Some people like friends who are different from them, while others like friends who are similar.. For example, I have always dreamed of traveling to different parts of the world to exper
Trang 1Topic 116 Which methods of learning are best for you?
People have different ways to learn knowledge Some people learn by doing
things; other people learn by reading books; others learn by listening to people
talk about things As far as I am concerned, the first method - learning by doing
is suitable for me The reasons are as follows
In the first place, I normally have a better understanding on the things that I
learned by doing them Ten years ago, after graduated from a university, I
began working for an electronic company, which manufactures color
televisions During the first several months, I just sat in my office to read the
mechanisms of color television from books Those theories seemed to be so
abstract to me that I can only understand 30% of them So I decided to go to the
production floor to learn about them After taking part in the procedure of
manufacture, I was surprised that getting hold of those theories was no longer
difficult to me I was able to assemble and repair televisions shortly afterwards
In the second place, I can remember well when I learn things by doing them
People always have such an experience: they can memorize something when
picking up a book and forget it when putting down the book Knowledge
cannot become yours by reading until you practice it Knowledge learned from
books is RAM, e.g erasable memory; while knowledge learned by doing things
is written in our ROM, e.g inerasable memory
In conclusion, I prefer learning by doing things not only because this method
can help me understand things easily, but also because it can help me memorize
things longer
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Trang 2Topic 117 Different friends or similar friends?
Some people like friends who are different from them, while others like friends
who are similar If I have to make a choice, I prefer similar friends
Admittedly, the idea of having different friends is not without advantages On
one hand, contacting with different friends gives one a broader outlook to life
Different friends can enrich our experiences by their conducts and thoughts that
are different from ours In addition, they can help a person enjoy a variety of
interests
Nonetheless, I believe that similar friends have more advantages We can feel
confident and strong when we have a group of friends who share the same
opinions A person with a purpose in life - such as an artist or a politician - may
feel a special need to surround himself with people who can assist and
encourage him in his work
In addition, similar friends mean the same way of thinking and doing things;
therefore they are generally more compatible and easy to get along with I can
think of no better illustration of the idea than the example of my roommate and
I who both like studying quietly and dislike loud music, so we can enjoy a quiet
environment together and concentrate on our assignments We both go to bed
early so none of us would be bothered while sleeping Furthermore, it is
convenient for similar friends to communicate and enjoy their leisure time
together My roommate and I frequently have fun together because we have the
same hobby - playing chess
For the reasons given above, I would have to declare myself as one of those
prefer similar friends to different friends
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Trang 3Topic 118 New experiences vs usual habits
If one has never experienced the storm, how could one enjoy the beauty of the
rainbow? If one has never experienced the unknown, how could one enj oy the
joys that life has to offer? Therefore I always welcome new experiences in my
life
Some people like their lives to stay the same, and they do not change their
usual habits So all their life, they do not have many new experiences They
live only one lifestyle No matter what happens in the world, they just keep
their life the same way They will not try a new job with a higher salary For
years and years they just stay with their old jobs, and live in the same town or
even in the same house forever Although some of them may want to lead a
better life, they are not willing to change They just fear changes
We all only have one life, in other words, life is limited for every one of us, so
why not take advantage of our life as much as we could? The only way to
experience more is to change our usual habits and lifestyles and to try new
things For example, I have always dreamed of traveling to different parts of the
world to experience different cultures and customs, to meet different people,
and to enjoy different views and scenic spots I would even live in a foreign
country for a few years Then I would really feel that I have lived a wonderful
life
Some people may say that you would have confronted much more trouble and
difficulties brought by the changes in life Yes, but life should consist of
sweetness and bitterness, tears and laughter, that's the way life should be! If 1
haven't tasted the bitterness, then how can I appreciate the sweetness? Different
experiences may help me develop a profound insight into life itself, and then I
could really get to understand the real happiness of life, and really appreciate
the life that I have!
In a word, I always look forward to new experiences in life, so that I could
enjoy my life fully
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Trang 4Topic 119 Do clothes make a man?
Would a frenzy people become cool, after he wears a lab white cloth? Would a
child become mature, after he dresses a tie? And would a prisoner become a
hero, after he takes off his prisoner's suit? At this point, I consider that the
crucial factor of a person's behavior is not relied on what he (she) 1s wearing
Instead, the character of a person determines which type of people he (she)
belongs to
First and foremost, although clothes play an important role in people's daily life,
they are not the determining factor of their characters As we can see, the
appreciation of one's personality largely depends on his (her) behaviors,
including the way he (she) talks, and the way he (she) does things After all, the
primary function of clothes is to keep us warm, and to prevent us from being
naked like animals As a proverb goes, "A beggar would not be someone; even
if he wears a gold hat."
