issue120 求狠拍！

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120"So much is new and complex today that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present."

I can hardly agree with the speaker that there is no need to look back for understanding the past since it can help us little. Human beings should look back to see the past they have been experienced regularly since history is just like a mirror, it recording magnificent culture, which created by ancestors, warning us not to make same mistakes again. However, the history still has its limitation and thus we should only choose the worthy part during the process of understanding the past.

To begin with, we become to understand our culture and ourselves when we look back the past. The history records actively the improvement of each nation. Through these records, we learn the culture of periods of time, which help us to know how our nation is developed by every step.
This is why in each country’s museums, innumerable treasures are displayed and why many old buildings are persisted carefully. They are all strong evidence to show the development of culture and also are records of the progress of human beings. Thus, looking back to see our valuable culture helps us know our countries better and promotes us to take pride in our nations.

Secondly, looking back the past has effect on warning us about the faults or even guilt. There is no escaping the fact that although human beings have created much fortune, which we are always pride of, we also have experienced the time when we were absolutely at a loss. These mistakes brought about harms both to us and to nature. For example, not until numberless people died in the World War, did we began to realize the worth of peace. After being threatened by the bloods, did we come to regret for the destructions to the nature-deforestation and the like. Therefore, we must look back properly to ensure what we do now is right or not. We should learn to maintain the harmony between different nations and at the same time keep a balance between human and nature.

However, we should learn to look back the past with a skeptical eye.
To some extent, because of its limitation, what seemed truly and useful in the past while have already meaningless today since we never stop our steps of developing and discovering. We need to choose worthy things to put them into modern life and throw the useless parts. If we follow the past without any changes, for that matter, the society will improve little. For example, on education, ancient China put emphasis on the role of teachers. It makes the teachers have the authority and students have to passively absorb the information provided by the teacher. However, nowadays, such a educational method has been out-of-date. Students are required to become actively involved in the learning process.

In sum, the speaker’s claim that the understanding of the past guides us little is not well supported. Some parts of the past still have their essential effects on modern society. What we need to do is how to treat the past objectively and let it promote us now and forevermore.