psagarriga

The twentieth century saw great change. In your opinion, what is one change that should be remembered about the twentieth century? Use specific reasons and details to explain your choice. Since the extinction of dinosaurs several millions of years ago, for human beings, the twentieth has been the century during which there have been a lot of changes, more than in the past. Most of these changes are great, others not so much, and not all of them are good for human beings and the environment. In my opinion, the great change that we should remember about the twentieth century, is the advent of the television, firstly, because individuals since receive directly at their own home images and sounds coming from all around the world. Second, because is a great source of information, and finally, because it's for most persons a leisure source. Since TV has arrived in homes, people are able to receive videos, images, music, comments, coming from everywhere in the world and this without moving from their sofa. Compared with inventions of past centuries, I find it great. For example, if you lived in the fifteenth century, and someone would have told you that in future it should have been possible to watch though a mirror and see images coming directly from the other world's hemisphere (thanks Copernicus!) you would have certainly thought him crazy. A great amount of information we receive today in Europe comes from TV. Although, information is transmitted through radio and internet as well, TV remains nowadays the means through which people is much better informed, because by it they have access to images, speeches and video, 24 hours a day. Furthermore, television, for those that have one, is a source of leisure. They stay the evening watching movies, or entertaining programs. For them should be odd to imagine a life without TV. The great change concerning the last century, I think it is the television because it permits to have access a great amount of information, either in video format or sound or text. Furthermore, people enjoy watching their preferred programs or sport event. Personally, I prefer to use my spare time reading books, they are much more interesting than TV programs, and alas, it's not a great change of the 20th century (Thanks Guttemberg!). Title edited by Erin from this: # 159 : The twentieth century saw great change. I to this: #159: The twentieth century saw great change. In y

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? It's more important for students to study history and literature than it is for them to study science and mathematics. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion. Hi, I have a big problem. I find that it was easier to write down in English some weeks ago than now. I think that it was more fluent, and easier to find the right words. Maybe it's because of the some beers i drunk yestarday night ? [:o)] Anyway, today is sunday, but I have to work. Here my last essay. I will be glad if someone would have the courage to read it. :p I had to concentrate on listening last days, and I will pass the toefl in two days. :) I am in positive mood, because in any case, I will be in Holiday, and I will stop studyinng the night ... for the moment. In most of the colleges, students have access both to the literary and scientific knowledge. It is only after, at university, that students would concentrate more on a determined field of study. It is my opinion that for a student should be more important to study science and mathematics than history and literature, first because we use mathematics everyday, second because is more difficult to understand mathematics than history or poems, and finally because it helps memory. Nowadays individuals are often confronted - directly or indirectly - with mathematics problems or science questions. A great example is the new currency for the European citizens. In some countries, the change between the old currency and the new one has been easier than in other ones. In Germany for example, one Euro corresponds to 1 Mark, at the contrary of France, where the same Euro worth 6,5 French Francs. For most of European people it has been very hard to habit with this new currency, due to complex calculation to convert Euro in their own old currency, especially for people not used with calculations. Further, I think that is much easier for an individual to read and understand history books later in its life than for others to understand mathematics formulas or scientific theories. Finally, I think that mathematics helps to increase memory skills. For example, I know some elderly persons that have habits to play bridge every weekend. Speaking with them you will notice that they have very high memory skills, more sometimes than those of younger people. People should have to study more mathematics and science because it could be helpful both for everyday life and for memory. People could then read literature or history during their spare time. Title edited by Erin from: #124 : Do you agree or disagree with the following to #124: It's more important for students to study hi

Hi to everybody :D but are we talking about discoveries or inventions? I think that both semiconductors and telephone are inventions. We can consider that they have been invented on the base of the same discovery : Electrons interaction, or something like this. Here below my essay. What discovery in the last 100 years has been most beneficial for people in you country? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. In the last century, we have assisted to hundreds of discoveries in most of the research fields like medicine, physic, and in genetic as well. I think that, among these, the most beneficial that occurred during the last one hundred years has been the Marie Curie and his husband discovery: the X-Ray. From that moment, either medicine, or physics, or chemistry as well improved faster thanks to this new application. In medicine, for example, we have been able to watch inside the human body without submit patients to heavy surgical operations. Interposing the human body between a photographic paper and a X Ray source of radioactivity like Uranium, it has been possible to see exactly the skeleton structure, and eventual traumas on it. Nowadays, this application is used in other fields as painting restoration for example. As we know, in the past, some painters reused their work to paint over them. Vanghog is one of them. It is analyzing its painting with X Ray, that it has been possible to discover that beside there were others older works. Like other great discoveries, the Curie's one occurred casually too. The results are evident, as evident are the benefices that today we can obtain from this discovery. It permitted a lot of improvements, not only in medicine research, but in physics and in other multiple research fields as well.

