下面這篇托福寫作材料的主要內容是比爾蓋茨給青年人寫的黃金準則。這十個準則都是非常具有指導意義的，是對生活的感悟，如果能應用在托福寫作中，將會起到非常好的效果。

　　1. Life is not fair, get used to it.

　　2. The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

　　3. You will not make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car, until you earn both.

　　4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

　　5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

　　6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

　　7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to your talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try "delousing" the closet in your own room.

　　8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

　　9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

　　10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

　　參考譯文：

　　1. 生活是不公平的，你要去適應它。

　　2. 這個世界并不會在意你的自尊，而是要求你在自我感覺良好之前先有所成就。

　　3. 剛從學校走出來的時候不可能一年掙4萬美元，更不會成為哪家公司的副總裁，還擁有一部汽車，直到你將這些都掙到手的那一天。

　　4. 如果你認為學校里的老師過于嚴厲，那么等你有了老板再回頭想一想。

　　5. 賣漢堡包并不會有損于你的尊嚴。你的祖父對賣漢堡包有著不同的理解，他們稱之為“機遇”。

　　6. 如果你陷入困境，那不是你父母的過錯，不要將你理應承擔的責任轉嫁給他人，而要學著從中吸取教訓。

　　7. 在你出生之前，你的父母并不像現在這樣乏味。他們變成今天這個樣子是因為這些年來一直為你付賬單，給你洗衣服，聽你談你有多酷。所以，在對父母喋喋不休之前，還是先去打掃一下你自己的屋子吧。

　　8. 你所在學校也許已經不再分優等生和劣等生，但生活并不如此。在某些學校已經有了“不及格”的概念，學校會不斷地給你機會讓你進步，然而現實生活完全不是這樣的。

　　9. 走出學校后的生活不像在學校一樣有學期之分，也沒有暑假之說。沒有幾位老板樂于幫你發現自我，你必須依靠自己去完成。

　　10. 電視中的許多場景決不是真實的生活。在現實生活中，人們必須埋頭做自己的工作，而并不像電視里演的那樣天天泡在咖啡館里。