1 30 SAMPLE ESSAYS FOR HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS 1. Describe a village you know well I was born and have grown up in the country in a small village beside a beautiful river. My village is surrounded in a hedge of green bamboos. Most of the houses in the village are built of brick and have red tiled roofs. In the middle of the village there is an old pagoda with high trees around it. On the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, the villagers often go to the pagoda to give offerings to The God of Agriculture. On the right of the village flows quietly a clear and blue river. When I was young, I used to swim in the river with my friends. How can I forget the wonderful time on this river fishing or rowing a boat with my boyhood friends! On the left of the village lies the village green where village meetings are often held by village officials. On this ground covered with soft grass we used to fly kites on windy autumnal evenings. The majority of villages live on agriculture. They get rich thanks to their fertile rice-fields and their diligence. Harvest time is certainly the busiest and the merriest time of the year. During the harvest, the villagers often get up very early in the morning. They cheerfully go to their rice-fields to harvest the bumper crop – the fruit of many months of hard work. My villagers are very friendly and helpful. They are willing to offer mutual help in any case and always get on with one another harmoniously. My village is rather small indeed but I like it very much because I was born and have grown up there and spent my happiest childhood among the simple and hard-working villagers who always feel attached to their native land. 2. Describe a visit you have made to a factory and show what benefits you have derived from the visit. Last week, under our form-teacher‟s guidance we visited the Bicycle Factory. On our arrival at the factory, we were warmly greeted by the director who gave us some information about the factory. It is a long, low building with different workshops. There are 500 workers in the factory. Many of them live in the factory grounds but many others live in the nearby towns or villages and go to work by bus everyday. When we entered the first workshop, the workers, in their overalls, were cutting steel tubes with hacksaws. It was very noisy here but the workers had got used to the noise. The newly-cut steel tubes were brought to the next workshop where they were joined together into frames by soldering irons. Flashes of red and blue light sent out from soldering irons dazzled our eyes. The workers were absorbed in their work. Drops of sweat were rolling on their cheeks and their overalls were soaked with sweat. We went to the next workshop. The newly joined frames were brought there to be polished before they were painted. The final process of production was to assemble accessories together before the bicycles were put on the market. The visit of the Bicycle Factory gave us a precious lesson: the existence of a society depends largely on the working class. The workers themselves create properly and material comforts for society with the sweat of their brow. And on impulse, we thought: “If our government hadn‟t imported such a large number of motorbikes and if all people had used bicycles as their means of transport, the environment wouldn‟t have been so seriously polluted”. 3. Describe your schoolmates and whom do you like best I have many schoolmates, but Tom is the one I like best of all. He is the biggest boy in class. He is about fourteen years old, his shoulders are broad. He is good as one can see when he smiles. I already know several of my classmates. Another one I like too is named George. He wears chocolate-colored trousers and a catkin cap. He is always jolly. There is little John, a poor hunchback, a weak boy with a thin face. Near him is Edwin who is very well-dressed. On the bench in front of me, there is a boy who is called Jake. His face is as round with a small nose. He possesses a special talent; he knows how to make a hare‟s face and they all get him to do it and then they laugh. And there is another curious fellow – my neighbor on the left Jack – small and thick set, with no neck, a gruff fellow, who speaks to no one, and doesn‟t seem to understand much but stands watching the master without winking, his brow lined with 2 wrinkles, and his teeth set and if he is questioned when the master is speaking, he make no reply the first and the third time he gives a kick. And beside him there is a bold, cunning face belonging to a boy named Peter, who has already been expelled from another school. There are, in addition, two brothers who are dressed exactly alike who resemble each other to a hair. But the most handsome of all, the one who has the most talent, who will surely be the head this year also, is Edward. Truly I like Edward, the son of the blacksmith, the one with the long jacket who seems sickly and pitiful. It is said that his father often beats him so he is very timid and every time that he addresses or touches someone, he says “Excuse me” and gazes them with his kind, sad eyes. But Tom the biggest is the best of all, I think. 4. Your most embarrassing experience Our family live in the suburb of HCM city, not far from the central city. It is about 30 kilometers to the South. Last week my parents, my brothers and my sisters paid a visit to my grandparents in the country and I therefore stayed at home alone. I used to get up very early in the morning. As usual, after going to the market to buy some necessary things, I came back home to start doing the housework such as cleaning the floor, making the bed, making coffee and preparing lunch. The house now was so clean and tidy that it seemed bigger and larger. I had worked from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. I was so tired that I had to stop working for a rest. After 15 minutes of relaxation, I started working again. Right after I had taken the teapot from the cupboard, I suddenly felt something burning downstairs. I got so embarrassed and frightened that I dropped the teapot while I was hurrying downstairs. To my horror and surprise, the kettle on the electric stove was on fire. I was in such a confusing state that I was quite at a loss. Then I came up an idea: I rushed to the switchboard to cut off the electric power. The house suddenly became as dark as pitch. In the pitch-dark kitchen, the kettle turned so dazzling red that it looked just like a hot burning sun on a stifling summer afternoon. 