TOEFL essays examples collection

#020 It is better for children to grow up in the countryside than in a big city. Do you agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to develop your essay.
Even if I don’t have children yet, I think that if it is better when children grow up in the country side. Later, when they will become older they can choose where they want to live: in the countryside or in big cities. But when they are young the countryside is the best place for them. There is more free space than on crowded streets in big cities. People there are more open and children can find there more communication. And at last, it is less dangerous for them live in the suburb.
People, who live in the countryside, commonly have their own detach house. And these houses in most cases are bigger than flats in cities. So, kids have a lot of space when they are at home. Also almost each detach house has a lawn where parents can fry barbecue or play games with their children. And more over in the country side children have lakes for fishing and swimming, sport courts for playing tennis and football, forests for walking and discovering nature. There are fresher air, cleaner water and beautiful landscapes. There are less noise and more calm.
Also, when you live in the countryside you are familiar with most local residents. You and you children know your neighbors and their children. You meet them frequently and spend more time. Together you can organize parties for children or go together fishing or gathering. All this things give kids more communication and enjoyment.
And at the end, I think that living in the countryside is less dangerous. There aren’t many cars so risk that children will be injured in car accident is very low. As far parents know most people in village you shouldn’t afraid that their children will lose somewhere, because in most situations some of neighbors will help them to find way to home. There aren’t any bars or clubs in the countryside usually, so this is less chance that kids will see drunken people and will hear bad words.
So, in my opinion, it is better for children to grow up in the countryside. I grew up there and I know that what it is. It is nature. It is good neighbors. And it is no danger.

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#021 In general, people are living longer now. Discuss the causes of this phenomenon. Use specific reasons and details to develop your essay.
Mankind exists on Earth for a long time and it improves its life continuously. Humanity has done a great amount of amazing discoveries and inventions which improve our living conditions. It has been developing different organization systems to manage social relation and to do cooperation between people better and useful for them. All these changes doubtlessly made influence on different aspects of human life. One of these aspects is life expectancy. In average, people live longer now than one hundred years ago and significantly longer than one thousand years ago. In my opinion there are three main cases of increasing of average life expectancy. There are developing of medicine, improving of living conditions and evolving of social institutes.
First of all medical technologies have developed rapidly during last few decades. Now doctors can threat illnesses which were lethal at the beginning of previous century. Now we have a great variety of medicines which can cure people from different sicknesses even without doctors. Today scientists know how to control epidemics which killed millions of people in the past. Some epidemic viruses like smallpox were completely eliminated from the Earth. Also current medical technologies allow make complicated operations on eyeballs, brains, hearts and other parts of human body which help to save life for great amount of people. Now scientists even discuss ability of developing cloning technology which gives them ability to grow up different parts of patient’s body for grafting.
The second cause that people live longer now is change of living conditions. Now most people live rather in less dangerous world. They don’t have to go hunting and don’t have to work on fields hardly to survive. Now most of people have to work about forty hours per week, take wages and buy for these wages meat, fruits and vegetables. Most of people now have warm and comfortable houses so now they don’t suffer from cold and as a result less people have catarrhal illnesses. Also current days we have well developed hygiene which help to avoid different complicated problems with health.
And the last important change that has affected life expectancy is evolving of social institutes. Early governments of different countries used their citizens to achieve their own goals and gave people too little in return. Currently nations try to protect their inhabitants and give them all kinds of support. In fields of health care its expresses in spreading of hospitals, clinics and other medical institutions. And now more and more people become access to health care. Countries vaccinate their people from different epidemic illnesses. They popularize healthy life style and fight against smoking, alcohol and drugs. Also very important thing in health care in health and life insurance which help poor people find funds for treatment in case of need.
So, people are living now longer because we have better medicine, living conditions and social institutes than early. And on my opinion it is not limit for life expectancy there are a lot of fields to improve and give people ability to live longer and longer.

