当我们通过研究历史来考虑自身问题的时候，我们就会变成说故事的人。因为我们不可能直接了解过去，只有通过解释一些史料来构造历史，所以探索历史更多是一件创造性的事业而不是客观的追寻。所有的历史学家都是讲故事的人。

I agree that it is the proper and necessary role of historians to “construct” history by interpreting evidence. Nevertheless, the speaker’s characterization of this role as “storytelling” carries certain unfair implications, which should be addressed.

1. Unless we grant to the historian a license to “construct” history by interpreting evidence, we relegate the historian to the role of mere archivist or journalist.

2. The inexorable result of disagreement, debate, and divergent interpretations among historians is a fuller and more incisive understanding of history.

3. However, we should be careful not to confuse this license to interpret history, which is needed for any historian to contribute meaningfully to our understanding of it, with artistic license, which should be reserved for dramatists, novelists and poets.

过去是无法预测未来的。

1. Nobody can foretell the future exactly.

2. However, knowledge of the past can provide us a rough idea about what might happen in the future.

3. Wisdom of the past provides necessary resources to help us confront the old or new problems of the future.

过去和未来

如果人们忽视了过去的伟大成就，那只能是因为这些成就已经不再满足现今的需要了。

1. In general, it would appear that art is more likely motivated by an interest in keeping pace with science and technology than by a desire to break from it.

2. Admittedly, some works of art would appear to reject, or at least provide a respite from, science and technology.

3. Moreover, the speaker’s concern for whether art’s function is to embrace or oppose science and technology begs the question, for the final objective of art lies instead in its ability to convey a society’s values, ideals, and concerns.

过去和现在之伟大成就