大作文常見話題的論點
來源：
小編： 299大作文常見話題的論點
來源：環(huán)球教育網(wǎng) www.ielts.com.cn 2006-9-12
I. Are cars doing more harm than good?
Arguments
1. Cars are evils resulting from modernization, for they make people suffer rather than enjoy life.
2. Traffic accidents caused by cars not only bring death and injury, but also make people suffer mentally and psychologically.
3. Every year car owners have to pay vast sums to the exchequer: road tax, purchase tax, oil tax, etc. This is a big drain on their resources.
4. Since China has such a large population, the popularization of private cars will only bring about serious social problems.
5. Cars should be done away with. We should try to find a safer means of transport which will bring joy and comfort rather than injury and death.
6. The roads are so often jammed with cars that ambulances and fire engines find it difficult to fulfill their duties.
7. People's hidden frustrations and disappointments are brought to the surface when they drive.
8. Road networks for cars have not only made cities uninhabitable, but also desecrated the countryside.
9. Cars often produce air pollution and fill the cities with unbearable noise.
10. Cars are the cause of traffic accidents. All over the world thousands upon thousands of people are killed or injured every year.
Counter-arguments
1. Motorcars are highly desirable for obvious reasons. We should recognize this and adapt ourselves.
2. Motor cars enable people to become more mobile. Without cars, the world would still consist of isolated communities.
3. If there are more cars in China's rural areas, people can get to cities more easily. The gap between town and country will become smaller.
4. Possessing a car gives one a much greater degree of mobility, enabling him to move around freely.
>5. The owner of a car is not forced to rely on public transport and is, therefore, not compelled to work locally.
6. Long distances can be covered rapidly and pleasantly.
7. Buses are often crowded and slow, especially during rush-hour. If there are more cars, people can get around more easily.
8. With the popularization of cars, the suburbs will become more developed, and the downtown area will be less crowded.
9. Cars and motorists are not to blame for road accidents. Problems like too many road signs, faulty traffic lights, sudden narrowing of a street and congested parking are the real cause of traffic accidents.
10. There must be universal adoption of multi-storey and underground car parks so that car-parks won’t become a problem.
II. Are pets good for mankind?
Arguments
1. Pets are of particular importance to children in this Plastic Age when most of us live in large cities.
2. Watching the everyday activities of a pet helps a child to understand nature and cope with problems.
3. Learning to care for a pet helps a child to grow up into a loving adult who feels responsible towards those dependent on him.
4. The great virtue of pets is that they can keep us company.
5. A pet is kept as a companion that makes us feel happy. It's suggested, that pets should be sent to astronauts in a spacecraft to help reduce the loneliness of space flights.
6. Besides providing mere companionship, pets invite us to love and be loved.
7. Often a cat or a dog can comfort us at times when human words don't help.
8. Animals can communicate with each other in their particular way. They communicate with human beings, too, for they are quick to sense anger and sorrow.
9. People keep pets for emotional rather than economic reasons.
10. A pet dog brings its master (owner) a sense of confidence, for he can see in the dog that faithfulness does exist and he does have something to trust.
Counter-arguments
1. Keeping pets is just a waste of time and resources.
2. The growing number of pets has caused serious hygiene problems that cannot be solved.
3. The earth will no longer be a world of human beings and animals but a world of animals only if we don't take measures to stop the increase of pets.
4. Pet dogs and cats of both ***es should be sterilized because the animals themselves are in danger of becoming the first victims for the simple reason that their owners don't have enough time for too many of them.
5. Pets are humanized by those who keep pets. Owing to their need for a home, for food and drink, pets are tamed and idealized by their owners.
6. People nowadays are so crazy about pets that they even neglect caring for their own children.
7. A campaign should be launched against the overpopulation of pets.
8. As a matter of fact those who keep pets don't always treat their pets with kindness. They sometimes abandon their pets when they go away on holiday and are unable to take the pets along with them.
9. It's really against nature to cage birds, chain dogs and keep cats within the house.
10. Pets are animals. They should be seen in their natural habitat rather than in the homes of human beings.
Do Advertisements Play a Positive or Negative role in our Society?
Arguments
1. Advertisements provide the most direct comprehensive and detailed information. We get to know about household goods from advertisements.
