WRITING TASK 2
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Some people argue that the government should spend money on public services and facilities, but not on the arts.
Do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
IELTS WRITING TASK 2
The role of arts in modern life is unique, providing people with entertainment and yielding various psychological rewards, such as relief from stress. Despite these benefits, the arts have been taken as luxury goods in many cases. It is suggested that public money of a city should be concentrated in projects like public facilities, which are more likely to bring immediate benefits to the public, rather than the arts. There are a number of facts indicating that this position is right.
Public facilities, widely accepted as one of the main precursors to a city’s development, should be one of the highest priorities. Those underdeveloped cities, in particular, should direct sufficient funding toward public facilities. While municipal office buildings, courthouses and post offices are essential components of public services, libraries, hospitals, parks, playing fields, gymnasiums and swimming pools are available to the public for social, educational, athletic and cultural activities. By boosting spending on public facilities, cities are more capable of satisfying the needs of citizens and improve their standard of living.
In addition to social benefits, there are economic merits that public facilities can offer to communities. An integrated transport network (maritime, land and inland waterways transport and civil aviation), for example, promises the smooth and speedy movement of goods and people in a city. Industrial products, as well as agricultural produce of a city, can be delivered to other cities in exchange for steady income. Of equal importance are public Internet facilities. Providing access to information by improving Internet and other telecommunication facilities has relevance to the ease with which businesses in a city receive, process, utilize, and send information. It is no exaggeration to say that entrepreneurs, either from home or abroad, will first examine the infrastructure of a city before deciding whether to pursue business opportunities there.
The arts, by comparison, although enabling people to see the world and the human condition differently and to see a truth one might ignore before, do not merit government spending. The first reason is that the arts – referring to music, film and literature altogether – are more likely to attract the investment of the private sector than public facilities. Business people continue to invest in the arts with the expectation of earning lump sum income and the arts in return, continue to flourish without the government spending. Meanwhile, the arts are a key component of a culture and naturally passed down from one generation to another. Unlike public facilities, they require no money to survive.
It is therefore clear that construction of public facilities should be given the foremost consideration. The concern about the well-being of individual citizens and that of a city is more acute than the apprehension about the survival and prospects of the arts, something that businesses have a stake in.
Collocations and Idiom:
1. yielding various psychological rewards: benefit us a lot psychologically
2. the main precursors to: most focused on
3. direct sufficient funding toward: invest enough in
4. municipal office buildings: city buildings
5. in exchange for steady income: to get a good income
6. It is no exaggeration to say: it is true that
7. merit government spending: deserve to be invested by the government
8. given the foremost consideration: given the most attention
Please click the red words below for other Sections in this Mock Test:
| Mock Test 6 | Speaking Part 1 |
| Mock Test 6 | Speaking Part 2 |
| Mock Test 6 | Writing Task 1 |