Hi, hereafter my last essay. I hope i have not been too boring. [:o)] Let's me know your comments. Thank Pier ________________________ A friend of yours has received some money and plans to use all of it either to go on vacation, to buy a car. Your friend has asked you for advice. Compare your friend’s two choices and explain which one you think your friend should choose. Use specific reasons and details to support your choice. Personally, if I have a friend that would have to spend a lot of money to either to go in vacation, or to buy a car, I would try to convince him to go in vacation rather than to buy a car for several raisons that I will try to detail here in this essay. I would say to him that, if he would have a car, he could stay at work longer because he could arrive at work earlier in the morning and go home later in the evening. This is a great advantage. But, at the same time, I think that he would be more stressed, because using the car he would be in the traffic in the rush hours, both in the morning and in the evening. Furthermore, he would be more independent during the weekend for going anywhere he wants, and during the night, he could go back home without to wait for either a metro or a taxi. But at the same time, I will remember him that, buying a car, he will have to pay the gasoline, an assurance, car reparations, tickets, taxes, and other expenses less or more foreseeable. For example, I have a friend of mine that has included in his estimated car budget a number of tickets per year in order to lower the stress due to the lack of parking in Paris. He prefers to accept the risk to have a ticket more than wait for an hour looking for a parking place. At the contrary, if he would choose to go in vacation, he would be less stressed and at the same time he would have the possibility to visit a wonderful country. He could choose to very far, in a beautiful country with a warm temperature, nice beach. He could relax, have fun, have a lie in every morning. If he would like, he could go fishing every day, and have a sleep on the beach after lunch. Both possibilities have advantages and disadvantages, but, if I had to give my advice concerning the way to spend money, I would suggest leaving for a vacation in any way. It makes you less stressed, especially if the alternative is buy a car. A vacation permits to visit wonderful countries, having fun, relax and taking advantages of pleasures that life can offer.

He to everyone. I do not know who will read my essay. I hope it will not be too boring. Let me know if you have any suggestions about it. Thank you Bye Pier ________________________________________________ You have enough money to purchase either a house or a business. Which would you choose to buy? Give specific reasons to explain your choice. Having enough money, some people decide to buy a house, others prefer to start a new business. If I had enough money, personally, I would choose to buy an apartment in Paris for several reasons. First at all, because at the moment I have a job that I like and I would not change for any reason, second, because I am spending most of my salary to pay apartment's monthly rents, and last, but not least, because my dream is to own an apartment in Paris. Never change what it works well. In that case, I appreciate my job, and changing it does not interest me. Maybe, I will change idea in the next years, but actually, I cannot imagine what I would like to do. In any case, either purchasing a house or start a new business it is like an investment, the second with more risks than the first. For this reason I prefer at the moment invest in an apartment, since my ideas concerning my dream house are more focused than those concerning my dream job. Moreover, I am spending more than one third of my salary to pay a rent. At the beginning I accepted to pay it, but now, since I am living in my apartment since three years and paying a rent since five years, I am aware that if I would have bought an apartment, I would already paid more than one fifth of a its value. The problem was that five years ago, when I began to look for a flat, I had not enough money to buy one. At last, but not least, I love the city in which I am living, and I could not support the idea to leave it forever. It is possible that I will leave in the future, because here the life is very stressful and expensive. If one day I would have to leave for either family or professional reason, I would like to think that I could come back here whenever I want, and the best way to do it easily, it is having a flat. If I had enough money, I would prefer more to buy an apartment than to start a new professional activity because I like my actual job and nowadays an apartment's rent is being more and more expensive. Moreover, buying an apartment is an investment that has lower risk than starting a professional activity: if you loose your job, you will have always a roof upon your head.

