1.Describe a place of interest in your hometown

=> I live in New York with my parents. There are a good number of interesting places to see and visit here. But the New York Public Library is more interesting to me than any other places.

I am a citizen of the USA by birth but my parents are not. They came here in search of living from Larissa in Greece during the 1980s. They have been living for around 36 years in this city. After my birth and I got matured enough, they took me to different interesting places to visit in the New York City, and these places are really interesting. But being an introvert, I disliked the crowds and the public library appeared to be more interesting to me than other places. The place is filled with books on numerous issues, magazines, documents and many other things. The classics available in the library were my favourite.

Going to the library is easier for me. In fact, this is not far away from my residence. The New York Public Library is only a 10-minute walk from my home. It remains open from 10 am to 8 pm, except the weekends. Usually, I go there in the evening and read books or novels until the library is closed. Besides, the library is accessible from the other parts of the city. The people who want to visit the library can reach here using several transportation modes. They can reach the library by taxi, metro or by their private cars. But the people who live nearby, like me, come here mostly on foot.

The New York Public Library is a great place to read. But the people who come here are not readers always. Some of them are researchers, while some others may be historians or musicians. Actually, the library is visited by a wide range of people. Basically, the library comes with the reading facilities. But there is also the scope to check the reference books, peep on the music directory or crosscheck any history. Besides, the reading rooms are well expanded and the readers have ample opportunities to use the books and references after their needs. But they have to be careful with the books. Silence among the readers while reading books is expected there.

Reading books may appear boring to many but it is very interesting to me. I love reading books. The books help us to know the unknown and unseen. The experiences of past thousand years have been preserved in books in words. So, when I read them, it appears that I am travelling through time! But every place is not suitable for reading and it requires a very special environment. Hence, I think a library is a nice place to read. At the same time, it is an interesting place as an enriched collection of books are available together. In fact, it is impossible for an individual to collect a part of the books of this library in his entire life. So, I find more interest in reading books in a calm place and the New York Public Library is a place I would recommend to a tourist.

In the past our country did not have computers, televisions,... they only games such as blindman's bluff, hide-and-seek. They are people who talk together. But now the teens are differnt from their time mostly on phones and computers. Now they text instead of talking. Play games instead of playing games as before. If so, the more they miss, the less they will stay away from society and not good for them

*Tham khảo:

Teenagers in the past enjoyed more outdoor and physical activities, with a focus on face-to-face interactions. Pastimes included sports, board games, and community engagement. Unlike today's digitally connected world, their leisure activities were often rooted in local communities and traditional forms of entertainment.

Teenagers in the past engaged in a range of analog activities, from outdoor sports and face-to-face socializing to reading, music, and part-time jobs. Hobbies, crafts, and school activities were common, fostering creativity, social connections, and personal development. The evolution of pastimes reflects changes in technology, society, and cultural trends.

Topic 1:

TOPIC 1:

Bat Trang Porcelain Village is a traditional pottery-making village, which is located in the Northern of the Red River, Bat Trang town, Gia Lam district, Ha Noi. The pottery here is made of a special kind of clay – the white clay.
The craftsmen only use their hands to knead the clay into the shape of the bowl, flower vase, etc. Then, they draw lively pictures or patterns on the products and glaze them. After that, these kneaded-clays will be put into the kiln for heating.

The pottery products of Bat Trang Porcelain Village are always famous for the skillfulness, subtleness and the diversity of product’s shapes such as small bowls, large bowls, flower vases, pots, thuribles, etc. Especially, all the handicrafts of this pottery-making village are waterproof and fade-resistant.

The glaze of Bat Trang is also very subtle and unique with the secret recipe, which is handed down from generation to generation. Those values have created such an irresistible attraction and appealing feature for Bat Trang village. This is the reason why this traditional handicraft village can attract so many tourists as well.

TOPIC 2:

Life in modern cities truly causes a lot of nuisances. In the first place, citizens have to deal with traffic congestion every day. This problem is even worse in the rush hour when so many people run out to work and are stuck on streets for hours. Next, high cost of living is also a serious issue in the city, especially in metropolitan cities. More and more people find it difficult to live on their modest salaries when prices are going up all the time. Financial pressure makes city dwellers become constantly stressed and tired. Finally, the polluted air caused by exhaust emissions from millions of vehicles, construction dust and the lack of green trees negatively affects residents’ health. Many people suffer from respiratory problems such as cough, sore throat or asthma. Indeed, city life brings a number of difficulties as well as challenges to its citizens.

The past continuous tense:

Put the verbs in brackets into the past continuous tense.

5 He usually wears sandals but when I last saw him he (wear)was wearing boots.

6 The house was in great disorder because he (redecorate)was redecorating it.

8 The car had nobody in it but the engine (run)was running.

9 Two children (play)were playing on the sand and two fishermen (lean) were learning against an upturned boat.

13 My wife and I (talk)were talking about you the other day.

14 When I first met him he (study)was studying painting.

17 Who were you (talk)talking to on the telephone as I came in? I (talk)was talking to Mr Pitt.

25 Two men (fight)were fighting at a street comer and a policeman (try) was trying to stop them. ~

What were they (fight)fighting about? ~ Nobody seemed to know.

Recently, everything has been changed from the past as well as people behave and thought. People now do not know each other even if these people their neighbors. Moreover, people in the present have many diseases; these illnesses have not existed in the past. The air and environment surround us have several elements which have a dangerous germ and chemical substances. Life in the past was a best time to be alive because people care and knew each other, have a good health, and have clean environment.

In the past, people live in small communities and few numbers of populations. Everyone knew each other. In addition, if one had problem all of his neighbors will help him. Also, if someone had party everyone will come, help him and celebrate to gather. In contrast, in these days no one care about other even if they their relative or neighbors, they are busy all of the day, and they just think for themselves. Moreover, technology play important role for communicate and meet other people because if people want to toke with other, they just send a massage or call without visit each other.

People in the past had a good health than people now. In the past people worked in farm and walk by their legs to go from place to other. Also, the kind of food they ate was natural and did not had genetic modify or chemical substance. But, nowadays, people do anything faster and easier than in the past by using the machine to help them such as in the housework or in their jobs. Furthermore, people use the cars to commute to their jobs or from one place to other. As a result, this less of movement and depend on the machines affect of our health people may get hard attacked and Obesity these disease did not exist in the past.

In the past, the environment was clean and people had many natural resources they use it for everything. however, now, the population has been increased that have a negative impact on the environment. We have many factories and destroy to cover all of expenses for people in the whole world. These factories leave behind them chemical substance that cause foe pollution of environment and kill planets and animals dying.

In conclusion, People in the past, care and help each other. Also, they have a good health than now because they did anything by their body instead of using machines. Also, in the past, the environment was clean because, the population was few and there were no factories affected on the environment. I think live in the past is better than now because of the reason I mention above.