Michael Buckhoff's
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ESL Web Site for Students and Teachers "Informational Essays"
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Level Four Student Essays -High Intermediate(mean TOEFL score=465)| The reason I study in the United States | Take care of family | Influences of television | | My life in America | Abortion | Drinking effects | Basketball is an Important Part of Me | | There are many kinds of dangerous weapons in this world |
The reason I study in the United States One day, when I was in my first year in high school, I watched an American movie on TV and it impressed me. The movie was an action movie and it was not about American culture or life, but the factor fascinated me because he did not only speak a language that I could not speak but also he was handsome. In addition, I was thinking that America was the closest country in terms of culture to Japan. That made me want to study in English. It may be childish reason, though. Then I went to the movies a lot and studied English much harder than before, my interest in the Unites states really grew. When I was about a junior, I got to be bored studying English at school. Most of the teachers just thought us how to read and write a sentence grammatically and also the textbooks were boring for me. There were nine English classes in a week, but only two of them were oral and communication classes. I wanted to learn more useful language for conversation. Some people tried to speak native teachers in Japanese, I think that is because they might not be confident to speak English, but I was not either. Beside, there were only two oral classes, so they were meaningless to me. At that time, my mother agreed to let me go to English conversation school called NOVA. There are seven levels, level seven is a basic course. Furthermore, the program is divided into three groups. From level six to four is standard and from three to one are high level classes. The classes have a small number of people. There is one to three students in one class and students are always changing each class. Because it is in order to get use different accents. Teachers emphasize the positive things that students try to say. Then as the class goes on, teachers pay attention to grammar too. All of the teachers are from English speaking countries; America, England, Ireland and New Zealand. Everyone in this school likes learning English. That is why I felt comfortable studying there. In addition, I began to listen to an English conversation program on the radio. In this program, there were one Japanese and two American instructors. The way of teaching is not teaching, it is like talking to us. I felt like I was taking part in the program, even though it was on the radio. They kept me interested in English. At the end of my junior year I met a girl who changed my mind about college. Her name is Akiko. We knew each other while we were studying in NOVA, she was one year older than I was America. I had to decide on the course to take after graduation, but actually I had not made any decision. I had two choices, one of them was to go to college that is attached to my high school, and the other was to take the examination the next year. I did not want to fall into exam hell, that is, cram the knowledge. If I went to prep school for the exam, I should have gone there almost everyday after school. I had to devote myself to go there always including vacation. I did not want that way. Anyway, I was not interested in either way very much, because I did not want to stay English for the exam. But I decided to the latter. At that time, I met Akiko and she described to me the difference between America and Japanese colleges. Then I realized that the best way was studying in the United States. There were a couple of reasons. First, colleges in the United States are more flexible than in Japan. I actually have not decided what I want to major in. In the United States I thought I would be able to have much time and experience to find what suits me. Second, I did not want to be a typical student in Japan, I might be depended on those people who do not make any effort to study. They spend the time for part time job and playing without studying and I felt that I might finish my life without anything. That relates to the third reason. I wanted to be in dependent (except for money) and experience some adventure. I wanted to try to start a new life where I did not know anybody, and did not know the language. As I stated before, I did not know what I wanted to study. If I studied abroad, I might be able to find the purpose. All of the reason of the above are also the purpose, but they were not enough because I am faced with difficulty, if I know what I want to learn, I am sure that I will not give up. After that, I decided to major in sociology. After I decided to study in the United States, my parents and I had a lot of arguments for few months. Because my sister was going to Australia, it was hard to afford to let two of us go overseas. Finally my mother and I convinced my father. Finally I could come here. Now what I am thinking about is returning to Japan after graduation and accomplishing the purpose. Then I hope my parents are convinced that coming to the United States was the right thing to do. Not all people have a family in the world, and not all people who have a family would like to take care of it. Parents who take care of their children hope that someday their children will grow up to be adults. Furthermore, they hope their children will be like them by taking care of their own family in the future. This condition has been true since long ago. If people have a good career and much