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Task 2 · Discussion (both views) · Environment

Nuclear power in a low-carbon energy mix

An energy discussion essay in which the band 9 answer reframes the choice as one about timing rather than about technology.

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.

As countries try to reduce their carbon emissions, some argue that nuclear power must be part of the solution, while others believe that only renewable sources such as wind and solar should be developed. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

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 balances safety fears against clean output, the 7.5 introduces reliability, and the 9 argues that the disagreement is really about how long the transition is allowed to take.

The three answers

Band 6.5

261 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

The climate change is one of the biggest problem in the world today4, so all of the countries are trying to reduce the carbon emissions. Some experts believe that we need the nuclear energy, but the other experts think that we should use only the renewable energies like the wind and the solar. This essay will discuss the both opinions.

On the one hand, the nuclear power has the important benefits. It does not produce the carbon dioxide, so it does not make the global warming worse. Moreover, a nuclear station can produce a huge quantity of the electricity from a small quantity of the fuel, and it can work in the day and in the night. Therefore many countries can close their coal stations quickly if they build the nuclear stations. Moreover, a country which produces its own nuclear energy does not need to buy the gas from the other countries.

On the other hand, many people are afraid of the nuclear energy because of the accidents in the past. If an accident happen, the radiation can affect the people and the environment for the many years. In addition, nobody knows what we should do with the dangerous waste, which stay dangerous during the thousands of years3. Therefore the people prefer the renewable energies, which are safe and clean.2

In conclusion, the nuclear power is clean for the climate but dangerous for the safety, and the renewable energy is safe but it depends on the weather1. In my opinion the governments should invest the money in the both of them.

What an examiner notices

  1. 1. Task response

    “the renewable energy is safe but it depends on the weather”

    Intermittency is the strongest argument against a renewables-only strategy, and it appears for the first time in the conclusion. New content in a final paragraph is a structural fault, not a flourish.

  2. 2. Task response

    “Therefore the people prefer the renewable energies, which are safe and clean.”

    A sweeping generalisation presented as the paragraph's conclusion. The essay attributes a preference to everyone without evidence or qualification.

  3. 3. Lexical resource

    “nobody knows what we should do with the dangerous waste, which stay dangerous during the thousands of years”

    'Dangerous' twice in one sentence for lack of an alternative such as 'hazardous' or 'radioactive', and 'during' where English requires 'for'.

  4. 4. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “one of the biggest problem in the world today”

    'One of the' requires a plural noun. A small, high-frequency error of the sort that accumulates across the answer.

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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