TOEFL iBT Writing for an Academic Discussion Has technology truly given us more free time? - revised -

Has technology truly given us more free time? 

 

 

☆Let’s think

1.        Give examples of technologies that can give us more free time.

Note: washing machines, microwave ovens, copy machines, elevators, cars, bullet trains, industrial robots, drones, computers, the Internet, smartphones, AI, etc.

 

2.        Why can technology give us more free time?

Note: It can work faster, longer, more accurately, and much better than us humans. It can also make tasks simple, work in vast amounts and in various ways, and do what we cannot do.

 

3.        Why does the question have the word “truly”? How can technology encroach on our free time?

Note: Has the technology of irrigation given humans more free time? Are hunter-gatherers busier than agriculturalists or people in an industrialized society? Whose life is closest to that in the Garden of Eden?

 

 

☆Hints for Points

・Technology has freed us from most manual labor. A man without technology on a deserted island spends most of the day preparing for meals, while no one does so in the industrialized world.

 

・No matter how developed technology becomes, workload won’t go down. We are doing more tasks in the same amount of time as before. Workers used to be able to forget about their jobs completely after work and fathers used to spend time with their children every day 35 years ago because once they leave their work places, their employers had no means of contact except for fixed telephones and taking paperwork home was hardly ever done. Connectivity through pocket beepers, mobile phones, and laptop computers has forced workers to be ready to work round the clock.

 

・Almost a hundred years ago, Burtrand Russell said that technological advancement ought to allow workers work only four hours a day but that traditional work ethic prevents it from happening. In other words, the rich don’t like the idea of giving workers free time, according to him.

 

・Technology in itself is neutral. A hammer can be used to build a house. It can also be used to smash someone’s skull. - Noam Chomsky

 

・ Technological development has made workers redundant. Robots are replacing humans and there is a concern about job loss in many areas of business. Forced leisure is not what you call free time. It’s death, deprivation of right to live as a human, enjoying cultural life and pursuing happiness. Meanwhile, billionaires may be free from so-called labor but they are busy building underground bunkers to survive a catastrophe they expect will happen due to their inhumane management.

 

 

☆Sample Response

【Thesis】 I believe that technology has fundamentally increased our leisure time.

【Supporting Details】 Electronic appliances have optimized work process and made it possible to finish tasks efficiently. Advanced means of transportation has reduced travel time. From household work to clerk jobs to science researches, technological streamlining has reduced time for each task, and the change allows for time for rest and activities other than labor.

【Counterargument-treatment】It is true that quicker transportation leads to extra job assignments and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets makes it possible for managers to force workers who are off-duty to return to the office or contact them on holidays, the problem is not in the technology but in the society or our values. We are busy because we have not learned to be satisfied with what we already have and have yet to know what makes us feel truly happy.

【Conclusion】 It is our mentality and lifestyle that still keeps us busy while technology is ready to free us from wasting time for routines. Therefore, it can be said that technology has helped us make spare time.　(181 words)

Write your draft on this topic. Give feedback to other people’s drafts, asking questions and making suggestions.

 

 

DRAFT

 

 

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

 

TOEFL iBT Writng for an Academic Discussion Has Globalization Gone Too Far? - revised -

Lesson 24  Has globalization gone too far, or is its progression beneficial to the global community?

 

 

☆Let’s think

1.        What is globalization? When did it begin?

Note: Globalization is originally an economic term which means the expansion of the international trade by free trade through lower tariffs. Although globalization in a broader sense had been going on since the ancient times (e.g. the Silk Road), what we call globalization today is said to have begun in the 1820s, after the Industrial Revolution and the advancement of transportation and communication. It accelerated in the late 1970’s, when neoliberalism intensified economic enslavement and class war.

 

2.        What are the positive and negative effects of globalization in the following aspects?

・Economy of developed countries and that of developing countries

・The environment, life of ordinary people, public health, and culture

 

3.        What is the difference between globalization and imperialism/colonialism?

 

 

☆Ideas and Expressions

Positive effects of globalization

1.        The standard of living has generally risen worldwide, and some countries in the Global South have seen economic development through world trade.

2.        Products are distributed to countries far from the producers, helping both the producers and consumers.

3.        People can travel abroad for special experiences or immigrate for better life.

4.        Cultures around the world are shared, especially in developed countries.

5.        New cultures are created through fusion of different cultures. e.g. new type of food or music

 

Negative effects of globalization

1.        Indigenous people were massacred, their land and asses stolen, and their civilization destroyed.

2.        Wealth gap has widened as poor countries have become poorer while rich countries have become richer through free trade. This is because rich countries buy raw materials from poor countries at low prices to manufacture and sell the products for high prices. Free trade also replaced domestic products with cheap imports.  e.g. NAFTA, Japan-USA FTA, etc.

3.        Unemployment has gone up in developed countries because of off-shoring (outsourcing to other countries such as moving factories to developing countries, where human rights are violated by extremely low labor costs and poor working conditions).

