10 TOPICS FOR DABATE EXAMINATION (HANU) 10 CHỦ ĐỀ CHO KÌ THI PHẢN BIỆN ( ĐẠI HỌC HÀ NỘI)

HANOI UNIVERSITY
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÀ NỘI
****************

DEBATE

10 INTERESTING TOPICS
FOR DEBATE EXAMINATIONS


10 INTERESTING TOPICS FOR DABATE EXAMINATION
(PROS AND CONS)
************************

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.

SHOULD EXAMINATIONS BE REPLACED BY OTHER FORMS OF ASSESSMENT?
SHOULD PROSTITUTION BE LEGALIZED?
SHOULD SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?
SHOULD PRE-SELECTING SEX OF CHILDREN BE LEGAL?
SHOULD CENSORSHIP ON SOCIAL MEDIA BE LEGAL?
SHOULD THERE BE A BAN ON CHILDREN PERFORMERS?

SHOULD AGE DISCRIMINATION AT WORK BE ILLEGAL?
SHOULD THERE A BAN ON ADVISEMENT AIMED CHILDREN?
SHOULD GOVERNMENT SPEND MONEY ON EXPLORING SPACE?
SHOULD MOTHER STAY AT HOME TO RAISE THEIR CHILDREN?


1. SHOULD EXAMINATIONS BE REPLACED BY OTHER FORMS OF ASSESSMENT?

POINTS
PROS
AFFIRMATIVE



SIDE
(should)

Too much memorization
 Does not work on student well
- Newman, 2018: “usually test on students’ memory
not their real understanding”
 Try to remember all of what has been learned



mechanically
 Explain:
- Students having good memory => get good marks
- Students having bad memory => get low grades
Tests are poor

 Poor way to determine the intelligence of students
 Tend to memorize everything on their notes

REFUSE
+ not just test only
memory => gain more
knowledge
+ teachers know students’
performance

without trying to understand the content
 Never learn how to think critically
- Newman, 2018: “exams test students’ ability to
CONS
NEGATIVE



SIDE
(should not)

keep cool more than their intelligence”
Good tool for evaluation
 It’s fair for all students who have to sit for the same
exam + use the same method in a school, even
country
 Exams allow an administration for a large number



of students to measure
 compare students’ knowledge
Improve their performance
 Exams help students to know the position they are
in
 Encourage their performance
- For instance:
If a student score low grade, it encourages him/her
to study hard more to score high grade

+ not always evaluation
100% the students’
capacity
+ use cheat in exams to
have higher scores
not care about studying,
depend on those answer
printed paper only


2. SHOULD PROSTITUTION BE LEGALIZED?

PROS



AFFIRMATIVE
SIDE
(should)

POINTS
Crimes
 Legal prostitution reduces rape, sex violence + sex

REFUSE
+ “legalization does not

crimes
 Sex workers would be approached a police if they

violence is the nature of

-

danger or have a trouble with their clients
1998 – 2018, the number of women involved in
prostitution increase, but surprisingly, rape cases



have declined by 31% (Research, Berlin, 2018)
Sex crimes
 Prostitution is legal, people who want to deal with
their sexual needs would have their option available
for them
 So instead of raping, they could hire a prostitute to
-

reduce violence because
sex industry” President of

Women International
Association
+ increase human
trafficking for demand for
sexual exploitation of
women and girls

satisfy their sexual need
Khushwant Singh, the famous journalist: “the more
you try to stop prostitution, the higher crime rate

CONS



NEGATIVE
SIDE

for women is”
Individual health
 There are many negative impacts on health for sex
-

(should not)


workers created by prostitution
Sex workers have a high risk on getting STD (sexual

transmitted diseases) such as HIV/AIDS…

Social health
 STD will also be passed to their couple partners
- Jacobson, 2017: “70% of females have STD +
infertility, most of them were caused by their
husbands or partners who were involved in
prostitution”

+ easy to solve by using
condoms
+ allow government to
monitor the sex trade
+ Data from EUROPE:
“countries that have
legalized prostitution have
a significantly lower HIV
patient among sex
workers compared to
those countries do not”


3. SHOULD SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BE LEGAL?

PROS



AFFIRMATIVE

POINTS
Human rights

 Every person has rights to have a legalized

+ make no sense to talk

distinction of gay, bisexual or straight
 Gay marriage is protected by the US Constitution’s

about equal rights in this

-

Commitments to liberty and equality
Same-sex marriage magazine: “denying
homosexual couples the right to marry -> not



equality
Marriage laws
 Marriage is legally recognized between 2 people in
a personal relationship, not depend on their
-

