TOEFL, iBT, Independent Writing, Your city has decided to build a statue or monument to honor a famous person in your country. Who would you choose? / What events (experiences or ceremonies) make a person an adult? - rewrites -

Writing Topic１

Your city has decided to build a statue or monument to honor a famous person in your country. Who would you choose? Use reasons and specific examples to support your choice.



☆Let’s Think

Very few people are commemorated with statues. How many statues of real figures can you name; Washington, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and …? The person should deserve the commemoration. Usually they are special as well as famous. Washington was the first President of the United States. Lincoln helped end the slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. peacefully fought against discrimination and sacrificed his life for the purpose. We think these people were so important that we want to keep their statues, the most

effective way to remember them.



Who were/are such people in your country? Who were/are famous and special? Who contributed to your society so much as to be commemorated with a statue?



Notes:

1) Since the topic gives no definition about how famous the person should be, as long as a number of people know the person, and even if the person is not world-famous, you can say the person you chose is famous.

2) If you do not remember the name of the person, you could put it this way: I would choose the person who invented blue, green, and white LED (Light-Emitting Diode).



☆Ideas and Expressions

Industrialists

Son Masayoshi: (1957 - ) A businessman and the founder and chief executive officer of SoftBank, who introduced smartphones to Japan. He is also a philanthropist. He donated 10 billion yen to the victims of the recent megaquake and has promised to donate to them all of his income every year. In addition, he has taken initiatives of Japan’s shift to a society based on safe and sustainable energy sources.



Ando Momofuku: (1910 - 2007) A businessman who founded Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. He is famed as the inventor of instant noodles and cup noodles. He invented Chiken Ramen to help people struggling to get food in the aftermath of WWII. He kept donating cup noodles to the people in poor countries and disaster-stricken areas.



Other names: Matsushita Konosuke, Honda Sōichirō



Historical Figures

Fukuzawa Yukichi : (1834 - 1901) An author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and political theorist who founded Keio University. His ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji Era. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern Japan.



Sakamoto Ryōma: (1836 - 1867) A charismatic leader of the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period in Japan.



Other names: Ito Hirobumi, Sugita Genpaku, Yoshida Shoin, Katsu Kaishu, Ino Tadataka,



Cultural Figures

Miyazaki Hayao : (1941-) A Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films. Miyazaki's films often incorporate recurrent themes like humanity's relationship to nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic. Miyazaki is a vocal critic of capitalism and globalization.



Mori Ogai, Natsume Soseki, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Tatsuo Hori

Authors between Meiji era and Showa that built the foundation of the modern Japanese language and Japanese pure literature.



Other names: Yosano Akiko, Kurosawa Akira, Miyazawa Kenji, Murasaki Shikibu, Tezuka Osamu, Matsuo Basho, Ikkyu, Dazai Osamu, Oe Kenzaburo



Athletes

Suzuki Ichiro : (1973-) A Major League Baseball right fielder for the Seattle Mariners. Ichiro has established a number of batting records, including the sport's single-season record for hits with 262. He has had ten consecutive 200-hit seasons, the longest streak by any player. He has been voted onto ten All-Star teams by the fans. Ichiro has won a Gold Glove award in each of his first ten years in the major leagues.



Uemura Naomi: (1941 - 1984) Ａ Japanese adventurer. He was particularly well known for accumplishin what had previously been achieved only with large teams alone. For example, he was the first person ever to reach the North Pole solo, the first ever to raft the Amazon solo, and the first ever to climb Mount McKinley solo.



Other names: Krumm Date Kimiko, Ishikawa Ryo, Shimizu Hiroyasu, Arakawa Shizuka, Miura Kazu, Matsui Hideki, Antonio Inoki, Shohei “Giant” Baba





☆Sample Essay Structures

Sample Essay Structure

【Introduction】I would like to choose Ryunosuke Akutagawa, a Japanese author, for the commemoration if my city has decided to build a statue of a famous person of my country.

