Is It Better to Buy or Rent?
The price of housing has kept increasing in recent years, which causes a big headache for people living in cities. A lot of people cannot afford to own a real estate property, so they choose to rent instead of buying an apartment. This group of people does not want to bear burden of mortgage so that they opt for a practical solution. Renting an apartment makes them have a place to stay and thus they can focus on work as well as personal life.
Some other people, however, believe that an apartment owned by themselves makes them feel safe and relieved, so they are willing to sacrifice some other aspects of life to borrow money from the bank to buy an apartment. As far as I am concerned, to buy or to rent is all about
it will be better to rent first and wait for the good timing when the price is going down to buy.
Topic 2: On Job Hopping
It seems that nowadays, very few young people are willing to stay in a job position for long, let alone for the whole life. They change jobs constantly. This results from several factors. Firstly, young people like fresh
things, and it is easy for them to be fed up with old routine work. So when they stay in a position for a while,the excitement will fade out.
They are quite realistic and not willing to waste time in a job they are not interested in. Thirdly, some young people are not satisfied with current salary, believing they deserve better pay. In my opinion, constant job hopping will not benefit young people in their career development. Every job has its own merits and young people can certainly learn something from it as long as they are patient and wise enough. Every job experience is valuable down the career path and young people shall be able to make the most of it.
Topic 3: Online Social Network
Modern people will be no stranger to online social network. Facebook, Renren and Kaixin001 are probably the most populous networks among Chinese netizen. In these networks, people interact with each other, be it a stranger or a friend, and have a lot of fun in the virtual world. This phenomenon could be a result of the fast development of the Internet and people's great interest of the virtual world. I think it is a very good new platform for people to keep in touch. But it should not be overused. Firstly, some people are addicted to it, which makes them want to get online 24 hours a day. When people spend too much time on one thing,they will naturally have not enough time for study and for work. Secondly, online social network change people's behavior of interacting with others. In virtual world, you just click the mouse and type in words instead of
having a face-to-face talk. This will not benefit people's long term friendship, and even harm their interpersonal relationships in real world.
Topic 4: The Most Important Skills for Modern People
With the development of science and technology, the skills that modern people master are also changing with it. Some old skills including cooking, sewing and gardening are no longer be deemed as necessary skills. Then what are the most important skills for modern people? Some hold that foreign language skills and computer skills are on top of the list, whereas some others believe that communication skills are the must.As far as I am concerned, communication skills are of the greatest importance for modern people. Firstly, in a globalized world, everyone is interconnected with each other. Communication is the key in personal interaction, and good communication skills can bring people sound interpersonal relationship. Secondly, most of the work done today
requires teamwork. One person alone can not finish everything. Cooperation asks for communication, and effective communication will promote cooperation. That's the reason why lots of big companies emphasize communication skills first when they are recruiting new employees.
Topic 5: What Is More Important: Character or Academic Achievement?
What is the criterion to judge the performance of a student? Some believe that the exam marks should be the first standard concerned. A student's first priority is to study well, and academic achievement can show the result of a student's efforts and capability. But some disagree by holding that good character should be
considered first when talking about the performance of a student, as character shows that whether a student has correct basic moral value and proper behavior. As far as I am concerned, sound character is more important in judging a student's performance. Firstly, good exam marks can not be everything as that won't follow a student's whole life. But sound character will be the only thing that lasts for long. Secondly, if a student has very poor character, good marks will be meaningless. When the student has grown up, his academic achievement will probably be used for wrong purpose. I, therefore, believe that we should reform the education system and care more for students' character cultivation.
Topic 6: On the Importance of Being Grateful
Have you ever said \
Have you ever thought about repaying a business partner who once lent you a hand? If the answer is yes, you must be a person who feels grateful. Your gratefulness makes your family more harmonious and helps you build a reliable cooperative relationship with other people, which can help you a lot in your lifetime.However, there are less and less people who feel grateful in the modern society. For one thing, people focus so much on what they can get that they never think of what to give. That is to say, they are too greedy to feel grateful. For another, some people take others' love and care for granted and know nothing about gratefulness.In my view, gratitude is important to our society and cultivating gratitude should begin from children with something small. We should teach our children how important gratitude is and ask them to do small things for others to show their gratefulness. Our society can become more harmonious and beautiful because of gratitude.