5. Your most frightening experience My worst experience happened on an airplane a long time ago. After graduating from High-School in Hue, I was quite happy when my parents allowed me to continue my study in Saigon. Living far from my family, I longed for an opportunity to see my dear people again and at that time the best way to travel to Hue was to use DC2 or DC4 planes. It took me only one and a half hours to fly from Tan Son Nhat airport to Phu Bai Airport. I often enjoyed comfortable and pleasant flights, but one day during my air trip to Hue I experienced the most frightening incident I have ever had in my life. It was in the winter when I received a letter from my parents informing me off my sister‟s approaching wedding ceremony. I hurried to Vietnam Airline Office to buy a return-ticket to Hue. I boarded a DC4 plane that morning. When I was flying over Nha Trang city, it began to rain. Looking out of the window, I saw Nha Trang surrounded in a dense veil of rain. We were making good time; but when we flew to Da Nang the weather suddenly got worse. It was raining heavily and the wind was blowing furiously. I was a little nervous. The plane was all right for about 30 minutes. I was listening to the music on the plane‟s radio. Other passengers were talking. The stewardesses were serving drinks and food to the passengers. Looking out of the window, I saw masses of dense black clouds flying past and Hai Van pass was veiled in a curtain of heavy rain, dimly winding below. Suddenly lightning struck one of the engines. The plane dropped rapidly. Some people were screaming and the stewardesses were falling down. From the cabin the co-pilot‟s voice was heard to advise passengers to fasten their seat-belts and keep calm. Looking around, I notice some nuns taking out their rosaries and starting to say prayers. Their faces were as pale as death. Though I was a hardened traveler and I got used to remaining calm, I felt quite frightened too. My heart was beating very fast and I was trembling with fear. I thought I was going to die. But my fear did not last long. After about 3 minutes, the pilot started the engine again. Everybody on board heaved a deep sigh of relief. We landed safely at last. I had to cancel my return to Saigon by plane and took a sea voyage and from that time on I have never traveled by air when the weather is bad. 6. Describe a visit to an interesting exhibition Last week an exhibition of paintings by famous artists was organized by the cultural and Artistic Association at The Art Gallery on Nguyen Hue street. Being very fond of paintings, I myself went there early in the morning. When I arrived, the Art Gallery had been packed with people. Groups by groups of people were entering the exhibition halls, 3 their faces were radiant with joy. On the walls, different patterns of modern paintings were hung: charcoal drawings, pencil drawings and oil paintings were on display. Most of them reflect daily activities and some of them bring us into a world of imagination and dreams. As I strolled through the exhibition halls, I heard the voices of lecturers who were telling the visitors about the artists and their works. An oil painting by Lu Tong Dao, one of the most famous artists in HCM city, portraying a scene at twilight in the country attracted my attention best: on a long and lonely road, a buffalo tender, sitting astride on his animal, is leisurely playing a flute on his way home. Gorgeous glows of the twilight are spreading on the golden rice fields, turning them into yellow velvet carpets. From afar, in the blue sky, a flock of storks are stretching their white wings, gently flying towards their warm nests. The painting did remind me of my happy boyhood in my native village where I lived my happiest days in my life. Being rather tired after hours of walking I sat down on a bench and talked to others about the exhibition. The exhibition offered me precious minutes of relaxation and enriched my imagination. It brought me back into my happy and peaceful past, full of love and tenderness, among my dear ones. Before leaving the exhibition halls, I bought the postcards of my favorite paintings to keep as souvenirs or to send to friends abroad. 7. Your favorite hobby Everybody has his or her own hobby. For me, my favorite hobby is reading books. My father was not only a writer but a researcher as well. He had a great collection of books on many fields: literature, science, art, fiction and non-fiction. After his death, I inherited the most valuable treasure which has been preserved carefully up to now. As I have a large collection of books of my own now, I usually spend hours reading and thinking about facts described in each kind of books. Sitting comfortably in an arm-chair in the library with a book open on my knee, I recall my father who was absorbed in his reading, perusing the poems of John Keats, William Words Worth, Chateaubriand and Lamartine. I still hear his sonorous voice reciting rhythmical lines of poems in Kim Van Kieu‟s story while his face was radiant with ecstasy and raptures. Through books I see many countries rise and fall. Kings and Presidents pass before my eyes and I can follow the history of nations. Each book has a story to tell me of remote countries and strange people. I am greatly indebted to books indeed. For me a good book is not only a true companion but also a well-experienced teacher guiding me through my life. It has the miracle to relieve my suffering and my hardship and reveal to me strange and new horizons. Reading books broadens my mind and improves my knowledge. Instead of indulging myself in futile entertainments, I am often keen on reading books which are always a source of comfort and relief to me and I am determined to preserve my father‟s valuable treasure for my posterity. In a few words, the reading of books contributes to the moral and intellectual formation of a man‟s personality. 