Essay by 謝振禮老師 Jeenn Lee Hsieh

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真題還原

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? "The opinions of celebrities, such as entertainers and athletes, are more important to the younger people than they are to the older people." Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

范文：

It is universally acknowledged that primary education should be compulsory and higher education would be optional. This may justify in part why it is more realistic to invest in the education of the very young children than in universities. For the individual's academic success, the stage (5 to 10 years old) is considered as the initial milestone in the life-long educational process; and for a country's successful development, no money is regarded as being lost in upgrading basic education.

In receiving education, as in taking a trip, a bad beginning seldom ends well. One's first academic milestone is so significant that it is worthy of sufficient public funding. Comparatively, university education, although important in its way, is just another milestone which is of course not the end of one's learning journey. Hence, the government's spending policy must address a solid strategy to upgrade the primary education, for good reasons. To illustrate, from the age of five onwards, children are instructed to study reading and writing skills. They begin to develop more sophisticated thinking and learning abilities, such as the capacity to think abstractly and organize materials being taught to them, which will help them get on the long road to economic success.

Few would doubt that a well-begun education could contribute greatly to a country's long-term successful development. Not that higher education is less important; but that compulsory education is even more important. This indicates where should lie the paramount need to spend even more dollars. The priority is clear enough. The success of a country's primary education benefits both the individual and society as a whole, while universities are not for all young people. Besides, education for the very young children in general requires indispensably public funding more than does higher education mainly because many universities are privately owned and largely independent in financing through expensive tuitions and generous donations.

It pays for the government to take better care of the financial health of basic education than that of universities for an overall national development. The first academic milestone for an individual is also where a country's successful story begins. After all, for the government, the financial responsibility to fund primary schools is compulsory rather than optional.