Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Writing Task 2, 6th August
IELTS WRITING TASK 2
IELTS WRITING TASK 2
The movement of people from the countryside into the cities is happening in many parts of the world, resulting in problems, especially in cities.
What are the causes of this movement, and how can it be reversed.
SAMPLE ANSWER
The migration of people from the countryside to cities is a phenomenon occurring in most developed countries, presenting considerable challenges at both ends of this movement. It is worthwhile, therefore, examining its causes, as well as methods to counter this trend, and here I will attempt that.
One reason cities grow is through their provision of employment. Developed societies have long since shifted from the agricultural into the modern and post-modern eras. Obviously, greater amounts of food are produced (catering to the world’s burgeoning population), but mechanization and mono-cultural farming have reduced the demand for labour. This is instead offered within the industrial and services sectors, located almost exclusively in urban precincts. Inevitably, this attracts people, in turn attracting more, the end-result being mammoth conurbations such as Tokyo or Mexico City.
Another cause of rural exodus is the mental stimulation, needed by our species, which city environments similarly offer. Human being are innately gregarious and communicative, and the dull and isolated rural existence is inappropriate to such instincts, which instead revel in the multiplicity of sights sounds, and experiences, offered by the vast teeming metropolises of this world. Examples such as New York, Paris and London, vibrant and variegated, spring readily to mind, drawing influxes of people at their countryside’s expense.
As for solutions, implementing a sustained concerted decentralization policy is one idea. Here, rather than one huge sprawling city (with its intractable problem), to which ‘all roads lead’ (such as Bangkok), industry and its attendant opportunities can as simultaneously developed in satellite township. Government subsidies, and other financial incentives, could be used, encouraging companies to relocate to these areas, thus reviving an economic heartbeat and, in theory, a growth in population. Such schemes are taking place in Taipei, with infrastructural development shifting to peripheral counties (yet admittedly, with mixed success).
Although the decline of country communities sad, it may be inevitable. Unless they can provide environments concordant with human needs and instincts the trend is unlikely to stop. Perhaps, as cities swell to problematic sizes, the rural existence will be seen in more favourable light.
IELTS Writing Task 2