Part I Writing
One possible version:
Talent Is More than a Certificate
With the increase of students in China’s higher education institutions, there is a striking trend of more and more graduates flooding into the market to hunt for a job. Confronted with fierce and cold competition, they must use everything they have to take advantage of the rare opportunities they are given. Sometimes, whether or not they have a certain educational certificate is enough to leave them a success or failure.
This practice is not particularly fair or justified. For one thing, the certificate is only a piece of paper that does not reveal one’s actual ability. Sometimes a person’s qualities and capabilities may be hidden inside his or her mind. For another, just as a Chinese saying puts it: “In every art, there is a good master.” It is generally recognized that one’s genuine ability and knowledge are measurable through social practice and not his or her grades on tests. What’s more, the over-emphasis on the certificate will inevitably result in side effects, for example, the widespread manufacture of fake graduate certificates.
As far as I’m concerned, what you have done in your spare time may be a criterion on which to judge whether you are talented, creative, sympathetic and cooperative or not. An individual’s personal ethical quality, sometimes, is more important than his or her brilliant academic record.