2. Advertising itself is a business that has provided a great number of jobs.
3. With advertisements, people save a lot of time in shopping, looking for jobs, etc.
4. Daily life needs advertisements because the main function of advertising is to disseminate information on commodities, services, culture, employment, student enrolment and even marriage.
5. A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of news of calamities.
6. Without advertisements, newspapers, commercial radios and television companies could not survive.
7. You can find a job. rent an apartment, buy or sell a house, etc. by way of advertising.
8. Advertising is a process of artistic creation.
9. Advertising creates mass markets. Without advertisements, manufacturers may find it difficult to sell their products.
10. Advertising helps stabilize industry and employment, improves quality, and, by competition, helps keep prices within bounds.
Counter-arguments
1. Advertisements are imposed upon a captive audience: e.g. on television.
2. Advertisements on TV are a nuisance: they interrupt television programmes at a shocking frequency.
3. Consumers have to pay more for the goods owing to the advertising expenses: high prices are maintained by such artificial means.
4. Advertisements are simply misleading and cheating. They are filled with flowery phrases and empty promises.
5. Fake advertising cheats consumers and, in some serious cases, threatens gullible people's lives.
6. Advertisers are inconsiderate to the public. What they care about is making money.
7. Advertisements are not -based on the quality of the goods, but on the principle that if one keeps talking about the same thing long enough, eventually people will pay attention to it.
8. Advertisements are an insidious form of brainwashing, using the same techniques, like slogans, catchphrases, etc.
9. Advertising is offensive: it appeals to baser instincts.
10. Advertising cheapens the quality of life: most ads are in poor taste.
IV. Does fashion contribute anything to society?
Arguments
1. A good appearance may help people make a better impression in social contacts.
2. When people are getting old, they should pay more attention to their appearance.
3. The way people are dressed helps them to preserve a sense of their own value and personality.
4. Fashion adds spice to life with its rich color, variety, and beauty.
5. Men and women follow fashions in order to please each other and themselves.
6. The world will be a dull place to live in if people always wear clothes of the same style and color.
7. Mass production makes well-designed clothes cheap, available to everyone.
8. The fashion industry is an enormous one. It provides employment for people like textile workers, designers, shopkeepers, etc.
9. The fashion industry has helped industrial research in the sense that a lot of new materials, like nylon, rayon, etc. have been made to meet the demand of the consumers.
10. Being well-dressed is of psychological importance because confidence in one's appearance leads to confidence in one's success in life.
Counter-arguments
1. People sometimes look odd with the so-called fashionable hairstyles, make-up, and dresses.
2. Top designers in Paris and London are dictatorial, for they lay down the law and the whole world rushes to obey.
3. Fashion goes like this: one year, one thing; the next year, the reverse.
4. People are so vain that they are afraid of being seen in old-fashioned clothes.
5. People, especially the fashion-followers, are blackmailed by fashion-designers and stores.
6. Changing fashions is a deliberate creation of waste because one will have to discard a lot of new clothes in order to follow fashions.
7. Fashion designers are not interested in important things like warmth, comfort, and durability of the clothes. They are only interested in outward appearance and profits.
8. The odder the clothes, the more expensive they are, and the more fashionable they become. It's a great pity that people have lost their appreciation of real beauty.
9. In order to follow fashions, people have to put up with great discomfort, such as suffering from cold in winter.
10. One's confidence does not grow from the way one is dressed, but from the inner qualities one possesses.
V. Does parental permissiveness affect children's development?
Arguments
1. The excessive permissiveness of present-day parents is doing more harm than good to children and society as well.
2. Children should develop the habit of working and living independently and, meanwhile, practice the virtue of being filial to their parents.
3. Children who have a surfeit of happiness in their child hood often emerge like stodgy puddings and fail to make a success of life.
4. The fact that young people nowadays are self-centred, indifferent and inconsiderate 'of others is largely the outcome of parental permissiveness in their childhood.
5. Parental authority in a family helps a child to develop his character healthily.
6. Parents should exercise strict discipline over their children because, the more permissive the parents are, the more rebellious against their parents the children will become.
7. Lavish care and excessive permissiveness will only give rise to hedonism among the younger generation.
8. If one lets the child do whatever he wants to, he will ruin the child for life.
9. We have to admit the fact that we now have got a generation of spoilt, self-centred brats with no respect for their elders.
