Written Expressions 3rd Year Classes
Collected by GUELLIL MABROUK (mgbay13.com)
Unit One: Exploring the Past
Civilizations
Topic01:
Modern civilization has kept changing at a fast pace. Discuss.
Typical Essay:
A century ago, people were able to live in better conditions than their parents thanks to the progress made in
science and technology. But in practice, the outcome of this progress was slow to materialize. For instance,
most people still used to travel long distances on foot or by stage coach. And as mechanization was not
introduced significantly in daily activities, household chores still had to be done manually, and were therefore
time consuming.
On the other hand, community life was still an asset for social cohesion, since people had more opportunities
to meet and interact. So they were able to chat with neighbors at shops or in clubs and have a cup of coffee
with friends or relatives and tell stories and jokes. Likewise, family visits were frequent and kept the folklore
alive, with the grandparents who used to tell traditional tales or sing lullabies or folk songs to their
grandchildren. Unfortunately, with the development of audiovisual means such as the cinema, radio, television
and then personal appliances like the computer, CD-ROMs and DVDs, the chances of socialization are
dwindling and the lack of interaction between people may increase stress, loneliness and anxiety.
Could we then complain that we are missing out on some ingredients in life which used to make our great
grandparents happier? This is probably so, since closer contacts among neighbors, friends and families had to
be beneficial for communal harmony. However, scientific progress in all fields, particularly in medicine, modes
of transportation and communication, and agribusiness can only show that our lives are today quite fulfilling
and , if anything, more comfortable than a century ago.
Topic02:
Algeria was the cradle of many ancient civilizations. Discuss.
Typical Essay:
Algeria is a huge country in Northern Africa. It covers 920,000 square miles (2,380,000 sq. km), making it
more than three times the size of Texas, and the 11th largest nation on Earth. It shares borders with Libya,
Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia, and Western Sahara, and has coastline on the Mediterranean.
People have been living in the region that is now Algeria, and the surrounding Maghreb, for more than
200,000 years. The first civilizations sprang up between 4000 and 8000 years ago, eventually forming a
cohesive population, usually referred to collective as the Berber culture.
From about 900 BCE Algeria has been invaded repeatedly by various peoples, mostly from across the
Mediterranean. First the Phoenicians came, trading along the coast and eventually establishing Carthage in
nearby Tunisia and various outposts in Algeria. Then came the Romans, who conquered the Berbers more-or-
less completely by 24 AD. By the 4th century Algeria had been converted to Christianity.
Beginning in the 8th century Algeria, and the greater Maghreb, became a strategic target for the expanding
Islamic world. By the end of the first decade of the 8th century the Umayyad’s had conquered all of North
Africa, including Algeria. Over the next few centuries Algeria converted to HYPERLINK "http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-islam.htm" Islam and was Arabized
dramatically.
In the 16th century Algeria came under the control of the HYPERLINK "http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-ottoman.htm" Ottoman Empire, and became a center for
Mediterranean piracy and privateering. It was in Algeria that the infamous HYPERLINK "http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-pirate.htm" pirate Red Beard (neé Barbarossa)
eventually was based, as a provincial governor. During this period both Arabs and native Berbers saw their
roles diminished, as Turkish became the national language and Turks became entrenched in most positions of
power. Piracy continued to spread and become institutionalized in Algeria, as well as its neighbors, in a
confederacy known as the Barbary States. In addition to capturing the wealth of European traders, these
pirates also began capturing Christians as slaves, a turn of events that eventually led the young United States
to enter into two of its earliest wars against the Barbary Coast.
In the early 19th century Algeria was conquered by the French, who began to settle and develop the region.
Although infrastructure developed under French control, to the majority of the Muslim inhabitants of Algeria,
France was seen as a harsh colonial power. Resistance and open revolt continued throughout all of the French
occupation, but it began to grow substantially and develop during the 1930s. Although relatively peaceful
attempts were made for a Constitution and more equality in the mid-1940s, these were met with no support by
the French government.
By 1954 the situation had gotten bad enough that the citizenry revolted on a massive scale. The National
Liberation Front was the main body of revolt, launching a full-scale HYPERLINK "http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-civil-war.htm" civil war that would last for eight years. In
that time nearly two million Algerians would die, and another two to three million were relocated.
Independence was finally achieved in 1962, after one of the longest, bloodiest wars for independence in modern
history.
Topic03:
Write a composition on the scientific achievements of the ancient Greek civilization.
Typical Essay:
The Greeks were very interested in science as a way of organizing the world and making order out of chaos,
and having power over some very powerful things like oceans and weather. From about 600 BC, a lot of Greek
men spent time observing the planets and the sun and trying to figure out how astronomy worked. They must
have gotten their first lessons from the Babylonians, who were very good at astronomy and also very interested
in it.
By the 400's BC, Pythagoras was interested in finding the patterns and rules in mathematics and music, and
invented the idea of a mathematical proof. Although Greek women usually were not allowed to study science,
Pythagoras did have some women among his students. Socrates, a little bit later, developed logical methods for
deciding whether something was true or not.
In the 300's BC, Aristotle and other philosophers at the Lyceum and the Academy in Athens worked on
observing plants and animals, and organizing the different kinds of plants and animals into types. Again, this
is a way of creating order out of chaos.
After Aristotle, using his ideas and also ideas from Egypt and the Persians and Indians, Hippocrates and other
Greek doctors wrote important medical texts that were used for hundreds of years.
Topic04:
Write a composition on the ancient Egyptian civilization.
Typical Essay:
Egypt is one of the most fertile areas of Africa, and one of the most fertile of the countries around the
Mediterranean Sea. Because it is so fertile, people came to live in Egypt earlier than in most places, probably
around 40,000 years ago. At first there were not very many people, but gradually Egypt became more
crowded, so there was more need for a unified government. Around 3000 BC (5000 years ago), Egypt was first
unified under one ruler, who was called the Pharaoh.
The pharaoh’s government guaranteed both external and internal security to the people of Egypt. As a
consequence, the Egyptians grew very proud of their country and became so fond of the pharaoh hat they
worshipped him as a god-king. This national pride and identification with the pharaoh kept the unity of
ancient Egypt and made its civilization prosper for many centuries
From that time until around 525 BC, when Egypt was conquered by the Persians, Egypt's history is divided
into six different time periods. These are called the Old Kingdom, the First Intermediate Period, the Middle
Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom, and the Third Intermediate Period.
But the economy of ancient Egypt was ruined by all the resources that the pharaohs put into the building of
pyramids and the gradual decline and fall of ancient Egyptian civilization.
Topic05:
Write a composition on the scientific achievements of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
Typical Essay:
Egyptian scientists were generally most interested in observing nature and practical engineering, and they
were very good at both of these things. The pyramids and temples, for example, show good knowledge of
geometry and engineering. Egyptian engineers used the Pythagorean Theorem, thousands of years before
Pythagoras was born.
Because the Nile flood was so important to Egyptian farming, scientists also worked out good ways to
measure how high the flood was going each year, and kept accurate records and good calendars. You can see
here how the Egyptian wrote down numbers. The device they used to measure the height of the Nile flood is
called a Nilometer.
They also worked out good ways to move water from the Nile to outlying farms in the desert, using hand-
powered irrigation pumps (shadufs) and canals.
It may also have been Egyptian scientists who first figured out how to make yeast-rising bread.
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