Australia and Egypt: the art of the comparison essay

Landius: beautiful Australia
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Comparison essay: please use class notes on Egypt and Australia (according to Robert Trudeau ...) as well as Infoplease profiles.
1) Jazzy title / explanatory subtitle.
2) Colorful opening
3) Use comparison words such as “larger than,” “less than half as much,” “opposite direction,” etc.
4) Document at the end of the second sentence.
5) Do not separate the material; blend the two topics.

From the Land of Oz to the Gift of the Nile: a comparison of Australia and Egypt

The pyramids and sphinx symbolically guard the high status of Egyptian history. The Aborigines of Australia, however, have no such monuments. Both peoples might be called ancient desert dwellers. But the Egyptians have the world’s most spectacular early history.

Today, however, the status of the two nations has seen a switcheroo. The land of the digeridoo was taken over by Europeans 300 years ago. They have made Australia a wealthy land. The per capita income of Australia is $24,000, according to Infoplease.com. The people of Egypt take in less than $4000 on the average. That’s less than 20% of the Aussie average.

Undoubtedly connected to the low per capita income is the contrast in literacy. Egypt has a 51% rate of reading and writing. The Australians claim twice the level of achievement at 100%. Another economic indicator: the Egyptians have almost twice the unemployment of the Australians, at 12% and 7%.

While mining is king in Australia, textiles seem to be paramount in Egypt. Beyond these activities there are industries the two have in common, such as food processing and chemicals.

Both nations show little ethnic diversity; they are homogeneous in regards race and religion. Egypt is mostly Egyptian and Muslim. Australia is mostly European and Christian.

Egypt is crowded: there are 75 million people living beside the Nile. Australia is the opposite: the 20 million people there live on a continent 7 times the size of Egypt. Another example of being crowded: Cairo is one of the world’s most populous cities with almost 16 million. Sydney, however, is one-fourth its size at 4 million. Additionally, the Egyptian growth rate is twice that of Australia.

An appropriate technological index of the progress of nations might be the cell phone. The Egyptians lag behind the Australians by less than half a million phones to some 9 million cellular units in use, according to figures gathered in 1999 and 2000.