Oral examination subjects--solved variants

7. Is it better to enjoy your money when you earn it or is it better to save your money for some time in the future? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

The first payday is a date to remember for the rest of our lives. Earning our own money is very important especially when we are young and need our independence. But also, when we are young we need a lot of things so, even if we enjoy our first salary we end up at the end of the day thinking it is not enough and we should work more to have more money to buy everything we need. Probably people are rarely happy with their salary because nowadays we have to buy so much. There are so many things we have never thought about in the past and now we have to have them.

And also, there are too many places to visit, holidays at the seaside or in exotic countries, new clubs and restaurants. For all this we need money. So, when to save money, or better said, what money is there to be saved when our salary is hardly helping us to keep up with our pressing wishes and dreams?

Generally people think that in youth they do not need to raise money. They will have enough time to save it when they are older because then they won’t need so many things. But this is wrong. Our needs sometimes grow with the age. We get married, have children, our expenses grow and sometimes it’s more difficult to put money aside when we are older. At that moment we need to save money for the children for their education, for their needs.

In my opinion we have to think about saving money since we start working. We can make a life insurance or a health insurance, save money into a private pension account or just put a sum of money into a bank account. In this way, whenever we need money we know that there is a place we can go and get it. 

There are moments in our lives when we need money and either if we are old or young we have to think about those moments and I believe that it is very useful to have an account for the rainy days.

Oral examination subjects--solved variants

6. If you could change one important thing about your hometown, what would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

I love my town. I believe it is a very beautiful town. Brasov is an old town, with beautiful buildings and full of history. 

Our town has gone under a lot of changes lately but the most visible one has been the work that has been done to our roads. All the roads big or small were altered in a certain way lately, to adapt to the huge wave of cars that appeared in the past years.

Our city is old with narrow streets especially in the old city centre. There are not enough parking spaces, the roads are always crowded and this is difficult for drivers and for pedestrians in same way.

The sidewalks became narrower so that the roads can get a second lane. In this way sometimes it’s very difficult to walk because the sidewalks become so very crowded.

If I were to change something in this city I would definitely change the way people try to make more space for the cars without taking into consideration the pedestrians, especially in the old part of the town when people go to enjoy the view, to shop, to sit around the fountain in the Council Square, to listen to the concerts organized there.

What I would do? I would restrict the driving access in the city centre, and like in other European cities I would add a road tax for the drivers that want to drive into the city centre. In this way, I think there would be less traffic jams, and we won’t end up without sidewalks.

I would make a bike lane, so that children can enjoy riding their bikes, particularly because the bike lane they have in the central park is very narrow and difficult to use.

I totally agree that cars should have their rights in our lives but we should fight against pollution that affects the old buildings and the noise the people who live there have to put up with.

When we do something we have to think about all of us, we have to consider all the options, not to see only one side of the coin.

Oral examination subjects--solved variants

5. How do movies or television influence people's behaviour? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

Since 1895 when the Frenchman Luis Lumiere invented the first motion picture camera, more than 100 years passed. The movie industry evolved becoming one of the most popular means of entertainment. Throughout the time different topics were the viewer’s favourites, from great books, to war stories, science fiction movies, and many others. The movies changed with the viewers’ tastes and the industry developed very much. Most of the movies people watch nowadays are made by the biggest industry of dreams called Hollywood. Nowadays there are movies made for young children, for teenagers, for gown ups, for the whole family and for every age.

In my opinion, children are the first affected by what they see on TV or on DVD. They are too young to understand the difference between reality and fiction, and sometimes mix these two up. In children’s movies there is a lot of violence. The heroes fight for rights, territories, in the name of a great good. Children identify themselves easily with all sorts of characters and end up copying their behaviour, fighting with the colleagues at school, hitting them or behaving badly at home with parents.

But this does not only happen with children, also teenagers are exposed to the danger of copying their models on the big screen. Teenagers start smoking easier if one of their idols is smoking in a teen movie, or get drunk. Many teenagers want to copy the stars’ appearance and try to lose weight ending up with serious diseases like bulimia.

Whether we watch TV or movies, it’s one and the same thing. We can watch on TV the same movies we watch at the cinema or on DVD. And furthermore, on TV there are a lot of channels dedicated to children entertainment and many shows, some of them quite damaging. For example, there are children who spend too much time in front of the TV, they lose the contact with the real life, they overeat, they lose self-confidence, and social abilities.

In my opinion parents should be very attentive and look after their children, encourage them to make friends, and restrict their time in front of the TV.

Oral examination subjects--solved variants

4. Some people prefer to live in a small town. Others prefer to live in a big city. Which place would you prefer to live in? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

Living in a small town is beautiful, everybody knows everybody, you breathe fresh air, and also you live in a safer environment.

But I would never change my beautiful town with a small town. Why do I love my town, Brasov, so much?

Because whenever I want to go to a disco, I have several places to choose from. I never get bored because every time I can choose a different place and make new friendships with people I haven’t met before. And this is great. I even meet tourists that come into my city because they love the history and the landscapes.

My friends and I go skating and skiing in the winter and have a lot of fun and in the summer we ride our bikes and walk in the park. 

Another reason I love my town is that I have many places where I can go shopping. Lately, several malls were built in the city with movie theatres where I can go with my friends and have a great time watching the latest movies sitting in comfortable chairs and eating popcorn.

