please check and grade my essay, thank you very much!

English as a Second Language Preparation for and help with the TOEFL® Test and
1

Agree or disagree: people should sometimes do things that they don’t enjoy doing.
It is easy to understand if people do not want to do things that they do not like to do. In other words, they only try to do things that they are keen on. However, it is sometimes very important to do “bored” things because they can be very necessary and the things we enjoy doing can sometimes be harmful.
There are many things that people are not keen on but their importance must be considerable. For example, almost all students in the world prefer playing or going out to studying at school or doing homework. However, studying is obviously very important to us because it helps us to increase our ranges of knowledge, help us to prepare for our future as well as our careers and it helps us to be a good citizen for our country. Contrary to this, students often do not want to study as much as they can because they do not realize how important it is and they think it is very boring. Another example is that children usually hate doing housework. However, it is sometimes necessary to do housework because it is a good way to help their parents and to have a better preparation for their future.
We can not refuse that things we like to do are sometimes very harmful. For instance, many people are easily become addicted to video games. They think video games are very interesting and relaxing. In the contrast, they do not realize that video games can be very harmful because the addicts can spend too much time on playing games, which can plunge their abilities to study as well as to do community activities. Further more, video games can sometimes cause many diseases related to eyes and bones. Some addicts can be dead because they play too much video game.
It is not easy to spend time on things that we do not want to do. Although they can be very boring, we sometimes need to do them because it can be very important to us and it is true that there are many things that we like can be not helpful as we think.

TOEFL listening discussions: Why does the student need money?

2

Hi, I think your essay is quite good. It is clear and easy to understand. Still, your sentence structures seem a little too simple and your writing does not sound that “polished”. I realize that is a little vague, but it is hard to pick out specific examples, it is just my overall feeling. Still, you have addressed the topic quite well and you have only a few errors. I would rate this a 4 out of 5.

3

Thank you very much for your advice, Luschen!! However, I don’t understand why I can’t use “refuse”. Can you explain to me please?

4

I thought it was a typographical error - refute seems to make more sense there. In this case, refuse is not really the opposite of accept. You could say “We cannot refuse to accept the fact that things we like …”, but that seems overly complicated.

Here is a good summary I found:

refute: disprove (a statement or argument); demonstrate that a statement is false

I say that the word “strawberry” comes from “straw” and “berry”, a berry found in straw. Can you refute my claim?

refuse: say “no” to an offer; opposite of “accept” (say “yes”)

I offered to help Bill load the wood onto the truck . He refused my offer to help. He refused help. On the other hand, Pete always accepts my offers of help.

refuse: say “no” to a request; opposite of “consent” (say “yes”)

I asked George to contribute a dollar. He refused to contribute anything.
Fran requested that all employees attend the meeting. All of them consented to attend. None of them refused to attend.

refuse: not consent; be unwilling; won’t (wouldn’t)

Jan is impossible to work with. She absolutely refuses to cooperate. She won’t cooperate.
Her husband was lazy. He refused to do any work around the house. He wouldn’t do any work around the house.

reject: react negatively, even with hostility, to a proposal, idea, offer, etc.

Paul was quite surprised when Laura rejected his suggestion that they vacation in Hawaii.
The people rejected the candidate’s bid for the presidency.

reject: completely refuse to believe

Tom rejects the idea of global warming.

reject: not to accept (personally, socially)

After a long and heated argument, they decided to ban him from the club. He felt rejected for weeks.
Sam tried everything he could to make Ellen like him, but she always rejected him. She rejected his kindness. She rejected his advances. She rejected everything he stood for.

5

I understand now, thank you very much!!!