please check my essay and rate it. I appreciate your help!

[Cuijin1]

Do you agree: Always telling truth is most important consideration in all relationships.

For centuries honesty is deemed as important virtue, people consider dishonest people as liars However, in recent years, this traditional virtue is being doubted. Some suggest that lies can be necessary in some occasions. In my perspective, though in most relationships always telling truth is important, sometimes it is necessary to lie to enemies, strangers and families.

First, It’s necessary to lie to enemies. For spies who work in the enemy territories, they have to lie all the time in order to protect themselves from being compromised. The New York merchant Robert Townsend is a good example. As one of Washington’s spies, Robert disguised himself as a loyalist to the British. Lying was basic knowledge to him, he wrote for the loyalist press and praised the British victory in the day but sent out messages to Washington at night.

The same logic applies to strangers: in order to protect ourselves, we don’t always tell truth to strangers. It is a complicated world out there, and we have to be careful not to disclose any truth that may put us in danger. Recently in my city, a boy was abducted by a group of gang just because he told strangers that his parents had a large amount of asset. His family had to pay ransom to get him back.

Last, sometimes we have to lie to our families. How many times have we heard that parents tell their children “Everything is fine” when they are in great trouble? How many times have we heard husbands tell their wives “we are going to be OK” when they lose their jobs? Sometimes white lies are necessary to keep the family together and give them hope. When my father was fired, my mother told me that it was just temporary while my family faced a great financial trouble. Although it was a lie, I never blamed her for that because she gave me hope to pursuit a better life.

In conclusion, although being honest is a basic virtue, sometimes it’s necessary not to tell lies when we deal with enemies, strangers and families, in order to protect ourselves and give the families hope.

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between two university professors

[Luschen]

Hi, i thought your writing in this essay was excellent, but I am not sure it correctly addressed the essay prompt. I would not consider spies and strangers as relationships unless you make this explicit. I would try to come up with three situations where a family or couple would be better off lying to each other - more or less expand your third body paragraph. Maybe lying when bad things happen, lying to your kids so they won’t make the same mistakes you did, lying to your kids about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy (do they have those in China? Probably not) and lying to your wife when she asks you if she looks fat in that dress. This is one of the tougher subjects though.

@Cuijin1

Do you agree: Always telling truth is most important consideration in all relationships.

For centuries honesty is[has been] deemed a[n] important virtue,{this is a comma splice - use a semicolon} people consider dishonest people as liars However, in recent years, this traditional virtue is being doubted. Some suggest that lies can be necessary in some occasions. In my perspective, though in most relationships always telling [the] truth is important, sometimes it is necessary to lie to enemies, strangers and families.

First, It’s necessary to lie to enemies. For spies who work in the enemy territories, they have to lie all the time in order to protect themselves from being compromised. The New York merchant Robert Townsend is a good example. As one of Washington’s spies, Robert disguised himself as a loyalist to the British. Lying was basic knowledge to him, he wrote for the loyalist press and praised the British victory in the day but sent out messages to Washington at night. {this is good, but I am not sure it addresses the topic, which speaks about lying in relationships}

The same logic applies to strangers: in order to protect ourselves, we don’t always tell [the] truth to strangers. It is a complicated world out there, and we have to be careful not to disclose any truth that may put us in danger. {this is a good sentence} Recently in my city, a boy was abducted by a group of gang [members] just because he told strangers that his parents had a large amount of asset[s ]. His family had to pay ransom to get him back. {same thing, not much of a relationship here}

Last, sometimes we have to lie to our families. How many times have we heard that parents tell their children “Everything is fine” when they are in great trouble? How many times have we heard husbands tell their wives “we are going to be OK” when they lose their jobs? Sometimes white lies are necessary to keep the family together and give them hope. When my father was fired, my mother told me that it was just temporary while my family faced{use “was facing” since you are talking about two actions that are taking place at the same time} a great financial trouble. Although it was a lie, I never blamed her for that because she gave me hope to pursu[e ] a better life.

In conclusion, although being honest is a basic virtue, sometimes it’s necessary not to tell lies when we deal with enemies, strangers and families, in order to protect ourselves and give the families hope.

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between two university professors