Task 1 :
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The tables below are the results of research, which examined the average percentage marks scored by boys and girls of different ages in several school subjects. Write report for a university lecturer describing the information below.
You should write a minimum of 150 words.
Boys:
Subject Age
Maths Science Geography Languages Sports
7 63% 70% 63% 62% 71%
10 65% 72% 68% 60% 74%
13 69% 74% 70% 60% 75%
15 67% 73% 64% 58% 78%
Girls:
Subject Age
Maths Science Geography Languages Sports
7 64% 69% 62% 62% 65%
10 65% 73% 64% 67% 64%
13 64% 70% 62% 65% 62%
15 68% 72% 64% 75% 60%
作者建议:
This IELTS task 1 example is quite difficult because it presents the student with a lot of data, and because the significant trends in the data are not overly obvious. Let's have a look at how we might go about organising the information in the tables into a task 1 answer.
1. First, we need to be aware of all of the variables that make up the data: the scores (percentage averages), the school subjects, the age groups and the gender or sex.
2. Now we need to sort the information into some sort of sense:
a.) The first thing to do with any table is to find the highest and lowest numbers. Looking at these tables we can see that boys tended to score highly in sport and lowly in languages, and that girls on the other hand tended to score highly in languages and lowly in sport. This is the first and most obvious significant feature of the tables - the boys' strong subject is the girls' weak subject and vice versa.
b.) But a comparison of subject scores between the two sexes reveals only limited significance. We can see that for most of the subjects the boys and girls got similar scores. Boys scored slightly higher in geography, but by the age of 15 the scores were the same. So, all that we can say about the charts in terms of the differences between boys and girls by subject is that, besides sport and languages, they were negligible (not important).
c.) The next logical step then, is to look closely at the scores for the different age groups. When we do this we find that some interesting patterns emerge. For all of the subjects, except the weak subject for each sex (languages and sports), the scores, between the ages of 7 and 15, increased overall, for both sexes. But if we look at the scores for the years between these two we see that the improvement was not constant, and that at a particular age the scores for most subjects fell. Also, the age at which this occurred was not the same for boys and girls. This pattern seems to reveal that both boys and girls went through a slump in academic performance, but at different times, which is certainly an interesting feature of the data in the tables, and definitely needs to be mentioned. The largest difference between scores for two different age groups ( Languages - 10%; 65-75% 13-15yrs) should also be noticed.
3. The next thing to do is to take our analysis of the data and make a plan for our report. A plan for these tables might look like this:
a.) Introductory sentence- table shows: percentage scores for school subjects (list), different ages (list), different sexes.
b.) Highest and lowest subjects for boys/girls- sport/languages- opposites
c.) Other subjects very similar- subjects by sex not too significant
d.) More significant- age groups- all subjects increased (overall)- except for slumps(list subject figures)- different ages for boys/girls- 13-15/ 11-13
e.) Concluding sentence- boys performed better in sport, girls languages- both sexes experienced performance slump but at different ages.
4. After a plan has been made, we can write the report incorporating the facts and figures from the charts. Look at how this has been done below. Keep in mind that the answer below is quite extensive, and that often because of time answers will not be as detailed as this. In those cases the least significant information should be discarded. In this case the least significant information is that about boys being slightly higher in Geography, and the part about the greatest difference between two particular age groups.
Notice the way data has been incorporated below. The prepositions and other useful terms are in italics.
Task 1 写作示范:
The tables show averaged percentage scores achieved in the school subjects of Maths, Science, Geography, Languages and Sport by children aged 7, 10, 13, and 15 according to sex.
The subjects for which the highest average scores were recorded were Sport,at 78% (boys), and Languages,at 75% (girls). The strongest subject for each sex was revealed to be the weakest for the opposite sex, with these two subjects also comprising the lowest recorded scores,at 60% and 70% respectively.
Apart from these two subjects the performance of boys and girls was comparatively similar. Boys tended to score higher in Geography, with scores ranging from 63% to 70%, while scores for girls ranged between 62% and 64%. However, it is significant that at the age of 15 both boys and girls alike averaged a score of 64% for this subject. The differences between the sexes for scores for Maths and Science were negligible.
