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Opinion (Agree / Disagree) Society Task 2

It is a natural process that animal species such as dinosaurs become extinct. There is no reason for people to prevent this from happening. Do you agree or disagree?

A full IELTS Writing Task 2 answer to this question, with a paragraph plan, ideas you can use, and the vocabulary that fits this topic.

The question

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

It is a natural process that animal species such as dinosaurs become extinct. There is no reason for people to prevent this from happening. Do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

How to read this question

You are given one statement and asked how far you agree. The examiner is checking that you take a clear position in the introduction and hold it consistently to the conclusion — a partial agreement is fine, an unclear one is not.

Paragraph plan

Introduction — Paraphrase the prompt and state a clear, conditional disagree position.

Body 1 — Explain the main side you agree with — human-caused extinction requires human responsibility.

Body 2 — Acknowledge the condition under which the opposing view has merit — purely natural extinction events are different.

Conclusion — Restate the conditional disagree position without adding new ideas.

Model essay

Band 8.5–9.0 model essay

316 words

It is a natural process for animal species such as dinosaurs to become extinct, and some argue that humans have no obligation to prevent this from happening. In my view, this holds true only for extinctions driven by natural causes, whereas humans bear direct responsibility when their own activities are the cause.

To begin, extinction has always been an intrinsic feature of the natural world, occurring long before humans existed. To clarify, species such as dinosaurs disappeared as a result of catastrophic natural events, including asteroid impacts and volcanic activity, processes entirely beyond any species' control. Since ecosystems have continuously evolved through cycles of extinction and adaptation for billions of years, attempting to prevent every natural disappearance would be both scientifically futile and unnecessary, as new species inevitably emerge to occupy the ecological niches left behind, restoring balance without any need for human interference.

However, a fundamentally different situation arises when extinction results directly from human activity rather than natural causes. This is attributable to the fact that practices such as poaching, deforestation, and industrial pollution accelerate the disappearance of species at a rate far exceeding anything nature alone would produce. For instance, when a forest is cleared for agriculture, countless species dependent on that habitat can vanish within a single generation, a timescale incomparable to the millions of years natural extinction typically requires and one that leaves ecosystems no real opportunity to adapt. Since humans caused this acceleration, they bear a moral responsibility to mitigate it, whether through habitat protection, anti-poaching legislation, or captive breeding programmes for critically endangered species, none of which would be necessary had the underlying decline occurred through purely natural means.

To conclude, while I agree that people need not intervene in extinctions caused by natural processes, I disagree that this principle should extend to species being driven to extinction by human activity, for which intervention is both justified and necessary.

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Ideas & vocabulary for this topic

Ideas you can use

  • Introduction: Paraphrase the claim that extinction is a natural process humans need not prevent, and state agreement only for naturally caused extinction while disagreeing that this excuses human-caused extinction.
  • Body 1: Argue that extinction has always been part of nature's cycle, citing dinosaurs disappearing through natural catastrophe, so preventing every natural extinction would be futile since new species fill the resulting gaps.
  • Body 2: Argue that human-driven extinction through poaching, deforestation and pollution accelerates species loss far beyond natural rates, creating a moral responsibility for humans to intervene through habitat protection and conservation programmes.
  • Conclusion: Restate agreement that natural extinction needs no intervention, but disagreement that this logic should excuse or apply to human-caused extinction.
Word or phraseMeaningUsed in a sentence
intrinsic featurea characteristic that is a natural, essential part of somethingextinction has always been an intrinsic feature of the natural world.
catastrophicinvolving sudden, great damage or sufferingspecies such as dinosaurs disappeared as a result of catastrophic natural events.
futileproducing no useful result; pointlessattempting to prevent every natural disappearance would be both scientifically futile and unnecessary.
ecological nichesthe specific roles or positions a species occupies within its environmentnew species inevitably emerge to occupy the ecological niches left behind.
deforestationthe clearing of forests, typically for other land usepractices such as poaching, deforestation, and industrial pollution accelerate the disappearance of species.
accelerateto increase the speed or rate of somethingaccelerate the disappearance of species at a rate far exceeding anything nature alone would produce.
moral responsibilityan ethical duty to act correctlySince humans caused this acceleration, they bear a moral responsibility to mitigate it.
captive breedingraising animals in controlled environments to help endangered species survivewhether through habitat protection, anti-poaching legislation, or captive breeding programmes for critically endangered species.

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