Meaning the history > 영어토론방

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역사의 의미

“History teaches us only one thing: knowing about the past cannot help people to make important decision today?”

1.What is history? Probably quite a few people today would claim that history is a portrayal of facts as they happened in the years gone by. But, in reality, history is a story. A story from where we can learn so many valuable lessons. Every lesson that we learn in life affects us. These lessons, oblivious to one self, influence our process of decision making.

In mathematical terms, I would say, learning is equal to reading plus assimilating plus implementing. People today probably specialize in reading history and hence make the claim that 'knowing about the past cannot help people to make important decisions today.' But history is best learnt if it is read, assimilated and implemented. Mere reading without assimilation leads people into believing that learning history is of no consequence. Let us consider two analogies to highlight the importance of history in our lives.

During our childhood, our parents tell us so many stories. Stories about valiant heroes, stories about simple men who had high thinking and so many other stories. Are these stories of no consequence? Every story that we hear, imbibes in us the belief that the values that the protagonist upholds are the ones that we should always stand up to all our life. Narrating stories is one of the simplest ways by which our parents mould our character by very subtly enabling us to differentiate the right from the wrong. Stories are what history is all about. When learnt properly each story in history will teach us so many valuable lessons.

Why is the habit of reading books considered to be so beneficial? Because we subconsciously tend to pick up many small lessons. These fine points, which we pick up, are definitely going to be utilized at some point or the other in life. Our tryst with history is also of our similar nature. It teaches us so many things, unknown to ourselves, that affect our decision making process when we mature into adults.

Just like grandma's tales imbibe values in us and give our ethics and morals a fine-tuning; history elucidates the fine nuances of decision-making. The important decisions made in history are characterized by their capacity to uphold morals, to have the guts to make the decision and stand by it. It may so happen that in life, we may not have taken decisions with as much consequence as those taught in history, but definitely, the underlying principles behind the art of decision making remain the same. Even today decision- making requires guts. Even today we are supposed to stand by our morals when decisions are made.

History has been very wrongly represented as a bundle of facts. History in reality is a storehouse of valuable lessons. These lessons not only teach us the morals on which our decision- making should be based, but also helps us to inculcate in our self the strength required to take decisions by way of numerous examples.

2.Simply put, history is the story of our collective past. The human race has been in existence for over a million years and much has happened that has shaped our present. What we are right now is a direct consequence of the actions of our forefathers. By our actions, we are in the process of making history. Our mistakes and accomplishments can change the future for our descendants. Hence there is no doubt about the fact that our history is a huge textbook for infinite learning. Knowledge about the past is indispensable in the making of today's important decisions.

It is wrong to assume that history teaches us only one thing. Whoever made this statement has ignored the fact that our current style of living and sophisticated technology owes a lot to our forerunners. Their inventions brought about the industrial revolution. For instance, we cannot imagine life without electricity that was discovered in the 17th century by Italian scientist Alessandro Volta. Without electricity, there would be no light bulbs no computers. Humans would still be relying on oil lamps to illuminate their homes. Thus, history has taught us how to use electricity for our welfare. Several centuries before the birth of Christ, the Greeks had a democratic government. It was the citizens who made important political decisions. Great thinkers like Plato and Socrates influenced young minds with their pioneering philosophy. Further on, during the French revolution, reformers like Voltaire and Rousseau laid down the foundation for the diffusion of ideals like liberty, fraternity and equality. Without these contributions, domineering kings who executed innocent people as they pleased would still rule us. It is history, which has taught us that even kings had to bow down to the will of the people. Thus, it would be erroneous to assume that history teaches us only one lesson.

The lessons of the past enable us to avoid making past mistakes. It is easy to underestimate the importance of such lessons. History show us how humanity suffered because of the arrogance of the people in power. For instance, Adolf Hitler founded the Nazi party in Germany in 1935. They advocated anti-semitism and racial purity and ethnic superiority. A decade later, Hitler's action resulted in a genocide that still scars our present. Similarly, in Cambodia, the rise of the Khmer Rouge went unchecked and their throne of power was built on their reign of terror. By looking at these incidents in history, our leaders are wiser and would never allow such incidents to happen again. But, history is not just a pointer to the mistakes of our forefathers. The story of King Arthur teaches lessons of courage, fairness and justice. Similarly, it is evident that the freedom of the people can never be compromised. History is replete with instances of the successful struggle of oppressed people against freedom and slavery. Even in the present, several nations are still being denied freedom. History inspires them to continue their crusade against tyranny. Thus, the lessons of the past are instrumental in decision-making. Whenever our rights are compromised, history encourages us to fight for them.

