E-kenh14

"In order that economic development and progress can take place, a country must industrialise". Discuss

2009-06-16T05:31:00.003-07:00

Industrialisation is the application of scientific knowledge to man's economic, agricultural, and other wealth-generating activities. In other words, it is the conversion of the 'know-why' of science into `know-how' for industry; it is the practical application of man's inventiveness in the improvement of his well-being and the increase of his wealth.

Industrialisation depends on four essentials: the right idea, the right method of putting it into effect, the right moment in time, and availability of the right materials. Machine invented with the help of scientific know- how are used for quicker and easier production of wealth. Therefore, it is only sound commonsense to say that the economic development and progress of a country are dependent on its industrial growth.

There was a time when countries depended entirely on agriculture. Before the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain too was an agricultural country. Had it not been for the wealth she was able to amass from her colonies, she would not have become a wealthy nation depending on agriculture alone. America at first had an economy rooted in agriculture. With the invention of machines and with the advent of industrialisation, she made use of machines even for her agricultural activities, apart from setting up factories and manufacturing articles for sale.

Before machines were invented, the articles required for use by man were handmade. These articles were not produced in bulk. But machines helped man to produce articles in large numbers.

Today machines are used virtually in all spheres of life. Agriculture, especially in Western countries, is highly mechanised. There are machines to plough the land, sow seeds, hoe and weed. Pesticides are often sprayed by aeroplanes and helicopters. Fertilisers produced in bulk in factories are used for the healthy growth of plants. All these facilities afforded by mechanisation double our agricultural production; this means increase in economic wealth and prosperity.

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Source: www.englishdaily626.com

Work is the only route to happiness. Discuss.

2009-06-16T05:31:00.001-07:00

The ideal put forward to young people has, traditionally, been 'mens sana in corpore sano', and this implies a proper balance between work and play. Yet to achieve happiness, that coveted but elusive state of total fulfilment, requires more. It is true that mankind in general, though with exceptions, has a built-in instinct for work. The vast gulf separating humanity from its physical origins, the animal world, is due to millennia of cerebral and physical activity. Yet there are other equally powerful instincts in the human make-up. The desire, in most cases, to form life-long emotional attachments; the instinct, again in most cases, to start a family; the making of friendships; the search for a fulfilling occupation, to name the most obvious.

In some countries there are a privileged few who are born into possessions, money and position, so the need to work in the normal sense does not apply to them. Yet it is noticeable that these people generally find some worthwhile occupation. This may be anything from estate management to patronage of some charitable institution to participation in the pop scene. This again indicates that to follow some kind of occupation, whether useful or not, is a genuine instinct.

History supports this view, and literature has produced many sayings expressing the value, perhaps the necessity of work. 'Satan hath some mischief yet for idle hands to do'; 'our best friend is work' (Collin d'Harleville); 'to youth I have but three words of counsel - work, work, work' (Bismarck); 'sow work and thou shalt reap gladness' (Proverb); 'work won't kill but worry will' (Proverb).

For most of us work is both a necessity and source of fulfilment. We need a regular income, just as our country needs part of the wealth we create and claims through taxation. The fulfilment of the instincts mentioned in Paragraph 1 cannot be achieved without money. The right use of money is of course important; Charles Dickens made the point that to live sixpence below one's income led to happiness; to live sixpence above led to misery.

The definition of work is wide, ranging from manual labor to the highest forms of intellectual activity. We are not all suited to every kind of work. I would be of little use as a manual worker, since my skills in that direction are limited. Conversely, not all manual workers could do my work. Among other things, I write a little. I was once asked 'What motivates you to write?', the questioner expecting some high-falutin answer. I was tempted to answer 'Money!' In fact the best writers have all taken this view. Only the second rate prattle about artistic fulfilment .

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Source: www.englishdaily626.com

Modern methods of transport have transformed our world into a village. Is this a blessing or a curse?

2009-06-16T05:30:00.003-07:00

In some respects the topic-statement is true. Modern transport, especially by air, allows people to circle the globe in a few days, or hours, if an aircraft such as Concorde is used. Thus we have learnt to look upon distance as nothing. I can get to Paris from south-east England quicker than I can get to central London. So, the world has become a village? If so, the comparison ends there. In no respect does the world resemble a village community. Those who support the one-world movement no doubt share a great ideal but are, in fact, flying in the face of history, of present facts, and of any likelihood in the near future. Modern travel merely underlines the differences between races and nations. Rather than broaden the mind, travel confirms national prejudices. It may well lead to a greater international understanding, but to understand does not mean to agree, or to forgive. Modern travel may allow great athletes to meet every four years in friendship to discover the medal winners, but it would be naive to suppose that the Olympic Spirit had anything to do with the reality of international affairs or could possibly have any effect on them.

Of course modern transport cannot be blamed for the state of today's world. Like atomic energy, it is neutral, and the blessing or the curse results from the way in which it is used.

First, the benefits. Before the invention of the electric telegraph, news of a natural disaster in, say, an eastern country could only reach the west by steamship, so that by the time help reached a stricken area, it was too late to be of much use. Today, information by satellite, both in reports and pictures, is instantaneous. Response time is correspondingly quick. Modern transport planes can carry food, water and medical supplies to where they are needed in a matter of hours.

So the modern jet aircraft can help enormously in relief work. It has also proved of great benefit both to the business world and to tourism. Within certain weight-limits, it can be used for overseas trade worldwide, and the vast extension of available markets is largely due to the modern aircraft. And where business has to be done in person there are no real delays.

The aircraft has extended foreign travel, once the prerogative of the rich, to those of average income levels in most countries, and tourism has become a major world industry. The aircraft and the helicopter both have important search and rescue roles. Ships in distress can be readily located and given help. The helicopter has several roles, apart from its use by the police for searches and traffic control. Many lives have been saved in mountainous areas and at sea by speedy removal to hospital, by immediate attention by paramedics; a jet plane can carry a suitable human organ half across the world when a transplant is urgently needed.

Modernized and high-speed rail systems are likely to prove of benefit to many countries from the travel and trade points of view. To take Europe as an example. Tariff barriers in the EEC have now come down, and Europe, including Britain, has become a free-market area. In 1994, England will be linked to Europe by a channel tunnel, and Paris or Brussels will be reached as quickly as by air. Already, goods to and from Europe, and indeed worldwide, are transported in standardized containers, which are picked up and moved rapidly in heavy lorries to their destinations along new networks of motorways. The motorways also greatly ease long-distance car travel. At sea, modern oil tankers carry their vast burdens worldwide.

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Source: www.englishdaily626.com

Science can never provide a final answer or things, it is only a way of studying them. Do you agree?

2009-06-16T05:30:00.001-07:00

It is somewhat rash to assume that the only role of science is to answer the question 'How?'. That was true in the days of Newton, when an educated person could have a grasp in outline of all human knowledge. Science then filled some of the gaps left by the deliberations of the philosopher and the theologian. Since then, it has far outstripped the contributions of both. Philosophy has degenerated into historical study, and has no modern contribution to make. Theology has made no advance since the Middle Ages. The mantle of seeking answers to man's most fundamental questions has fallen on science. Whether these questions will ever be answered is an entirely different matter, but there is no other way ahead. So the topic-statement is fundamentally wrong.

By science, of course, is meant physics, which is fundamental to all studies - chemistry, biology, astronomy, indeed all macro and micro investigation. Physics has identified the laws which keep the universe in a state of equilibrium, and today seeks a unified theory to account for the space-time continuum necessary to the existence of that equilibrium, and the various other dimensions beyond the four known which are postulated. So science moves towards the first philosophical question, Is there a unified theory, or are events ultimately random? The answer to this question, if ever found, leads to the far more fundamental question, To what extent, if any, is God (the Creator) limited by his own creation? The determinism of Laplace is now seen to be totally beside the point, and belongs to a mechanistic view of the universe which can no longer be sustained. Today, science is moving rapidly towards a chaos theory which takes into account God's freedom of action plus the predictable results of laws already known to us, and also unpredictable events.

It is interesting that whereas the old scientific determinism either limited to the Creator's function or precluded the necessity of a Creator, or saw the Creator as totally detached from his creation, science today is begin forced into a belief in God. It also moves towards an acceptance that the scientifically unknown area, the God - mankind personal relationship, is not only feasible, but likely. So science has become much more than a way of studying things. Whether science can get beyond this point is a matter of conjecture. At a shrewd guess, science may well establish the possibility of eternal life , without being able to advance any more proof than could the old-time theologian. World religions have always said that such a belief depends on revelation and personal faith, and it may well be the Creator's intention to keep it that way. Faith, at least, would be greatly devalued if it could ever become the subject of scientific proof, whatever that may be.

Another answer, again stemming from the chaos theory, is to the co-existence of good and evil. If there is a Creator, it follows that evil, at least as understood by humanity, must have been allowed to enter the world-scene at some point, but deliberately. Redemption from its consequences is another result, and history is the record of the struggle between the two forces. This, says science, although leading to apparently random results, such as the little child stepping under the bus, or a death from cancer, is not random at all. All the same, it may stem from 'chaos', if this is seen in conjunction with a belief in the indestructibility of the human personality. So, say the faithful, 'God not only creates, He cares', and science today is not disposed to reject this possibility, the two approaches may converge on the same point. The processes of the universe are incredibly diverse and complicated, so why should the possibility of life after death be ruled out?

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Source: www.englishdaily626.com

Work is the only route to happiness. Discuss.

2009-06-16T05:29:00.000-07:00

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Source: www.englishdaily626.com

E60: Modern methods of transport have transformed our world into a village. Is this a blessing or a curse?

2009-06-14T18:41:00.004-07:00

Source: www.englishdaily626.com
In some respects the topic-statement is true. Modern transport, especially by air, allows people to circle the globe in a few days, or hours, if an aircraft such as Concorde is used. Thus we have learnt to look upon distance as nothing. I can get to Paris from south-east England quicker than I can get to central London. So, the world has become a village? If so, the comparison ends there. In no respect does the world resemble a village community. Those who support the one-world movement no doubt share a great ideal but are, in fact, flying in the face of history, of present facts, and of any likelihood in the near future. Modern travel merely underlines the differences between races and nations. Rather than broaden the mind, travel confirms national prejudices. It may well lead to a greater international understanding, but to understand does not mean to agree, or to forgive. Modern travel may allow great athletes to meet every four years in friendship to discover the medal winners, but it would be naive to suppose that the Olympic Spirit had anything to do with the reality of international affairs or could possibly have any effect on them.

Of course modern transport cannot be blamed for the state of today's world. Like atomic energy, it is neutral, and the blessing or the curse results from the way in which it is used.

First, the benefits. Before the invention of the electric telegraph, news of a natural disaster in, say, an eastern country could only reach the west by steamship, so that by the time help reached a stricken area, it was too late to be of much use. Today, information by satellite, both in reports and pictures, is instantaneous. Response time is correspondingly quick. Modern transport planes can carry food, water and medical supplies to where they are needed in a matter of hours.

So the modern jet aircraft can help enormously in relief work. It has also proved of great benefit both to the business world and to tourism. Within certain weight-limits, it can be used for overseas trade worldwide, and the vast extension of available markets is largely due to the modern aircraft. And where business has to be done in person there are no real delays.

The aircraft has extended foreign travel, once the prerogative of the rich, to those of average income levels in most countries, and tourism has become a major world industry. The aircraft and the helicopter both have important search and rescue roles. Ships in distress can be readily located and given help. The helicopter has several roles, apart from its use by the police for searches and traffic control. Many lives have been saved in mountainous areas and at sea by speedy removal to hospital, by immediate attention by paramedics; a jet plane can carry a suitable human organ half across the world when a transplant is urgently needed.

Modernized and high-speed rail systems are likely to prove of benefit to many countries from the travel and trade points of view. To take Europe as an example. Tariff barriers in the EEC have now come down, and Europe, including Britain, has become a free-market area. In 1994, England will be linked to Europe by a channel tunnel, and Paris or Brussels will be reached as quickly as by air. Already, goods to and from Europe, and indeed worldwide, are transported in standardized containers, which are picked up and moved rapidly in heavy lorries to their destinations along new networks of motorways. The motorways also greatly ease long-distance car travel. At sea, modern oil tankers carry their vast burdens worldwide.

Yet as with any other advance, all is not sweetness and light. In the case of the jet aircraft, one needs only to mention the spy-plane, the bomber, the fighter, the assault helicopter, all of them potent war weapons, and a curse to millions of helpless people worldwide. The potential for nuclear, nerve gas, chemical and HE bombing is a curse which hangs over all our heads. The need for ever larger airfields means the destruction of tracts of countryside. Noise and oil-pollution make life a burden to those living nearby. In some countries, over-concentration on high-speed and inter-city trains has led to the severe neglect of existing networks and ordinary passenger rolling stock. In smaller countries such as England, there are now far too many cars and traffic jams in the large urban areas, providing an almost unsolveable problem. Ease of travel allows football hooligans and other undesirables to cause trouble overseas. Every improvement in transport facilities helps the criminal as well as the bona-fide traveler, particularly where immigration controls are relaxed. Immigration itself becomes an increasing problem. And at sea? All is well with the oil-tanker until it runs aground in a storm and deposits thousands of tons of oil along the shore-line.

So there is a case to be made of the more leisurely times, to some, the good old days . Modern transport has reduced the world if not to a village, at least relatively to village size. Whether the village will ever become a happy community is another matter.

E59:Science can never provide a final answer or things, it is only a way of studying them. Do you agree?

2009-06-14T18:41:00.003-07:00

Source: www.englishdaily626.com
It is somewhat rash to assume that the only role of science is to answer the question 'How?'. That was true in the days of Newton, when an educated person could have a grasp in outline of all human knowledge. Science then filled some of the gaps left by the deliberations of the philosopher and the theologian. Since then, it has far outstripped the contributions of both. Philosophy has degenerated into historical study, and has no modern contribution to make. Theology has made no advance since the Middle Ages. The mantle of seeking answers to man's most fundamental questions has fallen on science. Whether these questions will ever be answered is an entirely different matter, but there is no other way ahead. So the topic-statement is fundamentally wrong.

By science, of course, is meant physics, which is fundamental to all studies - chemistry, biology, astronomy, indeed all macro and micro investigation. Physics has identified the laws which keep the universe in a state of equilibrium, and today seeks a unified theory to account for the space-time continuum necessary to the existence of that equilibrium, and the various other dimensions beyond the four known which are postulated. So science moves towards the first philosophical question, Is there a unified theory, or are events ultimately random? The answer to this question, if ever found, leads to the far more fundamental question, To what extent, if any, is God (the Creator) limited by his own creation? The determinism of Laplace is now seen to be totally beside the point, and belongs to a mechanistic view of the universe which can no longer be sustained. Today, science is moving rapidly towards a chaos theory which takes into account God's freedom of action plus the predictable results of laws already known to us, and also unpredictable events.

It is interesting that whereas the old scientific determinism either limited to the Creator's function or precluded the necessity of a Creator, or saw the Creator as totally detached from his creation, science today is begin forced into a belief in God. It also moves towards an acceptance that the scientifically unknown area, the God - mankind personal relationship, is not only feasible, but likely. So science has become much more than a way of studying things. Whether science can get beyond this point is a matter of conjecture. At a shrewd guess, science may well establish the possibility of eternal life , without being able to advance any more proof than could the old-time theologian. World religions have always said that such a belief depends on revelation and personal faith, and it may well be the Creator's intention to keep it that way. Faith, at least, would be greatly devalued if it could ever become the subject of scientific proof, whatever that may be.

