1 . People live in the present. They plan for the future. History, ______, is the study of the past. Given all the ______ and pressures that come from living in the present and ______ what is yet to come, why bother with what has been? Given all the available branches of knowledge, why insist - as most ______ systems do - on history? And why encourage many students to study even more history than they are _____ to?

Any subject of study needs to be______: supporters must explain why it is worth ______. Like most widely accepted _____, history attracts people who simply ______ the information and modes of thought involved. But for people who are less interested in the subject and more ______ about why they should bother with it, a clearer explanation of its purpose is required.

____ do not perform heart transplants, improve highway design, or arrest criminals. In a society that quite correctly expects education to serve ______ purposes, history’s functions can seem more ______ to determine than those of engineering or medicine. History is in fact very useful, actually _____, but the products of historical study are often less ______ and immediate than those of other subjects.

History helps us understand people, societies and how they ______. For example, how can we ______ past wars (and future threats) without using historical materials? Unfortunately, major aspects of a society’s operation cannot be set up as precise experiments. ______, history must serve, however imperfectly, as our ______, helping us understand who we are and why we do what we do. This, fundamentally, is why we cannot ______ history.

2 . One of the most important events in the modern Olympic Games is the Marathon(马拉松)race. The race _______ one of the great events in Greek history.

In 490 B C. about 10,000 Greeks _______ against the Persian army at a place called Marathon. It is _______ that the Persians were ten times as_______ as the Greeks. However, where there is a will, there is a way._______ the brave attack of the Greeks, the Persians were badly beaten and_______away from the plain of Marathon. When the Persians had run away, a soldier, who was the most famous_______in Athens, was _______ to carry the good news to the city and he was also asked to march at full speed.

Although he had fought through the battle and _______many wounds, the soldier at once started off toward the ________ city ________ was twenty-six and a quarter miles from the plain of Marathon to the Marketplace of Athens, ________ there the elders of Athens had gathered ________   for news. He ran and ran over ________ and across plains. As he went on, his lips became ________ and his breathing hard, but when he thought of the ________ of the people of Athens on hearing the news, he ________ harder than ever.

At last the elders of Athens heard a great shout and saw a soldier staggering(蹒跚) toward them.” Rejoice! Rejoice! We won!” said the soldier, and fell down ________..

In________of this noble soldier and athlete, we have in the modern Olympic Games the Marathon race, ________ the athletes run this same distance.

3 . The Great Wall of China is the longest wall in the world. It _____from west to east, ____ mountains, ______valleys and finally _____the sea.

The Great Wall has a history of over two _____years. People began to _____the wall ____the spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history. In about 221 BC Qin Shihuang had all the walls______. _____,the Great Wall came to the world. The Great Wall is _____6,000 kilometers long, 6-7 meters high and 4-5 meters wide. In most places it is _____ enough for five horses or ten men to walk _____along the top. It was very _____to build ______a great wall in the old _____. Thousands of men _____when they built it. The Great Wall was made not only of stones, but millions of _____.

Today, the Great Wall has become a place ______interest not only to the Chinese but also to people all over the world. _____ the Egyptians feel proud of their pyramids, _______   Chinese people also feel proud of our Great Wall.