It is impossible to accurately estimate the importance of the past. Discounting the past can have dire consequences. Knowledge of our history shapes our present and future.
역사를 배우는 것은 과거를 알아 다시는 같은 실수를 되풀이 하지 않는다는 점. 그리고 그 자체만으로 인간의 과거를 알 수 있다는 점에서 가치가 있다 

"Patriotic reverence for the history of a nation often does more to impede than to encourage progress."

Is patriotic reverence for the history of a nation does more good or harm? Some believe that patriotism is the impetus behind all the progress. However I believe exactly the opposite. I shall argue, in fact, patriotism has done more harm than good to the development of the society.

We love our country, and we are proud of our ancestors. This sort of feeling is natural for all of us, and it is easy for us to develop affection towards our country. Thus when we look back to our history, we will develop a sense of awe for our ancestors who did much to fight imperialism and our hearts go to hero who secures the independent from Outsiders. However in doing so, we tend to embellish their barbarous acts and thus distorting the facts to fit our vision of irreproachable hero. In my country, the British who conquered Perak were depicted as villain in the secondary school textbook. Those who fought Britain’s authority was delineated as heroes and textbook portrayed their murderous act as heroic move. In the textbook, there is a chapter devoted to the murder of Birch, a British governor. Instead of condemning this criminal act, textbooks calls it an "awakening" and shamelessly praise the murderer for his courage. Under the spectacle of "patriotism", the textbook writer lost their sensible judgement. If we let our patriotism sentiment to get in the way, we may distort history to fulfil our wish.

Cunning politicians may misuse this patriotic reverence to canvass mass support for their own benefits. Whenever western media reports something negative on China, the ruling party will immediately resort to patriotic and historical sentiment. Government will tell their people that westerners are conspiring to impede the nation's development. Out of historical sentiments, most credulous Chinese can뭪 accept the westerner’s criticism for they believe that westerners don뭪 understand their culture and thus their criticism are invalid. Take the democratic movement as an example. Chinese believe that their unique culture and history disallow radical democracy movement. They believe that someday government will become more democratic after the nation achieved the developed country’s status. In doing so they allow government’s power to grow incontinent. Under bewitch of patriotism, most Chinese fail to see the mishap of their government and thus they keep bad governors in office. Their pride for their history and tradition has hindered the democratic movement.

The pride in nation's history can open doors to discrimination as well. We may feel so good about what our country had achieved in the past that we look down on other civilizations that is not as advance as ours. We will thus refuse to learn from them for we think that there's no point to do so. This sort of attitude hinders the development of society. Ancient China is such an example. China dynasty treated neighbouring countries with contempt. They viewed the Mongolians as barbarians because Mongolians didn't achieve much in history. The same attitude led China's dynasty to stop trading with Europe. As a result China was impounded in Dark Age for a few hundred years. If the Chinese were humble enough and nimble enough to learn from other civilizations, they would not suffer humiliation in the hands of imperialists.

To sum up, I believe that the patriotically reverence for the history of a nation is detrimental to the development of a country. We should think with our brains, not with our guts. If we can achieve this, then we are at least on the right track to become a great nation.

2.Patriotic reverence to the history a country is a base of existence of a country. It is due to this stern respect that citizen of a country have, that makes men duty bound to serve the nation. Once this is lost the country loses its definition. The following are the reasons that may be stated form this.

The respect to the country’s heritage and history, imparted early from the childhood, creates an unconscious control over the actions. For example, if the child is brought up in a patriotic environment, his mind automatically fixes some principles which are governed by the respect to one’s nation. This saves the child from the confusions created in the adolescence, where everyone tends to generate iconoclastic views on everything. Since this adolescent child views these from a platform where he has set his foot firmly, decision making and opinion formation at this age would be easy and will be in the right way.

