Name:
WARM-UP
◍Research and discuss
advantages and disadvantages of social media.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
◍Would you like to go
back to the times without social media? Why/Why not?
STEP 1 Composition
Sample Sentence Structures
A. Nowadays, many people seem to believe that ～ always, ---, but I think that ～also ------.
今日、多くの人が～は常に --- だと信じているようだ。しかし～はまた
----- だと思う。
1. 今日多くの人が科学技術による開発は常に私たちの生活を改善すると信じているようだ。しかしそれはまた生活から多くの大切なものを奪うと思う。
2. Your own sentence on social media using this sentence structure.
B In my country Japan, ～have helped us ---, but we now face -----
私の国日本では、～は私たちが --- するのを助けてきた。しかし現在私たちは -----
に直面している。
1. 私の国日本では、原子力が豊かな生活の享受を助けてきた。しかし現在私たちは福島原発事故(Fukushima
nuclear disaster, Fukushima meltdown)による放射能汚染問題に直面している。
2. Your own sentence on social media using this sentence structure
Answer Keys
WARM-UP
◍Research and discuss
merits and demerits of social media.
Merits: decentralization of information, faster and more frequent
communication, mass dissemination of good ideas and movements, online business/shopping
Demerits: fake news,
monopoly, income gap, manipulation of perception, new types of crimes
◍Would you like to go
back to the times without social media? Why/Why not?
STEP 1 Composition
Sample Sentence Structures
B. Nowadays, many people seem to believe that ～ always, ---, but I think that ～also ------.
今日、多くの人が～は常に --- だと信じているようだ。しかし～はまた
----- だと思う。
3. 今日多くの人が科学技術による開発は常に私たちの生活を改善すると信じているようだ。しかしそれはまた生活から多くの大切なものを奪うと思う。
Nowadays, many people seem to believe that the development by
technology always improves our lives, but I think that it also deprives many
important things of our lives.
4. Your own composition on social media using this sentence structure.
Nowadays, many people seem to believe that social media always
contribute to democratization of our world, but I think that they also widen gaps
between the rich and the poor.
B In my country Japan, ～have helped us ---, but we now face -----
私の国日本では、～は私たちが --- するのを助けてきた。しかし現在私たちは
----- に直面している。
3. 私の国日本では、原子力が豊かな生活の享受を助けてきた。しかし現在私たちは福島原発事故(Fukushima
nuclear disaster, Fukushima meltdown)による放射能汚染問題に直面している。
In my country Japan, nuclear power has helped us enjoy prosperous
life, but we now face the problem of radioactive contamination due to Fukushima
nuclear accident.
4. Your own composition on social media using this sentence structure
In my country Japan, social media have helped us create new pop
culture such as emoji, but we now face vocabulary shortage and disability to
comprehend even a short passage.
Lesson 2 Writing Topic
Do you agree or disagree with the following
statement? Technology always contributes to improving human society. Use
specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
☆Let’s Think
1. How
do the following two sentences differ? Which do you think describes sports less
accurately?
a. Sports
contribute to building friendship.
b. Sports
always contribute to building friendship.
|
Note: The word “always” is a key
to answer this question. There are not many things that always happen. You
may say to your friend, “You are always complaining about your sister,” but
you do not literally mean it. You know she does many other things. Most
things have exceptions. If some exceptions can be cited about the statement
in a writing topic, the conclusion will be negative. |
2. What
is the difference between “human society” and “the world”? Do they
overlap?
|
Note: Human society is in the
world. What is bad for the world can be bad for human society. |
3. Do
you agree with the statement in the Writing Topic above? Why or why not?
☆Hints for Points
1.
Technology
has helped cook better meals, wear more comfortable clothing, and build a
shelter to avoid elements. It also helps transportation and communication. It
helps us import and export goods and services. It allows those who are away
from each other communicate with ease. It saves us time by doing routines.
Dangerous jobs are done by technology. Jobs that are impossible by human hand
can be done by technology. Technologies make our lives richer and longer than
before.
2.
It
is difficult to say that human society has been improved as technology
improved. Yuval Noah Harari says that we were happiest when we were hunting and
gathering, before we came up with irrigation, rice-paddy technology, which
stole most of our free time and healthy diet.
3.
Pollution
has caused many sufferings and deaths. Although not affecting our life before,
global warming has started biting because human society is part of the world.
4.
Some
claim that even if technology causes a problem, it makes up for it, and thus
all in all, technology makes our world better. However, victims of
technological development will be unhappy forever. For example, atomic bombs
made the victims’ lives shorter and harder and nothing can make up for this
loss. Also, lives that were lost in the blast will never come back. Global
warming, which is a by-product of the development of technology, has made our
lives inconvenient and now poses threat to our whole species.
☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions
“Technology is basically neutral.
It’s kind of like a hammer. The hammer doesn’t care whether you use it to build
a house, or whether a torturer uses it to crush somebody’s skull.” - Noam
Chomsky
Humans are both good and bad, and
thus I cannot totally agree with the statement that technology always
contributes to improving human society
Technology in itself is neither
good nor bad. A hammer is basically neither good nor bad. Man uses it to do
either good or bad. You could replace the word hammer in the quote above with,
say, a jet engine, atomic energy, or information technology (IT). Then you
could make similar sentences for the same idea:
A jet engine doesn’t care whether
you use it to fly an airplane to carry people and goods over the oceans or
whether someone uses it to have a plane smash into a huge commercial building.
Atomic energy doesn’t care whether
a government uses it for power plants to light up its cities, or whether a
state uses it to destroy a whole city and eliminate almost all of its
population.
Information technology doesn’t
care whether people use it to share information to improve each other’s
situation, or whether some social media users end up with driving a celebrity
to commit suicide.
Our nature makes technology both a
boon and a curse. Technology can be used in both positive and negative ways
depending on us humans, and humans have both positive and negative sides. We
can be ill-intentioned, weak, or careless. Therefore, technologies are often
used negatively to the benefit of human race. Electricity, nuclear power, and
social media are a few of the examples. They have obviously posed threat to our
lives.
Also, our ignorance has made
technology go out of control. What scientists know is only a fraction of nature
and technology is part of our society, which we do not remember the last time
we controlled well. Thus, technology often causes results that no one could
foresee. Antibiotics were discovered and used to save lives, but in decades
their overuse has created super bugs, antibiotic-resistant viruses. The
development of transportation, by which humans and things spread around the
world, has impoverished societies through invasions, caused global warming, and
spread microorganisms and fungi, causing numerous deaths and threatening life,
including ours.
Technology is almost always
related to both positive and negative changes of society. It is true that we
have used technology to make our lives convenient. It is also true that we can
use technology to overcome difficulties caused by technologies. However, the
fact that technology has been the cause of destructions and deaths will not
disappear. Therefore, it cannot be said that technology always contributes to
improving human society.
☆Making the Framework of the Full Essay
Sample Essay Structure
【Introduction = Outline】 Disagree: a double edged
sward; he who uses it can be both productive and unproductive
【Point 1】can be a weapon e.g.
atomic energy
【Point 2】can bring about
disasters e.g. oil well drilling technology
【Point 3】can degrade some part of the
population e.g. social media
【Conclusion = Wrap-up】often negative effects on the
development of human society
Your Sample Essay Structure
【Introduction = Outline】
【Point 1】
【Point 2】
【Point 3】
【Conclusion = Wrap-up】