Another answer, again stemming from the chaos theory, is to the co-existence of good and evil. If there is a Creator, it follows that evil, at least as understood by humanity, must have been allowed to enter the world-scene at some point, but deliberately. Redemption from its consequences is another result, and history is the record of the struggle between the two forces. This, says science, although leading to apparently random results, such as the little child stepping under the bus, or a death from cancer, is not random at all. All the same, it may stem from 'chaos', if this is seen in conjunction with a belief in the indestructibility of the human personality. So, say the faithful, 'God not only creates, He cares', and science today is not disposed to reject this possibility, the two approaches may converge on the same point. The processes of the universe are incredibly diverse and complicated, so why should the possibility of life after death be ruled out?

Such a belief is an essential corollary to any concept of justice in the Creator's character. This is not justice merely in the sense of retribution. The early Jews believed the Creator got so fed up with humanity that He destroyed them in the Flood, but made a fresh start with Noah's family and the paired livestock! Divine Justice is part of the concept of Divine Love, which postulated creation, with mankind as it's highest sentient form, as an expression of that love.

So the great world religions have this at least in common with modern science; there is a benevolent Creator who offers post-earthly life in some other dimension in exchange for the human response of kindness and observance of a revealed moral law. Justice, therefore, moves into an eternal setting.

A religious scientist will find no essential disharmony between his or her faith and the scientific outlook. The great questions of life have satisfying, if unprovable answers. Some of the inadequacies of religion, such as early church doctrines of the cosmos, and strictly Bible-based theories of the origin of species, have been corrected by scientific investigation without detriment to the central core of belief.

Where science, or more precisely the scientist, inevitably falls short is in the application of an essentially simple moral code to the complex issues raised by scientific advance. Genetic manipulation is a case in point. The whole question of in-vitro fertilization is highly controversial.

All that is on the local scale. On the grand scale the Creator may, or may not allow the discovery of a unified theory of the universe which will provide answers to supplement, rather than displace the answers already provided by the higher religions.

E58:Can telling lies ever be justified?

2009-06-14T18:41:00.002-07:00

The old admonition to children, 'speak the truth and shame the devil', runs contrary to what is called the schoolboy's eleventh commandment; 'tell a lie, and stick to it'. The one adage advocates honesty at whatever personal cost. When charged with some illicit tree-felling, the young George Washington is said to have said 'I cannot tell a lie'. Those who advocate moral rectitude always argue that honesty is the best policy. Those who do not say 'get away with wrong-doing if you can'. Thus, as a child you avoid punishment. As an adult, you hope to avoid the consequences of your actions. The one is the result of a strong sense of morality. The other stems from self-interest and indifference to the fate of other people. Silence itself may amount to a lie, particularly when it is meant to shift blame from oneself. Cicero said it is the nature of a scoundrel to deceive by lying , and it may well be argued that truth is an integral factor in the health of society. Justice itself depends on witnesses pledging themselves to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . The law has severe penalties for those who perjure themselves after taking this oath.

So logically there should be no circumstances in which lying can ever be justified. Yet, we can all think of occasions when to tell the truth would be a very mixed blessing.

This applies especially to those who have access to secrets of national importance, particularly in wartime, or when there is danger of war. In these circumstances another moral issue is raised, and that is where personal loyalty lies. Most would say to one's own country. For others, a strong political belief, based on conviction, is more cogent. So, during the 'Cold War' between NATO and the Communist bloc, people on both sides were prepared to betray their country's secrets. This was generally out of conviction rather than for money, though the spy was usually rewarded in some way, sometimes by asylum and the conferring of honors and position. Such men and women would argue, and some still do, that the ultimate end justifies the means, if the means included lying and deception, so be it.

The same principle applied particularly in the 1939 - 45 war. The allies relied heavily on agents, and the lies which were part of their stock-in-trade. Disinformation was born and played a prominent role on both sides. Some of the deception was very elaborate indeed. Hitler's forces in France were tricked into believing that the invasion would be at the Pas de Calais rather than along the Normandy coast. England created a wholly fictitious army in the wrong place by setting up a subtle system of signaling, designed to be picked up across the channel. German doubts were settled by the planting of spurious invasion plans by agents in France. As a result, the invasion was given a good start. Every patriotic Englishman would say that all the lies and deception were amply justified both by the motivation and in the event. In much the same way, the British Ministry of Information concealed some failures and exaggerated some successes for the sake of morale. It was morale which enabled Britain to counter what seemed to be inevitable defeat.

So, the good of others seems to go a long way towards justifying the lie, and this applies in some personal as well as national concerns. Nobody would applaud the man or woman who lied about extra-marital relations. The more honorable course is not to have any. Yet, it is not always kind to tell the brutal truth about a severe illness such as a cancer to a patient or to his or her relations just as soon as the illness is diagnosed. Treatment may be successful, so unnecessary sadness has been caused. Yet if not, there must come a time when the facts are disclosed. Not to do so prevents the patient from making testatory provisions. It also increases the shock to the family and friends when death actually occurs.

Kindness may be a good reason, if not to tell a lie, at least to be economical with the truth . Another is tact. These two virtues oil the wheels of all social relationships. A lady may have chosen a hat which she obviously loves dearly, but you think it is hideous. Never tell her, even if you cannot bring yourself to say 'Wonderful! Super!' There are ways of side-stepping the issue. Anyway, dress is a matter of opinion rather than of fact, and what does it matter? No good at all could be done by telling the truth , and absolutely no harm done by withholding it.

Source: www.englishdaily626.com

E57:What changes would you like to see in today's society?

2009-06-14T18:41:00.001-07:00

Source: www.englishdaily626.comThe term society has no general application. Every country differs from every other, however subtly, so answers must relate to a particular country. This answer relates to England, not even the whole of Britain.

Perhaps the first point to acknowledge is that in comparison with many other countries, England has an overwhelming number of good features. Yet there are several aspects of our society which I would like to see changed. Some of these changes could be effected immediately. Others would take longer. Society does not exist, said Mrs. Thatcher. She was wrong. Society consists of an aggregate of families. The first change I would like to see is the reversal of the current steady breakdown of family life. In Britain, the monarch stands at the head of the state and of the Established Church. In return for the privileges of their position, it has been generally expected of the Royal Family that they set an example to the country, and in the case of the Queen this example has undoubtedly been set. Not so, in the case of most of the other royals. In 1992 the so-called example set by this family has been appalling. This need not be spelled out. The world media have done this very effectively. The Queen herself described last year as an 'annus horribilis'. Many responsible people rightly wonder about the future of the monarchy, and their thinking tends to move in the direction of a republic. In the modern world, there is a strong case to be made for the abolition of hereditary privilege. However, the breakdown of family life cannot be attributed to the poor example of the minor royals. It actually stems from the permissiveness of the 1960s. The result is much suffering caused to children and young people, some of whom leave, or are virtually forced out of their homes, only to live in one of the cardboard cities , or to be put into care, or to join the drug scene and commit crime.

Unemployment, currently standing at 3m plus, is another aggravating factor. The present government has no policy to deal with this, and gives every indication of being quite indifferent to the problem. Interim measures could be taken until the world trade recession eases. Much work is needed on local environmental projects and on the updating of the country's infrastructure, which has been grossly neglected for decades. This could be financed by a modest increase in income tax, a measure which I believe would be generally acceptable. We have an uncaring government, the result being that many once prosperous areas are now centers of poverty and despair. Throughout the country, small businesses are being forced to close at the rate of hundreds per day. This is because the government refuses to impose controls over rent and leasehold increases and to reduce the swinging industrial rate. The net result of all this is that people are reluctant to spend, because they live in fear of redundancy or unemployment and, even worse, house repossession, in cases where heavy mortgages were taken on in better times. The house market is a good indicator of confidence in the future. It has now been at a virtual standstill for five years.
Thirdly, crime, especially violence. Due to the decline in religious faith and the consequent lack of moral training in home and school, crime levels have become appallingly high over the past few decades. Bad social conditions in many areas exacerbate the problem. Prisons are overcrowded, so the judiciary is encouraged to minimize custodial sentences. The fundamental remedy is a return to Christian moral standards, or those of the other great religions, now represented among the large immigrant population. Many of them are setting the native English a good example. The latter offer young people little help, and certainly little discipline at home, and the reputation of teachers in the state sector has never been lower.

Much is being done to stamp out the evils of hallucinatory drugs in Britain. This country would do well to adopt some of the draconian measures which are proving successful in some Far Eastern countries.

In the case of child sexual abuse and violence occasioning actual bodily harm, custodial sentences are now mandatory. This is justified, since such offences have greatly increased in recent decades. At one time, children were safe to roam their own areas without fear of molestation. Today, this is impossible.

Next, housing. Good neighborliness was the prime feature of pre-war terraced housing, now replaced in many cities by tower blocks and complexes of maisonettes. These concrete monstrosities eliminate family identity and encourage crime and vandalism. This is now realized. Much of this post-war building is now being demolished, and domestic architecture is reverting to old patterns. More low-cost or rentable accommodation would ease several social problems.

England welcomes immigrants, and laws have been passed to outlaw discrimination. Most immigrants provide an enriching contribution. Their churches, mosques and temples are acceptable to most people. However, there is a down side. Numbers have to be controlled, and this leads to disputes. A bad mistake was to allow 'ghettoes' to be formed in the early post- war days. An even distribution of this influx should have been made mandatory in the early days. The basis of that is the immigrants, while preserving their social and religious identities, must also accept and respect British traditions. Agitators operate much more easily in areas of dense population, often inciting violence between groups in the wake of violence overseas.

To believe that all these defects in English society can be changed is to live in cloud cuckoo land. All the same, these are the objectives which we must all work for.

E56:Those who have no knowledge of the past are condemned to repeat it. Is a knowledge of history important?

2009-06-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

Historical knowledge is not only important. It is a crucial requirement in all who carry any kind of responsibility, whether in social, industrial, political or international affairs. In all these spheres, a knowledge of the past enables countries and individuals to sidestep old problem and to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Whether peoples and countries actually do learn from past experience is a wholly different matter. During this century, Prussian aggression plunged Europe into two major wars. Basically, Germany never existed, any more than does Italy, or did the Soviet Union . The amalgamation of their constituent states is of quite recent origin. The break-up of the Soviet Union was due to the irrelevance of Communism in the modern world. This has done much for world peace, though there are still nuclear dangers. The case of Germany and Italy is quite different. National Socialism never sat easily on the Italians, so in 1945 there was no point in occupying Italy and regionalizing her government. She never had any real ambition to do more than unify her own states, and colonialism began to die a natural death in all European countries from 1946 onwards. In all this, the Allies showed wisdom based on the lessons of history. In their dealings with Germany, however, the story is different. The USA, with little personal history and less expertise in foreign affairs, put pressure on the Allies to re-unify Western Germany and to negotiate the existence of East

Germany with Stalin. In the form of Marshall Aid, the USA poured money into West Germany, established a central government in Bonn, put industry back on a good footing, created a hard currency, reorganized their unions, and let them rebuild a massive army, albeit without nuclear armaments. For years Germany has kept quiet, awaiting her opportunity. The outcome is that in 1992, the whole of Germany had reunited, the power-base had shifted back to Berlin, and the country had achieved political, industrial and fiscal domination in Europe once again. The old enmity with France and England lies just beneath the surface. Zenophobia is again becoming rampant, and may develop into ethnic cleansing , that modern euphemism. The first danger in Europe will again be Germany. Their national anthem 'Deutschland uber Alles' sums up the national ideal, which is unlimited territorial expansion. The lesson of the past was there, and it was ignored.
A knowledge of the past is also important socially, and governments, whether of Eastern or Western countries, ignore social history at their peril. One success in Britain post-Second World War was the establishment of the Welfare State. This was a humane and far-reaching concept designed to keep the whole population up to a basic living standard, to give free or subsidized medical care on demand, and to provide realistic state pensions for the elderly. It still exists in a modified form, and no government would dare to abolish it. The idea was to rid society of poverty, sickness and insecurity. The lessons of the past had been well learnt. Throughout English history, and especially in Victorian times, grinding poverty was the norm for the masses, both urban and rural. Laws against petty theft were brutal. Matters scarcely improved after the First World War. Unemployment in the 1920s was widespread. The dole was pitiful. So there was a general strike, street rioting, and near-revolution. This was in line with many minor revolutions which have occurred throughout English history. The Second World War provided not only a diversion from social failure but also an opportunity of uniting Britain to resist a serious threat from outside. From 1945 onwards, the old mistake of neglecting the working class was not repeated. Yet despite history, England perpetuates her ancient errors in respect of Ireland. Partition has never worked anywhere in the world. The Protestant north is in perpetual enmity with the Catholic south. So much dirty water has passed under the bridge form Cromwellian days onwards that peace can never be achieved. Neither can it be imposed, short of mounting a military campaign. In times of national crisis, Eire has proved ambivalent and treacherous. The harsh, but pragmatic answer is to pull our forces out, and allow the Irish problem to sort itself out. That means allowing civil war, but since both sides are permanently entrenched in mutual opposition and hatred, there may well be no realistic alternative.

A second disastrous mistake in recent English governmental policy was the imposition of the poll tax, known euphemistically as the Community Charge. This was meant to be a replacement for the old property rating system, which was admittedly in need of revision. The poll tax led to financial injustices which exceeded the tolerance level of the British people. So Mrs. Thatcher had to go, and the government climbed down. English history records many attempts to impose a poll tax. None succeeded, and all ended in riot and bloodshed.

Yet perhaps England's most serious recent mistake is the headlong rush into membership of a federal Europe, dominated by Germany, controlled from Strassburg and administered in Brussels. France and Germany will vie for control of this monstrosity. British internal sovereignty is already severely eroded, and will finally disappear unless some future government comes to its senses. The Council of Europe has made participation in free trade dependent on membership. The sacrifice of principle to financial advantage has never worked in the past. Why should it in the future?

The past holds countless examples of the failure of most of the policies Britain currently follows. Their lessons are rarely learnt. A knowledge of history is important, of course, but such knowledge is of little use if the old mistakes are persistently repeated.

Source: www.englishdaily626.com

E55: It is a sweet and honorable thing to die for one's country. The poet Wilfred Owen described this saying as 'the old lie'. Do you agree?

2009-06-14T18:35:00.004-07:00

This is a very old saying. Whether it is the old lie is arguable. In his odes, the Roman poet Horace wrote this no less than three times: 'dulce et decorum est pro patria mori'. He lived from 65 to 8 B.C., was also a soldier, fought at Philippi, afterwards lost his estate, and was reduced to poverty. He remained a patriot. The poet Wilfred Owen, a resident of France, returned to England to enlist in the First World War at the age of 22, fought in the trenches, and was killed at age 25, a week before the Armistice in 1918.
The most prominent war poet, Owen's verse expresses his hatred of war. How much of his virulence was due to the emotional instability caused by his homosexuality is a moot point. The fact remains that he fought. Why?

The intervening two thousand years have polarized the divide between the patriot and the pacifist. Any book of quotations offers scores of examples of quotations supporting both sides; Samuel Johnson described patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel ; Thomas Campbell wrote 'The patriot's blood's the seed of Freedom's tree'.

For various reasons, the modern pacifist's case is perhaps stronger than of his predecessors. Firstly, because the 20th century, in two major wars, made civilian enlistment compulsory on the part of the countries involved. In the UK in the First World War, extreme moral pressure was brought to bear. Any man not seen in uniform was in danger of being given a white feather by the women - for cowardice. The actual reasons for opting out varied; it could be cowardice, it could be a different form of national service, it could be a lifelong and previously stated total rejection of violence in any circumstances. In the latter case, such views were generally respected, providing some other contribution to the war effort was made. The Society of Friends (the 'Quakers') provides a good example in the Second World War. These men and women were prepared to risk their lives, and many lost their lives, in some form of national service; medical work, ambulance driving, merchant shipping crews, etc. One Christian school of thought rejects any kind of participation in war, arguing that aggressors should not be resisted, that tyranny, carrying as it does the seeds of its own eventual downfall, should be accepted. Their case has been greatly strengthened by the fundamental difference between earlier wars and those of this century. In the two wars 1914 - 18 and 1939 - 45, civilian populations were involved, like it or not, because of bombing raids, and ultimately the use of the atom bomb against Japan. Nothing, they argue, can justify what happened to London, Coventry, Dresden, Wuppertal, Cologne, Berlin, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nothing justifies mass slaughter. The future use of the hydrogen bomb would be even more horrific.

