Virtual reality makes a surprise appearance on China’s most important test

Virtual reality is kind of a big deal in China. Virtually every Chinese tech company is making moves to get involved in the nascent industry, but the enthusiasm isn’t restricted to tech industry. In fact, VR just popped up in a pretty unexpected place: China’s annual all-important college entrance exam.

The exam, which is called the gaokao, is the single metric by which a student’s college aspirations are measured. Score well enough, and you could end up at a school like Tsinghua or Peking University. Score badly, and your college hopes could be over. In fact, it’s so important that every year it spawns a black market in high-tech cheating devices.

The test is lengthy (it runs several days) and it is notorious in particular for its essay questions, which vary from region to region and which are the subject of much discussion each year when the test is in session.

This year, high schoolers in Zhejiang province cracked their test packets to find the following essay prompt:

Ecommerce, video chatting, and online entertainment have already become an inseparable part of the lives of many people.

Industry insiders say that before long, we’ll be installing VR (virtual reality) components in our homes, so that we can travel to different virtual realities without stepping outside: sometimes in the changing room at a shop trying on new clothes, sometimes at the hospital speaking with a doctor, sometimes at the football stadium enjoying a match, sometimes being “reincarnated” as an eyewitness of a recent news event…

With the “virtual” part of the virtual world becoming more and more like reality, do we choose to embrace this new world, or stay away from it, or try to maintain a balanced distance?

What are your thoughts on the question raised? Write an expository essay.

Requirements:

1. Choose your own point of view.

2. Write your own title.

3. No less than 800 characters.