8. The duties of a citizen The word citizen has three shades of meaning. It may mean to town-dweller as distinguished from a villager; or, secondly, the member of a city, who has recognized municipal privileges and duties – as, a citizen of Manchester, or of Bombay; or lastly, it may mean the subject of a sovereign state, in which sense we speak of an English citizen, or a French citizen. The first meaning may be left aside here; for the subject is concerned with the second and third meanings only. What, then, are the duties of a citizen to his city and his country? A citizen is the member of a community, whether that community is a town or a great country: and as the member of a community he has both privileges and duties. We may think of a community as existing for the sake of its individual members, or, the individual members as existing for the sake of the community. The first view, held by individualists, emphasizes the privileges of a citizenship. One says, the State exists for the good of the citizen – and that is true; the other says, the citizens exist for the good of the State – and that also is true. Both views must be combined and a citizen must recognize that the State he belongs to has a duty to him (his privileges) and that he has an obligation to it (his duties). However, as we are in no danger of forgetting our privileges as citizens, it is wise to emphasize our duties. The first obvious duty of a citizen is loyalty to the country of his birth or adoption. Patriotism does not mean “My country, right or wrong”; but it does mean that in a national crisis or danger, a citizen must be prepared to support and defend his 4 country even, if necessary, with his life. Secondly, it is the duty of a citizen to obey his country‟s laws. He must have no sympathy with crime, which is a breach of law. He may consider some laws imperfect, unwise and even unjust; and he may, and should, use all constitutional means in his power, such as public speaking, writing to the press, organization, and the use of his vote, to get such laws reformed or abolished. But so long as a law is a law, he must obey it. Thirdly, he must do more than keep the law himself, he must, as occasion arises, actively assist the guardians of the law in the performance of their duty in putting down crimes and arresting criminals. Criminals must be made to feel that they have, not only the police, but also all respectable citizens against them. Fourthly, he ought to take an intelligent interest in politics; for as a citizen he has a vote, and he is responsible for using that vote for the good of his country as a whole. He must form definite opinions as to what is best for his country, and what men are the best to rule it, and what new laws and reforms it needs, and then actively use such influence as he has to forward such measures. Lastly, a citizen must be ready, if he has the ability and is called upon to do so, to render active voluntary service to his city or country, by serving on municipalities, education committees, and other public bodies, or even in the central legislature. Good citizens have no right to leave the management of local or national institutions to professional politicians. 9. Qualities of a good citizen A good citizen is one who is a good person. There seems to be no scope for differentiating between the two - for a weak or a bad person cannot be a good citizen and it holds true the other way round also. It is a man's everyday behavior and his everyday virtues which count and contribute to his character. A good citizen is one whose behavior is consistent with the canons of self-respect and social justice and he should be reliable both in peace and war. The first and foremost quality asked of a good citizen is patriotism. He should have a genuine love for his country and should have a sense of involvement in its day to day affairs, in its economic policies and its international relationships. All this cannot be achieved overnight: it is the product of a good training and a good heritage and various other factors contribute towards patriotic feelings. The first among these is the right kind of upbringing. If a child hears only stories of betrayal and listens to a discussion of the various methods of making easy money, he is unlikely to imbibe any good qualities. The hand that rocks the cradle shapes the world. Honesty, integrity and self-respect are the qualities of a good citizen that can only be nurtured at home. These form the foundation of good citizenship. A home and a family are a miniature group. If a person gets his values and priorities correct while living in it, he will make a good citizen. A good citizen must put the interest of his country before his own personal interest and he should not enter into any contract which may prove harmful to the interest of his country and he must do his share of the work and share due responsibilities 10. Qualities of a good teacher (What makes an ideal teacher) Teachers play an important part in training children, teenagers and even people in their early maturity. Some qualities of a good teacher that are crucial for determining one as a good teacher are the teacher‟s sound knowledge in his/her major and its related fields, certain devotion to and great love for his/her students and his/her ability to inspire the students‟ passion for studying either in or out of class. There is no doubt that knowledge is a quality/must for a good teacher. In addition to his/her professional knowledge, the teacher need to enlarge his/her general knowledge on culture, society, humanity, psychology, methodology, politics, history, etc. to provide his/her students with what they need to know, satisfy their curiosity and meet their requirements in any case. Another quality that a good teacher should have is his/her devotion to and great love for those who call him „sir‟ or her „madam‟ in class. Generally speaking, the students are not mature enough to behave properly. They are sometimes really stubborn. Consequently, the teacher has to learn how to handle the students‟ troubles in a gentle and affectionate manner. He/she should pay adequate attention to the students and know how to keep calm in any situation so that he/she can give the students some advice when they are in need or help them distinguish the right from the wrong. Last but not least, a good teacher always succeeds in inspiring his/her students‟ passion for studying both under his/her guidance in class and out of class by themselves. I highly appreciate this third quality of a good teacher because of its undeniable value. It is not always easy to provide his/her students with all the required knowledge in class; therefore, a good teacher can manage to make the students motivated enough to carry on their active and successful self-study at home. Obviously, teaching his/her students how to study independently, creatively and effectively is what a good teacher must do in any academic setting. 