The Collection of TOEFL Model Essays: Topic 7

How do movies or television influence people's behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

Suggestions


Essay 1

Do movies and television affect our behavior? I believe that movies and television do influence our behavior, both for the better and for the worse.

Movies and television influence our behavior because they make us less active. Looking at films is a passive activity. If we watch too much, we become unhealthy, both mentally and physically. We stop using our own imagination when we see things acted out for us. Mental laziness becomes physical laziness; we'd rather watch sports on TV than play sports ourselves. We'd rather visit with the characters on "Seinfeld" or "Friends" than go chat with our own neighbors. Imaginary people have exciting lives. Is it any wonder that some people would rather live a fantasy life than their own? Movies and television also can make people more violent. The more we see violent acts on television, the less sensitive we become to them: Eventually violence doesn't seem wrong. We may even commit violent acts ourselves. This is especially true because we don't always realize that violence has consequences. Actors can be killed and come back for another movie. Sometimes we confuse that with reality. We forget that killing someone is permanent.

Of course, watching movies and television can also be good for us. It can give us a broader
window on the world. For example, seeing movies can expose us to people of different races and cultures. We can then overcome some prejudices more easily. Recently there have been more handicapped people in films, and this also helps reduce prejudice.


The best influence on our behavior is that movies and television reduce stress. Watching films, we can escape our own problems for a little while. Also, sometime movies show positive ways to resolve problems we all face. While TV and movies shouldn't be a way to hide from life, sometimes they can help us cope.

It is true that movies and television can influence our behavior negatively. However, I also believe that they influence our behavior in positive ways. How they affect you depends on how much you watch, what you watch, and how you respond to what you watch.

Essay 2

Hesitating I enter my house, the light outside is dimming and the shadows make everything appear unfamiliar. I know that my husband has not returned from work yet, simply because his car is not in the garage. I am alone. I carefully check all the rooms, almost expecting something to happen suddenly. I hold my bag in my hand as if it were a weapon. After the whole house has been declared "clear," I start to breathe normally again and a smile appears on my face as I realize, once again, how a simple movie seen at the cinema a week earlier can modify my actions.

Sometimes I wonder if I should watch TV, with all its shows that make me wonder whether I exercise enough, whether I am slim enough, or whether I treat my pets with the care they deserve: am I really concerned about their mental health? Not to mention the hundreds of commercials that try to make me believe I need a water purifier to remain alive since the water I am currently drinking is heavily polluted! And countless are the times when I have heard people talking by quotations learned from movies. We need to watch shows and films to know what to say, how to be, how to act. We are so addicted to all this that it almost seems like we cannot think on our own.

I cannot help thinking about what happened to me some days ago, an example that clearly shows what kind of power TV has over people. My husband and I were in a restaurant when I heard my young neighbor pronouncing violent words in a low angry voice. Surprised, I turned to better understand the situation and I saw that he was holding a fake military device and was acting as if he were filming a war movie. I am sure that if I had been a little be more updated about this type of movie, I would have recognized what he was saying as a quotation. Now, I wonder if he uses such a language also with his friends and with his parents, if he is aggressive, and if so, whether his attitude has really nothing to do with what he watches on TV.

That same evening on the way home I saw two cars stopped one next to the other at a traffic light and as soon as the light turned green they started racing, in the middle of town. In this case not even a major knowledge of movies and TV programs would have helped me: there are just to many of them on the market showing the exact same thing: people racing with cars.

I am sure that everybody, if asked, could easily list many other examples of how TV and movies can modify our behavior and therefore our life but, I wonder, if we will always be able to draw the line between a TV show and real life, between what they make us think we want and what instead we really need and are and believe.

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The Collection of TOEFL Model Essays: Topic 6

If you could change one important thing about your hometown, what would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

Suggestions:


Essay 1

Everything in the universe is in constant change. And everything needs continual improvement if the ever changing and increasing demands of humankind are to be met. If I am ever given the chance to change one important thing about my home town, it would be internet service. Needless to say that nothing generally revolutionized the way we live as internet in the past decade. Thus, an improvement in this vital service would mean an even more, unheard betterment to the people in my home town.

