Task 1
The table below shows the salaries of secondary/high school teachers in 2009.
Sample Answer:
The table compares secondary and high school teachers’ salaries in five countries in 2009.
Overall, while teachers in Luxembourg were the most well-paid, teachers from Australia were the lowest-paid. In addition, the amount of time it took for a teacher in Denmark to earn the maximum salary was much faster than most other countries.
Secondary and high school teachers in Luxembourg were paid a starting salary of $80,000 a year, while the figure for teachers in Denmark was significantly lower, at $45,000. Additionally, the starting salary for an inexperienced teacher in other countries stood at around $30,000.
However, teachers with at least 15 years of experience in Luxembourg earned up to $119,000 a year, while teachers in Denmark and Japan with the same level of experience only made salaries of $54,000 and $65,000 respectively. Meanwhile, Australian and Korean teachers with at least 15 years’ experience were paid the lowest salaries, at $48,000 a year. Also worth noting is that it only took teachers in Australia and Denmark less than 10 years to receive their maximum salary, while teachers in the other countries had to wait for at least 30 years.
Task 2
Many developing countries are currently expanding their tourism industries. Why is this the case? Is it a positive development?
Sample Answer:
These days, many poorer countries are focusing their efforts on developing and promoting their tourism industries. There are some reasons for this, and I believe this can be a positive development, despite numerous drawbacks that can arise.
Personally, I believe that the primay reason for developing tourism in a country is due to the economic benefits that it brings. A well-developed tourism industry creates a lot of new businesses and jobs for local people, and an influx of money from foreign tourists. In addition to this, promoting international tourism can help to improve international relations with other countries, and to share a country’s customs and culture with people all around the world. Many people these days are interested in learning about different cultures and ways of living, and tourism helps to facilitate this experience.
However, there are a number of drawbacks that arise from the expansion of a country’s tourism industry. For example, in many countries in South East Asia, tourism has been a major cause of environmental pollution and destruction. For example, most tourists generally drink bottled water when on holiday, and this creates mountains of plastic waste every year.(1) Many developing countries do not have appropriate recycling facilities and do not know how to deal with the waste, and therefore, it commonly ends up littered throughout the countryside, rivers, seas, beaches and oceans. Furthermore, the invasion of tourists into certain places can disrupt the local wildlife and ecosystems, causing further environmental damage.(2)
In conclusion, I would have to say that expanding the tourism industry in a country is a positive development if it is properly managed, and the environmental and cultural impacts are closely monitored and minimised.