10. The spread of juvenile delinquency in our age is largely due to parental permissiveness.
Counter-arguments
1. More care for children is not the same as permissiveness to them.
2. The truth is that parents nowadays do not take enough care of their children and often neglect their development because the parents are only interested in their careers.
3. Parents are not at all permissive to their children. Violence often takes place in families in which children are abused.
4. Only a relaxed family atmosphere can help the physical and psychological growth of children.
5. To let children do what they like contributes to their independence and competence in their adult lives.
6. It is unfair to blame parents for the spread of juvenile delinquency. There are a lot of other causes involved.
7. Many cases show that children leave home and become members of street gangs just because they can not bear authoritarian control over them by their parents.
8. Strict discipline does not always work in terms of developing children's personal qualities. Too much pressure on children leads to rebellion and other extreme actions.
9. Parents are not justified in using violence to keep discipline and maintain their authority over the children.
10. Children are human beings, too. They need to be protected instead of being frequently scolded or physically abused.
VI. Does television play a positive or negative role in the modern world?
1. Television is now playing a very important part in our lives.
2. Television is not only a convenient source of entertainment, but also a comparatively cheap one.
3. Television keeps one informed about current events, allows one to follow the latest developments in science and politics and offers an endless series of programmes which are both instructive and entertaining.
4. A lot of television programmes introduce people to things they have never thought or heard of before.
5. Television has been good company to those who do not work, like housewives, lonely old people, etc.
6. Television provides enormous possibilities for education, like school programmes via closed-circuit television.
7. Television provides special broadcasts for those in TV university, or open university. It also offers specialized subjects like language teaching, sewing, cooking, painting, cosmetics, etc.
8. Television does the job of education in the broadest sense. Instructive programmes achieve their goal through entertaining the viewers.
9. Compared with the radio, everything on television is more lifelike, vivid, and real.
10. Television may be a vital factor in holding a family together where there are, for example, economic problems and husband and wife seem at breaking point.
Counter-arguments
1. Television is a great time-waster.
2. Television makes the viewer completely passive because everything is presented to him without any effort on his part.
3. Television is to blame for the fact that children take longer to learn to read these days and barely see the point at all of acquiring the skill.
4. Television takes up too much of our time. We no longer have enough time for hobbies, entertaining activities, and other outside amusement like theatres, cinemas, sports, etc.
5. People rush home, gulp their food, which is often as simple as sandwich and a glass of beer, and start watching the TV programmes.
6. The monster, i.e. television, demands absolute silence and attention. No one dares to open his mouth during a programme.
7. People have grown addicted to television, often neglecting the necessary and more important things like meals, sleep and even work.
8. A lot of parents use television as a pacifier for their children. They put their children in front of the set and don't care whether the children are exposed to rubbishy commercials or spectacles of violence as long as the children are quiet.
9. What the viewer receives from television is nothing but second-hand experience. He is completely cut off from the real world.
10. Television prevents people from communicating with each other. It has done a lot of harm to the relationship between family members.
VII. Does the younger generation know best?
Arguments
1. The young are better educated and more broad-minded.
2. The young enjoy a lot more things than the old: they have money to spend; they are less dependent on their parents; they grow up more quickly; and they enjoy more freedom.
3. The young question the values and assumptions of the older generation and they are right.
4. The young enjoy more freedom and have a stronger sense of responsibility.
5. The old tend to settle differences by conventional politics and violence.
6. The old do not have noble ambitions and only strive for material possessions.
7. The old are unable to keep away from the rat race, in which they have lost touch with the most important things in life.
8. The old can learn from the young. Young people are more devoted to their friends.
9. The young know how to enjoy work and leisure and not to be inhibited.
10. The young live in the present rather than in the past or future.
Counter-arguments
1. The young do not assume their responsibility; they evade it.
2. The young have too much money and they are spoiled.
3. The young are only interested in themselves.
4. The young seek material possessions like clothing, cars, etc. They do not wish to work for them.
5. The young should feel grateful to the older generation, who have created a good life for them.
6. The old provide the young with a good education and money to spe12
7. The older generation fought in the two world wars. They faced real problems, but the young have an easier life.
8. Young people have too much freedom and have no sense of morality.
9. The older generation is too kind and soft with the young. A tougher policy is needed and might work wonders.
10. Young people's outlook on the world is very bleak and they are skeptical of everything.
VIII. Is it a good idea to control the world's population growth?
Arguments
1. In modern times, a family with few children, or even with no children at all, is still a happy family.
2. With fewer children in a family, parents spend less time on household chores and concentrate more on their own interests, and their children enjoy better material and educational opportunities than those in bigger families.