#022 We all work or will work in our jobs with many different kinds of people. In your opinion, what are some important characteristics of a co-worker (someone you work closely with)? Use reasons and specific examples to explain why these characteristics are important.
As for me I can do my work very well if I have all necessary working conditions. It should be clear and quiet room, ergonomic working place, and quick computer. And also one important thing on work is suitable co-workers. In my opinion, good co-worker should be communicable. You can always rely on him. And he should like his job.
So, first of all I prefer work with people who I can feel myself comfortable with. It should be pleasantly to work together for both of us. I need people who can talk with me about my work problem, helps to solve me them and gives me advices and who in turn asks me about help or advice.
Also one of the most important things in relations among people, especially among co-workers, is reliability. You should be sure in your colleague. And you should be sure than if you trust him some commercial secret he doesn’t tell this secret anyone. Also good co-worker has to be honest and responsible. He shouldn’t let down you when he has to do some important task which influence on progress of your task.
And last of all, good co-worker has to be assiduous and team-played person. He should work with enthusiasm and energy. If everybody in your workroom will work in such way it will bring more wish and pleasant to work. I don’t like complain a lot and don’t like when somebody complaints. So, I like co-worker who doesn’t like complain and just does his job. If somebody nears you workplace doesn’t work properly but instead he is searching in the Internet for personal purpose or playing games, it brings some dismotivation and disharmony in your and your team work. So I don’t what to have co-worker who spend time at work.
So, as for me, good co-workers help you to do your work better. And the main characteristics of proper colleague is his attitude to communication, his reliability and assiduous. And on my opinion if everybody on your work would match this description it would be pleasant for every employee to work there and your company would develop rapidly and successfully.

#023 In some countries, teenagers have jobs while they are still students. Do you think this is a good idea? Support your opinion by using specific reasons and details.
Some people asset that teenagers should work while they are still student because they can gain some work experience in such way and be ready for future job. But I strongly oppose such view. On my opinion teenager students have to study only because studying is their main goal. Sometimes work have bad influence on teenagers’ health. Student’s life is the last leg before adult life and they shouldn’t spend it on job.
When teenager goes to college he has one main goal and this goal is to graduate college with as best mark as possible. To achieve it they have to devote all their time to studying. Students have to read as much books as possible even if some of them are not required teenager should read them in their free time instead of work. Books give much more knowledge and benefit to students that part time work can give experience and money. On the other hand I have some doubts that teenager will be study after work properly. He will be tired and he will want to watch TV or go sleep instead of reading books.
Also I think that combining work with study has bad influence on student health. If student work he have to wake up very early and go to bed late if he want to cope with work and studying. So he has to cut sleeping time but it is dangerous for teenager health because his organism is steel growing and he need to have good rest. In addition, work can cause pressure and stress which can influence on young student’s mental development in a wrong way. It would be better for them if they will go to gym or play some sport games with friends in their free time instead of work.
And the last fact in support of studying is that time when you are the student is one of the best times in people’s life and teenager student should make the most moments of this life. They have to communicate with their peers a lot. Also teenagers should take a part in social different activities. That gives them experience how to behave and cooperate with other people and how to organize them. Student’s years are the last time before adult life. It is time when they get used to real life but still can rely on their parents. And I think they don’t have spent this time on the job, because in future they will have a lot of problem and difficulties which will give them experience how to live under his own steam.
So, to sum up all about, I want to say that student have to be the student. He have to study, to meet new people, to exercise and to live life to the full instead of spend this time on the work.

I looked at most of the essays you have posted; they clearly show that you have fairly good understanding of the structure of a typical “five paragraph essay”. However, some essays are superior to the others. There structure and contents are more identifiable. For example, they have an introduction, body paragraphs, topic sentences, supporting details, etc. Other essays are either missing such significant components, or they are less observable. In general, they are all great work.

