TOEFL® essay sample: meeting a person from history

[Alexzive]

Thank you in advance for any correction!

TOEFL essay sample

Which one person from history would you like to meet? Give specific reasons for your choice.

If I would have the chance to meet a person from history, I would certainly choose the great physicist Albert Einstein. We would probably meet in Zurich at the ETH University where he spent the most important part of his career.

The first reason behind my choice is that I am also a physicist and I feel great admiration for the figures who gave major contributions to this discipline. The second reason is simple: Albert Einstein is recognized as the most important physicist of the 20th century and one of the greatest mind ever. Besides his most famous Relativity theory, he gave (provided) a number of contributions to Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy which have influenced the progress of science and technology until nowadays.

I would also take advantage of this exceptional meeting asking for Prof. Einstein?s opinion about open questions in Physics and general problems of mankind.
While nowadays we are facing challenges which have been never occurred before, it would be interesting and proficuos to hear Prof. Einstein?s opinion about it (them?) anyhow.
But one could ask me, why expressively choosing Albert Einstein for this and not some other great minds from history like Enrico Fermi, Isaac Newton or Blaise Pascal.

Giving a perfetcly rational reason is impossible for me, and I admit, my choice could have been also emotionally influenced . But if one carefully considers the life of A. Einstein from an historical point of view , he would certainly remark that only Albert Einstein has been at the same time a multidisciplinary talent of highest level and a quite recent figure in History. All the other mentioned figures are eighter specific talents (like Enrico Fermi) or talents belonging to a too remote historical context (like Isaac Newton). Only Albert Einstein, in my opinion, would be able to face nowadays even most complex challenges.

[Alan]

HI,

If I would/HAD have the chance to meet a person from history, I would certainly choose the great physicist Albert Einstein. We would probably meet in Zurich at the ETH University where he spent the most important part of his career.

The first reason behind my choice is that I am also a physicist and I feel great admiration for the figures who gaveMADE major contributions to this discipline. The second reason is simple: Albert Einstein is recognized as the most important physicist of the 20th century and one of the greatest mindS ever. Besides his most famous Relativity theory, he gave (provided) a number of contributions to Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy which have influenced the progress of science and technology until nowadays/TODAY.

I would also take advantage of this exceptional meeting asking for Prof. Einstein?s opinion about open questions in Physics and general problems of mankind.
While nowadays we are facing challenges which have (been )never occurred before, it would be interesting and proficuos?? HELPFUL? to hear Prof. Einstein?s opinion about it (them?) anyhow.
But one could ask me why expressively choosing Albert Einstein for this and not some other great minds from history like Enrico Fermi, Isaac Newton or Blaise Pascal.

Giving a perfetcly rational reason is impossible for me, and I admit, my choice could have been also emotionally influenced . But if one carefully considers the life of A. Einstein from an historical point of view , he would certainly remark/NOTICE that only Albert Einstein has been at the same time a multidisciplinary talent of THE highest level and a quite recent figure in History. All the other mentioned figures are eighter/EITHER specific talents (like Enrico Fermi) or talents belonging to a too remote historical context (like Isaac Newton). Only Albert Einstein, in my opinion, would be able to face nowadays even THE most complex challenges.

A
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[Alexzive]

Hi Alan,
thank you very much for your correction, very useful for me as usual.

Just a short question:

"If I would/HAD have the chance to meet a person, .. "

do you mean the correct sentence is:

"If I HAD the chance to meet a person, .." ?

thank you again, Alex

[Alan]

YES
_________________
English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Don't bank on it