It is just as important for older people to study and learn new things as it is

English as a Second Language Preparation for and help with the TOEFL® Test and
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Hi Luschen, I read your comment and I consider your advice about using template, but I asked from my coach and he said there would be no problem using template in exam. I tried to decrease standard sentences based on your suggestion but I really get used to it and I cannot change my approach just 1 week before the exam. Anyway, I am so grateful that you helped me to improve my writing so far and it means a lot to me. Thank you.
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I would be grateful for correction to my essay for TOEFL Independent task.[/i]
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? It is just as important for older people to study and learn new things as it is for younger people too.
The 20th and 21th centuries are characterized by all the momentous changes they have made in humans’ lives. Perhaps one of the most important milestone of these two centuries is education. One of the most contentious questions, which is often raised regarding this issue, is whether adults and older people should study and improve their knowledge or not. There are various perspectives toward this issue, as some people might believe that education is necessary for all people and it is not important how old they are, while others maintain the opposite perspective and do not believe studying could be beneficial for older people. I personally concur with the former perspective. From my one vantage point, educating should be regarded as one the most important priorities in humans’ lives.
The first point that is worth bearing in mind is the fact that the pace of development in knowledge could not be compared with past years. Every day we can witness a new scientific invention which affects life and if people want to go along with these changes they should study and get acquainted with these new matters. To shed light on this matter, I want to mention an example. My grandfather whose age is 75 did not know how to work with ATM and POS devices. So, after several times he stuck in a lot of places like stores and malls because they did not accept paper money eventually he decided to learn how use these devices. Consequently, learning new things is inevitable for older people.
The second reason which deserves some words here is that I saw a lot of older people who are ashamed of their lack of knowledge. From a psychological standpoint, due to the lack of studying and learning old people do not feel comfortable to take part in society activities, because they are afraid of some debates which could be happened and they are not familiar with them and they are ashamed of saying that they do not know anything about the issue. As result, they avoid society and prefer to stay alone. The noteworthy statistics, conducted at Johns Hopkins University, indicate that when a group of old people were taught about ongoing issues in the world and they gain a lot of information about variety of subjects such as global warming and the internet they really felt that they are more up to dated person and it boosts their self confidence. In addition, they could convey their information to other people and affect the society behavior. Because, lots of people pay attention to older people’s advices. So, learning could have other indirect influences on society, in addition to advantegous for older people.
To make a long story short, all the aforementioned reasons and examples lead us to conclusions that in the modern era, people are necessitated to study and learn and if they feel reluctant about learning, they would meet a lot of troubles in their private and social life. However, that was the story in a nutshell; actually there are a myriad of other reasons and examples supporting my opinion, which are not mentioned above due to the dearth of time. All in all, it is highly recommended that a survey be conducted to assess what other profound impacts lacking of knowledge could have on people’s lives.

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Hi Bestwayy, I thought this was one of your best essays so far. I think your examples are getting more detailed and so your arguments are more convincing. I think this might be at the 4 out of 5 level, but you do have some usage and grammar errors here and there.

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I do not know how I found this topic, but I want to say that I like this essay. I believe that there is nothing wrong with a person not knowing something, they can always understand the issue or ask for help, the main thing is to have a desire. I know that in many countries there are courses for older people, where they are taught how to use modern technology, smartphones, the Internet and others. Many of them then become confident users. I want to add that this can be an example for young people who still have a lifetime ahead of them and they can learn and use a lot of new things. Personally, I use phdessay.com/free-essays-on/a-long-way-gone/ to write essays and other college assignments that I don’t like or have other plans for. This resource allows me to spend time on self-development and my courses, so I recommend you try it too.

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That’s right. We all learn as long as we live, and as life expectancy continues to increase around the world, we are all learning more than ever.

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I think learning is the base. First we learn how to walk, then to count, to find friends, interact with people. We learn to love ourselves, to leave if it’s needed. Sometimes we need to learn how to let go. And of course, the constant learning of something new develops us as individuals, provides new opportunities. Most importantly, whether you learn to play chess or build rockets, any new skill gives you more than you can see at first.

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I’m retired myself. I wouldn’t call myself elderly, but I’ve been around a while. I have been learning my entire life and continue to learn. Humans are naturally curious. Most, but not all, people enjoy learning new things at any age.

The brain is like muscles and needs to be used or it will weaken. We need to build a good healthy body and mind at a young age, while we are growing. We need to continue to exercise them throughout life or they will deteriorate.

If we do not use our brain, it will deteriorate. This begins to happen at a young age, but it gets worse as we get older. We forget some types of things more easily than others. For example math is very easy to forget if it’s not used. I started forgetting most of my higher level math within a few years of learning it because I didn’t use it. It feels like even more of a loss because I worked so hard to learn it.

On the other hand, I still remember some things I learned in school in the early 60s. I even remember some things from the 50s. For example I remember a lot of geography from elementary school (although much of it has been reinforced over the years ).

The most important thing to prevent dementia as we get older is to never ever stop learning. But it’s more than just learning new things, or reinforcing things we already learned. We need to think and reason. We need to write like I’m doing now. When we learn a language, we need to read it, write it, listen to it and speak it. We need to do the same thing as we get older to reinforce our language skills.

When I graduated from high school there was no such thing as a computer. There was no such thing as a calculator. We either did our math with paper and pencil, or we did it on our head. When I started using calculators and computers, I refused to use them for everything. I made myself do math in my head to exercise my brain. If I wanted top take the cube root of 31610, I would do it in my head even though using a calculator would be much easier and faster. About ten years ago or so, I got out of that habit. I almost immediately lost my ability to do it. It deteriorate very quickly. Within a short time I had to pause and think a while just to remember my “times tables”. Now I have a hard time getting it back. I feel like I lost something and it’s not a pleasant loss.

We need to learn a wide variety of things. We need to think in a variety of ways. We need to exercise every part of the brain. If we only focus on a few things, we will lose the rest. Variety is the key.

As the saying goes, “Use it or lose it.”. If we don’t want to lose it, then we must use it and never ever stop. Age happens. There is nothing we can do about that. But we can do something to keep ourselves mentally and physically fit as long as possible. That process starts the minute we are born and never ends. Use it or lose it. It’s our choice.

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