Patrick写的8/20 A类范文

来源：环球教育网 www.ielts.com.cn 2005-9-16

Dear All:

    Cultural anthropology曾是我中学时的最爱,爱读Margaret Mead和Ruth Benedict，也曾想过本科象Yo Yo Ma那样去Harvard读人类学,最终因为怕毕业找不到工作而放弃了。八月份真的hit the jackpot,每道题都是我一度很感兴趣的话题,无论8/6号的环保,8/13号的认知心理学还是8/20号的文化人类学......像往常一样为学生写了范文,也像往常一样贴在网上。

    8/20 essay question：
    Some people think that people who move to new countries should accept the new culture as their own,rather than live in separate minority groups and in different lifestyles.Do you agree or disagree?

    点题: 典型的argumentation，采用折衷式观点（既要接受主流文化，又要保持自身文化特性）会更好写一些,而且让文章更具思辩性

    高分关键词:acculturation (noun)集体层面上的文化适应 transculturation个人层面上的文化适应 cultural diversity文化多元化 national unity and cohesion 国家的凝聚力 disintegration (noun) 瓦解 be culturally assimilated into(移民)成为其目的国文化的有机部分

    Successive immigration waves in preceding centuries have rendered numerous countries multi-racial.Over the process,the issue of massive acculturation had been cast into sharp relief.Hence the intense controversy over immigrants' attitudes toward the recipient culture.Some contend that immigrants should not just cloister themselves in separate minority groups,but accept the culture of their host countries as their own.Personlly, I think this view has both merit and demerit.

    On the one hand,it is manifest that adjusting themselves to the local culture and mores is vital to the survival,self-sufficiency and success of the internationally-relocated.First and foremost,ready availability of the very kinds of food,shelter,clothing and tranportation that they were once so used to in their home countries is largely non-existent in their immigration destinations.Their dietary,dressing,dwelling and transportational preferences must be substantially altered to fit into new material environments.Secondly,it is highly improbable that a new immigrant's academic excellence or occupational prowess can get recognized fully if his/her conduct and values are deemed "foreign" by his/her     teachers,classmates or supervisors and colleagues.Behavioral, linguistic,and conceptual adaptation to the mainstream culture of the host country ensures that he/she can grow and prosper academically or professionally.In addition,immigrants' acculturation is key to the national unity and cohesion of their host countries.History has proven repeatedly that multi-racial countries consisting of ethno-centric groups clinging indiscriminately and insensibly to their own values and convictions could rarely avert the fate of disintegration 

    Yet on the other hand,there can exist disadvantages or perils if immigrants desert their own cultural identities altogether.In the first place,they would suffer severe identity crises if they abandon their own cultural characteristics,which help them validate and
re-affirm themselves.And the dreadful sense of rootlessness,insecurity and     disorientation ,in turn,produces frustration about the transculturation     process,depression or the undesired eventual return to one's home country.In the second place,the voluntary abandonment of their native cultures erodes their affinity for their countries of origin.When attachment to the culture of their home countries is gone,their motherland would be little more than just a geographical proper name to them.Lastly, multi-ethnicity can serve to enrich a nation's culture immensely and total rejection of immigrants' native cultures only undermines the inherent cultural diversity of multi-ethnic nations.Consider the quintessential immigration country --the US,which is often dubbed "tossed salad"for its marvelous cultural heterogeneity.What if Jewish Americans ceased to commemorate hanukkah,Italian American restauranteurs removed pastas from their menus and Irish Americans were indifferent to the observance of Saint Patrick's Day?

    To conclude,I concede that it is in the best interests of the immigrants to get culturally assimilated into their host country.However,it would be a shame if they just turn their backs on their ancestral cultures.Thus，on balance,immigrants ought to make every effort to acclimatize themselves to their host culture;but nevertheless,they should also love,honor and cherish their own cultural backgrounds,which in large part characterize themselves