题目：Unit3 Why Study History? A) Let’s face it, our first experience with history is that it is a course that we have to take in order to graduate. As a junior and senior high school student, we have to study American history and state history, and perhaps even take a general course in western civilization (文明) or world history. We didn’t have a choice. And the fact that we are forced to take history puts us on the defensive. We begin to build that splendid brick wall that will prevent us from getting anything important out of history. B) The main problem as I see it, is not history itself. The study of history can be fun. But there’s only one thing that can make our first experience with history a horrible thing indeed: and that’s a poor instructor. I was fortunate. I managed to have a number of excellent history instructors throughout my high school years and this was at a time when I was leaning toward the physical sciences, geology and biology to be exact. I might not have been an excellent history student, but I do remember having excellent history teachers. C) Fine. That’s my experience. But experience aside, why study history in the first place? What could history offer the business major? the student hoping to study web page development? the student taking her first psychology class? or the lawyer? or the worker on the shop floor? Well, simply stated, everything has a history, whether we like it or not. Even history itself has a history. Try hard as we might, we can’t escape the past. We can’t let go of the past. And we celebrate the past all the time. D) You may have been told that we study history so that we won’t repeat the mistakes of the past. This is the wishful thinking (一厢情愿) school of historical interpretation (诠释). It’s too clean. If we have learned from the past then over the centuries we ought to have built on so much knowledge that things like war, poverty, injustice and immorality ought not to exist. Of course, we’ve still got a long way to go along this line. E) You may also have heard that everything repeats itself, so if we study the past, we can be sure to know something of the future. I don’t hold to this view either. To insist that the study of the past will help to know something of the future is a nice idea, but what I really want to know about is the present. History cannot "tell" the future. History can, on the other hand, help to understand all that is the present. So, faced as we are with the question "why study history?" I can only hope to answer by telling you why I study history. F) Well first off, it’s extremely important for us to be in touch not only with the past of our own country, but also of the world as well. History tells us things about the world in which we live. When we are young, we know little about the world beyond our immediate family and environment. As we grow older we realize that the world extends far beyond those limited surroundings and we are hungry for more knowledge of the wider world. But no matter how much of it we explore, all we see is the world as it is today. However, the way the world works is a result of a very long period of development, and we can never understand it well enough unless we try to learn as much as possible about our past. G) Most of us want to live meaningful lives, and we want to understand more than is enough for our mere survival. In our search for understanding our place in the world, we turn to history. There we find a much larger store of human beliefs and values than we come across in our everyday lives. In doing so, we develop a wiser understanding of who we are, of what we can achieve, and of what dangers put individuals, families, communities and nations at risk. H) Of course, there are also more practical reasons why we should study history. Historians examine facts, compare them, evaluate (评价) them, and reach conclusions. By studying history, our own ability to perform these tasks is increased, and this ability is crucial in many walks of life. If you think about it, it’s what managers, journalists, politicians, doctors, lawyers and many other professionals have to do every day -- each in their profession. I) But history is enjoyable, too. We should know something of our past in order to be proud of our achievements and how we may have played our part in the development of civilization. With increasing globalization, individual countries are losing the traditions and customs of their own regions, but knowing our history would mean that these traditions do not entirely disappear. However, we should not feel that only our history is of value to the world. Every country has been important to the development of civilization and we must not be so arrogant (傲慢) as to think only ours counts. 21. What the world is now has taught us that it has not come true that we study history to avoid repeating the same mistakes of the past. 22. To understand well how the world works involves our deep knowledge of the past. 23. In history we seek the meaning of our existence by gaining a better understanding of ourselves. 24. Because we were forced to study history at high school, we really didn’t learn much of importance. 25. I do not agree with the view that history can help us predict the future because it repeats itself. 26. Learning and getting to know our history can help to keep our traditions alive. 27. A good teacher is crucial to a student’s positive learning experience with history. 28. The way historians think is not different from the way people in other fields think. 29. As we grow older, we find out that the world is actually bigger than our immediate surroundings, and feel eager to know more. 30. History is part of everything and should be celebrated instead of being forgotten.
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