CONS



NEGATIVE

because it requires both a female and a male to

-

context
+ if gay marriage is
legalized, polygamous or
incestuous marriages
would have to be legalized
too.

genders
US marriage laws: “Gay marriage couples have the

right to start families and have their own children”
Reproduction
 Same-sex couples cannot produce children

SIDE
(should not)

rights

relationship with the person they love without

SIDE
(should)

REFUSE
+ there are always limits to

+ can be easily solved by

adopt a child or scientific
medical advances

have a baby
Russell, a philosopher won Nobel Prize: “the first
purpose of marriage is procreation. Because of
children, sexual relations become important to



society”
Children
 Even if adopt a child, it still needs both mother and
-

+ university of Melnourne,
2014: “children raised by

father
Article published on Child Development, 2017:
“Girls raised from their father are at higher risk for

same-sex parents tend to

early sexual activity + teenage pregnancy”
“children without a mother are lack of the

academic performances”

emotional security + unique advice that mothers

provide”

score better, better social +


4. SHOULD PRE-SELECTING SEX OF CHILDREN BE LEGAL?

PROS



AFFIRMATIVE

POINTS
Human rights
 People should have freedom of choice to have
reproductive rights
 Allow them to determine when + where they want

SIDE
(should)

-

to have children
Director of fertility Institute noted: “parents have
the rights to choose the gender of children they



want by tech existences”
Family plan
 Gender selection help parents free to decide the
number of children they want
 When the couples want a specific gender for a first
-

CONS



NEGATIVE
SIDE
(should not)

encouraging, such as China
Cost
 Expensive
 Expense for pre-selecting is too much for several-



born, mother don’t need to have birth many times
Some countries limiting the size of a family is

years savings of the couples
Gender selection by using IVF can cost up $20000

or even more
Result

 Gender selection is uncertainly successful because
it is a new science
 So it may not be worth the money you would have
-

to invest
A research, WHO: “accuracy of the method is not
100%”

REFUSE
+ breaking the law of
nature


5. SHOULD CENSORSHIP ON SOCIAL MEDIA BE LEGAL?

PROS



AFFIRMATIVE
SIDE

POINTS
Safety
 Decrease the impacts of identity thef
 Restrict content that would allow identity
information to be easily shared
 Decrease inappropriate + harmful content
- 2016: “15,4 million reports of identity were records,

(should)

but this figure decrease by 16% when censorship


was used”
Stop fake news
 Fake news increases dramatically
 Fake new websites => false reports for money
through clocks because readers think the news is
-

real
News on VTV: “a man has reported that meat was
infected => makes people afraid and didn’t eat

CONS



NEGATIVE
SIDE

meat => psychological crisis
Human rights
 Censorship are against human rights
 People have rights to express their points of view +
participate in political issues
 Have rights to read any book they want, listen to

(should not)


music + watch movies for entertainment
Freedom
 It takes away freedom of expression
 The rights to freedom of speech is ban because
there is a limit as to what you can or cannot say on
-

the internet
The social network is where people can use a great
level of creativity to express themselves, but
censorship will take that away

REFUSE
+ easy to solve by using
self-censorship
+ Ex: social network
(youtube…) have age
filtering + parent control
sofware


6. SHOULD THERE BE A BAN ON CHILDREN PERFORMERS?

PROS



AFFIRMATIVE
SIDE
(should)

POINTS
Health
 At a young age, children are physically immature
 It’s very likely for a child to face with physical +
-



mental problems
BBC News, 2017: “children involved at a

REFUSE
+ WHO: “the rate of child
performers injury is very
low
+ there are professional’s

professional level in sports are at a higher risk than

help to manage them:

their peers of physical problems like breaking

nutrients, family…

bones”
Gomez, who died from injury when she was 15

years old in a competition
Development
 Child stars have very busy schedules
 Easily vulnerable because of over-exercising +
eating disorders
 Have enough time to relax + rest
- Lena, the winner of a famous dancer competition,
had to struggle with eating disorders for all her life

CONS



NEGATIVE

+ died at 34 years old
Child development
 Have opportunities to work with famous people
and experts
 Develop their talents and reach their full potential
- Britney Spear, Christina Aguilera, Justine Timberlake

