Lottery, Positive and Negative Effects
Just a few years ago, the idea of buying lottery every week seemed almost unthinkable for most Chinese. Now, however,with the advent and popularity of lottery, its advantages and disadvantages have been a subject of heated discussion.
In China existed an ambivalent feeling towards this novelty.There is no denying that lottery has its contributions. Its main advantage is to raise huge amounts of money for the construction of more Schools of Hope, for the relief of starvation in poverty stricken areas and for the support of various athletic events.Otherwise, the fund would be unavailable. So far millions of people have benefited from lottery and more will do. Because of this, the mainstream of national consciousness has seen lottery as an efficacious means to finance various projects of public inter
Besides, lottery can also lead to a boosting economy. For example, Hong Kong, a city famous for its "Liuhe Lottery",owes much of its amazing prosperity to the long time practice of lottery.
What's more, lottery adds richness and vitality to people's daily life, especially to the daily life of the aged retirees to whom purchasing lottery becomes one of their favorite pastimes.
Besides all the advantages, buying lottery has its critics.What makes it appealing to us also makes it vulnerable to over exploitation. Overfascination with lottery consumes too much time and energy. Worse than all, lottery can give rise to the misconception of gaining without exerting efforts and a distorted viewpoint towards human life, and even poison one's mind, contributing to the degeneration of people's morale and enterprising spirits.
In any case, whether the ultimate effect of lottery is good or bad, one thing is certain that lottery in itself is neither good nor bad. It is the use to which it is put that determines its value to society. Evidently, when properly treated, lottery can do us more good than bad.
簡 評
本文討論了彩票對社會帶來的好處和壞處。很明顯宋明星同學辭彙量較大，英文功底較好，用語準確，故文章雖短，頗具說服力。試舉數例：ambivalent feeling表達人們對彩票的矛盾心理;with the advent and prosperity表達彩票之興起和流行;efficaCIOHS means表示彩票的效用;distorted viewpoint表述對彩票的扭曲觀點。作者列舉了彩票好與壞的各方面，好的方面如籌集資金興建公共項目，促進經濟繁榮(以六合彩對香港經濟的影響為例)，老年人借以娛樂消閒(favorite pastimes)，接下來分析彩票之弊：過分利用(overexploitation)，助長不勞而獲的社會心態，使人鬥志消沉(degeneration of morale and enterprising spirits)。結尾部分，作者認為彩票本身並無好壞，若利用得當，會利大于弊，明確表達了自己的傾向性。