3. The most pressing problem created by the rapid increase in population is a shortage of food. At present a large proportion of the existing population is not getting enough of the right kind of food (e.g. people in India, Ethiopia, etc. ).
4. The rapid rise in world population is creating problems for all countries on earth because there simply aren't enough resources.
5. Both rich and poor countries of the world should take united action to deal with the population explosion. Otherwise, there will be more people fighting for less land and fewer resources, and the future will bring poverty, misery and war to us all.
6. Population increase in developing countries has wiped out the material benefits that they have achieved.
7. Statistics show that where the population rate is high, people's living standards are low. This means, people's living conditions cannot improve unless there is a reduction in the increased rate of population.
8. Overpopulation creates a shortage of schools, teachers, hospitals and doctors.
9. Overpopulation causes problems in housing and employment, especially in cities.
10. Just imagine how much better life would be if the world population were cut by half!
Counter-arguments
1. People in agricultural areas need more children to help them with the work in the fields.
2. Whether to have children or not is a private matter and nobody should interfere with it.
3. It is unfair to blame all the problems on the increase in population. It is those greedy manufacturers and businessmen in developed countries that make the heaviest demands on the world's resources and cause the most pollution.
4. If population control were a must, it should be carried out in developed countries as well because a baby born in the U. S. will use in his lifetime 30 times more of the world's resources than a baby born in India.
5. Children are the most important thing in life. With fewer children around, life will be dull, meaningless and unhappy. It is incredible for a couple to have no children at all.
6. Children in a family give the parents a sense of responsibility and pride. They are very important to the stability of a family.
7. Population control does greater harm than we realize. For instance, if the one child policy is still in practice in 100 years, people then will have little idea of kinship ties, for most of them will have no brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, or cousins.
8. With the government's family planning policy in operation we now have a generation of "only child" families: most of them are arrogant, selfish, and spoilt.
9. A big family offers children a chance to learn how to cope with and care for other people.
10. Children in big families have the chance to compete with each other, in terms of their manners at home, their study at school, their performance at their place of work, etc. Older children usually have a great influence on the younger
IX. Is it good for students to have part-time jobs?
Arguments
1. It's good for students to have part-time jobs because this helps cultivate independence among young people.
2. Part-time jobs in business can foster a sense of competition, which is important for students in the future.
3. Being able to earn their own money gives students a feeling that they've become adults and, therefore, makes them feel more mature.
4. Part-time jobs make students more confident in themselves because through the work they can realize their own value and prove that they are capable people.
5. Part-time job experience gives students an insight into what work is about and prepares them psychologically for their future jobs.
6. After-school work teaches students how hard it is to earn money and helps develop thriftiness in our younger generation.
7. Part-time jobs can help students apply their knowledge in practice, and, in return, their experience will make them know better what they have learned in classes and books.
8. Part-time jobs give students a feeling of achievement through contributing to national construction.
9. Students' part-time jobs contribute a lot, in one way or another, to our socialist construction.
10. Students who have part-time jobs can relieve, to some extent, the economic burdens of their parents.
Counter-arguments
1. Part-time jobs often distract students' attention from their studies, and some students even play truant.
2. The main task of students is to study hard and learn what is needed for the development of our nation. Social experience can be gained later after they finish their studies.
3. It's not good for students to do part-time jobs because they will become money-oriented.
4. Many students who have part-time jobs have shown a decline in their studies.
5. Part-time jobs do not help develop a sense of thriftiness among young people because many students spend the money on high-priced items, luxuries that their parents can hardly afford.
6. Since students are in their formative years, part-time jobs may expose them to social ills at an age when they can not differentiate good from bad.
7. Some students become juvenile delinquents because they come under the influence of bad people through part-time jobs.
8. Though students who have part-time jobs may relieve their parents' economic burdens, their early contact with society adds greatly to the worries of their parents.