SIDE
(should not)



+ children may be danger
because of training
+ or become a
presumptuous person

were discovered by the show called the Mickey

+ affect to their study at

Mouse Club => become some of the most

school

successful singers in the world
Health
 Children can improve ability + skills + health
 They involve in a professional level in sports => train
physically => build strength + muscle + increase
fitness level => improve health


7. SHOULD AGE DISCRIMINATION AT WORK BE ILLEGAL?

CONS



NAGATIVE

POINTS

Effectiveness
 Employees have the right to hire who are most
likely
 Know a person’s age because the lob is not suitable

SIDE
(should)

-

for older or younger person
Construction industry with heavy work demand for
younger because they have good heath + more

PROS



AFFIRMATIVE

focus + active
Equality
 Age should not be necessarily to assess the ability
of workers
 Evaluating a person depend on the basis of their

SIDE
(should not)


age is unfair + unacceptable
Efficiency
 Age is not the most important factor to assess when
hiring staff, instead, the qualifications + experience
of candidate should be
 If companies select their staff depending on age,
they could hire people with less experience

REFUSE


8. SHOULD THERE A BAN ON ADVISEMENT AIMED CHILDREN?

PROS



AFFIRMATIVE
SIDE
(should)

POINTS
Unhealthy
 Too much fast food and sof drink ads on TV today
 Encourage children to consume so much fatty,
-

sugary + salty food
“a can of cola contains 2000 calories, but a number

of calories that a child need is about 1000”
 Create obese, fluctuate blood sugar levels +


CONS



NEGATIVE

increase child’s risk for cardiovascular disease
Society
 Most of advertisement about unhealthy food
 Cause unhealthy youngsters with bad eating habits
 Society will pay a high price in terms of the extra
medical
Content
 Provide information of product, especially the new
product
 Describes the explanation of the function of the

SIDE
(should not)



product that is suitable for children
Children find new toys to play with => watch ads =>

function + material + price to buy => useful

Useful
 Ads on TV are created by using educating stories +
imaginative scenes
 help parent feed their children easier + encourage
healthy eating, road safety on other socially useful
messages

REFUSE
+ that is the responsibility
of parents, not
advertisement


9. SHOULD GOVERNMENT SPEND MONEY ON EXPLORING SPACE?

PROS



AFFIRMATIVE
SIDE
(should)

POINTS
Knowledge
 Increase our knowledge
 Understand more about the universe: how it was
-

REFUSE

created, the reason why it exists
NASA, 2015: “we have already discovered new
planets, like Kepler 22b, may support life in other



solar systems
Technology
 Exploring space is extremely beneficial because of
its technological advances
 So, we have lots of inventions, new laws of physics
- Space magazines, 2018: “nations spending money
on supporting space exploration have the most

CONS



NEGATIVE
SIDE

modern technology such as America, Russia,…
Waste of money
 Expensive
 Build rockets + satellites + train astronaut and
experts + develop new tech and machine for space

(should not)


missions
NASA, 2018: “total cost for the space program pf

NASA is $196 billion”
Useless
 Instead of spending money on space exploration,
government should use the funds on health care,
education, food, housing + other social programs
that would benefit a lot of people + make their lives
-

better
“The money spend on exploring space can help
decrease 60% of the world’s hunger”

+ the cost spend on space
program is not significant
with total money of the
nation


10. SHOULD MOTHER STAY AT HOME TO RAISE THEIR CHILDREN?

PROS



AFFIRMATIVE

POINTS
Development
 Early childhood is the most important time of a
child’s development
 The mother or the father should be there to raise

SIDE
(should)

them and devote as much time as possible
 By staying at home, mothers can ensure that their
children have the best start in life, by giving them
-

CONS

love and attention
Ex: prepare healthy nutritious meals for them and



look afer them
Financial expense
 Cut out the expense of work include business



clothes, dry cleaning, gas and transportation
 Eliminate expense for childcare service
Social interaction

 Mothers spend all 24 hours on children
 They can miss the interaction they had with their

NEGATIVE
SIDE

co-workers + miss engaging in social activities like

(should not)

office parties, business meetings + corporate
outings
 Lack of adult interaction can start to have a negative


effect on their marriage
Income
 Loss individual financial independences
 Depend for little things on their husbands
 Feel depressed because they are not bringing any
income

REFUSE