The reading passage states that it is possible that "Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet"

was not made by Remembrandt, while the speaker argues that this portray was proved to be a
painting of Remembrandt.

Firstly, the reading points out that the way the woman is dressed in the portray does not fit with that
she supposes to dress. She is supposed to be a servant and she wears an expensive necklace. So it is
not possible for her to have this kind of necklace and this would have to have been noticed by
Redembrandt, who is known for his sense of details. However, the lecturer mentions that this
information is not true.

Secondly, it is stated in the reading that light and shadow were common in Remembrandt portraits
and these characteristics are not shown in the elderly woman portrayed. The necklace the woman
has on the portrait absorbed the light that may show up the woman's face. On the other hand, the
speaker mentions that the light may be affected by modifications made by other painters after the
portrait was finished by the original author.

Thirdly, the reading passage mentions that a large number of pieces of wood were used to make the
entire portrait. This is not common on Remembrandt's portraits because he used to use a single
wood panel. Nevertheless, the speaker claim that the original painting was made by a single wood
panel and some modifications were made by the artist to enlarge the panel with pieces of wood
from the same tree.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

It is more important to keep your old friends than it is to make new friends.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Since we are a child, friends are one important part of our life and social environment. Along with
our lives, we have some friends that are always there and there are others that we meet in our daily
life. It is important to know new people and maintain an old relationship. However, I believe that
making new friends may have a bigger impact on our life than keeping the old ones.

On one hand, new friends make us develop as a professional because more friends let us have large
networking. This help us to have new opportunities that maybe we could not get if these new people
had not appeared in our lives. Also soft skills may be developed as we talk and interact with new
people.. For instance, making new friends helped me a lot on my social abilities. I used to be
introverted and this caused a lot of problems when I had to interact to new people. So I started to
talk with strangers in parties and this let me develop social skills that applied to my work made a
difference.

On the other hand, having new friends is strongly recommended to develop personally. Different
kind of personalities are in our society and knowing them make us a better people. Sometimes we
do not understand some people when they are in trouble and we unfairly judge them. So knowing
new people and making them our friend could help to develop empathy and understand better the
people of our society. For example, I used to judge people who depress when they have family
problems. In my group of friends, no one depress because of this kind of problems. So when I made
a new friend and she told me about her problems, I finally could understand why she was depressed.
Therefore, after these experience I could understand better these kind of people and sometimes I
could help them.

To sum up, making new friends have a greater impact on our life than keeping the old friends
because it lets us develop professionally and personally.