问答题
Comment on the following excerpt and write a 100-word essay on it.(10 points)From Ralph Waldo Emerson"s The American ScholarBooks are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end, which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system. The one thing in the world of value is the active soul—the soul, free, sovereign, active. This every man is entitled to; this every man contains within him, although, in almost all men, obstructed, and as yet unborn. The soul active sees absolute truth; and utters truth, or creates. In this action, it is genius; not the privilege of here and there a favorite, but the sound estate of every man. In its essence, it is progressive. The book, the college, the school of art, the institution of any kind, stop with some past utterance of genius. This is good, say they,—let us hold by this. They pin me down. They look backward and not forward. But genius looks forward. The eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead. Man hopes, genius creates. To create,—to create, —is the proof of a divine presence. Whatever talents may be if the man create not, the pure efflux of the Deity is not his;—cinders and smoke there may be, but not yet flame. There are creative manners, there are creative actions, and creative words; manners, actions, words, that is, indicative of no custom or authority, but springing spontaneous from the mind"s own sense of good and fair.On the other part, instead of being its own seer, let it receive from another mind its truth, though it were in torrents of light, without periods of solitude, inquest, and self-recovery, and a fatal disservice is done. Genius is always sufficiently the enemy of genius by over influence. The literature of every nation bear me witness. The English dramatic poets have Shakspearized now for two hundred years.Undoubtedly there is a right way of reading, so it be sternly subordinated. Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar"s idle times. When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men"s transcripts of their readings. But when the intervals of darkness come, as come they must,—when the sun is hid, and the stars withdraw their shining,—we repair to the lamps which were kindled by their way, to guide our steps to the East again, where the dawn is. We hear, that we may speak. The Arabian proverb says, "A fig tree, looking on a fig tree, becometh fruitful. "
【正确答案】正确答案:In this excerpt, Emerson expresses his love for books and considers them to be a great resource, but he is more concerned about the abuse of books, that is, readers abuse books when they read them uncritically and blindly, assimilate and regurgitate their contents. So Emerson suggests that readers should read inquisitively, skeptically, curiously, creatively, and boldly. From his ideas about books, it is not hard to find the independence of thought that he always insists. We can see the fundamental concept about independence and originality in his writing, so no wonder The American Scholar could be the "Intellectual Declaration of Independence".