Integrated Writing - Task 2

The subject of both the lecture and the passage is the possibility of life, or intelligent life on
other planets. The author of the passage thinks that we are alone in the galaxy and we are the
only intelligent life on the universe. On the other hand, the lecturer says that we are need to
consider a possibility of life on other stars or galaxies by comparing Earth as a lake and humans
as fish in the lake saying that they must be alone because never seen any other fish anywhere.

The author says that there are a lot of specific conditions that made life in Earth possible. He
goes on saying that, if Earth was slightly further or closer than it is from the sun, life maybe
would not be possible to develop. However, the lecturer points out that in the formation of
Earth, life developed in extremely harsh conditions, and it can evolve and develop even
without these ideal conditions.

The author states that even if there were life somewhere in the universe, the odds that this life
is intelligent are highly remote. He goes on saying that, there are millions of species in our
planet and only one is considered intelligent. The lecturer agrees in some point that intelligent
maybe can’t be found, but he explains that a study done by Carl Seagan states that species
become faster or stronger because is their way for surviving, for the humans it was becoming
intelligent.

The author says that if there is intelligent life outside our planet, why haven’t we heard of
them yet? He goes on saying that we have sent radio and television signals for almost a
hundred years and there never have been a response. The lecturer, however, says that maybe
this other type of life isn’t interested is communicating, that maybe their focus is other thing,
such as philosophy or other things.

The author concludes that if there never have been any contact from them, it’s because we are
really alone in the universe. However the speaker says that we are only thinking about
ourselves if we don’t even admit the possibility of life on other planet.

Independent Writing - Task 2

In my opinion, if I could talk with any person for an hour, I would choose to talk to Oscar
Niemeyer. Oscar is one of the most famous architects from Brazil, he designed all the
important buildings for our capital Brasília, and even the UN building in New York. Moreover,
he has influenced people worldwide with his way of thinking and primarily in architecture.

One of the reasons I would choose him is because he has influenced a lot on my decision of
what to do from college. I chose to apply for Architecture because of him. Also, I loved his
buildings and his way of thinking about life and architecture. I think that if I could talk to him, I
could understand better what he did to be so successful and would try to do the same.

Another reason is that he influenced a lot of people from all over the world, people like that
must be a role model to everyone such as he is to me. Also, he is a role model not just from
his architecture, but his ideals. For example, the way he thinks about politics, culture, and
other subjects. Oscar Niemeyer is one of the most important Brazilian of all time in my opinion.

Since Niemeyer had so much influence on me, my way of thinking and the choosing of my
career, I would choose him to talk to for one hour. And, although he has participated in a lot of
interviews, lectures, he even had a documentary made about his life, and people have access
to it, I believe that talking to him in person, other than a great honor, would be a perfect way
to get really in touch with his feelings and understand better what the thinks and learn a lot
from him.

Integrated Writing - Task 3

The subject of both the passage and the lecture is mandatory voting. The author of the
passage defends the idea of making voting compulsory for all people that are considered
adults. On the other hand, in the lecture, the speaker defends the idea of the freedom to
choose if someone wants to vote or not.

The author of the passage says that compulsory voting is a good way to increase the
percentage of people who vote. For example, in Australia’s election in 1922, only 59% of the
citizens voted, but today since it is mandatory that number increased to 94%. However, the
lecturer thinks that maybe for Australia and other places it was good, but with no law
obligating people to vote, the citizens who vote really want to vote, and are aware and well
informed about the candidates.

The author states that voting should not be a privilege, it should be considered and obligation.
He goes on saying that just as the nation rely on people that pay taxes, it also rely on people
who vote. The lecture, on the other hand, does not think the same way. He says that if 40% of
the citizens don’t pay taxes, the government stops, but if the same number of people doesn’t
vote, it stays the same.

The author believes that if the nation doesn’t vote, they are not exercising their right of being
governed by politicians, therefore, they make the government lose credibility. The lecturer,
however, says that if people don’t vote, they are just exercising their right of freedom.
Moreover, some people that don’t vote does this to make a statement, that they don’t believe
in any candidate.

In conclusion, the author thinks that voting should be mandatory and both the government
and the nation depend on that. The lecturer, however, thinks that in a democracy, voting
should be a right, not an obligation.

Independent Writing - Task 3

A change on people’s environment, sometimes bring different types of behavior on them. I

agree with the statement that people change their behavior in different places other than at
their home, especially when traveling.
For most of the people, routine can be stressful and depressing. Waking up, going to work,
cooking lunch, having dinner and going to bed again every day at the same time tends to make
people having the same behavior since they are always doing the same thing. A change in this
status makes people happier and that’s why everybody loves and looks forward to weekends,
it’s a way for them to break the routine.