It is more interesting to observe the patterns that emerge when the data is examined in terms of age groups. In general, for both boys and girls, children tended to improve as they got older. For boys, between the ages of 7 and 15, improvement can be observed in these ranges of scores: Maths (63-67%), Science (70-73%), Geography (63-64%), and Sport (71-78%). For girls, it can be observed in these score ranges: Maths (64-68%), Science (69-72%), Geography (62-64%), and Languages (62-75%). The increase in scores for girls for this last subject, Languages, was the greatest overall improvement across the different age groups, and its rise from 65% to 75% also constituted the greatest margin between scores for any two particular age groups.
The exceptions to the general trend were Languages, in which scores for boys steadily declined from 62% at 7 years to 58% at 15 years, and Sport, in which scores for girls steadily declined from 65% to 60%. The other significant exceptions that emerged were that both boys and girls recorded a slump between particular ages. For girls this happened between the ages of 10 and 13, when scores in Maths fell by 1%, Science 2%, and Geography, Languages and Sport by 2%. For boys the ages at which this occurred were 13 to 15, when Maths and Languages both fell by 2%, Science 1% and Geography by 6%. Boys' scores for sport actually increased by 3% during this period.
To sum up, these tables show that in this study, on average, males in this age range performed better in Sport and females performed better in Languages. The other significant pattern that emerged from the data was that boys and girls both went through a slump in performance, but that this slump happened at different ages for the different sexes.
Task 2 :
Topic: Most high level jobs are done by men. Should the government encourage a certain % of these jobs to be reserved for women?
You should spend no more than 40 minutes on this task. You should write a minimum of 250 words. You should use your own ideas﹐knowledge and experience to support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence.
A: 写作段落大意:
1、Introduction - short statement of opinion.
2、Body paragraph (1)(2) Different reasons to support opinion. (3) Statement of opposite point of view "balances" essay.
3、Conclusion - summarizes Body.
B: Model Answers:
1、Introduction / opinion
Most of the jobs in society that are high-paying，powerful，and demand a lot of responsibility are held by men. I do not believe this situation arose because women are incapable of doing high-level work. I believe society could benefit if more women were in postions of power and therefore I think the government should reserve a percentage of these jobs for females.
2、Why should government encourage a certain % of high level jobs for women?
(first reason)Firstly, the problem of unfair employment distribution appears to come from social convention and not competence or true ability. At a young age most girls are not encouraged to pursue political office, business success, or professional prestige . On the other hand, boys are told to do these things. As a result, men hold the high level jobs but this does not mean they are very good at what they do. If the government set a quota for hiring women to do high level work, such as working in the government itself, then perhaps women would be more inspired to be ambitious in their life plans and contribute to a less-than perfect society.
(second reason) Furthermore, regulations in the workplace for hiring women would not be a new thing. Although not written or made into law, there seems to be rules for who can and cannot have high-level jobs. For instance, if a man and a woman both competed for the presidency of a company or even the country, and both were equally qualified and had the same experience and background, there is little doubt who would get the job. Even more, if the man was less qualified and less experienced than the woman, the man would still probably get the job because of his sex. Therefore, to legislate a percentage of high level jobs for women would work to fight the unwritten sexist rules of the workplace.
Other points of view: 3-different arguments against my opinion.
On the other hand, there are many arguments against the use of a quota system for women. It is true that the injustice and discrimination could be reversed. This is to say that some qualified men might be denied a job while some unqualified women would be given one. Also, the problem of sexism at work could be worsened instead of being overcome. People would doubt whether a women with a high level job was "truly capable"--men might feel bitterness and resentment, while women might think less of themselves and begin to depend on government "charity". Furthermore, there is the problem of defining what is a high-level job and determining an appropriate percentage. ( Final statement that supports my opinion again.)→ Nonetheless, a quota system would break down some barriers in the short-term. Sexism in the workplace will not just magically disappear.
3、Conclusion
To sum up, I have outlined some advantages and disadvantages of making quotas for the number of women in high level jobs. Despite some of the obvious problems I believe that men and women can and should share power, wealth, and prestige. It is a cause worthy of our efforts
Task 2 :
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
"Should criminals be punished with lengthy jail terms or re-educated and rehabilitated using, for instance, community service programmes, before being re-introduced to society."
