SectionD Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. A nswer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet Questions 11 to 20 are based on the following passage. Why Study History? A) History is a course that we have to take in order to graduate at high school. We didn’t have a choice. We are forced to learn history and can’t get anything important out of history. B) 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 teacher. I was fortunate. I managed to have a number of excellent history teachers throughout my high school years. I might not have been an excellent history student, but I do remember having excellent history teachers. C) 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. 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. 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 agree with the view either. History cannot "tell" the future. History can help to understand all that is the present. F) When we are young, we know little about the world beyond our immediate family and environment. As we grow older, 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. H) The way historians think is not different from the way people in other fields think. 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 ab ility is crucial in many walks of life. 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. 11. In history we seek the meaning of our existence by gaining a better understanding of ourselves. 12. We study history to avoid repeating the same mistakes of the past. 13. Because we were forced to study history at high school, we really didn’t learn much of importance. 14. History is part of everything and should be celebrated instead of being forgotten. 15. I do not agree with the view that history can help us predict the future because it repeats itself. 16. A good teacher is important to a student’s positive learning experience with history. 17. To understand well how the world works involves our deep knowledge of the past. 18. The way historians think is not different from the way people in other fields think. 19. Learning and getting to know our history can help to keep our traditions alive. 20. As we grow older, we find out that the world is actually bigger than our immediate surroundings, and feel eager to know more.