5 In conclusion, to be a good teacher, anyone who devotes himself/herself to the “coinage” of a succession of young generations must keep on working really hard to enlarge his/her skill and general as well as professional knowledge, to accumulate experience in how to deal with his/her students properly and to be able to inspire in the students the true love, the increasing hope and the ever-lasting enthusiasm to reach higher and higher levels of education in their life. Those are important qualities of a good teacher. 11. What are the qualities of a good teacher ? Every student has his or her favorite teacher, but that teacher may not be the best qualified person on the teaching staff. In other words, although the mastery of the subject or subjects taught, plus an enthusiastic approach, is an essential prerequisite in a teacher, it is far from being the only qualification. There are some who know their subjects but totally fail to put them across to the students. Let us first examine the negative side. Unless the teacher has a voice which carries, without shouting, there will always be inattention at the back of the class. There are teachers who cannot stop talking, and who will lecture a class for forty minutes. Most students will be asleep after the first fifteen minutes. There are teachers whose manners and dress are eccentric; they may be popular, but few students take them seriously. There are teachers who either shout at or speak sarcastically to backward students. They are disliked by the whole class. There are teachers who prefer to talk about the football team or a certain television program rather than the subject they are paid to teach. While this again may achieve popularity, it certainly evokes no respect. There are teachers whose lives are marred by drink, drugs, or sexual deviation. These cannot begin to be effective teachers. So what are the positive qualities the student looks for ? A good teacher must be able to exercise discipline. Teaching cannot begin in an unruly class. In the past, class discipline has usually been strict and inflexible. The more modern approach is to allow more freedom of speech and movement, though no individual can be allowed to dominate proceedings by rough and noisy behavior. All teachers know the difference between a lively and a disruptive student. To be able to exert the right kind of discipline can be learnt, but this is often by bitter experience. There are a few fortunate men and women who have only to walk into a classroom to create order. Unfortunately there are more whose entry is a signal for chaos. Students are always ready to work to the best of their ability for someone whom they respect, for two reasons. The first is the desire to please that person. The second, more important reason, is the knowledge that the teacher has the student's best interests at heart. Study has two objectives, and a careful balance between the two must be kept by the teacher. The first is the ability to instill a love of the subject taught, which will be maintained in adult life. The second is to prepare the students as well as possible for the next examination, be it O or A level or university entrance in some cases. On the other hand, if, say, English is taught exclusively to cover the examination syllabus by means of learning context passages and model answers by heart, the subject will become boring. If there hadn't too much attention paid to generalizations about literature and its place in social evolution, then the lessons may well be interesting but the student will go unprepared into the examination room. There should also be a balance between how much work the teacher does and how much the student does. Some modern educational theorists disapprove of any talking by the teacher beyond the bare minimum. Unfortunately, if students' work is not carefully guided, and if they are given free expression in their approach to any subject, most of them will learn nothing of value. Avoiding the lecture habit, the good teacher, who has already done his or her lesson preparation, will help the student to achieve certain objectives in each lesson by, a mixture of verbal instruction and class work. Television, radio and other visual aids are only marginally helpful, and should be kept to a minimum. In schools which are not streamed, there will always be class members who are sometimes incapable of doing the work which others find easy. A good teacher will help them individually, sometimes after school hours, and if they are non- achievers, set them simpler work. To a certain extent, a good teacher needs to be a psychologist, able to detect and advise on mental blockages, which are sometimes due to outside emotional disturbances. A good teacher should be someone you can trust and talk to, and whose sane advice on your personal problems is worth listening to. 12. Anatole France said: “Family is a very good school”. Explain this sentence and comment on it. School is the place where the pupils‟ parents entrust the teachers with the education and training of their children. School is the place where useful citizens have been formed for society. However, a French writer said: “Family is a very good school”. By adducing concrete proofs, let‟s find out the meaning of it and try to appreciate its value. Family is a school. The role of the mother in the family is of utmost importance. She is both a mother and an educator. The child‟s immaturity of mind has been deeply influenced by the mother‟s lullabies and by the first lessons she has taught him since his childhood. Growing up beside his mother the child began to discover what was happening around him with his curious mind. So the mother must have a general knowledge in order that she can satisfy her child‟s thirst for knowledge. From this point of view, family is the very base of the school education. Family is a good school. Family does not teach the child subject as school does but the influences of family upon the child‟s mind are undeniable. It is in family, not in school that the child can learn good habits and customs together with mutual love and support. These lessons are much more practical than the abstract and theoretical ones taught in school. Therefore the above sentence offers us a valuable lesson about the importance of family to the education of children. It also 6 justifies that the education which a child gets from his family is not less important than the knowledge he obtains at school. The above sentence is perfectly right in a country, which always pays close attention to the role of the family and regards family as a basic unit of society. But in the society where family is not considered as the foundation of society, this sentence has only a relative value. To sum up, school helps us train specialists while family forms good citizens who are willing to devote their talents and minds to their country and their fatherland. 