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According to the development of science and technology, contemporary life becomes very different from the past. Somebody asserts that people do not need to look back for an understanding of the past, because it provides little guidance for living in the present. Careful consideration will reveal how groundless the opinion is, because the study of the past is beneficial to many aspects of contemporary life.
In scientific fields, an understanding of the process of the significant discoveries in the past is helpful to technological innovation in present. Although people can directly use the results of the achievements in the past, it is wiser to know what methods leads to the achievement. A good example is the method of inquiry originated by Galileo. First, he reduced problems to a simple set of terms on the basis of everyday experience and common-sense logic. Then he analyzed and resolved them into simple mathematical descriptions. This method is the basic of modern mathematical and experimental physics. Even nowadays, scientists still follow the method in their researches.
When it comes to philosophy, ethics and religion, which reflect the relationship between the nature and humankind, the guidance from the past contributes much more to living in present. Consider the religious writings of the Bible, the Koran and those of Confucius, as well as those related to Buddhism, Hinduism and all other religions. These writings directly relate to, and in some cases to a great extent control, the behavior of human beings today even though most were written hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Another example is the Middle East problem aggravated by the death of Arafat. The difficulty of solving the problem lies in the confliction of religions in the history of Israel and Palestine. Without an understanding of the past, no effective solutions can be found. In addition, an understanding of the history can prevent us from following the mistakes in the past. Recently, Nazism reappears in some European countries. Understanding the history of World War II would make people aware of the disasters brought by Nazism and avoid the re-acting of the tragedy.
Furthermore, history is full of people who were so admired that their legends have been the stimulation for modern people. For instance, everyone knows story of George Washington about his chopping down the cherry tree when he was young and bravely confessing to his mischief later. The story influences generations of children to grow up with integrity. Also, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are adored by those reformists who remain consistently committed to their principles and objectives.
To sum up, an understanding of the past can provide us much information guiding us in many aspects of our contemporary life. That is why somebody compares history to a mirror, without which people might lose their directions.