Task 2 · Advantages and disadvantages · Housing
High-rise flats instead of family houses
An outweigh question on building upwards, where the band 9 answer argues that height matters less than what happens at the foot of the tower and who pays to keep it running.
The question
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
In many growing cities, most new homes are now built as flats in high-rise tower blocks rather than as individual houses with gardens. Do the advantages of this trend outweigh the disadvantages?
A 250-word discursive essay — the half of the paper that carries two thirds of the marks. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
The 6.5 lists land saved against loneliness and broken lifts; the 7.5 sees that the drawbacks fall mainly on families; the 9 traces every familiar objection to the ground floor or the maintenance budget and makes its verdict conditional on both.
The three answers
Band 6.5
287 words (the task asks for at least 250)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
Nowadays in many big cities, the most of new homes are built as flats in tall buildings instead of houses with a garden. Some people think this is a good trend, while other people believe it has many problems. In my opinion, the advantages of this trend are more than the disadvantages4.
The first advantage is that tall buildings save a lot of land. In the big cities the land is very expensive and there is not enough space for everyone, so building upward is the only solution. If a city build houses instead, it will spread into the countryside and people will need to travel long distance to their work.5 Another advantage is that flats are cheaper than houses, so more young people can buy their own home. Moreover, tall buildings usually have good facilities like lifts, security guards and parking, which makes the life more comfortable.
However, there are also some disadvantages. Firstly, living in a tall building is not suitable for the families with small children, because there is no garden and children cannot play outside safely. Secondly, people in the tower blocks often do not know their neighbours, so they feel lonely and there is no sense of community.3 Also, if the lift is broken, it is very difficult for old people to go up and down2, and in case of fire it can be very dangerous for everybody.
In conclusion, although high-rise flats have some disadvantages such as loneliness and safety problem, I believe the advantages are more important, because the cities are growing very fast and there is no other way to give everybody a home1. The government should make sure that the buildings are safe and have enough green spaces.
What an examiner notices
1. Task response
“there is no other way to give everybody a home”
The whole verdict rests on this claim, and it is asserted in the conclusion rather than argued in the body. The disadvantages are never actually weighed against it.
2. Task response
“if the lift is broken, it is very difficult for old people to go up and down”
Lifts were listed as an advantage in the previous paragraph. The same feature now appears as a risk and the connection is never made, although that is exactly where the real argument lay.
3. Coherence and cohesion
“Secondly, people in the tower blocks often do not know their neighbours, so they feel lonely and there is no sense of community.”
A serious objection given one sentence. The label does the organising, and the idea is dropped as soon as it has been stated.
4. Lexical resource
“the advantages of this trend are more than the disadvantages”
'Outweigh' is the natural verb and the prompt supplies it. 'Are more than' makes the comparison sound like counting, which is what the essay then does.
5. Grammatical range and accuracy
“If a city build houses instead, it will spread into the countryside and people will need to travel long distance to their work.”
A missing third-person ending and a missing article in 'a long distance'. Both are typical slips at this band, and neither obscures the meaning.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
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