe that the reader would be more interested if you could use some quote, vivid examples, your own experience...something like that.

GOOD LUCK!!!

personal statement I recommend you to read the posts from Just finished my Toefl test, so you won't be surprised of anything during the test.