It is said that information is power. True saying indeed! I can envision how everything in my home town could improve dramatically if the internet service in it were made free, fast and staying out there like electricity, telephone or water all the time. One thing, a fast free and reliable internet service could improve in my home town is the way people work. If there is a this said service people in my home town must not necessarily commute to a far place to do their job. This in turn would mean less traffic jams, spacious work place, more time for family and recreation and so on.

The way people learn would be another important thing that a fast, free and reliable internet
service could better in my home town. People will have the chance to go through tremendous and different information resources in a very small amount of time. They, apparently will also take less time to share it. This assures a more fulfilled life for my home town people.

Since its advent, internet touched every part of our life. It in a dazzling way improved the way we do business, learn and communicate. A change in internet service implies good way of living for every one in my home town.

Essay 2

If I could change one important thing about my hometown, it would be air pollution problem, and I will give the following reasons to explain why I want to solve the problem.

The first and most important reason is that I hope that my hometown can become a beautiful city. As an old industrial city, my hometown has made a great deal of contribution for the country’s economic development. At a result, the natural environment of the city has been badly damaged. The forest has disappeared; the mountains have become bald, and the most awful thing is that the air quality becomes more and more worse. People seldom see the blue sky during most time of year.

Another reason why I want to change my hometown’s air pollution situation is that the city’s development needs clean and tidy environment to attract investors. Nowadays people have come to know that the city’s environment, which is so called “software facility of the city”, plays an important role in the city’s future. For example, due to the fact that the environment of the city is very poor, many local students who pursue their study out of the city would rather find themselves a job in other cities than coming back to their hometown after they graduated.

In addition, nowadays people have paid more and more attention to their health. If air pollution problem cannot be solved as quickly as possible, people’s requirement for a healthy body will never be realized.

In my mind, changing air pollution will apparently be my first choice if I can change one
important thing about my hometown. Fortunately people in my hometown are gradually aware of the serious problem.

Essay 3

If i could change one thing about my hometown, i would like to build up some useful and
advanced facilities for their use. A modern library, an advanced broad band system and an
integrated gym may bring a lot of changes to people living in my hometown and keep them up with the latest information and technology.

In my opionion, a modern library in my hometown can provide a good environment for the local people to study and upgrade themsevles. There are a lot of newspaper, magazines and reference books for their use. They can know what happened around the world and keep up with the fast- pace of this developing world. From lots of cultural books, they also can own a good habit of reading and learn to get knowledge from books. "Knowledge is strengh". Knowledge can give us guidance to overcome problems we meet in the daily life.

To popularize the broad band at home also is a quick access to Internet and movie channel, which can give people much more chances to choose their entertainment. Because of the Internet, our lives have been changed a lot no matter whether we accept or not. We can read news, buy items from e-commerce companies, send a free e-card to our friends, mail our beautiful photos to anyone we like or watch the movies online. Anyway, Internet brings us obvious changes. Additionally, broad band also can provide movie channel to users. Can you imagine that you can watch the movies you like just by cliking one button? It provide different types of movie for you to choose. People have more choice to enjoy the life and advanced technology at home.

Besides important information we need to know and advanced technology we use, we also need to do exercise to keep our healthy life. This is the reason why i want to set up an integrated gym in my hometown. Through doing many various exercises, such as, swimming, jogging, playing badminton or tennice, peopple can enhance their ability to resist the virus and enjoy the life happily. Furthermore, people who often do exercise have positive attitudes towards life although when facing difficulties. This is really what i hope to see.

In summary, i want my hometown to be a city equipped with a modern library, an advanced broad band system and filled with people liking exercise, loving life and possessing positive attitudes towards life. Thus, i want to build up above-mentioned facilities first.


Essay 4

With the developement of my hometown in the past few years, the population is expanding very fast. The city is expiriencing not only a higher birthrate than ever, but also waves of immigration. The streets in the city are crowed or even jamed during the rush hours. If I could change one thing about my hometown, I would develope an advanced public traffic system.

