为大家带来2012 年5月10日的托福写作真题：Today consumers are facing an increasing amount of advertising from competing companies. To what extent do you think consumers are influenced by advertisements? What measures can be taken to protect them?该大作文为媒体类话题，请看范文详情：
托福写作题目讲解：
【题目关键词】
advertisements; exert an influence upon; adopt measures
【写作小贴士】
此类题目是典型的blended essay的写法，开头结尾相对容易，body paragraphs分为两段展开，按照题目提问的先后顺序：首先，第一问可以写广告所带来的诸多benefits，比如：广告让我们更加清晰了解产品特点getting a better understanding of how the products work;成为大多数企业的收入来源sources of revenue;部分广告向人们宣传健康生活方式，让人们生活更加幸福快乐more contented。当然也可以写drawbacks，例如：很多商业广告的虚假宣传误导了消费者消费misleading customers;部分广告内容低俗，对青少年的身心发展不利negative effects on mental health;广告泛滥使广告形象大打折扣contribute to a bad self-image。其次，针对问题提出解决的solutions，这里可以从政府的角度切入，广告利弊兼有，政府应当积极引导，以便广告更好地服务于民众。
【写作语汇一览表】
1.in response to an advertisement回应广告
2.commercials商业广告
3.informative传递信息
4.hooks圈套
5.tricks and catchy phrases花言巧语
6.Advertising is now a circus-show.广告现在就像是在进行马戏表演。
7.be immune to the influence of advertising不受广告的影响
8.subtle不易察觉
9.a great variety of beautiful products玲琅满目的商品
【写作例句推荐】
1. The effect advertising has on our society may be subtle, and most of us remain unaware of how it molds us to fill in the particular company’s needs.
2.While advertising is useful for a host of things, from selling products, to putting public announcements on the air, some of the effects are detrimental as they can intentionally misrepresent “real” people in their commercials.
托福写作范文：
The extent to which people are influenced by advertisements can be measured in terms of the high sales of popular consumer goods, many of them being unnecessary or completely useless. Mainly through the media, advertisements on products and services are able to penetrate the public mind with half truth and half lying. In many cases, consumers are becoming so greedy that they are not only buying things they really do not need but also spending the money they do not have.
人们受广告影响的程度可以用流行消费品的高销量来衡量，其中许多是不必要的或完全无用的。主要是通过媒体，产品和服务上的广告能以半真半假的方式渗透到公众的思想中。在许多情况下，消费者变得如此贪婪，以至于他们不仅购买了他们真正不需要的东西，而且还花了他们没有的钱。
Although advertising gives people a chance as consumers, actually most advertisements tend to cause them to desire for something worthless. Under such circumstances, it is easy to change people's need into greed. So much so, they are constantly encouraged to want things--want this and want that. This human behavior is haunted by the media from all fronts: on radio, on television, and online, not to mention printed circulations such as newspapers and magazines. Obviously, a great number of "impulsive" buyers are persuaded under the illusion that new products or services could make a difference in their lives. Despite all the benefits of the free market economy, the effects of unreliable advertising are particularly negative in that the power of advertising does not reflect the real needs of the society in which products and services are sold.
尽管广告给了人们作为消费者的机会，但实际上大多数广告都倾向于让他们渴望一些毫无价值的东西。在这种情况下，很容易把人们的需要变成贪婪。所以，他们总是被鼓励去想要的东西——想要这个，想要那个。这种人的行为受到来自各个方面的媒体的困扰：广播、电视和网络，更不用说报纸和杂志等印刷品。很明显，很多“冲动”的买家都相信，新产品或新服务能改变他们的生活。尽管自由市场经济带来了种种好处，但不可靠的广告所带来的影响尤其负面，因为广告的力量并不能反映出产品和服务被出售的社会的真实需求。
Worse still, many consumers are convinced to waste money they do not have. Surrounded by advertisements, people are too unwise to perform a balanced act between income and expenditure. Increasingly, what seems to be good for economy begins to backfire because advertising is misleading consumers deeply into commercial debts which they probably could not afford to pay in due time. Thus, instead of improving people's lives, advertising may be considered as a "necessary evil" in modern time. Furthermore, as manufacturing and service companies are competing to have a larger share of the market, it is next to impossible to expect the media to reduce the amount of dishonest advertising. Besides, when it comes to making money, companies and the media are in the same religion.
After all, greed being a human instinct, consumers have only themselves to blame for their foolishness toward advertisements. Since outlawing commercial advertising is out of the question, people should educate themselves to be more prudent in buying and spending behaviors. As for consumers, what better measures can be taken to protect themselves other than self-control?
更糟糕的是，许多消费者被说服去浪费他们没有的钱。在广告的包围下，人们在收入和支出之间做出平衡的行为是不明智的。似乎对经济有益的事情开始变得适得其反，因为广告误导消费者，使他们深陷商业债务，而他们可能无法在适当的时候支付这些债务。因此，广告非但不能改善人们的生活，反而会被认为是现代社会的“必要之恶”。此外，随着制造业和服务公司竞相在市场上占有更大的份额，我们几乎不可能指望媒体减少不诚实广告的数量。此外，当涉及到赚钱时，公司和媒体都是同一种宗教。
