I recently write an essay for TOEFL®: Parents are the best teachers.

[Edmund]

I recently write an essay for TOEFL, could someone rated for me? So that I can know my English writing ability. Thank you so much!!

*****question******
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Parents are the best teachers.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
*****question******

There are many factors that affect one’s development, one of which place an extremely important role is parents. Many people have said parents are the best teacher. I also agree with the statement with the following three reasons.

Firstly, parents understand their own children better than anyone else. From birth, parents are responsible to take care of their children. They stay with their children facing every difficulty and sharing every success. So parents have the advantage to know the children from their personality to their temper. It is easy for parents to give specific advices to their children when they are making difficult decisions.

Additionally, children always trend to imitate adult's behavior. As children spend a large amount of time with their parents, they usually take their parents as their model for granted. If a child's father speaks dirty words everyday, it will be extremely possible for him to speak dirty words and even behave badly in school. So parents play a significant role in building children's characteristics.

Finally, parents are the most committed to the development their offspring. They devote most of their time educating and nurturing their children. In some cases, some women even quit their jobs to take care of their children until they go to high school. In school, teachers are dealing with dozens of students and fail to concentrate on the development of a single student. Because of the love to their children, parents can teach their children patiently and unselfishly without reservation.

In a word, parents are in the irreplaceable position to one's development. Although teachers in school are important in teaching knowledge, parents help the children to be better in every aspect and every stage of their lives.

TOEFL listening lectures: A lecture from a life sciences class

[Kitosdad]

There are many factors that affect one’s development, one of which placeS an extremely important role ON parents. Many people SAY THAT parents are the best teacherS. I also agree with the statement FOR the following three reasons.

Firstly, parents understand their own children better than anyone else. From birth, parents are responsible IN TAKING care of their children. They stay with their children, facing THEIR every difficulty and sharing THEIR every success.
So parents have the advantage OF KNOWING the children from their personality to their temper. It is easy for parents to give specific advice to their children when they are making difficult decisions.

Additionally, children always TEND to imitate AN adult's behavioUr. As children spend a large amount of time with their parents, they usually take their parents as their ROLE model for granted. If a child's father speaks dirty words everyday, it will be extremely LIKELY THAT HE TOO WILL speak dirty words and even behave badly in school. So parents play a significant role in building children's characters.

Finally, parents are the most committed to the development OF their offspring. They devote most of their time educating and nurturing their children. In some cases, some women even quit their jobs to take care of their children until they go to high school. In school, teachers are dealing with dozens of students and CANNOT concentrate on the development of a single student. Because of the love to their children, parents can teach their children patiently and unselfishly without reservation.

In a word, parents HOLD AN irreplaceable position to one's development. Although teachers in school are UNDOUBTEDLY important in teaching knowledge, parents help the children to be better in every aspect and every stage of their lives.
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Pretty good essay Edmund.

Kitos.
_________________
Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Edmund]

Hi, Kitos!
Thank you very much for your time and correction. It's of great help to my writing improvement. I love this forum very much, as well as the email course.

After checking my essay agian and again, I found myself really weak at(or in, on) preposition.
For example I misused:
"I agree FOR(I used with) the following reasons."
"responsible IN(I used to do) doing sth, "
"have advantage OF(I used to do) knowing."

In other cases, I also feel difficult to tell the difference between those prepositions.

So could you please give me some advices on how to use them properly?

Thank you very much.

[Kitosdad]

Try these;

See you ON Friday.
Where were you ON Monday?
My sister got married IN May.
Did you go out ON Wednesday evening?
Let's meet AT six o'clock.
We always go to the beach IN the Summer.
Bill isn't here AT the moment.
I saw you IN McDonalds.
Every day AT eight a.m. he goes swimming.
I'll meet you IN the club tonight.

Kitos.
_________________
Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Edmund]

Thank you, Kitos!

It's very useful to me for understanding prepositions. However is there any principles of methods to learn prepositions after adjectives or verbs? such as be responsible IN, advantage OF. Is it proper to use "have advantages to do something"?

Could you please share some tips with me?

Thank you in advance!!

[Kitosdad]

Good morning Edmund, unfortunately the correct use of prepositions can only be determined by your constant usage of them.

Try to identify their use by reading more public items, for example, the readers letters page in a newspaper. The posts found there are usually peppered with prepositions.

Kitos.
_________________
Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.