Present a written case or argument to an educated non-specialist audience on the above topic.
You should write at least 250 words.
Suggestion
1. When approaching task 2 questions the first step is to look carefully at the question and make sure you understand what it is asking you to do. This will often involve underlining the key words and phrases. The key words in this case are "should", "or", "for instance" "before", and the topics- "lengthy jail terms" and "rehabilitated". The first three words are important because they point out the different parts of the question and how they fit together. "Should", of course, indicates that this is a question that is asking you to decide whether a particular action is good or not, and when it is combined with "or", you know that this decision is between two specified actions. In this case the actions are methods of dealing with criminals, which, naturally, are our two topics - "lengthy jail terms" and "rehabilitation".
If you are not sure what "rehabilitation" means the clue is provided by the example linking word "for instance", which suggest that community service programmes are one form of rehabilitation (and re-education). "Before" is important because it defines the terms of the question by pointing out that the criminals will, eventually, be released from jail, and that this should be a basic assumption in your argument. So, this question is asking you to decide whether lengthy jail terms are better than rehabilitation, but it is up to you to define the terms of the argument and point out exactly what you understand the issue to be.
2. The next stage is to brainstorm as many ideas on the topic as you can. Time is severely limited, so it is often a good idea to divide your ideas in a way that will help develop an argument, which usually means dividing the ideas into two groups, either into the two topics you must choose between, or arguments "for" and "against" the statement, or the "advantages" and "disadvantages" of an issue or topic. In this case the two topics "long term jail sentences" and "rehabilitation" form our group headings.
Long Term Jail Sentences
Not as expensive as rehab
Criminals don't deserve special funding and education
Deters future crime
Satisfies the public
Criminals are inherently bad - they will always re-offend
Rehab programmes ineffective - criminals re-offend
Longer time before criminals get the chance to re-offend
Rehabilitation
Keeping prisoners is expensive anyway - longer jail term higher the cost
Rehab progammes can be used to make or save money - eg. build things
Has been found that heavy sentences (and even death sentence) have no effect on crime rate
Long-time inmates are most likely to re-offend
Rehab programme is better than nothing
Long term jail sentences create "us" and "them" situation
Crime and criminals are social problem, we have to try and re-integrate criminals into society, rehab tries to do this
3. The next stage is to organise these ideas into an essay plan. It is helpful to use linking words in your plan. From the above ideas you might come up with a plan like this.
i) Intro- rehabilitation a contentious issue. Opinion rehab still valuable.
ii) Arguments against rehab- not effective and too expensive - unfair that criminals receive funding and education. Though, some truth to these two points, neither offers better or cheaper solution.
iii) True rehab is expensive but, keeping prisoners for a long time is more expensive - furthermore, rehab programmes can be used to generate money eg Biblemum Track.
iv) Also true rehab not always effective, but more effective than nothing + long time inmates more likely to re-offend.
v) It is unfair that criminals receive funding but no rehab- risk of "us" "them" situation
vi) Conclusion- social problem so rehabilitation required
The next thing is to write the actual essay. The linking words in the essay below have been underlined.
Model Answers:
The ways in which a society deals with those who break the law has long been a contentious issue. Often the debate is centred around the value of rehabilitation programmes, as well as notions of just and adequate punishment. That is to say, there are many who question both the principles behind, and the effectiveness of programmes which seek to re-educate criminals before they are re-introduced to society. It is my opinion that even assuming limited effectiveness, these programmes are ethically and practically valuable.
Arguments against rehabilitation are usually based on two points. One is that given the great expense rehabilitation programmes represent to the taxpayer, they are not effective enough in preventing repeat offences. The other is that it is not fair that criminals receive expensive education programmes, and that, quite the opposite, they should be punished with long jail sentences instead. Though it cannot be denied that there is some truth to both of these points, it is also true that neither offers a more effective solution, and moreover nor do they offer a cheaper solution.
Firstly, it is indeed true that rehabilitation programmes often come at great financial cost to the public, but the upkeep of prisoners is expensive anyway. Longer jail terms would entail even greater costs, but with rehabilitation programmes and projects the opportunity at least exists to make some of these costs up. Prisoners can be put to work in community service projects, which both provide the prisoners with valuable training, and provide the public with much needed services. A good example of this was the recent construction, in Western Australia, of the Biblemum Trail, a 600km hiking track with facilities all along the way. During this construction project inmates received instruction in various different areas of the building trade, including workplace integration and deadline responsibilities.
