Issue103 [五一互助小组] by Cheney

hotmailcjUID: 2253862

题目：ISSUE103 - "The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives."
写了我三四个小时：（最后一定要把他改个像模像样，啃下来，希望大家狂拍，给点中肯的建议

History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time has built among the endless fields of bygones ages. While reaching the top of this ancient structure, we see the glorious past surrounded us on all sides. At this time, which benefit we could get of the full view?

The tower is a mirror that shows us our old home in a new light and that gives us new courage to face the problem of the future when we get back to our daily tasks. Almost everything have its history, such as thoughts, race which are indirectly related to our daily lives, and airplane, car, computer such as things are directly associated with our contemporary lives. By studying on their past, making comparison and contrast with the present, we are able to have a better understanding of present and future affairs, especially are able to avoid the similar mistake as we and our ancestor made before. Consider the course of a baby growth, after he was born, he continuously learnt lessons from his own and other people's experience. These experiences were classified and calculated by his brain, then formed to knowledge, upon which based he could make a decision out of past error while facing new problems. Likewise, for a nation drawing lessons from its own history and other country's history enables it to know how to do with present issues and how to speed up economic and social development without repeating the same mistakes. For instance, when China had closed the door to international intercourse and ignores the chauvinism in foreign relations in Qing Dynasty, Western perceived such a Chinese weakness. Next they—the eight-power allied forces—had waged the war of aggression against China, gave a bitter and vivid lesson to Chinese; history told us who falling behind would suffer beating. Thereafter, Chinese presidents proposed the policy of reform and opening up, and Chinese people began to borrow and learn advanced cultures and technologies from the outside world. Until now, China's economy has developed rapidly, and people's living standard has improved markedly.

On the other hand, history is not a mirror. To begin with, there are three questions for our consideration. Does history repeat itself over and over again? Will the past things happen again? And are there comparability between past and present? The answer to these questions is “No”. Neither is today the exact copy of yesterday, nor tomorrow is the duplicate of today. In the early days of the Republic of China, by making a thorough study of history of Western Capitalism, many patriots tried to copy the experience of Western success and called for total Westernization and adoption of the whole capitalist system of the West, however, they had always failed. So far as this example is concerned, can we assert that the abovementioned patriots’ research on Western Capitalism has no value at all or their research has no relation with their contemporary lives?

Ultimately, for a better grasp on the statement”the study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives”, we have to spell out that how to measure up degree of correlation between history and present lives and what is the criteria of value. Virtually, in different period of history, human have totally different comprehension and definition concerning value of history. There is no definite answer to any historical problem.

[ 本帖最后由 hotmailcj 于 2007-7-13 20:50 编辑 ]

coalaxixiUID: 2353397

History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time has built amongthe endless fields of bygones ages. (You'd better put the quotation marks, otherwise ETS would probably consider plagiarism) While reaching the top of thisancient structure, we see the glorious past surrounded(surrounding) us on all sides.At this time, which(what?) benefit we could get of the full view?(sorry, I could not understand what do you mean by this sentence.)

The tower is a mirror that shows us our old home in a new light andthat gives us new courage to face the problem of the future when we getback to our daily tasks. Almost everything have its history, such asthoughts, race which are indirectly related to our daily lives, andairplane, car, computer such as things are directly associated with ourcontemporary lives. By studying on their past, making comparison andcontrast with the present, we are able to have a better understandingof present and future affairs, especially are able to avoid the similarmistakes as we and our ancestors made before. Consider the course of ababy growth, after he was born, he continuously learnt lessons from hisown and other people's experience. These experiences were classifiedand calculated by his brain, then formed to knowledge, upon which basedhe could make a decision out of past error while facing new problems.Likewise, for a nation drawing lessons from its own history and othercountry's (history) enables it to know how to do with present issues andhow to speed up economic and social development without repeating thesame mistakes. For instance, when China had closed the door tointernational intercourse and ignores the chauvinism in foreignrelations in Qing Dynasty, Western perceived such a Chinese weakness.Next they—the eight-power allied forces—had waged the war of aggressionagainst China, gave a bitter and vivid lesson to Chinese; history toldus who falling behind would suffer beating(a bit chinese english. history told us a good lesson that the less developed countries would be invaded and exploited). Thereafter, Chinesepresidents proposed the policy of reform and opening up, and Chinesepeople began to borrow and learn advanced cultures and technologiesfrom the outside world. Until now, China's economy has developed (has been developing)rapidly, and people's living standard has improved markedly.

On the other hand, history is not a mirror(history could hardly be an exact mirror). To begin with, there arethree questions for our consideration. Does history repeat itself overand over again? Will the past things happen again? And are therecomparability between past and present? The answers to these questions are “No”. Neither is today the exact copy of yesterday, nor tomorrow isthe duplicate of today. In the early days of the Republic of China, bymaking a thorough study of history of Western Capitalism, many patriotstried to copy the experience of Western success and called for totalWesternization and adoption of the whole capitalist system of the West,however, they had always failed. So far as this example is concerned,can we assert that the abovementioned patriots’ research on WesternCapitalism has no value at all or their research has no relation withtheir contemporary lives?

Ultimately, for a better grasp on the statement”the study of historyhas value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives”,we have to spell out that how to measure up degree of correlationbetween history and present lives and what is the criteria of value.Virtually, in different period of history, human have totally differentcomprehension and definition concerning value of history. There is nodefinite answer to any historical problem(maybe you'd better avoid some strong claims, like absolutely, none, all, at least pay extra attention when you use them).

comments:
1. a very good writing, language is excellent, only some minor errors. overall excellent
2. for logic, I suggest adding some topic sentence in your first paragraph to summarize your opinion.
3. you may use concession in your third paragraph(the first sentence), like,
   On the other hand, although from history we could learn a lot, it is still not ....

good luck!