综合写作：
Vanilla, a spice harvested from the seed pods of orchid flowers, is one of the world’s most expensive luxury crops. It is valued for use in baked goods, chocolate, and ice cream. Most vanilla is grown in Madagascar by farmers who sell their vanilla to traders who supply it to the world market (for example, to food companies)
Madagascar by farmers who sell their vanilla to traders who supply vanilla to the world market (for example, to food companies). However, there are several issues that are making vanilla farming in Madagascar unsustainable.
First, since vanilla is so precious, thieves often try to steal the pods before they are harvested. Even unripe pods can be sold at high prices. Farmers lose large percentages of their crop to these thieves. Because the thieves usually steal the pods overnight when the farmers are sleeping, farmers have been forced to pay the additional expense of hiring people to guard the vanilla plants overnight.
Second, vanilla farmers are often unable to earn enough profit from the sales of vanilla pods. One reason for this is that vanilla’s market value—the estimated price customers are willing to pay for vanilla—varies a lot from year to year, and this is what determines how much farmers will be paid for their vanilla. When the market value drops too low, many farmers will be unable to make enough money to cover their past investments and to ensure that they can make more investments into the future operation of their farms.
Third, natural vanilla has competition from artificial vanilla. The main flavor compound in vanilla can be made cheaply by means of chemical synthesis. It is very difficult to taste the difference between natural and artificial vanilla, so food companies can easily use the synthetic version as a substitute. When the price of real vanilla is especially high, companies are likely to switch to artificial vanilla. Unfortunately, many of them may not switch back to real vanilla even when the price drops again, which could permanently damage the vanilla market.
学术写作：
Instructions: Your professor is teaching a class on sociology. Write a post responding to the professor’s question. In your response you should:
- express and support your personal opinion
- make a contribution to the discussion in your own words
An effective response will contain at least 100 words.
Dr. Achebe
This week, we discussed the importance of role models and opinion makers in society. One idea we discussed was the widespread impact of “influencers.” Influencers are people who are very active posting on social media and who have many followers. Influencers’ posts and opinions influence their followers’ choices on everything from fashion to politics. In your opinion, do social media influencers generally have a positive or negative effect on their followers? Why do you think so?
Kelly
I think influencers’ effect is generally positive. People can learn about the latest trends and topics in a very quick and efficient way by following influencers. In the past, people had to spend time looking through magazines or visiting boutiques to even know what was trending.
Paul
I think influencers generally have a negative effect because they have far too much influence. I can think of one influencer who only has to mention a particular kind of sports shoes, and the next day they’ll be sold out. Their followers aren’t really thinking for themselves; they’re just blindly following their influencers’ choices.
