issue147【决战AW作文小组】第10次作业

sakuraanneUID: 2253519

TOPIC: ISSUE147 - "Tradition and modernization are incompatible. One must choose between them."
WORDS: 555        DATE: 2009-2-13

Are tradition and modernization mutually exclusive? Actually, everyone in the world live in a compound made up of tradition and modernization. We share our ancestor's culture and customs while develop our own way of living; we build futuristic buildings while conserve valuable ancient architectures; we enjoy the benefits of modern technology and science while respect the antecessors' achievements. Tradition and modernization are so closely intertwined with each other that we cannot simply choose distinctively between them.

The reflection of tradition on modernization shows itself through both inner and outer sides in current world. The inner side includes one's culture, customs, arts and so on while the outer side more relates to architecture, science and technology. Some forms of modernization just depart from tradition with little changes and variability while others change greatly through time and develop into many new ones. The English language and music change through time, but we can appreciate their earlier forms and at least learn from the spirit and creativity carried with them. Classical music inherits principles of creating, performing and directing from tradition with little change but the influence of classical music can be found in much modern music, like music in a movie or TV series. Shakespears passes his knowledge and wisdom down through his plays and many of the laws of humanity remain unchanged through time. Although Latin is a dead language for people live in modern time, it still widely uses in scientific researches for its consistency.

Sometimes modernization seems perfectly compatible with tradition and they create such a fascinating blend of past and present that even make people marvel at it. Ieoh Ming Pei built the Pyramid-looking glass entrance of Le Grand Louvre Paris which combines Louvre’s classical style with his modern design. At first, it suffered from some critics. But as time goes by, the entrance proves to be an outstanding design of all time which represents the embrace of modern and tradition. The Eiffel Tower supports this standpoint as a similar evidence for its strange, huge iron structure seemed alienated from the traditional mild and tender sense of city Paris. New well-designed modern buildings begin to build up in cities to satisfy the growing need of modernization while traditional architectures get repaired, redecorated and preserved so that tradition and modernization can exist together in another way.

Admittedly, no matter how modern we are, we still deeply immersed in our tradition cultures and customs which we accept and learn immediately from the time of our birth. Chinese people keep their tradition of celebrating their new year deriving from the change of seasons while western people used to mark Christmas their new year. Eastern people subconsciously tend to believe Confucius while western counterparts keep their faith in Jesus Christ. Those differences in thinking and believing influence the making of laws, policies and regulations of our modern world greatly. Almost all the choices, big or small, of individual or of nation, are based on our thinking which partly shaped by our culture in which tradition plays a leading role.

In sum, human being will keep seeking higher technology and discover more scientific secret to change our life and we cannot stop this pace towards modernization. However, we can search ways for the co-existence of tradition and modernization to guarantee the marrows of our tradition will pass down.

IthakaUID: 2511650

TOPIC: ISSUE147 - "Tradition and modernization are incompatible. One must choose between them."
WORDS: 555        DATE: 2009-2-13

Are tradition and modernization mutually exclusive? Actually, everyone in the world lives in a compound made up of tradition and modernization. We share our ancestor's culture and customs while develop our own way of living; we build futuristic buildings while conserve valuable ancient architectures; we enjoy the benefits of modern technology and science while respect the antecessors' achievements. Tradition and modernization are so closely intertwined with each other that we cannot simply choose distinctively between them.

The reflection of tradition on modernization shows itself through both inner and outer sides in current world. The inner side includes one's culture, customs, arts and so on while the outer side more relates to architecture, science and technology.这个两分法不是特别恰当。 Some forms of modernization just depart from tradition with little changes and variability while others change greatly through time and develop into many new ones. The English language and music change through time, but we can appreciate their earlier forms and at least learn from the spirit and creativity carried with them. Classical music inherits principles of creating, performing and directing from tradition with little change but the influence of classical music can be found in much modern music, like music in a movie or TV series. Shakespears passes his knowledge and wisdom down through his plays and many of the laws of humanity remain unchanged through time. Although Latin is a dead language for people live in modern time, it still widely uses in scientific researches for its consistency. 这一段没有很好地解释什么是tradition，不能把这个题简单地和其它历史类题目混同。

Sometimes modernization seems perfectly compatible with tradition and they create such a fascinating blend of past and present that even make people marvel at it. Ieoh Ming Pei built the Pyramid-looking glass entrance of Le Grand Louvre Paris which combines Louvre’s classical style with his modern design. At first, it suffered from some critics. But as time goes by, the entrance proves to be an outstanding design of all time which represents the embrace of modern and tradition. The Eiffel Tower supports this standpoint as a similar evidence for its strange, huge iron structure seemed alienated from the traditional mild and tender sense of city Paris. New well-designed modern buildings begin to build up in cities to satisfy the growing need of modernization while traditional architectures get repaired, redecorated and preserved so that tradition and modernization can exist together in another way. 这一段的例子举得很好，展开也充分。

Admittedly, no matter how modern we are, we still deeply immersed in our tradition cultures and customs which we accept and learn immediately from the time of our birth. Chinese people keep their tradition of celebrating their new year deriving from the change of seasons while western people used to mark Christmas their new year. Eastern people subconsciously tend to believe Confucius while western counterparts keep their faith in Jesus Christ. Those differences in thinking and believing influence the making of laws, policies and regulations of our modern world greatly. Almost all the choices, big or small, of individual or of nation, are based on our thinking which partly shaped by our culture in which tradition plays a leading role.

In sum, human being will keep seeking higher technology and discover more scientific secret to change our life and we cannot stop this pace towards modernization. However, we can search ways for the co-existence of tradition and modernization to guarantee the marrows of our tradition will pass down.
感觉这篇文章如果能先定义一下modernization和tradition，思路会更清楚些。以我的理解，两者各是一套东西，而不是说凡是历史的零碎的东西都是tradition。