TOEFL ESSAY NO.7
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? It is more fun to watch movies in a cinema than it is at home. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
The golden age of motion picture has long passed away. It is high time that moviegoers stopped going to the cinema and stayed at home instead to appreciate perhaps the most predominant form of contemporary fine arts: movies. At home, the viewer is more mobile, more emotionally attached, and, by virtue of technology, better able to sense the surreal.
Action movies made a name by getting the adrenaline flowing. Yet the general habit of going to the theater has prevented viewers from engaging themselves in a more thrilling way of experiencing the flow of an action movie, which is mimicking the awesome movements of the actors in combats. We all remember how Bruce Lee masterfully defeats his opponent with his nunchakus in the Game of Death, and do we also reminisce about the time when we were children and adorably followed Bruce’s lead with, say, a pair of chopsticks? Adults, it is said, share the same hobbies with children; they are just unaware of it until they try. One might ask “Are you gonna do car chase at home as you watch The Bourne Identity?” Well, just turn on your X-box when the movie is done.
Not all movies involve non-stop motions. Dramas focus viewers’ attention on the plots; thrillers create suspense and tension; horror films invoke fears. However, home theaters still have their advantages over actual cinemas when it comes to these film genres. Scenario 1: Jane, a law school student mesmerized by the eloquence—as well as appearance—of Henry Fonda in Twelve Angry Men, just wants to savor Fonda’s deductive speeches all over again. Luckily, she is watching the cinematic classic at home. Scenario 2: A young couple, with all lights off at night, are watching The Silence of the Lambs. That is how the private, comparatively quiet ambience at home strengthens the mixed feeling of fascination and apprehension. Scenario 3: The couple continues to challenge themselves with the Shining. How does that feel?
Advocates for watching movies in a cinema boast about the special visual and sound effects of sci-fi movies there. In doing so, though, they show their ignorance of how far home theater technologies have come. 3D television has been an affordable household appliance, its stereo system providing sound effects comparable to those in a cinema and its LED screen noted for vivid, lifelike 3-dimensional visual effects hardly conceivable in any traditional movie theater. The screen is comparatively small, but the relatively shorter distance from it to the viewer compensates the viewing experience well. Further, high-tech companies like Google are bringing Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies to home theaters, raising the fun of watching movies at home to yet another notch.
There are a million reasons for watching movies at home, but they all come down to one: it is more fun, be it physically, psychologically, or sensuously. And that good fun is never derived from the silver screen.
Word Count: 486
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