Secondly, history itself presents stories of patriotism and self sacrifice for the country. Every country has its own legends like war heroes, social reformers and great political leaders. When we learn about their contributions to the country, we gradually recognize how the face of the society was changed by these great people. In the words of Abdul Kalaam, President of India, this ignites the mind of the citizens with the duty which they owe towards the country. It is this ignited mind which contribute to the country’s up-liftment the most. All these are possible only when the reverence for the history of the country exist.

The time may have changed but the morals remain the same, so patriotic reverence seldom impedes growth, even if it rises to the level of chauvinism. One may get self conscious of such acts, but the results will always show up positive.

(I believe that what is problematic is not reverence for country but the way some of few people relieve to meet their political aims.
Most of people, they are highly concerned about The World up. However, we cannot criticize them they are enthusiastic about the result of the soccer game.)

“The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives.”

1.History, the carrier of the affairs that have taken place before, is the most valuable heritage passed down from one generation to another. (Try not to use "is the most", "is the best", etc. Otherwise the reader will be looking for a thorough explanation why that is...) Investigating a road map of the human behaviors ("a roadmap"? are there many roadmaps?), history explains where we came from, where now we are now, and which way we should choose, in the future. Hence, not only the history which is relevant to our daily lives is important, but also the one that is beyond the day-to-day activities of human beings are valuable.

You used "hence" in an introductory paragraph. That leads the reader to conclude that you already presented enough support to your position, which is not the case.

It is worthwhile to study the history beyond our daily lives, such as the history related to earth and environment. The lost continent - Atlantis which was described in Plato's famous work and sunk 12,000 years ago - is the 'Holy land ' for many historians. Obviously, it is unconcerned to our daily lives. The study of it, however, can help us to find out the original of civilization and the interaction between human activities and the environment. Unfolding the image that thousands and milliaons (don't need to use two qualitative adjectives, either use thousands, millions, or several. You should just enumerate them if you connect them with "even" ... thousands or even millions... however it is not appropriate in this case) of inhabitants of Atlantis ran helter-skelter confronting the deluge, historians admonish contemporary people to protect the environment and not to recommit the same errors.
It is a good example. You provided a sound argument of not committing the same mistake again based on past facts that are not directly related to our daily lives.

Furthermore, if we simply deem that only the study of history, which is relevant to our daily lives, is valuable, it would result in the stagnation of history. Supposing that the former historians merely cared about history relevant to their lives, but neglected the one that is beyond their daily lives (kinda repetitive), nevertheless, valuable to the future-which is exactly our present, our historians would suffer thea shortage of historical materials (a bit too long. you might consider breaking it down to two sentences. Also I think you're a little overconfident on this statement... one might argue that there are endless amount of history relevant to our daily lives available out there...). Because there are numerous differences between past and present (??? a sentence started with "because" and no following?). We can find that many materials are relevant to our predecessor’s lives but few relate to ours (again, too confident... it's very arguable!). Finally ,there would have no history and no human in the world . (I think it is too drastic... You meant that I wouldn't exist if historians paid attention only to history relevant to our lives?)

Contrary to the first paragraph, this one does not convince the reader. It is quite speculative with no reasonable foundation behind it.

The focus on the study of history , in fact , is the treatment of the environment and the earth as a whole (I believe it is much more... people's behavior, civilization, etc.). The nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl have been studied to ensure that they do not happen again. Certainly the study of the effects of nuclear materials on humans and the environment provides value beyond the daily lives of ordinary people. Moreover, the study of oil spills and their effects on the environment gives similar guidance on how to avoid or at least minimize the damage of an oil spill on the environment (repetitive). All of these examples of studying history value far beyond its impact on the daily lives of people.

It is definitely a good paragraph. However, it conveys the exact same idea as the first one! You should be careful while doing that. You could've combined them both with your three or four examples together and that would have been a great paragraph. You must provide a slightly different idea on each paragraph. A slightly different point of view, contrary or favorable.

All the evidences support that the idea of 'study history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives' (don't quote like that. GRE evaluators don't like that) is a lopsided view. All the history relevant to human is valuable and merit to study.

2.The author suggests that we study history for only one purpose that is it is relevant to our daily lives. As per my opinion value of history is not only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives but also provides innumerable lessons of life and inspiration.

