Đề Thi Chính Thức Môn Tiếng Anh THPT Quốc Gia 2024 - Đề 401

When trying to understand our own or other people’s behaviour, we tend to oversimplify things. We use one or two adjectives to sum each other up. For example, we may think of some friends as having a generally hopeful and positive outlook while others are considered pessimistic and negative. Of course, in reality none of us is so easily defined. The truth is that we are all made up of characteristics which are inconsistent and contradictory: we can be serious and reliable with our colleagues at work but we are more unpredictable and emotional with our nearest and dearest at home. With one person we can be very cautious, but with another one, we are adventurous thrill-seekers. So, can people be neatly divided into personality types? Or do we alter our personality according to the differences in our changing moods and situations? Perhaps the idea that personality is fixed is just a meaningless misconception. Maybe we can never truly understand ourselves or other people.

If you walk into the streets and see someone throwing a plastic bottle on the ground, you’ll probably get annoyed. But do we react in the same way when we see people throwing rubbish into the sea? We all know how rubbish ruins the environment on land, but we often forget the influence that it can have on environments like the sea, lakes and rivers, too. First of all, water pollution looks terrible. Many beautiful beaches can become covered in rubbish when whatever we have thrown into the water comes ashore. Even rivers and lakes have some plastic bags and bottles floating in them. Secondly, rubbish can hurt animals and birds that live in or by the water. If they see a plastic bottle, they may think it is food. However, when they try and eat the bottle, it can get caught in their mouth or stomach and stop them from eating anything else. Plastic bottles can also stop dolphins from breathing. Sometimes, fishing boats leave bits of fishing net behind in the water. Fish can get caught in these and die. Finally, people forget that plastics contain chemicals that stay in the water. This is very bad for both fish and plants. If you eat fish containing these chemicals, then you can also get ill. In conclusion, we need to worry about water pollution as much as we care about land or air. We should all protect the seas, lakes and rivers, and remember to take our rubbish away with us.

“Have smartphones destroyed a generation?” Jean Twenge - a psychology professor at San Diego State University - asked in her controversial book, Gen. In the book, she argues that those born after 1995 are facing “a mental-health crisis”, and she believes it can be linked to growing up with their noses pressed against a screen. Her newest study provides more support for that connection, showing that teens who spent more than an hour or two a day interacting with their gadgets were less happy on average than those who had more face time with others. Twenge’s conclusions have come up against criticism in the past. Some have accused her work of oversimplifying or overlooking data that may tell a slightly different story. Twenge recognises that her study suggests only a link between screen use and psychological well-being. A possible explanation is that kids are running to their screens to escape from the things in life that are making them unhappy. However, the surveys can’t say whether screen time directly changes teens’ mental health, the research states. Philanthropist Melinda Gates, whose three children were also born after 1995, wrote in The Washington Post, “phones and apps aren’t good or bad by themselves, but for adolescents who don’t yet have the emotional tools to overcome life’s problems, they can aggravate the difficulties of growing up.” At the same time, she said, kids are learning on their devices and connecting in novel ways. Other studies have explored the connection between social media and isolation and how “likes” activate the brain’s reward centre. Some analyses have found that moderate use of these technologies is not harmful in itself and can even improve children’s social skills and build emotional strength. There is no doubt that people are spending more time on these devices and that technology is having a major impact on kids and adults alike. “These are really important devices that have changed our lives in so many ways, not just for the worse but for the better,” said Amanda Lenhart, deputy director of the Better Life Lab at New America. But the latest research “is looking straight at technology and wanting it to be the scapegoat.”