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Johnson zhang wrote: ------------
Q1
Why do you think some people are attracted to dangerous sport or other dangerous activities? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Ans.

Extreme sports are more popular than ever with a wide range of enthusiasts participating on a regular basis. But why would people intentionally put their lives in danger and love extreme sports? Such questions is certainly valid. (<--Delete this sentence, it distracts the reader from the actual question you are asking.) I think the reasons for this are complicated and may change a lot depending on the personal circumstance. This essay will discuss two possible reasons.

The first reason why extreme sports have entertained many and lured many more in recent decades is that they are awesome, thrilling and tremendously satisfying. In 2014, Redbull and Go-pro co-sponsored a sportsman attempting the longest free-fall to Earth from space. It was surely extreme but he also had the opportunity to re-write history and name himself on the world stage which is certainly attractive to many. In recent years, Redbull has supported many extreme activities with reasons like encouraging a fearless spirit. Indeed, men who are fearless and interested in certain sports will no doubt be attracted to engage in sport on an extreme level simply because it makes them feel incredible.

Another reason is that for a regular person who clocks in and clocks out on a fixed basis, the idea of doing some thing crazy may just have the right appeal for liberating their nerve to escape from a life that lacks some passion. A regularly discussed topic for years now is that office workers are suffocating themselves with the endless rounds of emailing and meetings, and they allegedly need to get involved in physical activities. When a regular session in the gym or on the track no longer has the quality to make them feel rejuvenated, some have turned to extreme sports for extreme pleasure. It is said that hardly anything else would make a man feel they are alive better than what extreme sports could do to crank up the adrenaline and relieve work-related stress.

Overall, people who are interested in pursuing extreme sports are often those with a fearless spirit who are looking for an adventurous way to live their lives. I strongly believe the popularity of extreme sports will grow into the foreseeable future.

Johnson zhang wrote:
Q
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More and more companies are allowing employees to work from home. Do you think this is a positive or negative development.


Ans.
In recent years, the development in engineering and technology has been rapid and fundamental. One of the important applications is the effective communication networks allowing many employees to work from home. That, in my opinion, is changing the standard workplace forever and those changes are mostly reflected in positive ways.

Firstly, modern workers are looking for an easy work-life balance. Flexible working conditions contribute to this. With more companies offering a choice to their employees of where they can work, whether it is a cafe shop or the home living room, those employees are more likely to be in control of their private lives. That is because juggling between the workplace and home is time-consuming, and organsing private events would be harder with a harsh rule against the workplace choice. In that regard, it is adamantly positive that employees are able to choose where they can work as clearly they are receiving benefits.

Secondly, companies are always looking for cheaper ways to run things. For every employee present at work, it costs dearly to fully facilitate the person, with costs including office space, workplace insurance, commuting allowance…etc. With convenient and affordable tele-communication solutions available to any business today, some businesses, especially tech-based, are effectively lowering their production costs. Even more, many companies have managed to increase their employee numbers and thus their production capacities despite some budget restraints because some of their employees are out-sourced and work remotely. So if companies, too, are benefiting from flexible workplace choices as the operating cost is lower and the business expansion gets cheaper, it is clearly a positive development that they are offering employees an option to work elsewhere.

In conclusion, it is evident that there are a number of mutual benefits that both companies and individuals could receive from a flexible workplace choice. Personally, I strongly believe the demand for a more flexible workplace choice will grow stronger.

Johnson zhang wrote: Which is more important for success: the natural ability you are born with or hard work? Explain your opinion using specific reasons and examples.


People of all ages around the world all seek success, whether it is landing a job or getting into a prestigious school. To achieve thyis, hard work and natural resources are often both required in most cases. My personal view is that hard work has a more essential role in success than natural talent. This will be supported with two reasons in this essay.


