Issue10 清凉夏日 三组 同主题写作

linfan68UID: 2185216

大家不要笑，这可以说是我第一篇上500的作文了……
我论述的重点大概是major city到底能不能代表一个民族的文化，不知道是不是有点跑……
TOPIC: ISSUE10 - "Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive, because it is primarily in cities that a nation's cultural traditions are preserved and generated."
         DATE: 2006-8-6

I agree the speaker's board assertion that through support the major city, government could preserved the cultural traditions of a nation. However, the speaker unfairly overlooks other ways besides the major city to present the information of a nation. On balance, I tend to agree that the major city, be it can exhibitate a nation's figure in some cases, is not the only way to help us to learn a culture.

I concede that in some circumstance, a city can be a collection of a nation's main figures. An apt illustration is New York City as the representation of the United States. "Americans' business is business", NYC acts as the business center of the US, with the Wall Street and Time Square in it. In that NYC is the largest city in the US, it witness almost the whole history of America, and its balance percentages of population of WASP, Hispanic-American, Afro-American, Asia-American and other minority races represents the most essential character of America, that is, the mixture of races and cultural. Therefore, the NYC, as an epitome of the United State, should be regard as a window of American culture, and one of the sources of American characters.

However, in some countries, their history is so long and complex that neither a single city nor several cities can stand for their cultural. One example of these nations is China. With a thousand years history, Chinese cities raised and fail, and almost every city has its own story, each of them is a component of Chinese culture, but none of them can represent China, and even none of them is "typical" for China. Consider if there is a "typical" city, which can be a good epitome of China, why so many people all around the world are crazy about traveling around China, to experience different cultures in different cities. Consequently, in some cases and some nations, there is no one or some major cities for culture, and only by consider the nation as a whole can its culture be study.

Moreover, the city, though be the most active and realistic element in a nation, is not the only way to represent a nation's culture. Through other ways such as the arts and the history can also be a suitable way to study a nation's figure. And what is more, even the popularity element of a nation can be seem as the most sensitive indicator of a nation's contemporary culture, which is also a reflective of the tradition culture as the inheritor of it. Without all these alternative method, what we get from a city is just like a toe of a nation and losing the overall picture of the country's custom and culture. Thus, we must take all these besides the city into account, and then we can learn a nation in a larger sense.

With various experience and inconsistent values, people may never arrive at the same point on this controversial issue involving culture and civilization. All the discuss of evidences above confirm my assertion in some cases that though to support major city provide a good way to preserve a nation's culture, it is neither the only way nor the best method.