Issue221 许久未动笔, 手生了, 实验新思路, 望指教 (牛文共欣赏 by iq28)

aggie_agathaUID: 2198539

TOPIC: ISSUE221 - "The chief benefit of the study of history is to break down the illusion that people in one period of time are significantly different from people who lived at any other time in history."
WORDS: 731          TIME: 0:42:38          DATE: 2007-6-20

感觉提纲不太好概括, 所以烦劳看下吧 m(_ _)m

History, defined as recording and explaining past events, illuminates our sight to the world that has fleeted from currency, telling us what happened, and, briefly, why. So consider the darkness that might be caused by absence of studying history, we may deduce the illusion that people in one period of time are significantly different from people from other time. And when the issue comes to what the illusion will bring, I agree with the statement that the chief benefit of the study of history is to break down such an illusion.

Fundamental to my point of supporting this issue is what the study of history can show us. Events only happen as aftermath of certain reasons, which are the aims of history studying. Meanwhile, grounded on the whole human chronology, history can summarize these reasons and drawn to certain conclusions, which will help us understand the human nature, social trends and objective rules operating our progression. For instance, the history of the United States is a history of freedom and democracy. As Thomas Jefferson defined freedom as human nature in Manifesto of Independence, this dogma led the country to step over 200 years struggling for its citizens' equal rights. Slavery abolitionism, feminism and other movements were committed by those adherent to the claim of freedom and gain more and more feats.  Such a chronological record, as well as the metaphysical principles behind it, can tell us the aim of individual development and thus give us direction for our society. In this sense, American history seems like a beacon, while histories in other nations can also tell us similar things.

So now focus on the illusion. When the study of history is eliminated, we lose the illuminations on human consistency, and just see separate temporal montage of past story. Due to diversified environments, ethos, technologies and religions, the past will give out a impalpable image for current people. This can be analogous to a situation that some cultivated explorers step into an ancient tribe, in which people live on hunting and gathering. "Why don't they plant crops?" "Why haven't they got medicines?" Questions can be intrigued by strange appearance, and they can never be answered if the explorers have no sense of history development. By contrast, if they are equipped by understanding the necessary progression of generating cultivation, they will be able to explain that tribe members are trapped by their technologies, experiences and other objective conditions that restrict their life level. So far, the cause of the illusion and the method to break it are connected as concurrent elements with the study of history: no study, illusion; study, no illusion.

Concerning this correlation, the study of history and its benefits seems striking. But some may easily point out that the former has far more benefits than just breaking an illusion, such as telling us what is right and what is wrong, predicting certain outcomes of certain premise, etc, hence refuting this benefit as its chief one. However, for my point, all such other benefits are standing on the illusion breaking down.

Just as mentioned above, to realize people from different periods are consistent, we summarize their common features by studying the history. On the other hand, only when we draw such features, can we tell the virtues of human beings, predict future and utilize the study of history. We know the importance of freedom and therefore differentiate good and evil in World War II; we know the economic sophistication and therefore predict outcomes of financial crisis; we know the humans' yearning for beauty and therefore establish aesthetic standards. In other words, breaking illusion comes first, then the benefits of the study of history.

To sum up, the study of history is a much more complex issue than such a simple statement, while under many circumstances, it may have other benefits that seem more important. But according to me, the definition of "chief" is more likely "basic" or "fundamental", since this happens as premise and necessity. So stating breaking down the illusion assuming people of different time distinct as the chief benefit of the study of history is somehow convincing. However, when it comes to practice, as long as we are aware on precise studying of history, and as long as we participate actively in this field, the history will tell us more than the truth of an illusion, coming a long way toward helping us establish a better future.

[ 本帖最后由 iq28 于 2007-10-5 01:25 编辑 ]

iq28UID: 2152875

okok
马上来看;d:

iq28UID: 2152875

难题!
大致讲一下本文的思路,大家能学习的就学习,学习不了的就欣赏吧呵呵.

历史发展是有内在的coherence的(可以推出similarity) 所以不研究历史了人们无法知道以前的真实情况导致illusion(这里还都是在把题目的意思反着说的)
然后再回到题目的正面意思 但没有纠缠在break这个事件本身之上 而是讲述了break之于别的研究历史意义的基础作用 从而论证了chief

Tuexy.qiuUID: 2350973

一定好好看。现在我的作文相当差劲。
好好学习的。

speare1234UID: 2367068

感觉是新破题方式,  不知道对不对ETS的胃口。BZ的文笔太好， 偶都有点不敢批了，但是还是忍不住说两句：
第二段是介绍历史的功能或一方面作用；
第三段是介绍历史的另外功能“解惑”，但是不是针对题目的break illusion, 感觉还是可理解为介绍历史的一方面功能；
第四五段说了些古人与今人之比较但是感觉未尽其言；

总结为一句话， 是不是偏题了哟 。批得过了，BZ不要生气哈

programmableUID: 2372394

beconfidentUID: 2361041

mj;d: ;d:

lizheng619slashUID: 2361385

今天北京刚考过，不过我选的是另一个题，这个题我实在不会写

OB叔UID: 188695

呵呵 看看长度就知道属于牛文系列