TOEFL® essay: Observing or studying animals a lot can teach about human nature?

[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.

Observing or studying animals a lot can teach about human nature? Do you agree or disagree?

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 has completely changed and, unfortunately, man became 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 the 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 one hundred 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 an 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.