9. Though some after-school work can help students practise what they learn in classes, many of the jobs require nothing of the students' knowledge.
10. Some students have become drop-outs because through part-time jobs they've found that the more education you have, the less money you make.
X. Is It Good to Live in a Large Modern City?
Arguments
1. Large modern cities are too big to control. <BR>2. Commuting stretches man's resources to the utmost.
3. Cit123wellers adopt a wholly unnatural way of life. They lose touch with the land and the rhythm of nature. They are barely conscious of seasons. Flowers, leaves, the changes of season become irrelevant in their lives.
4. Rents are high; buying a house of your own for average people is impossible.
5. Cities breed crime and violence; houses are often burgled.
6. Tension in big cities shortens people's lives.
7. People lose too much time in getting to work.
8. In big cities there are not enough cinemas, public transport or public toilets.
9. Pollution in big cities is becoming impossible.
10. City people are not as warm-hearted and friendly as country people.
Counter-argument
1. Most people love cities and many are flocking there from the country.
2. Modern man is too sophisticated for simple country pleasures. <BR>3. It is enough to visit the countryside at weekends.
4. Commuting does not really affect those who live in cities; it is only a small inconvenience.
5. People easily adapt themselves to city life; noise, traffic, etc. are hardly noticeable.
6. There are many reasons why city life is preferable: there are more places for entertainment, etc.<BR>7. There are better schools and services in big cities.
8. There are more chances of employment. There is a greater range of jobs and the pay is higher.
9. There is more opportunity to succeed in life.
10. The educational level is higher; it is a better place for children.
XI. Is It Necessary to Develop Tourism?
Arguments
1. It is necessary to develop the tourist trade, for it contributes a lot to increasing understanding between nations.
2. As the saying goes, “Seeing is believing.” Only a trip to an unfamiliar land can help us understand the people and culture there.
3. Since tourism helps increase understanding between people, it will finally wipe out prejudice against other nations, and make the world a more peaceful one.
4. Tourism contributes significantly to many countries' GNP (Gross National Product). The economy of some nations is based on the tourist industry.
5. Tourism helps develop a nation’s commerce because tourists are most likely to buy souvenirs wherever they go.
6. Tourism provides jobs for many people and helps solve or ease the social problem of unemployment.
7. Tourism helps accelerate a city's construction and its embellishment.
8. Contact with tourists from afar widens the horizon of the local people.
9. The tourist trade gives people a chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the world and the wonders of manki12
10. Tourism will help people learn about different cultures of the world.
Counter-arguments
1. Tourism cannot increase understanding between nations because tourists are often trapped in big hotels and only gaze at the natives from a distance.
2. Tourism does not wipe out prejudice, but leads to the persistence of national stereotypes because when traveling, you notice only characteristics which confirm your preconceptions.
3. It is true that foreign friends can make people understand stereotypes are absurd and harmful, but the tourist trade prevents people from making foreign friends.
4. Since tourists do not have time to mix with the local people, they cannot have a full view of the local culture.
5. Tourism makes some parts of the world too crowded a place to live in.
6. Tourism creates pollution and has destroyed many beautiful scenic spots.
7. Tourists cannot have a full enjoyment of the beautiful scenery because the places they visit are restricted by organizers.
8. As the saying goes, “Travel makes a wise man better, but a fool worse.”
9. Contact with and assimilation of other cultures will reduce the uniqueness of one’s own culture and make the world less colourful than before.
XII. Is Romantic Love the Most Important Condition for Marriage
Argument
1. Marriage is the result and extension of love. Therefore, romantic love is the most important condition for marriage.
2. Love should be the most important condition for marriage because a marriage without love is like hell in which the couple suffer for the rest of their lives.
3. Romantic love will enable the couple to conquer any difficulties in their life together.
4. In feudal society, many people suffered from arranged marriages because love was never an element for consideration in marriages at that time.
5. Romantic love can lead to the healthy psychological development of the couple.
6. Marriages based on romantic love will bring forth beautiful and intelligent children.
7. Marriages based on love tend to create a happy and harmonious atmosphere in the family which is good for the development of children.
