0910AW 同主题写作第八期 ISSUE221 by Bull Bee---Jeremie

JeremieUID: 2622601

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."
研究历史最大的好处就是打破了这种假象：不同时代的人们之间基本上是完全不同的。

Words:511  Time:4h
对于ISSUE，不知道我这篇的总体感觉对不对，恳请大侠指点，不胜感激！

提纲：
（1）部分同意
（2）不同时代的人们有很多相似之处，人性特点，生活追求...
（3）仍然有很多不同值得探讨，不同是社会进步的表现。
（4）研究历史的另外好处，借鉴前人经验成果。
（5）总结

Are people from different periods all varied from each other? When we come to the study of history, we may easily find the surprising conformity in the whole human being's story, which attaches importance to the speaker's opinion that history help us oversee all periods of people as a whole. That the speaker's idea doesn't fully explain the topic lies in two points. One is that people in different times, however, are not exactly the same, which equally deserves our attention; another is that the study of history also benefits in other significant aspects as well.

I agree with the statement as for the character of man. Primarily, we cherish nearly the same virtues for so long, such as faith, hope, prudence and justice; we sing highly of people of these precious nature, politicians like John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, writers like Hemingway，singers like Elvis Presley. While we are disgusted at those with lust, gluttony, sloth and so on, in spite of the momentary popularity or advantage they get. What's more, as an individual, we want freedom, equality, fraternity, and let those violating the principles die at last, like the French Revolution for instance, a movement that overturned an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges and accelerated similar campaigns in Europe. History allows us to analyze current affairs through a more mature vision.

Despite the benefit studying history bring us, we should bear in mind that the differences appearing in different times also play an important role in the development of man, which are, in some extent, more important in terms of cultures, systems, methods. The attitude of society towards education, art, technology, environment has changed, including the diverse measures we take. Furthermore, changes in cultures let us regard the world and our surroundings with more rationality in principle and think more about the truth in life. We can take the Olympic Games as an example. During a hundred years, some events and regulations were added while some are canceled; women could finally join the
games. History witnessed the evolutions humans created, which were landmarks we have made.

The statement also overlooked some other values of studying history. On one hand, past affairs are our best books, for they tell us right from wrong and teach us how to solve similar problems. For example, faced with the current financial crisis, we can refer to the Great Depression in 1929 to have a comparison. And politicians who have a good knowledge of history can be sensitive about society and avoid the parallel false. On the other hand, the heroic people in the history also motivate us to succeed. We can learn perseverance from Dante's hard youth, skeptical spirits about former theories from Copernicus...What we can benefit from studying history varies according to what we are and how much we think.

To sum up, studying history enable us to appreciate human's fundamental nature as well as remember the transformation we've experienced. Apart from these, excellent learners can get abundant information and even inspirations from history. Anyway, studying history benefits us a lot.