Spending a significant amount of time with someone is necessary to get to know their personalities and temperaments. Sometimes, people can also tell a person’s quality and determine his or her personality by analyzing their behaviors. When it comes to the question of whether one can learn about another person from the books or movies that the person likes, I personally am in favor of this statement based on the following reasons.
First off, by judging from the books or movies or even TV programs that someone like we can tell a person’s interests and hobbies, consequently we can learn more about them. For example, My roommate back in college was really into auto magazines, TV shows and even movies featuring fancy sports cars. At first, I didn’t know him so well to know his hobbies and interests, however, I was sure at that time that he must have been a big fan of cars. Indeed, my judgment was right and he was a car freak, he likes all kinds of vehicles like sedan, SUV, recreational vehicles, etc. It is not an exaggeration to claim that he can tell not only the brand but also the version of a specific vehicle by just checking out the picture of the cockpit of the car. Ultimately, we can tell a person’s hobbies by the movies and books they like.
Additionally, the genre of the books that someone reads says a lot about the person’s character and temperament. Actually, it is natural for someone to shape their characters just because the characters in the novels or movies have a dramatic impact on the person’s behavior and attitude, regardless of the types of the characters like fairy, alien or someone with superpower. For instance, girls who read a lot of romantic novels like Gone With the Wind might be very emotional and very committed to someone they love. For someone who read science fiction novels or watch movies featuring future events and exploration of outer space tend to be very creative and willing to take risks, to be more specific, they might be someone who friends can depend on when they got stuck in some sort of exploration.
For someone who likes to read classics of all times like the works by Jane Austen or Ernest Hemingway, they tend to cherish the simplicities and trivialities in lives.
In a nutshell, by judging from the genre of the book that someone reads, not only can we tell a lot about the person’s interests and hobbies but also the person's character and temperament. (443 words, By Meng, Yan)(新东方 孟炎)
From my point of view, one can learn a lot of information about others by books and movies that person likes.
First of all, people read books because they are curious about the specific topic and watch movies because they think that they may have some similarities with the main characters in them. And if someone doesn't have any interest in something, even if others urged,he or she to do something, he or she may just sit there doing the kind of things he likes without even giving any respond. The same things happen with the books and the movies. People will read or watch because it intrigues them and because they need to find somethings related with that. Thus, the books and the movies' features reflect what the person like is very reasonable.
Furthermore, even though, someone just reads something for fun or simple watches a movie something for a better relaxation. However, if someone constantly reads or watches something then it would make an influence on him gradually, so as time went by, he or she may really care about something that they just hardly looked at before. Additionally, he or she may form a new habit just because he or she usually sees it. For instance, if a person always reads books about how to eat healthier these days, he may just think they eat healthy really counts a lot. And then he may just drop the junk food he used to eat, and walks to work every day in order to better digest.
Thirdly, if a person always reads something or watches it, he may finally make friends with someone who have the same hobbies. So, the personality would reinforce just because he or she just everyday talk about a specific topic and thinks somethings all the time.
In conclusion, because the books and movies a person always reads or watches really have a huge effect on himself, we can safely draw a conclusion that one can learn a lot about other person by books and movies that he likes.
主题方面有一些想法，我觉得具体写如何从书本和电影了解一个人更容易扩展开来。比方说，可以写四个层面或更多： One can learn a lot about another person's interest by books and movies that person likes. One can learn a lot about another person's personality by..... One can learn a lot about another person's values by ..... One can learn a lot about another person's ability by..... 这样每一个方面都可以成为一段，每一段再举例阐述，比如说第三段，通过对一些畅销书和流行电影的讨论，了解一个人的价值观，包括亲情，友情，家庭，世界，人生等看法。再比如第四段通过一个人对书和电影的描述，可以了解一个人的归纳总结能力，记忆力，思考的能力，推理的能力，联想的能力....如果时间够的话，可以多举一些例子。 我觉得你第三段提到的书本和电影对人的影响，第四段朋友的影响跟主题关系不太紧密，可以不写。 这只是我自己的看法，不一定对, 供你参考。 还有一点， 英文的习惯是每一段的第一句话是这一段的概括(或论点)，后面的部分是论据，用来支持和扩展论点的。所以第一句话很重要，要清楚明了而且简洁。
12月8日托福考试已经结束了，小伙伴们有没有信心与托福分手呢?小站君带大家来回顾一下托福独立写作考试题目，并为大家带来范文解析。本次的考题是Do you agree or disagree one can learn about one person from books and movies that person like? 你认为是否可以通过某个人所喜欢的书和电影来了解他?对于这样的题目，大家选择同一还是不同意呢?一起来看看范文解析。
In this world every person has their own likes and dislikes and this does not convey the attitude or personality of that person accurately. Learning about the other person accurately is very important to maintain congenial relationship with the other person. If a person want to learn about another person he may judge about that person from the books he read and the movies he watch. Some people agree with this and others do not. In my view learning about the other person from the books and movies he like does not make any sense. I strongly disagree with the author's opinion mainly for two important reasons.
