MUET Good Essay (P)
MUET Good Essay (P)
MUET Good Essay (P)
Prison is not a cure for crime. To reduce crime in the long-term, courts should significantly reduce prison
sentences and focus on education and community work to help criminals not to re-offend.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the opinion?
Note: The general subject of the question is the best way to reduce crime. It has been given that long prison sentences should
be maintained or to reduce it and emphasis on education and community work. Comment on both views. This is a short example.
You should write at least 350 words. 4 body paragraphs.
There are many different opinions on the best way to reduce crime. The traditional solution is to be hard on
criminals and put them in prison for a very long time. An opposing point of view is expressed by people with more modern
ideas. They think that education and community work are the long -term solutions to cutting crime. So, who is right - the
traditionalist or the modernist?
People in favour of reducing prison sentences often argue that prisons should not simply be places of
punishment. In traditional prisons, people learn a lot about crime, so when they leave prison, they will commit more crimes.
Education, however, gives people the skills to get a job when they leave prison, which means that they will probably not reoffend. Part-time work experience in the community is also very helpful as it is a step back into everyday life in society. People
can be in prison, but they can also feel they are doing useful work.
On the other hand, some people argue that long prison sentences are right because the punishment should fit
the crime. If, for example, someone commits a serious crime such as bank robbery, they should go to prison for a long time.
They also believe that reducing prison sentences significantly reduces people's fear of prison and consequently, people will
commit more crimes. People will not be frightened of going to a prison which is like a university with learning and work
experience opportunity.
In conclusion, it is agreeable that education and community work can have an important role in helping
reduce crime, but there should also be strict controls on the type of community work prisoners can do. It is important to
understand that some people are a real danger to society and need to stay in prison for a very long time.
You take the blue pill -- the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill
-- you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." Morpheus
Although fictional, the Matrix world as in the blockbuster movie The Matrix by the Wachowski Brothers is very relevant in the
context of our society today. Undergraduates, especially the ones from local universities are akin to those stuck in the Matrix.
Fed with the belief that they will make it in life, armed only with a scroll, they succumb to complacency. Their minds start to rot,
intellectual growth is suppressed, and the end result; they hit rock bottom in the real world. Groping in the dark, they try to find
a way out, but to no avail. Thereafter, enlightenment ensues, a harsh realization, that the scroll in their hands is merely that, a
scroll.
Since pre-school, our parents and teachers have constantly imparted upon us, that success in life can only be achieved through
education. This is true to a certain extent, but apparently, as we grew older, something got lost in translation along the way.
Education is no longer interpreted in the normal sense of the word, but solely equated with academic achievement. Our
undergraduates are products of a system that hails the number of As and a CGPA of 4.0 as the only testament of success,
indicating a bright future ahead. Rote learning seems to be the order of the day, while the holistic approach is now almost
obsolete.
Such values to life in university defeats the whole purpose of a tertiary education. Undergraduates strive to get CGPAs of 4.0,
and are further exhorted to do so, especially when an ex-Minister proclaimed that it is their duty to get 4.0 in university. As
preposterous as this may sound, it is very real. A right-minded person would shun such statements, but for some, its almost like
a matter of filial piety. Time spent mugging and memorizing might get you good results, but it does not prepare you for the real
world, where problem solving skills and the ability to think outside the box is valued instead of the text book stuff.
Students spend so much time studying, they forget about everything else, except where to find that particular book in the library.
Ask them if they know anything at all on current issues, and they respond with a blank look, expecting you to fill them in. The
other problem with our undergraduates is that, they seem to idolize pop culture a tad too much. Try organizing a public lecture
by Warren Buffet and a concert by some Akademi Fantasia singers on the same day. It is not that hard to predict which event will
have a bigger crowd, unfortunately.
