Thursday, November 16, 2006

Unit 2 Writing task. Bus vs Underground

Write and argumentative essay about advantages and disadvantages of using bus and underground in a city. Have a look first at pages 42 and 43 from the book and try to use the grammar seen in this unit (mainly prepositions).

Write your essays using the "comentarios" button.

Remember this is just a way to practice before the exam. The more you write the more you will improve your writing.

42 comments:

  1. Talking about means of public transport like bus and subway, I would like to express my opinion in this matter.
    First of all, to say that there are pros and cons in the use of them.
    The greatest advantage is the price of the tickets. It is clear to me, that the tickets are cheaper than the cost of the gas or the maintenance of your own car.
    Another pro that is very important to me is that when you are using the public transport, you are being respectful with the environment.
    In the same way, another positive aspect to bearing in mind, is that using the bus, the underground or the trolley, you do not have to worry about to look for a parking place.
    On the other hand, there are some drawbacks like the frecuency, comfort and speed in some occasions that make people to take their own vehicle.
    To sumarize, I strongly believe that we should use public transport as much as we can.

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  2. I would like to express my opinion about this question and you have to excusem me for my bad english. Other point important is the time to arrive at the places. The traffic in someone points in the city is horrible and is worse if you don`t have parking because you are late very much in finding one. On the other hand, to use the bus and the underground in business hour can be also horrible because there are many peolple and not always it`s punctual.
    In spite of everything, I prefer using my car especially for comfort and because I like to be independent.

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  3. How could I speak right know about advantages and disadvantages of bus or underground. I´m living in a not very small village in the center of Spain, and the only bus that comes here is very slow, you always need a car to move around, from one village to the other and the only taximan in the all area had created a new concept of taxi, the taxi party, who carries most of the drunk people moving at night, he will retire soon, and there is still none to replace him, how many young people will suffer the consecuences of this horrible comunications??
    Good luck

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  4. In my opinion, for those that we live in big cities, there is more advantage than disadvantage for using the public transports. If it happens that you live in a City like Madrid, you may be ending paying a lot of money on parking fines, of course, if you are one of those who take the car for going to work. Apart from this, I believe that the major advantage for using bus or underground is the time-saver on rust hours and the savings on petrol. However, one of the major points for using public transport is the pollution, but there are also some weak that have much to do with the regularity of this transport and the lack of underground in the outskirts. Thanks Maria for giving us the opportunity to practices written English and sorry for all the mistakes.

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  5. Hi Azucena,

    You don't have to worry abouth mistakes. Just write, write, write, as much as you can. That's the only way to learn and improve ;)

    María

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  6. Hello everybody. I´m going to talk about my personal experience. I live in Madrid but I work in Getafe that is about 20 kilometers away from the center of the city. I use my car to go work because the combination of public transport that I have to use to get to Getafe is not very good so if I go in my car it takes to me only fifteen minutes get to my job and if I use public transport it takes almost one hour. Apart from that I´m completly agree with all the arguments that you have said in your comments, but as you see, there are some cases in which is much better and faster to use the private transport.

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  7. Nowadays, means of transport are very important in our life. Big cities give you the possibility to choose between some of them. If you are looking for comfort, you have the train. In the same way , is the bus but is slower that the train however is cheaper. The greates disadvantage about the bus is the delay due to traffic jams and works in the city. Even though what is clear is that no matter what means of transport do you use while you choose a public one. Environmental conern is now a essential issue. Your own car is not the solution, at least consider to share it.


    Charo Aguilar

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  8. y pandora dice....... tataa tu me ocultas cosas..... uppss perdon se me olvidaba ... tataa your you hide things to me

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  9. Hello. I live in Ronda, and I have to go to work at every the smaller villages near here. I just can go to work in my own car because there aren´t in some small villages.
    I think the public transports are better for the environment, but for me it´s impossible use it.
    Sorry for the mistakes.

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  10. Talking about transportation is a big issue, especially when talking about advantage and disadvantage.
    An advantage of busses is that is en the nearby, cheap and confortable. On the other hand you can not rely on it because it is never on time. However, the subway is a better solution when you need a fast and reliable option. But the price is much higher and it is not so frequent like busses. Nevertheless using one of these two means of transport will always be better than using your own car for many reasons such as parking places, traffic jam and air pollution.
    En conclusion and in my opinion, I would rather use the bus than the car.

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  11. I want to express my opinion of these public transports.

    I live in Madrid and the time is important to make the deccision to take one or other public transport.
    By example at the beggining of the day too many cars drive for the city doing traffic jam and is important take the underground if your work/school is far to your home. I think the bus is important for the night(metrobuo) or if you want to go to the school(with time).

