谢振礼 托福范文: 名人意见
TOEFL Independent Writing
Topic:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The opinions of celebrities, such as entertainers and athletes, are more important to the younger people than they are to the older people. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
Essay:
Celebrities are everywhere nowadays--on TV, in magazines, online, and their opinions are more attentively heard, even believed, by the younger people than by the older people who may have their own role models apart. While those famous people may be harmless fun for the older generation, they may turn out to be bad influence for the younger generation. In terms of mental and financial effects, famous people’s opinions matter to the younger generation in two negative aspects: scandalous behaviors and marketing endorsements.
Sometimes it is mentally dangerous for the younger people to turn their admiration into trust because they tend to take whatever their idols say or do for granted. It is not only the words they say but also the deeds they do that are not doing any good to the mentality of the younger minds. Today, the mass media have generated tremendous exposure for a number of stars who stand for partying, drug abuse, drunk driving, rapid marriage, and rapid divorce, and so on. In more extreme cases, teenagers and young adults, who attach importance to celebrities’ opinions, actually become other people since their thoughts are celebrities’ thoughts spoken in the spotlight. In comparison, the older people are easily getting tired of celebrity overload and do not pay much attention to scandals. In short, the importance of the opinions of celebrities mentally go in the wrong direction.
Young celebrities’ opinions could become a persuasion in advertising, thereby affecting young consumers’ pockets, or their financial health. Very famous personalities in the fields of pop music, television, cinema and sports are being hired to give positive comments about products and services that have little or nothing to do with their professions. Nowadays, companies all over the world are using celebrities to orally promote sales of anything from fast food to young fashion to fancy car. Under the influence of what is called ‘celebrity testimonials ‘, the younger population are encouraged to buy things they really do not need and spend money they actually do not have. Thus, a celebrity works as a convincing sales-speaker through the strong image of role model among the younger generation. Strangely, the older generation would not trust those products and services which are endorsed by celebrities.
In terms of mental and financial effects, the younger people are willing victims of the opinions of celebrities. The older people, who typically do not worship celebrities so much, are not very interested in what famous entertainers or athletes have to say. Almost inevitably, however, the younger people are led to believe in the importance of celebrities’ opinions.