#024 A person you know is planning to move to your town or city. What do you think this person would like and dislike about living in your town or city? Why? Use specific reasons and details to develop your essay.
My home city is small regional center in the west part of Ukraine. It isn’t big or reach city with great amounts of modern buildings, shopping and entertainment centers. But I like it very much because I spent my young ages there and from this city I began my way in the future. As every this one has some advantages and disadvantages. Some things I like in it but some I hate.
At first I want to point out the problems that my city has and which I don’t like very much. One of the biggest problems is its overcrowding. When this city was built about four hundred years ago contractors couldn’t estimate amount of people that can live and drive there. So, they planned and built very narrow streets. And future reconstruction didn’t solve this problem because there are a lot of historical buildings in the city which can’t be destroyed in any circumstances. Also this situation are worsen by market which is situated near the city center and currently is one of the most visited and crowded place in the city. Other thing that I don’t like in my city is practical absence of big shops with variety of goods and it is concerned to clothes especially. And on my opinion reason for this is the same as reason for crowds in the center. It is market. Most people in the city used to buy clothes on the market and it isn’t profitable for business to build big shops because they wouldn’t have enough attendance to gain invested funds.
And on the other hand there are few things that I like in my city especially. As I mentioned before it is old city and it was built in fascinating West European style. And know government of the city try to support the same style especially in the city center. So city has fascinating architecture appearance which I like very much. One of the most visited places in the city, after the market, is Main Square and street. There are a lot of comfortable and hospitable coffee shops and cafes in the ground floors of old style building. I used to visit these places very often when I lived there. Other thing that I like in my home city is people. On my opinion the people here are the most gentle in the world. They would help you if you have some trouble. They argue rarely. And they are smiled. I lived in few other cities and I noticed that people there are different. They have busy look and they don’t worry about people around but just about their own problem.
So, whatever problems my home city has I would like to live there and can advice my friends to move there without any doubt. Because on my opinion it has more advantages then disadvantages.

#025 It has recently been announced that a large shopping center may be built in your neighborhood. Do you support or oppose this plan? Why? Use specific
reasons and details to support your answer.

To build or not to build new shopping center in my community is very complicated question and it demands deep discussing among all member of my community. Some people strongly oppose this idea because on their opinion having a big shopping center in neighborhood would cause a lot of problem such as overcrowding, pollution and noise. However, other people, to whom I belong too, decide that is great idea because it would bring better shopping abilities, more entertainments and benefit for community environment.
The most obvious advantage of having own shopping center is better and more convenient access to goods. People don’t need drive far to buy something. They even can walk to shops. This gives them opportunity to save money on the fuel. Also it is convenient because sometime when you forget something to buy in farther mall you don’t what to go so far just for one thing so you try to cope without it, but when you have shopping center near you go and buy this thing.
Secondly, so far as real estate companies try to include social buildings in modern mall’ plans to invite more customers and to increase attendance, new shopping center will bring us social infrastructure such as movies, restaurants, food courts, bowling and pool. So, my community would get a lot of entertainment just in few steps near. And for some people, for example for my wife, going shopping is entertainment of itself. She goes shopping when she is bored or when she is depressed or when she is tired mentally.
In addition, new shopping would mall bring benefits to our community in economic field too. First of all it would increase a value of houses around it. And so far most of my neighbors have their own house it would automatically increase wealth of people around this mall. Also I think that owners of this shopping center would take care of local roads and would repair it from time to time. Some company which would be represented on mall might want to become a sponsor of local basketball team to increase awareness of its brand through habitant. And at the end mall would increase tax payment to wake budget and some part of this payment would be spend on my community.
So, in my opinion, it is a good idea to build new shopping center in my community. In spite of all disadvantages it would give much more benefits for local people.