In order to hold such an exploding population, the city has extended miles by miles without much plan. It is common for people to travel from the southmost part to the northmost part of the city to go to work everyday. They have to spend three hours or more on the way they go to work and come home. Eight hours' work is a heavy burden, while people have to spend hours before and after the work. A subway running through or around the city can solve the problem. People could live further away from the downtown without worrying about spending too much time on the way.

Some people buy their own car or take a taxi to work everyday. It's really expensive for most of the people in the city. They can't afford paying so much on traffic fares. Many civil engineering experts advocate that sharing a public traffic system is the most efficient way. People could reduce their fares a lot by using the public traffic system, and they can spend the money on some other things.

Even there are more and more people who can afford buying a car or taking taxi everyday, It is still suggested to using the public traffic system. Because the road developement can never keep up with the demand of the increasing cars, the cars may jam on the roads during rush hours. Usually, the speed of the car in that time is no higher than a bycicle! And pollution is another concern. So many private cars running in the city will bring us an environmental problem. On the other hand, the pollution from the public traffic system is much lighter.

All in all, an advanced public traffic system time efficient, cost efficient, and pollution preventing. This is the trend of advanced cities.

Essay 5

I am from Arroz e Feijao, a small town in the northeast of Brazil. Building a factory in there will bring a lot of advantages and disadvantages, but I believe that Arroz e Feijao will mostly benefit from the building of a new factory because it is largely populated by poor people and the factory would bring many benefits to this small town. However, of course, a factory has disadvantages as well.

As you know, factories usually bring pollution. If this factory is not managed very effectively and efficiently according to specific rules, it's prone to polluting the local air and water. What's more, factories usually make noise. Beside clean drinkable water and fresh air, an ideal community should be quiet. If the factory cannot maintain this situation to the community, it will not last long. A factory that is too noisy or pollutes too much will eventually be relocated to a new area.

On the other hand, a factory could bring a lot of benefits to the community. So I would support the plan to build a factory to my community for all the reasons I will describe below.

First of all, the factory's construction will surely improve the local infrastructure. To run smoothly, the factory will have to have a steady, reliable supply of water and electricity. Some old pipes will be changed, and some facilities will be renovated. The residents' living standard get improved as a result of these widespread changes, an important benefit in Arroz e Feijao, where many people do not have access to clean water.

Secondly, to make the employee commute more convenient, the local roads will have to be rebuilt and broadened, resulting in improved public transportation. The town's residents can take a public bus to go shopping or go to work. As a result, air pollution and fuel consumption might be reduced.

Most important, a factory's establishment will bring up a lot of employment opportunities for the community. A factory need experts from various fields. The residents can take just a few minutes to go to the factory to work. So, the local residents can get great benefits from this factory.

Generally speaking, I agree with the plan to build a factory near my community. If the factory can be managed successfully, the factory and local residents can have mutual benefit.

Essay 6

Have you been waiting for buses at bus station for an hour in an extremely hot day? Have you been staying in a car waiting hours for the heavy traffic? Have you seen the scene that tons of people are crammed on a small bus? Maybe you think that’s incredible, but it’s true in my hometown. So the thing I want to change most about my hometown is the mass transportation system.

Mass transportation system is a very important part of a city. It influences people’s daily life,
work and entertainment. An effective mass transportation system can save people’s time so that people can do more work hence to increase the city’s efficiency. If you were the mayor, would you like the people in the city to sit in the cars or stand at bus stations wait for hours or would you like them to sit in the offices or stand in factories work for hours?

Moreover, a city with bad mass transportation system can’t be qualified as a good city, regardless how rich the city is and how big the city is. It’s essential for a city to have a good mass transportation system to be qualified a good city. For example, big cities such as Toronto, Tokyo, New York all have very good mass transportation systems which can bring people anywhere they want in a short time. A bad mass transportation system would limit the city to grow and it would be a handicap for the city to develop in the future.

Finally, as we can see, if my hometown can improve the mass transportation system, people will appreciate it a lot. It will be a great thing which benefits everyone in the city and makes our lifes more convenient.

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