TASK 2:
ESSAY INFORMATION:
Written by: IELTS I-Ready, 6/11/2025
Marked by: Ex-BC Examiner
(IELTS Academic – 5/11/2025)
Question: Some people think the money spent in developing the technology for space exploration is not justified. There are more beneficial ways to spend this money. Do you agree or disagree?
ANSWER:
Many believe that monetary resources should be more justifiably spent on other important sectors rather than space research. Although astronomical science might be beneficial to human life in some ways, I only partly agree with the view that money should be spent on this area of interest.
There are certain benefits for spending money on conducting space research. It will help to foster a deeper understanding of the universe. This is due to the fact that galaxies contain numerous mysterious phenomena that science is still unable to explain. Thus, human beings have always nurtured the dream of exploring outer space. Moreover, this discovery science might be an effective tool to promote a nation’s image on the global stage. The Russian Federation and the United States of America, for example, expend billions of dollars yearly in the race to conquer space. As a result, it might be considered important because it can showcase the scientific, technological, and economic breakthroughs of these countries.
Nonetheless, opponents of this trend would argue that the government funding should be allocated to other urgent aspects such as education, medicine or constructing public infrastructure. These state sectors are of paramount importance to the health, well-being, and economic growth of a country. With the expansion of the economy, its administration will have surplus revenue to spend more generously on welfare improvement, leading to an increase in a nation’s living standards. In addition, space research is believed to be an exclusive privilege of wealthy nations. This is because the technology used for this type of exploration is often costly and time consuming. Therefore, only certain developed countries are able to focus on this expensive area of endeavor.
In conclusion, the money spent on exploring the universe might solve the mystery of outer space and bring accolades to a few countries. However, I somewhat believe that its drawbacks that result from having less public funding for important socio-economic sectors and its ambiguous benefits for affluent countries might likely outweigh any advantages it could possibly confer.(335 words)
