Integrated writing

[Babo]

Hi Sir, will you please check this for me, and tell me did I end up this task in the right way or not?
Reading

Private collectors have been selling and buying fossils, the petrified remains of ancient organisms, ever since the eighteenth century. In recent years, however, the sale of fossils, particularly of dinosaurs and other large vertebrate has grown into a big business. Rare and important fossils are now being sold to private owner ship for millions of dollars. This is an unfortunate development for both scientists and the general public.
The public suffers because fossils that would otherwise be donated to museums where everyone can see them are sold to private collectors who do not allow the public to view their collections. Making it harder for the public to see fossils can lead to a decline in public interest in fossils, which would be a pity.
More importantly, scientists are likely to lose access to some of the most important fossils and thereby miss out on potentially crucial discoveries about extinct life forms. Wealthy fossil buyers with a desire to own the rarest and most important fossils can spend virtually limitless amounts of money to acquire them. Scientists and the museums and universities they work for often cannot compete successfully for fossils against millionaire fossil buyers.
Moreover, commercial fossil collectors often destroy valuable scientific evidence associated with the fossil they unearth. Most commercial fossil collectors are untrained or uninterested in carrying out the careful field work and documentation that reveal the most about animal life in the past. For example, scientists have learned about the biology of nest-building dinosaurs called oviraptors by carefully observing the exact position of oviraptor fossils in the ground and the presence of other fossils in the immediate surroundings. Commercial fossil collectors typically pay no attention to how fossils lie in the ground or to the smaller fossils that may surround bigger ones.

Listening

Of course there are some negative consequences of selling fossils in the commercial market, but they’ve been greatly exaggerated. The benefits of commercial fossil trade greatly outweigh the disadvantages.
First of all, the public is likely to have greater exposure to fossils as a result of commercial fossil trade, not less exposure. Commercial fossil hunting makes a lot of fossils available for purchase. And as a result, even low-level public institutions, like public schools and libraries, cannot routinely by interesting fossils and display them for the public.
As for the idea that scientists will lose access to really important fossils, that’s not realistic, either. Before anyone can put value on a fossil, it needs to be scientifically identified, right? Well, the only people who can identify fossils, who can really tell what given fossil is or isn’t, are scientists. By performing detail examinations in tests on the fossils themselves. So even if a fossil’s destined to go to a private collector, it has to pass through the hands of scientific experts first. This way, the scientific community is not gonna miss out on anything important that’s out there.
Finally, whatever damage commercial fossil collectors sometimes do, if it weren’t for them, many fossils would simply go undiscovered, because there aren’t that many fossil collecting corporations that run by university and other scientific institutions. Isn’t it better for scientists to at least have more fossils being found, even if we don’t have all the scientific data we would like to have about their locations and surroundings than is it to have many fossils go completely undiscovered?

My Response
The reading passage and the professor talk about whether fossil business benefits scientists and the general public. The reading passage describes this as a negative impact, while the professor points out that it is a fortunate development. Both of them hold their opinions in the following way;

First of all, the reading passage states that the business of the fossils is flourishing these days. This remarkable success has enabled the businessmen to sell the rare species of the fossils to the private owners in high monetary value, which is not beneficial for both scientists and the general public. However, the professor holds different opinion by saying that it is merely an exaggeration to say that it has no concern with general public and scientists. According to him, the commercial trade of fossils enhances its purchase and availability to the schools and museums where they are displayed for the general public. Whereas the reading passage asserts that when private collectors buy these fossils, the public is deprived of viewing the fossil collection,which is pathetic.

Second, the reading passage claims that scientists are unable to achieve essential fossils for their research work and that's why many of the extinct life forms of various organisms remain under the veil.This is because the rich private owner tend to buy fossils and owe them as their property. On the contrary, the professor considers this as an unrealistic attitude of the author. He posits that only scientists are the personnels who can significantly provide the importance of fossils after their detailed examination. So how come the fossils can be handed to the private collectors first?

Third, the reading passage states that the private collectors are not well trained and are careless regarding handling of scientific evidence and documentation of the fossils. The author provides the example of oviraptor fossils which may be carried out in a better way by the scientists than private collectors. On the other hand, the professor goes against the author's opinion. He justifies his statement by saying that no matter what fossil damage is associated with private owners, it is better to have at least more fossils owned by the private collectors. He further raises a question that since there are a few scientists and institutions who collect these fossils, Isn't it better to have some fossils rather than leaving them unearthed?

TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture by a professor of American History
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Never give up trying, if you want to achieve something in life.

[Kitosdad]

[Babo]

Thanks a lot Sir. It is really an honor for me to snatch 9/10 from you. This is second time I got 9 since I joined this forum:)
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Never give up trying, if you want to achieve something in life.

[Kitosdad]

You only get what you deserve Babo. I don't play favourites. Well done.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Babo]

Thank you Sir.
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Never give up trying, if you want to achieve something in life.