4.        Monopoly of multinational corporations has occurred and small businesses have disappeared.

5.        International transportation reduces resources and raises carbon foot prints, exacerbating climate crisis.

6.        Economic refugees have increased and immigrants are discriminated against in other countries.

7.        Pandemic has become easier to break out and faster to spread.

8.        Major cities around the world now look the same due to the development of the skylines with modern buildings, wiping out old traditional buildings.

9.        Indigenous cultures, including indigenous languages, are being lost as cultures and languages of the Western countries spread through globalization.

 

 

☆Sample Response

Globalization has intrinsically been bad to most people on the earth. It is the economic colonization of the Global South by the West. The non-Western countries that produce raw materials have been exploited by the Western countries for 5 hundred years since the beginning of the Age of Discovery. It has made Africa, Asia, and Laten America poor while the colonizers have prospered. People other than the ruling class in poor countries have suffered from enslavement. While it is true that the development of transportation and communication combined with technological breakthroughs have made a number of non-Western countries better off, people in many countries, especially those in mineral-rich countries like Congo and Bolivia, still suffer from deprivation and violence manipulated by the West. People or countries that resist have been punished by colonizers, especially the USA, the most recent case being Palestine and Venezuela. All in all, globalization has been evil in nature since its inception. The silver line would be that the power-balance between the Global South and the Global North has started to change since around the birth of BRICS Plus, the countries with natural resources once exploited by the West now gaining their own economic self-determination. (196 words)

Write your draft on this topic. Give feedback to other people’s drafts, asking questions and making suggestions.

 

 

DRAFT

 

 

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                      

 

 

 

 

TOEFL iBT Writng for an Academic Discussion Has Globalization Gone Too Far? - revised -

Lesson 24  Has globalization gone too far, or is its progression beneficial to the global community?

 

 

☆Let’s think

1.        What is globalization? When did it begin?

Note: Globalization is originally an economic term which means the expansion of the international trade by free trade through lower tariffs. Although globalization in a broader sense had been going on since the ancient times (e.g. the Silk Road), what we call globalization today is said to have begun in the 1820s, after the Industrial Revolution and the advancement of transportation and communication.

 

2.        What are the positive and negative effects of globalization in the following aspects?

・Economy of developed countries and that of developing countries

・The environment, life of ordinary people, public health, and culture

 

3.        What is the difference between globalization and imperialism/colonialism?

 

 

☆Ideas and Expressions

Positive effects of globalization

1.        The standard of living has generally risen worldwide, and some countries in the Global South have seen economic development through world trade.

2.        Products are distributed to countries far from the producers, helping both the producers and consumers.

3.        People can travel abroad for special experiences or immigrate for better life.

4.        Cultures around the world are shared, especially in developed countries.

5.        New cultures are created through fusion of different cultures. e.g. new type of food or music

 

Negative effects of globalization

1.        Indigenous people were massacred, their land and asses stolen, and their civilization destroyed.

2.        Wealth gap has widened as poor countries have become poorer while rich countries have become richer through free trade. This is because rich countries buy raw materials from poor countries at low prices to manufacture and sell the products for high prices. Free trade also replaced domestic products with cheap imports.  e.g. NAFTA, Japan-USA FTA, etc.

3.        Unemployment has gone up in developed countries because of off-shoring (outsourcing to other countries such as moving factories to developing countries, where human rights are violated by extremely low labor costs and poor working conditions).

4.        Monopoly of multinational corporations has occurred and small businesses have disappeared.

5.        International transportation reduces resources and raises carbon foot prints, exacerbating climate crisis.

6.        Economic refugees have increased and immigrants are discriminated against in other countries.

7.        Pandemic has become easier to break out and faster to spread.

8.        Major cities around the world now look the same due to the development of the skylines with modern buildings, wiping out old traditional buildings.

9.        Indigenous cultures, including indigenous languages, are being lost as cultures and languages of the Western countries spread through globalization.

 

 

☆Sample Response

Globalization has intrinsically been bad to most people on the earth. It is the economic colonization of Global South by the West. The non-Western countries that produce raw materials have been exploited by the Western countries for 5 hundred years since the beginning of the Age of Discovery. It has made Africa, Asia, and Laten America poor while the colonizers have prospered. People other than the ruling class in poor countries have suffered from enslavement. While it is true that the development of transportation and communication combined with technological breakthroughs have made a number of non-Western countries better off, people in many countries, especially those in mineral-rich countries like Congo and Bolivia, still suffer from deprivation and violence manipulated by the West. People or countries that resist have been punished by colonizers, especially the USA, the most recent case being Palestine and Venezuela. All in all, globalization has been evil in nature from its inception. The silver line would be that the power-balance between Global South and Global North has started to change since around the birth of BRICS Plus, the countries with natural resources once exploited by the West now gaining their own economic self-determination. (196 words)

Write your draft on this topic. Give feedback to other people’s drafts, asking questions and making suggestions.

 

 

DRAFT