The author asserts that the essential way to learn the society of a certain place is to investigate its major city. Admittedly, in most circumstance, the method is of great use, for the majority of features of a society can usually be reflected by those major cities, however, in some specific situation, there are many unstable factors that would affect the final result, and the provided method would become a bad one.   There are many shared characteristics between big cities and small cities: they are both place that citizens live, it should provide primary function to the resident such as food, entertainment. The difference of them is that the quality. The speed of developing and the population vary between them. Furthermore, it is more common that the leader would show the greatest things in the major city rather than in the country.   The most possible reason why the writer think the major cities is of better worth to be learn may be that it have the biggest capacity to present characteristics when other cities cannot do. The Palace Museum in Beijing represent Chinese people profound history, can a small country city have resource to afford this kind of building? Besides, it is primarily in major cities that a nation’s mainstream culture, politics, and business activities take place, therefore, the feature of major cities could reflect the characteristics of many aspects of a society.   However, the condition of major cities could only represent some superficial aspects of a society. In some country, we can hardly perceive the poverty of the inhabitant from major cities. In some Africa country, the scene in their capital city is totally different. To understand a society, it is not enough if we only look at major cities. Meanwhile, under the influence of globalization, modern cities have become more and more uniform, and the features of major cities might be little indication of a society’s tradition, custom, and history. Despite some famous building, we can nearly not differentiate Shanghai from New York in a picture. So, some questions still exist in the author’s method.   To fully understand the characteristics of a society, studying major cities is far from enough. One must study other aspect as well. We can learn their rural areas in order to comprehend the country life. Leaning the citizens would be a better choice if our goal is to know their hobbies, living habits, traditions, diet, etc. The most appropriate method depends on the angel how to value which characteristic is the most important one. Only by investigating with clear purpose can we get a satisfactory result.