SCHRIFTLICHE MATURA AUS ENGLISCH 08/09

Eine der Aufgabenstellungen bezog sich auf den Themenbereich Arbeit und Karriere:

You passed your final exams one year ago and you have decided to write an article of 300 – 400 words for your school annual about your personal future on the job market.
Make sure you include the following aspects:
• Work: a necessary evil or a challenge to fulfill?
• Job satisfaction or financial reward: a possible balance?
• Changing patterns of work
• Jobs you have done and the career you are planning on

Write your article.
Florian Krimbacher 8BN is looking back on his school career….. Now it has already been a whole year that I graduated from high school and left my home to explore other things. I now study law, and although it can get pretty tough at times, I am very content with my choice. I only need to study what I am going to need for work someday, which is different from what I had to study at high school. I can see myself as a lawyer in maybe five or six years, which is still a long way to go. Although it is tough at times to do all the studying for university, I do not see it as a necessary evil. I keep reminding myself that I am doing all this for myself, and that if I want to become a lawyer, own a nice house and drive a nice car, then I will have to fulfill my duties at university as best as I possibly can. For not being totally dependent on my parents’ money, I decided to accept a job at a movie theatre close to my apartment. I have always loved the movies and I enjoy working at the theatre a lot. Of course, I do not earn a whole lot of money but it is enough to pay for the rent and keep me from starving. The most important thing on today’s job market, however, is flexibility. There are millions of people graduating from colleges all over the world, and in today’s world where jobs are precious, very few care for job satisfaction as long as the financial reward is high. It is a beautiful thing to find a job you love doing and also make a lot of money at the same time. But I think those cases have become relatively scarce nowadays. Something that is always recommendable is spending a year abroad. I did that during high school and I am thinking about doing another one. It means loads of experience and it is always good to have that kind of experience on your personal record. So if all goes well, I will be a successful lawyer in a couple of years, and once that happens, I will write another article stating that I was able to make it.

Ein weiterer Schreibauftrag bezog sich auf den Themenbereich Human Rights / Non-violence.

“Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Write an article for your school magazine (250-300 words) dealing with the quotation above. Choose a suitable headline.
Make sure the article includes
• the reason(s) why you write it
• at least one (historic) example
• why M.L. King’s quotation should even be considered in everyday (school) life.

Non-Violence – It Is Easy, It Is Just and It Does Not Cost Anything.
Since the media are full of articles in regard to war, violence and hatred, I decided to write an article about non-violence. What is non-violent behaviour? There is a quote by Martin Luther King who gave a really good definition of it. “Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” Now you might insist that it is better to defend yourself with violence if someone attacks you. Probably it is natural that the reaction to a violent action is violent too. It is really difficult to imagine that here is also a kind of defence which is non-aggressive. Non-violent resistance is mightier than an active defence if you believe in King’s words. There are really some examples in history telling us that a non-violent way could be the right one. The most famous activist of passive resistance was, beside Martin Luther King, the Indian national hero, Mahatma Gandhi. He adhered to his non-violent path even when he got beaten and imprisoned. This shows us that it is often difficult to bear aggression against yourself. Nonetheless, both the Indian Revolution and the Civil Rights Movement were successful. These events prove that non-violence can work. Non-violence is an ideal to follow, also in daily life and at school. We should practice de-escalation instead of primitive violence. If we learned that at school, it would not only improve school but also our whole society. It is a noble and difficult aim to reach but, for God’s sake, we must succeed.