Mock exam essay

Q3. Several problems which hinder ethical products from entering the mainstream consumer market are mentioned in the article. Which of those problems apply to your home country? How can such problems be solved?


Nowadays, people are not surprised to see such words as “environmentally friendly products” or “ethical products” when shopping. In the process of producing or using many traditional products, wastes or wasted gases are produced as well, which indeed do harm to our environment. Such ethical products come out to lessen the pollution from what people consume. It is really a nice idea; however, in China, there are some problems hindering ethical products from entering the mainstream consumer market: 1. many consumers do not have such conscience to buy ethical products; 2. the price of those products are usually much higher than the traditional ones; 3. the products there are not sufficient for consumers to choose.

Lacking of awareness may be the first problem. For a long time, people consume in order to satisfy themselves and most of them seldom consider the impact of their consumption to environment. This is exactly most people think in China. I think school education can do much to change the situation. If schools can teach students that what people buy would have an impact on their living environment and people should treat the world more kindly, they may probably have the conscience to buy ethical products even when they are young. In such a way, at least most educated people will buy ethical products. Also, the promotion from the sellers is very important, because people can learn more about ethical products in the promotion when they are consuming everywhere. And they may be influenced by the promotion or advertisements. Besides, public figures can make a difference in the area, because they have such a significant influence on the public. One example is that high-fashion retail queen Christina Ong who set up stores selling “wholesome munchies” (Tan, 2007). What she did can definitely appeal the public’s attention.

Another problem is the high price of ethical products. Usually, in China, the ethical products are more expensive. This may be due to the lower demand and the normally higher cost of ethical products. If more are demanded, more ethical products will be produced. Thus the average cost becomes lower. Naturally the price may fall down. Or, if new advanced technology can be applied in manufacturing, the cost probably may be reduced also. Of course, people are more willing to purchase the nice goods charging less. So such cases that like the environmentally safe dishwashing liquid in Singapore is twice or triple price than that in Australia (Tan, 2007) would not happen in China. And Chinese government should show their support to producing ethical products technologically and financially. Government should give money to those companies for research to find advanced manufacturing technology. Or even government can pay for the difference of the prices that consumers are willing to pay and that producers are willing to produce. As a result, both producers and consumers are satisfied and so that ethical products definitely will be in the mainstream market.

Last but not least, the situation that the ethical products now in the market are not sufficient for consumers to choose. Here, maybe the government should take more responsibility. Government should encourage the development of industry of ethical products to make sure consumers can choose among various products. If it is not easy to set up many factories to solve this problem, increase of import can be considered. Increase of the variety of ethical products may help themselves a lot to enter the mainstream market.

If consumers are more aware when shopping, companies show more responsibility to society and government support ethical products more, it is possible that ethical products will share the mainstream market soon even there are still some problems. It is the responsibility of every individual to buy ethical products to lessen the harm to environment. The first thing to do is purchasing environmentally friendly products.



References:

Wei, T. D. (2007, February 11). Buying a better world. The Straits Time, p. L6

Narnia, fantastical!

“Narnia” is fantastical tale of a magical land beset by the forces of evil—the White Witch and the struggles of righteousness to defend the evil and finally succeeded. It is really a nice story; at least for me, it is really amazing that I can put myself into the story.
I love the so beautiful music of the movie. Especially the part when the Pevensies entered into Narnia, the background music was so soft, light and delighted. Listening to such music made me feel very relaxed. People can image that they sit at wide grassland, closing eyes, listening to bird singing or river running and enjoying every nice around you. How peaceful you can image it is! In the movie, everything was in such a white and quiet world with the light music. Frankly, it is exactly the feeling I have been looking for in my live.
Always, live is busy and tough, and sometimes I am very tired of what is facing me and want escape from the real live. Actually I know I was looking for relax not escaping. Losing myself in such peaceful music, I found what I want. It is that I need to comfort myself when I am struggling. Thanks to it!
Or, somehow, live is like the journey in the movie. Obstacles are there; like that evil is there. People should conquer it instead of being conquered; like that righteousness cannot be beaten by evils. Maybe what you face are not that so called obstacles. They are what live uses to test how people are determined. Like the story in the movie, everything was testing them how they were determinate. The strong in live is the one with great determination. It helps conquer any problem in live. It is also because of great determination that the Pevensies were able to make their task. I’ve got the idea that “Life is tough, but I can be tougher”. Maybe great determination is that make people “tougher”.