In my opinion With me, a house is very important, and a business as well a house is as important as a business. A house gives me shelters, a business help me earn money. However, if I have had (if I had… I would…) to choose between buy a house and start a business, I would rather choose a business rather than a house. First of all, owning a business helps me gives me a chance to challenge myself. As the matter of fact, starting a business is easy, but managing it and making it work well are is another story. Having a business means implies to deal I have to encounter with a lot of problems that can happen everytime at anytime. Some of them can could make my business fail. Therefore, if I wants to maintain this business, I have to work hard. Sometimes, I have to decide take an important decision that can be very bad if it is a wrong decision. In my point of views, it is one of the best ways to improve myself and to gain experiences. Maybe, It is possible that my first business would be fail, but in this way I will learnt would improve a lot of my experience and so that I can be successful on my businesses in next future increase the chance to be succesful next times. Moreover, now since I am a student, all of my expenses come from my parents budget. Sometimes, when I think about it, I want to do something to earn my own money so that I don't have to use those of my parents anymore. I feel sorry whenever I spend a large amount of money for my expense. Having a business is a one of my solutions. Working with my own business, I could can earn money by myself own efforts and I would not don't have to depend on my parents as I did do. I love my parents, I don't want they have to worry care about me anymore. In conclusion, I would like to restate my prefer is puschasing a business. It helps me challenge myself, earn my own money. However, If I have this choice again when I get older, I would will rather choose a house Hi lord, do not take seriously my corrections. I am new like you, and I wrote the same essay than your some days ago. You can read it and make your comments if you want. I am interested to receive comments from anyone. With regard to your essay, I think that you should read more essays examples to find ideas on writing. You can find them on this site. I did it, and I think that is very usefull. Bye Pier

He, I do not know why, but under my name appear something like ... "be nice with me"... well, please don't consider it [:(!] because I need absolutly to improve my skills [xx(]. When people move to another country, some of them decide to follow the customs of the new country. Others prefer to keep their own customs. Compare these two choices. Which one do you prefer? Support your answer with specific details. If I should have to leave my country to another one, I would have the choice between to follow my own customs or to keep the customs of the new country. These attitudes are very differents from one person to another, and depend on their character and their origin and culture. I know for example a lot of people, living in Paris, and coming from other country, that try to maintain their own customs. They try to cook their traditional dishes, speaking their own language, and to maintain the habits they had before to leave their country. For instance, I have a couple of friends that are being living here in Paris from 5 years. They are married together, and together are Italians. Often they invite me to have a dinner during the week or a Sunday lunch. Each time I feel like I was in Italy, because they listen all the time Italian music, and speak only Italian, and know only Italian persons living in Paris. That is very odd, but interesting at the same time, because for me is like to go at Rome for Lunch, staying in Paris. In the same way, I know other persons that will prefer to integrate the new country. They will make efforts to take new habits, trying to avoid persons coming from their same country. They will privilege local native persons, improving faster, in this way, their language skills. For instance, I have a Spanish friend from Seville that, like me, came in France because he found that Paris was a very beautiful city. He was a very good guitar player, and staying in Paris, he learned a lot of George Brassen's songs and other very good French singers. This permitted to him to learn French in a very short time, and above all, to be appreciate from French people, that usually are not so friendly like Spanish or Italian people. Some people leaving their own country try to feel at home keeping their customs. Other persons try to integrate the new country, taking new habits. I prefer this second attitude, because I think that it is more interesting and more enriching, and permit to feel better in less time. Furthermore, in this way, it shall be easier to be accepted from the local inhabitants.

Hi Ranata, I thank you for your remarks. I find them very usefull . I think I should pass more time thinking to the subject and write down the outlines more attentively. Sometimes I start writing an essay being in a hurry, because I consider half an hour a very short time, and then, I make confusion with my ideas. Bye Pier

Hi Erin, I think that I will be participating at this "Toefl essay" forum (and maybe others) for some more weeks. Last week I failed my fist Toefl Exam, and I cannot fail it twice,.. first ... because is quite boring to study after dinner, .. second .. because I would prefer spending 100$ in other manners. That's why I will try to participate at the activities of this web site more than before. I find it very interesting, and helpfull. It makes me more friendly with Teofl. Further, I will have to pass the GMAT in march, so i NOT ready to leave. Some famous athletes and entertainers earn millions of dollars every year. Do you think these people deserve such high salaries? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion. Some athletes and entertainers earn millions of dollars. It is my opinion that these people do not deserve so much money first because we live in a world where the disparity between poor and rich people is very large, second because these persons create less employment than others, and finally because is not proportional to the quantity of work they do. Nowadays, we are living in a world in which differences among poor and rich people is larger than during the past, and I do not consider a good thing that some popular persons could earn in one year so much money that other persons will never see during their entire life. Further, I personally consider that sport events as well as music entertainment are a kind of "culture" to which most of the people can not have access because of very expensive. I think that why the entry ticket is so high is because the artists or sportsman require a lot of money. I remember for example that some years ago I planned to see a concert of a well known international singer, and I ought to change idea because the price was so high than I would have to sacrifice too much of my activities. The same I could tell about most of the sport events. In the same way, most young persons would like to see their preferred football players, but they cannot because it would cost much more than that they could permit. Furthermore, I do not think that these persons deserve so high salaries, because they do not create so much employment as most entrepreneurs do. I appreciate more persons creating job opportunities, participating in this way at the increase of the country richness. Some famous athletes and entertainers earn plenty of money every year. It is my opinion that actually the difference between rich and poor is becoming larger and larger. It's hard for me to think that some persons could deserve to earn millions of dollars when other one, maybe with their same talent but not the same chances, have not enough money to live a normal life. If these athletes and entertainers would spend less than a small part of their millions to help poor people, I think they would earn more popularity too.