13. Nowadays, everybody is very fond of learning a foreign language. However, successful men are seldom. In your opinion, what is the basic factor? The most difficult thing for a person to accept when he begins to learn a foreign language is that the foreign language is so different from his own. Of course, he expects to find some differences; it may sometimes seem to him that some of the differences are completely unnecessary. A person‟s native language has a powerful influence on him. After all, he has been speaking his language since before he can remember. His family, his friends, even complete strangers – everyone around him uses that language. Under such circumstances, it is only natural that a person would have the feeling that his language is the most beautiful, the most perfect and the most logical of all languages. Therefore, the first thing that one must learn as he begins to study a foreign language is that, each language is the best possible language for the people who use it. We would not expect a person from India to think and act exactly like a person from France. And we should not expect the languages of India to be exactly like the French language. After this fact has been understood and accepted, many of the problems in language learning disappear. There are other attitudes which you will have to develop in order to learn a language successfully. The most important of these is that learning a language requires constant practice. You must not think that because you have seen or heard a word or phrase one time, or five times or ten times, that you really know it and know how to use it. You must be ready to repeat new lessons again until you can really use them, automatically, without having to think about them. Many students have the idea that if they can memorize long list of vocabulary words they will be learning the language. Learning a language is much more than that. In the early stage of studying a language, we must learn more important things, such as pronunciation and grammatical structure. After the student can use the grammatical structure, he can then begin to increase his vocabulary. Learning new vocabulary without knowing the grammatical structure of the language is something like trying to build a house without using a plan. Another important thing to remember is that it is not necessary to begin with a lot of reading or writing in the foreign language. Reading and writing lead to many very special problems which may complicate learning for the beginning student. The most important thing of all in learning a language is to have patience. If you keep working steadily, day after day, constantly practicing the language and using it at every opportunity, you will learn to speak a language well. 14. The difficulties in learning English and how to overcome them Beginners of foreign language always meet difficulties from the outset. For me, I had to overcome these problems when I started learning English. English pronunciation is my first obstacle. The pronunciation in English puzzles me a lot because the same letter has different sounds. For example the letter “a” in “bath” is not pronounced in the same way of that in “bathe”. The “ou” in “South” is also different from “ou” in “Southern”. Generally verbs and nouns are pronounced differently although they are written the same. Record is a good example to illustrate it. In order to solve this puzzling question I carefully study The A.P.A (The International Phonetic Alphabets) which helps me pronounce English words correctly. In order to have an accent just like the native speakers, I often listen to tapes and repeat after them, trying to imitate them. Moreover, my everyday conversation with the foreigners I meet in the street will enable me to acquire a proper accent. Compared with French, English grammar is much easier. However, this does not mean that learners meet no difficulties in learning it. It took me a long time to learn how to master the tenses in English grammar, to endeavor to do as many grammar exercises as possible and read various grammar books. In writing English, English language has its own style. In order to drill writing skills, I have tried to read famous novels of distinguished America and English writers. I enjoy the humorous style of writing in Mark Twain‟s masterpieces, the 7 elaborate and polished style of George Eliot and the sentimental and lyrical style of John Keats. After long and hard years of English study, how pleased I feel when I am able to read English and American authors without any obstacles and difficulties at all. 15. What difficulties are you facing in choosing a career? Almost every school leaver is confronted with a very important question that is nearly impossible to answer: The question of what to do next. As for me, I was bugged by my plans for the future from the very moment I finished my last examinations. In addition, there is also the question of passing time during the few months of waiting for my results. During this time, I had a choice of enjoying myself or looking for a temporary job or even taking up an interesting course, I did all three of them. Unfortunately I was not successful in getting to a university, so I had to enter the job market. I had always desired to take up teaching as a career. First of all I love children. Secondly I believe teachers are important people as they groom the citizens of tomorrow. As I grew older my exposure to the outside world has made me believe that there are many other careers that could interest me. I believe that I am facing the problem or psychological changes that any teenager would be facing during the period from childhood to adulthood. I tried relief teaching during my holidays in search of the teaching career. The experience I had was valuable as I managed to grasp the duties, responsibilities and challenges of a teacher. I discovered my lack of working experience. Since