And now the case for patriotism. Like it or not, the citizens of all civilized countries owe an incalculable debt to their homelands; protection from foreign aggression, from internal crime, from disease, from penury. They receive education, a minimum standard of living, an old-age pension; complete personal freedom, in keeping with law, freedom of religious worship, freedom of movement, every opportunity for self-advancement, at least in the democracies. In such countries, everybody is born under an obligation to the state, and if that obligation is rejected, so also should be the benefits mentioned. Perhaps even more fundamental is a built-in affection for the distinctive characteristics of one's own country, its history, traditions, folk-ethic, literature, music, human relationships. An aggressor such as Hitler would wipe out all these things, as he almost wiped out the Jewish population of Europe. He would replace freedom with tyranny, he would consign dissidents to concentration camps. So not only is force of arms justified in a defensive role, it is also justified in some categories of offence; e.g. intervention in foreign countries where populations are threatened with genocide, as currently in Yugoslavia and Ethiopia. This type of intervention is rightly carried out by professional armed service members at the instigation of the United Nations.

What cannot be justified on patriotic grounds is expansionist aggression as is favored by certain leaders or, as in the past, by the empire-building countries of Europe, whether or not their rule imparted freedom, stability, enlightenment and prosperity.

None of us can accept what our own country has given us and still remain, morally, totally free agents. So given the provisos mentioned, and with every respect to the best kind of pacifist, I believe that the true patriot wins the argument.

Source: www.englishdaily626.com

E54:If one could choose to be endowed with a great gift or talent, which one would you choose, and why?

2009-06-14T18:35:00.003-07:00

I would certainly choose to be a concert-standard pianist, but please don't misunderstand. I have no desire to hear the thunderous applause, to be taken by the hand as the conductor and I acknowledge the standing ovation, to receive the bouquet, to come back on stage four times, to play a brilliant encore, to read the glowing press notices at the end of a late-night party.

All that is best left to the people who like that sort of thing. I merely want to match the professionals, to play as fluently, to memorize as completely, to express the composer's intentions as deeply.

You may have gathered that I am a competent pianist. I know that I shall never get much better. I need the music in front of me. I do not own a Steinway grand, but a gallant old Brinsmead upright, now in its eightieth year. One plays - and one dreams!

So what about the 'great gift or talent'? Is one born with it, or can it be developed? The answers are yes and no. Occasionally, in a televised piano competition, one sees a young boy or girl, say aged thirteen or fourteen, sit down and play a Chopin ballade or a devilishly difficult piece of Liszt with consummate, almost contemptuous ease. That has to be talent. I could never do it in a thousand years. I used to tell myself that I could if I practiced more. Now I merely recognize that gift in others. I would never deny that to flower into perfection, the gift must be complemented by hours of practice, daily. Yet without the gift, no amount of practice will achieve the result. The word 'practice' implies a chore, the kind of mental resolution which says 'I will do half an hour a day'. Well, yes, that will improve the muscles and therefore the performance. Yet, the talented youngster is content to live at the keyboard, with a short break every few hours for a sausage roll and a coca-cola. And in turn this implies a musical background - since I believe that such people are favored genetically - encouragement, a good piano, and above all opportunity. The development of a great gift has to be at the expense of a good general education. My late wife used to teach maths to Toots Lockwood, and grumble because Margaret's young daughter made little progress. Toots, a budding actress herself, once made the precocious remark 'Mummy didn't need maths to become a star, did she?'

There are various reasons why I would like to have been a gifted pianist. Firstly, for my own satisfaction, since I enjoy playing a wide variety of composers and would dearly love to extend my repertoire. Secondly, I would like to be able to hold each piece, however long, in my memory, and to be able to think exclusively of the interpretation as my fingers automatically translated the score into sound.

Also, I would like to be confident about entertaining my friends, and this demands not only memory but the ability to improvise. Fluent improvisation is a gift not possessed by all great pianists. The story goes that the jazz pianist Art Tatum once challenged the great Solomon to improvise on the tune 'Lady be good' for as long as he could. Solomon gave up after ten minutes. Tatum manipulated the tune for half an hour without repeating himself. So, my guilty secret is that I enjoy playing jazz music as much as classical. Certainly not the modern variety of the Dave Brubeck school, with its unrhythmic runs and depressingly awful harmonies. But give me Duke Ellington, Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller - especially Waller - and I am happy. If I had Waller's rhythm and Tatum's ingenuity, life would be a rich thing!

So, personal satisfaction, giving pleasure to my family and a few friends, and helping my grandchildren, all of whom play the piano at varying levels consonant with their ages. None is likely to show a great gift or talent, but they will all become competent, like me. There is no greater satisfaction than giving them a hand with their scales, their theory, their pieces at Grades 3, 4 or 5.

One of them is likely to become a better pianist than me. She may even become very good, but like the rest of us, she will never be a virtuoso. I am rather thankful for this, because life is tough at the top, and there are many drawbacks to a concert pianist's life: jet-lag, bad hotels, the envy of one's peers, an unbalanced life, perhaps a marital breakdown.

I prefer to have my cake and eat it. I would like the talent, but none of the pizzazz which always seems to go with it.

Source: www.englishdaily626.com

E53:Should we be concerned about the greenhouse effect ?

2009-06-14T18:35:00.002-07:00

First, what is this effect? Ever since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, smoke from fossil fuels, oil, natural gas and especially coal has deposited carbon dioxide in the lower part of the earth's upper atmosphere. The effect of this has been that part of the energy of the sun's rays reflected from the earth's surface has been absorbed by the CO2 and by water vapor and returned to the earth in the form of heat. Thus the atmosphere is behaving increasingly like a greenhouse. The glass allows the sunlight through but traps the heat. The consequence is what is called global warming.
There is a school of thought which says that the result will be a change in the earth's climate, plus an increase in nitrous oxide, methane gas and FREONS. It is predicted that by the mid-21st century, average temperatures will rise by 5 degrees C (9 degrees F). This will result in the melting of glaciers and the polar ice-caps. Coastal waters will rise and inundate many low-lying countries. Food production for an increasing world population will be put at risk.

Not everyone, of course, accepts this scenario, though the quantity of CO2 in the lower upper-atmosphere is constantly monitored, and the fact that the level is increasing is not disputed. Whether or not the expected rise in average temperature will happen is another matter. There have been no significant climatic changes for centuries, indeed millennia and, the opponents of the doom-merchants argue, nature has its own methods of damage-limitation and self-adjustment. Moreover, there are no present signs of global warming. The weather patter in Britain, for example, is much the same as it was in Victorian days, or Roman days for that matter. Why should it suddenly change? Coal has always been burnt and before coal, wood and charcoal. Forest fires have always raged. Volcanoes, and explosions such as Krakatoa (1883) have always thrown tons of noxious gases into the atmosphere. After that particular explosion, a cloud of dust and gas drifted over Europe and darkened the sun for six months - before dispersing naturally. A tidal wave drowned 36,000 in the Java-Sumatra area. Nature's self-damage greatly exceeds any possible human contribution.

The fact is, however, that many people do take the greenhouse threat seriously, and there is a cross-section of people in most industrialized countries who lobby continuously against the continued use of fossil fuels. Whether they are right, or merely alarmist, only time will tell. However, the fact that CO2 is on the increase is undisputed. Further, it cannot be disputed that the greenhouse effect is a possibility, even if remote. Nuclear war is also a possibility, though remote, but every possible step is taken by democratic countries to ensure that it will not happen. So, therefore, should every possible step be taken to reduce, even eliminate CO2 emissions. There are already agreements in the USA and in Europe to cut down, or eliminate the use of fossil fuels by certain target dates.

The problem is that many countries are geared to fossil rather than nuclear power sources. Supplies of coal, and probably of oil and natural gas, are virtually unlimited. In Britain, most pits have closed down, causing wide-spread unemployment and much consequent human suffering. The coal lobby argues for emission cleansing and a compromise, both economic and environmental, may be possible. It would be cheaper, they argue, than to transfer entirely to nuclear power, whose installations may in any event cause health hazards and even the occasional disaster.

One optimistic sign is that proponents of all power sources agree that every generation has an obligation to preserve rather than exploit and pollute the planet. The worst culprits in the CO2 saga are the old-fashioned heavy industry plants, such as those in the Ruhr, East Germany, and what was the Soviet Union, and the fossil-fuel fired electricity-generating stations. Much of the old industrial plant has now been either modernized or superseded, and some countries such as France have moved over almost entirely to nuclear power. That, in my opinion, is the way forward.

I do not believe that in any event, the greenhouse effect would have the dire consequences which have been predicted. Yet, it is a risk which we should not take. Modern technology has outgrown the use of fossil fuels, and apart from any possible dangers to future generations, the kind of world to which we commit them should be a clean, wholesome and beautiful world, as the Creator intended.

Source: www.englishdaily626.com

E52:Young people are slaves to fashion. Discuss.

2009-06-14T18:35:00.001-07:00

Young people, or teenagers, are an invention of the American exploitation of the early 60s. The contemporary hype built them up into a separate class of society, and since jobs and money were plentiful in those days, the promotion of fashion in dress, music, politics and general outlook proved very profitable. Prior to 1960, people aged under eighteen were children; above eighteen, adults.

The cult swept the USA, then Britain and Europe, and finally many Eastern and Far Eastern countries, even where it was proscribed, as in China and pre-Gorbachev Russia. The promoters made full use of two factors common to the thirteen to eighteen age group; adolescent insecurity, and the concomitant desire to conform to peer pressures. Hence they became slaves to fashion.

As already indicated, fashion applied not only to clothes but to the whole of life. Some of it was harmless enough. Throughout history, the instinct to conform to current clothing styles was an unchanging phenomenon in the adult world. Up to the 60s, young people wore school uniform; in leisure hours, adult clothing. The radical change in the early 60s reflected the post-war instinct to defy conventions which were basically pre-war, and therefore associated with adult repression. So the tee-shirt and jeans culture was born, the tee-shirts carrying anti-establishment legends, references to hard left social policies, the lure of uncontrolled sex, the support of homosexuality, the attractions of the drop-out culture, and the wonders of the fast-growing hallucinatory drug scene.

As mentioned, some of this was inevitable and harmless. Some of it was pernicious. The pernicious element was centered in San Francisco, though it later infected London, Paris, and other major cities.

Alongside this arose the pop music cult, and the successful stars and groups became the objects of hysterical teenage adulation. Presley, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles became the wealthy heroes. The subversive and corrupting views of some of them did immense harm. The fashions they set became irresistible.

In the later 60s and 70s, violence as well as drugs, alcohol and indiscriminate sex became fashionable. In Britain, for example, teenagers of both sexes joined one of two fashionable groups, the Mods and the Rockers. The Mods wore trendy, velveteen styles and rode mopeds. The Rockers dressed in leather and rode powerful motorbikes. Large groups of each faction would foregather in the main seaside resorts and engage in pitched, sometimes bloody battles. Later, the same cross-section turned to violent protest, vandalism and football hooliganism. The police have managed to stamp out most of this, and most teenage hysteria is currently connected with the pop scene and the occasional acid house party. For thirty years, the slavish following of fashion has led many young people astray.

But not all. Every coin has two sides, and despite all the foregoing, many, perhaps the majority of young people, are proving to be a very fine generation. Certainly they conform to teenage dress norms, enjoy pop music and modern dance, but in all essential respects they are first-class, certainly far more worthwhile than most of my contemporaries at the same age. We were conformist to adult ideas and attitudes, but in many ways we were lazy, self-interested, and entirely lacking in any real social conscience. We were quite oblivious to the overseas poor, the environment, the victims of disaster, whether natural or man-made, and to the animal world. In fact, we were selfish, and rather self-indulgent. No drugs, certainly, but plenty of cigarettes and alcohol.

Today, many admirable features are seen in the young. They are individualistic rather than conformist. They eschew smoking, drugs and alcohol. They are fitter and generally more athletic than their predecessors. Many do social work in their spare time and some spend a year on voluntary service overseas. They have a conscience about people less fortunate and about the well-being of our world. They work hard and prepare for a market in which jobs are far from plentiful.

Admittedly, the media nowadays bring the world's suffering and problems to their attention with an immediacy unknown in earlier days. Yet the fact is that they respond. They are slaves, not so much to fashion, as to their consciences, and that is by no means a bad form of slavery.

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E51:Eventually computers will allow people to work from home. Is this desirable?

2009-06-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

The answer is that computers already allow some people to work from home, though clearly this cannot apply to more than a limited number of people and a limited number of occupations. As to whether this is desirable, the answer is philosophical as well as practical.

Computers, both analog and digital, have developed out of all recognition since the Second World War, when they were large, mechanical, and limited in use. They were then used in conjunction with radar for missile guidance and also for code breaking and a small range of mathematical functions. Most of these functions are now available in a child's pocket calculator. The application of electronics in the 50s followed by the use of the silicon chip and pre-printed circuits widened the computer's function out of all recognition, permitting a myriad series of voltage controls. The computer today is powerful, compact and relatively small. It combines readily with word-processing, faxing, and the electronic creation of screen graphics, which can be modified either by keyboard control or by electronic pen. The analog computer rapidly solves

differential equations for civil and mechanical engineering problems. The digital computer with its card-punching function permits access to data banks, and allows the processing of records and all the kinds of work connected with bills, orders, wages, VAT, etc. The computer today is integral in the world of business, commerce, design, word-processing and industry in general. Any organization from the small business upwards keeps a computer to which remote terminals may be linked, giving access at a distance to all its functions and information.
The need for all white-collar workers to do a nine-to-five job in the office has disappeared. Today, it is obviously possible for all workers down to lower- management level to work from home, and as computers continue to develop, it is likely that firms will find it convenient to let an increasing number do so. Whether this is a desirable change is a moot point.

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E50:Reading novels is a waste of time. Discuss

2009-06-14T18:28:00.001-07:00

The designation novel covers a very wide spectrum of literature. It comprises the classic works of fiction of all countries. By definition, a novel is a prose piece of over 60,000 words. Many are much longer. Anything shorter is a novella ; if much shorter, a short story. The genre grew up independently in many countries, particularly those of Europe, though since this is an English General Paper it is the English (or British) tradition that will generally be referred to, with occasional references to countries which have produced fiction in some kind of English, such as the USA.
Fiction of course is not limited to the classics, which form a relatively small part of it. For at least three centuries the bookshops have always been full of the more ephemeral kinds of prose; the American block-buster , the J Arthur Clarke type of space fiction, the ghost story, the detective whodunnit ?, the romantic novel, the psychological thriller, the historical novel, the adventure story, the war story. The list is endless.

It is quite possible to become hooked on novel reading, and this has two dangers. To read novels when you should be doing something else, e.g. study, or practical chores, is indeed a waste of time. And it is never courteous to have one's nose in a novel when visitors arrive! Secondly, there are some people who find in a novel a means of escape from reality. This has other dangers. Too much relapse into fantasy may destroy one's ability to face facts.

If reading novels can be a waste of time, reading bad novels is always a waste of time and can be positively harmful. A really bad novel is not easy to define, but for anybody with intellect it has some, or even all of the following features: unreality in characterization and situation, poor construction, concentration on sex and violence for the sake of it, bad sentence construction, a boring approach, expletives and bad language generally, a biased attitude to people, situations and issues, and stereotyping of characters.

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E49:What childhood illusions have you had shattered as you were growing up?