8. A happy marriage helps one to achieve more in one's career.<BR>9. A marriage without love is worse than being single.
10. Marriages without love are most likely to end in divorce, which creates many social problems.
Counter-argument
1. Love is not the most important condition for marriage because love is romantic whereas marriage is practical.
2. Lack of money in a new marriage might bring trouble and chronic quarrelling.
3. Education is the most important condition for a good marriage because a couple whose educational levels do not match are not likely to have much in common.
4. A marriage based on romantic love alone will not last long, for a sense of responsibility is most essential to a successful marriage.
5. Age is a very important condition for a happy marriage because, if the couple belong to different age groups, they tend to have different interests and find it hard to understand each other.
6. Love is not the most important condition for a happy marriage because, when the choice is carefully and wisely made, it's usually a good one.
7. Health is a very important condition for a good marriage. If either party of a marriage suffers from poor health, then happiness is impaired.
8. As the saying goes, love blinds a man to imperfection, so a marriage based on love alone is only a bet for happiness.
9. Parental approval is important for marriages because it creates unity in a family. Moreover, the experience of parents can often correct and restrain the headstrong and distorted choices of inexperienced youth.
10. Love is not the single, most important condition for a successful marriage. It requires the combination of many conditions, all of which are important.
XIII. Should capital punishment be a major deterrent to crime?
Argument
1. There should never be suspension of capital punishment.
2. Murderers whose motive is money should not get off lightly. It is absolutely wrong to think professional killers are insane and need hospital treatment.<BR>3. Criminals must be made to see the consequences of their crimes. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is the very basis of justice.
4. Capital punishment is more humane because the criminal does not suffer the torture of life imprisonment.
5. Only the return of the death penalty can ensure that people can sleep safely in their beds.
6. Murderers are not humans and, therefore, they cannot expect to be treated as humans.
7. Capital punishment should be a major deterrent. Other strict laws should also be put into practice.
8. A life sentence is only a nominal sentence. It leaves a chance for the criminal to escape.
9. Those who are lenient to criminals are unkind to innocent people.
10. We shouldn't be blinded by emotional arguments, which leads to relaxation of harsh laws.
Counter-argument
1. Capital punishment should not be a major deterrent. Emphasis should be put on the reform of criminals.
2. It has been proved many times in the past that the relaxation of harsh laws has never led to an increase in crime. Therefore, the “deterrent” argument is absurd: capital punishment never protected anyone.
3. Those in favour of capital punishment are motivated only by a desire for revenge and retaliation.
4. There has been a marked trend in society towards a more humane treatment of less fortunate members. The same attitude characterizes our approach to crime.
5. Suspension of capital punishment is enlightened, civilized and humane.
6. Crime can only be drastically reduced by the elimination of social injustices-not by creating so-called “deterrents” when the real problems remain unsolved.
7. It is illegal to murder, but are we justified in taking away the life of the murderer? No. Capital punishment helps create a bloody world.
8. He who never errs does not exist. The death penalty leaves no chance for first offenders to reform.
9. Murderers vary. Some kill people only to defend themselves while others are trigger-happy. It is unfair to give the death penalty to every murderer.
10. Some criminals can be reformed if they are handled properly. The death sentence leaves criminals no hope at all.
XIV Should smoking be prohibited?
Argument
1. Smoking should be prohibited, for the World Health Organization points out that diseases linked to smoking kill at least 2,500,000 people each year.
2. Scientific research had shown that the risk of developing lung cancer increases with the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the duration of the smoking habit, and it diminishes with the cessation of smoking.
3. Smoking not only leads to lung cancer, but many other diseases such as heart attacks, sore throat, headache, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, etc.
4. Smoking is not only harmful to the smoker himself (herself), but also results in the deaths of non-smokers. Statistics show that passive smoking is causing 3,000 to 5,000 lung cancer deaths a year among American non-smokers.
5. An American scientist estimated that smokers who average a package a day for 20 years will lose about eight years of their lives.
6. Smoking is an expensive habit, for a smoker who consumes 10 cigarettes a day will have to spend at least 40 Yuan a month.
7. Smoking has a bad impact on the psyche of the smokers. On the one hand, smokers realize the bad effects of smoking and are persuaded from time to time to give up smoking. On the other hand, many of them can hardly resist the temptation to smoke. Hence they often lose confidence in themselves.
8. Children exposed to parental cigarette smoking are put at a higher risk of developing lung diseases later in their lives.
