IELTSNetwork.com

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
A person’s worth nowadays seems to be judged according to social status and
material possessions. Old-fashioned values, such as honour, kindness and trust, no
longer seem important.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own
knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.

Response:
With the development of civilization and expansion of communities in the recent era, the evaluation of the value of human beings was markedly affected. While in the past moral values, like honour and trust, were highly looked at, yet in the modern times some more materialistic measurements prevailed.

Although the modern world speaks much about human rights and equality as a basic standard, when the "civilized" world is thoroughly inspected, the contradiction is found, as the value of humanity is replaced by more "practical" values, such as how much money, fame, power and authority someone has. It seems that material aspects are more looked at than morals, which are themselves entitled as "Old fashioned"

On the other hand, if a person looks back at the cultural heritage of humanity, and explore old writings, myths and traditions of any region of the world, he can easily find out that our ancestors appreciated moral values of justice, right and kindness over material. This can easily be discovered while reading an old novel, exploring an old myth, or even watching an old movie.

To conclude, I agree that an unpleasant change has occurred to humanity converting it towards a more material worshipping trend. If this is not everybody's situation, it is at least the most common attitude nowadays.

Hello!

I don't think that you have provided any real evidence to support your ideas. I mean, I've just watched Lethal Weapon and that featured plenty of justice. If you think that fame, power and authority were not values in the past, name 10 historical figures and let's see how that argument holds up. Both the Bible and the Koran cite clear instances of materialism, so it seems likely these things were common in the past.

Grammatical accuracy is quite good, but you tend to state things absolutely, so there isn't much range. Vocabulary has not been used to create an effective argument.

All the best,
David

Thank you for your reply. Actually this is why I find this essay difficult, I mean what kind of evidence should I be talking about .. couldn't come up with points.

Hello again!

Well, it seems to me that people are judged by a combination of factors, including, in my personal opinion, all of those mentioned in the question statements.

Let's say you meet someone and they fail to show that they are kind, honourable and trustworthy. Most likely, you are not going to be keen to meet them again. In a business situation, this can be detrimental to their business.

However, it is perfectly clear that materialism exists and a guy with an expensive suit and a fast car is more likely to attract women than a tramp. But then, it could be argued that these possessions simply reflect the fact that the rich guy is smart and the tramp is not. (On the other hand, it might not!)

Was this really different in the past? I doubt it. I would, however, make the point that nowadays it is quite easy to go from place to place and fool a certain number of people in each - certainly easier than in the past. You don't need to be trustworthy if you are only spending a short time in a place - or if your 'target' is!

All the best,
David