#026 It has recently been announced that a new movie theater may be built in your neighborhood. Do you support or oppose this plan? Why? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.
Some people think that such entertainment building like cinema in their community can bring there a lot of problem such as leak of parking places, notice and overcrowding. But in my opinion, having a movie theater near your house is a great idea. People in my community will get more benefits from this facility than harm, because movie is the best way to spend free time. It is very convenient if a movie theater is situated in few minutes from you house. And presence of such facility will help improve and develop other businesses in our community.
Among big amount of entertainment which we can get on the market now movie is one of the most popular thing. Every year movies’ producers spent a few billion dollars to make new films for their customer and every year these customers spent even more money to see these films. Comedy or cartoon is a good way to spend time with family. Movies about Batman or Spiderman are good cause for teenagers meet together and have a fun in a movie theater instead of doing crime on the streets. I think that there are a lot of people who want to spend time in such way in my community.
In addition, my community is in uptown, far from downtown and big malls. And it takes about half an hour to get to the nearest movie theater. Also some of my neighbors don’t have a car. So, it will be very convenient for both families with and without cars to have our own cinema in community. Ones can save at least one hour on driving and others can just walk to the movie theater.
And the last benefit from new cinema in my community, which I want to notice, is influence that it can have on other local businesses. New cinema will invite new people who will want to eat or drink something before or after the film. Some of them will want to buy something on the road to home. Others of them maybe will want to continue relax and to play bowling or pool. So, these new people will create demand on restaurants and food courts, on shops and supermarkets, on pubs and playing places. And this demand will bring more money to owners of business and will motivate them to improve their facilities more and more.
So, in my opinion, it is very useful for us to have a movie cinema in our community. It will save us time, will give place to relax and will improve our
facilities.

#027 Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People should sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
Everything that happens has some reason. The same we can say about doing things we don’t like to do. These things also have some reasons. And very often these reasons are very important in our lives. We should to do things that we don’t like to do as support of our everyday life, as intermediate steps to our goals and as way to better future of your children.
I’m not sure that there are a lot of people who like everyday routine, but all of them try to cope with it. These are the base things that support our being. We can’t live without food, so we have to cook. We can’t wear dirty clothes, so we have to washing up. We can’t feel ourselves well without physical activity, so we have to do exercises or run.
Most people have some goals or even dreams in their lives and they are working hard to achieve them. These works are complicated and have sets of different steps. Some of these steps are interested for person and some are not. But to reach these goals or dreams people have to do all steps aside from like they this steps or not. If won’t do some step you will lose you dream. For example, the main goal for me now is apply at the university. I have to major steps to achieve this goal one to pass TOEFL and GRE and other to go to the interview and find professor who will be interested in my candidacy. I like first step because I like studying, and I hate another one because I’m not very communicable and to talk to unknown people is very hard for me. However, to become a student I have to go through both of them.
And the last reason to do things that you don’t want to do is to make happy your family. Parents have to work and earn money, even if they don’t like their works, to give children interest life and proper education. Parents have to do their best to bring calmness and happiness in their families.
So, taking into account everything above, I strongly support opinion that people have to do things even if they don’t like to do it because these things make them, their life and life of their family better.

#028 Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Television, newspapers, magazines, and other media pay too much attention to the personal lives of famous people such as public figures and celebrities. Use specific reasons and details to explain your opinion.
Such as many people who watch TV, read newspaper and magazines, does it just for wasting a time, but not to gain something useful, in modern media have appeared a lot gossipy information about famous people’s lives. I think that we don’t need so many facts about celebrities and media shouldn’t pay so much attention to their personal life. This news pollutes our informational air. Very often bad behavior of heroes becomes bad example for our children or even adults. And also, I think that famous people have right on their personal lives.
News and programs about marriages and divorces, about spouses and kids, about rash and bad acts of famous people have appeared on TV channels, in newspapers and magazines more often and often. Shows about what someone wears or where he/she does haircutting occupied huge part of TV air. Ratings of the wealthiest people or biggest yachts are printed more frequently. All these information are useless. We can’t gain any benefit for us or society from them. It is like noise from traffic on the street that just annoys you.
Wrong actions, acts or statements of famous people have become most popular themes for gossip in media. And for many people, especially for kids, these things might become examples for imitation and signals to act. For example, I thing that a few decades ago, more people started to smoke, just because there were a lot of well known smoking people. And now we can see news about drunk fighting or driving or about using of drugs. And what will happens when some teenager will think “Why does this man do this, but I can’t?” and will decide to behave in the same way.
And last but not least, I also think that all people have right on personal life. And magazines shouldn’t propose huge amount of money for photo of pregnant movie star or famous performer with new girlfriend and force paparazzo break laws and someone personal space. And public figures shouldn’t spend money on guards to have quite live at least at their houses.
So, I strongly agree that we have a lot of useless information about personal lives of famous people in media now. And think that it would be better if people could find more historical, scientific and cultural programs, series and articles in the media.