People have different ways of escaping the stress and difficulties of modern life. Some read; some exercise; others work in their gardens. What do you think are the best ways of reducing stress? Use specific details and examples in your answer. Nowadays people needs to escape from the stress and difficulties of modern life. There are many ways to do it. Some people relax reading books, other doing exercises or working in their garden. In my opinion, the best way to reduce stress is listening music first of all, classic music preferably. Second way, and as much important as the first, doing sport and finally, leave for holidays. Many people escape from stress listening music. For example, during my journey from home to work, I meet many people listening music with the Walkman in the metro. This way of listening music permits to abstract from the real life. I tried one time, but I felt like isolated from the world all around. I do not like listening music in this way. I prefer to listen music at home or driving the car. Another way to feel relaxed is doing sport. I do it at least three time a week. There are many sport that relax me, nut the easier and the most economic is the jogging. When I come back home from work, I am used to have a jogging, and then I lay down on my bed, just after a shower. At this moment, when I have no more forces to do anything but stay on the bed after, I feel very relaxed. Jogging permit to myself to reduce stress accumulated during the day. The third way to escape from stressful life, is to go in holidays. I have a friend of mine that used to be stressed at work. Once he left for a one week holiday during the winter time and, when he came back, he filled so good that since, he can not stay working in Paris without to have a holiday at least once a month. The music, as well as sport and vacation are, in my opinion, the most relaxing activities that people can do to escape from modern life. I think that people should find the time to do it more and more. It affords to reduce stress during work activities and consequently, to feel better physically and in own mind.

Hello to whom will read this essay. Please, tell me what you think about it. # 088 Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Telephones and email have made communication between people less personal. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion. People use more and more telephone and Email to communicate. Some persons think that this kind of communication is less personal. I agree with them for several reasons. First at All, because we do not see the person which we are talking to. Second, because we tend to communicate with more and more persons, and consequently the communication is more superficial. Nowadays I think that we communicate more than in the past, and we do it in a completely different way. In the past we could communicate only face to face, or by letter, and today, we can easily use mobiles or Emails. The disadvantage is that with actual means of communication we do not see the person and consequently the communication cannot be as personal as during a face to face. It's more difficult to transmit emotions, or understand exactly the feeling of the interlocutor. Further, it is very easy to call by telephone or to write emails, and in the same way, it's very easy to meet new persons. On Internet you can write to many people, much more than those you could call by telephone or meet during the weekend. Personally, I have the tendency to write a lot of messages during the day, and most of them are very short messages, and it happened that I sent messages composed of only one word. This shows how the communication today is becoming essential and thus, less personal. Emails, as telephone, are communication means that are less personal than others, like face to face or writing a letter, and in general way, they do not permit to express feeling or emotions. In other hand, their advantage is to permit to save a time, and to have more spare time to meet together, and communicate in a more personal way. [:o)]

Thankyou Atnoon and Cinderellahn for your remarks. I find them very helpfull. This my fist essay and I admit that my ideas are quite disorganized. I will try pay more attention at topic the next time. PSA

___________________________________________________________________ Topic 131 - Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Only people who earn a lot of money are successful. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. ___________________________________________________________________ First at all, we should define what the term "successfull people" means. In my opinion, "successfull people" are those persons that become famous and are known by a very large part of the society. We have a lot of examples of successfull peolple. We could name thousand of musicians, painters, writers, film makers, and so on. For example, if we look at the paintings, I think that one of the most successfull painters of the last century is Vincent Vangohg. As we know, he past the last years of his life lonely and without money. With regard to its economic situation, we can refer to its paintings that were either reused, or painted on both the faces. In our actual society, the examples of persons that have reached the success are very differents from those above. We can list Business mans, lawyers, politicians, persons from the showbiz, and so on, and, as we know, these persons earn a lot of money. Actually I think that everything has changed respect to the past, and people think more about money as a final objectif. In general peolple believe that they will reach the success when they will earn a lot of money. My opinion is that successfull people are those persones that gives themseves to the others, without waiting nothing back.