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Wednesday, September 07, 2016



Dear Simon,

I noticed you wrote

- a major threat to life on Earth
- impact on THE Earth's climate

Why the first sentence does not contain "THE"? is it right to say life on THE Earth?


Does'Try to limit the contribution ' means 'make every effort' or 'make little effort'?

I also have the same question as Nmtuan2k. Besides why isn't it "to the life on Earth"?

there are some good phrases in this essay:
- tackle this issue
- reduce the human impact on
- take to prevent
- carbon dioxide emission
- renewable energy production
- energy efficient
- flying less
- vote for politician
- able to cope with
- outbreaks of diseases and famine
- homelessness and poverty

Hi Simon,
I have an important question here. I see some sample essays about "discuss both these views and give your own opinions"

I saw that you showed your opinion in the introduction (for example: I agree with those who believe that other measures of progress...)

I want to ask: For example, do I have to write "other people would argue that various other forms of progress ...." rather than "I would argue that various other forms of progress" in the third part of these essays" to discuss both views.

In your sample essays, you only discussed 1 view of some people and your view, not both views

I am afraid that examiner will reduce my score

Thank you very much!


There are some good questions above. I'll answer them this weekend and next Wednesday in a couple of lessons here on the blog.

Hi Simon,
In the first sentence in paragragh 1,you wrote"climate change represents a major threat to life on earth".Is "represents"correct?I feel the right verb should be presents.looking forward to your response.


Just put "represents a threat" in Google to see how often we use this phrase.

Hello Mr Simon,
is it possible to completely agree/disagree with above question. For instance, if i agree with the statement can i just write why i agree without talking other side(why some people disagree)? i heard we can either agree or disagree completely than can write 2-3 supporting points for that. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks in advance

Thanks Simon,I have seen lots of expressions using "represents a threat".eg 1. pollution emitted in industrial areas represents a threat to human health and the surrounding natural resources.2,Why an NFL superstar lawsuit against ESPN represents a threat for media.please can "poses"be used in place of represents.

Here is my list of worth using vocabularies:
1. rather than try (ing?) to stop it
2. time to tackle
3. at least mitigate
4. introduce laws
5. emissions that lead to global warming
6. Impose taxes
7. limit our contribution
8. propose to tackle
9. Prefer to ignore
10. consequences will be disastrous
11. Cope with even a small rise
12. means to safeguard
13. forced to migrate
14. potential for human suffering

Another question please simon,

When you mentioned climate change for the next time in the second paragraph(the first was in the introduction), why didn't you added the in front of it?
And are these the same:
A major threat to life on Earth
A major threat to the life on Earth
A major threat to the life on the Earth

Thanks a lot
Your efforts are always much appreciated and we are all grateful

Hlo simon sir, I'm from india(ludhiana) plz tell.... which matireal,you give to student daily through this page.... is that, add in india's ielts exam.... plz tell.. I want to give ielts exam in ludhiana... plz me through msg by my email id ... tx sir

I saw that Simon used capital letter E in the word earth. Is it by mistake or we use capital E for this word.

Hi Simon,

I'm writing this comment to ask an advice from you. Two years back I sat for the IELTS exam under general scheme after some preparation and my results were Speaking - 6.5, Reading - 6.0, Listening - 6.0 and Writing - 6.0. But my target was 7.0 for each. After that I didn't do anything for IELTS for last couple of years. But now I want to sit for the IELTS exam again to achieve my target. But problem is, now I don't have an idea about how do I prepare for the exam, how long should I practice and when should I take the exam. This time I really confused. Please advice me. I really appreciate your help.

Dear colleagues,
Your comments also warmly welcome.


haha, 2 years ago I "sat" here on this site, too. I was teaching IELTS then. Glad to see this site's growth.

Chami, I believe you should start with updates. There are no major ones, though. You might wanna check Cambridge 11. Back then, Cambridge 10 was the latest, lol.

You might want to check previous IELTS tasks/questions as well. If I'm right, 80% won't be asked. That's sth. you can slash of your list. They may recycle the topics though. [topic (= NOT) question] EXC. P1 of speaking = pretty much the same. EXC. to EXC. = I've heard slight differences depending on country.

