Observing or studying animals a lot can teach about human nature?

[Loinhutson]

The essay my friend took at his toefl test. This is kind of difficult.
The topic is : Observing or studying animals a lot can teach about human nature? Do you agree or disagree?
I cannot find any reason. Can anyone give me a sample essay?

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between two students at the library

[SkiIucK]

Hello Loinhutson,

You know, I was sitting in my chair, pondering over the topic for some ten minutes, and I couldn't come up with anything. Maybe someone else will.

Best regards.

[Kitosdad]

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Good morning Loinhutson, a difficult subject indeed.

Studying animals and their behaviour can indeed be very informative and pleasurable to humans. Like humans, animals spend a lot of time in selecting a safe and secure environment for themselves and their partner. Birds especially will sometimes reject a nesting site, even after having spent many hours building a nest. Why they do this is a continuing mystery to most bird-watchers.

Having decided on a safe environment the birds will raise their family. This entails countless hours of sitting on the eggs, and both parents usually take their turn in this duty.

After the eggs have hatched the real work then begins, with both parents making endless forays into the undergrowth and covering huge distances to find acceptable food for their offspring.

As the hatchling's increase in size so does their appetites, and the weary parents become even more overworked in keeping pace with their greedy offspring's appetites.

Eventually relief beckons as the youngsters become stronger, and eventually the day arrives when they stretch their wings to the sun and launch themselves from the nest to find food for themselves. They stay within the boundary of their home for a further few days, before finally setting out to lead their own lives, and the cycle begins anew.

I'm pretty sure this scenario is similar to most wild creatures and we can all learn from the care and attention that animals give in the raising of their young. After all is said and done, we are but animals ourselves.

Kitos.
_________________
Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[DraganNYC]

Ok this one was very difficult. In fact, I had this one couple of years ago when I took TOEFL for the first and by now last time. I remember that I went to the test completely unprepared and for this essay I wrote about 200 words and got 20 points. I think that today I can perform much better but nevertheless it took me more than 30 minutes to prepare this essay, which I hope will be useful for you.

Since time immemorial, people and animals have been living in a close connection sharing this World. At first, animals were the biggest threat to man since people were at the primitive stage of their development. Later on, people mastered the animals and at some stage even shared their home, living together with animals. Today situation sah completely changed and, unfortunately, man becomes the biggest threat to the animals. Keeping in this train of thought, I would agree that observing the animals can teach us about some negative aspects of the human nature.

First of all, observing animals can show us how people disrespect surrounding nature and our Planet. Entire Planet is becoming the victim of human behavior and greed. Today, there are 6.8 billion people living at this Planet, and just 100 years ago there were only 1.6 billion people. This increase has put an enormous pressure on all natural resources. The best testimony of this we can find in the climate change, almost depleted resources and in extermination of the natural habitats of animals and whole species. For example, many species we can find today only at the zoo, because they became so endangered by the man actions that it would be to risky leaving them in nature. Those in nature like the whales in Chile can be found only in hardly penetrable areas. In addition to that, these species are fortunate because a lot of the other, like pied duck, do not exist anymore.

Secondly, careful observation of animals and their breeding process can show us how people are becoming choosey. This habit can be seen in everyday life where we are constantly looking for a better camera, bigger house, new model of shoes and if you are a lady couple of more shoes, and boots in addition to that. In the same time, people are trying to get more and more from animals. With better quality they can get better price, and for this reason people are trying to farm bigger pigs or pinker salmons. For instance, cows from Kobe, Japan are the best example how people are more choosey today. In order to get better and lean beef, farmers in Kobe are putting special attention to their cows allowing them to listen classical music and drink beer.

In conclusion, I believe that the aforementioned examples, like destruction of natural habitats and species, and breeding process clearly show how we can learn a lot about human nature just by observing animals. Although, these are negative examples I strongly believe that we are better than that, and that people will find the strength to make a serious effort to protect not only animals but Planet as a whole.