It is also true that rehabilitation programmes are often not effective, and that upon release some inmates quickly re-offend. However, it cannot be denied that having a rehabilitation programme is more effective than not having one at all, and that at least it offers prisoners more options when they are released. More importantly, long time inmates often report that they repeat offend simply because they are unused to, and unprepared for civilian life.
Secondly, though it does seem unfair that criminals receive taxpayer financed education programmes, it is in everybody's best interests to re-integrate these people into society, because it follows that whilst they remain outside of society they not only are a danger, but also cost society a lot of money. Punishing criminals with long jail terms in actual fact punishes the average civilian just as much as the criminal because it creates a "them and us" society by establishing and reinforcing a criminal community within prisons, which results in more crime. Therefore it is apparent from this that crime should really be seen as a social problem and criminals as members of society that require help to fit in. As such, locking these members of society up in jails for long periods of time is not the best way to help make these adjustments, and moreover neither is it a cost efficient way of dealing with these people.
Task 2 :
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
"Should criminals be punished with lengthy jail terms or re-educated and rehabilitated using, for instance, community service programmes, before being re-introduced to society."
Present a written case or argument to an educated non-specialist audience on the above topic.
You should write at least 250 words.
Suggestion
1. When approaching task 2 questions the first step is to look carefully at the question and make sure you understand what it is asking you to do. This will often involve underlining the key words and phrases. The key words in this case are "should", "or", "for instance" "before", and the topics- "lengthy jail terms" and "rehabilitated". The first three words are important because they point out the different parts of the question and how they fit together. "Should", of course, indicates that this is a question that is asking you to decide whether a particular action is good or not, and when it is combined with "or", you know that this decision is between two specified actions. In this case the actions are methods of dealing with criminals, which, naturally, are our two topics - "lengthy jail terms" and "rehabilitation".
If you are not sure what "rehabilitation" means the clue is provided by the example linking word "for instance", which suggest that community service programmes are one form of rehabilitation (and re-education). "Before" is important because it defines the terms of the question by pointing out that the criminals will, eventually, be released from jail, and that this should be a basic assumption in your argument. So, this question is asking you to decide whether lengthy jail terms are better than rehabilitation, but it is up to you to define the terms of the argument and point out exactly what you understand the issue to be.
2. The next stage is to brainstorm as many ideas on the topic as you can. Time is severely limited, so it is often a good idea to divide your ideas in a way that will help develop an argument, which usually means dividing the ideas into two groups, either into the two topics you must choose between, or arguments "for" and "against" the statement, or the "advantages" and "disadvantages" of an issue or topic. In this case the two topics "long term jail sentences" and "rehabilitation" form our group headings.
Long Term Jail Sentences
Not as expensive as rehab
Criminals don't deserve special funding and education
Deters future crime
Satisfies the public
Criminals are inherently bad - they will always re-offend
Rehab programmes ineffective - criminals re-offend
Longer time before criminals get the chance to re-offend
Rehabilitation
Keeping prisoners is expensive anyway - longer jail term higher the cost
Rehab progammes can be used to make or save money - eg. build things
Has been found that heavy sentences (and even death sentence) have no effect on crime rate
Long-time inmates are most likely to re-offend
Rehab programme is better than nothing
Long term jail sentences create "us" and "them" situation
Crime and criminals are social problem, we have to try and re-integrate criminals into society, rehab tries to do this
3. The next stage is to organise these ideas into an essay plan. It is helpful to use linking words in your plan. From the above ideas you might come up with a plan like this.
i) Intro- rehabilitation a contentious issue. Opinion rehab still valuable.
ii) Arguments against rehab- not effective and too expensive - unfair that criminals receive funding and education. Though, some truth to these two points, neither offers better or cheaper solution.
iii) True rehab is expensive but, keeping prisoners for a long time is more expensive - furthermore, rehab programmes can be used to generate money eg Biblemum Track.
iv) Also true rehab not always effective, but more effective than nothing + long time inmates more likely to re-offend.
v) It is unfair that criminals receive funding but no rehab- risk of "us" "them" situation
vi) Conclusion- social problem so rehabilitation required
The next thing is to write the actual essay. The linking words in the essay below have been underlined.