Simi: earth or Earth?

Earth, as used in the context, is described as a special place. Special names (of places, people, objects, etc.) are often used as "Proper nouns." Proper nouns often start with caps.

Besides, we only have 1 Earth. Take the case of "the Internet" ^^

Hi Simon,

You wrote ": energy efficient", why not "energy efficiency" or "efficient energy" ?


Hi Simon,

I am just wondering why we need to talk about what government should have carried out to mitigate climate problems in para 1?



We need to use the adjective "efficient" in this context, because it comes after the word "becoming" e.g. becoming efficient, becoming skilled, becoming good. It's very common to write "energy efficient".



You don't have to write about governments, but I chose to separate my ideas into 2 groups: what governments and individuals can do. It's just my choice.


Tomorrow's lesson will answer the other questions above. If your question was not about this particular essay, I'll answer it another time.

Hi Simon, thanks for your site,
I have a question that sometime I don't have much idea about questions in writing,means not much knowledge, so what should do in this situation?


I've covered many common topics here on the blog. You'll feel better prepared if you read through as many of my lessons as you can!

Okay thanks sir,
One more confusion,which tense should I use more or can I use pronouns, and give my own e.g????of life

dear simon
although you write the best writing, I think that in this essay you write problem-solution instead od agree-disagree. it is better to support idea in this essay instead of giving solution for global warming .
yours faithfully
your student and fan
Farhad Rahgozar

Hi Sir,
I have a question about what kind of supproting point is better.
If I write this article I will focus on why should take positive method to cope with the climate changing but you write the paragraph from the aspect that how to take methods for different groups.Can you tell me the reasons?Thanks.(ps:maybe I am a Chinese and wo have different ways of viewing the problems ,if that's why i will try hard to think like a native speaker)

Hi Farhad and Phil,

I understand your points. Maybe I took an extra step by explaining 'how' instead of focusing on the 'why'. I mentioned the reason why in my introduction ("because I believe that we still have time to tackle this issue"), and I think this is what led me to write about tackling climate change in paragraph 2.

Maybe you could suggest a possible 'why' paragraph that we could use.

Hi Simon,

In my essay for this topic, I wrote both "why" and "how" in one paragraph, which made my structure quite unclear. Below is my second paragraph on this topic:

First and foremost, human race need to take responsibility for the globe and try to compensate for its mistakes, as we share the world and nature with many other creatures who might be faced with threats of extinction should the trend continue. (Here I point out the reasons to take measures) Furthermore, firece as the status quo is, it is not too late to encourage citizens to live a green life. For example, imposing less taxation on environmental-friendly products like electric cars would limit the emission of carbon dioxide. As for the international community, developing and developed countries are expected to cooperate and coordinate in order to implement agreements reached in international conferences. (Then I made some suggestions for an indivivual country and the international community.)

I intended to add as much information as possible in the paragraph. However, I found this paragraph very confusing because I did not focus on one aspect(either why or how). Is it that in one paragraph, we'd better focus on only how or why?

Thank you.

Hello Simon. I have a question in my mind. For this essay, can I write a paragraph for the measures that could be taken by governments and politicians, and one paragraph for those by individuals?
Is it OK?

Dear Simon,

Don't you think a 322- word essay would be penalized?

Hello Simon,
I notice that in your essay, in the third paragraph, you use a lot of "would", rather than use " will". I wonder whether you use " would" because it is represented for conditional sentence type 2 or not. In addition, I would like to know the meaning and the way to use phrase "to give just one example"
Thank you for your consideration :)


There is no maximum number of words, so you will never be penalised for writing "too many" words.



Yes, I'm using "would" to imagine a situation that does not exist in reality at the moment.

You can use "To give just one example" instead of "For example".

hello simon
I wonder you write 9 band in the bottom of your essay. Are they really band 9 ??????????


Yes, I'm a native speaker and English teacher - IELTS candidates are not expected to be even better than me!!