Secondly, as far as clothing is concerned, there are many people wearing the
same clothes, but they can behave differently Take uniforms for example, we
could not deny that some doctors are impatient when they treat their patients,
while others are very nice Some soldiers are nice to their prisoners, while
others treat their prisoners badly or even abuse them So it is quite wrong to
conclude that all policemen are helpful, and all government officials are
trustworthy, only because they wear the government uniforms After all, the
uniforms are only used to distinguish one job from another
Due to the above mentioned reasons, I can safely conclude that people would
not behavior differently despite they wear different clothes
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Trang 5Topic 119 Do clothes make a man?
I do strongly support the statement that people behave differently when they
wear different clothes In other words, different clothes influence the way
people behave
Some small examples may give some light to the point I usually find that those
who wear suits and tie behave invariably the same in general They probably
look self-confident, genteel and intelligent, although most of them do not really
have these characteristics So, what I want to emphasize here is that clothes
work as a symbol today and people wear them would act like what the clothes
impersonate without being aware of it We all have the experience that when
we wear a T-shirt and jeans we feel vigorous and act like a 16-yaer-old boy
On the other hand, we tend to wear clothes that are appropriate for the
environment When people go for a job interview, men will usually wear nice
suits and tie, while women will usually wear fine lady's garments Because
people understand that "clothes make a man", and nice clothes can increase
their chances of getting that job
To take this idea further, with the help of different clothes, we can behave a
way that is different from what we usual look like For example, when a serious
person who has a frustrating job takes a picnic outdoors, he will dress casually
in order to remind himself that he needs to relax for this occasion Another
interesting example is that we can sometimes see from movies that a serious
woman who has a formal job in an office wearing a sexy underwear and dance
like a stripper at night in order to seduce her husband
So, aS we can see, people really behave differently when they wear different
clothes So why not slip into casual clothes and give yourself a break right now?
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Trang 6Topic 120 Are quick decisions always wrong?
I agree with the statements that the decisions that people make quickly are
always wrong Those quick decisions that people make are like bids in a
gambling Even if they have a chance to win, they are still losers theoretically
People should never make quick decisions without fully considering the factors
that are influencing their decisions and the consequences of different decisions
When people make hasty decisions, they rarely care anything about the
situation Situation is a very important factor in making a right decision
Different decisions lead to different results, so it is very important to make a
decision carefully People who make quick decisions do not have time to look
around and carefully analyze the consequences resulted by different decisions
Secondly, there is a popular belief that people should decide quickly in order to
catch opportunities Unfortunately, that notion is completely wrong If you
made a quick decision without thinking carefully, how could you be able to
catch the opportunities? "Chance favors the prepared mind," as a famous saying
goes Only when you have fully prepared, can you really grab a good
opportunity when time come Otherwise the chance that you take hastily may
result in a failure
Thirdly, even if you can quickly analyze the situation based on the facts that are
provided to you at the time that you make a decision, since you do not have
enough time to verify the validity of those information, the information could
be wrong, which could leads to wrong decisions Even the president of the
United States can make this kind of mistake Mr Bush made a decision to start
the War on Iraq based on the false information that his subordinates provided to
him, which claims that Iraq has dangerous biochemical weapons Maybe
someday history will prove that the decision to start the War was wrong
Life is not a lottery Life is a stock market Only when you make careful
decisions based on thorough analysis, can you win If you make quick decisions,
chances are that these decisions will happen to be wrong, and you may lose
everything down to your underwear
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Trang 7Topic 120 Pride and Prejudice
My point of departure for this essay will be the famous novel by Jane Austen,
"Pride and Prejuduce", in which to opposite minds meet and at first sight judge
each other's characters Of course they consequently fall in love, but their
instant firm beliefs in their own ability to place other people in categories is
both frightening and entertaining
Many great works of literature are based on the unpreventable conflicts that
arise when different encounters between people end with hostility and dislike
Political, religious and everyday life problems occur out of the blue as a result
of the stubbornness of the human mind In the hectic postmodern world is
seems often to be considered a quality to deliver your judgment without
hesitation; such various areas as job-interviews, match-making and socializing
in a metropolis all inspire an ability to know your goal and to reach it without
hesitation and long-term reflection The commercial industry, the media and the
distinct focus on appearance in our society additionally encourages a
consequence in judging other people, that might prevent a full understanding of
other people's characters
On the other hand, as much as it may be considered a good quality to trustful
and patient, it might be a significant survival tool in the modern life Personally
1 believe that every person contains a true value, a personality that may
someday enrich my way of thinking, and therefore I try to be careful in my
immediate judgments However, in order to navigate in a stressful everyday life
that offers many encounters, it is necessary to make a natural selection - an
perhaps nature has installed this in our minds under the label "personal
judgment"
To summarize, I believe that both attitudes and ways of thinking are
understandable, however superficial and harsh an early judgment might seem
In not giving other people time and space to prove their worth, life looses a lot
of its potential Limitless trust, however, can lead to disappointment that could
have been prevented
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Trang 8Topic 12] Can we trust first impressions?
