Why should I teach my children
history? That sounds like a stupid question to even ask．But，as I hear different home
schooling teachers discuss history，I get
the idea that there may be different reasons for teaching history．Let me briefly explain the three good reasons for studying
history and two bad reasons for studying history．
The major reason I see for
studying history is that we can learn from the past．I
believe that the world would be a much better place if more people understood
the successes and failures of the past and the things that made these successes
and failures．However，as the unfortunately(不幸地)true
statement goes ‘‘the one thing we seem to learn
from history is that we don't seem to
learn from history”，perhaps at least in teaching
history, to my children I can do a small
part in changing this．
A second major
reason for studying history is that it is hard to understand the current(目前的)political climate in the absence of an understanding of its
historical context(背景)．We
can not
even understand why we are and
where we are without history，much less try to figure out where
we are going or how we should get where we want to be．
I teach my
children history，for one more reason．I bought a set of historical audio tapes for our children．My seven-year-old son listened to them over and over．It was my hope that he would
become inspired by the
accomplishments(成就)of people like the Wright
brothers to accomplish things by himself．I
think that it is good that we celebrate the accomplishments of people like
Martin Luther King Jr.
By doing so，young people are called on to stand for the principles that he stood
for and accomplish what he didn’t accomplish．I also think that by studying people like Adolph Hitler，people can learn to stand against the things that he stood for．
1.What message can we get from the underlined
sentence in Paragraph 2 ?
A．Many people aren’t clever enough to learn well
from the past．
B．Many people fail to make
good use of history and make the same mistakes．
C．Many people feel it hard to understand history．
D．Many people have no interest in studying history．
2.In Paragraph 3，the
author shows that history is useful because
A．it makes the current political situation go smoothly
B．it helps us realize the importance of historical events
C．it helps us understand why things are the way they are
D．it helps people accept the present situation where they live
3.Some historical figures are mentioned in the
last paragraph to show____．
A．people can be inspired to do good and also learn to fight
against evil
B．people may also learn from bad historical figures
C．more celebrations should be held to honor their achievements
D．today’s people can also achieve what
they achieved
4.What would be talked about in the following
paragraph?
A．How to teach history effectively．
B．Some negative reasons for studying history．
C．How to get more people to study history．
D．Some bad historical figures．
