TOEFL iBT Writing for an Academic Discussion Should dancing be valued more than now? (Revised)

Which room of a house do you consider the most important? (Sociology)

 

 

 

☆Let’s Think

1.        What are the differences between the following sentences?

A.     Which room of your house do you think is the most important?

B.     Which room of a house do you think is the most important?

Note: Sentence A is about your house, while Sentence B is about a house in general.

 

2.        What functions do the following rooms have?

The living room:

 

The bedroom:

 

The kitchen/dining room:

 

3.        Why do you go home after school or work? You could eat, take a bath, sleep, communicate, and watch TV without going home. What is the purpose of going home? Even single people like to go home. What are the good things about going home other than rejoining your family?

 

 

☆Hints for Points

The living room

1.     Man is a social animal, and the living room is used for communication, bonding and socializing with family members and neighbors.

2.     It is used for important occasions like celebrations or meetings. Memories of a family are made there.

3.     Simple houses like pit houses look like a living room. This shows that the living room is the essence of a house.

4.     This room is located in the best area in a house.

5.     The most important things of the family are in the living room. (The last two are ideas of a former TOFL student.)

 

The bedroom

1.     The main function of a house is rest and relaxation.

2.     Everyone needs to be alone sometimes to release stress and get refreshed.

3.     Personal things are in the bedroom. Privacy is protected only in the bedroom.

4.     The bedroom is for deep mental activities, such as reflection, mediation, and creative activities.

 

The kitchen/dining room

1.      A house is for food storage. It is also for cooking and eating fresh and healthy food.

2.      A house is for family dinner.

 

 

☆Sample Answer for ideas and expressions

【Main Idea】Although both Grace and Daniel make good points, I think the living room is the most important in a house, because I think the main function of the living room, the role it plays as the symbol of bonding, is more important than those of the other rooms.

【Supporting Details】The living room is for activities of significance for the family. Parties, marriage celebrations, and wake and funeral gatherings are held in the living room. Visitors are invited into the living room, and family photos are usually taken in the living room.

【Follow-up】The kitchen also plays this social function as Grace describes, but the basic function of the kitchen is to provide food, and bonding is its secondary function. As for the bed room, although privacy and rest are essential in life, I think most people would choose bonding rather than solitude if they had to choose. Also, rest can be taken in the living room. Some would say that more profound events in life like emotional interactions happen in the kitchen or the bedroom. However, the living room always exists in your mind as a special place for official presentation of your attitude toward other members of your family and community. For instance, it is almost always the living room that is chosen for a serious announcement or confession.

【Conclusion】We see the living room as a sacred place in family life, and this makes it the most important room of a house.  (241 words)

Write your draft. Then read each other’s draft, asking questions and making counterarguments.

 

                                                   DRAFT

 

 

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

 

TOEFL iBT Should dancing be valued more than now? (Revised)

Should dancing be given more importance in society than it currently is? (Sociology)

 

 

☆ Let’s Think

When and why do people dance? Why does a soccer player dance when he makes a goal?

 

Note: People dance at a wedding, at a funeral, at a party, when they pray, when they go to war, etc. They dance to have fun, to show happiness, to express themselves, to express something, to get to know each other, to communicate, etc.

 

 

☆Hints for points

Agree

1.     Dancing, helps nonverbal-communication, socialization, and bonding. Like music, it does not depend on language. Dancing helps wind down at parties, and dance clubs are popular hangout spots. Fun dancing consists of only a few simple steps, so it is easy to join. Dancing also helps share the sense of unity and resistance of people, such as the Palestinian folk dance Dabke.

 

2.     People dance in important moments in life. Dancing shows that the event is important, provides information about the event, and enhances the mood of the event. Ceremonies, marriages, and funerals often involve dancing. Entertainment events like festivals, parades and sporting events have dancing.

 

3.     Dancing promotes mental and physical health. Dance beats and repetitive movements make people feel good. It requires uses of all the muscles of the dancer’s body and improves blood flow.

 

4.     Dancing prevents violence in a community, sublimating stress into a formalized and controlled catastrophe. In a Balinese dance, kecak, some dancers fall into trance and stab themselves with a dagger, releasing the frustration in society. In lion dances, performed throughout Asia, the holy animal with scary appearances vigorously moves around and poses to eat people, making them alert and forget their daily complaints.

 

5.     Dancing is universal as well as representing each distinctive culture, enhancing intercultural communication. Traditional dances, country dances, rock & roll dances, or hip-hop dances, along with the music and fashion, are the core of the culture. Those outside the group can learn about them by learning their dances.

 

6.     Dancing informs people of the world view and values of their culture and passes them down. Balinese dancing is part of the structure of the Balinese society. People in Bali have dedicated their dancing to their gods in their religious practices. Each dance represents a mythological character and its story.

