2018年托福寫作模擬試題：財富懸殊能成為好朋友嗎

　　Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Can two people be good friends if one person has more money than the other?

　　Friendship is a relationship with unconditional support, love, care and a sense of security. A real friendship technically couldn’t be jeopardized by factors such as money.

　　Two good friends with one of them richer are actually more likely to maintain a stable relationship than those who possess more equal wealth. When the relatively less rich person gets into financial trouble, he could easily turn to his friend who will help him through hardship financially. There was a well-known legend, dating back to the Spring and Autumn period which was approximately three thousand years ago, about Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya’s friendship. Guan was poor but very talented and Bao took a tremendous amount of money to assist him to study and establish his career. Years later, their friendship still was maintained so well that even Guan because the prime minister of the enemy state of Bao’s.

　　In contrast, equally rich friends sometimes end up with being enemy. The reason is simple. The very nature of human being has one evil aspect: jealousy. Good friends usually know each other much better than the other people around. It is very hard to avoid that one of them starts comparing all sorts of things such as wealth, fame, achievements and so on. In Monte Christo, Fernandez was so jealous of Dantes that he eventually betrayed Dantes and didn’t hesitate to push him into the jail and stole his beautiful fiance.

　　Those things I have mentioned above can be viewed as money is far less than important in a healthy friendship. What real friends can give us is that they are always there. A lot of my friends are working in careers such as freelance writing and mountain climbing. They don’t make as much money as I do. But when we get together and have a couple of drink, we never ever consider who is richer. Actually, this is the only moment when I am able to take off the mask and demonstrate a real me. One day, one of my best friends claimed that he went bankruptcy and he decided to pack up to go wandering first. He didn’t want any money from me but told me that he made friends with me not because of my wealth but my personality.

　　The shining side of humanity is that we were born with free spirit and people make friends by looking for ones who share the same spirits. Money comes and goes easily and has nothing to do with friendship. (416 words, Ge Xu; 2013/1/17)