money, but they don’t take care of their family, they will not be really happy at all. Taking care of family is very important for several reasons. The first of reason that people should treasure their family and take care of it, otherwise they may lose it. As you know, a lot of people become homeless in the world. Part of them has had a good family, but maybe because those homeless people didn’t treasure their family, they lost it. For example, many people became homeless by taking drugs and drinking too much alcohol, so they lost their job. But some of the people became homeless because they were careless with their family. Finally, their families became broken and their children were the victims. On the other hand, there are other people that do have a good family, but they are always busy with their career and do not have much freetime to take care of their family. They may disregard their children’s education. If the children aren’t observant they may not have ideas about what is right or wrong. Finally, they may lose their way and start taking drugs, attending illegal clubs. The truth is if parents don’t carefully take responsibility of their children, it will affect the children’s life in the future. The second reason that taking care of a family is important is that it was our parents who took care of us when we were younger. They spent a lot of time on our life. Since we were younger our parents took very good care of us. Even though they were busy on their job, they really cared for our life and education more than themselves. Do you remember when you were sick who took care of you, and who asked you how you were feeling? At that time parents didn’t think of how they could benefit from their children, they only hoped their children could become capable people. Do you
remaber, when we asked them questions, they always wondered us if we understood or not? When parents get older they need help from their children. People should care for their parents. It is necessary. The last reason that people should care for their family is that it is always the most important part in people’s life. People require much help from family. Since people were children, their parents were their first teachers. They learned a lot of things from they parents. When children grow up and become adults, they need social communication with other people. Furthermore communicating with people is not always perfect. Sometimes people get hurt when communicating. It is best to go back home and “get well” by convalescing with family members. Some people are always looking for a better life. They wonder about their family, career, future, and so on. The best life is not being a richer person, working is not all there is in life. Most people only have one family in their whole life. If someone lost a career, they can find another one, but if they lose a family it is not easy to go back like it was before. In my opinion, taking care of family is most important thing. These days, we are surrounded by many conveniences, for example chairs, beds, microwaves, computers, vacuum cleaners, and televisions. And I can’t image life without these things because when I was born these things already existed. Can you image life without these things? I think that maybe you can’t image because we are used to today’s living. Among these things, television has influence in many aspects of our lives. Television can send us many things unlike a chair. Furthermore, we can sit down on the floor instead of on the chair, but so far we don’t have a substitute for television which has image and sound. Television has some good effects and some bad ones. One of the most advantageous effects is that TV brings up information. We can know many things by watching television. Due to the weather forecast, we can decide to bring an umbrella the next day. Also we can know the latest news and see images. Even if a war happens on the other side of the Earth, television tells us about it at almost the same time. In addition to being a source of information, television is very useful for studying. Television is an effective means to listen to other languages especially if you live in an island country like Japan. We can learn other countries’ culture as well. Some programs present us with what other countries are like. We can see spectacular scenes, historic architecture and various foods that we can’t imagine as long as we are in our own country. Another important effect is that, thanks to a television, our spending power can rise. Whenever we watch television, we watch commercials at the same time and commercials inform us of new goods on the market; consequently, we are encouraged to purchase them. If we don’t watch commercials, we don’t know what McDonald’s campaign is, when we can buy food at the lowest price, and how to connect to mail order houses. But once we know those things we might want to get something. As a result, our spending power could increase. It can be said, this is one of television’s good effects. On the other hand, television also has some ill effects. One of the most harmful influences is the effect on children. If they watch TV for a long time, they become want to watch more. Because of time limit for each program, they are so organized that the audience does not need to think by themselves. Then television often gives answers or conclusions automatically within thirty minutes or one hour and children just receive much information passively; therefore children are apt to be impatient in their real life. For example, absorption of watching television can deprive them of time to study so they can’t do school assignments. They are likely to get upset when they can’t do what they want to. Moreover there