【Point 1】A well-bred genius who grew up among the public in Tokyo at the end of the Meiji era that still maintained the traditional communities and cultures of the Edo era, Ryunosuke was a sensitive but worldly man who was very kind and pure-minded. He committed suicide and died young saying that it was the first and last selfish act that he asked for pardon about. e.g. family, marriage, and the Japanese literary society.

【Point 2】Rynosuke left many good short stories, which are so popular that many people do not realize that they are written by him. By writing masterpieces one after another, he protected the pure literature in Japan. e.g. Kumo-no-ito and Toshishun

【Point 3】Living about a century ago, Rynosuke depicted the same anxiety of life that individuals living today have and pointed out the hypocrisy of the developed society. e.g. Torokko and Kappa

【Conclusion】Although he did not make a mature author who left a great novel due to his premature death, he helped build the Japanese roman, which conveyed the rich tradition of sensitive and gentle Japanese mentality, by passing down his sense of art to the generations that followed.



Your Sample Essay Structure

【Introduction = Outline】



【Point 1】



【Point 2】



【Point 3】



【Conclusion = Wrap-up】















Writing Topic 2

People recognize a difference between children and adults. What events (experiences or ceremonies) make a person an adult? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your answer.



☆Let’s Think

The status of being an adult probably has three aspects: legal, biological and social aspects. Legal adulthood is obvious, the Coming of Age Day marks your adulthood. Biologically, if you have or have reached the age of the ability to reproduce, you are an adult. However, words like “adult children” or “man-child” show that legal or biological adulthood is not enough to make someone an adult. Another expression “helicopter parents” describes parents who are not mentally independent from their children, so “mental independence” can be one condition for adulthood. Still another expression “Grow up” is used to not only children but also adults. It seems that we often use the expression to people who cannot see anything but themselves. What events make a person mentally independent and socialized, in other words mature?



Note: The question specifically says, “What events (experiences or ceremonies),” and so you are required to cite specific events that cause transformation from childhood to adulthood.



☆Ideas and Expressions

Start working for economic independence: Money is not everything, but money very often decides relationships. As long as your parents are paying for what is necessary for your survival, they treat you as such, someone in their custody. Also, until you start taking care of yourself moneywise, you are not fully responsible for yourself and hence you are not full-fledged as a member of society. Getting a job makes someone economically independent.



Learning about life and society that leads to mental independence: Even if economically not independent, many people are looked upon as adults. For example, a woman whose illness does not allow her to support herself can be mentally mature. She can be respected by others for her strong self-restriction, wisdom, and abundant love for others. Therefore, events that develop these qualities can be said to make a person an adult. Reading a book of enlightenment, experiencing love which is strong enough to set the beloved free or loss of your family member that makes you think what life and relationships are all about might be some of such events.



Joining a group activity that initiates mind development: Childish people are those who are selfish, impatient, and thoughtless. They do not understand that they are members of society, do not have respect for others, and embarrass themselves by following impulses without thinking of the results. Then people who are less childish, who do these things less often, can be called adults. An event or events that intensively expose a child to the adult world, or community, might help this maturation, such as participating in community projects or joining the Boy Scouts.



Experiences that require one to take responsibility: Parents stop, either consciously or unconsciously, giving directions to their children when they realize that their children know what to do and so their directions are unnecessary and that they would probably get better results if they leave everything to their children. This usually happens after events like their children being assigned an important job in community, at school, or in their work places. Through taking responsibility, children become adults, who know everything necessary and what should be done in any situation.



☆Sample short response:

I think a person becomes an adult when an event makes the person stop blaming others.

This is because if you an adult, you accept the fact that basically no one can fully care about you. Of course we help each other and love each other as humans, but on a personal level, you have to protect yourself in the end. For example, even best parents cannot protect their children from all kinds of problems. When the child fails to be accepted by a good university because of lack of effort, he can blame no one but himself. If he faces the result without blaming his family and takes the responsibility of his own behavior, he is a step closer to adulthood.





Your short response:

I think a person becomes an adult when …



This is because …





For example, …