I gathered quite a lot of information from the short period of teaching, I decided that I could choose any career by working on a temporary basis. The successful stories of how some people started off doing only odd jobs in beginning spurred me on. However this does not seem possible in the present gloomy economic situation. I also face of another problem where employers are not too keen in employing job hoppers like me. My third problem concerns professional skills. For instance a secretary or computer programmer requires a certain level of knowledge in the field of typing, filing, shorthand and computer programming. These prerequisites can only be achieved through comprehensive courses. My concern is over which I should acquire and discover the abilities inherent in me. These are the problems I face in choosing a career like other school leavers. I believe parents play an important role in choosing a career by allowing the children to expose themselves to part-time jobs. This way they can narrow down their career choices more easily. Seminars, talks or discussions on careers can also help. 16. The advantages and disadvantages of television Nowadays many people all over the world spent most of their free time watching television; but since its appearance, television has brought to man many advantages as well as disadvantages. First, television plays an important role in our daily activities: it keeps us informed of all current affairs in the world. Events through television are more vivid than those through books and magazines. Second, television helps us enrich our spiritual lives. Our knowledge is broadened in many ways. Through language teaching programs, we can learn the language we like such as: English, French, German, Vietnamese, Japanese and so on. We can become skilful and clever at doing jobs, making cakes or arranging flowers through practical courses taught on television. Finally, television is a source of recreation. Humorous stories and funny films bring us minutes of relaxation after a hard day‟s work. For me, sitting comfortably in an arm-chair to watch an international football match on television is more interesting than having to queue for tickets at a crowded stadium. Apart from its advantages, however, television also brings lots of disadvantages to viewers too. First, television viewers gradually become passive in their action. Television may be a splendid media of communication, but it prevents us from communicating with each other or with the outer world. The world seen through television is only the restricted one: It separates us from the real world. Second, television, with its fascinating power, makes people of all ages sink into oblivion: whole generations are growing up addicted to the telly. Pupils and students are so absorbed in television that they neglect their school activities. Food is left uneaten, homework undone and lessons unprepared. Housewives are so keen on watching television that they neglect their duties toward their husbands and their children. Instead of watching television, we may use the time for a real family hour. Without the distraction of television, we may sit around together after dinner and actually talk to one another to know and like each other better. 8 Finally, the evil influence of television on the young generation is inevitable; it encourages them to commit crimes. Spectacles of sadism and violence on television lead them to robbery, theft, rape and murder. In a nutshell, television is useful to us when we know how to use it: Be careful not to overindulge ourselves in it and use it in a discerning manner. 17. Television, its use and abuse Television must be the most popular pastime for human beings today. Just about everyone watches television and just about every house has a television set. Every day and night, people glue their eyes on their sets to watch their favorite shows. So television exerts a large influence on us. It is fine we jus use television as a source of entertainment or to be informed about things happening around the world. In fact documentaries are very informative and we do learn many things from such programs. News keeps us up to date with the latest developments. Cartoons keep children entertained. There is no shortage of programs to keep the viewers occupied. There is nothing wrong in watching these programs, but they must be done in moderation. Then we use television wisely and do not get attached to it. However there is always the danger of making a habit of watching television. A habit is something we always do and might get upset if we could not do it for some reason or other. A man who has made smoking a habit would be very upset if he is not allowed to do so. Someone who must have a cup of coffee every morning would be upset if he could not get one. Similarly, a person who makes a habit of watching television would be upset if he misses his favorite programs. These are all symptoms of addiction, like those of a drug addict. To be addicted or attached to television is to abuse it, that is, one feels compelled to have the television on. In other words one becomes a kind of a slave to it and may spend hours just watching it. For example, the first thing my uncle does whenever he comes home is to switch on the television. He used to watch the television a lot but now he just switches on the set and does something else. I have on occasions switched off the set because no one was watching it only to have my uncle switch it on again almost immediately. I asked him why and he said that he just wanted the set on. It is quite ridiculous really, but I noticed he is addicted to he sound from the television. He finds it unbearable not to have the set on, One great abuse if television is how it is used by advertisers. It is of enormous benefit to both advertisers and television station to have advertisement on television. The viewers also get to know what product are available and the advertisers get to sell their products. However, the situation on television now is such that the time allocated for advertisement is about the same as that for the actually programs. In fact, in some popular programs, the station spend more time screening advertisements than the actual show. This is sheer abuse. No one wants to have their programs interrupted so often by repetitions of advertisement that become so boring after a while. So we watch television. Finally only we know whether we are making use of it wisely or we are abusing it. Whichever it is we reap the results of our actions. 