Issue 207【today is the day】 第9次作业 紫薇花开

紫薇花开UID: 2461167

Issue 207【today is the day】 第9次作业 紫薇花开
GRE AW里最难论述之一：
207.”Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are.”

Key words: rituals and ceremonies, sense of whom they are, culture

Would it occur that without rituals and ceremonies, any societies or groups of people will have a lessened sense of identity? In response to this issue, we need analyze this proposition comprehensively from a dialectic perspective. The speaker asserts that rituals and ceremonies are indispensible for people to retain their cultural identity. However, he oversimplifies this issue. And the final judgment should rely on an item-by-item analysis.(句子长短结合用了一些高级词语，开头也别具一格）

To begin with, my main viewpoint can be summarized in one saying that I am inclined to agree that one purpose of ritual and ceremony in today’s world is to help define culture as well as to preserve cultural identity of the people. No one can deny that ritual and ceremony turn out to be significant parts of culture, and by understanding the specific ritual and ceremony, （one probably can understand the particular aspect of a culture. Therefore, rituals and ceremonies, to a certain degree, can help people retain cultural identity.）这一 The history of development of culture is replete with adequate evidence to demonstrate this point. For instance, at a traditional Chinese wedding ceremony, the new couple should have to give their parents a bow as a sense of respect and gratitude which can probably reflect that China is a country where people always pay great attention to the etiquette of respecting senior people.（作者在本段所阐述的两方面在下面只发展了retain cultural identity）

Admittedly, rituals and ceremonies might help any societies and groups of people preserve their cultural identity, but what people should realize is that ritual and ceremony merely might be just one aspect of culture, and the original purpose of them is rooted not in retaining culture identity but rather superstition and spiritual belief. Let’s bring our discussion to a more practical and present context. It can be given an example that some of the rituals are initially used to frighten away evil spirits, to entreat the gods to bless people stay away from diseases and wars, or to bring about favorable weather conditions to the harvests.

Additionally, ritual and ceremony might not be the sole way for individuals to preserve cultural identity, and it is equally possible that societies or groups of people will not have a decreased sense of who they are without rituals and ceremonies. As everyone knows,（ culture is broad and profound,）好句子可是太泛泛了而且和下文的衔接不好） which means besides ritual and ceremony, it may also contain other various aspects. For example, the Muslin women should have to wear yashmak to cover their faces in public; Chinese people used to eat with chopsticks, while westerners like to use knife and fork; China has her own traditional Chinese painting which is honored to be national treasure, while oil painting is much more popular in western countries. What mentioned above is all involved in cultural category, and they can also help people to retain their culture identity.

Consequently, due to analysis and reasons mentioned above, we may safely arrive at the conclusion that one purpose of ritual and ceremony is to preserve cultural identity, but it is not the sole way. Not only because the initial purpose of ritual and ceremony may have nothing to do with cultural identity, but also the fact that there are many aspects of culture, and any one of them could help people to preserve their cultural identity.

总的来讲句子很美，可是我总觉的有些堆砌的意思
下次写文章时加以些自己的感情进去或许我就不会瞌睡了
（我是将你的文章打印下来的看的）继续努力