Task 1
The bar chart shows the number of cars per 1000 people in 5 European countries in 3 years compared with the European average.
Sample Answer:
The chart gives information about the number of cars per 1000 people in five European countries in 2005, 2009 and 2015, in comparison to the European average.
Overall, it can be seen that on average, there was a rise in the number of cars per 1000 people in Europe from 2005 to 2015. In addition, country 4 was the only country where there was no change in the number of cars during the surveyed years.
Country 5 had the highest figure among the five nations, with about 900 per 1000 people in 2005, higher than the average figure for Europe by roughly 200. The figures dropped in 2009 but rose up to almost one car per person by 2015. In contrast, country 1 had the lowest number of cars, with only around 300 cars per 1000 people in 2005. It increased to 400 in 2009 and then returned to its original point six years later.
Country 3 and 4 shared similar figures of approximately 700 per 1000 people in 2005, similar to the European average. However, while the number remained unchanged in country 4, the figures for country 3 dropped below 600 per 1000 in 2015. Finally, the number of cars per 1000 in country 2 went from 500 in 2005, to approximately 560 in 2015.
Task 2
These days, a great number of children prefer spending time on computer games rather than on sports. Why is it? Is it a positive or negative development?
Sample Answer:
Nowadays, many children spend the majority of their time playing computer games and hardly engage in any sport or exercise. Overall, I believe this is definitely a negative trend and will discuss the reasons in the following essay.
To begin with, most computer games these days are highly interactive and allow players to immerse in a complex storyline and control characters at their own will. For instance, Mortal Kombat 11 allows players to easily change the outcomes of the story based on the character chosen, which can trigger the imagination and curiosity of children, and encourage them to spend the whole day playing to discover all the story endings. (1) The second reason for the popularity of computer games over sports is the sedentary lifestyle favoured by a large number of children, especially those living in big cities. Compared to sports, computer games are less physically demanding, and therefore draw much more attention from these lazy, inactive children.
From my perspective, computer games can have many detrimental effects on children. Firstly, spending too much time on computer games without doing any physical exercise will reduce children’s calorie expenditure as they only sit at home and play games. This can make children more prone to many health problems, such as obesity or cardiovascular diseases when they grow older. Secondly, playing games excessively also causes children to lose their communication skills. As a result, it can be very difficult for game-addicted children to develop the ability to establish connections with others in real life which are normally developed through participation in team sports, like football or basketball. (2)
In conclusion, playing computer games is becoming more popular than sports due to the interesting and interactive content, together with the low demand for physical strength. I personally believe that this trend does more harm than good and should be prevented to ensure the proper development of children.
