Writing task 2: role of parents and school

It is generally claimed that people should be (learned or taught?) values from their childhood values in order to become valuable members of the society. However, (comma) there is an argument if this cultivation/ kind of education should be done/ given by from school or parents.

 

Many people think that it is the parents' duty to teach their offspring s how to be positive members of the society by giving them the appropriate virtues. This argument is maintained because scientists support the view that parents have a significant impact on their children's behavior and this is a partly true, since most of the children tend to imitate their parents' characteristics. For instance, most of the children would like to adopt/ have achieve the same occupation as with their father or mother. (You overused introductory phrases, but did not explain your argument fully, eg with an example)

 

On the other hand , it cannot be denied that many families do not have the adequate educational levels for this purpose, thus they are unable to cultivate their children. As a consequence, the only capable institute to do this is the school, whose imperative duty is to teach their pupils how to become acceptable citizens of the society. (Why is education necessary for values like respect to be taught to children? Your argument here does not add up.) And: how can schools teach values? (Read the comments on Germanos' essay)

 

However, there is another group of people arguing that neither school or parents could teach the children how to be (good?) members, but the society through the communication and interaction with their peers would/will teach them.

 

Although However, from a social aspect, it is true that statistically the most of the criminals have less educational experience or descend from families which didn’t give them the appropriate tools and knowledge. Needless to say that the economic crisis has contributed to the low quality of the educational system that drives children to the wrong direction. (Is this part of the writing topic?)

 

Taking everything into account, it appears to me that children have to be cultivated by both parents and educators in order to become excellent members of the society. My opinion is that society should build strong institutions and organizations that would mentor families and teachers how to guide children into the appropriate direction. (The conclusion is OK)

Writing task 1: Land degradation

The charts show the causes which contributed to the diminishing productivity of agricultural land during the 1990s in North America, Europe and Oceania.

 

As shown in the pie chart, the most harmful cause worldwide is over grazing which covers 35 percent of total causes. As we can see, the second adverse phenomenon is deforestation (by 5 units less--> is this a phrase?) and the last one is over cultivation (why by?) 28 percent of the total (opposing?) effects.

 

According to the table, European agricultural productivity has been affected in the most significant way. As can be observed (you have overused phrases beginning with as), the total land degraded in Europe is 23 percent, while at the same time it is 13 percent in Oceania and 5 percent in North America.

 

However, from the table it may be inferred that there is no over cultivation in Oceania, albeit this phenomenon is the third cause of worldwide degradation.

Overall, as we could see in the pie chart, there is a 7 percent of other factors that have not been estimated yet, which contribute to the decreased agricultural productivity. (Why refer back to the pie chart when you have not sufficiently covered the data in the table?)

Writing task 1 (Global land degradation - IELTS)

The pie chart shows the main reasons of global land degradation, while the table, below the pie chart, presents us with the extent the aforementioned phenomenon has affected three regions during 1990s (no apostrophe).

According to the pie chart, (comma) the main cause of global land degradation was overgrazing (no gap necessary), reaching 35% of the total causes. In addition, deforestation was on the same range of levels as overgrazing, around 30%. Last but not least, overcultivation and other causes were the rest 28% and 7% respectively, which renders both of those causes as secondary roots of the problem.

From the data contained in the table, it can be seen that Europe had the highest level of land degradation, around 23%, and that’s mainly due to the fact that its (no apostrophe) influence/ OR better: the destruction by deforestation and over cultivation was significant, reaching 9.8% and 7.7% respectively. However, Oceania possessed the highest percentage of over grazing, at 11.3%, and the lowest percentage of overcultivation which amounted to 0%, while North American land was affected by those two phenomena by 1.5% and 3.3% correspondingly.

Taking everything into account,global land degradation was well distributed (this statement is unclear- do you mean among the 3 countries?), and over the 50% was caused by over grazing and deforestation, whereas there were numerous fluctuations among the regions.

Note: do not just report data; make some more comparisons, as well.