 My city is also a beautiful old fortress that was once surrounded by defence walls and towers that protected it against the enemies. In smaller cities you cannot find so many beautiful buildings, monuments and that much history as you can find in a big city like mine. There are so many history lessons I can learn just by living in this beautiful city that has grown so much lately.

In our city we have the opera, theatre and also we have a well know music festival called the Golden Stag that is organized every summer. Another thing that I like is that also in the summer there are organised a lot of concerts in the Council Square, which is a beautiful square in the old part of the city. There are also famous singers and bands that come and sing in our city. This is great because I don’t have to travel in other cities to see my favourite bands or find entertainment.

These are just some of the reasons I like living in a big city, the city I grew up in. 

Oral examination subjects--solved variants

3. Damage of the environment is an inevitable consequence of worldwide improvements in the standard of living. Discuss.

The environment suffers because of the growth of the population. There are so many people living in urban areas lately, big cities get bigger and bigger each day. People realise that they need more things to make their lives more comfortable.

We watch on TV every day commercials that try to persuade us to buy new things for our houses, new gadgets for our computers, new and more comfortable cars. But what do we do with all the old stuff that we don’t need any more? Well, we might throw them away not realising that we damage the environment.

We love to go shopping at the new, big and welcoming supermarkets or malls. We buy so many products at once. We put them in the shopping bags we get for free at the checkout. But what we don’t realise is that all those plastic bags destroy the environment because they take between 20 and 1,000 years to break down and are able to float and blow long distances within our environment. While they exist in our environment, they choke, suffocate, and cause intestinal blockage in thousands of animals including birds, fish, whales, turtles and many other living creatures.

Because we want to improve our living standards we use the earth’s resources too quickly, too fast and sometimes on unnecessary things. Cars consume too much gas; home appliances consume too much electricity. We cut down the forests that need thousands of years to grow back, and the worst part is, that we don’t try to find quickly enough ways to replace everything we consume. We don’t even care about all the trees we cut and never think to plant new ones, destroying our source of clean air and oxygen.

Pollution is one of the main factors that destroy our environment. This is all due to global industrialization. Big factories don’t even think about closing down and the methods they find to cut down pollution are not fast enough for the already over-polluted cities. 

We should be more aware of our environment and try to think that there are future generations to come after us, and they also need to enjoy their lives as much as we do.

Oral examination subjects--solved variants

2. Do you agree with the idea that children should be raised by their grandparents? Why yes/no?

Parents are the most important persons in children’s lives. They become the role model and they shape their children’s personalities.

But, sometimes being a parent proves to be very difficult. In the past years in our country was hard to find a well paid job and this is the reason why parents either found work in another city or abroad. This is the reason why they had to find someone to look after their children who needed a stable environment to grow up in. In these situations, parents think that the most reliable person they should trust their most valuable treasures are their own parents. In this way, children move in with grandparents who try, for a long or short period of time to replace the parents.

If it’s good or bad that children are raised by grandparents it’s difficult to stay, that depends on each and every situation. Though, it is much better that parents raise their son or daughter. Why?

Sometimes grandparents spoil the child too much, overwhelming him or her with too much affection trying to replace the emptiness left by the parents’ departure. 

Another problem raised by the substitute-parents is that the gap between generations is twice wider this time, and this can cause irreconcilable problems. For example the 2000s generation has a totally different view of life than that of their parents, not mentioning that of their grandparents who sometimes find it difficult to adapt to these new times we are living, to the new technology, lifestyle, and needs of the young generation. All this can lead to either giving too much freedom to their granddaughter or grandson, or isolating him/her too much. In the end this leads to strong arguments between them and can end up in children’s losing their bearings. This leads to drugs consuming, running away from home, or finding untrustworthy friends. Parents, because they see their children rarely, don’t understand their real problems and also tend to offer too much affection and sometimes objects which, in their opinion, can replace their presence.

Of course, grandparents are great people and they can definitely raise a child properly but, in my opinion it is much better that children live with their parents.

Oral examination subjects--solved variants

1. We are becoming overwhelmingly dependent on computers. Is this dependence on computers a good thing or should we be more suspicious of their benefits? Give arguments and examples to support your ideas.

People love the new technology that evolves so quickly nowadays. Everywhere we go we can see advertisements to the newest personal computer, laptop or a mobile phone that has almost all the characteristics of a PC.

Yes, we are becoming overwhelmingly dependent on computers because they make our lives so much easier. Having a computer helps us with our homework. If I am a student, for example, I am in need of writing an essay for a subject so that I can present it to the teacher in a proper manner, making a presentation, talking to a friend to ask him or her about a new movie I want to go to.

It’s true, sometimes we have to spend a lot of time in front of a computer because we have to find information for papers or presentations we have at school and this can take time because on the internet we can find a lot of things and it can be difficult to choose between one thing and another.

But sometimes, between the search for information and the paper writing, one of our friends can tell us via messenger that he has just discovered a new game and he is sending it to us so we try it as well. At that moment we leave the paper aside and try the new game that is quite interesting. So, until we’ve killed all the monsters is almost midnight and tomorrow we have to wake up at six to go to school. The next day the same thing can happen.

To draw a line between necessity and addiction is sometimes very difficult especially if we talk about something that it is not at all harmful from the beginning like alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. As long as we think that computers are useful and we remember that there is a time for going out, for spending time with friends, riding bicycles or eating ice-cream and also, remember there is a time when we can play a computer game but not until dawn because we also have other duties as teenagers we can properly enjoy technology.