Archeologists, through their strenuous efforts are always behind one purpose to finding out origin of mankind. For this achievement they have to travel around the world in search of artifacts. Through their researches and studies we are aware of past life of early mankind. Moreover, the living of humankind thousand years back and the standard of our living is incompatible. Studying human history can also help us in understand and appreciate the values and ideals of past culture.

Additionally, history has not just value to the extent that is relevant to our daily life can be considered through one more example. Revealing through history we can understand the efforts of our brave soldiers who fought for independence of our country. It is because of their sacrifice that we are breathing in democratic country. Studying historic examples of courage in face of adversity can motivate us to face our own personal fears in the life.

Furthermore, revealing through history is always beneficial because while reading it we can come across some incidents because of which our nation causes great harm. Mistakes in the past can tech us how to avoid repeating such mistakes again in future. For example, in India many years back lot of people died because of plague. It was a total disaster because not proper treatment was available during that time. But through that experience we developed antibiotics in medical science to avert such disastrous disease and its impact. So if in future such situation arises we already have a remedy for saving life of people.

In sum, it is history that defines who we are! Apart from our daily lives, it is a pathway to make us recognize with many historic things that inspire us to live better life. Admittedly, from history, we can grasp lot many things that will brighten our future.

3. When talk about history, the heroes or heroines of the past and the famous constructions and the ancient stories remind people the prosperous past. Many people engage in studying of history from all aspects, therefore there exists too many standards to evaluate the value of history studying, controversy still be there among those people. Some people insist that whether the study of history is relevant to our daily lives decides the value of these work, at first glance, it's reasonable, but after a careful examination of this statement reveal that it's not a exclusive standard of evaluation.

Admittedly, the study of history that relevant to our daily lives such as studying historic culture and building etc obviously has value and contribute to our society. By studying the history relate to people daily lives, the knowledge, experiences and wisdom about daily lives would inherit from one generation to another. Furthermore, the outcome of this sort of study has practical value when it is relevant to ordinary people’s daily lives. For instance, studying the ancient culture and religion faith make modern people realize where they came from and make them be pride of their ancestor. When the study is relevant to our daily lives, people can learn numerous practical experiences from history and prevent them from repeating the same mistakes, therefore, people can save more time and allocate it to the other most important works, improving the efficiency and quality of people’s daily lives.

No one can deny the fact that the study of history that irrelevant to our daily lives still has tremendous value, such as study in the realm of cultural relic and the idea or thinking of the great ancestor and the development of technology and science and so on. Many people engage in all aspects study which do not only concentrate on people's daily lives, but the sort of study also contribute to people's daily lives and development of national economy. For instance, the study of the famous war of the past discloses the military strategy that is still useful to modern army. Nowadays, the study of “The Art of War by Sunzi “still contribute to a nation's military theory. Although the researches are irrelevant to people's daily lives, no one can't obliterate the value of that sort of study and conclude that if the research is away from people’s daily lives there is no use. Another example, the studying of cultural relic would contribute to understand the ancestor’s culture, life style, and would provide much better protection to the relic than before through causing people's attention. The correct attitude to the study of history is do not evaluate the value just depend on whether it is relevant to our daily lives. Common sense tells us that history is like a sort of treasure remained to develop, and it contains numerous knowledge, experience, great thought and so on. So selective studying of history would induce to prejudice and neglect too many valuable things. The advisable way of history studying is overall research, absorbing the valuable contains regardless of whether it's relevant to people's daily lives, like the sea opens his mind to embraces all rivers without selective.

In conclusion, history is the valuable wealth that people inherit from ancestors, to make good use of the treasures, researching is necessary to develop these treasures. Some study are relevant to people's daily lives can play a role in getting instant results and others are irrelevant to people's lives also contribute to the future in the long run. So people should regardless of whether the study is relevant to people's daily lives and adopt overall research.

"So much is new and complex today that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present."

The advancements in the scientific, technological and communication fronts have resulted in many changes in the approach to life in man. Innovations that a man fifty years ago could not possibly comprehend have been achieved. Although we have come far on the road to scientific excellence, it would be presumptous to consider facts and history as nonentities.

