Writing Practice 1-3 (General Training) Answer: Applicants sometimes are asked for private information, such as their hobbies and interests, and their marriage status. Some people agree with that and think it is useful for choosing the right candidates. Others give an opposite opinion. 
By asking personal information, it might help employers selecting qualified candidates. Working with someone who shares same interests creates a good atmosphere in the working environment and influences their working efficiency. If colleagues who have same hobbies of sport, they can build a good friendship and boost their working performance. Also, same interests make them have more opportunities communicating which improve their cooperation during team projects. Marriage status is also an important thing to ask. If someone who is married, he will have ambition and work harder than everyone else. They have family responsibility so they need work hard to support their family. On the other hand, if someone who is not married, he will be distracted by daily life and not focus on their jobs. A single person has more leisure time than married person, therefore they might spend time hanging out with friends overnight. This can influence their working performance in the morning. A single person might spend time dating with someone on the internet and they might send messages during work time. It can distract them from work. Asking personal information can lead a useless effort. A company might lose qualified candidates by asking this information. Someone who has a heavy loan but the excellent ability can be escaped due to these questions. Candidates might not feel respect by answering the questions which make a gap between company and candidates. Some of the personal questions might intrude their privacy and can make them feel uncomfortable. Even though they are hired, they will not stay long. All in all, I agree that knowing personal information from applicants can be an important factor for filtering qualified employees. A company will understand more about them, such as their personality, characteristic and even their life. Ability is not the only guideline for choosing employees. If a person who has a variety of fundamental skills but a lack of communication skill, I don’t think he is the person that company really wants.