Then, there is the other group of students, i.e. those who believe that life in university is a bed of roses. There is, of course,
nothing wrong with that. Problem is, some tend to stretch it a little too much, so much so that they dont even know what they
are doing. They believe that just as in the university, everything will be taken care of when they are out there in the real world,
i.e. that their precious scrolls will take them places. No effort whatsoever is made to improve themselves and participating in
ridiculous activities is deemed to be the ultimate indicator of what is to expect in the real world. For instance, a senior while
ordering around a junior to do this or that project will justify it by saying This is to prepare you for working life, especially
when facing employers. And the poor subordinate believing it, bids the seniors wishes. We should never send across such
wrong messages. Kow tow is not fun, and will never be. Period. Furthermore, why should we continue the negative and
perpetuate such myth? Whatever happened to entrepreneurship?
Another issue which bugs a portion of undergraduates today is the inability to converse and write in English. Needless to say, in
the era of globalization, the importance of English cannot be over emphasized. One might have plenty of mind boggling ideas,
but without the ability to articulate them, such ideas cannot be conveyed to others. While such facts are known to every student,
they prefer to converse in their mother tongues. Getting out of the comfort zone is often the toughest nut to crack.
On the other hand, the introduction of a compulsory soft skills course serves only to magnify the deficiencies of our education
system. Students have forgotten how to interact, how to communicate, and how to ace that interview, to the extent that such
drastic measure has to be taken. While this solves the problem on the surface, it effectively sweeps the bigger chunk of it under
the carpet. Undergraduates cannot be expected to learn the art of eloquence and to gain self confidence overnight. It takes more
than a course to create the wholesome undergraduate.
More importantly, undergraduates must be provided with room and space for holistic growth. Intellectual discussions, debates
and forums on any topic at all should be encouraged and the underlying fear that students will rebel, retaliate or even form
extremist groups, I would like to state, is unfounded. As adults, they should be respected as such, which means also to be
given inter alia, the right to freedom of expression. What is right or wrong is not the point. The focal point is, undergraduates
must be allowed to think, to express themselves, and to dissent if they want to. Keep pushing them around, and what do you get?
A bunch of pushovers in society.
The bottom line is this. Whether or not an undergraduate will ever be ready to face the real world is essentially a matter of
choice. Choose to maintain your status quo, you continue in your temporary bubble in Neverland, waiting for the real world to
come crashing through. Choose to free your mind from the fetters of tradition for traditions sake, and to move out of your
comfort zone, you embark on a journey with nothing guaranteed, except unfamiliarity. The latter sounds like a better deal, at
least to me.
MONEY
It is truly undeniable that in this science and technology millennium, we can hardly live
without money. Even buying something small such as sweet will cost you some money.
However, this does not mean that money can buy happiness, unlike the misconception of
most people in the world. In fact, wealth is a far cry from happiness. If you disagree with me,
let's look at the reasons for my stand.
Firstly, one of the main gates to happiness is to stay healthy. Maybe some people think that
when one is rich, he can be healthy or it does not matter even if they have diseases because
these rich men have lots of money to pay their medication. This is totally wrong. Good health
is acquired from a healthy lifestyle progressively and not in a day. With lots of money we are
tend to temp ourselves to exotic, luxurious food. If this food is taken excessively, it will lead
to obesity, heart diseases, diabetes, hypertension and other serious illness. Moreover, rich
people are probably lack of exercise as they hardly walk outdoor due to 24 hours-service
debar fetching them about causing them to be at a higher risk of getting these unnecessarily
health problems. How a person can enjoys his life and feels happy when he is confined to a
wheelchair or bed-ridden. He would not even be glad spending his money and time curing his
sickness. Therefore, wealth cannot bring happiness.
Professionals like doctor, nurse, lawyer, engineer, food technologist and accountant earn a
lot of money per month. They are considered the high class citizens who can afford large,
expensive house with huge beautiful gardens. But do they really enjoy the pleasures of life?