 

Disagree or partly disagree

1.     Traditional dancing is obsolete and treated as a traditional performing art. It is functional only in its traditional culture. A move of a traditional Japanese dance shows skills to plant rice seedlings but farmers do not need the information now. Also, traditional views of the world and values conveyed by dancing are mean little today due to the development of science and means of communication.

 

2.     Dancing no longer helps keep peace and community cohesion. People seldom go dancing to “blow off steam”. There are many other activities to release stress and bond like gaming and social media.

 

3.     In capitalism, dances have been commercialized. Like fashion and music, dances are products that are sensual, light, and easy to attract consumers. Although commercially important, the modern dances do not play any meaningful part in society.

 

4.     Dancing is not a popular entertainment in modern society compared to movies or karaoke. Dances tied-up with a song or anime come and go once in a while, no one remembering it five years later.

 

 

☆ Sample for Ideas and Expressions

【Thesis】Although dancing has positive effects on individuals and society, I don’t think dancing is worth more promotion, especially in terms of social reform. TikTok dancers are not achieving a revolution.

【Supporting Details】In ancient times, dancing was functional in organizing and enhancing movements with its hypnotizing effect. However, few people dance regularly now, and dancers usually dance for fun, health, or attention. In other words, they dance for personal purposes. Although cultures like music, art, and dancing are closely related to social movements and dancing helps strengthen the camaraderie and solidarity, most formalized cultures, including dancing, end up being part of the status quo in the long run. Also, the power of dancing is a double-edged sword. Used correctly, it can be a great booster of a movement while it can be used to control people, as seen in dancing religion. As far as I know, the vector of dancing is toward the latter. Promoting dancing, therefore, can be useful not so much for reformers as for the authorities.

【Counterargument-treatment】The mental health effects of dancing that Lucus mentions is remarkable, but there are many other choices for the same purpose as a result of diversified interests, tastes, and lifestyles.

【Conclusion】Dancing is an essential part of life, but it will not and should not be more influential than now. Thus, it is unnecessary to promote it. (223 words)

Write your draft. Then read each other’s draft, asking questions and making counterarguments.

 

                                                   DRAFT

 

 

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

TOEFL iBT Which do you prefer, trying new things regularly or a stable lifestyle？ (Revised)

Do you prefer to try new things regularly, or do you prefer a stable lifestyle? (psychology)

 

 

 

☆ Let’s Think

1.       Do you often try foods you have never eaten, or do you always eat the same thing? Why/Why not?

2.       Do you enjoy meeting new people or stick to very few close friends? Why/Why not?

 

 

☆Hints for points

	Adventurous Lifestyle	Safety-oriented Lifestyle
Advantages	various experiences, networks of friends and acquaintances, making discoveries, exciting, interesting, tolerant, flexible	stable, safe, peaceful deep understanding of one thing
Disadvantages	misunderstood by others full of danger and loss suffer from precarious life	skeptical and afraid of changes miss opportunities, fail to adapt old-fashioned, boring, ignorant

 

Decisive reasons for your preference

・I am offensive/defensive and active/passive.

・My role model is a person whose lifestyle is adventurous/conventional.

・It is instinctive for humans to try to explore and expand, and I think I’m just following the rule.

・It is natural to appreciate the present and try to stick to the status quo.

・ideas and preferences, flexible, progressive

・“Fortune favors the bold.” (Proverb)

・“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” (Neale Donald Walsch)

 

☆ Sample Response

【Thesis】While I think Samantha is right in that the predictability of routine leads to peace of mind and indeed it is a factor of happiness, I prefer to keep trying something new because I tend to feel that nothing stays the same forever.

【Supporting Details】There is always an end or a point of completion of a phase in anything, beyond which development barely occurs and repetition follows. Therefore, whenever I feel I have experienced something well enough or when a project gets on track and the work is almost done, my mind becomes less activated. I find it hard to keep the same degree of passion in the present as before, and naturally, I start seeking for a novelty for growth.

【Counterargument-treatment】This does not mean that completion and sophistication are less important than adventure, but it is natural for a mind to look for a new experience. It is also true that continuation of monotonous daily life and steady practice of routines can be the matrix of evolution, and thus I don’t take light of conventional lifestyle. Scientific breakthroughs won’t happen without repetition of routines supported by a stable environment. Successful athletes and businessmen always attribute their accomplishment to the unwavering support from their family and friends. However, my preference for changes won’t change perhaps due to my personal history of moving house 10 times before I turned 25 years old. Changing is the unchanging part of my life, in other words.

【Conclusion】Therefore, I prefer an adventurous lifestyle. (247 words)

 

Write your draft. Then read each other’s draft, asking questions and making counterarguments.

 

                                                   DRAFT