Model Answers:
The ways in which a society deals with those who break the law has long been a contentious issue. Often the debate is centred around the value of rehabilitation programmes, as well as notions of just and adequate punishment. That is to say, there are many who question both the principles behind, and the effectiveness of programmes which seek to re-educate criminals before they are re-introduced to society. It is my opinion that even assuming limited effectiveness, these programmes are ethically and practically valuable.
Arguments against rehabilitation are usually based on two points. One is that given the great expense rehabilitation programmes represent to the taxpayer, they are not effective enough in preventing repeat offences. The other is that it is not fair that criminals receive expensive education programmes, and that, quite the opposite, they should be punished with long jail sentences instead. Though it cannot be denied that there is some truth to both of these points, it is also true that neither offers a more effective solution, and moreover nor do they offer a cheaper solution.
Firstly, it is indeed true that rehabilitation programmes often come at great financial cost to the public, but the upkeep of prisoners is expensive anyway. Longer jail terms would entail even greater costs, but with rehabilitation programmes and projects the opportunity at least exists to make some of these costs up. Prisoners can be put to work in community service projects, which both provide the prisoners with valuable training, and provide the public with much needed services. A good example of this was the recent construction, in Western Australia, of the Biblemum Trail, a 600km hiking track with facilities all along the way. During this construction project inmates received instruction in various different areas of the building trade, including workplace integration and deadline responsibilities.
It is also true that rehabilitation programmes are often not effective, and that upon release some inmates quickly re-offend. However, it cannot be denied that having a rehabilitation programme is more effective than not having one at all, and that at least it offers prisoners more options when they are released. More importantly, long time inmates often report that they repeat offend simply because they are unused to, and unprepared for civilian life.
Secondly, though it does seem unfair that criminals receive taxpayer financed education programmes, it is in everybody's best interests to re-integrate these people into society, because it follows that whilst they remain outside of society they not only are a danger, but also cost society a lot of money. Punishing criminals with long jail terms in actual fact punishes the average civilian just as much as the criminal because it creates a "them and us" society by establishing and reinforcing a criminal community within prisons, which results in more crime. Therefore it is apparent from this that crime should really be seen as a social problem and criminals as members of society that require help to fit in. As such, locking these members of society up in jails for long periods of time is not the best way to help make these adjustments, and moreover neither is it a cost efficient way of dealing with these people.
(Topic)
With the development of market economy,advertisements have become a dominant feature in television industry.Describe the rich information brought by TV,there still exits strong criticism against TV advertisment.Write an article analyzing the postive and negative effects of TV advertisments.
(TEXT)
There is a postive aspect and a negative aspect to everything--and that includes the TV advertisment. As the most popular media now,TV is offering a large amount of news and other informations everyday.In fact TV has the biggest number of audience in the world.Nevertheless,along with populance and welcome,it has brought mankind new problem to solve.
There is no denying that TV can vastly enrich the life of people.TV programs can be received everywhere all over the world .It allows the audience swift and free access to the world events and other programes.The most important point is that you need not to pay any fee for the TV station. All these expenses of the TV station are being paid from television advertisment.No matter how we compare,the TV program is the cheapest in various kinds of recreation.Last but no least,the TV adverisment has permeated the lives of people already and it helps people buying the goods which they like with both more covenience and more quick.
While there are a lot of advantages of TV advertment,its drawbacks should not be forgotten.For one thing,the TV advertisments waste a lot of time of audience, who have to spend a long time to watch many uesless programs.We all have this experience and we were very annoyed about a long TV advertisment when watched a normal program.Expecially TV advertisment interrupt the play or sport match abruptly.How bored you are at that moment!For another,not all the TV advertisments are neither useful or harmless, the audience often are misled by the TV advertisments of overstatement. Some dishonest producers often utilize the TV advertisement to promote their inferior products.
In a word, because people analyse the question in different ways, such as the TV station and audience. So it is very difficult to say clearly whether the advertisement is good or bad,In my opinion , I certainly hope that TV advertisements will be reduced a little in the near future.
