The chart below shows the total number of Olympic medals won by twelve different countries.

The bar chart compares twelve countries in terms of the overall number of medals that they have won at the Olympic Games.

It is clear that the USA is by far the most successful Olympic medal winning nation.

It is also noticeable that the figures for gold, silver and bronze medals won by any particular country tend to be fairly similar.

The USA has won a total of around 2,300 Olympic medals, including approximately 900 gold medals, 750 silver and 650 bronze.

In second place on the all-time medals chart is the Soviet Union, with just over 1,000 medals.

Again, the number of gold medals won by this country is slightly higher than the number of silver or bronze medals.

Only four other countries - the UK, France, Germany and Italy - have won more than 500 Olympic medals, all with similar proportions of each medal colour.

Apart from the USA and the Soviet Union, China is the only other country with a noticeably higher proportion of gold medals (about 200) compared to silver and bronze (about 100 each).

The chart below shows numbers of incidents and injuries per 100 million passenger miles travelled (PMT) by transportation type in 2002.

The bar chart compares the number of incidents and injuries for every 100 million passenger miles travelled on five different types of public transport in 2002.

 It is clear that the most incidents and injuries took place on demand-response vehicles.

By contrast, commuter rail services recorded by far the lowest figures. A total of 225 incidents and 173 injuries, per 100 million passenger miles travelled, took place on demand-response transport services.

These figures were nearly three times as high as those for the second highest category, bus services.

There were 76 incidents and 66 people were injured on buses. Rail services experienced fewer problems.

The number of incidents on light rail trains equaled the figure recorded for buses, but there were significantly fewer injuries, at only 39.

Heavy rail services saw lower numbers of such events than light rail services, but commuter rail passengers were even less likely to experience problems.

In  act, only 20 incidents and 17 injuries occurred on commuter trains.

Sample #47

Children who are brought up in the family that do not have a lot of money are better prepared to deal with problems when they become adults than children who are brought up by wealthy parent.

Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Gives reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

model answer:

Over the past few decades, along with growing interest in child education, people's attention to the family environment where a child is brought up has also significantly increased.

Some people have begun to feel that a child who has grown up in a poor family tend to be better prepared to deal with problems.

In my opinion, however, family environment alone does not much influence a child's ability to solve problems.

A child who was born into a poor family would have had more situations where they had to solve a problem or make a decision on their own.

This is because in most unfortunate families, both parents are usually working and children are put into situations where they have to take care of themselves.

By contrast, due to their wealth, rich children can experience and learn things that unfortunate children cannot.

For example, they usually go to the best schools and receive a higher education there, which prepares them better for solving problems in their life.

However, few would disagree with the fact that each individual is different. That is, problem solving skills come more from life experience.

That is, the more a person experiences in life, the more they can use these experiences to adjust, to adapt and to solve problems they encounter.

Personality also can be a factor in dealing with problems.

A person who is optimistic, outgoing, confident and open-minded can look at and solve problems more effectively.

As discussed above, nature and nurture have an equal influence on a child's ability to face challenges.

Parents should spare no effort to figure out how they can help their children to be independent.

I hope that in the future the next generation will grow up as mature citizens.