[unknown a] Writing Practice Test 1017261

The table below shows the total number of people traveling abroad in 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005. Overall, the number increased every 5 years in total. The Middle East stayed as the area with the lowest number of tourists while Europe had the highest number of tourists visiting the continent with almost two-thirds of the total.

In 1990, the total number of people who went traveling was 448.9 million, and the number kept increasing to 693.7 million in 2005. If it is analyzed from the data, Asia and the Pacific area had the highest percentage of increase in visitors with above 100% from 60.2 to 135.8 million people, while America was at the lowest with only around 50% of the increase in the number of visitors from 80.5 to 113.2 million people, with the decrease of 5 million people from 2000, with 118.2 million. Europe and the Middle East had more visitors after 15 years as well, from 280.2 and 9.8 million respectively in 1990, to 400.2 and 15.8 million in 2005 respectively, both almost doubled in total. The last, Africa also showed an increase from 18.2 to 28.7 million visitors which was around a 60% increase after 1.5 decades.

In conclusion, the number of international visitors to the five continents kept increasing in the 15-year gap. Europe always had the highest number of visitors, but Asia and the Pacific had the highest increase in number with doubled number of visitors.

Nowadays, more people decide to continue their education by going to university to get a higher degree. Is this something worth doing for their future? Many people also suggest having vocational training since there are fewer qualified workers like electricians and plumbers. However, in my opinion, academic study is important these days, by earning deeper knowledge and since the competition in work environment becomes more difficult.

Firstly, academic study in the university offers more specified subjects so that people can gain the knowledge they are experts in. The specialization in the university by offering different types of majors makes people more focused on improving their minds and ability. Also, academic achievement is not the only important thing. Through college life, people can have experience in non-academic fields as well, by contributing to a campus organizations, learning to be a teaching or research assistant, as well as practicing communication and teamwork skills. Also, in my own experience, some universities obligate their students to join campus or faculty events by being a committee for the purpose of learning how to manage an event. These examples show that vocational training is included in the university level as well without having to do it specifically.

Secondly, nowadays, many companies want to recruit a higher degree employee which gives them a benefit. People with an undergraduate or post-graduate degrees have wider knowledge and skills in general, which help the company to grow their business and develop deeper and more creative ideas based on their experience as well as a good technical skills they learned during college. On the other hand, people who have had vocational training only, have a very good non-academic skills, but they are not really good at problem solving or critical thinking when needed since both of those things require more academic skills than technical skills.

In summary, I agree that vocational training is important for people to gain their non-academic skills and is useful in working environment. However, academic study in the university help people learn both academic and non-academic skills which give people more opportunity to experience a lot more things while gaining a deeper knowledge in their specialization. Studying in the university can make people more qualified for a company because of their knowledge and skills.