雅思真题：2012年7月12日写作考试 离家住校

Do you agree or disagree? It is better for students to live away from home while studying at university than living at home with parents.Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

Although nothing is like home, living in a parent-free environment can be one of the most fun things in your college life. In spite of its obvious drawbacks, staying away from home contributes to the full university experience that money can buy. Part of any student's decision on where to live is a financial one; however, money being not the issue, it is better for you to go for a new experience, if only for fun.

Dorm life is real fun, even more so when your room is situated in the university's residence hall. To begin with, living in a dorm is a sure opportunity to meet people, so it is hard to feel lonely. For freshmen who are prone to 'homesickness', the companionship found there can make the transition away from home easier. Further, dorm life is a crash course in interpersonal skills because you need to learn how to get along with your roommates as well as people in your hallway. Needless to say, it is more convenient to live on campus since you can walk everywhere you need to go without the trouble of commuting. Is it not that that kind of campus life which you have been waiting for?

Nevertheless, living away from home is sometimes not as interesting as expected. Apart from financial considerations, there are other factors to consider. For one thing, roommate conflict could sound like a potential nightmare. Chances are that some roommates could be worse than others, making your dorm life somewhat difficult, indeed. For another, constant companionship implies lack of privacy which you usually enjoy at home. Moreover, even when you like to meet people, it could so happen that they are not all going to be people you want to meet.

Altogether, money permitted, college life could not possibly be fun enough without the experience of living away from home. Such experience, even though not entirely agreeable, may be of use to a student soon to become a mature member of the community. In fact, if dorm life appears to you like freedom from parental control, you would soon realize that it is fun to be free, at least for a while. (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh)