Lesson One Thinking as a Hobby
1.Nature had endowed the rest of the human race with a sixth sense and left me
out.
Everybody, except me, is born with the ability to think.
2.You could hear the wind, trapped in his chest and struggling with all the unnat
ural impediments. His body would reel with shock and his face go white at the u naccustomed visitation. He would stagger back to his desk and collapse there, use less for the rest of the morning.
You could hear the fresh air struggling with difficulty to find its way to his chest, be cause he chest seemed to be unhealthy, as drinking had obviously harmed his lungs.
He would lose balance and his face would become pale as a result of the unexpecte
d attack of th
e wind. He would not be able to stand steadily so that he had to fall
into the chair, unable to do anything for the rest of the morning.
3.In this instance, he seemed to me ruled not by an invisible and irresistible sprin
g in the neck.
In this situation, it seemed that it was not his thought but his natural instinct that rul ed him, which he was unable to resist.
4.Technically, it is about as proficient as most businessmen’s golf, as honest as mo
st politicians intentions, or as coherent as most books that get written.
Precisely speaking, it is as incompetent as most businessmen’s golf, as dishonest as m ost politicians’ intentions, or as incoherent as most books that get written.
The author holds most businessmen, politicians and writers in contempt; in his eyes, t hey are incompetent, dishonest and incoherent.
（This ironical sentence shows that the author not only considers those people incomp etent, dishonest and incoherent, but also despises most businessmen, distrusts most poli ticians and dislikes most publications.）
5.They have immense solidarity. We had better respect them, for we are outnumb
ered and surrounded.
They usually represent the great majority. We had better respect them instead of distai ning them, because the number of them is much larger than us and we are surrounde
d by them.
6.Man enjoys agreement as cows will gaze all the same way on the side of a hill.
It is probably human nature to enjoy agreement because it seems to bring peace, secu rity, comfort, and harmony, which is the same nature that leads cows to gaze in the s ame manner on the side of a hill.
7.To hear our Prime Minister talk about the great benefit we conferred on India
by jailing people like Nehru and Gandhi. To hear American politicians talk about peace and refuse to join the League of Nations. Yes, there were moments of deli ght.
The first contradiction I have detected is to hear that our Prime Minister (the British government) mentioned to offer great benefit to India and meanwhile put India indepe ndence-fighters like Nehru and Gandhi into prison. The second contradiction is to hear that American politicians talk about peace but refuse to join the association of nation s to maintain world peace. I get temporary happiness occasionally.
8.I slid my arm around her waist and murmured that if we were counting heads,
the Buddhists were the boys for my money. She fled. The combination of my ar m and those countless Buddhists was too much for her.
I put my arm stealthily around her waist and said in low voice that if we were talkin
g about the number of people who believe in certain kind of religion, I believe the B
uddhists are greater in number. She was frightened and fled away because of my deli nquent behavior and our contradictory opinions on religion, which are more than she could accept.
9.It was Ruth all over again. I had some very good friends who stood by me, and
still do. But my acquaintances vanished, taking the girls with them.
What had happened to Ruth and me now happened again. I had still some very close friends supporting me as usual. But my grade-two thinking frightened away many of my acquaintances.
Lesson Three Why Historians Disagree
1.Most students are usually introduced to the study of history by way of a fat te
xtbook and become quickly immersed in a vast sea of names, dates, events and s tatistics.
For most students, they begin their study of history with a thick textbook in which t here are a great number of names, dates and statistics for them to remember.
2.History, which seemed to be a cut-and-dried matter of memorizing “facts”, now
becomes a matter of choosing one good interpretation from among many. Histor ical truth becomes a matter of personal preference.
It seemed that history is a routine of facts-memorizing. Now it becomes to be a abo ut picking a good interpretation out of many available to them. Historical facts beco me a matter of personal likes or dislikes.
3.They cannot help but feel that two diametrically opposed points of views about
an event cannot both be right; yet they lack the ability to decide between them.
