SAMPLE ANSWER

Okay, so this is a tricky question because I’ve had the good fortune to rub shoulders and eventually become close friends with a lot of inspiring and talented individuals – too many to count in fact – who have very original perspectives and whose incendiary talents never fail to galvanize me into becoming a better person immediately after talking with them. So to single out one particular person who has positively influenced my life is almost impossible. So instead, I’m not going to talk about just one person, I’m going to talk about a group of people that have a huge part to play in molding me into the person that I am today. 

It is the women in my life. 

Let’s start with obviously the one who gave birth to me, my mom. She is one of the most hard working and enterprising people that I know. She’s retired now, but when she was working she would always wake up super early, and even after a day of hard toil she still mustered up the strength to cook us dinner. I mean, her cooking is not the greatest – I’ll readily admit – but she always went out of her way to make sure we were properly fed.

Then of course, there’re the female friends in my life: my business partner, my colleagues, my personal friends – people whom I work with daily and whose work ethics never fail to inspire me. In my experience, women are both thinkers and doers whereas I am only capable of doing one thing at a time. In my experience, female workers and female leaders are a force to be reckoned with, and I am so happy to be working alongside so many of them everyday.  

And I would be remiss if I did not mention a woman in the making – my own daughter – who I know will grow up to be a fine lady herself. She’s just a winsome ball of positivity. She taught me to be patient, she taught me to love deeply and to give freely. She turned my life upside down in the best way possible, and I don’t know where I would be without her.”

PHÂN TÍCH TỪ VỰNG

to have the good fortune to do sth: may mắn được làm gì đó 

a ball of + noun (phrase) (dùng để mô tả người với nghĩa tích cực) ai đó toát ra cảm giác gì, (e.g. a ball of joy: một người với nhiều sự vui vẻ, a ball of positivity: một người với nhiều năng lượng tích cực)

to rub shoulders with sb: làm quen, trò chuyện với ai đó 

incendiary (adj) bốc lửa, ấn tượng

to turn sb upside down: khiến ai thay đổi hoàn toàn, khiến cuộc sống của ai đảo lộn

to single out sb/ sth: chọn ra một người hoặc cái gì đặc biệt

galvanize sb into sth: khiến ai đó có cảm hứng làm gì đấy

enterprising (adj) chủ động, tháo vát, nhạy bén

toil (n) sự lao động cần cù, làm việc quần quật

a force to be reckoned with (phrase): quyền lực, đáng phải nể sợ

work ethics (n) tác phong làm việc

to muster up: cố nặn ra một cái gì đó (năng lượng hoặc cảm xúc)

to go out of sb’s way to do sth: cố hết sức làm gì đó cho ai khác

to be capable of doing sth: có khả năng làm gì

to remiss: thiết sót

winsome (adj) đáng yêu (đặc biệt khi giống trẻ con)