When traveling, we have a change in our nature, see and meet new people, go to other places,
eat other types of food, wake up whenever wanted. Often, we learn from other people
different type of behavior too. Sometimes, other people’s happiness can make us see that we
complain a lot of simple things and forget the important ones. For example, people that live in
the countryside aren’t used to all these things on the city, they tend to live a simpler life and
they know how to see good things in it.

I believe the human being behaves just like the environment he lives. If the place is happy,
cheerful, people will behave the same way. However, if the place is all the same, sad,
depressing, that tends to affect people’s behavior. For example, when I went to visit my cousin
in Curitiba, I had contact with a lot of happy people that were always wanting to cheer
everyone up, therefore, I was really happy and tried to make everyone happy too.

In conclusion, I think that when people travel, they have a change in their routine, that’s why
there really is a change in behavior. People get happier when traveling and the reason for that
is simply a change in the way they used to live their lives.

Task 4 – Integrated Writing

The subject of both the lecture and the passage is the mammoth extinction in the end of Ice
Age. The author of the passage says that something happened suddenly, at the end of the Ice
Age that made mammoth extinct and explains that are three main theories explaining that. In
the lecture, the professor also talks about these three theories but explains that they all have
some problems about them.

The author of the passage talks about the first theory, he says that in this theory human
hunters were the main reason of mammoth extinction. He goes on saying that the Clovis
People were smart hunters armed with spears and dogs and hunted mammoths to extinction.
The lecturer, on the other hand, says that is easier to blame humans for that, but he explains
that mammoths were huge, strong and dangerous animals, and because there were other
smaller animals, is highly unlikely that Clovis People hunted mammoths. Moreover, if they
hunted all of them, they wouldn’t have enough people to feed from them.

The author explains another theory the subject of this theory is that some climate change has
killed the mammoths. The author states that slowly, the climate began to get warmer, and
with time this change all life in Earth, especially the vegetation, therefore, mammoths died of
starvation. However, the lecturer explains that mammoths had already lived through other
climates changes and stayed fine. Moreover, mammoths’ relatives such as African and Indian
elephants had suffered from climate changes and turned out fine too.

The author tells us about the last theory which is the theory that mammoths were extinct from
diseases brought by humans. He goes on saying that probably microbes have been brought
from parasites in humans and their dogs and mammoths had no resistance to that, so slowly
they started dying to extinction.

In conclusion, the lecturer explains that these three theories have their problems and they
may be true but maybe don’t and there probably is another theory explaining this phenomena.

Task 4 – Independent Writing

If I were asked if i want to live in an off-campus apartment or in a dormitory in campus, I would

certainly choose living on campus. There are a lot of benefits living on campus such as the cost
of living and looking for the place, being near to the university all the time and the proximity
with other students from the same university.

In campus domitory are much easier to find and cheaper than looking for an apartment. When
someone is going to study in a university, looking for an apartment sometimes is too hard,
sometimes because is too expensive, sometimes because there isn’t any apartment available.
Living in campus is muh easier because all that searching for a place is already organized from
the university, you just go there, and they tell you if some dorm is available or not.

Living in a university dormitory is a big benefit for students from another country or another
state because living there, they won’t need to spend too much money on transportation.
University students almost always have to live with the money their parents give since they
don’t have a job. Therefore, saving money from transportation means that they can spend
more money in something else, especially in their books, materials, and leisure time activities.

The proximity of students is an important fact of living in campus. University students,

especially first-year students, have a lot of problems in getting used to the college life. In high
school, they lived with their parents and didn’t had many issues to worry about, when living
alone, there is a lot to worry and since almost everyone have the same problems, it gets easy
for them to talk to other students that are having or already had and solved the same
problems as their. More over, when someone have a problem in college, one can easilly knock
on the neightbors doors and ask for their help.

Task 5 – Integrated Writing

The subject of both the passage and the lecture is the government financial support for artists.
The author states that it is becoming too hard for artists live from only their arts. The lecturer,
however, even though he is an artist, he doesn’t agree that government should financially
support artists.

The author of the lecture states that there are programs in both U.S. and Europe that gives
subsidy to artists, but these subsidies have always been the same and a few are dropping. The
lecturer, on the other hand, says that plumbing is an important job too, and they shouldn’t
have special grants the same way artists shouldn’t, He goes on saying that it’s not fair to treat
artists different from anyone else.
The passage says that great artists in history, like da Vinci and Tchaikovsky, were sponsored by
patrons. But today only a few people contribute to artists, that’s why governmental aid should
be given to them. The lecturer, however says that they were great artists before being
sponsored, and for the unpopular artists, they should get some art related jobs to live on, such
as commercial arts or teaching art.

