[i习作temp] issue48 [奋战august]小组第四周第一次作业myfanny [复制链接]

myfanny
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电梯直达

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发表于 2007-7-19 22:29:28 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

TOPIC: ISSUE48 - "The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The most significant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few, but by groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten."
WORDS: 564 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 7/19/2007 12:16:45 AM

History is the study of the past, often involving people and their interaction with one another as well as with the environments at large. Admittedly, a large amount of history study has been focused on some great men, since they often represent the group of people from whom they stand out. In the statement above, the arguer mentions that the most significant events and trends were made possible not by the famous few but by the group of people whose identities have long been forgotten. I would agree partly with such a claim as I believe that history is made by both the famous few and the groups of people.

First of all, groups of commoners have helped shape what the history looks today. In the history of economic development of one country may witness hard work of laymen from a variety of trade, for instance, a worker on the manufacturing workshop, a chef in the restaurant, a shop assistant in the department store, or a even a cleaner from a house-care center. The reason why their names normally don't appear in many historical documents is due to the large number of them and the great amount of their contribution to initiation and progression of historical events.

Similarly, the military history may find it difficult to trace information about each soldier and record every minute of his or her deeds in the war. If that happens, the volume of historic documents concerning, say, the Second World War, will go beyond the capacity of a city library. The fact that details of each solider in the war are usually not the focus of study of military history doesn't suggest that the blood they've shed for their country, the bravery they employed in the fierce combat with enemies are forgotten. Their sacrifice of personal life, the tears and heart breaking of their families have definitely contributed to the victory of war, which will always be carved into history collectively in the form of monuments, museums and memorial parks.

Secondly, history tends to place emphasis on few individuals as they represent the particular group of people. They are qualified for such representation in light of their charisma or genius intellectuals. The wartime Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, is a man of great talents, a role model in quite a few of the fields he has been engaged in. He was once a solider, and later a statesman, leading British people to victory in World War II; he was an orator, whose first speech on May 13, 1940 as Prime Minister encouraged millions to unite and to fight as he remarked in a matter-fact way 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweats'; he was a writer, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for historical writing.

Likewise, musical talent has enabled the Beatles to represent the large groups of musicians in their time and probably is still the most prominent band in musical history as they are the best-selling musicals of all time according to the Record Industry Association of America, and the band still ranked No. 1 in the list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, a survey made in 2004 by Rolling Stone. They come out as the selected few in the history as their influences are musical, making rock and roll central to the youth, and cultural as well, establishing for those young people the image of being cute, irreverent and the value of being oneself and not letting others tell how to run one's own life.

All in all, though history has a reason to focus on individuals, I would hold that both heroes and commoners have a role to play in creating history and none of these roles should be neglected in the study of history.

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zhaozhan
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沙发

发表于 2007-7-20 21:50:36 |只看该作者

History is the study of the past, often involving people and their interaction with one another as well as with the environments at large. Admittedly, a large amount of history study has been focused on some great men, since they often represent the group of people from whom they stand out. In the statement above, the arguer mentions that the most significant events and trends were made possible not by the famous few but by the group of people whose identities have long been forgotten. I would agree partly with such a claim as I believe that history is made by both the famous few and the groups of people.

First of all, groups of commoners have helped shape what the history looks today. In the history of economic development of one country may witness hard work of laymen from a variety of trade(这句主语是什么?), for instance, a worker on the manufacturing workshop, a chef in the restaurant, a shop assistant in the department store, or a even a cleaner from a house-care center. The reason why their names normally don't appear in many historical documents is due to the large number of them and the great amount of their contribution to initiation and progression of historical events. (原因是因为人多，跟做大贡献没关系吧，这个原因不是很明白）感觉这段应该力度再大些

Similarly, the military history may find it difficult to trace information about each soldier and record every minute of his or her deeds in the war. If that happens, the volume of historic documents concerning, say, the Second World War, will go beyond the capacity of a city library. The fact that details of each solider in the war are usually not the focus of study of military history doesn't suggest that the blood they've shed for their country, the bravery they employed in the fierce combat with enemies are forgotten. Their sacrifice of personal life, the tears and heart breaking of their families have definitely contributed to the victory of war, which will always be carved into history collectively in the form of monuments, museums and memorial parks.

Secondly, history tends to place emphasis on few individuals as they represent the particular group of people. They are qualified for such representation in light of their charisma or genius intellectuals（这俩词用重复了，好象都是名词，是一个意思）. The wartime Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, is a man of great talents, a role model in quite a few of the fields he has been engaged in. He was once a solider, and later a statesman, leading British people to victory in World War II; he was an orator, whose first speech on May 13, 1940 as Prime Minister encouraged millions to unite and to fight as he remarked in a matter-fact way 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweats'; he was a writer, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for historical writing.

Likewise, musical talent has enabled the Beatles to represent the large groups of musicians in their time and probably is still the most prominent band in musical history as they are the best-selling musicals（musicians) of all time according to the Record Industry Association of America, and the band still ranked No. 1 in the list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, a survey made in 2004 by Rolling Stone. They come out as the selected few in the history as their influences are musical, making rock and roll central to the youth, and cultural as well, establishing for those young people the image of being cute, irreverent and the value of being oneself and not letting others tell how to run one's own life.

All in all, though history has a reason to focus on individuals, I would hold that both heroes and commoners have a role to play in creating history and none of these roles should be neglected in the study of history

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