求拍~~ISSUE 207~~~紧张啊~~2月8号就考了~~谢谢~~

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207． "Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."

Will societies or groups of people losethemselves without the help of rituals and ceremonies to define a culture? I donot think so. I agree with the statement that rituals and ceremonies help todefine a culture. However, I think it is too groundless to say that the absenceof rituals and ceremonies will make people have a diminished sense of who theyare.


Admittedly, rituals and ceremonies could help to define a culture. Manyrituals and ceremonies were started to serve the functions to build theconnection between groups of ancient people and their gods and were passed asprecious traditions by generation and generation. For instance, during theSpring Festival, the most important holiday for Chinese, people gather aroundwith their family and have rituals and ceremonies to entreat their god to givethem safe, health and good luck for everything in next year. In westernsociety, everyone celebrates Christmas, the most important festivals to thewestern society, to bless the birth of Jesus. These two rituals are sodistinctive that no one will confuse them with each other. When it comes todumplings, Chinese firecrackers, couplets, everyone will think about ChineseSpring Festival. Christmas trees, Santa and presents in socks remind peopleabout Christmas. In this point of view, the Spring Festival helps to shape theChinese culture, while Christmas cultivates the Western Culture.


However, it is the different time now and rituals and ceremonies' effectto define a culture has been weakened by time. Rituals and ceremonies are notas important as they were for people in their daily life. Even if people do nothave some certain rituals and ceremonies, nothing would change in their lives.There are two major reasons that people would not feel lost without rituals andceremonies. First, most people have much more rapid-pace lives and withstandmuch more serious pressure than before, so they have less time and mood fortraditional rituals and ceremonies. For instance, to accomplish some certainwork, people who skip Christmas are not rare in Western society. People whocelebrate Christmas usually do not celebrate it as long as they did in thepast, especially during the great depression of economy. Secondly, mostcontemporary people do not believe in superstition anymore because they aremore open-minded than people in the ancient times. As a result, many ritualsand ceremonies, like the Spring Festival, does not serve their originalfunction and just become a holiday which people could have a break from workand hang out with their friends and families. Groups of Chinese maybe feeluncomfortable without traditional rituals, like the Spring Festival, but it isunfounded to say that they have a diminished sense of who they are, after all,for modern Chinese, the Spring Festival seems like a longer weekend than anindispensable ceremony which could decide their lives in the nest year.



Furthermore, there are many other factors to define a culture, sosocieties or groups of people will not have a diminished sense of who they are,even without rituals and ceremonies. For example, China suffered extreme painin the massive earthquake in Wenchuan. After the tragic earthquake, all Chineseshow off considerable courage and the whole country unite to overcome this catastrophe.I believe that this "Wenchuan" spirit is now a part of Chineseculture and it is in every Chinese heart. Take Confucius as another example.Although there is a memorial for him every year in his hometown, most peopleregard his theory as an indispensable part of Chinese culture and learn itrather than participate into the memorial ceremony. In fact, Confucius’stheories are much more important than his memorial ceremony to the Chineseculture. As stated above, since rituals and ceremonies are not the only waythat a culture can be defined, it is unnecessary to worry that people wouldlose themselves without rituals and ceremonies helping to define a culture.


In sum, the speaker's claim is partiallyright. It is reasonable to indicate that rituals and ceremonies help to definea culture. However, they are not the only way to do this and their function maybe weakened by time. There are other factors to define a culture, such ashistorical events and great persons and all of these factors make the speaker'sclaim become invalid.