The author of the passage shows a study made at the Georgia Institute of Technology, that
federal, state and local governments that financed arts got a really good return on their
investments. The lecturer, disagrees with that by saying that sometimes, financing art
organizations or theaters should be good, but not individual artists. He gives the example that
in France the government offered grants and everyone art related, even people that cut hairs,
applied and that cause a 1 billion euros deficit.

The author of the passage defends the idea of having governmental subsidy for artists, he says
that would give a great return to the government and for the artists. However, the lecturer
doesn’t agree and says that giving money to artists is not always good.

Task 5 – Independent Writing

I believe that it is really more important for students to take classes in their own field of study.
The reason I thinks of that is because taking classes in your field is because you don’t waste
time learning other things, it is a good way to get internship fast and because high school
should be a general education.

Taking classes in your field rather than getting some introductory education first is better
because you don’t have to waste time studying things that you are not going to use in your job
or some internship. University is about learning the core things that is going to be used in
someone’s professional life. If there is some concern about general education it should be ask
apart from the course a person chose.

Sometime people don’t have enough money to go to university and need some job or an
internship to pay for it, or to pay for transportation to college, or even for the material. Having
classes directly from their field is a good way to get an paid internship in that field that will give
you experience on the field and that will maybe be more satisfying to get to help pay your
universities fee’s. For example, my Architecture classes has helped me to get my internship in
an Architect’s office, so I can get paid and help my parents pay my transportation to college by
doing something I love, and at the same time, get experience in the field.

I believe that general education should be given in high school. If someone apply to a
university it’s clear that they already had some general education and want to specify and get
deeper in the field they chose.

In conclusion, I think it’s far more beneficial if students get specific classes from their field. It
will really help their professional career later on because they will enter in the market faster,
and will only learn what they need to learn to use on their profession later.
Task 6 – Integrated Writing

The subject of both the passage and the lecture are about the effects of television in young
children. The author of the passage defends the idea that television is harmful to children.
However, the lecturer states that even though she is not a fan of television, she don’t agree
with the author.

The author of the passage talks about a study that shows television habits of 1.700 children.
He states that the study shows that children from 6 to 7 years who watch TV have lower
reading ability and low memory than the ones that don’t watch TV. The lecturer, on the other
hand, states that the same study shows that children from 3 to 5 years who watch TV have
much higher ability in reading.

The author of the passage says that another study shows that children spend most of the time
on TV except when they are sleeping, even more than at school. Moreover, he says that this
time spent in TV replace other children’s activities such as studying, reading and playing.
However, in the lecture the professor states that parents should let their children watch TV but
they should monitor how much they watch. She goes on saying that kids over 2 year should
only watch educational shows that helps them recognize letters of the alphabet and numbers.

In the passage, the author states that kinds that watch too much television don’t practice
many physical activities and tend to eat too much junk food. He goes on saying that
advertisements for this type of food encourage kids to eat them. The lecturer, however, says
that we can’t blame only TV for that. Moreover, the parents have their role in teaching kids
good nutrition.

In conclusion, the author of the passage says that TV is harmful to children and it must be
strictly monitored or if possible eliminated from their lives. On the other hand, the lecturer
states if TVs are used wisely, they are not such a bad thing.

Task 6 – Independent Writing

If my city had received a grant from any international organization I would choose to improve
the local schools, primarily the public schools. I believe that schools in my city should be
financially helped because the schools are the beginning of the education, the teachers should
be valorized and because public schools here are in such bad conditions.

Schools are the beginning of the education. If we don’t invest in education the whole country
is in a bad place, education is the base of everything. If a city has good education, it will have
good professionals later on and they will make the economy better not just in a city but in the
whole country. Not just in the economy, good education makes people more polite, and that
makes the city more pleasant to live in.

Teacher’s salary should be better, I believe that the government doesn’t valorize teacher’s
salary enough, it’s too little for the importance of teaching children. I think that a grant from
an organization should help improve this salary and that will make teachers go to work with
more passion than before. Therefore, children will learn better and will respect more the
teachers.

Publics schools here in my city are in such bad conditions, lack of appropriate chairs for
students, bad material, bad conditions in uniforms they distribute to children. A financial help
from an organization would help bring better conditions to public schools here, will make
students happier too with good material and clothes so this will help the entire city.

In conclusion, I believe that investing in the local schools here would be the best choice since
we have such bad conditions for them here. Investing in children and the teachers from public
schools should make a good opportunity for the city to grow later on.