Task 1
The chart shows the proportion of renewable energy in total energy supply in 4 countries from 1997 to 2010
Band 8 Sample
The given bar chart presents data about the percentages of renewable energy in total energy production in 4 different countries named Australia, Sweden, Iceland and Turkey in 3 years: 1997, 2000 and 2010.
Overall, Sweden and Iceland witnessed an upward trend in the use of renewable energy sources in the three examined years. It can also be seen that among the four countries, this type of energy was most popular in Iceland.
In 1997, almost half of the total energy produced in Iceland came from renewable resources. This figure continued to climb steadily to 60% in 2000 and more than 70% in 2010. Meanwhile, in the year 1997, only approximately 5% of the entire amount of energy was generated from natural resources in Sweden, who experienced a similar trend as that of Iceland in the proportion of renewable energy.
Regarding Australia, nearly 10% of energy supply was from renewable resources in 1997, and this figure decreased slightly to around 5% in 2010. After minimally growing to over 40% in 2000, the percentage of this source of energy went down to about 33% after 10 years.
Task 2 It is neither possible nor useful for a country to provide university places for a high proportion of young people. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
There has been a difference of opinions regarding the accessibility of tertiary education to the majority of young people. In my view, dispensing university educational services on such a large scale brings about no practical values to society, and also, it is rather unfeasible to carry out this policy.
First, widespread entry into university does not seem really useful to a country since the government need to take the needs of both the youth and the economy into consideration. In many countries, especially Germany, vocational training has gained more popularity among young people because it enhances employment opportunities as well as job security upon completion. Furthermore, if everyone could gain admittance to college, it would lead to imbalances in workforce that would greatly damage economic structure. It is because there is little chance that university graduates would choose blue-collar jobs such as working in factories.
Second, I think that it is impossible to provide almost all young people with access to tertiary education. In Vietnam, the demand for entering college never ceases to grow at a rapid rate. This puts the government in a dilemma of whether they should risk allocating their resources and therefore face the possibility of bankruptcy due to exorbitant education costs in many financially independent universities, like Foreign Trade University or National Economics University. On top of that, it is simply unrealistic for universities to accommodate such a suddenly increased number of students on campus, not to mention the fact that most departments are currently short-staffed.
In conclusion, I strongly oppose the idea of supplying entry to a high proportion of young people owing to the presented arguments above.