Problems about Emotional Intelligence

There still are some problems facing anyone when they are talking about the emotional intelligence (EI) in families, though they have already heard about it. The most obvious problem may be that some families do not pay enough attention to children’s EI development. Parents take EI for granted and what they see is only the marks in exam papers and the success of academic performance. They seldom teach children how to be sympathetic to others, how to behave properly in different occasions, how to control their temper, how to release stress and so on. All these definitely will play significant roles in children’s lives in the future. For such families, what they should do first is to have a clear idea and realize the importance of EI. Once they get the right attitude towards EI, they may probably do better in helping young people develop their EI. The next problem is the conflicts between young people and family members, more often with parents. Initially, the conflicts may block the communication between parents and children. As a consequence, they might block the way for parents to help children to develop their EI. For instance, young people and parents may hold different opinions on the same issue. Once they cannot understand each other, conflicts may occur, quarreling or unwilling to talk with each other. Without efficient communication, parents cannot do much in helping children develop their EI. To solve this problem, the parties of conflicts have to put themselves in the other’s position. More importantly, I think, parents should not talk to children as if they hold the full power and children have no choices but just to follow them. They can share their different ideas instead of trying to force the other to accept their own ideas unwillingly. My suggestion is to try to talk with each other more patiently, amicably and sincerely.

WHU vs NUS

So far, I have studied in two universities, my home university, Wuhan University (WHU) and National University of Singapore (NUS), they are strikingly different in many ways. Firstly, the physical size of each university is obviously different. WHU occupies a large area of 336 square meters, with four campuses, whereas NUS is about half of the size, having an area of about 150 square meters, with its three principal campuses. Another difference is in the size of population of each. WHU has more than 38,000 students studying in it and most are living in campus, but NUS has a population of around 26,000. In terms of the international degree of education, they are also quite different. In WHU, among all the students, only less than 1,000 are international student. And lecturers and professors are mainly from China. By contrast, in NUS, more than 20% students are from hundreds of foreign countries, and the lecturers and professors are from all over the world. In addition, these two also differ in natural environment. WHU locates in the middle of China, extremely hot in summer and very cold in winter. While NUS is in the tropical part, weather here changes slightly but receives much rainfall, neither too hot nor too cold. As a result of the different weather, in WHU, it is green in spring and summer with trees surrounding, golden in autumn with falling leaves and white in winter with snow flying, while in NUS, it is green warm all the year round.

Love in My Life... ...

LOVE is what I value most in my life all the time, from a child to an adult now. It gives me the best care for my growing; it offers me the protection against whatever may harm me; it makes me feel happy; it shows me a truly beautiful world around. Anyway, I can feel the world existing when lost in love.
All the time, love from my parents supports me wherever I am and whatever I meet. No matter how difficult the situations are, their love never escapes from me and I know that I am never alone.
When I am in school, especially like now, I am studying oversea; I cannot see my parents every day. I still can feel their love. They send messages to me, asking me about my live and study. Now, furthermore, I have got lots of good friends. They love me also. I can turn to them when I feel sad.
Maybe later, in the future, I will have my own family, my wife and my babies. No doubt that they will love me so much that it will gives me all the energy and power to work and too give them the best live. Without their love, I cannot even move one single step forward.
It is love that integrates my loves with me. We love each other so much that we cannot live without love, which I think we all value very much.