Most probably not because they are simply too busy with their work. They frequently burnt
the midnight oil in their work place. It is even more miserable if they have to turn their home
into a working place. Most specialists have to stand-by 24 hours in case of emergency calls
from the hospitals. Hence, they can hardly spend any relax, restful night at their home even
if they posse a huge two and a half storey bungalow with a beautiful garden and artificial
waterfall. Successful businessmen may always have a chance of flying to all parts of the
world when they go out station to make business. However, very few of them can really take
it as a holiday as a treat for themselves for their schedules are always full and they are so
stressful with their works. Even fewer businessmen can ignore urgent, pursuing calls from
their clients or office when they are going for holidays or resting. In other words, one can
make lots of money but he may not enjoy even the beauty of nature around them or the
branded, expensive things with them. So what is the use of money when we do not even
enjoy a meal properly and discontented with lives. One with a moderate income can feels
happier if he leads a simple life and be grateful with what he has.
Finally, a children or a teenage brought in moderate family is better than in a rich family. As
the sons or daughters of billionaires, their parents will give them whatever that they want in
material. These children or teenagers get a lot of pocket money from their parents and can
afford to buy many expensive things like branded, latest handset, expensive clothes and
branded sport shoes. But the question is, are they happy if their parents are always working
with only an Indonesian maid to accompany them. If they are asked to choose between
wealth and love from their parents, I believe that they were undoubtedly choose love. A
healthy family is not created for the children. These children mentally are not as healthy as
those being cared and loved by their parents. Children need parents who can listen to their
problems and give them words of wisdom, teaching then day by day. Parents who are not
rich may not be able to buy branded things to satisfy their children but with more
communication and understanding, these teenagers will understand the difficulty of their
parents in earning money, learning to be thrifty. In short, money does not promise a happy,
caring family.
Money may be able to buy a lot of things but not love, friendship, health and others. These
are the main ingredients for a happy life. Thus, it is a controversy if money can bring
happiness. Even, if we can afford many things we desired with lots of money, we may not be
happy and enjoy our lives if we are always dissatisfied with what we had, yearning for more.
Thus, I stand firm that money cannot bring happiness.
Friends
Friends are people whom we turn to when our spirits need a lift. They are always by our side through thick and thin. They stand
beside us even when our disposition is not perfectly right and will fight for us if we are oppressed. Therefore, it is clear that
friends play a vital role in shaping who we are today. But what qualities exactly do we need to look for in a friend?
A friend should always be caring towards you. He or she should take interest in your problems no matter how big or petty your
problem may be. A friend should be able to sit beside you and encourage you to keep your chin up even when everyone else is
against you. A friends empathy and lovingness will also replenish your worn-out soul and will make you realize how important
a friend really is.
Apart from that, a friend should be an honest person. An honest friend will dissipate any worries that he or she is lying towards
you. A friends honesty will enable you to trust his or shes opinion when it comes to telling you the truth about yourself. For
example, an honest friend will remand you on your declining grades and will ask you to work harder while a dishonest friend
will see it with a blind eye. Therefore, an overall improvement in yourself will be noticeable if you have an honest friend.
Moreover, a friend should be generous both emotionally and knowledge wise. A friend who is generous ought to be able to
connect with you and provide emotional support. He or she should also be generous when it comes to sharing knowledge. A true
friend must be ever-ready to help you when you are inept in certain subjects. A friend can easily guide you towards
understanding the subject matter better as he or she is often on the same page as you. The only difference is that you cant quite
grasp the content of the page per se.
Besides that, a friend must also be able to humour you. Humour plays a quintessential role in making your day more lively and
enjoyable. Friends who pull your leg and mess about will indefinitely make life seem so much better. As they say, laughter is the
best medicine and a little levity on rainy days is always welcomed.
In conclusion, friends are people we spend most of our time with. Thus, we have to be selective when it comes to choosing our
friends.
HAPPINESS
Everyday in one way or another we are trying to find happiness in a complete chaos,
that is what all we are struggling for. Actually, temporary happiness is everywhere if we want
to find it and search for it. Sometimes it is just as close as a cute kitten to us, sometimes
giving a hand to someone who is in need of us is enough. Even taking a breath may give
somebody the absolute happiness at times. But what if we leave temporary happiness alone
and decide to construct our lives on basic principles of permanent happiness? Certainly
these principles depend on ones characteristics and point of view. In my opinion, social
relations, acceptance and independence are the most important elements of permanent
happiness in life.