2009-06-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

For the student, this essay should prove easy enough, since childhood and growing up are recent experiences. For this writer, it is not so easy, the growing up period being rather a long time ago. However, it is said that as we get older, childhood memories become much sharper, so I hope that what will now be written is based in fact and not in fancy!
I was lucky enough to have good parents, who gave me a secure background and who were ambitious for me to achieve success. in life. Some children then, and perhaps more now in Britain, lacked this basic advantage. Almost from birth, these children are neglected, often ill-treated, subjected to violence or abuse. Few are given incentives. They grow up believing that the world is against them, and quickly become street-wise , concerned with self-protection, and using violence to get something out of life. Childish illusions are knocked out of them almost from birth. Their view of life may be distorted, but it is realistic.

As a more fortunate boy, my first illusion was that life is essentially fair, that people who merit life's rewards always receive them, and that the tragedies of life are somehow deserved. It took the death of my best friend following a sudden terminal illness to shatter that illusion. That episode, and at a later stage, the deaths of so many of my contemporaries in the Second World War, finally convinced me that life is not a tight moral framework. It was not until many years had passed that I began to perceive the answers which a religious faith supplies. The obverse of that coin is that life often is fair when one hopes for a little unfairness. I remember having to take a History exam for which I had done little or no work. The night before the exam, I prayed hard for the few questions I could answer which would give me a pass. The right questions didn't come, and quite rightly I failed.

Children brought up with a religious background believe that prayers are always answered. One day, as a small boy, I had been stopped by my father from doing something I wanted to do, and I was angry. It came to bedtime, and prayers, finally to 'God bless ...' So I said, with my father present, 'God bless Mummy, and Grannie and Grandpa, and my dog, and that's all!' It took me some years to realize that God takes a rather more sophisticated view of our prayer life.

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E47: Travel is said to broaden the mind. How far do You agree?

2009-06-14T18:27:00.002-07:00

What is meant by broaden the mind ? Its opposite is to be narrow-minded, and this implies a rigid outlook conforming to preconceived ideas, and reluctance to change or modify those ideas. Several factors go to produce such an attitude. First, we tend to follow parental guidance in behavior, in religion, and in social and political beliefs. These are often reinforced by school and state. Such conditioning leads either to inflexibility or to reaction.

In the West, the 60s heralded such a reaction. In the UK and the USA, one effect of war had been to demolish many social and international values. Moreover, air travel was becoming more available. The 50s saw an attempt in both countries to maintain pre-war values, such as the work ethic, class structures and general conformity to old standards. So young people began to rebel. They opted out of society. They joined movements such as Flower Power and other brands of oriental mysticism. Society was rejected, responsibility to the state discarded, and accepted moral standards rejected. The pop scene, with its songs of protest, came into being. San Francisco became the centre of this alternative society and the Mecca of young dropouts worldwide.

This major movement among young people persists to this day. It illustrates the complete reversal of the statement that travel broadens the mind. Minds had been changed by the media, and this resulted in travel. Recently, a more acceptable result has been achieved by the influence of the media. We are now made instantly aware by the media of the sufferings of the poor and powerless due to war, violence, terrorism, oppression, injustice and natural disaster. So many worthwhile young people now spend a year or so before or after their further education courses in voluntary service overseas. Again, this shows that the topic-statement is true up to a point. Much is learnt by young people on these overseas ventures, but the motivation behind their departure is as much compassion as the desire to gain experience.

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E46: "The Arts speak not only to us but about us". Discuss.

2009-06-14T18:27:00.001-07:00

The instinct to produce an art-form is just one of a series of factors which differentiate us from the animal world. It dates back at least as far as the cave-dwellers of pre-history who produced wall drawings which possess both artistic ability and emotional power. Hunting is the main theme of these, but the situations depicted between man and beast are those of stress and danger. Were these drawings meant to exert a cathartic effect on man's natural fear by giving him a constant reminder of the worst he would have to face?

Throughout recorded history, painting has fulfilled this dual role. Subject-matter, depicted in tempera, fresco, oil and color wash, has reflected every facet of human life and activity and of the natural world. In most periods, there seems to have been cultural freedom, but not in all. Fashion, convention and religious pressures have dictated both subject-matter and treatment in certain periods. The various European schools of the Middle Ages, with the exception of the Dutch and Flemish, largely confined themselves to religious and mythological subjects. These paintings were gifted but stylized. Following the Reformation, these constraints disappeared, and subject-matter broadened, though favorable portraiture of the aristocracy, who patronized prominent painters, has continued until modern times. Turner was the catalyst in shifting from the constraints of objectivity to the freedom of subjectivity. His work inspired the Impressionists, who painted according to their own often subconscious reactions to the subject-matter. This freedom allowed as much to be read into the character and outlook of the painter as into what appeared on the canvas.

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E48: "Disasters bring out the best and the worst in people". Discuss.

2009-06-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

The media keep disaster in the forefront of our minds. TV, radio and the front pages of the press seem to revel in disaster, whether natural or man-made, because the public have a morbid curiosity in it, providing it happens to other people. Disaster boosts TV ratings and sells newspapers.

As we absorb the results of a civil war, a famine, an earthquake, a hurricane, an air crash, we tend to put ourselves in the position of the victims and wonder how we would react. In such situations, most people act instinctively, and what they do is more spontaneous than calculated. That spontaneity is usually the subconscious reflection of character, and because life for most of us is lived on an even keel, how we behave in emergency is largely unpredictable, unless we have been previously conditioned to react in certain ways.

So what governs our reaction to an emergency? The answer is character. Character is governed by genetic structure, by upbringing and training, and by self-discipline, or its absence. If we react badly, we show cowardice, selfishness and indifference to the plight of others. If we react well, our conduct reflects the opposite of these failings. In the latter case, genetic history alone may govern our actions, but in most cases, people are poised between good and bad. It is then that external conditioning will tip the scales in one direction or the other. Even more important than training is love, the kind which puts others first and helps us to forget self. This is relatively easy where our nearest and dearest are concerned, more difficult and perhaps more admirable where the others concerned have no emotional claim on us. The old Latin tag "amor vincit omnia", love conquers all things, is most germane to our reaction to disaster.

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E45:From your own experience, how would you define the pleasures of reading?

2009-06-14T06:31:00.001-07:00

As a very small boy, the first pleasure I had from reading was being able to crow over some of my peers who couldn't. I became less of a little snob as I grew up. At every stage, of course, the reader finds different sources of pleasure. As a child, as far as I can remember, I looked for interest, fantasy and a good laugh. Up to the age of eight or nine, children seem to live in a world of half fantasy and half reality. Many enjoy situations in which adults are outwitted. Thus, popular comics were Dandy, Beano and Rainbow, and not the sobersides Children's Newspaper. The Richmal Crompton 'William' books were great favorites. So was Enid Blyton. Adventure was found in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and R L Stevenson. Crime detection meant Sherlock Homes. Mystery and horror were supplied by writers such as Bram Stoker and Wilkie Collins. In more modern times, there seems to be little significant change, except that Superman, E.T. and space travel yarns have been added.

The common factor in most of this is that the child and young person can pick up a book and escape from the humdrum into a new world of excitement, sometimes identifying with the hero or heroine. Girls tend to favor school stories and, later, magazine romances and romantic novels, taste for the latter often lasting well into adult life.

The attraction of escapism, modified of course by experience, lasts into later life. Most adults enjoy a detective story for relaxation. The murder or crime concerned is rarely dealt with psychologically. It is merely the peg on which to hang the clues leading to the final solution. The best of such stories also develop character to some extent and reflect the social back- ground of the years in which the novel is set. Thus, the pleasure of reading, say Agatha Christie, is partly nostalgia and partly mental exercise. Emotion plays a negligible part.
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E44:Birds

2009-06-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

Within the past few years, interest in all aspects of our environment has increased in proportion to the damage we are doing to it. Birds form not only an attractive but an essential part of the environment. Yet the protection afforded to them is patchy, at best. Taking Europe as an example and France in particular, there is a custom in that country to shoot as many as possible of the small song-birds as they return north from their migration to Africa. They are considered a delicacy.

Of course the shooting of birds in Britain for sport as well as for food has been a tradition for centuries, but the shooting is restricted to game birds, grouse, pheasants, partridges and wild duck. Except for the wild duck, these species are hand-reared and fed by gamekeepers, the numbers shot are limited, and the shooting-season, which begins on 12th August, ends well before the breeding season begins. Thus, the game species are well preserved.

For many years steps have been taken to maintain, if not increase numbers of all types of birds. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds keeps a careful watch on preservation, and has instigated laws against the theft of eggs, which are rigorously implemented. Many sanctuaries for water-birds as well as songbirds have been established up and down the length of Britain. The public in general has been educated to place a high value on the bird-life of their country.

Yet for reasons other than shooting and theft, various species seem to dwindle away to the point of extinction, causing widespread concern. For many decades, habitats have been systematically destroyed by the clearance of woods and hedges to provide the large fields needed for modern agriculture. Secondly, certain chemicals used to keep crops free from pests also destroyed the food on which many birds survived. Today, the problem is realized, and attention is given both to habitat and food, with the result that many species have been saved. Some chemicals, which also poisoned the birds themselves, have been banned. Wide strips between fields are left in their natural state to provide cover and nesting facilities. Many woods and coppices have been replanted with the traditional varieties of trees instead of the cash-crop conifers. Sea and marsh birds have been encouraged to return by exerting some control over land reclamation. In many countries, the protection of birds is being given a high priority.

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E83:How important is discipline in your life?

2009-06-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

The creation or development of self-esteem is the motivation behind discipline, whether self-imposed or not. Pride is the main factor impelling us to make the most of our lives and to fulfill our perceived actual or potential role in society. Thus, discipline makes for self-respect. Most of us are naturally lazy and selfish. Parents and dormitory prefects had to drag me out of bed. Schoolmasters begged me to try to use my brains a little more. My school peers ragged me unmercifully as I stuffed chocolates and sweets into my mouth and therefore put on fat. However, by my early teens, two factors-conscience and outside pressures, caused me to review my life-style. I was letting down parents and school. I decided to do some academic work, to lose some weight, and to build some muscle.

A minority of people seem to be born with a single-minded motivation which leads them to achieve, irrespective of outside pressures. Most of us grudgingly accept discipline exerted from outside. This tends to sharpen our perception of what we could achieve and to appreciate its value. So, a decision is reached, or not, as the case may be. Imposed discipline becomes increasingly unnecessary as it is replaced by self-discipline. We begin to set ourselves standards well beyond the minimum expected by others.

So discipline becomes important in three contexts. First, young people are inclined to emulate a role model either in sport or academics, or even the pop scene. Second, there is a realization that we owe something to the aspirations of parents, whose expectations spring from love. Third, we are all the products of the society in which we live, and there is a case for saying that we should try to put something back. Unfortunately, in some western countries, many young people became the victims of drug and anarchic manipulators, and chose to opt out of responsibility. In the 60s these people formed an alternative culture, and are now the parents of some of the worst elements in the younger generation. In Britain, four out of five crimes today are committed by teenagers. There is also a large body of so-called new age travelers who cause nuisance all over Britain and refuse all dealings with normal society, except insofar as they expect to live on state handouts, funded of course by the taxpayer. Since 1960, part of the problem has been the steady erosion of the nuclear family. Another part has been the absence of moral training in the state school system. A third factor has been urban deprivation and unemployment. The old saying "example speaks louder than words" has much truth in it, and the exceptions prove the rule. Self-discipline involves taking decisions. Where there is innate weakness, however, the factors mentioned above will tip the scales in the wrong direction. Even when the background is unexceptionable, there are isolated cases where young people go the wrong way. This could be due to genetic weakness.
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E82:What is the value of mathematics?

2009-06-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

The minimal objective in schools in most countries is to ensure that leavers, somewhere in their teens, are both literate and numerate. And while teaching methods have changed and in some ways advanced in recent decades, where the traditional approach has been totally abandoned, far too many pupils leave school innumerate. Numeracy may be defined as the ability to carry out elementary tasks under the three headings-arithmetic, geometry and algebra. Of these, arithmetic is the most valuable for ordinary purposes.

If that is true, it is something of an irony that electronics, which help mathematical processes in so many directions, have had an adverse effect on pupils' ability to do mental arithmetic. Pocket calculators give immediate solutions to virtually all mathematical problems. In no way do they exercise the brain. So, the use of logarithms and the slide-rule has disappeared. The ideal situation is the teaching of mathematics by the old methods and the use of calculators for checking purposes only. Given the basics, a pupil can then use the calculator to great effect in the outside world.

So, what are the uses of mathematics to the ordinary person? As a wage-earner, it is an obvious advantage to be able to check one's wage slip and bring any discrepancies in deductions for tax, insurance, union dues etc to notice. Secondly, it is essential to be able to work out a personal budget, and if possible to allow for savings to cover holiday expenses, other luxuries, and unforeseen calls on the pocket. As a professional, self-employed or business person, further advantages emerge. Assume you wish to start a small business and you approach your bank manager for a starting loan. He or she will expect a realistic breakdown of initial costs, wage bills, if any, expected returns, with provision made for taxation, VAT if applicable, rent, leasehold or mortgage repayments, and of course the preparation and auditing of accounts. None of this is possible without at least an elementary knowledge of mathematics, and your manager will show no sympathy if you expect to pay somebody else to do the work.
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E41:The place of color in everyday life.

2009-06-14T06:28:00.002-07:00

What constitutes perception of color is not fully understood, though the quality of light coming from a colored object can be analyzed into electromagnetic radiations of various wavelengths. White light consists of a spectrum band of shades merging from red to blue. Objects will absorb certain parts of the band and reflect others, giving a perception of color to the eye. This perception is standard to the human race, though about two per cent of males and rather less females suffer from color blindness. Red and amber become indistinguishable, a dangerous situation at traffic lights!

Whether realized or not, color exerts a great effect on humanity from the psychological as well as from the aesthetic point of view. For example, environmental coloring profoundly influences our working lives. It is not only for reasons of economy that until recent years, at least in Britain, governmental and armed services offices were uniformly painted in yellow ochre. So were hospitals, state schools, prisons and most other official institutions. The object was to create an undistracting environment. Latterly it has been realized that pastel shades are the most helpful. Sharp colors tend to lead to unrest and aggression. Drab colors cause depression and negative attitudes. Aesthetic considerations are more a matter of fashion. People are easily influenced by propaganda and fashion. A short time ago, many people were led to prefer sharp, primary colors in wall paint and soft furnishings, with no regard to match and mismatch. This was short-lived. The idea was soon superseded by light pastel shades which provide both a restful atmosphere and the ideal background for offsetting furniture, pictures and floor coverings.

In those days, the 60s, there was also a craze for psychedelic painting. Cars, generally bangers , were patterned with any kind of design. The thinking behind this was to reflect the kaleidoscopic colors experienced in the drug-induced states typical of that appalling decade. Fast colour switches were also a feature of the pop scene , and remain so to this day. Fashionable dress for children still reflects this objectionable colour freedom, which is known to be exciting to the younger generation, and to some degree enhances their urge to freedom. Perhaps my rather scathing comments are typical of my generation!
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E40: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of industrial development.

2009-06-14T06:28:00.001-07:00

Over the past three decades, there has been an explosion of industrial development in many Far Eastern countries, ranging from those with no workforce expertise to the far more sophisticated states such as Japan and Singapore. Most countries have some natural resource to develop, be it oil, timber, rubber or minerals and gemstones. The general process has been to exploit these resources by importing foreign expertise and equipment. Ideally, the results have led to dramatic increases in countries' GNP, favorable balances of trade, and the establishment of hard currencies which attract foreign investment. All these should lead to the building of hospitals and health centers, schools and colleges, sporting facilities and other amenities. Good wages should permit radical improvements in living standards. Unfortunately, this only happens where a country enjoys a reasonably democratic political system. Otherwise, in a one-party state, the temptation is to divert new money into armaments, unnecessary extravagances and sometimes the pockets of those in power.

