The learning methods and training details of Harvard's top students

Chapter 3 is being read, allowing you to freely absorb the fountain of wisdom (1)
(Harvard representative: Liang Shiqiu) From a five-foot bookshelf, you can get a first-class education.

—Charles William Eliot, former president of Harvard University
【Wonderful Guide】

Biography of Liang Shiqiu

Liang Shiqiu (1903～1987), a famous literary critic, essayist and translator.His ancestral home is Zhejiang, but he was born in Beijing.

After graduating in 1923, he went to study abroad at Harvard University in the United States, and returned to China in 1926 to teach at Southeast University in Nanjing.In the second year, he went to Shanghai to edit the supplement "Qingguang" of "Current Affairs News", and co-edited "Bitter Tea" magazine with Zhang Yujiu.Soon he was a professor of Jinan University.

At first he advocated romanticism and published many poems.He was deeply influenced by some new humanists when he was studying at the Graduate School of Harvard University in the United States.His representative paper "Romantic Trends in Modern Chinese Literature" was published in "Morning News" in 1926. He believed that Chinese new literature had a chaotic tendency of romanticism, and advocated literary creation based on universal human nature under the guidance of rationality. In 1930, Yang Zhensheng invited him to serve as the head of the Department of Foreign Languages ​​and Librarian of Qingdao University. In 1932, he went to Tianjin to edit the supplement "Literature Weekly" of "Yi Shi Bao". In 1934, he was appointed as a research professor and head of the Department of Foreign Languages ​​at Peking University. In the autumn of 1935, he founded "Freedom Review", and successively edited the supplement "Xuewen" of "World Daily" and "Literature" of "Peking Morning Post".

During the July 1938th Incident, he left home and went to the rear alone. In 1949, he served as a member of the National Political Council. He went to Chongqing Compilation Center to preside over the Translation Committee and served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Textbook Editing Committee. At the end of the year, he began to edit the supplement "Pingming" of "Central Daily".After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he returned to Peking as a professor of English at the Normal University. He came to Taiwan in 1961 and served as a professor of the English Department of Taiwan Normal University. Since [-], he has been a full-time professor of the English Institute of the Normal University.

其文学创作着力较多的是散文和翻译。散文代表作《雅舍小品》从1949年起20多年共出4辑。30年代开始翻译莎士比亚作品，持续40载，到1970年完成了全集的翻译，计剧本37册，诗3册。晚年用7年时间完成百万言著作《英国文学史》。

【Character Story】

beneficiaries of extensive reading

Liang Shiqiu's father is a businessman. There is a small library in his home. Liang Shiqiu spent every day in it when he was a child, obsessively immersed in the joy of reading.He started studying at the age of 7, studied extremely hard, achieved excellent grades in all subjects, and always achieved excellent grades in the promotion exams.But he felt more and more that textbooks alone could not meet his reading needs, and he basically finished reading the books at home.He often bought books with the pocket money his father gave him.In this way, Liang Shiqiu still felt that reading was not enough.

Once, he heard that there were many books in the city library.There, what book you want to read, just write the title of the book on a piece of paper and give it to the administrator, and he will show it to you right away.Now, Liang Shiqiu had a good time.He was so addicted to books that he ran to the library ecstatically, and became a frequent visitor there.

Liang Shiqiu has a unique habit of reading, that is, he must carefully make reading notes on a piece of loose-leaf paper for everything he has read.Then, they are classified according to linguistics, aesthetics, arithmetic, geometry, psychology, history, philosophy and other items.In this way, no matter which piece of content is needed, it can be found quickly.

After so many years of reading extensively, making reading notes in a steady stream, and orderly sorting out reading notes, Liang Shiqiu's knowledge has become more and more abundant.

Later, he entered Harvard University to study, and Harvard's rich library materials made him even more ecstatic.He devoted himself to studying literature at Harvard University and accumulated a large amount of information, which created very favorable conditions for him to become a famous writer in the future.

【Harvard view】

Comprehensive and extensive reading is the weight to success
Comprehensive and extensive reading is one of the weights for a person to succeed.When you get this weight, it means that there is one less obstacle on your way to success.

Eliot, a famous American poet who graduated from Harvard University, has never stopped reading extensively from his youth to his later years.It is his wide reading that makes a great poet.