A deeper insight into the novelty and complexity of man's achievements reveals that the foundations of all these innovations were laid in the past. The early man invented the wheel and discovered the fire. Although these may seem inconsequential today, these were the harbingers of a chain of inventions and discoveries. On recent terms, unless Charles Babbage formulated the Analytical Engine way back in the early nineteenth century, we probably would not be using our powerful computers as yet. Thus an understanding of our past not only incites new ideas, but also educates us about the work invested in the inventions of various gadgets that are taken for granted.

The current lifestyle of humankind indicates that all fancies and intricacies of our life are conspicuous only on the technological field. However the social, cultural and psychological traits of man have essentially remained the same over the centuries. The customs and traditions of various factions in the world have been in practice since primordial times. The roots of these practices were laid in the past. Religions of the world were formed several thousands of years ago. The Bible was written in time immemorial. These comprise the indispensable aspects of life, without which a man would be an ignoramus.

Although argued as just factual and immaterial in our diurnal lifestyles, history holds a unique power and teaches several important lessons if paid heed. Wars and battles imply the futility of man's greed for power and wealth. The human race learnt the gruesome consequences of nuclear power the hard way during the Second World War. The world has thus been cautioned against a reiteration of such blunders for the betterment of mankind.
On the other hand, history has its glories as well. Great empires such as those of Caesar, The British Monarchy and the Indian kings are paragons of governmental excellence, many concepts of which, have been incorporated in the political administration in many parts of the world, resulting in peace and order in the nations. The constitutions of many nations involve the principles advocated by these successful kingdoms.

Man has progressed far in his quest for knowledge and answers for the unknown. Although today's man is more astute than his ancestors, there is no denying that the men of the past have paved way for this endeavor. Thus a profound knowledge of their ideas, concepts and ideals aid man in his practical approach to life.

"The past is no predictor of the future."

Approach 1: Qualify
1. Position: The past may not be an exact predictor of the future, but without knowledge of the past, we have nothing to rely on to deal with the challenges of the future.

A. No one knows for sure what will happen in the future.
B. However, knowledge of the past tells us what might be happen in the future.
C. Personally or socially, the wisdom of the past provides necessary resources to help us confront the old or new problems of the future.
2. Position: The past is no predictor of the future;it helps predict the future.
A. Everything is developing and changing and there are always something that beyond peopl's ken may happen. Our ancestors will be amazing when they see we , their scions, enjoy such a highly civilization of nowadays-----they can not predict the future.
B. The past, however, has something repeated which always happen under certian circumstances and they become the valuable lessons to aid people to direct what the present should be and , foretell what the future might be.
C. The past, though can not exactly predict exactly the future, people draw lessons from it, but they must be also very careful in using the past lessons , since the things are always changing.

With the rapid development of the society, people have more interest for the future than for the past. Some one points out "The past is no predictor of the future. " Does that means we do not need to concern the past? On this point, I think it is unreasonable to say that because we come from the past and go for the future on the base of it.

Firstly, we cannot deny that the current was the result of the past. For a country, the extent of development, the progress of democracy, the lives of people, all of these are representations of the past. When it comes to a person, it is obviously that the past experience is very important. No one could seriously think that anyone who did not have qualified skill has an opportunity equal to that of someone more favored. If we deny the past, it will be curious to treat current world. Personally or socially, the state of current was decided by the past.

In addition, the past is an invaluable treasure for us and through which we can make our choice for the future. "History is a mirror. " Although no one can predict the future, we can know what should be done and what looking back should not do. For example, after the fail of Robert Owen's communism, we know the immediate communism is not applicable. We know the society is to advance step by step and no one can jump over these steps to the destination. Under this cognition, we will concentrate on the improving of people's lives and the democracy of the whole society instead of the unreal world.

For us, the past has pasted but will still affect our lives. Without the past, we would not have the current and lost the compass that instruct us forward

With the modern technologies, we can go up to the sky to search the mysterious of the cosmos。We can go down to the floor of sea to see what are really happening. All of these seem impossible to the ancient human. While, it is really as some persons say that there is nothing influenced by the past? Things are not like what they think in fact.