Topic 7: Living with Parents after Graduation
Which will you choose to deal with your accommodation problem after graduation, living with parents or renting a room on your own? Quite a number of people prefer to rent a room on their own; however, more and more people choose to live with parents.There are several reasons for that. First, because of high housing prices, most people can't afford to buy a house after graduation. What's more, with their limited incomes, the graduates feel stressed with the high housing rent and living costs. Living with parents can save them lots of money which they may spend on housing and daily expenses. Finally, many people have been accustomed to depending on their parents and they can't take care of themselves. Personally speaking, I'd rather rent a room to live my own life, though living with my parents may help save much money. I also suggest that those who are so dependent on parents should learn to be independent as early as possible.
Topic 8: More Disasters than Before?
Much attention has been paid to reports about natural disasters recently. Earthquakes, droughts and floods in the
West and Southwest this year resulted in many casualties and great losses, which greatly shocked us and forced us to be on alert. We can't help raising the question: are there more disasters than before?Many people probably will say \newspapers and websites. Media often cover details of disasters for days, which easily gives viewers a false image that disasters happen every day. As far as I am concerned, the great coverage of natural disasters by the media reflects the environmental awareness of human beings. We are more concerned about environmental protection now, and this is the first step to a better future of our planet.
Topic 9: How to Deal with Peer Pressures?
People often feel peer pressures. For example, your roommates smoke but you don't. Your classmates wear
expensive clothes but you don't. In these cases, you may feel excluded if you don't do the same things as they do. Sometimes peer pressures drive people crazy, but you can only rely on yourself to deal with it.There are two ways to deal with peer pressures. First, pay attention to your own feelings and decide what you should do. Try saying \who stand on your side. It's tough to deal with peer pressures alone,but it's much easier if at least one peer supports you. Make friends with those who have similar opinions or habits to yours, so that you won't feel excluded.To conclude, peer pressures can be eased if you have the courage to say \together with your true friends.
Topic 10: Lectures and Discussions
Lectures and discussions are two main styles of teaching in universities, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some students are in favor of lectures, but others enjoy discussions very much.Lecturing is the most traditional teaching method in China, because it is considered highly efficient. Students can get used to lectures easily, for most of them have been taught in this way since primary school. Teachers play a very important role in lectures, while students seldom have chances to speak. On the contrary, discussions allow students to have chances to interact with each other. What's more, students have more freedom and initiative in class where they can express their ideas freely and ask any questions about the topic. However, the class can easily go out of control if there is no restriction.As for me, I prefer discussions to lectures because of the open atmosphere. However, teachers should take charge of the discussions to help students learn more.
Topic 11: On the Importance of Mutual Understanding
Nowadays many people are so focused on their own interests that they barely consider the feelings of others. As a result, misunderstandings, or even conflicts, arise.It is important for people to understand each other during a conversation, or in the interpersonal communication. For one thing, mutual understanding makes it easy for both parties to reach an agreement on the topic they are discussing. This may help solve the most difficult issues among different cultures, countries or communities. Furthermore, for people who are friendly to each other, this mutual understanding can definitely strengthen the love and friendship between them.Both the speaker and the listener can do much to help gain mutual understanding. On the one hand, the speaker should try his best to express himself clearly, correctly, vividly and forcefully. On the other hand, the listener should also make every effort to be very attentive. Most importantly, both parties should take a friendly attitude towards the other side.
Topic 12: Book Smart or Street Smart?
There is a heated debate nowadays about which is better or more useful, to be book smart or street smart. People's opinions differ greatly over this topic. Some people believe to be book smart is way better. Many important fields like science and education need a great number of book-smart people. They can apply what they learn from books to their career. Others argue that true cleverness is not about how much you have learnt, but about how you deal with what you have learnt. Street-smart people can learn much from different
experiences and can solve practical problems easily. They are much useful than book-smart people to some extent. As for me, there's no clear victor in the battle between street-smart people and book-smart ones. They both have their advantages, and our society require both. As a result, it's much better if we are both book smart and street smart.