is another serious effect on children. It comes from watching cruel scenes on television. To attract people, some TV programs are too violent for children. If children watch these programs for a long time, they might regard violence as the usual thing. Finally, there are some negative physical effects. To watch television appropriately is not so bad for the eyes. However, the television remains on until we turn it off and television presents us many shows one after another. So we are liable to watch a lot more television than we planned to do; this is bad for our eyes. Of course to see a movie on television in a dim room or to watch television too near to the TV set taxes our eyesight. Also some people, especially people who live by them, eat meals while they are watching television. It is possible for them to eat much more than they intended to. This is very bad for their health. In conclusion, there are some merits and demerits when you watch television. You can get information easily and are sometimes urged to go shopping. On the other hand, television is sometimes harmful for children and harmful to our health. However television exists just as an object. Whether television become useful or not depends on us. Therefore we should decide how to spend our time and should chose programs that we really need to see. There are some reasons why I came to America. First, I want to study at a university in America, because I was disappointed in the Japanese university which I went to. It was boring and it wasn't likely to give me benefits. Most of Japanese university student study hard before entering the university, but at the university they hardly study. Instead of study they spend much time playing and drinking. Therefore, I want to experience something new at the American university. Second, I want to get global ideas. If I live only in Japan, my sight will be limited. To communicate with American or many foreigner will be very helpful for me to get global ideas. Also to experience many things in America will be good for me. I've been in America studying English since this April. It's certainly the most significant event in my life. I already experienced many things in America. At school, I can talk with many foreign students, and I learned different way of thinking and differences of culture. Now I live in an apartment with a Korean student, named Alex. I am living comfortably and I can learn many things from him. For example, sometimes he cooks Korean food for me, and teaches me Korean language. He can speak Japanese a little, and sometimes I teach him Japanese. Learning foreign language is also learning foreign culture, so learning each language is good for us. And now, we have a good relationship. Now I’m studying English at ACLP to achieve my goals. My goals are to speak English well and graduate from a university in America. Also I want to get global ideas. Studying English is hard and I’m exhausted, but every day I gain substantial and valuable experiences. Today, many women have abortions. Actually, I have some friends who have had an abortion. Although they all did not want to get pregnant, they did, so they decided not to bear their child. On the other hand, in the general public, although they wanted to bear their child, there are many women who decided to have an abortion. Why do you think that people have abortion? Do you know about the effects that it causes? People who have abortions have some reasons, but also they suffer some negative physical effects and bad emotional effects. First, why are women obliged to lose their baby on occasion? I think that there is irresponsibility. Although they don’t want to get pregnant, there are many women who don't prevent pregnancy. That is a very big problem. Although we know that we will have problems if we get pregnant when we don’t want to, we sometimes tend to allow instinct to take precedence. For example, there is sexual desire between you and your friends. If you get pregnant or you make someone pregnant, what do you do? You might say that you don't know until the time comes. We sometimes don't think about what happens next. That is really irresponsibility. Not only do we have abortion due to our irresponsibility, but also due to our lack of choice. There are many people who have no choice about having an abortion because they might know during pregnancy that their child has handicap. If they bear their child, they think about what will happen after childbirth. They know that both they and their child will have a hard time. If they give birth to their child, they will have high risk for their life, so they decide not to bear their child. There is no other option but to do it. If we lose our baby through an abortion, not only will we have physical effects but also we will have emotional effects. When we have an unwanted pregnancy, we will be upset. And then, when we decide to have an abortion, we will be anxious, because if we have an abortion, we might suffer poor health and we might not be able to get pregnant again. After an abortion, we will feel very sad because during pregnancy a mother's love begins to grow inside a woman, so when she has an abortion, she will think that she doesn't want to kill her baby. Consequently, her heart hurts. Also, we are unstable because we feel remorse for our behavior and for losing our baby. However, the hardest for us is that we will have a sense of guilt. We might think that we have killed our child. We might not be able to resolved the guilt for our lifetime. I think that bearing children is marvelous. However we might get pregnant when we don’t want to because of our irresponsibility and then we will have to have an abortion. This is very miserable. I