Singapore and Japan are not typical of the Far East, since for decades they have been ahead of the rest in industrial development, although keen competition has reduced their lead in the past seven or eight years. Oil exploration in the Singapore region has dropped, and with it the demand for the re-export of oil-related machinery, drilling equipment and metal sheets and bars. Electronic components, diodes, photocells and integrated circuits; consumer goods such as radios, TVs, clothing, furniture and vegetable oils have also declined, due to competition from countries where much lower wage levels are acceptable. However, Singapore will always benefit from its free trade zones. There are six; five for seaborne cargo and one for airborne. With their time-limited but duty and document-free storage facilities, they will always remain an attractive proposition. So does INTRACO, an international and paid-up trading company which has many useful functions.

The above relates to trade as much as to industry, but the results of both are much the same. On the industrial side, apart from the products listed in paragraph 2, mention must be made of the great diversity of industrial products in modern Singapore; industrial chemicals, printing and publishing, shipyard re-structuring and upgrading, aircraft repair and overhaul capabilities, machine tools and related products, and office equipment. About 8% of the land area of Singapore is used for farming, the main products being pork, poultry, eggs, vegetables, fish and cut flowers.
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E39: In what ways have modern systems of transport and communication affected the life of your country?

2009-06-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

The impact of new transport and communication systems has had a more dramatic effect in the developing than in the old world. In the Far East, this impact will vary marginally from country to country. In the West, Britain provides some interesting changes, and it is with Britain that this essay is concerned.

Many of the advances in Britain are due to post-Second World War developments in technology. Most have been beneficial. Some have been questionable in their effects on the life of the country. The old steam train poured smoke and grime into the atmosphere. Pollution and dirt disfigured towns and indeed whole areas close to the rail network. Diesel and electricity now eliminate this effect. However, the immense increase in road transport has brought even greater problems. Catalytic converters are so far optional. Gases dangerous both to humanity and to the protective ozone layer are freely emitted. Traffic jams proliferate, resulting in loss of money and tempers. Pollution also results from noise, as anyone living near the flight paths of London's six major airports will testify. At one time, Britain was covered by a valuable bus service network, but most of this has been eliminated or privatized, leaving many isolated villages virtually stranded, insofar as many people without private cars are concerned.
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E38: "No man is an island". Give your views on how people depend on one another.

2009-06-14T06:26:00.002-07:00

John Donne, the English metaphysical poet (d. 1631), wrote these famous words, stressing the interdependence of the human race. The death of any man, he continues, 'diminishes me', so 'never seek to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee'. The argument is that individually we owe everything, or almost everything, to human solidarity. The exceptions to that principle merely serve to prove the rule. Our own individual contributions add to the sum total of knowledge, experience and insight which in turn add to the pool available for others to draw on.

This dependence is most obvious in man's early days. To state that a child depends on its parents for everything goes without saying, and where a child is deprived of parental care, for whatever reason, immense harm results. Yet, wise parents avoid domination and seek to foster independence in the child while providing a secure background. This attitude in fact strengthens relationships within the ideal nuclear family, so that often three, sometimes four generations are able to make positive contributions to each other's lives.

In countries where there is sexual equality, the interdependence of the two married partners, both emotionally and practically, remains the norm, though there are minority groups which challenge the desirability of the married state. For some time, in the west, the creation of a home has required two incomes, generally for mortgage repayments. Widespread unemployment, due to the world recession, has often left the female partner as the bread-winner, and has therefore led to a role reversal. Though unnatural, this can be made to work. None of this matters where the married state, or even a strong partnership without marriage, is seen as a lifelong relationship. Mutual loyalty is the key to success and to the happiness of children.
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E37: What do you think have been the most important chances in your country during the last 100 years?

2009-06-14T06:26:00.001-07:00

This essay concerns the main changes in England, many of which apply to the whole of Britain.

In the 1890s England was at the peak of her power, the strongest and most influential country in the world. Military conquest, followed by trade, had created the most far-flung empire the world had ever known. The development of the colonies under this influence fostered heavy industry and consumer manufacturing, enormously enriching the home country. Britain 'ruled the waves'. Yet the seeds of decline were already present. From 1890 to 1914 the power of Germany was increasing. Between the two world wars, Britain managed to retain her empire, but from 1945 onwards the constituent countries gradually achieved independence. British markets declined, and the emphasis shifted to the European Economic Community. By 1990 Britain had become an influential, though second rank political, financial and economic power. The country is now in constant financial trouble, and currently trade is in deep recession. In the past century, England has progressively moved into a situation of decline.

Secondly, as in Germany, though to a lesser degree, saturation bombing in World War II destroyed large sections of the industrial infrastructure. Ironically, this facilitated the rebuilding of factories in the Ruhr after Marshall Aid had restored the German economy. In both countries the demand for steel and coal fell drastically, paving the way for the new electronic and high-tech industries. However, whereas the Germans retained and modernized their old infrastructure, England neglected hers. This, coupled with years of strike action, only terminated in the Thatcher regime, weakened the British economy, while the Germans strengthened theirs. The overall result is that, although still influential abroad, England has become a second-class power, living under the shadow of the USA, and currently unable to maintain her position in the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Economic Community.

However, all is not doom and gloom. Most though not all of the changes in England's social fabric have been improvements. In late Victorian and Edwardian days, class structures were rigid, and maintained both by the abject poverty of the working classes and by religious and moral pressures.
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E36: Choose one modern or historical person you most admire and justify your choice

2009-06-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

Sir Winston Churchill, 1874 to 1965 (I think!). At any rate, I was stationed at Woolwich when the great man died, and the Royal Artillery had the task of organizing the funeral at St Paul's Cathedral. It was called 'Exercise Hope-Not' and it went into action at once, proving to be the greatest state funeral of the century, monarchs included. And not without good reason. Churchill inspired Britain to bring about the defeat of Adolf Hitler, at the time when all seemed to be lost.

Churchill was a descendant of the great Duke of Marlborough, and was born at Blenheim Palace in 1874. He was sent to Harrow School where, for obvious reasons, he was very unhappy. His parents, Lord Randolph Churchill and Jenny Jerome took him away at a quite early age. The problem was the severe canings administered by one or two of the masters, ostensibly for academic shortcomings. In fact, it was likely that the masters concerned were sadists.

In 1895 he was commissioned in the 4th Hussars, and he saw active service in several minor wars. One was the Boer War, in which he was war correspondent for the Morning Post. He had already developed a fine command of the English language. Imprisoned in Pretoria, he made a dramatic escape. In 1900 he became Conservative MP for Oldham but, disagreeing with Neville Chamberlain about tariff reform, he joined the Liberals. In 1908 he became President of the Board of Trade under Asquith and brought in legislation which created labor exchanges.

In 1910 he became Home Secretary, and authorized the use of troops against armed gangsters in the Sydney Street riots. In 1911 he became First Lord of the Admiralty, and he put the fleet into a state of readiness for war. His participation in the Dardanelles campaign was a failure. From 1914 - 16 he served as a lieutenant-colonel in the trenches (First World War) and then became Minister of Munitions under Lloyd George in 1917, his main role being the development of the tank. From 1918 - 21 he was Secretary for War, and then he became Colonial Secretary, establishing the Irish Free State. He also supported the 'white generals' in Russia.
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E35:As technology advances, our leisure time is increasing. Do we need to be educated in how to use this time sensibly?

2009-06-14T05:56:00.002-07:00

The topic statement makes a rather unreal assumption. This is that the only effect of technology is to reduce working hours. Certainly, the old sixty-hour working week has been reduced to forty hours in most countries, and the tendency is downwards. This of course was due in part to the replacement of manpower by machine power although until very recently in the West, the far more potent factor was the growing power of the trades unions. Within the past ten years, however, this power has been demolished by a creeping world trade recession. Instead of being forced to increase wages and reduce working hours by threat of strike action, many businesses have either closed down or laid off massive number of workers.

In Britain this applies to all the main industrial concerns as well as smaller private businesses. Almost all coal mines have, or will shortly close down due to the switch to nuclear power and gas as fuels for electricity production, and the almost total disappearance of coal as the fuel for domestic heating. In offices, computers have decimated numbers of white-collar workers. Machinery and large-scale farming have had the same effect on agriculture. Robotry has revolutionized car assembly, and standardized containers have eliminated the need for manpower in the docks. Added to all this is a worldwide drop in consumer confidence, due to a reluctance to spend in view of widespread job insecurity. The result of all this in Britain is that unemployment stands at just under 3m, and is increasing.

So to say that our leisure time is increasing is certainly true, even though the underlying assumption presupposes an ideal situation in which the advance of technology has had the single effect of shortening working hours. It may be that some countries are in this happy situation. The working week may have gone down to say twenty-five hours without prejudice to job security or loss of income. Inflation is low. The GNP is adequate and the balance of payments sound. Morale remains high. The population has a good basic education. All that is required is to find the right balance between work and play. Most people are not naturally lazy, so generally speaking the incentive to use leisure time constructively in built-in. Read the whole essay
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E34: toefl TOEFL Vocabulary conversation English Daily Conversation grammar Learn grammar by example idioms Learn American idioms

2009-06-14T05:56:00.001-07:00

First, we should be clear as to what is meant by 'the sea'. To get the concept into proportion, it is worth remembering that the area of the earth's surface covered by water is 140m square miles, i.e. 71%. Secondly, its mean depth is 12,450 feet, i.e. c.4000 meters. Obviously the depth varies. There are points in the Atlantic rift and in the Pacific Ocean where depths up to 8 miles have been recorded. Hence, there is no argument for saying that eventually the seas will be filled with human waste of various kinds, and there is no apparent reason why this waste should not be dumped in the sea. The all-important point is the control that must be exercised by international agreement over such dumping.

The fact is that the consumer countries will produce more and more rubbish as time goes on, and somewhere, somehow, this has to be disposed of. What are the options? They vary according to the source of the material, but there can only be three: sea, land and air. The disposal of rubbish as land-fill material is certainly not popular, at least in small countries. Nobody wants to live near land-fill sites. They disfigure the countryside and can prove positively dangerous. Poisonous material can leach out into rivers and adjacent farm land, damaging productivity, causing disease among animals and wildlife in general, and killing fish. People, and especially children living in such areas may also be exposed to disease. Read the whole essay
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E33: How far should scientists be held responsible for the effects of their discoveries?

2009-06-14T05:55:00.002-07:00

As far as we know, man is unique in the created universe. One of the attributes separating mankind from the animal world is the urge to find things out, to add to the common store of knowledge. Historically, any attempt to thwart investigation, or to conceal or ban its results, has been doomed to failure. There is no case for restricting scientific investigation. However, the effects of scientific discovery are sometimes bad, so new technology based on such discovery should be, and usually is, scrutinized and carefully tested before it is let loose on the public.

The scientist is not the right person to carry out the scrutiny of the new technology. Indeed, though expert in the particular field, he or she is often woefully naive in other matters. The right people are government ministers who, in a democracy, are responsible to the people. The minister will seek reports from independent experts. This may mean lengthy scrutiny, as in the case of new drugs. The first reason for this is the humane consideration for human life and health. This means eliminating any possibility of harmful side effects. The second is more material; in the event of such harmful side effects, very considerable damages are being awarded by the courts to the sufferers nowadays. Many very large drug companies have their reports own research departments, and their findings, together with independent reports are passed to the Department of Health so that the minister can take the final decision. New technologies based on new discoveries are also controlled in this way.

When scientists bypass the correct channels from whatever motives, and the effects of their discoveries prove harmful, then they must be held responsible.

When they do, the motivation may be personal prestige, money or political bias. Isaac Newton's feuds with Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal, and the German Leibniz resulted in unscrupulous behavior. While the promulgation of calculus can hardly be said to have public side effects, Newton's self-esteem, had it gone unchecked, would have had disastrous consequences in other fields, such as atomic research.Read the whole essay
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E32: 'Mathematics is the most perfect language of all'. Discuss.

2009-06-14T05:55:00.001-07:00

Strictly speaking, a language is a verbalized means of communication, enabling the speaker to convey thought to another person. However, the more complex the thoughts or ideas, the harder or more cumbersome the language becomes. To explain verbally why 'the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle equals the sum of the squares on the other two sides' would require a long and tedious paragraph. And this is the simplest possible example; anything more complicated would be unmanageable. So in this way mathematical symbols which nowadays are universally accepted, compress information in a way that no other language possibly could, and this fact supports the topic statement.

However, this language is only available to most people in its simplest forms, i.e. arithmetic, algebra and geometry, and these are taught in schools because they have everyday usages. The shop assistant needs arithmetic, unless there is an automatic cash till, and technicians of all kinds need the other two; perhaps more, such as trigonometry, logarithms and the calculus, should he or she be dealing with quantities that vary in time and space. In this sense, of course, mathematics is a minority language, a language intelligible only to the specialists of all nations.

The time may come when knowledge of higher mathematics is far more widespread, however. The new mathematics is now being taught in many schools, sometimes alongside the traditional approach, and younger students find the new methods more intelligible. The principles of course have not changed; merely the setting out. However, there are great developments available to younger students enabling them to see the subject as a whole rather than as a series of separate compartments, and this should engender more interest in those whose natural bent is in the direction of the arts. Read the whole essay
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E31: 'Money is the root of all evil'. Do You agree?

2009-06-14T05:53:00.000-07:00

This is a misquotation from the Christian Bible. St Paul wrote to Timothy 'For the love of money is the root of all evil'. A very different statement.

When a person makes a lot of money in, say, a successful business, there soon comes a point beyond which its possession is superfluous. At this point, there is a parting of the ways. The options are, first, cultivate expensive tastes, second, give liberally to charity, and third, let it accumulate.

The third option is perhaps the most dangerous. It leads to the love of money for its own sake; meanness to others, and a personal lifestyle which is unduly frugal. Silas Marner was the typical miser of the English novel. A wandering weaver, he settled in the rural West country, lived on virtually nothing, and converted his skills with the loom into gold coins. He hid the coins under a brick in the kitchen and his one pleasure was to count, recount and neatly pile up his treasure . When the hoard of gold was stolen, it seemed as though the end of the world had come. Finally he was weaned away from his obsession with gold by the humanizing influence of an orphan child.

Robert Maxwell was a modern example. Already excessively wealthy, he loved money to such a degree that he stole the pension funds entrusted to his care. When the theft could no longer be concealed, he died by drowning, in circumstances which suggested suicide. He combined love of money - and power - with extravagance. Read the whole essay
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E30: Loneliness is becoming an increasing social problem. Discuss the possible causes and suggest some remedies.

2009-06-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

Loneliness is not just a matter of being alone. The monk with his vow of silence may not feel lonely; the individual in an uncongenial group may feel very lonely indeed. So loneliness is a matter of the mind and spirit as well as the body. The richness of life lies in the companionship of a person with whom one has an emotional connection and perhaps a physical relationship, one who thinks in like terms and talks the same language. It is a person whose views on other people, the world in general, and God coincide. Unmarried people often find this in parents, so the loss of parents is perhaps unduly traumatic in their case.

The majority of people get married and find most of these outlets in the other person, if the marriage is happy. So bereavement, especially if untimely, is a prime cause of loneliness. Suddenly the house is empty, and there is nobody, even kind friends, children and relations, with whom one can quite communicate. The remedy? Time, and the determination to live the kind of life the other person would have hoped for. Remarriage? For some people, no doubt. Not for everybody. There is no real remedy for this kind of loneliness.

The fact is that widows and widowers, previously happily married, have a much increased lifespan nowadays. To have to live alone from say age sixty to ninety is no longer uncommon, and medical advance has to be counted as another prime cause of loneliness. It is not so long since people regarded survival beyond the age of fifty as a bonus. Today, the percentage of pensioners in Western communities is constantly rising. As an example, Greenwich in London (pop 11/2m) has 1/2m pensioners. So much social work, both municipal and private, has to be geared to the elderly, and much of it to the lonely elderly. This is why loneliness as a social problem is increasingly important. Very often the problem is exacerbated by extreme old age and sickness. To become housebound compounds the problem. Read the whole essay
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E29: Write a critical review of a book, play or film which you have read or seen.