In our daily life, we will always hear a wealth of such cases as a guy who has
fallen into love with a girl at the first sight, one of your friends who impresses
your mother deeply on his first visit to your house and then is treated
exceptionally well by your hard-to-be-pleased mother, and even the applicant
who attracts to the human resources manager immediately during the first
interview is easily employed, to name just a few All of the above-mentioned
cases tell us that many people in the world trust the first impressions of a
person, his character, his conduct and his eloquence, etc., all of which he
displays at their first meet But is all that he displays, or all that you understand
through what he displays correct, or it is just a blur image that needs to be
proved in the later days?
Before we get the question to be treated, let's think of the most probable (not
absolutely) results of the cases mentioned in the first paragraph:
The guy who has just experienced the above-said romance has to say goodbye
to his newly-met girlfriend because later on he finds out that she is not as good
as she looks; the friend of yours who has just won your hard-to-be-pleased
mother's trust is criticized by your mother because of his great incoherency in
his manners, and even the newly-employed employee is dismissed because he
is not telling the truth in his resume Till now, do you still think the first
impressions are dependable?
Psychologically, we have a very perfect image of a person in our head, of
course, which varies from one to another owing to individuals’ specific
experiences, education and family background, and his or her own opinion
When a person who we meet confirms with the image in our head, we will, to a
great extent, overestimate or even exaggerate his merits, while omit his
shortcomings, maybe due to human nature and psychological reasons
Thus we can ourselves lead to the answer to the question above that the first
impressions of a person are generally incorrect In a word, to judge a person
needs time and the first-sight impression is unreliable
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Trang 9Topic 121 Are first impressions trustworthy?
In our social life, we may meet different people in different occasions Some of
them we may meet once; others may be staying with us for a long time, such as
our classmates, or our colleagues Some people trust their first impressions
because they believe these judgments are generally correct While other people
do not judge a person quickly because they think first impressions are often
wrong Before I give my opinion, I want analyze the two opinions first
For those who trust first impressions, they may argue as follows For one thing,
before two people first meet, they have no ideas about what the other person is
like, and then they may have no inclination to cater to each other by behaving
differently At those circumstances, it is a little bit easy to get to know the
person's real character because they may behave naturally In addition, some
mysterious factors such as instinct may involve in the first impression which
usually is proved to be the right one with no reasonable account, as is
especially occurred in many married couple's first meeting
The other group of people who do not believe in first impression also have their
reasons First, people's characters are different and complex It is very hard to
get to know them at the first meeting If you want to know a person, you have
to spend lot of time to talk to them, and observe their behaviors at different
occasions, and all these cannot be accomplished just in a few hours Second,
many people do not behave naturally when they meet strangers, so the first
meeting will not be a good chance to know a person
We can see that both the two sides have their reasons But I prefer not to judge
people in our first meetings Because to me, I'm not very good at judging
people and my first impressions are usually unreliable
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Trang 10Topic 122 Unleash your desires!
It 1s quite normal for people who live in the modern society to feel the necessity
to acquire new things or achieve a certain status that they do not possess This
behavior is due to human nature and continuous changes in the society,
especially the emergence of novel products that most people find attractive
The process by which people develop new products is mainly by looking at
what people need When there is a need, there is a market Although this could
seem an acceptance of desire as a normal human behavior, I think desire is far
better than what it is being think of, since this is the driving force for people to
invent new products and discover ways to improve our life
It is normal for people to attract to what they do not have, and it contributes to
human's own process of development History cannot evolve if human do not
have desire Everyone wants to achieve a better status in the society, and after
the desired status is achieved, a new desire appears and this becomes a never-
ending process The famous story by Alexander Pushkin, The Fisherman and
the Goldfish, depicted this human nature insightfully
The desire of human being to lead a better life and use new products has
pushed the technological advancement of our society For instance, in 1980s,
people desired to use personal computers to do word processing and desktop
publishing The necessity quickly converted to personal computer products that
can accomplish that task Afterwards, people were not satisfied with computers
doing work processing only They need more powerful functions to process
images, generate 3-D animations and play multi-media games Today, the
computers available in the markets are hundreds times faster than those of the
1980s, and we got bigger and much higher resolution screens Obviously, it has
been human desire and necessity that pushed the development of computer
technology
It is true that people never content with what they already have Due to this
dissatisfaction, this society is fast evolving Perhaps we may use words such as
"wish" and "dream" to replace "desire" There will be more and more new
products and services that are more comfortable and easier to use, in order to
satisfy people's dreams So, unleash your desires! Our wishes and dreams can
make our life better
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