Model answer
Written by 8020 teachers. Do not memorise it — take the structure and the way ideas are developed, then speak about your own life.
I'd like to talk about Quan, a colleague of mine at a small software company in Da Nang, who is easily the most popular person in the building. He's twenty-nine and works as a tester, which isn't a glamorous job, yet people from every floor seem to know him. I met him on my very first day two years ago. I was standing in the lobby looking lost, and he walked over, said, 'You're the new one, right? Come on, I'll show you where the good coffee is,' and took me to a stall behind the office rather than to my desk. Since then I've watched how he does it. He remembers things: the name of your dog, the fact that your mother was in hospital last month, which of us can't eat seafood. He organises the Friday football game on the pitch near My Khe beach, and he somehow persuades about twenty people to turn up at half past five, including the director, who can't play at all. I think I know the real reason he's so well liked. Plenty of people are funny or generous, but Quan makes whoever he's talking to feel like the most interesting person in the room, and he does it without any hidden motive. He never gossips, either, which is rare in an office of sixty people. If I'm honest, I was a bit suspicious of him at first, because nobody is that nice. But after two years I've had to accept that he simply is, and I've started copying one of his habits: I now write down people's birthdays, which turns out to be half the secret.