Do you agree or disagree II Question: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The opinions of celebrities, such as famous entertainers and athletes, are more important to younger people than they are to older people. - - - - - - - - - - - Through the internet, social media, newspaper..., the opinions of celebrities are widely spread and can affect almost every person. However, based on the observation in everyday life, I do agree with the statement that they seem more important to young people than to older people. The two following reasons are discussed to further elaborate upon my thoughts. The first reason why I consider this way is that, while older people have more life experience on their own, young people are still learning how the world works. Thus, their thoughts are more easily shaped than older people. Young people tend to imitate those whom they look up to, such as famous singers, athletes, statesman, etc. Take my best friend, for example, one of her favorite basketball player encourages teenagers to follow their heart and pursue their dream. She then decided to study life science as major instead of becoming a doctor, what her parents wanted her to do. It is the athlete that influences one of her most important decision in life. In addition to the reason mentioned above, young people also gain information from social media more commonly than the elderly. Therefore, the opinions of celebrities could be spread quickly among young people, and even be commented or discussed. As a result, there is an amplification effect on those opinions, which deeply influences how young people think. For instance, if a celebrity posts his/her opinion on Facebook or Instagram, it could be shared for over hundreds of thousands of times! In this way, hardly can young people not be affected by these messages with such frequent appearance on social media. To sum up, as far as I'm concerned, younger people consider the opinions of well-known celebrities more importantly since their more flexible mind, as well as their more frequent access to social media.

Do you agree or disagree? Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Because modern life is very complex, it is essential for young people to have the ability to plan and organize. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Internet, social media, transportation systems..., every thing becomes fast and complex in modern society. Facing such a pressuring world, I do agree with the statement that young people necessarily have to learn how to plan and organize life well. The first reason why I agree with the statement is that, most students lack the ability to plan for their own life nowadays, as the test scores are considered more important than anything else. Nevertheless, as they ultimately grow up, having to face the complex world alone, they lost the directions. I had a very close friend in high school, she has once been the girl whom every girls are jealous to-- pretty, smart, and always gets the highest score. However, after moving to a strange city for college, leaving the shadow of her parents, she was overwhelmed by the pressuring world. Without the goal of pursuing high scores, or any alternative plans in mind, she didn't know where to go next. Second, as the world is working so quickly, young people are often required tackle multiple tasks simultaneously. To complete all the "to do" things efficiently, the ability to plan and organize previously is really important. Take students, as the simplest example. Every student knows how it feels like to race against the clock before deadlines! Endless reports, assignment, exams..., are the least things they have to handle all the time, not to mention other activities such as joining a club, getting internships, falling in love, etc. Therefore, well-organizing is the only way to get all things done. To sum up, as far as I'm concerned, the ability to plan and organize is truly important for young people, and is something we have to study for life. That way, we'll clearly know where we're going, with the pace able to catch up with the fast-changing world we're living.

A practice of TOEFL integrated writing (TPO43), any help will be appreciated :) ! ** question & materials link: http://toefl.kmf.com/question/859a2d2be6d5405a00d48db6526756e0/868sok.html ** any tip for writing faster? I am so frustrated about exceeding the time limit :( Both the passage and the lecturer discuss several theories of how agnostids, a group of extinct marine arthropods, lived 450 million years ago. The author of the passage describes three of the possible theories, while the lecturer, in contrast, holds an opposite opinion. In her opinion, each of the theories has a serious weakness. Firstly, the passage points out that agnostids might be free-swimming predators, feeding on smaller organisms in the ocean. Nevertheless, the lecturer challenges this theory by noting that, agnostids lacked a critical characteristic of predators, well-developed eyes. In addition, evidence of other specialized sensory organs were not found in the fossil. Secondly, the passage states that agnostids were probably seafloor dwellers, just as other primitive arthropods. The lecturer rebuts this theory as well. She suggests that seafloor dwellers typically don't move very fast or very far, and stay in a localized area. However, agnostids had mutiple habitats that are far from each other, which means they had the ability to move to a distanced area very fast. Finally, the passage claims that agnostids were possibly parasites, since many other modern arthropods, such as fleas or ticks, exist as parasites. The lecturer, on the other hand, posits that the population of agnostids was very large, which is unusual to parasites. Based on the lecture, large amount of parasites might kill all of their hosts, and they could become extinct along with the hosts.