2009-06-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

Just as he uses the French Revolution as the catalyst to resolve the relationships and destinies of his characters in 'A Tale of Two Cities', Charles Dickens uses the Gordon Riots to the same effect in Barnaby Rudge, his other historical novel.

Inspired by the eccentric peer, Lord Gordon, the London mob carried out a reign of terror in 1780 against Roman Catholics, involving murder, looting, arson, and acts of sedition including storming several prisons such as the Fleet and releasing the prisoners. Gordon escaped the consequences, due to lack of evidence, but other ringleaders were executed in public once the military had crushed the riots.

The riots occupy much of the story, and are brilliantly described. Hatred of the Papacy was the moral peg on which to hang the violence, and it presented the mob with specific targets, Roman Catholic churches, RC houses and their families. A mob out of control and guided by ringleaders will find the lowest common denominator of behavior. It is formed out of a depressed working class which has an inbuilt hatred of the 'Establishment' and, individually, old scores to settle against oppressive employers. Its real motivation is looting, revenge and the exercise of power. For a time the mob succeeded by instilling fear into the respectable population at large. Many house-holders put notices in their windows declaring their Protestantism. Dickens captures and conveys this sense of fear which dominated London and its suburbs for some weeks. This is the most successful aspect of the novel. The climax is the detailed account of the storming, burning and liberation of the Fleet prison.

All the same, there is a certain weakness in the plotting, and this is the weakness of many of Dickens' novels. Ever the sentimentalist, Dickens sees to it that all the characters, good and bad, get their just desserts. Life is not like that, and the plaintive Old Testament cry, Why do the ungodly prosper? is much nearer the mark. Yet Barnaby escapes the gallows on grounds of idiocy, even though he had joined the rioters for gain, albeit to help his mother. So he is a goodie; others are Geoffrey Haredale, a Roman Catholic whose house was burnt down, and Gabriel Varden, the locksmith who braved the mob in refusing to open the Fleet door lock. Anyway, his pretty daughter Dolly is needed for a happy marriage to Edward Chester. And the baddies ? We have Hugh, the savage ostler, Simon Tappertit and Dennis the hangman. All get hanged. And the smooth villain, Sir John Chester, a secret fomenter of the Gordon Riots; Haredale kills him in a duel. Stewart Rudge, Barnaby's father, had murdered Haredale's brother years previously, but nemesis catches up with him and he also gets hanged. Even Miggs, the smarmy but treacherous maid gets sacked. So everything turns out well! All this merely underlines the fact that Dickens, by far the most popular Victorian novelist, knew his readership. What did they want? Exaggerated sketches of low-life characters, who would make them laugh by their grotesque misuse of English. The good and bad characters already mentioned. A love interest, with a happy ending, after the young lady has been exposed to many perils. An exciting plot, with vivid descriptions. A well-executed denouement, in which justice is seen to be done all round. And perhaps an eccentric such as Barnaby Rudge, with his talking raven. Even the raven survives the ups and downs of the riots. Read the whole essay
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E28: How far should architecture be both beautiful and practical? Discuss with reference to particular examples in your country.

2009-06-14T05:45:00.002-07:00

Architecture may be defined as a combination of function and beauty in the art of building. Until the mid-19th century, all building was governed by three structural principles: the post and lintel, the wooden truss, and the masonry arch. From then, and especially since the 1930s, architecture has been revolutionized by the use of new materials, basically the steel skeleton and reinforced concrete. Thus, structures were freed from the weight limitations imposed by stone and brick at each floor level, so that greater flexibility in design was possible and virtually no limitation imposed on height. From very early times until the 19th century, building limitations had imposed certain styles on architecture, now known as classical styles. In the 20th century, certain innovative architects, such as Gropius, Le Corbusier and Mies van den Rohe broke away from these styles and produced fundamentally new buildings both for public and domestic use. Most modern architecture derives from these pioneers.

Such is a very general statement about what has happened in the Western world. All countries, however, have their indigenous architecture, differing widely in outward appearance but historically limited by the same weight considerations as have applied in the West. Alongside this, the new architecture has been adopted in the East. An observer could stand in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, London or New York, and not note any essential differences. However, many capital or large cities have placed these new buildings alongside traditional examples, with dire results. St Paul's Cathedral in London is overshadowed by a skyscraper bank complex, a tragedy to anyone with aesthetic values. Wren's magnificent structure once dominated the high ground on the north bank of the Thames and was visible from most parts of London. This is no longer so. The Prince of Wales has rightly castigated the modern architects who have been responsible for this visual vandalism.

Partly as a result of his efforts, the problem of inappropriate architecture is now being taken seriously in Britain. Local planning authorities are made well aware of public feeling. Where, for example, there exists a high-street facade belonging to the 18th - 19th century in a small town, any new buildings are made to conform to this particular style. Not all countries take this line. There are, for example, no planning regulations in Spain. As a result, visual vandalism is unrestrained. Read the whole essay
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E27: Should the press be completely free?

2009-06-14T05:45:00.001-07:00

Under a dictatorship the press is completely under the control of the government. The implications of this are that the authorities discard all stories unfavorable to their policies and supplement the favorable ones with propaganda and disinformation . All this involves control of TV and radio; in many countries, listening to broadcasts such as the BBC World Service, now available everywhere because of short-wave satellite output, is proscribed. People are not fools, however, and such dictatorship can lead to unrest and produce the opposite to the intended effect.

In most democracies, there is a varying degree of freedom. In Britain, for example, the government only steps in during wartime, apart from exerting control over stories which the Home Office regards as dangerous to the national interest, i.e. top security information. In these cases, a 'D Notice' forbids publication. Otherwise, and in peacetime, the press is entirely free to publish at will, subject to the following conditions: the material must be truthful, decent, and compatible with the laws of libel.

Libelous material of course sells newspapers and magazines, and certain unscrupulous editors will publish for this reason alone, setting aside money to settle the damages in civil law which will inevitably follow.

Much of this is based on a section of the people's pleasure in seeing prominent people discredited. For example, Jeffrey Archer was awarded a half million pounds a few years ago because his personal morals were brought into question; Elton John received substantial damages because of a scurrilous and untrue account of the way he was said to treat his pet dogs. The courts now tend to award according to the seriousness of the alleged offence rather than on the prominence of the person concerned. The crux of the matter is whether the story is true. David Mellor, a prominent secretary of state, recently had some aspects of his personal life exposed. He did not challenge the stories, and chose to resign on the tacit admission that his lack of judgment precluded him from parliamentary office.

A story may be defamatory, but if it is true there is nothing to stop its publication. This is the basic test on which most editors take their decisions, and logically there is no challenging this principle in a democracy. However, there are two classes of reporting in the British tabloid press which have incurred much public displeasure in recent years. Read the whole essay
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E26: 'Television will eventually be the death of sport'. Do you agree?

2009-06-14T05:44:00.000-07:00

The word sport covers a multitude of activities, ranging from athletics to the field sports, hunting, shooting and fishing; from rowing to equestrian events, from boxing to hockey and soccer. To assert that TV will kill these off is obvious nonsense. With or without TV, the instinct to pursue these activities will remain. Sport enhances health, builds muscle, satisfies the competitive instinct, encourages fair play, and creates friendships and excellent social contacts among those who share sporting interests. Since Greek and Roman times, when the Olympics were founded, and took place, as today, at four-yearly intervals, sport in some shape or form has always been a leisure occupation, and it will certainly take more than the downside of television to kill it off. We will consider that downside in a moment.

First, the benefits of television coverage should be appreciated. It is undeniable that televised sport offers first-class entertainment to those who are interested. The watcher watches in comfort, out of the rain and the cold. It is also undeniable that some sports, e.g. golf, come across far better on TV than they possibly can to the spectator on the spot. The cameras keep up with the ball in its full are, underlining the outstanding prowess of the top players. Team games can also be watched in comfort, and again with a comprehensive view of the whole pitch. The zoom-lens gives close-ups from many angles, and the immediate play-back facility shows the top-class players' abilities, the fouls, both accidental and professional , and the refereeing standards. All brilliantly exposed. Sponsorship provides crucial funds to sports teams at all levels, whether their matches are televised or not. Sponsors fund teams in proportion to television coverage and ground attendance. So improvements to grounds and spectator facilities are made possible, and money is provided for the purchase of star players. Finally, to be able to watch the top players perform with apparently effortless brilliance must encourage young people to go out and try to do likewise. Today, sponsorship provides money for the rich rewards available to stars, and this offers an added incentive to young hopefuls. Read the whole essay
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E25: If you were editing a monthly magazine for your age group, what main features would you include, and why?

2009-06-14T05:43:00.002-07:00

In this essay, the 16 to 18 years age group is envisaged, and it is assumed that you, whether boy or girl, are 17 years old. You have left school with a good academic record but have decided to go straight into the publishing business. The principal of your firm has seen copies of the school magazine, which you edited, and believes you may have a flair for editorial work. She thinks there is a gap in the market for a monthly magazine aimed at your age group. Since you know the interests of your peers, you are given a free hand in selecting the main features of your magazine, but you will of course receive professional help. So your principal has asked you to list these features, giving your reasons, and you produce the following.

A title must be found which is attractive, 'with it', and non-sexist. Since the magazine is aimed at both sexes, there must be a balance between male and female interests. By far the majority of the features will be of common interest. Young men today are as interested in fashion as young women. Both need advice on sex and romance. Girls often enjoy sports news as much as boys.

Most young people are interested in pop groups and stars. Features on those of worldwide fame, such as (in 1992) Madonna, Jason Donovan and lead actors in highly successful films such as 'Robin Hood' and 'Crocodile Dundee' have an immediate appeal. Care will be taken to edit out dirt and scandal. This feature can also provide critiques of national, even local groups. This can be mutually beneficial

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E24: In what ways can science assist in the detection of crime?

2009-06-14T05:43:00.001-07:00

Much to his housekeeper's disgust, the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes carried out scientific experiments in his Baker Street rooms in the cause of solving crimes. Since his day, science has played an increasingly important part in both the detection and the proof of crime. Technology, the derivative of science, is used by most countries' police forces today and is responsible for bringing many criminals to justice. Dr Crippen escaped by liner to the United States, but an early ship to shore radio telephone enabled the police to arrest him when the liner docked.

Footprint casts and fingerprints are traditional methods of detection. Fingerprinting was invented in Great Britain by Francis Galton and has been of fundamental importance in detection for decades. Some countries fingerprint their whole populations, though others, Britain included, regard this as an infringement of personal freedom, and restrict fingerprinting to those accused of a criminal offence, or to those who are screened for certain security categories. Science has greatly enhanced the efficiency of this system. Fingerprints are now held on computer, and much time and cost is saved by the fact that information can be exchanged instantaneously throughout the country. Co-operation with the National Crime Information Center in the US and with Interpol in the continent of Europe greatly enhances this facility.
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E23: Patriotism has no place in an international society. Do you agree ?

2009-06-14T05:42:00.001-07:00

Traditionally, patriotism has usually been regarded as a virtue. Horace said dulce et decorum est pro patria mori -- it is sweet and honorable to die for one's country. Sir Walter Scott wrote :

'Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said,

'This is my own, my native land !'

Usually, yes. Most of us have a built-in affection for the land which reared us, and to which we owe much. Wars down the centuries prove that men and woman spring to its defense in times of crisis.

Yet patriotism, love of country, has not always been approved when it amounts to 'my country, right or wrong'. O'Flaherty VC, a George Bernard Shaw character, said 'you'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race'. Of course that was Shaw in 1915, when men were dying by the tens of thousands. Yet much earlier Samuel Johnson had said 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel'.

So thinkers, whether classical or relatively modern, are divided in their opinions.

We are of course dealing with today, a time in which travel and communications have advanced with giant strides. In fact, there is a fashionable one-world concept. This outlook postulates that humanity is one. There should be no racial, cultural or political barriers. The identities of individual countries should disappear. Loyalty should be to the human race, not to one's country of origin. Humanity should become a worldwide melting-pot.
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E22: Do you think that rituals, customs and ceremonies still have a part to play in modern society?

2009-06-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

There are several factors which appear to militate against the continuation of rituals, customs and ceremonies in modern society. The first is the life-style norm in industrialized and westernized countries. An agricultural existence may be hard, but it is steady and unhurried. Modern living is fast living. Men and women work perhaps sixty hours a week in the factory, office or shop. Food imports mean that they are less dependent on the land, so the old customs connected with fertility and the propitiation of hostile spirits, all based in animistic beliefs, have become irrelevant. The climate of outlook has also changed. The religious and political hold of the old time chiefs has largely been replaced by democracy, in some cases one of the enlightened religions, and in others a kind of hybrid of materialism and humanism. So it might seem that the new will inevitably replace the old, inexorably if not quickly.

In some respects, ritual, custom and ceremony may have a reactionary, indeed at times positively malevolent influence. The modern world has set certain standards of human rights, in religion, in sexual and racial parity, in speech, in education, in political freedom, in freedom of travel. The objective is humane behavior within countries, and international peace and co-operation. Yet, in certain countries barbaric customs remain, especially where women are denied equality. Suttee. The harem. Slavery. Female circumcision. The cutting off of hands for theft. Floggings. Automatic torture, isolation and deprivation for prisoners, whether political or criminal. There is no place for these customs in the modern world.
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E21: Can money buy happiness?

2009-06-14T05:40:00.001-07:00

The title of the old American movie 'Poor little rich girl' answers the question. It is true that at weddings we often hear the newly-weds toasted in the words Health, Wealth and Happiness, but the epithet itself distinguishes between the three objectives. The fact is that you can be both happy and healthy and poor, by normal standards, at the same time. Yet, if you are unhappy, money can only cure your misery in some circumstances. And if you have an incurable illness no amount of money can buy the treatment to reverse that condition.

Most people would accept that the human being is a composite of body, mind and spirit. Each of those parts has separate needs which must be fulfilled if happiness is to result. This fulfillment is most often, though not always, achieved through the love and companionship found in a good marriage. The newly-weds referred to above may start out together with few possessions and little money and still be blissfully happy. Body, mind and spirit are fulfilled. Yet, marital happiness is not a static thing. As the couple grow older they change, and happiness has to be constantly worked for if it is to mature into lifelong love and friendship. Sadly enough the divorce rate in the west shows that many couples lack that incentive, and are not prepared to show the unselfishness and willingness to put the needs of each other first, necessary if happiness is to last. Very often, this process of alienation goes on at the very time when the couple are getting past their money problems, when the pennies no longer have to be counted.

This situation is highlighted when money never has been a problem, as in the case of some of the British royal family. Differences in outlook, i.e. in mind and spirit, sever relationships most effectively. Whereas one royal, for instance, was interested only in farming and country pursuits, the wife, some years ago, decided to devote her life to 'Save the Children'. Money never entered the equation. They are permanently separated. Mind and spirit had grown apart.

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E20: Is air travel as safe as it should be ?

2009-06-14T05:34:00.000-07:00

Statistically, air travel is reasonably safe when compared with road, rail and sea. Many countries have a high death and injury rate on the roads; train, ferry and ocean-going ship disasters are regular enough to be commonplace, taking a global view. Yet, air disasters are usually fatal to all or most concerned and are therefore more widely reported. Consequently, there is international pressure to make air travel as safe as possible, and rightly so. Yet, no form of travel can be made totally safe. The causes of disaster, whether natural or man-made, can never be completely eliminated.

Looking first at natural causes, at least three can be identified. Bad weather is one. This includes storm, icing and air-pockets in the case of light aircraft; less so in the case of large jets with sophisticated instrumentation. One cause in the case of jets can be large flocks of birds or swarms of insects being sucked into the jet nacelles and thereby stopping the engines. This may happen at low altitudes. Little can be done to prevent this. A third is the alleged danger in what is known as the "Bermuda Triangle", in which both ships and aircraft have been lost without trace. In the case of aircraft the reason may be the loss of horizon due to electrical disturbance.