A person who can consciously read comprehensively shows that he has a strong desire for knowledge, which is also a manifestation of learning progress.If you are not satisfied with your own knowledge reserves, you should choose books according to your own situation.Cultivating a good habit of comprehensive reading will bring endless benefits to your growth and keep your mind enriched.

There are two aspects to reading and learning. In addition to learning knowledge, the more important thing is to cultivate ability.Knowledge is just material, and cultivating ability is more important than accumulating knowledge.

For a learner, if he wants to greatly improve his ability, the amount of knowledge he has mastered should be wider, and the field of knowledge involved should be as broad as possible, which requires comprehensive reading.Only in this way can we expand our knowledge.For example, a person who studies philosophy should not only read professional books on philosophy, but should read books on all three aspects of literature, history and philosophy.For example, you can draw up such a study plan: read Schopenhauer's works in the morning, and study Liang Shiqiu's literary works in the afternoon.Some people must have doubts, since the main focus is philosophy, why do you need to read books on literature and history?The answer is actually very simple.The disadvantage of philosophy is that it is "empty", that is, it is not easy to connect with the actual situation in life, and there are many abstract concepts; but philosophy also has its advantages, that is, it stands relatively high and sees the side that is difficult to see.The weakness of history is "narrowness", that is, it often drills deeply into a certain point of knowledge, but always thinks that other aspects have nothing to do with oneself, so it is not interested and cares little; its advantage is that it drills deeper.The disadvantage of Chinese is "shallow", that is, the lack of depth in learning; but the advantage is that it is more complex and has a wide range of interests.Once the pros and cons of each are pointed out, the answer can't be more clear: Only by reading extensively can we learn from others' strengths, achieve the effect of understanding by analogy, and truly improve our abilities.

Celebrities in ancient and modern China and abroad generally have a good habit of comprehensive reading, and their demand for books is astonishing both in terms of quantity and type.

When we read comprehensively, we should be purposeful, in which areas we are lacking and in which areas our knowledge is not in place, then we should choose the books we need to read.

Bacon once said: "When you are lonely, reading can be used as a pastime; when you are talking, reading can be used as decoration; when you are a man, the correct use of knowledge means power."

It is not necessary for a person to have a good knowledge of astronomy and geography, but it is very necessary to know the development history of human civilization.This requires more reading and comprehensive reading.The more books you read, the broader your cultural background knowledge will be, the deeper your cultural heritage will be, and the greater the benefits you will gain from it.

[Easy interaction]

1. Think about it, do you have a good habit of comprehensive reading in the process of learning?

2. In the usual reading process, do you have your own reading method?
3. Think about it, do you think comprehensive and extensive reading is good for expanding your knowledge?
【Parent-child total product】

The educational philosophy of Harvard University is: the best education is an open and creative education, which not only helps students to have original ideas and abilities in the professional field, but also creates conditions for students to be good at deliberation, have ideal goals and Insight, become a free personality, perfect, successful person.

During the four years of Harvard undergraduates, in addition to studying in a major field, they also conduct interdisciplinary professional study.Many professors in the school emphasize the importance of humanities learning and advocate understanding and absorbing different values.Undergraduate students must take 8 to 10 "core courses".The main areas of core courses are: foreign culture, historical research, literature and art, moral thinking, science and social analysis, and English writing, mathematical statistics and foreign languages ​​are required.

【Harvard view】

Being friends with good books will benefit you for life
There are all kinds of books, just as there are all kinds of people in society.Reading is like making friends, not all books can be read casually.

There is such a young man at Harvard who became a profound scholar in only 5 years. His reading creed is to only read the first-class works of first-class writers, and repeatedly study their masterpieces.For example, in the field of literature, when he spent a year studying the representative works of Shakespeare, Balzac, Tolstoy, Proust, Joyce and other great writers, he proudly said: "The literature of this world I have finally climbed the highest peak!"

In fact, if you want to be friends with good books and really want to read, then you must get used to entering from a high position and force yourself to read excellent classics.Reading, life, everything is like this.

If you get used to the low position at the beginning, the taste may always be that low.Just like singing, you set a low key for yourself at the beginning, and it will be ridiculous and impossible for you to sing at a high key during the singing process.

(End of this chapter)