GMAT考试写作例文224篇连载(一四三)

32. “You can tell the ideas of a nation by its advertisements.”
Explain what you think this quotation¹ means and discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with it. Develop your position with reasons and/or specific examples drawn² from history, current events, or your own experience, observations, or reading.
In order to determine whether advertisements reflect a nation’s ideas, it is necessary to determine whether advertisements present real ideas at all, and, if so, whose ideas they actually reflect. On both counts, it appears that advertisements fail to accurately³ mirror a nation’s ideas.
Indisputably, advertisements inform us as to a nation’s values, attitudes, and priorities—what activities are worthwhile, what the future holds, and what is fashionable and attractive. For instance, a proliferation of ads for sport-utility vehicles reflects a societal concern more for safety and machismo (男子气概an exaggerated or exhilarating sense of power or strength) than for energy conservation and frugality⁴, while a plethora⁵ of ads for inexpensive on-line brokerage services reflects an optimistic and perhaps irrationally⁶ exuberant⁷ economic outlook. However, a mere⁸ picture of a social more, outlook, or fashion is not an “idea”—it does not answer questions such as “why” and “how”?
Admittedly, public-interest advertisements do present ideas held by particular segments of society—for example, those of environmental and other public-health interest groups. However, these ads constitute a negligible percentage of all advertisements, and they do not necessarily reflect the majority’s view. Consequently, to assert that advertisements reflect a nation’s ideas distorts reality. In truth (adv. 事实上,的确,说实在的,实际上,本质上), they mirror only the business and product ideas of companies whose goods and services are advertised and the creative ideas of advertising⁹ firms. Moreover, advertisements look very much the same in all countries. Western and Eastern alike. Does this suggest that all nations have essentially¹⁰ identical ideas? Certainly not.
In sum, the few true ideas we might see in advertisements are those of only a few business concerns and interest groups; they tell us little about the ideas of a nation as a whole.