Writing task 2: Role of parents and school in socialization

Some people think that parents should teach children how to be good members in society. Others, believe that school is the place to learn this. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Over the past several years, there has been agreat debate on whether parents or school are the most decisive socialization factor for adolescents or even for younger children. Some people believe that parents should teach them how to be exceptional members of society, while others believe that this is a process which can only occur in schools. There is no doubt in my mind that both sides play a crucial role in order to have some producing successful residents in (their) society in the near future.

Socialization is the process through which anindividual acquires an understanding of ideas, beliefs and values, sharedcultural symbols, meanings and codes of conduct. Therefore, parents, play an essentialrole in children comprehending these meanings; in fact, parents are forced to responsible for socialising a person from infant. In addition, (comma) parents need to socialize/ inform/ educate adolescentsin many ways, such as sexually, religiously, to name but a few. Sexual and religious socialization of babies and children begins at home, where parents have the opportunity toemphasize/ cultivate their deepest values in the family. Most importantly, from a very young age, children areexposed to messages about modesty and privacy, and gender specific messages about proper conduct. So do we realise Consequently, it is of utmost importance that parents need to be carefulof how they discipline their children and, (comma) more vitally, (comma) how they set theirappropriate boundaries for children growth.

Socialization also takes place outside the home,like in the school, as adolescents and children observe community regulations, and participate in cultural and religious activities. Children and adolescents are also exposed to a diversity of cultural viewpoints, birth control and gender roles. Such issues sometimes remain unaddressed in schools as teachers may feel reluctant to explore these diverse opinions, fearing that such discussions will be perceived as endorsing or refuting specific values. (So WHY are schools important? Think of values like respect, cooperation and tolerance and how these are encouraged in the classroom. Are those necessary to future citizens of a civilized society? How do children mix when they go to school? Is school a determining stage of socialization? These are the questions that you should answer in this paragraph! :-)

All things considered, both parents and educators have imperative roles in fostering literacy and skills. I am inclined to believe that parents should play the primary role on endowing their children with social and cultural values , whereas professional educators should play the primary role in providing information about the above values.

Writing task 1

The charts display s the expenditures that a UK school has on divergent running costs in three total separate years: 1981,1991 and 2001.

First of all, in all three years the greatest disbursement was on instructor salaries. More specifically, comparing the years 1981 and 1991, teacher’s payment rose 10% and reached the 50% of the total outlay; however, in 2001 it decreased by 5%. On the other hand, the cost of worker payments was less than the instructors' ones. In 1981 the former constituted 28% of total spending and it was continuously falling, so in 2001 it was only 15 percent.

Moreover, we can observe that the cost of books had increased in 1991 up to 20 percent and, in 2001, it decreased to nine percent. Nevertheless, furniture and equipment expenditure s follows a total different distribution than books because from 1981 to 1991 it diminished considerably and in 2001 it reached 23 percent, a much bigger rate that 1981. Finally, insurance that has the smallest proportion in the total school spending pie; in 1981 schools paid 2 percent of the total costs for it, while in 1991 it was 3 percent and in 2001 it reached the point of eight percent.

The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that teachers' salaries were the largest cost of the schools and while spending increased for equipment and insurance, money expended on books and worker salaries cost dropped dramatically.

Essay about how technology affects communication and interaction between people

It is a general fact/ is generally acknowledged that the process in which people interact has been affected because of the technological progress, but this inevitably gives rise to the question of whether this phenomenon has altered life in a positive or a negative way.

Some experts claim that im personal communication has diminished. Through technology the proper interaction among the interlocutors is eliminated, (comma) thus people are more and more keen on making conversations only in front of a screen, whereas in the real life they are not able to develop any kind of relationship. For instance, the most of the young people are more confident when searching for lovers/ partners through Facebook or Skype rather than flirting and having romantic affairs in the real world.

On the other hand, many social networkers believe that technology has made them more social, since it enables them to transfer those relationships to the real world, too. Actually, networkers find it easier to make friends through social networks/ media, while they substitute mobile devices with actually meeting each other at local cafés or other places that they are keen on.