18. The advantages and disadvantages of money Everybody knows the value of money. Nothing is more powerful than money. In fact, if we have no money, we cannot buy goods, clothes and other necessaries we need. Without money, we cannot go to the movies, theaters or other amusements places. How can we spend our free time pleasantly on rainy evenings without a color television in front of us? Music from a new hi- fi can relax us quickly after a hard day of work. But how can we satisfy our needs, our desires and our pleasures when we cannot afford to buy them? Thanks to money we can improve our spiritual activities easily. We can go to any schools, any universities we like to further our knowledge. If our parents are wealthy and powerful we may be sent abroad to study. Moreover, we can enjoy pure happiness by contributing our money to Charity funds to help the poor, the wretched and the victims of other disasters. But money not only brings us the good but the bad as well. This accounts for much of the wickedness in the world. The rich often depend on it to oppress the poor and millionaires sometimes treat their servants with great cruelty. Many young people, being purse proud of their parent‟s wealth and richness, neglect their school activities, always play truant and indulge themselves in alcohol, gambling and debaucheries. They often commit suicide after playing ducks and drakes with all their parents‟ fortune. Money, in this way, is the root of all evils. To sum up, happiness does not depend on the quantity of money but on the way how we use it. We should use our money properly. The right use of money may bring us a comfortable life and a cheerful heart. 9 19. Money is the root of all evil "Money is the root of all evil". Give your opinion. Money is the instrument of exchange, helping in buying and selling and also in fixing a value on things and commodities. It may be in metal or in paper. With the market getting more and more complicated, there are other negotiable instruments which are as good as the minted coins or the printed notes. Money gives purchasing power but this power is not absolute as it is on various factors. In such a case it is termed currency and according to their purchasing power they are termed hard, soft and weak. Though coins and notes are issued by the Government of the country, there is a limit to their minting. Let us see why money is needed. It is simply because it helps the processor to buy things. The days of battering are gone though it is indirectly resorted to at international level. Money is helpful as a standard of price. Money helps the owner to have power not only in buying things but also in influencing many human activities. Money is used for good things such as using it to build a temple, a church or a museum. Great educational institutions can be built. Students can be helped by providing them with scholarships in furthering their studies. The Nobel Prize would not have been there but for the huge sum of money earned by Alfred Nobel. Money can buy men as it does things. Thus money plays an important role in fighting and winning elections. Money mars men‟s and women‟s morals. It is the evil influence in corrupting people. “Sell out” is the new term used for bribery. There are people who could do anything for the sake of money. Moneyed people can buy many things which the poor cannot do. With the power of money, individuals as well as states can dictate terms. The Middle East countries have found new wealth because of their oil deposits and they have become a very powerful group. This kind of power should not go to one‟s head. One should remember that the money coming into him was by chance. He must not use it for evil purposes. But wherever there is evil there is usually money involved. Other motivating forces for evil action are jealousy, vengeance, hatred and so on. Money is normally the fruit of labour. The question is how one spends that money. Great thinkers have suggested that one who has money enough and enough to spare must look upon himself as the trustee of the money and see to it that it is spent in a wise and useful way. There is nothing good or evil about money. It depends on how one puts it to. The same money which could help bring relief to the suffering million, can be used to build up armaments. The hope of getting money spurs one into action. The power decides how to spend the money. Money can be used morally or immorally. A morally strong man may not use money in evil ways and vice versa. 20. Work helps us escape from three evils: Boredom, vice and poverty Explain this saying and comment on it: “Work helps us escape from three evils: Boredom, vice and poverty”. Labor is the ultimate end of Man. Being man, everybody has to work for the sake of his own benefit and social welfare. It is often said “Labor is Glory”. Indeed, labor plays an active part in our lives. It helps us drive away three evils: boredom, vice and poverty. Labor helps us escape from boredom. When we are at loose ends, we always feel bored. Boredom is the obvious result of idleness. Unremitting recreations in our long idleness, in the long run, make us feel bored and tired. On the contrary, how we feel relaxed and cheerful after a day of long hard work! Work therefore begets joy. We feel light-hearted and have a moment of blessed calm after hours of toil. How proud and happy young volunteers are when on the state farms day after day, regardless of the atrocity of weather, they have been struggling against the arid soil, forcing it to produce food to their compatriots and wealth to their society! Labor helps us drive away vice. Idle men often seek for recreations to kill time and their entertainments are always vile and base ones. Day by day, they roam around casinos, prostitute houses and opium smoking dens. Their bodies gradually become thin and haggard and their spirit weak and feeble. Day in day out, indulging themselves in debaucheries they not only kill themselves but also spread calamity to their compatriots and relatives. The viruses of AIDS – an incurable and fatal disease – have been disseminated by these vagabonds. Now everybody looks down on them and avoids meeting them. They are but parasites on society. Did these idle men know how to use their free time in lucrative jobs, our society would be more powerful and wealthier and vices would disappear for good. Work helps us to stave off poverty. This is an immortal truth. The social existence belongs to the merits of the working class. First, by working an individual can procure comfort for their dear ones. Only by working can we save money for a rainy day. 10 In our society, lots of people, by their creative work, their patience and their spirit of enduring hardships and overcoming obstacles have been able to turn their misery and poverty to wealth and richness. In any places and at any times, labor always makes us feel happy, healthy and wealthy. The above thought sets a good example for all of us to follow. 