9. Smoking not only pollutes the air but also makes the streets dirty, for some smokers flick the ash off their cigarettes and throw cigarette ends everywhere.
10. Smoking speeds up the process of aging and helps cause wrinkles on people's faces.
Counter-arguments
1. Smoking should not be prohibited, for cigarettes give a vast number of people a good deal of pleasure a lot of the time.<BR>2. Nicotine can produce a tranquillizing effect during high emotional and shock situations, and, therefore, helps to calm people down.
3. Smoking counteracts the decrease in efficiency that typically occurs in boring, monotonous situations.
4. Smokers can improve their performance in complex situations while smoking.
5. Smokers help increase the revenue of our country.
6. Smoking kills no more people than epidemics or traffic accidents.
7. Most non-smokers spend a lot of money on snacks, a habit costing as much as smoking if not more.
8. If smoking is eliminated, a lot of people in the tobacco industry will be out of jobs, and that will create many social problems.
9. Facts have shown that if a chain-smoker suddenly quits smoking, he's more likely to have lung cancer than those who keep the habit.
10. Everybody has the right to keep his or her habit. Smokers are no exception
XV. Should students only learn from books?
1. Only books can provide people with the knowledge that makes them educated.
2. The criticism that what students learn today is not adapted to present-day society is utterly wrong because education can never be seen only in terms of how useful the subjects are when students leave school. We ought to evaluate education in terms of how much the students enjoy those subjects and how much they mean to those students.
3. Instead of being trained to be utilitarian, students should be encouraged to do things for their own sake, for getting satisfaction out of them rather than for what is achieved at the e12
4. Those with a good command of the knowledge provided in books can adapt themselves better to their future life than those without.
5. Those who stress only practical skills and techniques and ignore the function of books are short-sighted.
6. Only by urging students to read more, write more and do more exercises can education be improved.
7. Being practical, many children leave school and start earning money at an early age. Because of this, quite a large number of children join the ranks of the illiterate in the country.
8. Without the knowledge provided in books, there is no point in talking about training qualified personnel and fostering versatile talents.
Counter-arguments
1. Education is a gradual extension of oneself. It does not only take place in school buildings. It is a life-long experience.
2. Students should be taught how to live and how to get on with one another. This is more important than reading and writing.
3. Writing, reading and arithmetic don't really matter. What matters is that students should learn to understand the world.
4. Students are so overburdened with classwork and homework that many of them do not enjoy good health.
5. Instead of offering students book-learning only, we should encourage them to get to know society so that they will be more adaptable to real life.
6. Many students are spoilt by our present-day educational system. They may be top students at school, but they are at a loss as to how to deal with practical matters.
7. Education is but a failure if it only produces people who are unable to put theory into practice.
8. We should put right the tendency of stressing only students' academic achievement and ignoring their moral and physical education. Students, in their formative years, should have a chance to broaden their outlook rather than feel compelled to work towards passing an exam.
XVI. Should women be treated the same as men?
Argument
1. Prejudice against women violates the fundamental principle that all people are created equal.
2. Women should not be treated differently from men since, according to statistics, there is no basic difference between the standards and quality of work performed by men and women who do the same work.
3. This is an unfair world: most of the top positions in society, like company directors, judges, university professors, etc. are occupied by men.
4. This is a male-dominant world. Over centuries men have been training and educating women to consider themselves inferior and to accept their superior position. As a result, not only men are prejudiced against women, but some women are also prejudiced against themselves because they believe they are really inferior and only fit for household chores.
5. Women should no longer be treated as the inferior ***. They should stand side by side with men and define their role in society, in which they can choose to work outside or stay at home and in which they will have more time to develop their own interests.
6. It is a shame in the modern world to confine women to the home and block their way to the full exploitation of their capacity and potential.
7. Women should be given an equal chance of education in order to compete with men on an equal footing.
8. Men should take an equal share in housework so as to liberate women from the kitchen.
9. It is unreasonable for authorities to refuse to promote able women to important posts just because they have children to bring up.
Counter-arguments
1. Since we all admit that women belong to a different ***, we shouldn't complain about the different treatment to women.
2. Women are by nature good at housekeeping since the biological function of a woman is first to bring children into the world and then to bring them up. Women shouldn't attribute the exploitation of their biological advantage to men's discrimination against them.
