Issue72 [infinity小组]第三十二次作业

mayaUID: 199038

TOPIC: ISSUE72 - "One can best understand the most important characteristics of a society by studying its major cities."
WORDS: 614          TIME: 45min          DATE: 2006-7-30

Major cities, as the significant business or political centers in one country, are always recognized the most important entrance to understand the characteristic of society which has contained these cities. However, an individual who would like to best understand one society's characteristic should not view so briefly to some major cities and in my view, I believe if one want to best realize he or she should search every fields in one society through different cities rather than the major cities.

When it comes to major cities, people would easily to nominate them as the symbol of one country. Although these major cities are known as their brilliant business or political or literature, they cannot be representative for one society's characteristic. One major city always owns only one characteristic and if one arbitrarily recognizes lonely about such this major city, it seems that the blind has impressed one person as a solid one just through feeling one's toe nail. Consider, for example, New York, as the business center in America or even the world business center, sometime, can present outsiders a strong economy. However, can one person conclude that the whole society owns a strong economy too? Common sense tells us that no one country holds equal economic level and even if America is recognized one of the most developed countries. When people drive to Western areas as farther as possible, they can realize a real America, the land is not always paved and no more skyscrapers are situated. From the above illustration, though the scope is little thin, we can find that no other countries can fleet out from this trend that only understanding major cities cannot make people authentically realize the characteristics of society.

Not only are economy or politics made to present their characteristics to people who want to realize characteristics of one society, but history and literature also should be the important factor which people would like to research for their better understanding of society. I would like to illustrate my country, China, as an example to assert that one cannot understand best through major cities. China, as an old and wonderful country, has owned a long history and brilliant civilization. Nevertheless, as a result of the rapid social and technological development of the whole world, the government has to sacrifice some minor cities where they possess plenty of grand and historic relics or folk arts to improve economy. Although one city called Xi'an once was believed the same important area with Beijing for its long history and many emperors have lived there, today's people have forgotten its importance and always focus on some major cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and the like. Considering about the reputation of one country, people always prefer introducing foreigners to visit those cities which own strong economy or tall buildings. However, evaluating one society's characteristic is not by realizing one society's economic condition or other characteristics to which can be easily paid attention but by overall awareness. One society contains multiple characteristics and all of them are distributed to lots of areas where are not simply included in some major cities. Realistically, it is ironical to say that the most important characteristics are always contained in some minor cities since they are more conservative and easily secured to ensure some endangered arts or literature that are vital features for one to understand best with one society.

In conclusion, in order for one person to study one society's characteristics, only by observing some major cities should be so superficially that one cannot best understand them. In contrast, the whole cities which own various features can be relied on one person to best understand one society.

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characteristic多做变换,trait,attribute

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我也刚写完一篇
Can people understand the most important characteristics of a society only by studying its major cities, as the speaker claims? To some extent, major cities can represent a lot of a society's advanced technology and well-developed economy. However in my point of view the speaker overstates the role of big cities for the reason that the trait of a society is a very complex matter including history, modern culture, characteristics of people and qualities of living in that society which can not be understood through mere knowledge about several cities.

In the first place, one of the most critical characteristics of a society is its historic heritage. Although the past times have already been recorded in the history, they cast immense influence upon the modern world. In china, for example, among splendid ancient cultural treasure Confucianism is advocated by countless people both in the past and in the current society. Chinese people are apt to believe in the virtues of modesty and courtliness included in Confucian doctrines generated by Confucius and his disciples who lived in Qufu, a small town. Granted that some major cities own books recording affairs of Confucius or the content of Confucianism, people who want to gain a real study and sense of these doctrines had better arrive at places where Confucius has lived and sermonized to get a integral learn of him. Those are not existed in major cities.

Secondly, in this era of rapid pace of globalization major cities are likely to be affected by foreign cultures and hardly can people in big cities maintain the original customs of a society. Especially in cities which are nearby seas and have developed a lot in economy, people are too busy accommodating varied circumstances to remember culture or prefer to foreign cultures which are imported into those places as policies propelling opening are put into effect. However in some cities or towns which locate in remote places of a society, people keep customs handed down by their ancestors who are likely to treat own culture and customs more precious. Thus what are possessed by those major cities are things mixed with other societies or nations while some small towns and cities maintain the original characteristics of that society.

Furthermore, people's characteristics are indispensable to learn if one wants to understand a society for they are the principal part of a country. Individual citizens have created content of the history and also construct the modern society who have the power to control the speed of development and to decide traits of the nation. Although we can say that people of one nation are alike in their appearance, hardly can every one be the same with different starting point, experiences and choices. Only studying major cities is insufficient to understand the whole characteristics of its people since their habitants might come from all over the world. (To find the answer of this aspect during a short time, people can resort to mass of media, such as television or video. Watching films and television plays, in a sense, serves to explain morals and value systems held by a society.)

Finally, granted that the economic and technologic developments in major cities are all at the top of a society, it does not equate with the whole condition of a society. That only indicates the speed of a society's improving but does not show the average quality of life --- after all poverty has not been eliminated by advanced technologies. The study of big cities, in this perspective, is biased and inexact.

To sum up, I concede that studying major citied is not useless for understanding characteristics of a society. However, only by this kind of knowledge is not enough to understand it thoroughly since a country is so complicated constituted. The more places one has reached the more he or she gains from that society.