issue207,求拍，求助~

Isaac33UID: 2852553

TOPIC: ISSUE207 - "Rituals andceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of peoplehave a diminished sense of who they are."
这篇文章写得很费力，举不出例子。最后一段也没有写。
It is indisputably that rituals andceremonies help define a culture, on which I strongly agree. However, thespeaker, no question, overemphasizes the function of rituals and ceremonies.Actually, the original aim of them is not for culture. Furthermore, rituals andceremonies are not the only things that people rely on for recognizing theiridentity and culture.
Admittedly, specific rituals and ceremonieshelp people memorize their own traditional culture and make the culturedifferent from the rest. In some countries with long history, like China, thereare many unique festivals and related ceremonies. For example, in memory of afamous politician and poet, Qu Yuan, Chinese eat sticky dumplings and holdDragon Boat races on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is calledthe Dragon Boat Festival. On the contrary, in some young countries, such as America, sorryto say, such rituals and ceremonies are hard to see because of the lack ofunique culture of the nation as a whole. But we can still distinguish differentkinds of cultures presented by a variety of ceremonies in the USA in spite ofthe fact that they all exists on the same land.
However, even the speaker himself admitthat the function of rituals and ceremonies is to help define a culture, whichmeans they are absolutely not the only choice and approach. Without them,people can easily find other factors to represent their culture, such asbuildings, food, music and dressing. As is known all over the world, Chineseprefer to use chopsticks when having meals. The reason that ancient Chineseabandon knife and fork is that both of them are also tools for attacking andkilling, which is against the core of Chinese culture, benevolence. Anotherexample is a nation in China,Hui, which refuse to eat pork to show their unique respect for some specificspecies. In addition, dressing also contributes to the definition of cultures,which is clearly proved by the special clothes of Arabians.
In fact, not all the rituals and ceremoniesare originally set for cultures. Indeed, most rituals and ceremonies resultfrom religious desires or some stories about ghosts and gods. Nowadaysfireworks are applied in celebration all over the world, which, however, wereonly used by Chinese on Spring Festival in ancient time for a totally differentpurpose. The Spring Festival is also called Nian, which is the name of a monsterthat came out to attack people once a year. So the fireworks were let off todrive away the monster by the light and sound they could make. Another Chinesefestival, the Mid-Autumn Day, which is famous for delicious moon cakes, gives agreat example, too. Chinese families are used to get together and enjoy themoon cakes in the memory of the beautiful fairy tale of Chang'e.