8/12/2019 Discussion Essay Test
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Discussion essay test
Read the example of a discussion essay above. It hasbeen divided
into the stages given above as an example toillustrate staging.
1. Draw a box around (or colour) the stages of theIntroduction,
ody and !onclusion within the discussionessay below titled, The
mechanisation ofagriculture andits effect on quality of life. "se
the model from the essaytitled Genetically modified foods above.
#he generalstatement from the introduction has been done for
you.
$. %tate the meaning of bolded words founded in the essay.
The mechanisation of agriculture and its effect on quality of
life
&a'or developments have taen place in the field of
aricultureduring the last century, one of the most Important of
which hasbeen the introduction and extensive use of macinery.#his
hashad great effects on the environment and on the lives ofmillions
of people around the world. *or the purposes of this
essay, we will tae the mechanisation of agriculture to meanthe
use of any device that is powered by anything other thanhumans or
animals, on a farm. !areful consideration of some ofthe effects of
agricultural mechanisation, both positive andnegative, is essential
for any country currently experiencing anincrease in the use of
such machines.
#he vast increase in out putthat has been made possible by
more use of mechanisation is probably the most importantpositive
effect of this process. #he speed of planting crops,spreading
fertilisers and pesticides, and harvesting, isphenomenal. +ll three
of these processes contribute to euallyenormousincreases in
production.
&echanisation has improved food production during
thiscentury and has helped to feed the larger world population.
Increased use of farm machinery has also generally led to
adecrease in costs. #his may seem surprising when the
8/12/2019 Discussion Essay Test
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considerable cost of initial purchase of euipment is
considered(this may be tens of thousands of dollars for a tractor,
orhundreds of thousands of dollars for a large piece of euipmentlie
a combine harvester). owever, a tractor enables oneperson to
perform so much more wor that the extra profit,made from having
more crop to sell, more than covers thepurchase and running costs
of the tractor. #hrough similarsavings using other pieces of
euipment, costs per hectare offood production have fallen
significantly.
Despite these highly positive results of mechanisation, thereare
also several negative factors that aren-t always consideredby the
proponentsof this process. ne of the most importantof these is
employment. +s in all other fields of life, theincreasing use of
machines inevitably results in the same 'obbeing done by fewer
people. It can be argued that some 'obsare created in designing and
maintaining the machines, butalmost always more 'obs are lost than
created, and in additionthe people whose 'obs are lost often do not
have the sills toundertae the newly created 'obs. #herefore many
'obs have togo, leading to a variety of social problems in rural
communities.
ne of these problems is that the unemployed of thecountryside
have to go elsewhere to find wor/the obviousplaces to loo. are the
larger cities, where further problemsoccur. #hus the increasing use
of machinery leads to anexplosion in urban population. ecause the
people moving tothe cities are usually poor, this causes problems
of sub/standard housing (resulting in slums), transport problems
andurban poverty, as there are not necessarily more 'obs
availablein the city than there were in the countryside. +lso,
themovement of people to the cities often means that families
arespilt up, and villages which were once strong communitiesbecome
too small to support essential services such as postoffices and
public transport. #his leads to the irreversiblebreaup of these
communities as people move to the cities.
