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

 

 

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

TOEFL iBT People are less satisfied with their lives compared to previous generations. (Revised)

 

Are people less satisfied with their lives compared to previous generations? (psychology)

 

 

 

☆ Let’s Think

1.       Do you agree with that social media make people constantly compare themselves to others?

2.       Give examples of consumerism making people buy unnecessary things like a new iPhone model. What psyche do the industry take advantage of to make people buy more than necessary?

3.       Share your experience in which social pressures made you try to achieve more.

4.       Do you think your generation is less satisfied than your parents’?

5.       Do you agree with Mitchel’s idea that fulfillment of life with family and friends is the basic source of satisfaction that is not affected by changing times?

 

 

☆ Hints for Points

Agree

1.       Studies indicate the relation between social media and dissatisfaction.

2.       Consumerism starts the vicious cycle of short period of satisfaction and desire for more and better. It also leads to materialism, where one’s value is based on the amount one owns.

3.       Trying to live up to social expectation is stressful.

4.       Results-driven society alienates us from internal fulfillment.

5.       Desire for the better is in our instinct. Humans have evolved by constantly challenging ourselves for new goals. We instinctively keep improving ourselves or our environment, because to stop trying means to stop moving forward, which is dangerous as things are constantly changing.

 

Disagree

1.       Culture and education teach us the importance of lifestyle of moderation and gratitude for basic necessities.

2.       Teachings of major religions is about giving up desire in order to be free from pains of greed.

3.       What most people want is very modest. This world is made up of a few extremely greedy people who have amassed the wealth which equals to the total wealth of the bottom half of the population. However, most people do not care, as long as they can lead a decent life.

 

 

☆ Sample for Ideas and Expressions

【Thesis】To add to Emily’s opinion that social media make people less satisfied than before, I think capitalism has made them greedier than before.

【Supporting Details】Capitalism needs people who are constantly unsatisfied to keep consumerism going. It makes people focused on others’ business and feel sense of scarcity. The phenomenon that a new product gets popular and everybody has one overnight was often seen during the television era. Today, consumer psyche is manipulated in more sophisticated ways through social media. Pop-up banners and commercial posts according to the online user’s past purchase history and taste constantly stimulate appetite for shopping. Moreover, results-based business culture incessantly demands workers to show the result, making them obsessed with the notion that they must keep making achievements. These structural pressures in capitalist society leave us dissatisfied.

【Counterargument-treatment】Mitchel’s argument that people’s lives are centered around fundamental values such as happiness with family and friends could be true to some extent, but  urbanization and new technology have changed and keep changing untainted society into another hell of greed and envy. Bhutan, for instance, was once famous as a poor but happy kingdom, but it is not the same anymore after it started importing television sets and people started seeing luxury.

【Conclusion】The glass has always been greener somewhere else, and capitalism exacerbates it even more.  (216 words)

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

 

                                                   DRAFT

 

 

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                          

 

TOEFL iBT Cigarette ban (Revised)

 

Should cigarettes be banned, or should people be allowed to make their own choices? (public health)

 

 

 

☆Let’s Think

1.        Is there anyone who smokes around you? Do you want them to stop smoking? Why/Why not?

2.        Marijana is now legal in most states of the U.S., and it is legal throughout Netherland. Why?

3.        Is secondhand smoke avoidable completely?

 

Notes:

1)     Ban on cigarettes means that production, sales, and purchase of cigarettes are prohibited by law.

2)     40 years ago, smoking was not a concern in Japan. Many people smoked. They smoked anywhere, anytime, and no one complained. Starbucks was the only shop where smoking was not allowed. In 2003, a law obligating public organizations to prevent passive smoking started, and businesses started to install spaces for non-smokers or those for smokers. Since then, the number of smokers has gradually decreased, and smoking in public areas was banned in 2020.

3)     Marijana is being legalized in countries where the number of users is large mainly to treat users not as criminals but as patients and to eradicate black market, which is run by antisocial groups.

 

 

☆Hints for Points

Smoking cigarette should be banned:

1.        Cigarettes are toxic and cause cancer and other severe diseases.

2.        It is addictive.

3.        There is the problem of second-hand smoke/smoking.

4.        Smokers’ families lose them twice. They first lose them when the smoker refuses to stop smoking despite their begging before the smoker actually dies of a smoking-related disease.

 

Smoking cigarettes should stay legal:

1.        The government has no right to prohibit individual habits. (infringement of freedom)

2.        Only public smoking should be banned.

3.        Smokers will be stressed out and resort to other harmful substances if smoking is banned.

4.        Banning will make cigarettes go underground just like what happened in the Great Prohibition and after cannabis ban.

 

 

☆Ideas and Expressions  

【Thesis】Although I partly agree with Sophia in that second-hand smoking must be prevented for public health by any means necessary, I am skeptical of the legitimacy of banning cigarette smoking.

【Supporting Details】Although the government must protect public health and therefore must ban harmful substances like poisonous drugs, cigarettes are not so harmful as banned substances. Specifically, it has little immediate adverse effect on the user or those around them compared to heavy drugs like heroin or cocaine. Cigarettes are among the non-essential items like sugar and alcohol, which are as harmful as or more harmful than cigarettes. These products have been around us humans as part of our lives and culture for millennia, and they are closely intertwined with sense of happiness and identity. For example, students in the old days learned how to smoke from their intimate seniors, hence the habit later being associated with memories of their youth. Ban on cigarettes will take away the virtues related to them from the users. This is a violation of freedom to pursue happiness. Decisions on whether to take health risks in exchange for indulgence should be left to individual decisions. Governments are not authorized to intervene an individual’s habit of smoking.

【Counterargument-treatment】Second-hand smoke can be avoided by banning public smoking. Families of smokers can also avoid the smoke by asking the smoker to smoke in the back yard or on the terrace. Education on adverse effects of smoking and regulation of excessive advertisements will help increase awareness.

【Conclusion】Activities, including smoking, in private spaces are at the discretion of individuals, and therefore, total ban on cigarettes is overregulation. (266 words)

 

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

 

                                                   DRAFT