I agree with Evonne's argument that reading is an activity that many of us might enjoy.

I agree that when I pick up a good book to read, I will usually be so engrossed in the book that even playing computer games or watching my favourite television programmes, may come second as compared to reading a good book.

I also agree that reading helps us to develop a skill of concentration and this will help in our studies as there are too many distractions around us, such as handphones, computers or televisions and at the same time there is just too much work for us to do.

As students, studying is our main priority, hence we should learn to concentrate and not get distracted easily. If not, we will never be able to absorb information and might not do well in test or exams.

Evonne also said that reading puts her into the character's shoes and the character's state of mind. I believe that reading helps us to understand other people better even though the characters in the book may be fictional.

The storyline of a good book is made to be as realistic as possible and from the book, we are able to draw out the feelings and thoughts about the character, which may also help in understanding people in reality.

Therefore, I strongly agree with Evonne's argument.

Today's teenagers do not read as many books as a teenager even 10 or 20 years back used to. Why is it so? Is it because other forms of communication, learning and entertainment have taken over the ever popular "book" or is there some other reason? What do you think?

In my opinion, I guess today's teenagers do not read as many books as a teenager 10 or 20 years back ago as technology has developed greatly and these distractions (e.g. computer games, online chatting, television pro grammes, etc) pull teenagers away from books. All these distractions may seem more entertaining than a book, hence I feel that these distractions are the reasons behind today's teenagers not reading as many books as teenagers 10 or 20 years back.

In my opinion, reading is very important to today's teenagers and at the same time, it can also be just as entertaining as watching television programmes or playing on line games as when it comes to reading a book, although there may be no moving animations or anything as exciting as that, while reading, it helps to develop the imagination about what is happening in the storyline and sets the mind thinking.

Watching the television programmes may only include staring and understanding the storyline and when the programme ends, we most probably get over it and forget about it until the next episode is on air.

However, reading sets our mind thinking as we wonder about what will happen next and the meaningful phrases and words may also help to improve our vocabulary.

Reading also helps us to write a good essay because of the strong grammar that we will possess and the creative and interesting storylines that we've read before in novels or storybooks.

The more books we read, the stronger our vocabulary and grammer will become.

Reading does extremely positive impact on our english as compared to watching television programmes or playing online games.

In my opinion, reading helps us to improve our english and broaden our knowledge. Reading is a skill that we must learn to appreciate and endeavour to master for the rest of our lives as reading will bring us forward to our future and our career as we step into society when the time comes.

If we had 100 million dollars with us, we can use the money to buy alot of electronic devices to entertain ourselves and the best thing is, we don't have to work, we can feed ourself for a life time.

But what happens if this possession gets taken away from us?

What if we no longer have that 100 million bucks?

However, with the possesion of education and most importantly the skill of reading, it does not matter if we are rich or poor, as long as we have that tool with us, we can assure ourselves that although our materialistic possessions may get taken away, this useful tool in us will never be stolen. There will never be any sense of insecurity in terms of knowledge.

With the skill of reading, we can educate ourselves even further and do well in life.

In conclusion, I believe that reading is very important to today's teenagers.