Most dangers to aircraft however are man-made. The first and obvious danger is collision. In the busiest airports, especially in the tourist season, aircraft may take off as often as every twenty seconds. Much strain is imposed on aircraft dispatchers and traffic control generally. Clearance for dispatch is by radar and computer. Personal fatigue or mechanical failure in a radar center can be very dangerous. Aircraft often have to circle before being given landing permission, and collision or perhaps a near miss can result from mistakes in assigning heights. Most, though not all, countries have strict regulations governing air traffic control. Any strike by operatives will cause grounding -- bad enough, but preferable to taking risks.

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E19: What are the qualities of a good teacher ?

2009-06-14T05:33:00.000-07:00

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 ?

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E18: Is the telephone a curse or a blessing ?

2009-06-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

A slightly eccentric professor of archaeology in West Africa would neither answer the telephone nor reply to letters. As for letters, he would say, leave them long enough and they answer themselves. As for the telephone, I consider it an unwarranted intrusion. If people want to talk to me they can come and see me. Of course, the world could not carry on in its modern way without the telephone, which has become an essential part of living. Yet, in some respects it can be a curse.

Today, telephonic communication is worldwide and instantaneous. It is possible to dial people at the other end of the world without even going through an operator. This is fine, providing the time-differences are remembered. More seriously, in conjunction with satellite television, world news is instantly on our screens, sometimes even as it happens. Such exposure of, usually, unhappy events, wars, accidents, acts of terrorism etc can actually have a bad influence on the course of a war, a hostage-taking, or a tribal massacre. When it took a British ship four months to deliver a letter to or from, say, India, the crisis had often been settled locally, with much less anxiety all round.

The telephone has greatly decreased the volume of mail worldwide. Some letters have to be written, of course, but the art of private letter writing has become a dying art. Writing a good letter means first collecting then sorting out one's thoughts, and the finished article can be something to be proud of, a small masterpiece. And because letters today are considered of secondary importance, mail services in many countries have greatly deteriorated.

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E17: How far are our lives today affected by the past ?

2009-06-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

"History is bunk". This saying was attributed to the late Henry Ford, of the motor company. Though untrue, the statement makes the true point that no approach to the past is ever complete. Therefore the influence of the past on our lives is not easy to assess. Neither should we ignore the fact that in many contexts people deliberately reject the past for a variety of reasons. Yet, it remains true that genetic inheritance is a far more powerful influence on our lives than either upbringing or social environment, and that our genetic make-up has been conditioned by the past.

Yet, we are not entirely the victims of our physical inheritance. We learn a great deal from the attitudes of our parents and grandparents. Some we adopt, others we may reject as old-fashioned or irrelevant. The same applies to our hopes for the future. Just because father and grandfather were manual workers, does this prevent us from obtaining a good education and qualifying for a professional or business career ? Thankfully, in the modern world, and in most countries, it does not. More societies are ceasing to be autocracies, and are becoming meritocracies. The restrictions of the past make us even more aware of the opportunities of the present.

The same applies to outmoded class systems. Most countries have had class systems based on rank and wealth, supported by almost unbreakable barriers. Thankfully, this is generally less true today. Society is more flexible. If our grandparents kowtowed to the local dignitaries, we are no longer compelled to do the same. Except in countries which preserve autocratic and caste systems, education and opportunity have abolished these old shibboleths.

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E16: Is air travel as safe as it should be ?

2009-06-14T05:29:00.000-07:00

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E15: What can be done to alleviate suffering in the world ?

2009-06-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

We live in a world in which we are perpetually exposed to what William Shakespeare described as the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. It is true that much suffering is caused by accident and natural disaster and is therefore almost unavoidable. A drunken car driver may kill or maim. Hurricanes and earthquakes leave a trail of death, injury and havoc. Some steps may be taken to lessen the likelihood of this kind of suffering by imposing severe penalties for drunken driving, or living, if possible, outside hurricane and earthquake centers, but the innocent still suffer, and are likely to go on suffering.

Unmerited suffering has always perplexed philosophers, who can rarely say more than that we live in an imperfect world. Religions supply explanations; God, or the gods, punish mankind for breaking the divine law, and to some extent this is true. Abuse of alcohol, tobacco, drugs and sex carries with it automatic retribution. Whether catastrophe is a direct form of retribution for sin, imposed by a divine being or beings is very doubtful. What is quite evident is that we are required to live in a world which is dangerous, and whatever protection from either natural or man-made disaster we can find has to be made by ourselves. Some religions teach that there will be an after-life in which all wrongs will be set right, and where the injustices of this life will be redressed. This enables the faithful to put up with whatever misfortune comes their way in the hope of better things to come. Suffering has to be faced by everybody, sooner or later, and it is no use philosophing about divine impartiality. "God's rain falls on the just and the unjust", says the Old Testament. Nearer the mark is this rather flippant rhyme;

The rain it raineth every day

Upon the just and unjust fella,

But mostly on the just, because

The unjust hath the just's umbrella".

The lessons of history are against the probability of abolishing suffering, yet that is the ideal, the objective towards which all civilized human beings should work.

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E14: What would you most miss about your country if you were obliged to live abroad permanently?

2009-06-14T05:25:00.000-07:00

'Breathes there a man with soul so dead

Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,

As home his footsteps he hath turned

From wandering on a foreign strand?'

Thus Sir Walter Scott felt about the mist, the heather, the mountains, lakes and snows of Scotland, his own native land. So do most of us, and this stems from affection and familiarity rather than from political and nationalistic considerations. So also must be Singaporean, away on business overseas, or the Vietnamese boat-person who cannot master a foreign language.

In my own case, at least fourteen years of my life has been spent in a series of permanent Army postings abroad. Two were spent on the beautiful island of Singapore, six in Germany during the second world war and again later, three in West Africa, three in Palestine. Each time I flew into the UK my heart leapt at the green familiarity of the little fields and villages, the woods and streams, the undulating landscape, as the plane came in to land.

Yet, there is much more to it than love of one's own countryside. I have lived permanently in my own country for the past eighteen years and have learnt all over again to appreciate the many factors which are most important to me, and which, as a young man, I thought I could do without.

First and foremost, and this is perhaps selfish, I would miss family and friends if, for some reasons, I had to emigrate. In my latter years, it is an enormous pleasure to live near my sons and their families. Both sons, as it happens, are happy and successful. One is a member of Parliament and the other is a flourishing barrister. It would be sad indeed to miss their progress. It would also be a great loss if I could not watch the week-by-week development of my five grandchildren.

An then -- friends. What is life without them? Old friends especially. Those with whom we have shared experience, the ups and downs of life. Of course, we make friends abroad too but it is not always easy to identify with people from a totally different background. Again, one can practice one's religion anywhere. Yet is the overseas church, or mosque or temple quite the same as one's own?

There is always the language barrier, especially for the English. The fact that English is today's international language is no paradox. It is simply that our ancestors overseas, in the days when England was a great colonial power and had a trading empire, expected foreigners to learn English, though there were exceptions to this autocratic outlook. The fact remains that to speak one's own language in one's own country guarantees immediate contact and understanding. Perhaps Chinese, Malays, and some other far Eastern nationals do not see this as a problem. Unlike the lazy Englishman who will not learn, they can and do.

What else did I miss when overseas? Perhaps the British political and legal system and the freedoms we take for granted. Life abroad can be minefield for those who do not study the laws and customs of their country of adoption. At home, one is brought up to know about these things and to avoid mistakes. One English tradition is that of freedom of speech, that is, within the law. This also applies to the written word. The principle is 'I disagree with all you say, but I would defend your right to say it to the death'. This means that the English can criticize the monarchy, the government, religion and law with impunity, a freedom not universally conferred. One would miss that in a country where to transgress might mean prison, or even a death sentence.

The center of this freedom is the English pub , or public house. Every village has one or two, every town has several. People talk, gossip, let off steam, and put the world to rights over a drink, in comfort, and in congenial company. The pub is perhaps the reason why there has been no revolution in England since 1688. There is no equivalent institution abroad.

Good hospitals, good libraries, good clothes, good food and drink, good concerts and theatres, and good quality consumer goods are some of the other things.

England has many faults but I can say with Scott 'this is my own, my native land!'


undulating		having small hills and slopes that look like waves

impunity		freedom from punishment

transgress		to break a law

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E13: What is the place of music in modern life?

2009-06-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

Essay topic: What is the place of music in modern life?

Music has always occupied a firm place in the life of every community. Travel, conquest and trade have led to the mutual enrichment of musical traditions, though on a very limited scale as compared with today. Distance is no longer an object. So the worldwide musical situation has become fluid. Roughly speaking, music has developed tonally in the West and atonally in the East; that is to say in the West an octave has eight tones with corresponding semitones; in the East the same span of sound has no such specific divisions. Yet, in recent times each system has affected the other. East and West have become more familiar with each other's music, and each other's music has become mutually popular. China, Japan and other Far Eastern countries now produce virtuoso in Western modes of performance, particularly the piano and violin. Many Eastern professionals take their place in Western orchestras.

Indigenous music has always been connected with life experience rather than with purely aesthetic appreciation. Communities have music to reflect the moods of birth, marriage, death, war, celebration, commiseration, dance and religious ceremonial. The five basic instruments have developed in parallel; percussion, pipes, trumpets, horns and strings. Most countries are reverting to the sophisticated versions of these instruments. The danger is that thereby the traditional forms of these instruments may be lost. Many arts councils are alive to this problem.

There is a place for music to reflect our feelings about all the main events of life. Yet, there is an equal place for purely aesthetic appreciation. Most countries offer ample opportunities; radio and television, records, tapes, CDs as well as live concerts. More and more good music is being heard by all age-groups, and, with some reservations, this can only have a good effect. Music can be both the "food of love" and a means of "soothing the savage brow".

Nowadays schools and especially caring families seek to give children a grounding in music both as listeners and performers because this will enrich their leisure time in the future. This tuition should begin early, and before the child's life becomes over-complicated by sport and academic study. Children who are truly interested show promise by the age of six or seven.

Inevitably, almost all young people throughout the world are confronted by the pop scene . This may have no appeal at all to their seniors but must not be condemned out of hand, because its freedom, novelty and variety reflect the instincts of independence, protest, calf-love and sympathy with the underprivileged which characterize the teenager...
...
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E12: How can we as individuals become more healthy?

2009-06-14T05:22:00.002-07:00

Essay topic: How can we as individuals become more healthy?

The three basics are food, sleep and exercise, though the balance depends on age. As we get older, we tend to need less of all three. Metabolism slows with age, so we feel less hungry; with age we become less active and therefore need less sleep. However, all three basics are required at any age if we are to remain relatively young and healthy throughout our allotted span.

For the purpose of this essay, let us assume that you are a young man or woman of about eighteen years. You have an interest in sport as well as in academic work, preparatory to employment. You look forward to a long, active trouble-free, healthy life. No doubt you have been inoculated against the common killers such as typhoid, tetanus, diphtheria etc. Let us also assume that you have been born with healthy genes and have both a normal resistance to disease and a good recovery rate. You were not born with any physical defects or handicaps which require special medical treatment. You have an average to good health record. You wish to keep your health, even improve it.

Take food. The temptation is to overeat. Stop when you stop feeling hungry. When this is socially difficult go without the next meal. What to eat? Try to avoid convenience foods; keep the intake of carbohydrates, fats and sugar low. Protein builds the body without thickening the waistline. All this of course assumes that a balanced and varied diet is available. Nobody could lecture the Ethiopian or the refugee or the very poor on this subject. When to eat? Three meals a day should be enough for a young man; one too many for an old man. Eating sweets, chocolates, ice creams, cakes etc between meals can undo all your good intentions. Fresh vegetables, not over-cooked, are excellent. If you can obtain fresh food in variety, good. Eat according to the rules, and forget food! And don't forget, ladies, that you also need food. Too much slimming can destroy appetite and lead to the downward spiral of starvation; anorexia.

Sleep is even more crucial than food. Eight hours per night for the young person, six to seven for the elderly...
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E11: What do you consider to be effective means of keeping law and order in today's society?

2009-06-14T05:22:00.001-07:00

Essay topic: What do you consider to be effective means of keeping law and order in today's society?

Obviously the practical means of doing so lies in the hands of the police force, para-military anti-riot forces, and, in the last resort, the armed forces themselves. In democratic countries, these are firmly under the control of civilian governments, the members of which are freely elected.

Governments legislate and judiciaries administer the law. However, the degree of control over the individual and the nature of the sanctions to be applied depend partly on the traditions of the country concerned and partly on the seriousness of the law and order problems which the country faces.

What are today's problems? Political protest, leading to strikes, street demonstrations, physical violence, use of arms and weapons, mob violence and vandalism, looting, and in extreme cases, civil war. Football violence, such as has recently excluded England from matches in Europe. Crime against the person and against property e.g. murder, rape, theft, burglary and vandalism. These evils spread from country to country by imitation through international media publicity. Paradoxically, they also spread when law and order sanctions are either tightened or relaxed. This dilemma faces Mr. Gorbachev precisely because of glasnost and perestroika, particularly insofar as political unrest spreads through the Soviets and Russia's satellite neighbors.

So the distinction between personal and political motivation behind lawlessness must be made. Where the motivation is personal, i.e. based in natural violence, social resentment due perhaps to deprivation, greed, sexual amorality, hatred or drug-induced mental states, then sanctions must be toughened as required. There are arguments for and against the death penalty, but there is little doubt that it provides an effective deterrent. There are arguments against physical punishments, but they also deter. English law provides severer penalties for offences against property than against the person. In view of the muggings, street and public transport violence experienced today, this must be reversed.

The modish, liberal explanation of the increase of such crime is that society rejects the poor and underprivileged. Rebuild slum areas and offer more government handouts and crime would disappear . This is nonsense. What is society but a collection of individuals? Every individual is endowed with personal choice...
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E10: How important is ceremony in your country?

2009-06-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

Essay topic: How important is ceremony in your country?

The importance varies, but few would argue that ceremony is totally irrelevant. Some ceremonies are of course mere tradition, and as such may be irritants.

For example, in Britain there is almost universal respect for the monarch. Yet, she and her court are hemmed in by ceremonies which is this day and age would be laughable if they were not pernicious. In fact the court consists of aristocrats whose function is both to preserve the mystique surrounding the monarch and the rigid class structure which they head. A typical example is that one has to leave a room in which the monarch is seated by walking backwards, no easy exercise. The same applies to an official leaving the Commons chamber when the Speaker is seated.

This is not an argument for the abolition of ceremonial, merely for rational updating. Many ceremonies have a laudable basis. They are often spectacular, and hence enjoyable. They provide relief from the humdrum greyness of daily life. They bring to mind the country's best traditions. In animistic societies ceremony implies the satisfying of the gods which rule human destiny. Ceremonies dignify human relationships. They sometimes provide a good excuse for enjoyable public holidays. Latin countries would never give up their fiestas. Ceremonial may reflect the structure of government.

Some of this applies to Britain. Reverting to the monarch, I quote three examples. First, the state opening of parliament. The queen ratifies legislation, though she has political influence rather than power. Yet, she reads a speech in which my government will pass this act and that. Seated with her lords, she excludes the commons until black rod has knocked three times on the chamber door. This underlines the titular, though not actual superiority of the unelected lords over the commons. Secondly, the Trooping the Colour, which supplies even more pageantry. As head of the armed forces, the queen takes the salute of her guards, whose colors, in rotation, are paraded before her. This, and the daily changing of the guard, provide a great tourist attraction. Thirdly, the queen's visits to the City of London. Traditionally, the 'square mile' is independent territory, outside the queen's jurisdiction. She has to lay aside the sword of state and receive the Lord Mayor's permission to enter ceremonially. The Lord Mayor has an annual show, the floats in the parade reflecting all aspects of national life. However, at all ceremonial functions, whether the queen is present or not, the national anthem is played, underlining the loyalty of all her subjects to their titular head. Great ceremony marks the visits of foreign heads of state; banquets, parades, gun salutes. When such heads of state are respectable individuals, well and good. Often, they are insignificant, sometimes trumped-up gangsters. Then such ceremonies are hollow irritants, and the population resents both the hypocrisy and the traffic chaos caused in the Westminster area...
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E9: Describe the system for maintaining law and order in your country. Can you suggest any improvements?

