TOEFL ESSAY #2

Who do you think is most famous person in the world? The 2011 Forbes research selected “Oprah Winfrey” as the most renowned person among the world, and another research mentioned “Barack Obama” as one. However, there is one person who is possibly known by almost everybody on Earth. Well, at least the world history is divided into two parts by his birth: B.C and A.D. Recently, people realized that it has already been two thousand years since his birth, and celebrated the start of “New Millennium” as well as start of “21th century”. Amongst all the things this new century brought, the biggest of all was change in people’s view toward the world. People were filled with hope, and their expectations about bright future were made. However, one the other hand, worries and fears rose.   

Start of 21th century brought people hopeful expectations about the future. This is mainly due to the fact that something believed to be impossible in 20th century was becoming a “reality” in 21th century; for example, it was impossible to even think about individuals owning computers just about forty years ago. But how is it now? Everyone’s got a computer that can basically connect you with everybody on Earth just with a click. Furthermore, no one expected medical technology to develop this much, thus making people healthier, as well as granting longer life. Lastly, the society has become a place where a person’s ability and idea isn’t considered by their background or education. Consequently, many innovated ideas were made, created, and applied to real life and made our life better. Due to success of these ideas, people started looking at the infinite possibilities of new age. What 21th century gave wasn’t something substantial, but it was the hope that something impossible will be achieved someday.

The problem was that fear and worries rose as 21th century continued. First, in return of technological growth, more severe disasters like “Katrina” occurred. But most disastrous of all, was the uncontrollable “nuclear energy”. We have been using the energy for tens of years, and it is possibly the most effective energy amongst all. So people poured money on developing this energy and built hundreds of nuclear power plants. Most people weren’t aware about the danger of nuclear energy until an incident happened in Fukushima, Japan: the power plant was destroyed, thus creating 8000km² of “deadly area” where no human can live. As a result, many people were alarmed about the fact that they were living right beside a nuclear bomb or something even worse. Secondly, lack of resources made people live under the fear of conflict and wars. Before, countries fought for their own safety, religious right, and people (more land). However, it seems only greed toward limited resources is left to motivate 21th century’s fight. As time goes by, these conflicts will never diminish, but only piles up.

21th century presented two contradicting ideas: hope and fear. In a sense, living in 21th century is like though living in a house where heaven and hell both exists. The upper floor indeed has a heaven-like environment where all people utilize new technologies and live a better life. In contrast, the lower floor is only a hell consisted of nuclear waste and bombing sound. At this moment, most people live in upper floor, not knowing what is happening downstairs. It wouldn’t be a huge problem if all these people manage to live in upper floor forever. However, the ground they are stepping on is so fragile; that one wrong step can possibly demolish the floor, consequently pulling everybody into hell.