A TOEFL Independent Essay: Who enjoys life more, the young or the old?

The following essay was written in 30 minutes, the time allotted to write the Independent Essay in the TOEFL. The writer, Aisse Sow, is from the Netherlands and took the TOEFL Preparation course at NYLC as she may decide to apply to U.S. universities in the future. To learn more about Aisse, visit our main blog after you read her essay below.


Young people enjoy life more than older people
by Aisse Sow

I agree with the following statement: young people enjoy life more than older people. I think young people enjoy their lives much more than older people for the following reasons. First of all, most young people have fewer responsibilities than older people. Second of all, younger people usually have more freedom than older people. And third of all, younger people have time to discover who they really are.

Most young people have (a lot) less responsibilities than older people, such as a fulltime job, children you have to take care of, maintaining good contact with your busy friends, working out, resting, keeping your house clean and the list goes on. These are all tasks and responsibilities a lot of young people have nothing to do with, yet. All the stress that comes with the responsibilities is obviously not making people happier and that is why younger people are definitely happier when it comes to this point.

A TOEFL Independent Essay: Do the young enjoy life more than the old?

This Independent Essay by Jesus De Luna was written within 30 minutes in class during a TOEFL writing task. To learn more about Jesus, please visit our main blog after reading his essay below.


Essay on who enjoys life more, the young or the old
by Jesus De Luna

Life is full of special and unforgettable things, which make it beautiful. Do all people, regardless
of their age, enjoy these things equally? Sadly, age is an important factor on this matter. Young people can get all the benefits that life offers, hence they do enjoy life more. Not only do the young have better health and more energy than the elderly, but they also have more people by their side. In addition, young people experience the diverse pleasures of life for the first time, which increases the power of these feelings.

The young have better health than the elderly. One of the main goals in any person’s life is to
acquire and maintain  good health. Unlike the elderly, the young do not need to struggle too much to lead a healthy life. Moreover, young people are less likely to suffer from some diseases that affect the elderly at a higher rate. People in their twenties are the epitome of an energetic human being. The elderly on the other hand, have less vigor as their age increases.

Will there be fewer cars in the future?

In this independent essay for the TOEFL iBT, the writer has to agree or disagree with the statement: In twenty years, there will be fewer cars in use than there are today.

by David Sanchez Redondo
TOEFL Preparation Class

In my point of view there will be fewer cars due to two reasons. First, people will use more public transportation, or we will use more bikes or other kinds of transportation. The other reason is we will run out of oil.

Let’s start with the first reason. Most people, especially in big cities, would say that buying a car is their last option. It is expensive and there are a lot of traffic jams. This change will be noticed less in small cities obviously because there is not a good system of transportation like in big cities. Another reason that there will be fewer cars is the fact that people will use more bikes. It is a good option as long as the cities are adapted for this. London and Amsterdam are good examples of such cities. I think they are the cities of the future, and many cities look up to them. In any case, the more people take care of themselves, the more they will accept this idea.

The other reason is the limited amount of crude oil. It is well-known that someday we will run out of oil.  No doubt that when technology keeps advancing quickly, many things will be affected; one of them is cars. Realizing the fact that twenty years is not far from now (we won’t have cars flying around the cities yet).  Nevertheless, there will be an important change in this industry. Hybrids or electrics will be the cars of the future. However, because all of them will be expensive, families will only be the ones who can afford them, and each family will only be able to buy one car.

In conclusion, imagining cities with fewer cars in the next twenty years is utopist, but we do not have to lose hope. Instead, we can keep visualizing that having three or four cars for every family will indeed disappear for a better, cleaner world.