Lets start with a question: What do you think about history? I have asked some of my friends what do they think about it. Some of them think it as worthless because in contrast, science is the thing that we need to improve human civilization. Others think history is not helpful to their lives because of difficulty in finding jobs. I confess, have to agree some parts of them, indeed, history does not seem as helpful as science and technology for human development, it is also true that history didn’t fit so much as a high-salary job. Even at the table, when my elders asked me about what I want to learn in the future, and I said history, I can hear their unapproving “ah”s. And later they said to my parents, “persuade her to be a lawyer or doctor, history is hopeless.”

History is a carrier of culture, technology, and ideas. Without history, culture will disappear, human civilization will backslide hundreds of years. Back in the dark ages, because of lacking the record of history, we can’t know what happened then, it’s like human civilization stopped for few hundreds of years. From the different languages we speak now, to books that we read, are all being carried by history. Even now, Chinese medicine is still being found in old medicine books, and people are still studying Plato’s book and debating about meanings of life. Holidays like thanksgiving, spring festivals are all created to celebrate certain historical events. From that, we can see the influence of history on every one of us.

“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” Martin Luther King Jr. said that. History made us in to what we are today. Why can we humans transform from paleolithic time to the high tech world that we live in now? It is because of history. People make mistakes, and they learn from them, and try to fix it until they can do it correctly. This is how our ancestors learn how to make fire, raise livestocks, cultivate lands. Tang Tai Zong hanged Sui Yang Di’s picture in front of his bed to remind him-self to avoid the mistakes that Sui Yang Di once made. After the horrid of WWII, countries like Britan, USA, Soviet Union signed the NPT to prevent nuclear war.

Some of you may believe in certain religions, and religion is tightly bond to history as well. Religion is often used as crutch for country stability. For example, Egyptian kings depicted themselves as gods to stable Egyptians’ loyalty. Also, religion is based on true history, Jesus from Christianity, TangSeng from Fo, Muhammed from Islam are all real characters in history.

In addition, history shape who we are. It makes a clearer view on self -identity, what is our goal, who are we, what is our responsibilities, where do we come from. When people read history, they learn from it, absorb the intelligence that thousands of years of people had gained. It transforms them, make them more civilized, have the ability to draw inferences, more rational on making decisions. 

Whenever we met difficulties, reading about history is always an away to sort out problems. there’s an old Chinese phrase that we should remember: take history as a mirror. With that, from every individuals to the who society, human civilization with grew more and more advanced and complete.

大家好，我是来自二年级的叶暄宁，今天我想给大家推荐一本书，书的名字叫《再见了，艾玛奶奶》。

这本书从一个小猫猫的角度，讲述了艾玛奶奶得了重病，但是她和家人用爱和勇气来面对生命最后的一段时间的故事。

艾玛奶奶知道自己得了重病，但是她说：“也许，我很快就会无法走路，无法进食，一样接一样，可能我都无法再做到了。但是，这些不过是我的身体在为一次遥远的旅行做准备。”

读了这个故事后，我觉得奶奶很坚强。她和猫咪，和家人的互动也让我觉得很温暖。

这本书里面的照片都是真实的，猫猫失去了艾玛奶奶，就像失去了妈妈，肯定非常悲伤。但是艾玛奶奶留给他的温暖，一定也会让它继续好好生活。通过这本书，我懂得了要好好爱身边的人，要勇敢乐观地面对生活地困难，把每一天都过开心。

谢谢大家！希望你们也会喜欢这本书。

文字：更新新闻社｜吴章之

排版：更新新闻社｜黄可欣

审核：更新市场部