Not only in political and economic fields but also in cultural, technologic parts, human society is a continuous developed. Without the consequence of the past, there will not our current world. In political field, most of societies pass from original slave, 封建, to current资本主义 or 社会主义. Step by step, the form of societies move from low to high, the powers of country and citizen are defined clearly. People are going to be treated more and more fairly. Economy, base of political, through the movement from the initial bargain, changes to the high developed market guiding business. Within the function of bank, stock, insurance and some other financial system, we need not to change with our sheep or cows when we need something that we do not have. It will be same in both cultural and technologic fields. We all know the first step of recoding history, using the different way of making rope to memory what had happened. Then, we should thank our forefather for making the early simplest marks. Without them, can we imagine how we write systemically with so many complex language systems? Without them, to write is already a big problem, how can we imagine we can write with English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and so on. Moreover, we hardly get current mathematic, physic, electronic and especially the high speed developing communication technologies if we do not understand numbers of theorem theories of class science, such as the float base rules of Akimita, gravility rules from Newton. Even we can not measure a common thing without the past regulation of length, weight. Wherever we are, whatever we do, everything are shadowed by the influence of past.

Even though, not every results of past has active effect. Some of them negative the inch of our world. Some kinds of theory seem absurd in their time, but with the time’s certification, more and more things come into true instead of being forgotten. Just like the theory of relativity, almost nobody would like believe that the little atom has so surprised energy, then the bombast in Hiroshima and Nagasaki let us see the reality. Only no more than ten or five years ago, when we see the film of Jurrosic park, the theory of complicate creature seems only the thing happen in cinema. But now, scientists really train the clone sheep, Dorly. Can we say the past mean nothing to us?

In a nut shell, we benefit from our ancestors. What we are doing must affect our followings. We should strict with our right attitude toward science, ethnic standard.

3. with the rapidly sweeping changes of mundane society, progressive attention has been paid to the issue of the whimsy of the future-- its amorphous shape, its indefinite direction and the like. while there has a grain of truth in it, we should not ignore the fact that the past , in some degree, can help us predict or shape a better understanding of the future.

to begin with, those who partake in the fierce scramber for political power always , without exception , do their utmost to investigate and explore the success and failure of the famous historical figure, only from which can they make sense what lessons they should absorb and which stepstones they take. in such a brutal reality, no one will heartily instruct you how to avoid ominous hazard, the only valuable thing is your discreet observation of the endeavours of the predessors. for example, the emperior zhuyuanzhan instituted many unprecedented regulations aiming at solidifying his power by virtue of refering to the successful experience of his former counterparts.

secondly, we argue that the past is in some sense indicative of the future based on the fundamental fact that while the concrete things we possess may drastically different from our ancestor, the elemental ingredients such as emotions and feelings are scarely revolutionized. to illustration, one individual wants to write a fiction about the institution of marriage , he must explore thoroughly the classical monograph such as the dream of red building ?（红楼梦, 见笑了, 忘了正确说法）
on the other hand, we should not give too much weight to the importance of the predicability of the past upon the future. without concideration to the fact that the future is whimical and therefore no one has embolden to declare that he can accruately prescience the trend of the surging waves of the history.
in closing, we should forge ahead along the extention of the road of history, while at the same time not neglecting the complexity of the future .
4. Although things and conditions are very possibly different between the past and the future, however, we can learn a lot from the past.

In order to achieve the better future, we should assimilate experience and lessons in the past. On one hand, to good and useful experience, we should inherit and improve them, and thus they will help us accelerate the development of the future. On the other hand, to failures, missteps and lapses, we should take lessons from them, and avoid following the same old disastrous road.

If we compare the process from the past to the present with that from the present to the future, we can actually predict the future in some degree. Speaking in a nice tone, trace the past, how many hypothesis and even illusion were finally turned into realities today. For instance, the ancient people's dream of flying in the sky succeeded through airplanes; the dream of talking with each other in a rather long distance came true by telephones; and even the dream of leaving the earth was also actualized.

All of this illustrates the point that we can predict the future, if we clearly know what we still lack and what we want and need next -which could be possessed by us in the future. Imaging on a bad aspect, however, if we do not attach importance to the past, natural and man-made disasters of the past will be the mirror of the future and the future will be the shadow or copy of the past as well.

It should be admitted that predicting future is not an easy work at all and no one can foretell the future exactly, but if we reject all the past, we would hardly make only one step in forecast of the future.

 Do you have anything to add?