The table below shows the amount of waste
production (in millions of tonnes) in six different countries over a twenty-year period.
The chart compares the amounts of waste that were produced in six countries in
the years 1980, 1990 and 2000.
In each of these years, the
US produced more waste than Ireland, Japan, Korea, Poland and Portugal combined.
It is also noticeable that Korea was the only
country that managed to reduce
its waste output by the year
2000.
Between 1980 and 2000, waste production in the US rose from 131 to 192 million
tonnes, and rising trends were also seen in Japan, Poland and Portugal.
Japan’s waste output
increased from 28 to 53 million tonnes, while Poland and Portugal saw waste totals increase from 4 to 6.6 and from 2 to 5 million
tonnes respectively.
The trends for Ireland and
Korea were
noticeably different from those
described above.
In Ireland, waste production
increased more than eightfold, from only 0.6 million tonnes in 1980
to 5 million tonnes in 2000.
Korea, by contrast, cut its
waste output by 12 million tonnes between 1990 and 2000.
BÀI 2
The table compares the numbers of people
who cycled to work in twelve areas of the UK in the years
2001 and 2011.
Overall, the number of UK commuters who travelled
to work by bicycle rose considerably over the 10-year period.
Inner London had by far the highest
number of cycling
commuters in both
years.
In 2001, well over 43 thousand residents of inner London commuted
by bicycle, and this figure rose to more than 106 thousand in 2011,
an increase of 144%.
By contrast, although outer London had
the second highest number of cycling commuters in each year, the percentage
change, at only 45%, was the lowest of the twelve areas shown in the table.
Brighton and Hove saw the second biggest
increase (109%) in the number of residents cycling to work, but Bristol was the
UK’s second city in terms of
total numbers of
cycling commuters, with 8,108 in 2001 and 15,768 in 2011.
Figures for the other eight areas were below the 10 thousand mark in both years.
Sample
#41
With the increasing popularity of computers and calculators,
student literacy is decreasing dramatically.
What are the positive and negative effects the progress of science
and technology has brought about?
model answer:
It has been
widely noted that, with the growing use of computers and calculators both in
the classroom and in the home, the level of literacy and mathematical ability
of students is dropping.
This raises
serious doubts about the value of the progress of science and technology.
Here I will
discuss the pros and cons of this question.
First of all,
advances in science and technology have certainly brought about many benefits
for mankind.
They have made
our lives more comfortable and healthier.
In addition, they
have eased the burden of work for most people and provided them with more
leisure opportunities, while at the same time increasing productivity
dramatically.
Nevertheless, it
cannot be denied that technology has some negative side-effects.
As mentioned
above, with computers which check spelling, grammar and calculation for them,
students have little incentive to learn how to do these things for themselves.
Also, the
availability of TV programs and videos encourages an unhealthy, sedentary
lifestyle.
Another aspect of
this issue is that technology may be good or bad, depending on how we use it.
For instance,
dynamite may be used to make road construction easier, or it may be used to
kill people.
Again, nuclear
reactors can supply huge amounts of cheap electricity, but if they are
carelessly handled they can cause devastating pollution.
We can conclude
that the progress of science and technology has both positive and negative
effects.
What we must do is to make sure that the
positive ones are encouraged and the negative ones are eliminated as far as possible.
Among other
things, this means that students are warned not to let computers and
calculators do all their work for them.
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