Official Guide: Practice Test #4
The old saying, be careful what you wish for, may be an appropriate warning. The drive to achieve a particular goal can dangerously narrow ones perspective and encourage the fantasy that success in one endeavor will solve all of lifes difficulties. In fact, success can sometimes have unexpected consequences. Those who propel themselves toward the achievement of one goal often find that their lives are worse once success is achieved than they were before.
Assignment: Can success be disastrous? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Sample Essay - Score of 6
The power of success can be disastrous when placed in the wrong hands. Naturally, there are those who will always choose to manipulate conditions to succeed in their own endeavors, not taking into consideration the lives of those around them. On the other hand, there may be those who do not necessarily pursue selfish ends, but simply do not know where to take success once it has been achieved, thus resulting in their own self-sabotage.
Throughout history, we have seen success used wrongfully in the hands of the unworthy. Powerful leaders of nations, kingdoms, and empires, having succeeded in gaining leadership, have then used their influence wrongfully in achieving their own selfish goals. Nero, the Roman emperor who beat his pregnant wife to death and has been suspected of instigating the great fire of Rome in an attempt to boost his own political influence. Henry VIII of England, for whom women were beheaded for not bearing him a son, and who is rumored to have eaten eight chickens a night while English peasants starved. The notorious Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, who carried out the Spanish Inquisition. The list is endless. Even in literature, we see the corruption and downfall of society and mankind as a whole as a result of the abuse of success in the possession of those who do not deserve it, as seen in William Shake- speares tragedy of King Lear. In the story, societal order is replaced with chaos when there is a power shift from Lear to his evil daughters, Regan and Goneril. This order only returns to a slight degree when virtue returns to England. Success is hazardous when awarded to the unvirtuous.
However, there may be those who are not necessarily evil of greedy in their pursuits, but merely do not know how to handle success. This proves to be just more disastrous to the individual than to anyone else, since it is the individual who will then sabotage his own success to return to his former comfort zone. Success is meant to be grown upon, not exploited or feared.
Success, when achieved by the unworthy or inexperienced, is a most disastrous element. Success is not about being happy at the expense of those about you it is about using ones newly gained happiness to improve the lives of others. If one reflects on the wise words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, one will never go astray: To know that one person has breathed easier because you have lived -this is to have succeeded.
名校最新大学英语四级阅读精讲的系列讲义:(157)
英语四级阅读范文的精讲:懒女孩的减肥术
英语四级学习方法的指导:阅读四大逻辑关系之比较关系
最新大学英语四级阅读全真模拟题的精练(第14篇)
大学英语四级阅读顺利过关的精练:7
名校名师精讲英语四级考试阅读题的讲义(14)
大学英语四级考试必备课文的精选:Should college students be tutor
大学英语四级阅读顺利过关的精练:8
大学英语四级阅读顺利过关的精练:5
最新大学英语四级阅读考试过关必备的训练(8)
名校最新大学英语四级阅读精讲的系列讲义:(156)
英语四级学习方法的指导:提高阅读速度怎么做
最新大学英语四级阅读全真模拟题的精练(第1篇)
最新四级阅读考试必备的范文:英凯特王妃
英语四级阅读范文的精讲:献给母亲的康乃馨
大学英语四级考试语法基础的精讲:名词
名校名师精讲英语四级考试阅读题的讲义(16)
大学英语四级阅读顺利过关的精练:1
英语四级阅读范文的精讲:以书为伴
最新大学英语四级阅读全真模拟题的精练(第16篇)
英语四级阅读范文的精讲:跨越生命中的障碍
最新大学英语四级阅读考试过关必备的训练(2)
名校名师精讲英语四级考试阅读题的讲义(12)
大学英语四级阅读顺利过关的精练:6
最新大学英语四级考试完形填空的精学精练(第十篇)
怎么才能远离英文四级考试的写作的障碍
英语四级阅读范文的精讲:心理暗示的力量
大学英语四级阅读顺利过关的精练:4
大学英语四级阅读顺利过关的精练:2
名校名师精讲英语四级考试阅读题的讲义(18)
| 不限 |
| 英语教案 |
| 英语课件 |
| 英语试题 |
| 不限 |
| 不限 |
| 上册 |
| 下册 |
| 不限 |