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  12. Train or Plane?
    The mean of transport that i prefer is the train because you can look to the landscape ,stand up and walking; it’s also possible know other people and talk with them, or read a novel , a magazine a newspaper ( if the train isn’t full of people and you can travel seatting down, it’s the worse that can happenning ...); you can do these things in the plane too but space is smaller.
    Another advantages of train is that station are usually in the city center ; a disadvantage is the speed because there are not many high speed trains and these ones are the most expensive.
    I don’t like a lot the airplane as I feel it is stressful but I agree this latter is the fastest mean of transport for long journeys.

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  13. hi friends!Iwould like to give my opinion about the public transport based in my own case.
    I work in a big airline company and I used to go work to barajas airport from mostoles where I live,who know madrid will know where it is.It,s about 20km to madrid city center but to barajas it,s about 45km..you imagine..for example my work started at 3 o,clock in the afternoon and I took the underground at one o,clock so I was in the underground 2 hours!I was loosing 4 hours every day,2 hours to go and 2 hours to come back,the advantage of the public transport in this case the price,it is much cheaper than the private transport because now I work in the famous t4 of barajas and I take my own car because with the underground it is much longer because there is not underground station in the t4 yet.The disadvantages of this is the economical aspect because it,s much more expensive because the gas it,s too expensive in this days..thank you

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  14. Thanks for your comments! Very interesting! But, please, leave us your name next time ;)

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  15. I think that public transports are very bad means because nobody is satisfied neither in big cities neither in small villages. People who live in Madrid complain because spend a lot of time in the route and who live in a small city thinks that is very slow. I never use a public transport: if my route is large, I go in my car, but if it's small I take a walk.

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  16. I live in Madrid and i think that it's better de public transport. An advantage it's the price, it's cheaper buy a bus/underground ticket than the gas or the carmaintenance. In my opinion underground is better than bus because in the bus you can find traffic jams and the the travel is slow and uncomfortable. But underground usually is fast and the time you spend between two points is always the same. A disadvantage is that car is more comfortable, you travel alone or with people you want, on the other hand, public transport sometimes is opressive.
    All depends where you live or where you work, bu in my opinion, in Madrid to move is better the public transport.

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  17. The best transport?Depends were do you go and how much time you want to spend going. I have to go every day in my car to my job becouse the public transport in my town its terrible.You never know when are you going to arrive and its expensive.In a month I can spend the same money if I go by bus or in my car to my job.Ofcorse I take my car, but for one thing I prefer the public one, and this is because using this transport makes less danger to the atmosfere, and for me to save the planet is a good option always. Anyway, when the bus of my town start being puntual I will start taking the bus.

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  18. Is difficult for me to say which of both is the best when I only use the bus and not dayly.I live near to San Sebastian and here, there isn´t any subway. But there´s a mean of transport as far as subway and very likely too. It is we called "topo"or Basque Country´s railway ,and it´s between train and subway.Taking to account that the price of the tickets is almost the same,due to the choice of taking a ticket for some routes, I think the major advantage of subway is in routes into the city,while the bus beats in routes in the suburbs and in the city´s high areas. If you can take both of them, for example,to go to your work, you´ll choice the fastest ,I think. In big cities people have to take more than one bus and then the subway too.
    Sorry for all the mistakes but I,m learnig...

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  19. Nowadays the public means of transport are used more frequently than years ago because people know how important is their use for the environment.

    If I had to choose between the bus or the subway I think I would choose the bus.

    I prefer the bus because I like see the city and the people through the windows. Also It is a little cheaper than the subway.

    On the other hand, the subway is another mean of transport which we can use to avoid use our car.

    However I don't used to go in the underground because everything is dark inside, people seem very sad in their seats and I always think that something wrong is going to hapen inside.

    In conclusion, some people prefer going by bus and others prefer going by underground, both options are possible if we want to save our planet of the pollution.

    SUSANA GARCIA MORENO 05/11/07
    1º TOURISM

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  20. Hi Susana,

    I do agree with you. Sometimes, when the underground stops for a long time, I think there could happen something bad, and I don't good with no communication with outside world.

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  21. I'm going to express my oppinion about means of transports, particularly between bus and subway.

    We must divide different kinds of possibilities for each mean of transports, I mean speediness, comfort, proximity to your home, ...

    About speediness, about I think there's no doubt about subway is better than bus, even if there is some technical problem. It is true that in this case subway can be a nightmare, but imagine the bus have a technical problem too. It will be worst because you have the traffic around you, you don't know when the next bus will arrive and if you can get it.
    Subway is fastest than bus evn for solve problems.

