13584 Humor
TOEFL Writing Topic: A Friend With A Sense of Humor
Example Essay by Jeenn Lee Hsieh 谢振礼
ielts360toefl@hotmail.com
TOEFL Independent Writing Topic:
What do you want most in a friend? Someone who is intelligent, or someone who has a sense of humor, or someone who is reliable? Which of these characteristics is most important to you? Use reasons and specific examples (based on your knowledge or experience) to explain your choice.
Example Writing (Jeenn Lee Hsieh)
Total absence of humor in friendship renders life almost impossible. As life is full of problems, a sense of humor can prove to be the most desirable characteristic of a good friend because humor is in great degrees an integral part of intelligence and reliability. The point is that humor and intelligence, or humor and reliability, are not mutually exclusive.
Someone with a sense of humor always has a lot of common sense known as intelligence. For instance, when friends are having fun together, humor is intelligence dancing. Although sometimes humor seems to be emotional chaos, actually it is remembered in tranquility--probably the ultimate form of intelligence. Particularly in a world becoming increasingly complex and stressful, a sense of humor is a serious defense against minor troubles since humor is simply an intelligent way of being serious. So much so, humor attracts and keeps friends. In other words, a joke being a serious thing, someone who is humorous lightens human burdens and makes life more enjoyable, and is hence most wanted in a friend.
In view of friendship based on life's reality, believe it or not, good humor means reliability; and bad humor means otherwise. That is, a friend with bad humor is an evasion of reality while a friend with good humor is an acceptance of it. To be more specific, someone with a better sense of humor happens to be more reliable. Think about it, just as it is hard to force humor, so it is hard to force reliability. When it comes to choosing a friend, humor is a good indication of reliability. It is an intelligent way to think that someone with a sense of humor is also someone who is reliable in life's crisis situations, for being able to offer three alternatives: fight, flee or laugh.
To sum up, humor is a quality that measures someone's intelligence as well as reliability in real life. Good humor exists in intelligence and lives up to reliability. Of course, humor in a friend may not change the difficult situation someone is in, but it can certainly change the attitude about it. (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsiehielts360toefl@hotmail.com pigai zuowen)