think we will feel sorry for our child and also we will have a bitter experience, so we must take responsibility for our behavior. We should get pregnant when we want to have a baby, but we should not get pregnant when we don't want to have a baby. However, on the other hand, there are people who decide not to bear their child even though they want to bear it because they know during their pregnancy that their baby has a handicap. I feel sorry in this situation. I wish that there were no people who had abortions, but I am sorry to say that there will be many people who have abortions in the future as well. All over the world people drink alcohol, but maybe we really don’t know whether alcohol is good or not for our health. Whenever we go to a party, we certainly serve alcohol, such as beer, wine, vodka, and sake. And when we drink alcohol, the alcohol causes various effects on our body. There are good or bad effects, so we must be careful in our life, otherwise maybe we are in trouble, because there is not only positive effects, but there are also real dangerous effects. So if you really don’t know the effects of drinking, you should not drink alcohol. In my opinion, we should not drink much for our health, although a little alcohol gives us good feeling. First of all, there are various good effects that we know well. Certainly, if we drink too much alcohol, it maybe dangerous, but there are many positive effects that a little of alcohol gives us good feelings. Why do we drink alcohol? We drink because, of course, we want to get good feelings from alcohol. It brings emotional effects and makes us happy, funny, interesting, and comfortable. Further, we refresh and decrease our stress in our life through drinking. There are physical effects in addition to emotional effects. Drinking a little alcohol produces a good appetite and sleep. Some people even say that it can be used instead of medicine. Actually, I drink alcohol to feel good. But don’t forget that you will get more to get negative effects than positive effects if you drink too much alcohol. So we should consider them well before we drink. In addition, there are some minor bad effects that we experience if we drink alcohol. I think that some people often feel bad after they drink alcohol. It makes them sad, tired, and sleepy. Drinking alcohol causes physical effects. Sometimes people can’t move smoothly and often bother people who are sober. Perhaps they have headache until the next day. Further, if they drink everyday, they may grow stout someday. These negative effects have the possibility to give us various feelings. But we can accept such little bad effects. As an actual problem, there are significant negative effects. Those real negative effects have possibility to disorder our life. For example, we have to avoid the alcoholic person. My grand father was alcoholic. After he was dead my grand mother told me how he became an alcoholic. He was usually very kind and gentle, but he began to change when he started drinking alcohol. After he drank much alcohol, he would use dirty words and force. My grandmother could not stand for any more of my grandfather’s behavior. In the end, this became the cause of their divorce. In this way, actually, there are significant negative effects that even disorder our life. If you do end up drinking too much alcohol as a habit, know that there is hope. People can recover from alcoholism. I will remind you of one example, Mickey Mantle. He was a great baseball player in America, but he started to drink much alcohol after father’s death. He became an alcoholic in the end. But, in his situation, he didn’t stop there, he considered his situation well. He succeeded in recovering from alcoholism. So if we become alcoholic, we can recover. However I want you to consider drinking well before you become an alcoholic. In conclusion, you should not drink much alcohol if you regard your health as your most important possession. I think that, of course, thinking of your body, you enjoy good feelings with a little of alcohol, which is fine. But I want you not to forget there are many bad and dangerous effects. So you must study more details about effects of drinking. And then, you should consider whether you should drink or not. Basketball is an Important Part of Me If I didn’t join the basketball team, my school life would have been dull and boring. Have you ever been absorbed in something? Maybe you have. I think that being ecstatic about something is important for our life. Don’t you think so? I was absorbed in playing basketball. It was very fortunate for me to know basketball. Basketball taught me a lot of things. For example, pleasure, anger, sorrows, patience and so on. I think that basketball is an important part of me. Even now, I continue to play basketball. I’ll describe my fateful encounter with basketball to you. When I was twelve years old, I watched the NBA games on television. In one of the game, I watched the Chicago Bulls win as a result of a hard fight. Michael Jordan was distinguished in that game. Of all the NBA players, Michael Jordan is the most famous player. His play can attract attention of people all over the world. It is as if his playing is magic. Most people said that he is a god. I liked his play too, so I became addicted to basketball. What’s more, NBA players looked like birds, because they could dunk easily at any time. So I wanted to be taller, and I wanted to dunk easily like a NBA player. At that time, my height was only five feet. I imagined that if I played basketball, I would be taller. Of course I `d like to become a good basketball player! I joined my junior high school basketball team. This team wasn’t strong. Our coach trained us