To begin with, social relations are very important for me to be happy in the general drift
of my life. I should have good relations with the people around me for peace of my mind. If I
have close and intimate friends with whom I can share my troubles, worries and also my joy,
then it means that I have beaten the life up to a very considerable point. In my opinion,
someone who has real friends has the most valuable treasure of life. In order to obtain this
treasure, I make my friends among the people whose principles resemble mine, whose
characteristics best suit me and who are sincere. Besides friends I try to have good relations
with the people I encounter somehow everyday, like neighbors, acquaintances, teachers,
relatives and the others.
The second element of continuous happiness for me is acceptance: to clarify,
acceptance of my characteristics, behaviors, choices and desires. At one point, it can be
defined as the acceptance of my existence as a real individual. As long as I am accepted and
taken as I am, I can make right decisions for myself. To accomplish this, I explain that I do not
want unnecessary criticisms from the people around me. Unless the things I do or think
affect anybody, the others should not poke their nose into them. It is none of their business
to interfere with me about the subjects that only interest me.
In the third place, learning to be independent is very important for me to reach real
happiness in life. I should be self-sufficient enough to continue my life without too much
assistance of the others. Sometimes we are left without our families, sometimes none of our
friends stand by us or at times we may get into a position where we have to do things just by
ourselves. We live our lives not as a team but as an individual, so we must learn to cope with
it as individually as possible. To be an independent person, I try to be self-confident and to be
a self-confident person I try to obtain different qualities in different fields. Furthermore, I
believe my power, love myself with all my faults and endeavor not to repeat them but to
learn from them.
To sum up, if I acquire success in social relations, independence and acceptance, then it
means that I have the golden key to make happiness an enduring element of my life.
Obtaining all these elements may not be very easy, they may be achieved only in the long
run but there is something we should always bear in mind, achieving the real and permanent
happiness in life is not that easy, either.
other citizens of the same country especially from the rural areas see the opportunity to
have a better life and migrate to this city. Another 1 million people may be OK, 2 million
might be accepted due to newly created sectors; nevertheless, if another 5 million people
come to this city, what will be the result? Excess unskilled labourers will certainly occupy
everywhere.
There will be a dramatic rise in the unemployment level owing to the limited capacity
of
workers. Looking from a different angle, since young adults come to cities before their
families, unemployment will reach a maximum point that is defined by the term unable
to cope with.
The next shortcoming is, of course, inadequacy of infrastructure and services. This
uncontrollably growing kind of urbanization results in so much pressure on the infrastructure
that no means of infrastructure can respond to any needs of urban life effectively. For
instance, when there is a sudden rain, there would be floods all over the city, but in fact,
there should not be by the help of regular working sewers and drainage. Garbage removal is
another bad aspect as well as destroyed roads and the inconsistencies of the power supplies.
Electricity and natural gases have innumerable problems as a consequence of this denial of
service. Services sectors are also in deep trouble. There do not seem to be any noticeable
investments in transportation; hence, it cannot meet the needs of city residents. For the
expensiveness of highly equipped private hospitals, urban crowds choose the state hospitals
mostly and this leads to very long queues indeed. As a result, people cannot get a good
examination in medical centers. Education is also badly hurt; because, children are made to
receive education in incredibly crowded classrooms such as 60-80 students in one
classroom.As you see, the teacher cannot show the same interest to every child and that
drops the
learning level sharply in this so-called educational system.
Within this type of urbanization, some unwanted events occur, specifically
environmental e.g. pollution and deforestation. Factories and motor vehicles pump large
quantities of carbon dioxide and other waste gases into the air. More vehicles mean more
pollution. For example,the poisonous gases coming from the vehicles result in acid rain that
damages trees, buildings and can kill fish in lakes and rivers. Rivers can also be polluted by
industrial waste from factories. Deforestation, on the other hand, is very widespread in
recent years; large areas have been destroyed, as the trees are cut down for wood or burned
to clear the land for building universities, shopping centers, skyscrapers and so forth. It is not
wrong to say that this unplanned urban growth influences accommodation in the form of
illegal buildings by ruining the nature and natural beauties.