Topic 13: Due Attention Should Be Given to Spoken English
As we all know, spoken English plays an important part in learning English. However, more and more students pay less attention to spoken English nowadays. There are two main reasons for this phenomenon. First, students would rather pay more attention to written English than spoken English because of pressure of exams. In order to enter a better school, students take efforts to improve their grades in examinations. As for English, exams mainly focus on the written part. Therefore, written English becomes students' priority. Furthermore, many students lack courage to speak English. Being afraid of making mistakes and thus losing face, many students dare not speak English in public. In order to change this situation, the educational system should be reformed to keep a balance between written English and spoken English, and schools should pay more attention to the latter. And most importantly, students should be encouraged to make mistakes when speaking English. If they are self-confident, their spoken English is sure to improve.
Topic 14: Volunteering Activities
With the progress of society, the volunteer spirit has spread all over the country. More and more people are willing to be volunteers and take part in volunteering activities. Getting involved in volunteer work means a lot to our society. Firstly, you show loving care to others when you are doing volunteer work. You pass love and civilization on to others with your volunteer work, and make others feel that there are always people caring about them. This makes our society more harmonious. Secondly, people whom you help may be influenced by your good deed and follow your lead. As a result, all people may help and care about each other, which makes the world a better place to live in.Since volunteer work is so meaningful, we should call on more people to take part in volunteer activities. All young people are supposed to have the volunteer spirit and be active to do volunteer work.
Topic 15: Keep Connected with Parents
Many parents feel confused that, once upon a time, their kids shared everything with them, but now they don't even look at them. With the development of modern society, it seems that more and more children aren't willing to communicate with their parents. There are several reasons for this phenomenon. For one thing, many kids think that they have nothing in common with their parents. What parents chatter about is study, which makes them bored. Thus, they prefer to communicate with friends. For another, they feel that their parents don't understand them at all. What they love to do is often against their parents' will and they can't get any support. As a result, the generation gap between parents and children become wider and wider. In order to change this
situation, both parents and children should work together. Parents should learn to be a good listener and respect their children's ideas, whereas children should keep connected with their parents actively.
Topic 16: My View on Knowledge Economy
Knowledge economy, which emphasizes knowledge and people of talent, is gradually replacing the industrial economy and becoming the dominant economic form. It is playing a more and more important role in our
economic life in recent years. Knowledge economy has fundamentally transformed our ways of work, business and education. To start with, with the development of knowledge economy, more and more people are transformed from traditional manufacturing industries to new fields such as the Internet and the computer science area. Secondly, knowledge economy has given rise to the boom of electronic commerce and online trade, so you can do business anytime and anywhere. Besides, people have to keep learning something new to adapt to this explosive knowledge society. In my opinion, we should insist on developing knowledge economy and make efforts to educate the young generation, to contribute to the progress of knowledge economy.
Topic 17: The Impact of the Internet on Education
As Internet application is becoming wider and wider, the Internet has already permeated traditional education and has tremendous impact on education. As a result, more and more people tend to choose online education. There are some reasons for this phenomenon. First, online learning breaks the limits of time and space
traditional education encounters and provides flexible learning opportunities for all people. Second, with the online learning, one can learn lessons from the best teachers of top schools which one can't have access to traditionally. Third, online learning gives freedom to students, so they can schedule their study according to their own pace of learning. Finally online learning enables them to discuss with others and ask questions freely without seeing each other, which is perfect for shy people. In order to develop online learning, there should be more schools providing all kinds of online lessons for people who have different needs, and more people should seize these learning opportunities to enrich their knowledge.
Topic 18: On Dialects
There is a controversial issue about whether dialects should be prohibited in public. Opinions vary greatly on this issue.Some deem that dialects should be forbidden in public. There are so many people with various
dialects in public that if everybody just speaks their own dialects, it can easily lead to chaos. In order to avoid this situation, we have to choose mandarin as the official language, for it can be understood by most Chinese. However, others argue that everybody has the right to speak dialects. Local dialects have been used for
thousands of years, and they are valued as part of the traditional culture. Therefore they shouldn't be abandoned randomly. In addition, dialects still enjoy popularity in the daily communication among people from the same place. From my perspective, local dialects should be maintained and they can be used in public as long as they do not cause misunderstanding among the audience. Moreover, we should take responsibility to preserve endangered dialects.
Topic 19: The Benefits of Job Interviews
Nowadays, if you apply for a job, you usually have togo through the job interview process. A job interview is
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