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TOEFL writing sample
6. If you could change one important thing about your hometown, what
would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your
answer.
If I could change one thing about my hometown I think it would be the
fact that there's no sense of community here. People don't feel
connected, they don't look out for each other, and they don't get to
know their neighbors.
People come and go a lot here. They change jobs frequently and move on.
This means that they don't put down roots in the community. They don't
join community organizations, and they're not willing to get involved in
trying to improve the quality of life. If someone has a petition to put
in a new street light, she has a very hard time getting a lot of people
to sign. They don't feel it has anything to do with them. They don't get
involved in improving the schools because they don't think the quality
of education is important to their lives. They don't see the connection
between themselves and the rest of their community.
People don't try to support others around them. They don't keep a
friendly eye on their children, or check in on older folks if they don't
see them for a few days. They're not aware when people around them may
be going through a hard time. For example, they may not know if a
neighbor loses a loved one. There's not a lot of community support for
individuals.
Neighbors don't get to know each other. Again, this is because people
come and go within a few years. So when neighbors go on vacation, no one
is keeping an eye on their house. No one is making sure nothing
suspicious is going on there, like lights in the middle of the night.
When neighbors' children are cutting across someone's lawn on their
bikes, there's no friendly way of casually mentioning the problem.
People immediately act as if it's a major property disagreement.
My hometown is a nice place to live in many ways, but it would be much
nicer if we had that sense of community.
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