Tuesday, April 15, 2008

TOEFL practice essay ~ Xhoia 9B

"When people succeed in life, it is because of hard work. Being lucky has nothing to do with success in life." Do you agree or disagree with the quotation above? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your position.

We know that a lot of people succeed in life. Some say it’s because of work, some because of luck. Everybody is allowed to say what they think. We don’t really know the truth, but we can surely talk about our beliefs. A lot of people say that luck does not have to do with succeeding, but I don’t. I think that luck is a big part of succeeding. And that’s what I’m going to talk about…

I both disagree and agree with luck not having to do with success. I think luck has to do with success because there are people who win the lottery or have inherited something from someone else. That’s not working hard, or at least I don’t see it like that. As an example we can give Paris Hilton, the heiress of Hilton Hotels. She doesn’t appreciate the luck she has by working more, instead she spends the money without caring too much.

I also think sometimes luck does not have to do with success. This is what I think about working hard and learning in schools. It takes a lifetime to get a great job and to succeed at it. These are the people we see everyday, most of our parents have worked hard to give us the life we have now.

But some people can be lucky in work too. Here work is the big part but luck has its own part to play too. There are people that are very intelligent, work hard and even stay for hours after the time they are supposed to stay and do not take a promotion in two years of work. These are the unfortunate people, the ones that luck didn’t knock on their doors and help them until they were dead. On the other hand we have the lucky people who don’t even need diplomas and get two promotions in only a week. They can be very intelligent and hard-working but luck is part of their success too. We hear about them from our friends, parents, their society and lots of other people that talk about life things.

So these are the reasons that I think luck is also related with success. I do not think that work isn’t a part of it. Instead, I think it’s the biggest part of it. In conclusion I would like to say that everybody is free to have his own thoughts. And this essay is just my opinion and everybody has to have his own.

Xhoia has tried to express her opinion based upon her own and her families experiences. In places there is repetition and some rambling, however the essence is there.