Firstly, hard work is more important than talent because hard work arguably weighs more than talent. To explain, it is possible to achieve a desired goal with less-than-desired natural facilities. On the other hand, it is widely agreed that overly relying on one’s God-given gift without demonstrating hard work will unlikely retain success. For example, Justin Bieber was a famed singer from Canada with heart-warming natural vocal skills, and he was infamously caught taking drugs which arguably ruined his career. In addition, his songs were not well received towards the end of his career because of his turbulent private life and a lack of focus on his singing career as many would point out. In this example, it is clearly shown that displaying talent alone may merely lead to fleeting success. For a long-standing success that most people would want, hard work contributes more than talent.


Secondly, if success is defined as being one’s best, demonstrating natural ability with no further improvement to be made does not meet this definition. On the contrary, even for a person with the least amount of natural resource, any marginal improvement over what has been achieved in the past is clearly success. In that regard, hard work is definitely more necessary in order to succeed in life. In addition, people generally highly respect anyone coming out of a disadvantaged situation through hard work. Receiving that kind of respect alone is a success.


In summary, being talented is certainly beneficial to achieving success but I think it is often over-rated. Hard work is always the most important attribute to success.

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Johnson zhang wrote:In some countries children have strict rules of behaviour, while in other countries they are allowed to do almost anything they want.
To what extent should children have to follow rules?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your open knowledge or experience



Adolescents are always told or yelled at to behave well and instructed to follow common rules. The degree of tolerance to their behaviour varies significantly from country to country and culture to culture.
I think children should be taught to distinguish between right and wrong and do what is right. There are at least two reasons to support this opinion.

Firstly, children should not blindly obey rules from parents or schools. This is because unconditional conformity to social norms has its demerits. For example, I had close friends who loved to practise martial arts but shifted their focus to exam-important school subjects as their parents wanted. I strongly believe, had they followed their passion, they might have had a much happier teenage-hood. Therefore, 'listen to your parents', and 'do what you are told to do' are rules are often filled with prejudice and biases and should not be followed unconditionally.

Secondly, the immature minds of the future need to be encouraged to think critically and behave acceptably in their own way. This leads to an entirely personal opinion; rules should be abandoned and only boundaries are needed. Rules are created based on a collection of unpleasant experiences. However, independent and critical thinking could well help one to avoid poor experiences and behaviours. Therefore, while children should respect rules, they need to expose themselves to a far more crucial tool in life - critical thinking; start learning how to make the right judgement call as early as possible.

In summary, young adults have rules to follow. However, a negative response should be allowed as a way to adequately show a mutual respect as long as it is not illegal. In addition, to guide kids in growing common sense sometimes is far more useful in eliminating poor teen behaviour than implementing strict rules.

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Johnson zhang wrote: Air travel is now getting cheaper and some people consider it as a positive development. To what extent do you agree or disagree?


Plane tickets have seen their glory days when they were super expensive and only for the rich. They are now more affordable than ever due to a number of reasons such as competition. In some cases, flying is even cheaper than traveling by ground. This downward trend of price change is certainly welcomed by the majority of customers of plane travel. I believe affordable air travel is essential and beneficial to today's global economy and society.

The first argument is that cheaper air travel is good for the economy. This can be exemplified in a number of areas. One example is that an increasing number of international trips are being made each year. This brings some obvious economic benefits to countries or communities who, for example, may need a thriving tourism industry or education industry for wealth creation. It is clear that affordability in air travel can have a robust boost on economic activities around the world. In this regard, cheaper plane tickets are a positive thing and probably what the world's economies can not afford to lose now.

The second argument is that affordable air travel is helping global cultural exchange. In the past, only the 1% privileged people could afford to experience a different culture on their vacations. Those days are long gone. Air travel is hugely popular now thanks to the reduction in its cost over the years. This is very important to younger people with smaller wallets and who often travel as backpackers. For them, it is a life-time honour to set out on a journey to experience, learn and discover new things on a world stage. Therefore, cheaper airplane tickets is a hugely positive thing to many people who travel for fun and cultural enrichment.

In summary, air travel is a wonder that needs to be accessed by more people in order to meet its full potential. I believe the easier access to it is, the more it could contribute to the world's economies and societies.

Johnson zhang wrote:Nowadays the way many people interact with each other has changed because of technology.
In what ways has technology affected personal relationships ? Has this become a positive or negative development?



