题目：

Many people are optimistic to the 21st century and see it as a opportunityto make positive changes to the world. To what extend do you agree or disagreewith their optimistism? What changes would you like to be made in the newcentury?

范文：

Entering the new millennium, our world has reached its peak in thedevelopment of society, economy and technology. Faced with opportunities andchallenges, we should take a rational attitude and be confident about thefuture.

First of all, technology has brought us advances and challenges. Forinstance, more families own private cars. We have more leisure time to enjoy onweekends. Information technology brings people closer in communication. However,the environmental pollution is accelerating. The air we breathe smells like gasfrom cars. And the food we eat may be contaminated with harmful chemicalsdischarged from plants into underground water. While the economic developmenthas made our life more comfortable, it has also polarized the society in thedistribution of wealth. More wealth is held by a very small percentage of thepopulation, leaving millions of people struggling to make a bare existence.

Secondly, long-existing problems have not been solved in spite of theconstant progress of our society. Millions of people are still suffering frompoverty and wars. There are other problems such as how to find cure for newdiseases, how to solve the threatening energy crisis, how to deal withglobalization issues, and how to achieve lasting peace with the possibility of anuclear war.

There are too many changes we want to bring to our world. But the primaryones are: I want to help people in the world no longer suffer from hunger andwars. I want to get the pollution under control and clean up the pollutedplaces. I also desire a peaceful, rich, healthy, beautiful planet for everyonein the 21st century.

To conclude, in the 21st century, we face opportunities and challenges.While the progresses are significant and wonderful, old problems still remain.We need to work hard to put a stop to issues such as world hunger, wars, andenvironmental pollution to make the world a better place for all.