39. Do you agree or disagree that progress is alwaysgood? Use specific reasons and examples to supportyour answer.

Who would disagree with the statement “ progress is good”? Without progress , there would be no change. Withoutprogress, there would be no change in our economy, ourstandard of living, or our health.

Progress is required to keep the economy moving forward. New products need to be developed; new services need to be created. Without progress, our economy would stand still. There wouldbe no change. Without progress, there would be no supermarkets with fress produce brought infrom all over the world.

Progress is required to improve our standard of living. Our homes today are more efficient and useless natural resources thanks to improvement in home construction techniques. Our clothes arewarmer and safer thanks to developments in textile manufacturing. Our educational system isbetter thanks to the use of the computers and the Internet.

Progress is required to improve the heath of the world population. Without progress, there wouldbe no vaccines against deadly diseases like smallpox. Without progress, there would be increasedinfant mortality. Thanks to progress, our lives are longer and healthier.

Progress is a natural state. Without it, we would not evolve. Without it, our economy, ourstandard of living, and our health would deteriorate. Who could deny the necessity of progress.

40 Learning about the past has no value for those of us living in the present. Do youagree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

People often say “ Those who don’t understand history will repeat the mistakes of the past.” Itotally disagree. I don’t see any evidence that people have made smart decisions based on theirknowledge of the past. To me, the present is what is important, not the past. I think that people, the weather, and politics determine what happens, not the past.

People can change. We can’t assume that people will continue to hate one another just becausethey have had hated one another for years. Look at Turkey and Greece. When Turkey had anearthquake, Greece sent aid. When Greece had an earthquake, Turkey sent aid. Now, these twocountries are cooperating and looking forward to improved relations. No doubt, if we looked at thepast, we could have thought this was a lost cause. But people change.

The weather can change. Farmers think that they can plant certain crops because these cropshave always grown well in their fields before. But the weather can change. There can be a longdrought. The crops that have always worked well , will die. A drought-resistant crop needs to betried. If we looked at the past, we would not have changed our crop and we would have lost ourfarm. Weather changes.

Politics an change. According to my way of thinking, politicians must be responsive to changes inthe people. If politicians looked only at the past, they would always say the same thing. Peoplechange. On the whole, people today care about human rights. They warn all people to have theequal rights. If we looked at the past in the United States, we would see a lot of discriminationagainst races, women, and sexual orientation. Now, that is changing. Politicians changes, too.

As a rule what is important today is to follow the mood of the moment. We can’t be looked in thepast. It doesn’t do us any good to think about the past. People, the weather, and politics canchange in any direction. The direction of this change, in my opinion, can not be predicted bystudying the past.