2009-06-14T05:20:00.000-07:00

Essay topic: Describe the system for maintaining law and order in your country. Can you suggest any improvements?

One hundred and fifty years ago a Conservative British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, founded the modern police force. This replaced the old system of town and village constables in their local peace-keeping role under the beadle. Very quickly the new force obtained a national respect which it had never previously enjoyed, and despite a vocal left-wing and liberal minority, it retains that general respect today.

In case of serious trouble, behind the police force stands that section of the British Army which is home-based. It has, with reluctance, been called on in various roles during domestic emergencies. To man essential services during a general strike, or a strike of one or more of the essential services, including railways, buses, power-stations, water works, ambulance drivers and fire brigades. A less frequent role has been to quell riots and this is unpopular with the army since soldiers do not like inflicting injury or even death on fellow citizens. Examples are riots in pre-war London stirred up by the National Socialist movement, and more recently the riots in Liverpool. Birmingham and London attributed to a mixture of ethnic discrimination and unemployment. British people accept the need on occasion for this military back-up, but prefer it not to be used.

Today the police are controlled by the Home Secretary, who is also responsible for that other troubled part of Britain, Northern Ireland, through the Secretary of State for Ireland. Ireland has always caused more headaches than the rest of Britain put together, and in that country the Royal Ulster Constabulary, an armed force, needs the presence of armed and equipped British troops, who are constantly called into para-military action. Opinions vary from those who advocate a 'troops out' policy, leaving Ireland to get on with a civil war, to those who would like to bring the whole of Ireland, forcibly, back into British hands. Since the Irish Free State came into existence in 1922, and before then, during the First World War Southern Ireland has tended to side with the enemies of Britain.

The county police forces of the rest of Britain are controlled by chief constables responsible to the Home Secretary, and the Metropolitan Police Force by a commissioner, also responsible to the Home Secretary. Because of crime increase, and the modern mobility of criminals there is more co-operation between these separate forces than before, and often, when the ramifications of crime cover a large area, joint operational headquarters are set up, their work being aided by data banks in a nationwide computer system...
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E8: Write a story based on this line : "By evening, she was running a high fever ... "

2009-06-14T05:19:00.000-07:00

Essay topic: Write a story based on this line : "By evening, she was running a high fever ... "

Far up in the mountains of Canada, there is an old abandoned log cabin. Once it was occupied by a young couple who wanted to distance themselves from the chaos of this modern world. Here they were miles away from the nearest town. Bob, the husband, made the occasional trip into town to buy supplies whereas Jan, his wife, spent her free time by the fire, sewing. Their life was simply idyllic.

Then, one midwinter's day, Jan woke up from bed with a strange ache in her bones. Putting it down to overwork, Bob shooed her to bed and made sure she rested. Though Jan was impatient to get to her chores, Bob soothed her, "Relax, Sugar. You're overdoing things. All these chores will be here when you recover."

However, Jan seemed to be getting worse instead of recovering. By evening, she was running a high fever and in greater pain. In spite of his best efforts, Bob could not manage to ease her suffering. And then suddenly, she started to lapse into unconsciousness.

It was then obvious that she was seriously ill. What could Bob do? He had no experience in treating the sick and Jan was getting worse by the minute. He knew that there was an old doctor in town but he lived three miles away, downhill. Pot-bellied and obese, there was no way the doctor could make it up to their cabin.

Something had to be done quickly! Bob racked his brains but to no avail. The only thing left to do was to go to the doctor. In Jan's condition, she could never walk that far in the waist-deep snow. Bob would have to carry her! ...
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E7: Value of Tourims

2009-06-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

When man first looked at the bird flying in the sky and wandering away into the unknown regions of the earth, he at once felt the urge to travel and visit the lands beyond his immediate confines.This urge to travel is still so strong that people everywhere are always going to other lands to satisfy the urge

That travel improves the mind and adds to a person's knowledge cannot be denied.When a person travels he visits people of all races and places.He meets people whose customs and habits are not the same as his. He passes through areas of different climates and regions where even the plants and animals are different from those found in his own country.As he sees all these things he begins to realise how different the people and places are different parts of the world.He also begins to learn that the struggles and occupations of the people in all parts of the earth are not the same. The work of the prople of a country is influenced by geographical factors and religious beliefs.

The traveller also learns that though the people of the world do not follow the same customs and do the same kind of work everywhere,yet their feeling,hopes and desires are the same everywhere.A man in the North Pole has the same feeling of love ,sympathy and desperationas another in another part of the earth.They both laugh atand fight and struggle for the same thing such as food,love and security for their families and themselves.They also have the same hopes and desires.Knowledge of all these things improves the mind of the traveller to a great extent. He ceases tp suspect strangers and becomes more friendly whit people who are not of the same race,religion and customs as he is.

Finally,travel helps one to know about the geographical differences of the various contries of the world.Oce sees with one's own eyes and remembers things which are not written about in any book.Such knowledge broadens one's mind and makes one a better and more reasonable person.The value of travel is therrfore not difficult to realise.

E6: adventure in a forest

2009-06-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

A few months ago some of my class mates and I made a trip to Borneo with aour Geography teacher to seek adventure in the forests of Borneo.

Soon after our arrival in Borneo, we MADE all the preparations and began our journey to the forest early one morning. Afterr miles of travel trough the forest ,we arrived at an open space.Ad it was already late in the evening,we decided to erect our tent and spend the night there. Night soon fell on this place and we lighted our oil lamp.

Feeling tired,we had our meal early and went to bed.There was silence all around.;but soon, creatures that love the night world became active.The forest was now full of frightful noise.Breaking thought this noise,came another noise,more frightening,the noise of native drums.And as the minutes sliped by,it seemed to become nearer and nearer. We all froze into deathly slience.The tension mounted rapidly,but still nothing happened.Then,as suddenly ass it began,the noise stopped.We were alarmed.We were now sure that some natives has seen us and we would he attacked.In such a situation ,we could not sleep. Death might come at any time.

Minutes lengthened to hours, but in our anxiety to preseve our lives,we hardly noticed the coming of the day.Then ,all of a sudden,we found ourselves surrounded by half-nacked natives with spears in their hands.Surprise and terrified,we remaind speechless for some time. Then, one of them,presumably their leader,uttered a word.He seems eager to talk ,but there was no language in which we could understand each other.

Our teacher,who is always full of ideas, then offered a ciarette to the man who uttered the word.The man,however, seemed to suspect our teacher'intentions.He refused to acept the cigarette....

(to be continued)

E5: Modern inventions

2009-06-13T05:50:00.000-07:00

Modern invention have made life more comfortable than what it was before.More and more new things are being made in all countries throughout the world to make life even more comfortable.

In the past men had great difficulty in ploughing their lands to grow food. But to day giant machines are used to plough thousands of acres of land.As a result,more food can be grown in a shorter time than was possible before.Food grown in one country is snt to another country where it is needed badly.To carry the food motor-vehicles, steam-ships and various other means of transpot have been invented.Shortage of food in one place no longer causes anxiety as it can be brought from another place within a very short time.

The invention of the means of transport has also made it possible for people to work in places miles away, and children can attend schools in distant places.In the past, this was not possible.The children can attdend schools in distant places.In the past ,this was not possoble.The children of today are therefore better educated than those of the past.Invention of the means of transport has also increased human activity.A man now go to several places,and do a variety of things in a day's time.

Other inventions like the radio and the telephone have also contributed much to human progress.The radio keeps us informed about developments in other parts of the world.We do not have to travel to know what is happening in places away from our homes.The telephone too is a convenient means of knowing about others,miles away,. It helps in business transactions by reducing time and travel.A businessman in one town can talk to another in another town ,several miles away,to do some important business.In all these ways,people are able to do many things without much loss time.

In the same way,every invention has helped to increase our comforts. Television,for ex, now makes it possible for people to stay at home and enjoy.At the same time,however,modern inventions have cuased many deaths and much sorrow to many people.Motor vehicles and other machines have killed hundreds of people.Many have lost their hands or legs,and accidents continue to occur inevery increasing numbers.Yet modern inventions have made the world what it is today.

*Tip: You can say more about other inventions: lamp,computer,...

E4: A visit to a famous city

2009-06-13T05:21:00.000-07:00

a few months ago my father and I visited Singapore,one of the most famous cities in Asian.
Singapore ,a small island,lies at the southern and of West Malaysia.A long and narrow piece of land joins Singapore with Johore Hahru,the southern-most town of West Malaysia.Singapore is now an indepent state.

The city of Singapore is extremely beautiful.It's well know for its centres of business and other activities.There are many places of interest such as the Tiger Balm Garden,the Botanical Gardens and Raffles Museum.There are also many important centres of learning such as the University of Singapore, Science Centre,the Nanyang University and the Polytechnic. Being a famous city,hundereds of people come every day from various of parts of the world to do business or to enjou the sights of the city. Singapore therefore has larger and beautiful airports and its harbours are full of ships.

There are many night schools where people who cannot go to the day schools for some reason or others can continue their studies.And the government of Singapore is still doing its best to make further improverments in the city for the benefit of the people.

During my stay in Singapore ,I went out everyday with my father to see the beautuful and interesting places and things in the city.One day we went to the Tiger Balm Garden where I saw several status of people,animals and other strange creature beautifullymade and kept.The sea bear this garden makes this a pleasant place to visit.We spent almost half of the day at this place.

Another day we visited the museum where I saw hundreds of curious things preserved for scholars and others.It was indeed an education to see all those things .There is so much to learn here that every visit by any person is sure to add to his knowledge.

I also visited some of the harbours and saw the large ships anchored there. The sight of the ships aroused a desire in me to cross the oceans and go round the world. I was indeed deeply impressed by the activities at the harbour.

Then every night, I went round the town and visted some of the parks and other places of interest.The numerous lights and the constant stream of traffic kept the city alive.I visted a few of the cinemas as well .In short, I enjoyed every moment of my stay in this famous city of the Singapore.

*Tip: we can write more about fresh air,no-pollution in Singapore

E3: What types of fiction do you enjoy reading and why?

2009-06-12T05:03:00.000-07:00

Essay topic: What types of fiction do you enjoy reading and why?

The reading of fiction is escapism, but not in any bad sense. To read is more positive than to watch television, because the visual nature of TV limits the imagination. Reading also excels radio listening, partly because the listener has no choice in the programs, and partly because the quality of radio programs is so uneven. There is a world of fiction available to occupy the reader's spare time, so much so that he or she can be ultra-selective in following personal taste. It is perhaps true to say that a good library is one of the finest assets a community can possess. Failing a library, paperbacks are usually available.

Reading opens windows on the world, whether past or present, and most people enjoy looking through these windows. Robert Graves' novels I, Claudius and Claudius the god reveal the Imperial Roman Empire, just as his Goodbye to all that reveals the horrors of the First World War. It may be this quality which distinguishes great from mediocre fiction. Tolstoy's War and Peace reveal the Napoleonic struggle, whereas Jane Austen's Persuasion being a study of the mannered relationships of early 18th century English country gentry merely gives the Napoleonic Wars a mention. So are we looking for people's reactions to a great sweep of national events, the sort we find in Pasternak's Dr Zhivago, with it's comments on the Russian system, or are we looking for an encapsulated set of personal relationships? Perhaps, from time to time, we enjoy both.

Our choice of fiction also depends on mood. Perhaps, after a hard day in the office, we need to read something out of this world. What about Mr. Clarke's space fiction? Or perhaps it is something light and amusing. There is a whole world of this kind of fiction. Again, tastes vary. For this writer, the Atlantic Ocean is a great divide as far as humor is concerned, just as the Australian reader would see nothing funny in an English novel which I think hilarious. This argues that humor has to be related to a known background. The Englishman laughs at the James Herriott stories, because the adventures of this veterinary surgeon relate exclusively to provincial English characters. The American would be puzzled. However, a gifted raconteur like David Niven sells equally well on both sides of the pond. In The moon's a balloon and Go slowly, come back quickly, he pins down the foibles of both nations, to the delight of both, because he has spent much of his working life in Hollywood, and has absorbed both backgrounds...
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E2: Living in a multiracial community

2009-06-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

Living in a community where there are people of various races could be a rewardung and an exciting experience.Such a community is like a small world with many types and races of people in it.
Everyone,young or old,enjoys listening to stories about people in other lands.We read books and newspapers to learn about the babits,customs and beliefs of people who do not belong to our race,but when we live in a community composed of many races,but when opportunity to meet and talk with people or various races.We can learn about their customs and beliefs directly from them.In this way,we have a better understanding of their ways os life.For ex, in Singapore and Malaysia,which are known as multi-racial contries,Malays,Chinese ,Indians and others have lived together for several decades.They have learnt a lot about the cultures of one anohter,more than what together,they have also absorbed many of the habits of one another to their commen benefit.

Further, living in a multi-racial community teaches us how to respect the views and beliefs of people of other races.We learn to be tolerant and to understand and appreciate the peculiarities of those who are not of our race.In this way, we learn to live in peace and harmony with foreigners whose ways of life are different from ours in several respects.We become less suspicious of strangers and foreigners.

The relationship that develops among the people from common understanding in a multi-racial community makes life in such a community very exciting.Any celebration of any race becomes a celebration of all the other races.Thus, there is a lot of fun and excitement during every celebration.In this way,better understanding is promoted among the people of the world.Through each of the races of the people in a multi-racial community,we come to know about their respective countries.For ex, through the Chinese and Indians in Malaysia or Singapore we have come to know much about China and India as a whole.

It could therefore besaid that life in a multi-racial community,teaches us many usrful lessons in human relations

E1:Life in the city

2009-06-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

Life in the city is full of activity.Early in the morning hundereds of people rush out of their homes in the manner ants do when their nest is broken.Soon the streets are full of traffic.Shops and offices open ,students flock to their shools and the day's work begins.The city now throb with activity,and it is full of noise.Hundereds of sight-seers,tourists and others visit many places of interest in the city while businessmen from various parts of the world arrive to transact business.

Then towards evening ,the offices and day schools begin to close.Many of the shops too close.There is now a rush for buses and other means of transport.Everyone seens to be in a hurry to rac home.And result of this rush,many accidents occur.one who has not been to the city before finds it hard to move about at this time.Soon,however,there is almost no activity in several parts of the city.These parts are usually the business centres.

With the coming of night ,another kind of activity begins.The streets are now full of colourful lights.The air is cooler and life becomes more leisurely.People now seek enterainment.Many visit the cinemas,parks and clubs,while others remain indoors to watch TV or listen to radia.Some visit friends and relatives and some spend their time reading books,... Those who are interested in politics discuss the latest political developments.At the same time,hundereds of crimes and committed.Thievess and robbers who wait for the coming of night become active,and misfortune descends upon many.For the greed of a few ,many are killed and some liv in constant fear.To bring criminals to justice ,the officers of the law are always on the move.

Workers and others who seek advancement in their careers attend educational institutions which are open till late in the night.Hundereds of them sit for various examinations every year.The facilities and opportunities that the people in the ciy have to further their studies and increase their knowledge of human affairs are indeed many.Ad a result,the people of the city are usually better informed than those of the village,where even a newspaper is sometimes difficult to ger.

The city could ,therefore,be described as a place of ceaseless activity.here,the drama of life is enacted everyday

Best Essay *

2009-06-11T21:57:00.000-07:00