Remember that IELTS is an exam for English learners. Band 9 does not mean 'professional native speaker writer' level - it means that you can write almost like a normal native speaker.

Hi Simon,

Regarding your par body 1, is it mandatory to present solutions on the question? Or can I just answer it with the reasons why I disagree just like what you did in par body 2?

Thank you.

Hi Simon,
I notice that in body 1 you used "could" for governments's possible actions whilst using "can" for individuals and public one
Can you help me to make it clear?
Thank you

Dear Simon,
I have two questions about your essay skeleton of this paragraph, comparing to the used skeleton of opinion essay that you mentioned in your previous lessons on the blog, and I am hoping that you can give me some advises.

The first question is about the order of “Paragraph 2” and “Paragraph 3”. In your previous lessons you said that in the second paragraph I can write the reason why I do not agree with the idea if I disagree with the opinion. In another word, I should describe the negative effects that the idea would bring in order to prove it is not right. And in the third paragraph I can give some reasons to insist on my opinion. However, I found that this order changed in this essay because you tried to confirm your agreed opinion in the paragraph 2 and you wrote reasons why you disagree with the idea in the paragraph 3. As a result, I wonder what the difference between the two description is, or there is any other reason about this.

Secondly, is it correct if in the paragraph 2 I write the reasons why we should prevent climate change instead of those measures of stopping it that you gave in the essay? For example, we can solve the problem when it is not getting worse, and we can save money and time if we deal with this issue right now than it is out of control.

I am looking forward to receiving your response.

Yours faithfully,

Grace Gong

I think we can not use "I" and "we" in body paragraph 1
". ". "" 2


That advice is wrong. Please read this lesson:



I want to know this sentence:"taking the above measures",why did you use the "the"? I think "measures"is plural. is the "taking above measures" right?


No, we need the word "the" in this case. Remember that "the" can be used with plurals as well as singular words (e.g. the cars, the people, the places etc.). It isn't a mistake.

I just gave it a try and would like to share with everyone. Don't judge my opinion, it's all about language :). Hope that it's not too bad.

One of the burning issues of the 21st century is climate change and its negative impact on people’s lives. While many people think prevention of this global phenomenon is the best way to tackle the problem, I totally disagree with this idea due to its lack of feasibility. In my view, we should otherwise focus on climate change adaptation.
First of all, it is not possible to reverse the process of climate change, which in contrast to common belief, does not merely happen as a result of humans’ activities. Every year, there are natural events such as volcanic eruption or forest fire that emit a great amount of carbon dioxide, which somehow leads to global warming. In these cases, little can be done by humans to interfere with the natural process. Moreover, the measures that we are applying to prevent or mitigate climate change is costly and ineffective. For example, many governments are building solar energy factories to generate power without burning fossil fuels, with a vain hope to reduce green house gas emission. However, these factories are expensive and due to its inefficiency, cannot solve the problem of power shortage that we are facing nowadays on a global scale.
On the contrary, as climate change is irreversable, adaptation to it seems to be a wise move. The first benefit of living with climate change is that we can mitigate the negative impacts of climate change without depending on the support of the government. Farmers in the Mekong delta of Vietnam, for example, are developing a rice - shrimp rotation farming model to adapt to the increased water salinity as a result of sea level rise. Instead of trying to prevent sea level rise, which is not possible, they are trying to develop sustainable livelihoods and make sure they will not die of hunger while waiting for the government’s interference. Moreover, if we think about climate change positively, we can even enjoy living with it. For example, Sapa, which is a famous tourist destination in the north of Vietnam, has started to experience snowfall for a couple of years and this has attracted a large number of tourists from warmer regions in the South to come and enjoy the beautiful town covered with snow. Damage to crops in Sapa, which is regarded as negative points by some people, will no longer be a problem once farmers have adapted to new weather conditions.
To sum up, we should all shift our attention away from climate change prevention and toward adaptation, as the latter is feasible and less costly.

hi Simon
I wonder whether I can learn by heart some sample essay to write in my test or not. Will I get a low score? So I am too bad on writing and I do not know how to start to learn and how is the good way to learn. Thanks so much

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