Not only has technology influenced people individually, but it has also assisted the business activity through firms around the world. In fact, companies are able to cooperate with other corporations and sell their products in the global market. Therefore, technology has enabled economic growth around the most transitioning economies. A case in point could be Greek family businesses which are active in the field of tourism and are now able to globally advertise their activity on the Internet. ---> Good point, but is this related to human relationships?

In my point of view, (comma) because every coin has two sides, technological effects on communication depend on which way people use it. I am convinced that technology requires wisdom and limits. (a bit unclear, maybe one extra sentence could explain it better)

Some speaking questions answered by Germanos

Part 1

Which magazines and newspapers do you read?

Nowadays I don’t really read any newspapers often, except sometimes that I want to be informed about the political and financial problems of my country , and that’s because I find them really expensive and apart from that I can easily find them online on the web.

What kinds of article are you most interested in?

I really enjoying reading articles from magazines with scientific content and that’s mostly because I love mathematics and computer science. I also want to know how the market’s going, so I love reading articles about the stock market, I don’t have any specific reason why I read those articles , it’s just a personal preference .

Have you ever read a newspaper or magazine in a foreign language?

Actually, I’m reading magazines in English all the time, and not just me, but all the adults, and that’s because nowadays it’s easy to (browse them from) flick through them on the internet, it's free and fast. For instance when I wake up in the morning I like drinking my coffee browsing a newspaper on the web, it’s a nice ‘company’.

Do you think reading a newspaper or magazine in a foreign language is a good way to learn the language?

Well to learn the language from all aspects no, but when you flick though a magazine , written in English for example , you can sometimes understand, people's culture and their everyday activities. However, (comma) reading an English magazine also allows you to know the people's slang, which is really hard to get acquainted with alone. In conclusion, (comma) reading a magazine can be beneficial and simultaneously can harm you, if you are trying to learn English only from them.

Part 2

Describe a restaurant that you enjoyed going to. You should say: 1) where the restaurant was, 2) why you chose this restaurant, 3) what type of food you ate in this restaurant and explain why you enjoyed eating in this restaurant.

If I remember correctly it was two years ago, the restaurants’ name was china town and it was located in syntagma (Athens) .From the first second that I saw it , it was amazing, the service was excellent and fast. (Full stop) Imagine that the waitress was filling our glasses with water all the time and her reactions were really fast. It had great salads with many vegetables, and the two most exciting dishes was duck with sweet sauce and vegetables, and a soup filled with shark fin, the last one was delicious. Other than that, I really like their ‘traditional’ beer, the Chinese beer. In a nutshell the atmosphere was amazing and I would like to visit them again in the near future, it was worth every penny.

Some of part 3 questions

Some people say that food in an expensive restaurant is always better than food in a cheap restaurant – would you agree?

Well, I have never considered this matter before, but I’m inclined to believe that sometimes expensive restaurants are believed to be better due to pricey materials and ingredients they use in order to cook the food that they serve. I also have to mention that we might sometimes pay more for the trademark of the restaurant than the actual ly food that we order, and that’s because some restaurants are luxury and we need to choose them on more special occasions like birthdays or weddings. So in conclusion I disagree.

How important is it for a country to be able to grow all the food it needs, without importing any other from other countries?

That’s a tough question to be answered, but the true question is, can a country grow all the food it needs alone? I guess the answer is no, because this is nearly impossible. For example here in Greece as a Mediterranean country we has the advantage of growing vegetables thanks to the right conditions but we don’t have all kinds of fruits that we might need, like the African ones, so we are forced to import them from our neighbors. All in all, (comma) the more food a country grows, the wealthier it gets.

Speaking Practice

http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-your-test/free-practice-tests/speaking-practice-test-1

The Speaking test is 11-14 minutes long and is in three parts.

Part 1	You will answer questions about yourself and your family.
Part 2	You will speak about a topic.
Part 3	You will have a longer discussion about the topic introduced in Part 2.

The Speaking test is the same for both IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training tests.

Downloadable resources for teachers and students

http://www.ielts-exam.net 

How to improve your speaking score by using better vocabulary

Watch the video by the British Council: http://youtu.be/LQQE2hWrl98