3. If staying at home taking care of household chores is a sort of discrimination against women, do women agree to work outside while their husbands do the housework at home?
4. Actually women today have already got as much freedom as they could possibly want. They enjoy the right to vote; they can go to university; they can compete with men in any professional field on equal terms. It is groundless and unreasonable to raise the issue of unequal treatment of women in social life.
5. It has been proved that women are not good at business management, political administration, etc. That is why women don't hold many important posts in social and economic life.
6. Most women are family-oriented by nature. Not to put them in important positions is just to show consideration for their natural inclination.
7. Women should not attribute their inferior social status to unequal treatment by men. They have to look at their own incompetence and inability for an answer.
8. The fact is that women have received too much special treatment in society at men's expense. Women should realize that men are in an unfavourable position and are discriminated against.
9. Women shouldn't complain about their so-called “double burden” (work and household chores) because men have always asked them to take only one of the responsibilities, i.e. taking care of the family. It is women themselves who choose to take up both.
XVII Is euthanasia humane?
Arguments
1. Euthanasia is humane because it helps to hasten the death of terminally ill patients.
2. Death, as natural as birth, is sometimes a hard process that requires assistance, and euthanasia is part of such assistance.
3. Death is a normal and natural stage of life, so people have the right to die.
4. It is unnecessary to maintain life artificially beyond the point when people will never regain consciousness.
5. Extending an incurably ill patient's life means the same as aggravating his pain.
6. Efforts should not be made to perpetuate what has become a meaningless existence.
7. Euthanasia can bring mental and physical release to the patient and his family when he is terminally ill and has no prospect of recovering.
8. Mercy killing is motivated by nothing but love and sympathy for the dying patient.
9. Most of the terminally ill patients themselves want to die with dignity and peace instead of agony and degradation. Euthanasia is the only satisfactory way out.
10. The maj0rity of people brought to trial for mercy killing are usually found innocent in the e12
Counter-arguments
1. It is inhumane to perform euthanasia no matter how painless the process is.
2. Anyone who voluntarily, knowingly or premeditatedly takes the life of another, even one minute prior to death, is a killer.
3. Euthanasia is a criminal offence because it involves the killing of a person.
4. Legalized euthanasia will invite abuse of human life because any form of murder may be conveniently dubbed “mercy killing” by unscrupulous people.
5. Euthanasia raises many moral issues since it implies that active measures are taken to terminate human life.
6. Doctors and nurses should do everything they can to save dying patients instead of hastening their death by active measures.
7. Nothing can he more brutal than taking away human life.
8. The instinct for self-preservation is the strongest human beings possesses. It is untrue that any patient himself should want to die.
9. Doctors and nurses involved in euthanasia have discredited their profession, for euthanasia is a violation of the fundamental medical principle to save human life.
XVIII Is money the most important thing in life?
1. Everything in modern society is based on money. As the saying goes, money makes the mare go.
2. Parents object to their daughters' marriages unless their future sons-in-law have jobs with good prospects.
3. Many young people marry for money rather than for love.
4. Some people in Shanghai would even trade their self-esteem for money.
5. Students choose business courses rather than liberal arts for the sake of earning big money in the future.
6. More emphasis is put on material life than on spiritual life in modern society. People do anything in their power to earn money to buy their houses, furniture, cars, etc
7. People are trained to be acquisitive from an early age and are not considered successful unless they make good money.<BR>8. People spend most of their lives struggling frantically to keep up with the Joneses.
9. Wealthy nations often deprive their poorer neighbors of talented people by offering them bigger salaries.
10. Financial rewards for pop stars make many people envy them.
Counter-arguments
1. Too much wealth leads to disaster. Murder or kidnapping might occur when big money is involved.
2. There is a marked reluctance among people to work long hours for money. Many people desire to have a rich and interesting life.
3. Money corrupts. The more money you have, the more you want.
4. Success and wealth often earn one envy and even hostility which ruins good human relationship.
5. Many young people reject materialistic values. They are motivated by their interest in work.
6. Many people think it is vulgar to be after money all the time. They give away their money to less fortunate people.
7. Many devoted teachers consider teaching a noble career and are not demoralized by their low salaries.
8. There is now a return of interest in the humanities, which arouse people 'a academic interest. Money is obviously not the sole interest to these people
