Letter - feedback on cookery course Detailed topic: You recently did a short cookery course. The cookery school has asked for your feedback on this course. Write a letter to the course director at the cookery school. In your letter • describe what you enjoyed about the course • say how much cooking you’ve done since the course • suggest another cookery course you’d like the school to offer Content: Dear Sir or Madam, I took a basic 3-day Chinese dishes course last month. I really enjoyed preparing all the food by my own self because some other courses provide food which is ready for cooking in advance and need to cook a dish with other classmates sometimes. By learning all the steps required to cook a dish, I could easily copy the process and repeat it later at home. I have already practiced each dish three to four times after the course and got a better result in cooking skills. I can now prepare a basic dish in 10 mins, and I think that is also the reason why I can cook for myself almost every day. I did not cook very often before the course because I usually spent a lot of time preparing food. I plan to take your cookery courses of other Asia cuisines in the near future to enhance my cooking abilities. I am quite interested in India food as it is delicious and appetizing for both hot and cold winter. Hope you will consider to add it to your current course list soon. Thanks & Regards, DianaC

Friends Detailed topic: Some people think it’s better to choose friends who always have the same opinions as them. Other people believe it’s good to have friends who sometimes disagree with them. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. Many people think having friends who always agree with them will be a good choice, but others think it is better to have friends with different opinions as them. In general, I like both the two types of friends, but as growing older I prefer those friends who sometimes disagree with me. I think it makes us feel supportive if we share the same opinions with friends, especially when facing uncertain issues or situations. We learn from our experiences, but uncertainty is usually an obstacle preventing us from going forward. We will have more confidence in our actions and decisions if our friends have the same opinions as us, whereas we take our chances. Take my personal experience for example, when I was a high school student, most of the time I felt secure when I had same opinions with friends and it played an important role even when I was studying in the University. In contrast, we can discover unnoticed facts when we have friends sometimes disagree with us. Because everyone is unique and understandable to have different opinions, which is usually we can learn from others. Our habits, thinking tendency, and preferences will help us with not missing directions when encountering uncertainty, however, they cannot guarantee that we can carefully take every aspect into consideration. For example, I can reform my own opinion more considerately from those disagreements from my friends when I am growing mature and have more experiences. All in all, there are merits to have friends who agree with us most of the time and to have friends who have different opinions with us occasionally. It is a better choice for me at the current stage to have friends who disagree with me sometimes.

Letter - IELTS General Training - 14 - Test 2 Topic: You have just read an article in an international travel magazine which contained some information about your town that is incorrect. Write a letter to the editor of the magazine. In your letter - correct the information in the article - explain why it is important for the magazine to give correct information - suggest what the magazine should do about this situation Dear Sir or Madam, There is an article in your newly published magazine mentioned a town in Nantou county is famous for its coastline, which is incorrect. I was grown up in the town, moreover, Nantou is a county in middle Taiwan and also the only one without coastline in the country. People usually visit Nantou for its mountain views which are very unique and different from other counties. As your magazine is quite popular in travellers’ communities, the false information will cause the readers’ unrealistic expectation, moreover, the readers might share that incorrect information with others who plan to visit the town. In addition, the readers might be confused when they refer to other public travel information regarding the town. In order to prevent a spread of the false leading information about my home town, I hope you could take my suggestion into consideration to make some public clarification on your official website and Facebook fan page as soon as possible. Thanks & Regards, Diana C

Letter - IELTS General Training - 14 - Test 1 Topic： You have seen an advertisement in an Australian magazine for someone to live with a family for six months and look after their six-year-old child. Write a letter to the parents. In your letter • explain why you would like the job • give details of why you would be a suitable person to employ • say how you would spend your free time while you are in Australia Dear Sir or Madam, I have seen a message in Australia Magazine that you are looking for a person who can live with your family and take care of your six-year-old girl during working days. I am writing to apply for this job. I will be in Australia for the next 5 months to participate in language courses in a community college. The language courses are scheduled in the evening every Monday to Thursday. My visa allows me to take some part-time jobs during day-time while taking the courses. I think I am a qualify candidate because I used to teach younger children whose ages are before the first school in my home country Taiwan, I also got a certificate for teaching young children, I get along with them very well. By the way, I plan to travel inside Australia during the weekend to explore the natural scenes. I am looking forward to hearing back from you! Yours faithfully, Diana C

Will the growth of online shopping one day lead to all shops in towns and cities closing? Some people believe that a current trend of more and more retail purchases through the internet will ultimately result in shutting down of all physical stores. I strongly disagree with this opinion, I think online shopping will improve our shopping experiences at physical stops. Firstly, people usually tend to see and touch the real goods before paying for them. Most of the time we can only imagine what a real product will be like by watching pictures and videos online. If we really want to buy an unfamiliar product, we are likely to see the product first to verify our expectation. That can definitely save our time on returning unsuitable purchases due to false expectations. Secondly, physical stores are convenient and gradually more competitive on price. A common and frustrative case for physical markets is that after people see the real goods and decide to buy, they go checking other available prices online right immediately via their mobile phone, and place an order online if the price is lower there. However, people will pay a higher price to get those goods at physical stores sometimes because they don’t want to wait one or two more days to get the goods delivered, they want to get the goods at once. In addition, some physical shops provide price deduction if customers show them the lower price online nowadays. Furthermore, it sounds easier to find a salesperson to bargain when people do shopping at physical markets rather than on shopping websites. In conclusion, the growing trend of online purchasing seems not to threaten or reduce the demand of physical stores for these reasons that people usually prefer to see real goods before making an order and feel more convenient and more probably to get a better price at physical markets. In order words, the growth of online shopping will not lead to physical shops closing but encourage the physical ones to enhance their competitiveness in the future.