TOEFL iBT Independent Writing, Have automobiles improved the quality of our lives?

Writing Topic

Consider the following statement. Automobiles have improved the quality of our lives. Do you agree or disagree with this idea? Support your response by including specific reasons and examples.

 

☆Let’s think

It is recommended that you think of points for both agreement and disagreement with the statement of the writing topic in brainstorming and then decide whether you agree or disagree. In the case of the car, both of its positive and negative impacts on society can hit your mind immediately. Your conclusion sentence might include expressions like “cannot totally agree with…” or “I agree with … except that …”

 

☆Ideas and Expressions

For the statement:

1)  Automobiles increased mobility of society. People can commute, travel, or be transferred to places far away from home.

2)  Businesses have expanded thanks to cars. We have come to be able to trade between places which were too far away to do it before cars were invented.

3)  Cars offer us more opportunities. In the old times, social life was limited within walking distance or within the areas that you can reach on horseback, in our words, within the village or the city the person lives, but life with automobiles enables one to venture to go beyond the town border to meet new people.

4)  Cars gave birth to the assembly line, which made possible to provide large numbers of items at low prices.

 

Against the statement:

1)  Cars negatively influenced on the environment. The use of fossil fuels for cars contributed to the increase the amount of atmospheric CO2 and air pollution.

2)  Cars caused several vices that represent modern society. The assembly line, the byproduct of the invention of automobile, led to the economy of scale, which resulted in many negative effects such as excess supply of unnecessary commodities (consumerism), garbage disposal problems, and obesity.

3)  Cars are part of causes of wars in the past century. Oil has been the main fuel in modern society since the invention of cars, and wars related to oil are countless.