Topic 1: Does increasing travels between countries enable people to learn different cultures or to

Topic 41: Today, people are getting greedy and selfish. Some people argue that we 
should go back to the old days, and show respect for the family and community, so that 
we can make the world a better place to live in. To what extent do you agree or 
disagree?
 
(disregard the wellbeing of others ) , (individualism) (collectivism).(communalism).(egoism )
(altruism), (submit his or her own will to the general will), (do what is in one's own self-interest), 
(unrestricted pursuit of individual goals and desires); (hinder one' pursuit of self-development, 
excellence and creativity) ( egoism) (refrain from taking the well-being of others into consideration),
(solidarity); (Self-interested behaviour is to hurt individuals themselves. ) 
 
Perhaps the tendency toward individualism has never been clearer than it is now. People 
seem to become increasingly self-centered and snobbish. I side with those people who believe 
that reviving the bygone concept of family and community is important.
The rise of egoism has profound consequences on the unity of a family, causing the 
breakdown of family solidarity. Every component of a family can be detrimentally affected, if 
one member is egoistic. "Blood is thicker than water", as an old saying indicates. People will 
turn to family first if they are confronted with problems. People used to live in a community 
in which they lived according to an ethos of sharing and caring, but nowadays, members of a 
family tend to work separately for their individual benefits. They are ignorant of the fact that 
families not only give them tangible benefits (e. g. financial aid), but also offer emotional 
support from which they obtain strength, comfort and confidence.
Egoism also causes people to ignore the good of the community, a problem that is 
disruptive to the community. So greedy are some people that they can go so far to engage in 
illegal activities. For example, some merchants earn handsome incomes from producing 
disqualified products and cajoling people to buy what they do not actually need. They, 
meanwhile, refuse to plough back any fraction of their income to the community. Individuals 
become indifferent to others' interests and the relationship between individual members tends 
to become superficial, transient and ad hoc. People remain as onlookers when neighbors ask 
for help, and social solidarity has been dismantled in front of the overwhelming egoism.
As shown above, greedy and egoism are set to bring both the society and the families in 
grave trouble. The best way to prevent people from further loss in social solidarity and 
community unity is to reconstruct the concept of family and community, show esteem to 
one's family, friends, neighbors and even acquaintances, and recover a sense of community 
and social cohesion.
1. Self-centered=selfish=egoistic
2. Side with=support=back
3. Bygone=past=onetime
4. Tangible=touchable=concrete
5. Obtain=gain=acquire
6. The good of the community
7. Handsome=sizable=considerable
8. Disqualified=banned=prohibited
9. Cajole=entice=wheedle
10. Plough back=reinvest
1

---

11. Superficial=cursory=shallow
12. Transient=ileeting=brief=temporary=transitory=short-lived=ephemeral
13. Ad hoc=unprepared=unplanned=improvised=informal
14. Onlooker=bystander=watcher
15. Reconstruct=re-build=restructure
16. Acquaintance=friend=colleague=associate
17. Cohesion=solidarity=unity
 
2

---