IELTS Writing Sample 6

Topic:

In recent years some countries have experienced very rapid economic development. This has resulted in much higher standards of living in urban areas but non in the countryside.

This situation may bring some problems for the country as a whole.

What are these problems?

How might they be reduced?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words


SAMPLE ANSWER:

From the evidence of developing countries all over the world it seems inevitable that economic growth is generated in the business and industrial centres of the major cities. As a result, urban citizens have access to jobs and facilities that improve their living standards considerably. However, it is usually the case that these are not equally enjoyed by people in the countryside and this generates several problems for the countries concerned.

First of all, people from the countryside will try to move to the cities to get more employment opportunities and better access to the facilities available there. But this increase in the urban population puts great pressure on housing and services, and leads to the creates of massive slum areas where conditions may be lower than in the rural villages. These are often left under-populated and this can impact on food production and can have severe affects for people in both urban and rural areas.

Finally, as a country's economy develops, there may be an increasing sense of inequality as the towns get richer and the villages get poorer, and this may lead to more crime and even civil unrest.

The key to reducing these problems seems to lie in improving the standards of living and the facilities available in the countryside. Perhaps incentives can be offered to factories and companies to relocate; road and rail networks can be built to make such relocation possible; doctors and teachers could be required to spend part of their professional lives in rural areas, etc.

In conclusion, however, improving rural living standards requires investment and political will that is sometimes not easy to generate.
(272 words)