谢振礼 托福范文: 贫富朋友
TOEFL Independent Writing
Money Friendships
Topic:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Two people can be good friends even if one of them has more money than the other. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Essay:
Some people just are not meant to go together as good friends. In real life, the rich and the poor do not mix easily,. Largely, it is a matter of habit. Being rich is a habit and being poor is a habit, and people of different habits do not match.
On the one hand, poor people have the habit of hanging around other poor people so that they can feel more comfortable in friendships. If a person with little money tries to spend time on socializing with a wealthy person, there will be feelings of envy, jealousy, resentment, shame and incompetence. Such feelings have never boded well for long-term friendships. Even though the two persons were childhood friends, they are probably no longer good friends, and so they will each go for their separate way, only occasionally reminiscing on the good old days when things were much simpler and money not as important. It goes without saying that the majority of poor people tend to be self-conscious, looking as if they are asking the favor of money from rich people when it comes to building friendships.
On the other hand, rich people are accustomed to rolling with other rich people chiefly for fear of wasting their time on getting along with people who probably find it hard to have their ends meet. It has been said that for a rich person everyday is a bank account, and time is their currency. In this respect, rich people might be at times generous with their money, but seldom as generous with their time. And here lies the difference between a rich person and a poor person. Clearly, out of habit, the former knows how to use time and money to make more money, but the latter does not even have a plan. With only a few exceptions, rich people’s friends are rich as well because they learn from each other and become richer and richer.
In conclusion, birds of the same feather or people of the same habit flock together. Two persons are not likely to become good friends if one of them has much more money than the other. As the saying goes, “friendship and money are like oil and water.”
