Language exam topics (still)

Hy

I'm going to have a language exam next Tuesday and I still have some texts which are not corrected. Could you correct them? I know, there is a large amount of them, but it is really important for me. Thank you!

Topics: Celebrations; Consumer Society; Fashion; City life - Country life and Living abroad; The area where I live and my home; Computers, the Internet, mobile phones and SN sites

01. Celebrations

There are many celebrations in different countries all around the world. Some of them are funny and interesting, some are traditional or religious. No matter what they are, celebrations play an important role in our lives.

Celebrations make life more enjoyable and fun. For instance, Christmas is one of the most wonderful time of the year when the whole world change in a good way, by which I mean everybody is kinder and everything is nicer. Or on Women Day, which falls on March 8th, people celebrate the equality between men and women. Family members and friends give flowers and gifts to women, who feel very happy about it. More and more celebrations interest people all over the world such as Halloween, St Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day and so on....

Celebrations are the occasions when you can express your feelings or your respect to someone that you love. Especially in Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, you can give your parents gifts, flowers or greeting cards to express how you love them. In Teachers’ Day, students show their love and respect to their teachers as they give flowers and best wishes to their teachers.

Celebrations also remind people of important days, or great time in the year. For example, every country has its own Independence Day, which is almost the greatest day in a year. This is the time for people to recall and be proud of their history. As for religious celebration, Easter is very popular and it is celebrated on Sunday, at the first full moon after the spring equinox. At this time people commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the beginning of spring. The festive period begins with Good Friday, two days before Easter Sunday. People usually go to church and women and girls paint eggs for the Monday male visitors. The different Easter are eggs and chick referring to new life, while the bunny symbolizes fertility. On Easter Day, which is always a Sunday, people eat traditional dishes such as hard-boiled eggs, cooked ham with spring radishes and yellow cottage cheese made in different ways. Also, there are some special Easter cakes. A typical Hungarian tradition is the sprinkling of girls and women with perfume, or originally with water, on Easter Monday. In return for the sprinkling boys and men get either hand-painted or chocolate Easter eggs and an innovation to the table full of homemade dishes and cakes.

Another important celebration is New Year’s Day when people all over the world celebrate the first day of the New Year. This day remind them that one year has passed and the new one is coming with brand-new things.

02. Consumer society

In the era of consumer society shops are fully packed and costumers are regularly tempted or charmed. Shops offer discounts, bonuses and all of them apply all sort of tricks to force you to buy things you did not plan. They continuously rearrange the display of goods; there is a bakery with smell of fresh bread in each supermarket and so on. So, we simply cannot resist such temptations.

What is more, there are also people who become Shopaholic. Shopaholism is an addiction just like taking drugs or gambling. Mainly those people become shopaholics who suffer from some kind of mental or emotional problem as depression or loneliness. Buying something makes their lives happier and more fulfilling. On the other hand, shopaholism can lead to financial problems as these people spend more than they can afford. For example, they can have credit card debt. It is quite difficult to get rid of this addiction so shopaholics need the professional help of psychologist.

As for credit cards, they have benefits and drawbacks as well. Having a credit card is good, because this form of payment is fast and easy; but it can also be dangerous. We often hear about online crimes involving credit cards. Some crafty hackers may have access to your bank account, might clone your credit card and can withdraw money from it. Another disadvantage of credit cards that if you don’t keep in mind how much money you have, you can spend many times more than you can actually afford. In this case, you have credit card debt, which means you have to pay back your debt plus the interest. Nowadays, banks are far more cautious with their money, and I have heard of cases when people finally went bankrupt.

What is more there are also advertisements, commercial and public service advertising. Commercial advertisements are a form of communication whose aim is to persuade the viewers, readers or listeners to purchase some products. They try to create a desire for a particular item. However, public service advertising informs, educates and motivates people about non-commercial issues or politics.

Different types of media can be used to deliver advertising massages, for example newspapers, magazines, television, billboards or direct mail. As for TV commercials, they are a pretty effective way of making a product well-known. In these commercials very often celebrities promote their favourite items. Teens are the main target audience of this kind of advertisement. Apart from television, the Internet is also a popular method of advertising with its web pop-ups and web-banners.

A good advertisement or commercial should be entertaining, informative and thought-provoking. It should raise the attention of viewers, listeners or readers. We cannot escape advertising as it is everywhere. Some people trust advertisements and are convinced by them, while others simply cannot stand them, especially when a commercial break interrupts an exciting film on TV.

All in all, we should resist the temptation and shouldn’t always listen to the advertisements, especially without getting appropriate information. In short, we shouldn’t believe everything what is said.

03. Fashion

Wearing something fashionable gives you that rounded feeling. However, you must be really careful because fashion can deceive people easily: the fact that something is fashionable doesn’t mean that it looks good on you. It depends on what sort of person you are because if you like following the crowd then you will be open to all kinds of fashion trends, but if you are more unique then probably not. It is said that fashion goes in cycles, things that used to be fashionable may come back in style later.

There are also fashion models who are at the top of the so-called trendy crowd, by which I mean they are idols and people who follow them. It can be really fun. However, being a top model has advantages and disadvantages as well.

First and foremost, being a top model is quite beneficial because of the high salary. Modelling is among the best paid jobs in the world. What is more, a lot of people would give up anything just to gain publicity. However, a part-time model or a professional model gets a lot of publicity. She instantly becomes popular due to the many photographs taken by the paparazzi which are later printed on magazines and newspapers. A top model is also invited to various TV shows where she can talk about her experiences and some of her challenges.

On the other hand, a model’s career is hard and sometimes depressing. She must spend time and effort on staying in shape and looking good. This includes some form of dieting which often leads to dangerous conditions such as anorexia.

