Hi,
as part of my TOEFL ibT preparation, I've written the following essay. I've tried to write in under TOEFL conditions and timed myself on it. This has been written within 30 minutes and has not been edited afterwards. Please let me know what you think and how you would rate it.
What do you want most in a friend - someone who is intelligent, or someone who has a sense of humor, or someone who is reliable? Which one of these characteristics is most important to you? Use reasons and specific examples to explain your choice.
Friends are an important part of life and there is scarcely a person without friends at all. Most people have more than one friend but still stick to a small group of people with whom they are very close. The question is what are the most valuable characteristics in friends? What makes them differ from acquaintancies? What makes them so important to us?
In my opinion, it depends on the individual person which characteristics he or she seeks in a friend. Intelligence, sense of humor and reliability, however, are probably the most named qualities people would like to have in a friend. But which of these character traits is the most important one? For me personally it would be a healthy mixture of all three. Intelligence, to begin with, is quite necessary because I appreciate the idea of being able to share my thoughts with a person equal to me. If I talk about my studies for example, I actually expect the other person to generally understand what I am saying - even if they work in a totally different subject area. A person who lacks intelligence would probably not be able to follow me and couldn't support me if I asked for help. Thus, intelligence definitely is one of the things I really value in a friend.
Sense of humor is, of course, a well-liked characteristic as well. Especially, when it comes to cheering someone up, a humorous person may be of great help. While discussing a problem with a friend, I do not actually expect them to solve my problem but to comfort me or distract me. Some jokes may do the trick in this situation and a good humored friend is the most likely to come up with one. For some people this may seem even more valuable than intelligence but I am convinced that a certain amount of intelligence is needed to come up with a good joke and more important to get a feeling for the situation.
Although I highly appreciate intelligence and good humor in a person, this is of no point if the person is not reliable. Reliability is the foundation of every good friendship because obviously nobody would want a friend who lets him or her down when they are most needed. Thus, reliability probably is the most important character trait. However, for me it would not work if the person was plain boring or rather unintelligent.
To sum it up, the perfect friend for me would inherit all three characteristics. Ideally, this friend would use his or her intelligence to understand what I am talking about and the same to get a feeling for my current state of mind, he or she would then try to cheer me up by using a good sense of humor and of course would never let me down if I needed a friend the most.
as part of my TOEFL ibT preparation, I've written the following essay. I've tried to write in under TOEFL conditions and timed myself on it. This has been written within 30 minutes and has not been edited afterwards. Please let me know what you think and how you would rate it.
What do you want most in a friend - someone who is intelligent, or someone who has a sense of humor, or someone who is reliable? Which one of these characteristics is most important to you? Use reasons and specific examples to explain your choice.
Friends are an important part of life and there is scarcely a person without friends at all. Most people have more than one friend but still stick to a small group of people with whom they are very close. The question is what are the most valuable characteristics in friends? What makes them differ from acquaintancies? What makes them so important to us?
In my opinion, it depends on the individual person which characteristics he or she seeks in a friend. Intelligence, sense of humor and reliability, however, are probably the most named qualities people would like to have in a friend. But which of these character traits is the most important one? For me personally it would be a healthy mixture of all three. Intelligence, to begin with, is quite necessary because I appreciate the idea of being able to share my thoughts with a person equal to me. If I talk about my studies for example, I actually expect the other person to generally understand what I am saying - even if they work in a totally different subject area. A person who lacks intelligence would probably not be able to follow me and couldn't support me if I asked for help. Thus, intelligence definitely is one of the things I really value in a friend.
Sense of humor is, of course, a well-liked characteristic as well. Especially, when it comes to cheering someone up, a humorous person may be of great help. While discussing a problem with a friend, I do not actually expect them to solve my problem but to comfort me or distract me. Some jokes may do the trick in this situation and a good humored friend is the most likely to come up with one. For some people this may seem even more valuable than intelligence but I am convinced that a certain amount of intelligence is needed to come up with a good joke and more important to get a feeling for the situation.
Although I highly appreciate intelligence and good humor in a person, this is of no point if the person is not reliable. Reliability is the foundation of every good friendship because obviously nobody would want a friend who lets him or her down when they are most needed. Thus, reliability probably is the most important character trait. However, for me it would not work if the person was plain boring or rather unintelligent.
To sum it up, the perfect friend for me would inherit all three characteristics. Ideally, this friend would use his or her intelligence to understand what I am talking about and the same to get a feeling for my current state of mind, he or she would then try to cheer me up by using a good sense of humor and of course would never let me down if I needed a friend the most.
