TOEFL iBT Independent Writing Technology always contrigutes to improving human society. - rewrite -

 

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】