Band 8 IELTS Essay Sample | Reading Keeps A Person’s Mind Active

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Reading books keeps a person’s mind active, whereas watching films and television is passive and does not require a person to use their imagination. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Band 8 IELTS essay sample

Studies have shown that brain activity peaks when someone reads a book and this is not surprising. While readers use their imagination and keep their brain active, television audiences do not need to imagine any scene and hence their brain remains inactive. This essay, therefore, agrees with the given statement that reading makes the mind active because in a book the author uses words to describe situations and readers imagine the complete context but television programmes explicitly show what they want you to see.

When we read a book we have to create images in the mind. The process of reading a book requires some preparation as well. Readers have to choose a book, buy it and spend hours and hours reading it. Using imagination is a key aspect of reading because the writer only describes situations and characters with words and the reader has to imagine every scene in the mind. For example, a recent survey by Colorado University found that 85% of people who read the same book are likely to describe the characters differently. This shows how imagination plays a crucial role while reading a book.

On the other hand, television audience do not imagine situations. Films and television programmes already have their characters, places and situations, which limit the use of the audience’s imagination. Watching a movie just requires a person to sit in front of the screen without even thinking about the situations because they are already filmed. To illustrate, many people opined that they preferred reading the book called “Fifty Shades of Gray”, because the film’s characters and places were not as good as in the book.

To conclude, it is not hard to see that television audience stay passive in front of the TV while readers actively use their imagination to visualise the scenes and characters portrayed in the book.