The last impact is about unpleasant demographic results. At this point i.e. the last ring
of the overall causal chain, there is a mini chain relevant to demography. When the
uncontrolled urbanization occurs, the most noticeable effect is overpopulation in chief cities.
In the meantime, this flow causes depopulation in the rural areas. Subsequently, this
contributes to a decrease in agricultural production. Besides, there are a lot of crises in the
urban side, there is an economic one in the countryside too. It is appropriate to give this
incident as an example for lose-lose principle if two sides are considered opposites.
In conclusion, uncontrolled urbanization is a very deep subject existing in the middle
of a causal chain with causes; for example, more job opportunities and better services in
urban life in contrast to absence of land in the rural areas and effects; such as
unemployment, insufficiency of infrastructure, unwanted environmental events and
unpleasant demographic theories. In the right hands, urbanization can determine or at least
influence the destiny of a city and may be a turning point for its existence and optimistic
future, whereas in unstable and unplanned conditions, urbanization creates nothing but a
real mess. Therefore, migrants to an uncontrolled urban side may meet the worst
disappointments in their lives instead of hopes of making easy money; because, it is not
perpetually true that Roads are paved with gold., especially in todays world
them. Instead, he or she feels it is right to do the same thing as other members do. For that
reason, young adults are affected greatly by their friends.
Thirdly, young adults tend to avoid their parents. During one's childhood, it is obvious
that one is influenced the most by the family. However, the influence of family becomes
smaller as a person grows into a teenager. Apparently, there are a lot of things that an
adolescent cannot easily talk about to his or her parents, such as sexual problems. They
discuss such issues with their friends instead. Moreover, parents usually misunderstand their
children when they grow up, which may even lead to arguments. If this is a continuing
problem, teenagers will avoid their parents because they do not want to cause
disagreement. Therefore, an adolescent is less influenced by family than by friends.
To conclude, people have the tendency to be influenced by their friends more than by
their families when they grow into teenage age. The influence from friends can be positive or
negative, however, and is essential to the development of a person. When the person
matures, that kind of influence will decrease.
Social activity often increases during the teenage years, so parents might worry about
the possibility of friends changing a teens attitude, including important values related to
school, work and morals. In fact, peers do have the ability to affect a teens attitude. This can
have a positive, negative or neutral effect, according to clinical psychologist Neil Bernstein in
a NBC News article, Sex and Peer Pressure. Since parents cant directly supervise their
teen all day, explicitly talking about peer pressure and the influence of friends can help him
build resilience and the confidence to make the right decisions.
Teens are often with friends when making the decision to take risks, according to a
2011 Psychology Today article, How Peers Affect the Teenage Brain. Experts with the
Association for Psychological Science state that peers can influence risk-taking behaviors,
including dangerous driving, sexual experimentation or experimentation with substances. Its
possible that the wiring in a teenagers brain provides short-term rewards for risk-taking and
peer approval, downplaying the potential negative outcomes of a risky situation. Friends
could also change a teens attitude toward shoplifting, making the activity seem socially
acceptable or less risky compared to other crimes, according to child development experts at
the Kids Health website.
the student is not doing good in class because there are a lot of factors to be considered like
lack of resources, not so good professors, environment etc Ones success or future success
should not be based only on school performance. A lot of my classmates in high school are
on the average side who made it big and succeed in their chosen fields compared to those
who are on the top of our class, which are expected to be successful in any filed of study
they will decide to pursue.
Educational institutions are there to guide, mold and teach their students to be
successful not to dissuade or prevent them in pursuing what they want to do or take in the
future. What ever the student wants to pursue, it is the Educational institutions
responsibility to help and support them achieve it.