TOEFL essay topic: Different friends or similar friends?

[Alex Anna]

Topic 117: Different friends or Similar friends ?

I always believe that friends are wonderful presents that life gave us, so you can’t choose them. But if I have a choice between a friend who is different from me and a friend who has much in common with me , I prefer a different friend. From my experiences, I think that with different friends, you can enjoy varieties of interest and you can also learn from each other.

The first thing I want to share is with a different friend you can enjoy many kinds of amusement. Admittedly, if your friends and you have the same interest in something, you can share with each other and that will be a nice time with you. However, it will be more interesting if you can persuade your friends to enjoy your interests that he or she never ever try before. To illustrate for this statement, I think the best example is from my own story.When I was in high school, my hobby was reading classical literature, especially French classical novels. But my close friend didn’t like that, although she had not read them, because she thought those books were so thick and she would be boring soon. I thought those were silly reasons. Therefore, little by little, I told her about the interests, the exciting advantures, the heroic charaters in classical novels. One day I lent her a classical novel, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, I wanted her to try reading it for entertainment everyday. Surprisingly, the next day she told me that she had read it over night and she was so excited. After that, she became a fan of classical novels like me. Conversely, she also made me become a rock lover like her, that kind of music I had never listened before I knew her.

Second is that with a different friend you can learn from each other. It’s because you and your friend, each person can good at different fields so you can supplement her knowledge and on the contracy, she will help you broaden your point of view. For instance, another friend of mine, she was very good at mathematics and I was quite good at literature. So, we always learned together, she made some complex arithmetical problems clearer and I explain her how to write an essay better. That was a perfect supplement between she and I. Futhermore, when I needed an advice to solve a problem, I always asked her because her thought had other aspects of the problem that I didn’t know and she, an active person, made me, a shy person, more confident in myself and my decisions.

As I mentioned at the beginning, friends, even though they different from you or similar you, are treasure. But interestingly, when I looked back on all my friends, I found that they all are different from me. So, I think that it’s better for me to have friends like that. They gave me the choices to enjoy many exciting interests, and all the things I learned from them were absolutely advantageous.

End.

Please, correct me. Thanks a lot.
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I am studying English everyday ^^

[Alan]

I always believe that friends are wonderful presents that life gave us, so you can’t choose them. But if I have a choice between a friend who is different from me and a friend who has much in common with me , I prefer a different friend. From my experiences, I think that with different friends, you can enjoy varieties of interest and you can also learn from each other.

The first thing I want to share is with a different friend you can enjoy many kinds of amusement. Admittedly, if your friends and you have the same interest in something, you can share with each other and that will be a nice time with you. However, it will be more interesting if you can persuade your friends to enjoy your interests that he or she HAS never ever trIED before. To illustrate this statement, I think the best example is from my own story.When I was in high school, my hobby was reading classical literature, especially French classical novels. But my close friend didn’t like that, although she had not read them, because she thought those books were so thick and she would soon BE BORED. I thought those were silly reasons. Therefore, little by little, I told her about the interests, the exciting advEntures, the heroic charaters in classical novels. One day I lent her a classical novel, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, I wanted her to try reading it for entertainment everyday. Surprisingly, the next day she told me that she had read it over night and she was so excited. After that, she became a fan of classical novels like me. Conversely, she also made me become a rock lover like her, that kind of music I had never listened TO before I knew her.

Second is that with a different friend you can learn from each other. It’s because you and your friend, each person can BE good at different fields so you can supplement her knowledge and on the contraRy, she will help you broaden your point of view. For instance, another friend of mine, she was very good at mathematics and I was quite good at literature. So, we always learned together, she made some complex arithmetical problems clearer and I explainED TO her how to write an essay better. That was a perfect supplement between HER and ME. Futhermore, when I needed advice to solve a problem, I always asked her because her thought had other aspects of the problem that I didn’t know and she, an active person, made me, a shy person, more confident in myself and my decisions.

As I mentioned at the beginning, friends, even though they ARE different from you or similar TO you, are treasureS. But interestingly, when I looked back on all my friends, I found that they all are different from me. So, I think that it’s better for me to have friends like that. They gave me the choices to enjoy many exciting interests, and all the things I learned from them were absolutely advantageous.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Saying It Twice

[Alex Anna]

Thank u so much, Alan. Your help is so valuable with me ^^
_________________
I am studying English everyday ^^