21. The use and abuse of private tuition What do you think of the use and abuse of private tuition? Private tuition as against what is being done in regular school is resorted to, in certain cases where the pupil is not able to follow his lessons well and wants to improve his performance. In some cases the parents want to make their child sit at his studies and in others it is a matter of prestige. Whatever the reasons may be for private tuition, it can certainly complement and supplement the class work provided the teacher and his ward cooperate. It can be complementary when the lessons done in the class have not been fully understood by the student and he have to be told more than to impress upon him for the lesson done in the class may not have caught his brain. For this reason, tuition at home may be the answer. Generally a class room is not conductive for individual teaching. The teacher pupil interaction highly spoken of is not possible in the class. A teacher normally tries to avoid a dull student. So, such a student may fail to catch the eye of the teacher. In such cases private tuition may be helpful. The pupil may not only be taught but also be made to work at exercises which they would normally avoid in class. If the tuition master is earnest, the pupils can progress and improve gradually. Some of the topics that are not covered in the class or which requires supplementary reading could very well be done in the tuition hour. Additional exercises could be done, better reading is possible which may lead to better understanding. Private tuition becomes necessary where the student would not be capable of sitting at his studies by himself because he has no inclination or the parents have no time to look at their child‟s academic progress. Most pampered children need a private tutor as a permanent feature. From the examination point of view some may seek tuition. The students who want to achieve very good results in competitive courses may resort to tuition. This has become a common practice for getting seats in medical, engineering and technological course. An ordinary classroom lecture does not cater to the needs of such students. For many aristocratic families, it is a prestige to arrange for tuition in music and dancing. Let us now look at the abuses. Tuition may lead to too much of pampering and may kill the self effort of the student. The student would not touch the book unless the tuition master turns up. Instead of his working and learning on his own he becomes so dependant on the tuition master that ultimately the gain would be perceptibly nil. There are also pupils adopting devious means through the tuition masters to get a pass. The poor tuition master makes himself cheap and worries more about the promotion of his ward than about his own children. Often it is not uncommon to see a boy having more than one tuition master for each one of his subject. Because he pays for the tuition, he looks down upon the poor teacher who is likely to lose his dignity. But one fact that stands foremost is that tuitions cannot be thorough learning and at best there can only be nibbling of the learning process as the student has recourse for likely questions that may come in the examination through the tuition teacher. In order to avoid the evils of private tuition, educational institutions themselves may arrange tutorial classes. If the regular teachers cannot attend to the tutorials special tutors may be appointed to attend to very small groups of needy students. Such contacts may help build confidence in the student such tutorial classes may be complementary as well as supplementary. The tutorial system when properly organized will go a long way to improve the efficiency of the student. 22. How should people protect and preserve the natural resources? Conservation concerns men‟s safeguarding and preservation of natural resources and his responsibility for improving the environmental conditions in which he lives. An important task of conservation is the prevention of waste – waste of forests, soil, minerals, wildlife and human life. Trees help to preserve land because their roots bind the soil and retain water. Without trees, heavy rains will cause soil erosion and the remaining land becomes poor and worthless. Terrible floods often occur in the areas where trees are cut down in great quantity. Forest conservation also means the prevention of bush fires and the attention to planting and looking after new, young trees. [...]... water This pollution is mainly caused by the fumes, chemicals and wastes from automobiles, industries and homes 13 It is hoped that for his own benefit, man can soon find a solution to these problems 30 You tell a foreigner about your beloved homeland Our country has an S-shape, stretching from the South China Sea to Ca Mau cape with a surface of 320.000 square kilometers and a population of more than... leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party the Vietnamese people launched a long and courageous struggle against foreign invaders and finally succeeded in sweeping all of them out of the country On April 30, 1975, we were able to restore our whole freedom and independence The entire country has been reunified from North to South The Dien Bien Phu Victory and the Great Victory of Spring 1975 are the most . 1 30 SAMPLE ESSAYS FOR HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS 1. Describe a village you know well I was born and have. experience Our family live in the suburb of HCM city, not far from the central city. It is about 30 kilometers to the South. Last week my parents, my brothers and my sisters paid a visit to. and the wind was blowing furiously. I was a little nervous. The plane was all right for about 30 minutes. I was listening to the music on the plane‟s radio. Other passengers were talking. The