IELTS Academic Essay-Robots Question and Possible Answer

The IELTS exam below was shared by our Vietnamese.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (a report)

Compare figures in two pie charts that described what students in Britain have been doing after graduation in 2008. The first one was about the decisions of students with B.A degree, the second was on the students with M.A degree.

Writing task 2 (an essay)

Some people believe that robots are getting increasingly important in our lives. However, others think robots are extremely dangerous. What is your opinion? Why?

Speaking test

Interview

- What is your name?
- Where are you from?
- Tell me about your hometown.
- What is your hometown famous for?
- What do you do for a living?
- Tell me about your typical day.
- Would you like to change it? Why?
- What do you do in your free time?

Cue Card

Tell me something about a foreigner that you like the most. Please say:
- Where did you meet that person?
- Why did you like him/her?
- What do you learn from him/ her?

Discussion

- Do you like making friends with foreigners? Why?
- Is it easy to spot foreigners?
- What do you think about immigration?
- Why do you think people immigrate to other countries?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of immigration?

A possible answer from Teacher Charlie and his students:

Robots: Good or not?

Robots have been around a long time in science fiction but only recently have they made their way into mainstream society. Many feel robotics is beneficial to industry but others feel potential evils to mankind.

Benefits would include work force cost reduction including such things as salaries, health benefits, pensions, bonuses, etc. Robots have proven themselves as useful tools in factory automation speeding up and increasing the overall quality of manufactured goods such as automobiles. Robots can work 24/7 and require no sick days or holidays.

However, the bad things are high development cost, the necessity for complex and sophisticated control systems, loss of skilled workers in the areas the robots replace and the need for the hiring of outside expertise.

Single facilities such as the new Heineken Brewery in Spain can have a cost of 1.2 billion baht. This amount of investment however might preclude smaller, entrepreneurial endeavors from competing in these sectors making use of robotic technology. Only huge multi-national corporations will be able to compete in high volume efforts such as packaging and manufacturing.

In conclusion, if corporations use the cost savings of robotic technology and pass on the unit cost savings to the consumer, automation might be viewed as beneficial to humanity. However, corporations being corporations, with the stated purpose of making profit, the likely hood of this happening, in my opinion is very small. I therefore view robotics as being bad overall.



German company Krones AG is the global market leader in automatic bottle-filling. Six of its machines have been installed in a new brewery under construction in Seville.

20 of the company's experts are on hand to make sure they are fully operational by mid 2008. The Spanish are renowned for drinking and partying. As well as red wine and Sangria, they also consume a lot of beer. The biggest German breweries have already entered the Spanish market. Heineken has taken over traditional Spanish brand Cruzcampo. The company has invested over 300 Million euros in its new highly modern brewery. 5.2 million hektolitres of beer will be produced and automatically bottled here, just outside Seville, every year. Michael Altenhenne has visited the scene.