#029 Some people believe that the Earth is being harmed (damaged) by human activity. Others feel that human activity makes the Earth a better place to live. What is your opinion? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
The nature of the Earth has changed a lot while the humanity began activity here. In my opinion, the state of nature has become worth and the Earth is in danger now because of the mankind needs. We use restricted natural resources. We kill animals and plants. We pollute the environment.
People need many different resources to make their life comfortable. Some of these resources are unrestricted, but most of them aren’t. In my opinion we use restricted resources irrational. I don’t talk about oil and gas because leak of these resource has no influence on other life on the Earth. But forest and water have huge influence on other species. For example, construction companies in my county destroy a lot of trees to built houses or shopping centers instead them. But it takes a few hundred years for these trees to grow up and we cannot replace them by other ones. The same situations happen in different places all over the world. Sometimes farmers destroy a acres of forest to use this land as fields. But all there forests are home for wolves, bears, rats and other different animals and insects. And when people destroy forest most animals which live there die. Also people use a lot of water now for production. Plants and factories released this water after production cycle, but very often it is polluted and can’t be living environment for breathers anymore.
Other human activity which influences other world is hunting and fishing. People do these not only for surviving; they do this just for fun or for profit. For example, elephant tusks are valuable material and to take these material poachers kills elephants, take only tusks and leave carcass. In the same way hunter behave with whales and many other species and many of them disappeared from the Earth or are very close to disappearing.
And third type of harm that the humankind does for the nature is pollution. We have been polluting water, air and ground. This pollution seriously change ecosystem and it leads to global changes in weather like global warming, which causes in turn more tornados, hurricanes and other disasters.
So, in my opinion, the humankind is very harmful for environment now and it can cause many problems in the future. We have to change our behavior. We have to protect the nature to give our children hope for good life.

#030 It has recently been announced that a new high school may be built in your community. Do you support or oppose this plan? Why? Use specific reasons and details in your answer.
I definitely support building of new school in my community. New school would be useful for children, for teachers and for community at all.
First of all new high school would cause students to study better. New big rooms and clear halls would give pleasure for students. New modern equipment and different facilities would create effect of care about children. And it would be interesting for them to go to school and use all these things. Some of students would want to use science and computer labs, others would use gym and sport facilities. And I’m sure that they would spend more time in school than they spend now.
On the other hand new school make teacher more interested in their work. When you have everything you need for work this work becomes pleasure or hobby. Teachers would have more ways to present and support their lectures, seminars and researches. They would have projectors, computers, labs and much other stuff for teaching purposes.
And at the end, new school would give some gain for community at all. All students would study not far from home. So, parents wouldn’t have to drive them in other communities or cities. Children would spend more time in school and less on the streets. Also school facilities would be useful for community. People could use gym, basketball pitch or other playground. Concert hall in school could be used for community meetings and some celebrations.
In conclusion, I want to say that it is great idea to build new school in my community. It would help children to study better and make them interested in school. And maybe some of them will become a big scientist in the future. And it is fact that spending time in school safe students from influence of bad companies.