The Lottery: More Good Than Harm

Have you noticed the large number of stalls scattered near bus stops and shopping centers selling lotteries? Have you watched the rites drawing lottery on TV and read the draw prize winning numbers publicized on newspapers every week? Have you heard of some poor workers earning great wealth by lottery overnight? Admit it or not, lottery has already become a much concerned social issue of wide controversy in our city.

There＇s no denying that lottery may encourage people to indulge in a spectacular dream of gaining great fortune overnight without hard work and thus distract their devotion to routine work. However, an objective analysis shows that lottery does more good than harm, mainly for three specific reasons.

First of all, lottery offers an effective way to collect great amount of funds needed for social construction and welfare of the poor. It provides people with a promising opportunity of getting desirable returns instead of plainly soliciting contributions,which somewhat meet the trait of human nature. Various kinds of lottery, such as sports lottery, welfare lottery, transfer the collected treasury to people and industries that are in urgent demand of money, hence facilitate to realize the optimization of resource allocation.

Secondly, lottery, as a novelty that emerged a few years ago, has turned into a pleasant ingredient in people＇s daily life,bringing us much excitement and surprise. It not only offers a probability of becoming rich out of good luck, but make people＇s fine wishes for future＇s affluence seem a little more reasonable as well, which may serve as a spiritual prop for those impoverished to strive on. Buying lottery is also a way of investment, like the fund operation in the stock market. The increase in value isn＇t necessarily achieved at the cost of physical labor, but mainly depends on an acute grasp of market opportunity and a profitable investment decision. Some branches of learning which claim to study the principles of lottery have also emerged, indicating lottery＇s stepping out of a mere fad into a mature stage and people＇s rational attitude towards it.

Finally, lottery also serves as an invisible bond between different social classes, which confer our materialistic world a little human touch. Statistics from a recent survey indicate that most lottery buyers consider the money their donation to the society if they aren＇t lucky enough to win the prizes. Indeed, lottery prorides us with a simple and concrete way to make a bit contribution to our country and people, as the cost of per share of lottery is considerably low. Lottery is in some way similar to gambling,but at least it＇s for a right purpose.

So as I see it, the advantages of lottery fully outweigh its disadvantages, and it has turned into a significant part in our daily life. Why not try your luck and buy some kind of lottery one day? Maybe you＇ll get a big surprise.

簡 評

顯然裘珈珈同學具有高超而嫻熟的寫作技巧，開頭第一段就使用了大量排比的問句，仿佛作者在與讀者進行面對面的溝通和交流，使得行文親切而生動。然后作者從三個方面進行抽絲剝繭的分析，說理透徹，令人信服。作者的知識面較廣，在行文中旁征博引，resource allocation(資源配置)等熱門詞匯信手拈來，而不顯得刻意做作或賣弄。作者的語言基本功比較扎實，因而可以靈活駕馭大量對于大多數大學生來說較難的詞匯，即使大量使用長句也很少犯語法錯誤，這是相當難能可貴的。

當然，作為一名英語學習者，作者在行文和語言方面都還具有少量的母語表達和文化遷移的痕跡。從思維方式上來說，中國人崇尚中庸之道，贊賞做辯證的分析，而西方的人文和科學思想往往傾向于“排中律”，在文章立意上常常要求非此即彼，明確自己的立場，即所謂taking sides。從這個角度出發，我們發現第二段的開頭和第五段的最后一句就顯得多余，而且這種看似客觀辨證的分析實則沖淡了主體，建議進行弱化或干脆刪除。從語言上看，作者使用的長句雖然數量較多，但仔細分析就會發現，其中部分長句的構成顯得有點松散，尤其是幾個使用非限定性定語從句的句子，建議考慮將其中部分非限定性定語從句改為獨立的單句。

瑕不掩瑜，裘珈珈同學的這篇文章仍不失為一篇上乘佳作。我們期待著裘珈珈同學在成才道路上取得更大的進步。

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