2007年专八英语作文真题-经济差距影响友谊

Some people think that financial disparity affects friendship. They may believe that there can be no friendship between the rich and the poor. Their major evidence might be that a rich person and a poor one have different life styles and different tastes for things. At first sight, this argument seems reasonable. However, a careful inspection at it reveals how flimsy it is. In its true sense, friend is not grounded on money.
First, let’s see what true friendship is. True friendship involves recognition or familiarity with another's personality. Friends often share likes and dislikes, interests, pursuits, and passion. True friendship also involves a shared sense of caring and concern, a desire to see one another grow and develop, and a hope for each other to succeed in all aspects of life. Besides, true friendship involves action: doing something for someone else while expecting nothing in return; sharing thoughts and feelings without fear of judgment or negative criticism. Last but not least, true friendship demands mutual trust and respect. All these attributes have little or nothing to do with money.
Actually, we can find numerous examples of friendship immune to financial disparity. That between Carl Marx and Friedrich Engels is a case in point. Though differing a lot in financial statuses, they formed firm friendship during their common pursuit of communism. While Marx was leading a miserable life due to lack of money, it was Engels who gave him a hand. It was common belief and ideal that bound them together. An equally convincing example is the friendship among the numerous revolutionaries in China before the liberation of the country. Though they came from different families and financial backgrounds, they became constant friends and comrades during the fight for the nation’s independence and freedom.
Truly, it often occurs that two friends break up because of changes in their financial status. When one of them suddenly makes a fortune or gets a promotion, he or she may cut off traffic with his or her former friend. The same thing might happen when one of them suddenly falls upon dark days. Such people, however, cannot be called friends in its true sense.
To sum up, financial disparity does not necessarily affect friendship; much less can it affect true friendship. True friendship can stand the test of time and adversity.