very hard. He was 23 years old. Also he was eager, so he always played basketball with us. But we couldn’t become strong. Coach was first-class with instructing basketball, but we couldn’t answer his hope. We practiced hard everyday only to fail. If I didn’t practice everyday, I couldn’t have learned the fundamental skills, for example, shot form, pass, dribble and so on. As a result of practicing, I was chosen as one of the best five players in my city. It made me happy, and I had confidence in my ability. Moreover I learned perseverance and teamwork through the many practice matches. Teamwork is very important for playing basketball. I really appreciated my junior high school coach. I entered high school when I was fifteen years old. I had decided to join high school basketball team in my mind. But before I could join the team, I was asked to join track and field. Because when I was junior in high school, I did high jump. My record of 1m, 68cm was second in my city. In my childhood, I would play sports with my parents. I can do almost any sport- baseball, volleyball, skiing, tennis and so on. I think that I can play almost any sport by the grace of my parents. They taught me how to play. Take baseball for example. My father played catch with me everyday and I learned how to throw the ball. As I like being the pitcher, he played catcher. Now I owe my parents gratitude. In the end, I decided to join the basketball team because I was the proudest of my basketball abilities. Also I like it very much. At first I was overpowered by the strength and speed of the other players. In that time I felt fear. But gradually I got used to playing high school basketball. I was promoted over the seniors. And I could enter as one of the starting members. Every days exercise was very heavy for me. But it benefited me. Our team always got high scores and we often won. Our team was very strong in our area because our team organization was taller than many other teams (center 6’5”, forward 6’2” &6’1”, guard 6’0” &5’9”). When I was seventeen years old, I was captain of my high school basketball team. This job was very laborious for me, but my teammates helped me many times. I managed to pull the team together. During summer vacation from school we went to basketball camps to practice and improve our basketball skill. By playing against other team at other schools we as a team were able to improve our skill. From playing basketball, I learned the importance of teamwork. What’s more, I experienced pleasure, anger, sorrow and patience from the practice matches, the daily workouts and the games. Besides I thought that we couldn’t do anything without somebody’s help. For example parents, coaches, friends and so on. When we played basketball games their support became our power’s source. Certainly I became taller than I was before I began to play basketball. Now my height is six feet, which makes me very happy. I have enjoyed playing basketball more than I expected. I made a lot of friends through playing basketball. Teammates have been my best friends to this day. Basketball has made me happy, so basketball is an important part of me. There are many kinds of dangerous weapons in this
world. For example, guns, knives and so on. In Japan, most people do not have guns. If you have a gun in Japan, this is irregular. But some people have guns. In
U.S.A, having a gun is regular, because U.S.A. is the most dangerous country in this world so Americans have to protect themselves. Some people are kind and friendly, but some people have a gun or knife in the U.S.A. Almost all Japanese earn a living by themselves, but some Americans do not it. So sometimes Americans steal another person’s things. Youth crime is a problem, which has several causes. The first reason is that U.S. economy has some problem, so some people income is too low, and also they can get any money, so they will steal another person’s things. U.S. government has to do something, but they do not it. One of the problems is guns. In this world, “Why do people need guns?” I think U.S.A. has too much freedom, because they have to protect themselves. Why do they have a gun and have to protect themselves? Consider the U.S.A. and Japan. Americans have to protect by themselves because the U.S. economy has some problems. Another causes that younger influenced from theirs parents, this mean is broken families. This country has rich and poor level people. This country does not have an average level, so some younger people steal another person’s things because they do not have any money. I think U.S.A. has too much freedom, they do not have any rule, not laws, so to get something, sometimes people kill people. I want to say that U.S.A. (American) have rich and poor, so someone steal another person’s things. Another reasons that younger people are involves in crime is from the influence the from television. For example, movie and video games are the most dangerous things. They are too real for youngsters, so some youngsters have interest in gun. Japanese do not usually have a gun or a knife. But in my opinion, we do not need guns in the world. In this world, there are many dangerous place and people, including many children. But many people kill people; I can not understand it. Especially, U.S.A. is the most dangerous country in this world, but some people are so kind and friendly. I think U.S.A. has too much freedom. This point is so good, but it is not have a gun, it is not good thing. This problem does not disappear in the world. I have to know about more guns. I know about gun, but only that they are dangerous, so I have to study it so hard. |
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Copyright (C) By Michael
Buckhoff |