1 Some young children spend a great amount of their time practicing sports. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

　　Most kids love to play sports. It’s important to them, but for the majority, it’s just one type of activity out of many that they do. For a small number of kids, though, a sport becomes their whole life. They spend almost all their time and energy practicing. This has both advantages and disadvantages.

　　Sports are good for young children in many ways. Kids who enjoy sports are likely to have better health. They develop good habits of daily exercise that will keep them healthy as adults, too. Today, many children and adults are overweight, but those who love sports stay in shape. Plus, by developing their physical abilities, they will learn how to work hard towards a goal. Their achievements in sports will make them feel good about themselves. They’ll also make friends and learn teamwork. Sports, whether a little or a lot, can have positive effects.

　　We admire the talent and dedication of young athletes, but we also wonder if they’re losing something. Their focus is very narrow. If they devote most of their time to sports, are they neglecting schoolwork? What about other interests? Children should try out many different activities. In addition, many young athletes are pressured by parents or coaches to succeed. Kids whose drive comes from inside usually do okay, but others can be unhappy and have health and emotional problems. So sports, like anything else in excess, can have negative effect too.

　　When I was young, I liked books and hated sports. I saw other people who loved sports and hated school. Now that I’m older, I’ve found a better balance. People have to figure out what’s right for them. Is there such a thing as too much sports? There is no right answer, because there is no “right amount.” Everyone is different.

　　2 Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Only people who earn a lot of money are successful. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

　　Many people believe that a large income equals success. I believe, however, that success is more than how much money you make. Some of those measures of success include fame, respect, and knowledge.

　　Most people assume that famous people are rich people, but that isn’t always true. For example, some day I would like to be a famous researcher. Few scientists are rich by today’s standards. Still I will feel myself to be successful if I am well-known. Additionally, there are many famous humanitarians who are not rich. Mother Theresa was one. Certainly, no one would say she was not successful.

　　I also believe that being respected by coworkers indicates success. Without that respect, money means little. For example, I once did some work for a top attorney in a law firm. He made a very good salary, but he wasn’t a nice man. No one ever did work for him willingly. He orderd everyone around, and we didn’t respect him. In contrast, however, I had a wonderful band director in high school. He had to take extra jobs just to make enough money to support his family. However, his students had great respect for him and always listened to what he said. As a result, we were a very good band. In my opinion, my band director was more successful than the attorney was.

　　Finally, I think one of the most important indicators of success is knowledge. Wealthy people don’t know all the answers. For example, in the movie Good Will Hunting, the only person who could solve some complex problems was the janitor. He knew a lot, and decided what he wanted to do with that knowledge rather than just think about money. In my opinion, he was extremely successful.

　　When we think of history, there are few people that we remember simply because they were rich. Overall, we remember people who did something with their lives － they were influential in politics, or contributed to science or art or religion. If history is the ultimate judge of success, then money surely isn’t everything.

　　3 If you could invent something new, what product would you develop? Use specific details to explain why this invention is needed.

　　If I could invent something new, I’d invent a device or pill that could put people to sleep immediately and would have no side effects. The proper amount of sleep is important for our concentration, mental health, and physical health.

　　Getting enough sleep is a vital human need. For one thing, without sleep our concentration is strongly affected. We’re easily distracted, we can’t remember things, and we don’t notice what’s happening around us. For example, a lot of car accidents are caused by tired drivers. When we get enough sleep, our powers of concentration are sharper. We’re more focused on what we’re doing. We perform better.

　　Mental health is also affected by lack of sleep. It’s easy to tell if people don’t get enough sleep. They’re on edge, cranky, and out of sorts. They lose their tempers easily and over-react to situations. In fact, experiments have shown that lack of sleep over a long period of time can cause a complete mental breakdown. When we get our proper rest, we’re more alert and responsive. Our outlook is positive, and we’re much easier to get along with.

　　Our physical health shows the strain of sleeplessness, too. We have less energy, and everything seems like a major effort. Over a long period of time, we become slow and unresponsive. The wear and tear on the body from lack of sleep can be a very serious health problem. Every doctor will tell you that getting enough sleep is a basic factor in maintaining good health.

　　Wouldn’t it be great to go to bed every night knowing you’d have no problem getting to sleep, no matter what’s going on in your life? Getting enough sleep is always going to be an important part of how you respond to your situation. I think this device would be very helpful to all of us.

　　4 Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? A person’s childhood years (the time from birth to twelve years of age) are the most important years of a person’s life. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

　　I agree that a person’s childhood years, from birth until twelve years of age, are the most important. All the information I’ve read about that time of life states that these are the years that form us. These years determine what kind of a person the child will become. During these years we learn about relationships, begin our formal education and develop our moral sense of right and wrong.

　　The early years are the time when we learn about relationships. First we learn about our parents and siblings, then about rest of the world. We learn how to respond to others based the treatment we’re given. If we’re loved, then we know how to love others. If we’re treated harshly, we may grow up to treat others harshly. We also form our ideas about our own self-worth from the way others treat us during these years. They can convince us we’re worthless, or they can teach us we deserve love and respect.

　　There are the years when we begin our formal education. We acquire the basic skills － reading, writing, working with numbers － that we’ll use throughout our lives. We need a good foundation in these subjects. Otherwise, anything we try to do later will be undermined by our lack of skills. Perhaps the most important thing we can learn during these years is how to analyze information and use it. These are skills that will always be useful.

　　Most important, from my point of view, these are the years when we develop our moral sense of what’s right and wrong. Others teach us about good and bad, but later in our early years we begin to decide for ourselves. It’s also during this time that we begin to develop the self-discipline to live according to our morals.