Today, with advances in information engineering, the interaction between most of us have gone through some stylish changes. Changes that have led many of us to communicate in new and better ways, as well as easier ways to share our lives with others. While the results of these changes may not be all positive, they are certainly welcomed by the majority who use technology daily. There are two arguments in this essay supporting this opinion.

The first one is the way we communicate now comes in a variety of styles and at super speed. That is a result of how the advent of tele-communication has arguably changed our society fundamentally. There used to be delays, long waits and reliability issues in the traditional message-delivering system. Now, it takes seconds to deliver a message to anyone with an account on the Internet. This improvement is profound and has vastly shortened, speeded up and secured the way many of us communicate with each other. And that is clearly positive.

The second argument is that how we share our lives have undergone dramatic changes. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, these Internet-based platforms are providing extremely fast and free multi-media style interaction. Results of this are mostly positive such as the way in which many people’s long distance relationships have been improved. In addition, it is far less likely for most of us to completely lose contact with our loved ones.

In summary, technology of all sorts has been always aiming to improve our ways to talk to each other. And it has left old school communication methods in the dust. While there may be arguments over how some of us are being obsessive with gadgets, I do not believe we can fault technology itself for this.

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charles205 wrote:Some people think that environmental problems are too big for individuals to solve. Others however, believe individuals can also do something to solve these problems. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Nowadays, the world is facing different environmental challenges. Due to the scale of some of these problems, many people believe nothing can be done while others think these issues can be tackled to some extent, at individual levels. This essay will analyze both these points of view before drawing a conclusion.
It is undeniable that some natural problems such as rising levels of sea water and super-scale solar storms leave little to no room for humans to take corrective measures. For example, rising out from the core of the sun, a super solar-storm can produce massive electromagnetic waves which might shut down the whole communication system on Earth in a fraction of a second, and these waves can also destroy the protective ozone layer, putting life on Earth in extreme danger. These situations are of super-scale where individuals can do nothing. This clearly shows why many people support the notion that the environment can create problems we are not capable of finding solutions for.
However, there are some prolonged natural problems most people can take action to rectify. For instance, while many cities, especially where the density of toxic gases in the atmosphere is high, suffer due to polluted air, introduction of electric and hybrid vehicles seems to have produced positive results in tackling the problem. Last but not least, if people can cultivate trees on their own lands, it would greatly help to improve the condition of the air. As this proves, there are many actions which can be taken by each of us in solving several ecological imbalances which are more relevant and frequent.

In conclusion, after analyzing both sides of this argument, it is felt, though there are some extreme situations where we are answerless, still we have plenty of issues to be handled on our own.

Johnson zhang wrote:—————————————
More and more companies are allowing employees to work from home. Do you think this is a positive or negative development.


Workplaces around the world have changed quite substantially since the advent of technology. One of the perks that employees nowadays get is flexible working conditions including the choice of where the work is done. This is clearly a result of ever advancing telecommunication development in the business world. This essay looks into some of the outcomes of having mobile staff.

The idea of sitting on the couch at home typing up work is ideal and alluring. However, the real benefit of this is allowing a professional to manage the private part of life much better. For example, for a working mom who needs to take care of a family, the option to work from home is heavenly since she could save the trouble of juggling work and family. Therefore, it is not hard to imagine that a flexible work policy is certainly going to be welcomed by many working professionals, especially those who need to support a family. For their sakes, this notion of choosing where to work is quite a positive thing.

On the other hand, it has been argued that job efficiency will suffer because those employees are unsupervised. This is not entirely wrong since most of us, after all, naturally lack strong discipline. Entertainment options are available virtually everywhere, they are hard to be ignored when the work becomes quite boring and irritating and no boss is near you. As a result, a lowered productivity from employees who are based at home or elsewhere is likely to happen. However, this kind of prediction does not apply to all. Nevertheless, a worry of such is not groundless, which means allowing staff to work from home may be overly ideal.

In summary, I believe workplaces need to be more open and professionals of high standards deserve to have their wishes for more flexible work conditions granted.