Source-Based Writing Task (Level 5) — Week 9, Practice Test 1
Thời gian: 60 phút
Dạng bài: Đọc 2 văn bản + 1 thống kê → Viết 2 đoạn văn
Đoạn 1: So sánh ý tưởng trong 2 văn bản (~125 từ)
Đoạn 2: Ý kiến cá nhân (~75 từ)
Cách thi: In đề, đọc trên màn hình, viết trên giấy, rồi chép bài vào máy
Source-Based Writing Task (Level 5) — Week 9, Practice Test 1
Time: 60 minutes | Topic: Old Clothes, New Habits: What We Keep and What We Change
Text A: The Portrait in the Wardrobe
A family photo album rarely contains only faces — it often contains clothes. A grandmother's formal wedding dress, a father's favourite jacket, a child's first school uniform: each one can trigger a specific memory the moment it is seen again. Museums have begun to recognise this link explicitly. A recent study of community clothing archives found that visitors could recall personal stories attached to a single stored garment far more vividly than stories attached to a photograph alone, suggesting that texture and shape carry memory in ways a flat image cannot. That same emotional connection is largely absent from how most clothes are purchased today. Fast fashion brands release new collections every few weeks, priced low enough that an item can be worn only once or twice before it is discarded, often before it even has the chance to wear out. Surveys of young shoppers report that convenience and low price, not any sense of ownership, now drive most purchasing decisions. Supporters of this model argue it simply gives people more choice. Critics counter that the underlying principle — treating clothing as disposable — breaks the very link between garment and memory that made the wedding dress or the school uniform worth keeping in the first place, and that a more circular model, where garments are repaired, resold or upgraded rather than thrown away, could restore some of that lost connection.
Text B: What Hygiene History Can Teach a Modern Supply Chain
Historians who study the slow adoption of handwashing and clean water note a recurring pattern: practices that seem obviously beneficial in hindsight were often resisted for decades, not because people were careless, but because the old system was simply easier to keep running. The practices that eventually spread widely were rarely the most effective ones in isolation — they were the ones flexible enough to adapt to existing habits, limited budgets and local suspicion, while still gradually transforming daily behaviour. Some business analysts now apply a similar lesson to sustainable manufacturing. Arguably, a supply chain built on cheap, fast production will not be transformed by moral argument alone, however critical the warning. Change tends to arrive once investors begin to treat the old model as a financial risk rather than a comfortable default — several large pension funds, for instance, recently pursued a public commitment to pull funding from one network of factories after years of pressure over labour conditions, and other investors quickly followed. Some economists suggest this kind of network pressure, not individual conscience, is the real limitation on how fast any industry can change. If that is true, the question facing a young, ambitious designer today may not be "is this fair?" but "who, besides the customer, can be persuaded that it matters?"
Statistic
A 2024 industry report estimated that the global secondhand clothing market grew by 18 percent in a single year, while fewer than 1 percent of all garments produced worldwide are recycled into new clothing.
Task
Read the two texts and the statistic above. Then complete the following tasks:
Paragraph 1 — Comparison (~125 words)
Write ONE paragraph comparing the ideas in the two texts. You should analyse the relationships between the ideas in the sources (e.g., similarities, differences, cause and effect). Use your own words as much as possible.
Paragraph 2 — Personal Opinion (~75 words)
Write ONE paragraph giving and fully explaining your own opinion on the ideas in the sources. You should refer to the statistic in your response.