雅思口语最新法律话题

　　New IELTS Topics

　　I have be asked to comment on the new IELTS topic to Describe a Law in your Country which at a first glance seemed to be far from the usual Part two topics, a bit out of the ordinary perhaps but when you consider the variety of questions that need to be asked it is hardly any wonder that this is now one of them.

　　It still does not make it an easy question to answer, as in the majority of cases the questions previously asked I think most students would have some knowledge, even if very basic they would be able to hazard a guess and not be far from the correct answer, i.e. describe a place with water, describe a book you have read and describe an old person you respect etc. etc. all fairly run of the mill questions,,, A Law! A different ball game altogether.

　　During one of my classes we were lucky enough to have a lawyer so guess what topic he got as an exercise,, ah yes youve guessed Describe a Law in your Country I also gave the same topic to another student who had no real knowledge or interest of The Law although both needed tweaking a bit with a few slight grammatical errors but in the main it is printed below as is.

　　Generally speaking both were good, both started off in the correct fashion describing the topic and using the first paragraph to introduce their main point. It is evident to see that the Lawyer had more knowledge of the subject matter and took three paragraphs to cover his main point about the New Labour Laws and another two in conclusion which would have taken him at least, as it did, four minutes to talk, this was very good and even without the notes spoke eloquently about a subject he knew a great deal about, even if it was a titch to long, on the other hand the student who knew very little about the topic gave a very good report of herself, perhaps a little short on content but as to be expected. It needed her notes to refer to and almost lasted the two minutes, given the fact that they both had time to prepare were fairly confident, however for a student to arrive at the test centre and be faced with this topic with no prior insight to The Law might not feel so happy to say the least.

　　Finally, although in New Channel this topic is now covered we must be ready in advance to predict what the examiners are thinking about, what trend or pattern if any are they following, can we think ahead for the benefit of our students, maybe not but I dont think we will be far off the mark.

　　A Law

　　Q. Describe a law in your country.

　　You should say

　　what the law is

　　what type of law it is

　　how good you think this law is

　　And explain how this law affects people.

　　A. I would like to talk about the criminal Law in our country, which plays an important role in our society, well, this law seeks to regulate social order, for example; the criminal law aims to protect peoples property or person from other peoples infringement. As a whole, it is quite suitable and necessary for our society.

　　From 1949 until now China has had two criminal laws, the law which was applied before 1979 is called The Old Criminal Law and after 1979 the Chinese Congress re-issued The Old Criminal Law because the Chinese Government paid more attention to develop the economic situation in China, so thats why the Chinese Congress made the new criminal law.

　　This law effects people in different ways, first of all it plays an educational role in our society, it tells citizens what to do and what not to do, in other words it gives us the bottom line, step over this line and we will be punished.

　　Secondly, it protects peoples legal right, if a citizens legal right is infringed by other people. His or her legal right will be protected by law.

　　Finally, but the most important one is that the criminal will be punished by the criminal law according to the different situation in order to warn against breaking the law in the future.

　　So I have to say that the criminal law is one of the most indispensible laws in our society

　　A Law

　　Q. Describe a law in your country.

　　You should say

　　what the law is

　　what type of law it is

　　how good you think this law is

　　And explain how this law affects people.　　

　　B. Well, the law Id like to mention is the New Labour Contract, which was released at the beginning of this year.

　　As you know, China is a developing country, which has a vast number of people, perhaps unlike other developing countries this is the greatest concern for the government today; to find ways to protect the labour forces right and also balance the point between the employees and employers.

　　First of all, let me go briefly through the history of labour rights in China, unfortunately, we didnt have any laws or regulations for the section of protecting labour rights prior to the 1980s , maybe you cant believe this, however as a qualified PPE lawyer I have to say that it is very true. In the late 1980s the situation became better due to the release of the labour law which was a milestone in Chinese legal history, in that law there are regulations about salary, maximum working hours, paid holidays and so on, however after fifteen years of this being in place, we found it far from perfect because of the economy in China was soaring during that period, so that we had to revise it or make a new one.

　　Then, in 2005, there was a draft version of the Labour Contract Law provided by the CPC, the procedure for making this law was extremely difficult because it not only concerns 80% of the general public who are the employees but also a great issue for all the enterprises, including a number of foreign investment companies in China.

　　Let me tell you about a story to illustrate the difficulties the government faced when they went to release this law, In 2006, when the second draft was given up for discussion in public, there was a huge boycotting activity, which was held in Shanghai, the economic capital of China, more than two hundred foreign companies attended this activity, including PG, GE and so on, finally they claimed that if the Chinese authorities released the new labour contract they would remove their funds from China, fortunately the decision of the Chinese government of enhancing the protection of its labour force was strong so in June 2007, with a warm welcome from the general public, the Labour Law was finally released, which is another milestone in Chinese legal history.

　　According to this law, if companies did not sign the contract with the employees, the companies would have to pay double salary to its workers; also if companies did not pay the welfare fund to the workers they could be fined.

　　There are a lot of regulations like that and hopefully people can enjoy their working life in the near future.

　　Although the new law is not welcomed by the majority of enterprises, they have already made some adjustments according to the law, also some entrepreneurs, who are members of the CPC suggested that the government should abolish the law or at least make some changes; whats next? We will see.