To hold grand¹ opening and closing ceremonies for some activities is the tradition for China for a long time. With the improvement² of people’s living standard, the scale³ of the ceremonies has become greater and greater. Some people begin to argue that it is a great waste. But some still insist its positive effect. As far as I am concerned, both of them are reasonable.

在中国，为一些活动举办大型的开幕和闭幕仪式长期以来都是其传统。随着人们生活水平的提高，这样的庆典的规模也越来越大。有人开始认为这是很大的浪费。但是，仍然有人认为这还是有其积极作用的。我觉得两者的说法都是有理的。

On the one hand, holding grand ceremonies is really a waste for some activities. When holding an activity, such as Olympic Games, the essence⁴ of it is the process and spirit of the competition, instead of the opening or closing ceremony. It needs a lot of money and people to open such grand ceremony successfully⁵. Besides, during the ceremony, it is not possible to avoid polluting the environment. Thus, the follow-on work after the ceremony also needs a lot of resources⁶ to deal with.

一方面，举行大型庆典确实是浪费。在举办活动的时候，比如说奥运会，精髓在于比赛的精神跟过程，而不是开幕和闭幕仪式。要想成功举办那样的大型庆典是需要大量的人力和金钱的。除此之外，在举办庆典的过程中，要想避免污染环境是不可能的。所以，庆典之后的后续工作也是需要消耗大量资源的。

On the other hand, there are many positive effects of ceremony. As holding grand ceremony has been popular for a long time, it must have its reason. The greater the ceremony is, the more attention will be paid on it. In addition, a grand ceremony is able to encourage the participants，making the activity more interesting. Besides, it is a good way to spread the spirit of the activity.

另一方面，举行庆典活动也是有很多积极作用的，既然这个庆典深受人们的欢迎这么久，就肯定有它存在的理由。庆典举办得越大，就有越多的关注会放在这上面。而且，大型庆典也可以激励参赛者，使得该活动更加有趣。除此之外，这也是宣传该活动的一个好方式。

To sum up, holding grand ceremonies has positive and negative sides. What we need to do is to make it perfect. Such as, how to reach the same effect with less pay. It is necessary to hold ceremony, but we don’t need to make it at the cost of cutting people’s benefit⁷.

总之，举行大型庆典有好的一面也有消极的一面。我们所需要做的就是让其越来越完善。比如，如何付出越少，却能得到同样的效果。举办这样的庆典是有必要的，但是没必要以损害人们利益为代价。