    Talking about comfort, with modern subways I think they are more comfortable than buses. There are more places to seat, more espace for passangers and in winter you can have heating and in summer air conditioned.

    And finally, we must take into consideration the proximity to our home and place of work. in this case I have no priorities, but if this is a weak point for subway, I think is not important at all compared with its strong points.

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  22. I'm a fan of public transport but...

    I had been taking bus since I was a child because in my neighbourhood there wasn't underground, and for me was a waste of time, I needed a lot of time to go to everywhere.

    Three years ago I moved close to underground and that was a big reason for me to live there because I get a big timesaving. I know exactly what time the metro comes, and it doesn't depend of traffic.

    I only like to take the bus if I'm travelling and I want to wach sightseeing...

    Marian Gilabert

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  23. Personally I prefer the subway, because going by bus makes me sick easily. But since there are more bus-stations than underground-stations, often it is necessary to take a bus to reach the underground.
    When I am on Holidays I prefer to use the bus or tramways to see something of the city I am visiting. I even use regular buses to do sight-seeing. (Lisbon is a great city for that!) In the inner city I would like to see all cars and buses disappear so that there will be only bicycle and underground. But basically, what counts is using public transport instead of going by car.

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  24. Personally I prefer the subway, because going by bus makes me sick easily. But since there are more bus-stations than underground-stations, often it is necessary to take a bus to reach the underground.
    When I am on Holidays I prefer to use the bus or tramways to see something of the city I am visiting. I even use regular buses to do sight-seeing. (Lisbon is a great city for that!) In the inner city I would like to see all cars and buses disappear so that there will be only bicycle and underground. But basically, what counts is using public transport instead of going by car.

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  25. Hi Gabriele!

    Thanks for your comment. By the way, do you live in Lisbon? Do you know Madrid or Barcelona? Could you compare the underground there in Lisbon with the one here in Spain? Is is cleaner? Faster? More efficient?

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  26. I would like to express my opinion about this matter.
    i think in a global choice is hard to say because it depends on the city and the rush hour.
    if it is not too busy on the streets i prefer go by bus because go stregth to your destination and you can be whatching trought the window, so it is funnier.
    althought, underground has got many advantages, sometimes it is have to be this way, because the city is so big or it is too busy up, so you have to get the underground, to save sometime. Another important advantage it is you save some money if you allways go by this transport because you just get a ticket and you can hang around for diferents lines all day if you like.
    Anyway both of them are a bit less confortable than the car, but both of them look after the enviroment and are good for the traffic.

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  27. Hi!

    First of all, I would like you could write you name next time so that I could address to you.

    What do you mean by "global choice"? Could you find a better option?

    On the other hand, I also prefer going by bus if it is not a long way to my destination.

    Please, be careful with adding "s" to adjectives! ;)

    Lots of luck in your exams!

    María Jordano

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  28. Hi!
    I live in Warsaw and I must say that when the temperature goes below 0 it's much better to take the underground :)

    Montse

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  29. Hi!

    I prefer going by tube rather than going by bus. Tube is faster than bus. Even when busses have their own lane, most of the time there is a car blocking its way so...

    Another problem here in Madrid is the horrible double parking.

    Belén

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  30. Rosa Blanco Garcia11/01/2009 08:16:00 pm

    In my opinion, I think that the public transport is very useful for many reasons. Firstly, when you get in a bus or a tube reduce the pollute. Secondly, you avoid noisy problems and crowded traffic in the city center. Another positive aspect of use the public transport is about prices, you spend more money in gasoline but in p.t. you can buy special tickets month by month. However, the most serious disadvantage is about frequency because you need to get up early. Another problem is about delayed. Notwithstanding, in generally I think that the p.t. is very advantageous.
    Rosa Blanco

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  31. I like very much Halloween because Is's a fun party. It has very funny customs as trick or treat, costumes parties, telling scary stories, watching horror films.................
    I saw to Halloween as a celebration of other cultures but in the last years It has also become part of our culture.
    I haven't weared customes, but my daughter has weared a customes of vampire.
    Halloween is an annual holidays celebrated on October 31, Is has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. The most important custom is Halloween pumpkin. I do every year the Halloween pumpkin for my children, they like a lot.

    Juan Pérez Costa

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  32. A group of friends and I were in Marrakech last winter, we came from south Morocco to the north. Marrakech for us was a place to stop for a day, have a rest of the drive and why not, make tourism in an amazing city.
    One of the thinks that I liked most is that the city is quite cosmopolitan; there we found big avenues with luxuries hotels that seems very expensive.
    The past legacy on that city is everywhere, called “the red city” because of the clay used in the buildings, it has monuments that revive its glorious past and make it worth to visit it. We’ll come back with time enough.