在这个世界上，每个人都有自己的好恶，这并不能准确地传达那个人的态度或性格。准确地了解对方对于保持与对方的融洽关系是非常重要的。如果一个人想了解另一个人，他可以从他读的书和他看的电影来判断那个人。有些人同意这个观点，有些人则不同意。在我看来，从一个人喜欢的书和电影中就能了解他是说不通的。所以我非常不同意这种观点，下面是我不同的两个原因。
The main reason is that person's attitude or personality do not lie on the books or movies he like. If the person watches action movies or read some horror books it does not state that the person is very rebellious and fractious. The judgement is not accurate. For example, I have a friend when I was studying in my high school. She is very friendly and has a good sense of humour. She likes to watch all action movies and read all horror books that is her interest and that is not her attitude. The other person may judge her falsely as a very rebellious lady by noting her likes towards the action movies. As you can see this is how the person will misinterpret about other person and fails to develop good relationship.
最主要的原因是，一个人的态度或性格并不取决于他喜欢的书或电影。如果一个人看动作片或读恐怖小说，这并不表示这个人非常叛逆和暴躁。所以这样判断不准确。例如，当我在我的高中学习，我有一个朋友很友好，也很有幽默感，但是她喜欢看动作片和恐怖小说，这只是她的兴趣，而不是她的态度。如果依照题目观点可能会错误地认为她是一个非常叛逆的女人，因为她喜欢动作片。正如你所看到的，这样会导致一个人如何误解他人，无法与其建立良好的关系。
Another reason is that the person may be very much centred towards his/her culture and he/she follows the culture and tradition of the particular religion or society. If the person is very devotional and if he reads only his religious books and movies it does not mean that he is opposing or hating other religions and their values and traditions. For instance, I have a friend in my college who is a Christian and she likes to watch devotional movies related to her religion and she likes to read bible every day. Though she is a Christian, she is very friendly with other religion people like Hindus and Muslims. She also know about the other religious values and traditions. She just like her religion movies and books because it is her culture and tradition that she has to follow to survive in that particular society. She can't go against her tradition. But, the other person consider her very eccentric by her likes. This clearly shows that from knowing the likes of books and movies of the person does not make sense in judging or learning about that person.
另一个原因是，一个人可能非常专注于他/她的文化，他/她遵循特定宗教或社会的文化和传统。如果一个人非常虔诚，如果他只看他的宗教书籍和电影，这并不意味着他反对或憎恨其他宗教及其价值观和传统。例如，大学时我有一个朋友是基督徒，她喜欢看与她信仰宗教有关的电影，她喜欢每天读圣经。虽然她是基督徒，但她与其他宗教人士如印度教徒和穆斯林都非常友好。她也了解其他的宗教价值和传统，她只是喜欢她的宗教电影和书籍，因为这是她的文化和传统，她必须遵循。她不能违背她的传统。但是有的人却因为她所喜欢的东西认为她很古怪。这清晰地表明，通过了解一个人喜欢的书籍和电影，对判断或了解这个人是没有意义的。
In sum, though some may oppose my explanation, learning about the person from the books and movies he like is not an accurate way of learning about the other person. Instead, it creates a lot of misunderstanding and misinterpretation about that person and fails to develop good relationship with that person. So, every person should develop clear ways and understanding about the person whom they are going to learn and halt judging the person from his likes towards books and movies.
总而言之，尽管有些人可能反对我的阐述，但我还是认为从一个人喜欢的书和电影了解他并不是一种准确的了解他人的方式。相反，它会造成很多对这个人的误会和误解，并且会导致不能与那个人建立良好关系。因此，每个人都应该使用明晰的方式去了解他们将要去了解的人，不要从他所喜欢的书籍和电影来判断这个人。