Space Exploration - An Expensive Folly? - Summer 2017

Mankind has always been fascinated by the stars, and with advances in technology we now have the ability to explore deeper and deeper into space. This technology is expensive though, and some people argue that the money used could be better spent on things such as education and healthcare. However, in my opinion, we shouldn’t cut back on funding space exploration for a number of reasons.

From a long-term perspective, at the rate we are destroying the earth, either through overpopulation, pollution or weapons development, the time may come when the earth is no longer habitable. Space exploration allows us to discover new potential worlds to which we can relocate and how the body will react on the long trips needed to get to these new worlds. From a short-term perspective, the technology being developed for space exploration can be used for more terrestrial needs. For example, this technology has allowed us to develop better aircraft, better computing systems and better solar technologies. Furthermore, space exploration, such as the deployment of the Hubble telescope, allows us to better understand the origins of the universe and how Earth was formed.

In conclusion, while education and healthcare should not be left underfunded, I believe that benefits derived from space exploration justify the costs.

(216 words)

Work Experience - Summer 2017

Hi Leo,

How are you? I hope you're doing well. I’m sorry that I haven’t written for a while but I was busy doing work experience. Anyway, I’m writing to tell you about what I did.

My father knows the general manager of the local hotel, so he was able to get me a job for the summer. My main task was to welcome guests and take their luggage to and from their rooms. However, towards the end of the summer, I also worked in reception. Even though the working day was long, I generally enjoyed my time there. One main benefit was that my English really improved as most of the guests were from overseas. While working as a receptionist, I had many opportunities to have longer conversations as guests needed a lot of information about the area. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the job was talking with the younger guests and finding out about youth culture in their countries.

Have you ever done work experience? If so, please write soon to tell me about it. Looking forward to hearing from you.

All the best,
Pei Pei

Summary - Why are we shrinking? - Summer 2013

One reason that we have shrunk over the last 10,000 years is due to lifestyle changes, such as switching from hunting to agriculture. Another reason is linked to diet; cereals lacked micronutrients and vitamins. A final reason is social inequality as the ruling classes took most of the better food from the poorer classes. Our brains has also diminished in size mainly due to need to be more efficient. Scientists believe that the brain needs to conserve energy to be better able to do the different types of tasks required in modern societies. However, they also believe that smaller brains don’t make us less intelligent.

Letter - A Charity Event - Summer 2013

Hi Barry,

How are you? I hope you are well. I’m really sorry that I haven’t written to you for such a long time but I’ve been really busy organising an event for a local charity. Anyway, I’m writing to tell you about how it went.

We decided to select the “Hand2Hand Foundation” because it is doing great work with underprivileged children in the area. At first, we couldn’t decide what to do, but then we agreed on doing a cake sale. It was a lot of work as we had to reserve the school hall and then set it up. This involved a lot of heavy work as we had to move a lot of tables and chairs into the hall. We also had to do a lot of campaigning to ensure that students in the school would help bake cakes and come to the event itself. Overall, I believe that the event was quite successful as we raised almost 10,000 baht for the charity; however, next time I would like to get more parents involved in the bake.

Have you done anything like this? If so, please let me know what you did. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Jim
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