Fashion is also important for teens but there are schools where school uniforms are compulsory. Wearing school uniform is good in some kind of respect, but it has its own drawbacks as well.

It is good, because students can express that they belong to the same community. By which I mean it gives students a sense of pride as they know they belong in that school. What is more they can’t recognise the financial differences between students, so they won’t judge each other on the basis of clothing. Mostly, they inner qualities will matter not their outward appearance.

On the other hand, it’s boring to wear the same clothes all the time. And, it’s important to have their own style. Teenagers can express a lot of things with their clothes from mood to music taste.

04. City life - Country life and Living abroad

Long time ago, people preferred to live in the countryside. Because of the urbanization, people tend to leave the countryside and move in cities. Thus, cities are always crowded and life became more stressful. Nowadays, people have many options. They can live in a city or in the countryside as well if they want to. For instance, there are some people who prefer a quiet and peaceful place; contrarily, others like to have a good job and more facilities.

Cities have advanced infrastructures like high medical care, strong police force, advanced fire service and so on. What is more, there are better job opportunities and more shopping and entertainment facilities. Nevertheless, people who live in the countryside have better living environment. There are also cinemas, shopping centres, clubs and restaurants in a town, but they may be less modern. However, the country side is healthier, because a person who lives in a city has to tolerate different kinds of pollution. Because of the so many cars, buses, and factories, the environment is noisy and polluted. On the contrary, in a countryside, people enjoy fresh air and stay in a quiet and peaceful place, so it is healthier. Furthermore, traffic jam is also a major problem for human in big cities since the streets are too crowded. Nevertheless, people who live in a countryside can always enjoy the beautiful environment.

Another great opportunity is moving abroad. Living away from your country is a bigger change. It can be a really interesting and unforgettable experience, but at the same time it has very important effects on your life.

First and foremost, living abroad can help you broaden your minds. If you move abroad, you have more opportunities to get to know an entirely different country and its customs, traditions. Furthermore, it is good for language learning as you can speak to native speakers and improve your knowledge more efficiently.

On the other hand, you may feel homesickness which can cause more problems since you always think about your mother country, your family and your friends and cannot concentrate on your life properly. Moreover, you can also have financial difficulties, because if you move abroad it doesn’t mean that your life will immediately become successful.

In fact, every place has got drawbacks and benefits as well, but it depends on you what you prefer.

05. The area where I live and my home

My hometown is Jászberény. I consider it an average place. Its infrastructures, like medical care or fire service are not too modern or advanced, but relatively good. However, the police station is being modernized as the police force is getting stronger.

As for the environment, the town is pretty nice with its parks and historical buildings. For example, my school is a two-storey building surrounded by beautiful environment.

Unfortunately in my town teenagers are really short of entertainment facilities. There is a library, a cinema, a club and some restaurants. It is not enough for young people, on the other hand, there is a wide variety of sport facilities from body building to ball games like football and handball.

As for my neighbourhood, it is not the best place of the world, but it is close to a lot of things. For instance, I can get to the school easily. Furthermore, there is a gym not far away from my home which I like a lot since it is well-equipped and its owners are really kind to me. Nevertheless, my street is everything, but lively. Because of the fact that it is really narrow, there are not any park or grassed area. I love nature, so I can hardly accept this fact.

My home is better in this respect. It is a detached house with a beautiful garden. It is full of plants as bushes, flowers and the like. And, it is not everything, there is a nice wooden pavilion with a swing where I can read, relax a bit and enjoy the nice environment. After a hard day in the school, it is a real relief for me.

Unfortunately, the other parts of my home are pretty tiring after a while because almost everything is white. There are only a red and white carpet, some red curtains and bedspreads. It could be worse and all in all it is not that horrible, but since I love the lively and stylish houses I am sometimes bored there. I think, I am starting to hate the white colour.

Apart from colours, I love my room, but I live with my little sister who is pretty young. Moreover, she can be annoying sometimes and due to her, my room seldom has a relaxed atmosphere.

I know, it will be better later and it could be worse, and actually, it was far worse when I lived with six messy guys in a students’ hostel. There are no words to describe that.

06. Computers, the Internet, mobile phones and SN sites

Computers and phones help people in more than one way and are becoming more and more popular with people of all ages. The multimedia possibilities of modern computers and mobile phones are practically limitless. Computers and phones allow users to listen to music, play video games, browse the web, watch movies and keep up with their friends all from the comfort of their homes. As computer technology continues to improve over time, more and more possibilities are created daily.

For instance, SN sites appeared just before the beginning of the century and took the Internet, and the world, by storm. Just a few decades ago, people wrote letters or called each other regularly to keep in touch. Then e-mails came, and today SN sites allow users to communicate instantly with friends and family.

In past, people play computer games with friends only when they were together. With SN sites, users can play online games with people that are next door or on the other side of the world. They can even play with ‘virtual’ friends they’ve never even met. And it seem it doesn’t take time to make friends; it just takes a few clicks of the mouse.

Until very recently, people used to put all their holiday photos in albums. Now SN users can share their photos online.

On the other hand, they are harmful to our health. Using computer or phone for too many hours can damage your eyes. What is more, children, teenagers and even adults can easily become addicted to them and spend hours in front of the screen instead of socialising with other people. Lastly, computers and phones that have an Internet connection are useful, but they are not safe. With so many computers connected to the Internet, users are at risk for a number of safety issues.

As for me, I use my computer and my phone a lot since I can chat with my friends and learn more efficiently. Moreover, the internet is full of useful websites and I can watch series and films as well. Therefore, I watch a large amount of movies. However, I also have time for my social life and I don’t like to be without my friends, so I meet them as often as I can.

Ps.: Thank you so much