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In contemporary society, the study of history is becoming more and more important for a nation or a country to comprehend the ancestors’ way to live and the development of the world. The statement above acclaims that only when the history is relevant to our daily lives, it has value. In my position, I don’t agree with the statement with the following reasons. To begin with, learning about great human achievements of the past provides inspiration. To some degree, we have to admit that our ancestors are cleverer than us, modern citizens. Through the antiques which we dug out, although it seems irrelevant to our daily lives, we can see the level of technique in ancient time was incredibly high, which is out of our imagination. For example, the Great Wall, a famous historical site, which seems irrelevant to our daily lives, is beyond our understanding. However, we can’t figure out the process of building exactly until now. What tools did they utilize to transport the giant rock to the top of the mountain? The horses or the carts? If we acquire the answer, it will be a huge help for the improvement of transportation and architecture. We can apply this in the process of designation and construction. In business realm, many leaders now read a book named “Sun Tzu On The Art of War”, which was written by Sun Tzu thousands years ago. It tells the theory of how to win a war, which seems irrespective with our daily lives. As the statement’s argument, we shouldn’t study of it. But it actually has something done with our daily lives. This book teaches us the strategy that how we face a crisis and beat a seemly-strong opponent. In addition, experiences of the ancestors can teach us as a society how to avoid repeating the same mistakes. The old saying goes, “Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future.” For ourselves, if we made some mistakes before, the incidence of those would be incredibly low. For other people, if they made some mistakes in the past that we witnessed, we should learn something from that more or less. This will be the benefit of reading history. The history may describe some events that are irrelevant to our daily life, such as the scheme or the conflict between nations, however, they can also provide the methods that are favorable to our daily life that how to distinguish an enemy from friendly people, how to manage the relationship with superiors, etc. So we cannot just judge the history by its surface rather than should unearth its nature. Studying human history can also help us understand and appreciate the mores, values, and ideals of past cultures. The forefather set a serious of festivals to celebrate, which are passed from one generation to the next. The purpose of holiday is worth memorizing and this requires the historical research. The meaning of festival may seem to be related to our daily life but it will help us understand the significance of our existence and the basis of our culture and civilization. In conclusion, the study of history will tell us a lot of principles about life whether it connects with ordinary life or not. So we cannot set a criterion about the historical research through its relation with daily life and it is also not a wise choice for social development. |