13. The Way to Success

　　Everyone tries to achieve success in his career. However, someone finally attains his goal while another fails. Why? The one continues his cause to the end through long periods of hard struggling, but the other is easily disappointed or stops halfway.

　　Strong will, perseverance and diligence are the three essentials of success. A man of strong will and perseverance always has an inflexible spirit. He sticks to his cause no matter how tough it might be. Dr. Sun Yat-sen was such a man. Many of his attempts failed, but he held to his purpose with firmness and finally succeeded in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. Diligence means steadiness in one's work and study. Su Qin stabbed himself in order to keep attentive to studies. Marx often worked 15 hours a day. Life is short and we have many things to do. Without diligence no one can achieve anything.

　　I believe that where there is a will there is a way, and that success belongs to those who can suffer long years of patient toil and constant efforts.

　　14. Money

　　As we all know, money is as important as air and water in the commercial world. Whatever we buy, wherever we go, we need money. Without it, there is nothing we can do, so to speak.

　　However, we cannot take it for granted that money is everything. It has its negative effects, too. For example, some people may misuse money by gambling, drinking excessively or addicting themselves to drugs. Some others may even commit crimes in order to get much money.

　　In my opinion, money itself is neither good nor bad. What counts lies in how to make good use of it. We need money in our daily life, but we should not be the slaves of money.

　　15. Population of a Small Island State

　　Directions: Write a composition based on the following graph. The composition should be entitled "Population of a Small Island State."

　　From the diagram, we can see that between 1900 and 1950, the population of the state remained a little less than 200,000. Since 1951 it has been increasing rapidly. In the past four decades, the population has gone up by over three times.

　　There are several reasons for the increase. Firstly, the open policy being carried out in the state has enabled many foreign labourers to work there. Secondly, the beautiful scenery of the small island has attracted many tourists and some of them have been permitted to settle there. In addition, the government may not have realized the necessity of controlling population.

　　If this trend continues, it is no doubt that the small state will suffer from various kinds of problems caused by overpopultion, such as lack of land resources, food shortage and traffic congestion. Therefore, actions should be taken to control the increase of the population.

　　16. Changes in College Students' Ways of

　　Spending Summer Vacation

　　Outline:

　　(1) state the changes briefly

　　(2) give possible reasons for the changes

　　(3) predict the trend of changes

　　College Students' Ways of Spending Summer Vacation

　　A. staying at home

　　B. traveling

　　C. doing social investigation

　　D. other ways

　　From the two charts, we can see that in the past ten years the number of students who go travelling or do social investigation during summer vacation has increased greatly while that of those who stay at home has decreased a lot.

　　There are several reasons for the changes. Firstly, with the development of economy, many people have become rich. Students can get financial support from their parents for travelling. Secondly, tourism has greatly developed over the past ten years. Many new scenic spots have been built. In addition, the open policy has brought in from some other countries some harmful ideas on politics and thus aroused among college students some false opinions about China, so the government has been encouraging college students to do investigations on the rapid development in both urban and rural areas.

　　From the changes in the charts, we can predict that more and more college students will make their summer vacation interesting and meaningful by going to the outside world instead of staying at home.

　　17. My View on Fate

　　There is no consensus of opinions among people as to the view of fate. Some people believe that everyone is born to a certain fate that he can not change, while some other people think that every man is the master of his own life.

　　As far as I am concerned, I agree with the latter opinion. There is a saying, "Everyone is the architect of his own future," which means one's fate is decided in his own hands. In fact, no one is destined to a certain fate in his or her life. Those who claim that they were born to fail or be unlucky just can't realize how much inner strength and ability they have. We must depend on ourselves to change our lives and make us successful and happy.

　　Let's take Hellen Keller, an extraordinary American woman, for example. When she was only 19 months old, she became blind and deaf. Instead of accepting her misfortune helplessly, she showed great courage and unconquerable spirit in fighting against her destined fate and was awarded the President's Medal of Freedom in 1964 because of the achievements she had made for helping the blind, the deaf and the speechless. This story tells us that a wise man is always creating his own fate rather than waiting for good luck.

　　In conclusion, I believe that everyone is born equal and is the builder of his own fate. We can have good fortune only if we take pains and work hard. We should bear the following saying in mind, "Every man is the master of his own fate."