CCN1056 Academic English (Business) I

Extra Mid-term Test Sample Questions

Student Name: _____________________ Student ID: ___________ Class: ____ Seat No.____

Section B (40%) – Essay Writing

Choose ONE of the two topics of a five-paragraph essay below. And, in this task, you ONLY need
to write:
1) A title,
2) An introduction (including a thesis statement with an overview containing 3 aspects),
3) Body Paragraph 1, and
4) Body Paragraph 2.

APA documenting is NOT needed. Your essay should be 350 to 385 words long, excluding the title.
Marks may be deducted if the number of words falls out of this range.

Topic B1
The owner of Kam Mong, a restaurant in Mong Kok, has introduced four robot waiters to serve
customers. The hi-tech dining experience attracted a lot of new customers in the first month, but
then has been found with lots of complaints and bad comments in the social media. Explain the
causes for the food industry’s and customers’ unwelcoming response to the serving robots.

Topic B2
From public holidays such as Lunar New Year, to non-public holidays such as Valentine’s Day, a
massive amount of money is spent on the decoration for festive celebrations in shopping malls in
Hong Kong all year round. Meanwhile, shops are cooperating by holding special seasonal sales.
Explain the positive effects of festive decoration and special sales to the shopping malls’ business.

[Start your essay on the next page. The blank space on this page is for brainstorming.]

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CCN1056 Academic English (Business) I
Extra Mid-term Test Sample Questions

B2: Sample Answers for Your Reference

Festive Celebrations: Positive Effects on Hong Kong Title
 Write a title that summarizes
Economy the main idea of the essay.
 Use a word or phrase, NOT a
complete sentence.
 Capitalize major words (but
NOT connecting words, e.g.
“to”, “an”, “and”).

Have you ever specially visited a shopping mall solely Introduction

 Use a hook (e.g. ask a
because of its festive decorations? Nowadays, malls question) to catch the readers’
attention.
in Hong Kong are so much willing to pour money
 Provide some connecting
into decorations and seasonal promotions at Mid- information to lead into the
topic.
autumn Festival, Christmas, Lunar New Year,
 Write, in one sentence, a thesis
Easter, etc. During special seasons, locals and statement which shows your
opinion, attitude or idea on the
foreign visitors are used to spending a half day in topic AND an overview (in
the malls for photos, small gifts, shopping and parallel structure) of the three
aspects covered in the body
food. Indeed, the well-decorated malls and special paragraphs.
sales at festivals can benefit Hong Kong economy
because they help increase retailers’ revenue,
provide more job opportunities and attract tourists
to Hong Kong.

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CCN1056 Academic English (Business) I
Extra Mid-term Test Sample Questions

First, festive celebrations can boost the revenue of Body paragraphs 1 & 2
 Start with a topic sentence
retailers in the malls. Beautiful decorations can with a controlling idea that
echoes one aspect of the
attract people who love posting pictures on social
thesis statement and shows
media to visit the shopping malls. The joyful how the paragraph will
develop.
atmosphere in the malls can easily make people
 Provide relevant supporting
gather and photo there. For example, during ideas and further
clarifications, illustrations, or
Christmas, Christmas tree and white decorations for
explanations to prove the
the season will be put in the malls; on Valentine’s point you make in the topic
sentence.
Day, heart-shaped ornaments and messages of love  APA documenting is NOT
will be found everywhere inside the buildings. needed.
 ONLY for this test: When
Besides photos, people will eat and shop in the you are giving specific
malls and therefore it brings extra income to shops evidences in the essay, you
can make up some sensible,
and restaurants there. In addition, special seasonal supporting materials such as
sales can attract many people to spend money on statistics, names of people or
organizations, incident and
different things. Items on sale make people believe cases. NO marks will be
they are saving money when buying them, and so deducted for creating such
unreal evidences for this test
customers may spend more than they need to, exercise. (Remarks: You
should NOT make up any
which can give extra revenue to retailers in the
evidences in any other
shopping malls. academic writing or context).
 Business ideas are highly
encouraged in this test
Furthermore, festive celebrations provide a number exercise, although it is NOT
a compulsory requirement.
of job opportunities to the labour market. Shopping
 Make good use of different
malls have to invite designer houses to design the connectors.

decorations and workers to put on the designs to

escalators, windows, corridors, concourses, etc.
inside the malls. Considering the number of malls in
Hong Kong, festive celebrations would provide
numerous jobs and work chances to Hong Kong
people, especially on part-time contracts. Moreover,
to entertain the crowd attracted by the festive
decorations, shopping malls need to hire extra staff

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CCN1056 Academic English (Business) I
Extra Mid-term Test Sample Questions

to serve the huge amount of customers. For Language and Writing Style
 Write with correct grammar,
instance, extra manpower will be needed to offer spelling and punctuations.
 Vary your language by using
customer services, to keep the malls clean, and to
synonyms or different
hold the festive fairs or shows. Also, more expressions for repeated
ideas (e.g. decorations /
salespeople are on demand for the retail shops due
ornaments).
to the special sales. As a result, the employment  Use different sentence
structures (simple, compound
rate could be increased to an inconceivable extent.
and complex sentences) to
vary your language.
(382 words, excluding the title)

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