Band 6+: In the past, most people lived in small villages where everyone knew everyone else. Nowadays, most people live in large cities where they only know a few people in their area. What do you think were the advantages and disadvantages of living in a small community?

Now a lot of people live in the big cities while in the past most people lived in small villages. In the past there were advantages and disadvantages of living in a small community.

I believe there were two benefits. Firstly, it is more simple to make friends because in a small community people know each other, they know interests of other people and they understand who can be their friend. Secondly, when people live in a small community they help and support each other. A person is not afraid to trust something to his neighbours while in the big cities people sometimes don’t know their neighbours and of course they will not ask help and support from neighbours.

Also I know three disadvantages of living in a small community. Firstly, it is hard to keep your secret because people know each other. I think that people like to discuss other people and if you tell interesting secrets to the one person, next day all people will know this information. Secondly, in a small community, the opportunities are limited. People don’t need a lot of different jobs they usually need doctors, policemen, cashiers, cleaners, fiemen and other essential professions. Third disadvantage is limited educational opportunities. I think that usually there was one school and that’s all in one village. There were not colleges and universities and you could not get higher education.

In my opinion, the disadvantages of living in a small community were greater than the advantages.People knoe all of their neighbours and support each other, but they don’t have the opportunities to get the new knowledge and improve the skills.