Back<<

What discovery in the last 100 years has been most beneficial for people in your country? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice.

22/M/Japan>>> TOEFL CBT 267 (5.0)
     I don't know much about discoveries in the last 100 years. But I think personal computers and the Internet are the most valuable discoveries in the last 100 years, especially these 10 years. When I was a child, most people don't have computers in their home. I don't know exactly when the Internet system is discovered or developed, but I doubt that we don't have such a system when I was a child. I heard that the Internet system was first developed for a military purpose. The United States' Air Force or some other military institute has developed the ststem. The Internet system was beneficial for military purpose, but it was too beneficial to adopt only for a military. So, someone has adopted the system for the commercial purpose.
     By means of the Internet, we can easily get much information from our computer screen. For example, if I want to get some knowledge about a coffee, all I have to do is to enter the key word, "coffee", in the key word box of some search engine. In fact, recently, drinking a coffee becomes one of my hobbies. So I entered the word, "coffee", in Yahoo!'s search engine box. Then, I could get much information about coffee. For example, by Yahoo! search engine's results for "coffee", I could find the website of the "Starbucks". By visiting the homepage of Starbucks, I knew how to drink a tasty cup of coffee.
     When I was a child, we didn't have personal computers in our home. Most of us had TV games such as "family computer". As you know, "family computer" is the most popular TV game machines in the world, and most of us could enjoy playing some computer softwares. But the machine does not enable us to get some information or to communicate with someone else.
     I believe that in the future, our children might be very surprised to hear that we didn't use the Internet when we were children. When I heard that my parents or grandparents didn't have television when they were a child. I also surprised to hear that they didn't have even an electronic refrigelator when they were a child. My father told me that they put ice in their refrigerator to cool some foods. I have read in some book that a major discovery is done every fifty years. And I think the Internet system is the major discovery in the 20th century, so I'm very looking forward to the discovery which is expected to be done in the 2050.