    Eleazar Pereiro

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  33. Amaya Fernández11/13/2009 12:06:00 pm

    The purpose of this essay is to outline the advantages and disadvantages of using buses and the underground in a city.
    It is clear that, nowadays, both buses and the underground make our lives easier than times before, especially if you live and work in a big city. But, which is better... bus or underground?
    Let's begin with the underground. From my point of view, this means of transportation has a lot of advantages. However, there are disadvantages too.
    On the one hand the underground is faster, cheaper and more comfortable than bus. Furthermore, it's more frequent, so that people can get to their destination easily and on time.
    On the other hand, the underground is not as safe as bus, especially at night because there are few people at the stations.
    With regards to buses, I can only see one advantage: people can enjoy the journey looking out of the window. The greatest disadvantage are traffic jams.
    In conclusion, the underground is better than buses. So, if I lived in a big city and if I were you I would travel by underground.

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  34. Hi Amaya,

    very good, and... what about of going down the earth all the time? Don't you prefer seeing light?

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  35. Maite Donoso Sáez11/23/2009 01:40:00 am

    About advantages and disadvantages of using bus and underground in a city, really, I can’t have a good opinion because in my city there isn’t underground. But I think that the greatest advantage of using underground is that you always know how many time you need to do a journey, I mean, always you know that from X station to Y station are 20 minutes for example, and all days it’ll be in this way. However, on a bus, you know when you are getting on but who know when you are going to get off… this depends on the traffic.
    Anyway, I suppose that if in my city there would be underground, I would prefer the bus, because on a bus, at least, you can see the city through the window.
    And the major of my city must think like me, because is planned to build several trams lines instead of an underground.

    Maite Donoso

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  36. Elena Gil Alonso12/12/2009 10:10:00 pm

    The most important means of public transport in cities are: bus, taxi and underground and we now are going to analyse two of them - bus versus underground.
    First of all we will see the advantages of travelling on the underground. The major one is its speed as you can not go as fast as doing it on the underground. However if we have a breakdown we can not go anywhere and will have a great delay. The other negative aspect is the lack of safety which is increasing nowadays - almost all when there are few people in the platforms - .
    On the other hand we have the bus which is, under my point of view, the most uncomfortable mean of transport. Even though it is very cheap it is also very slow and if you are in a hurry you can despair with so many stops.
    Summarizing, I prefer the underground as unfortunately we always go everywhere hurriedly and without enjoying the journey...

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  37. Hello everybody;

    I live in Andorra and here we have not a good mean of public transportation. There are only few buses and the route is very poor, we have connection with the main points of the city, but the people who works in the outskirts, they have problems if we won't have a car. I am one of these persons, I must take the car every day because I have not direct connection with my work's place. I would like to take the bus every day, like before, when in Valencia lived, but here is very different. Every family hat at least two cars and the traffic is horrible...

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  38. Hi,
    In my opinion the subway is faster than bus; this is fine for a big city because we can move from one place to another in a short period of time. However, in the case of a small city is more complicated because the journeys are shorter and I think that it would not be profitable for the city.
    I live in Cordoba; we traveled in bus or car and we going to work walking. Therefore, I believe it is not necessary to change the city with the works of subway.

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  39. In my city there isn´t underground, I live in Badajoz, them we only can used the bus, but 1 year ago, I travelled to Madrid, to visited to my cousin, and there I take the subway, but aren´t my first time, because its was in a little travelled that I make to visited Lisbon... The subway it is a transportation more fast but I reconaize that I´m afraid for this I prefer the bus..

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  42. BUS or UNDERGROUND , which is better? which is the handiest? These´re good questions, well, first of all I should say that there isn´t any underground in my city so I´ve rarely used this kind of transport, anyway I think is the perfect transport for a big city, I used the Metro in Madrid and you can cover long distances in a short period of time, it´s also a good way to go to work everyday ´cause the big cities have a horrible traffic in the rush hour. Another positive aspect of the underground is its little contamination which is less than a conventional car. I just find one weak point in this transport and it´s the safety, the underground is a crowded place where sometime a robbery happens so you´ve to be careful where you bring your wallet.I really find the underground useful and I´d like to have one in Badajoz ...
    About the bus I can say that I use it daily and I find it handy and cheap aswell, it´s a good choice to cover medium and long distances inside the city or between them but, in my opinion it could be a hard trip if you get the bus to make a long travel (more than 500 km). Another positive aspect of this transport is the fare which can be very cheap for the students and senior citizen.
    In summary, I have serious doubts about which is better, I personally find both transports very handy, cheap an a really good choice for an urban transport.

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