Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 60 College Entrance Examination!
On June 2004, 6, Zhang Chao’s second college entrance examination began!

Starting from last year, the college entrance examination was moved from July to June, which is a blessing for provinces like Fuhai, which are located in the southern coastal areas and cannot bear the bitter summer heat.

A little after 8 o'clock in the morning, Zhang Chao and his parents arrived at the entrance of the examination room, Changfu No. Middle School.

Other students in the examination room included Song Shiyu and Shen Ming, while Lan Ting was assigned to the No. 2 Middle School examination room.

Outside the examination room, Zhang Chao briefly repeated the key points of the morning's Chinese exam to several students, and specifically reminded them to pay attention to the format of the questions and answers.

As for today's composition topic, it's not that Zhang Chao doesn't want to help, but he just can't think of it...

At 8:30, the entrance bell rang, the security guard opened the door, and everyone gathered into a tide and poured into the examination room. Then they split into different branches and entered their respective examination rooms.

Calling the roll, checking admission tickets, distributing test papers and answer sheets...the entire process remains the same.

Zhang Chao calmed down and turned to the composition calmly.

[Choose one of the following characters or literary figures as a topic, choose your own angle, and write an essay of no less than 800 words:

Characters: Confucius, Su Shi, Zeng Guofan, Lu Xun, Stephen Hawking
Literary characters: Cao Cao, Song Jiang, Xue Baochai, Dong Niya, Santiago

Requirements: 1. Write your own topic 2. Do not plagiarize...】

When I saw the title, memories flooded into my mind. I should have chosen to write about Stephen Hawking for a simple reason: for high school students in 2004, Hawking was relatively unfamiliar to other people. Most people only knew that he was physically disabled but mentally strong, but knew very little about "A Brief History of Time" and "The Universe in a Nutshell". Zhang Chao had read these two books, so he naturally had an advantage in writing.

"It would be even better if I took the Stephen King test..."

But this time he didn't want to go back to the old ways.

At 9 o'clock, the exam bell rang. Zhang Chao did the dictation first. The six sentences were from "Song of the Wine", "Afang Palace Fu" and "Zhu Zi Zhi Jia Maxims". Seeing this, Zhang Chao felt relieved. The first two chapters had always been in the must-remember list, and he knew them by heart 6 years later. "Zhu Zi Zhi Jia Maxims" had been removed from the textbook long ago, but he also focused on reviewing it this time.

As long as he could handle the dictation, the rest of the questions would be a piece of cake. He had already thought about it. Although he could enter the "writer class" with his works this time, he also had to get a score in the Chinese language that would make people shut up.

He quickly finished the previous questions, leaving only the composition. Zhang Chao looked up at the time and saw that only 1 hour and 5 minutes had passed.

He took a deep breath and wrote the title in the middle of the first line of the essay section of the answer sheet:

"Lu Xun for Losers"

Yes, this time he is going to write about Mr. Big, and he may be the one most people choose in this exam.

Da Xiansheng was the writer Zhang Chao read the most, and the writer who gave him the most strength in his difficult times. On countless tired and lonely nights, it was Da Xiansheng's novels and Teresa Teng's songs that gave him hope in facing life.

But this time, Zhang Chao didn't want to write about him surrounded by halo, nor did he want to write about him as a soldier. He even didn't want to write about him as a humorous, affectionate, or full of interest in life.

Zhang Chao wanted to write about a great gentleman who was a loser——

[…At the end of his life, the great master ended his life as a "loser" - the Xinhai Revolution he participated in was "abandoned halfway", his civil service career ended with unpaid wages, his energy was greatly consumed on matters unrelated to his creation, his literary path could almost be said to have no one to inherit, his position as the leader of the literary world was shaky, his enemies in front of him were not defeated, and he had so-called "friends" stabbing him in the back from behind.

...In a sense, Mr. Da's life after 1926 was full of failures.

But after the advent of the new era, he returned as a "successful man" with a huge halo. However, this is not the victory of the great master, nor is it the victory of some political calculation or strategy, but a symbol of the rebirth and development of the national culture as a whole.

Whether he was "deified" or "deified", whether he was "warrior Lu Xun" or "non-warrior Lu Xun", it cannot change the fact that the great master has become a part of the national and even ethnic cultural background.

To study the great master is to dissect oneself. 】

After writing the last word, Zhang Chao breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the time. It was not yet 11 o'clock, and there was still more than half an hour before the exam ended. He couldn't help but sigh that being young is good, with more energy, active thinking, and faster writing speed.

Although I am more experienced in 2024, I cannot solve problems as quickly.

Zhang Chao checked the test paper again, paying special attention to check whether there were any mistakes in the admission ticket number and multiple-choice questions, and then closed his eyes to rest.

At 11:30, the bell rang to signal the end of the exam. The candidates left the examination room only after the invigilator had collected and counted the test papers.

When he saw his parents, Zhang Chao easily made an "OK" gesture, which made them feel relieved.

After having a light but hearty meal at noon, Zhang Chao went to take a good nap - he had a math test in the afternoon anyway.

However, thanks to the fact that I basically stayed in the classroom for the past six months and practiced my listening skills to get familiar with some basic questions, I was able to barely answer a few multiple-choice questions and fill-in-the-blank questions that I was not sure were right or wrong. I could only leave the rest blank.

Zhang Chao put down his pen and stared blankly at the white clouds outside the window, not knowing what he was thinking until the exam was over.

The next morning's English class basically repeated the math process. But thanks to the fact that he had trained his ears in class and memorized some words and grammar, Zhang Chao felt that this time he would be slightly better than the first and second mock tests.

The focus is on the liberal arts test in the afternoon, a 300-point comprehensive test paper with an exam time of 150 minutes.

In the limited review time of the past six months, Zhang Chao put almost all his energy into comprehensive liberal arts, except for reciting Chinese passages, and even scored 230 points in the second mock exam. Now, after two more months of review, Zhang Chao is sure that his comprehensive liberal arts skills have basically recovered.

If we only talk about the expression of the essay questions, Zhang Chao feels that he is now more concise, brief and accurate than in his previous life. However, the difficulty of the comprehensive liberal arts exam lies in the fact that the history, geography and politics knowledge is already very complicated, and there is also the need for cross-disciplinary study. The difficulty of some questions is indeed overflowing, and the essay questions are highly subjective.

Therefore, in the era of the old college entrance examination (3+X, i.e. Chinese, mathematics, English + liberal arts/science), the highest score for liberal arts history in most provinces was only around 280 points.

When answering comprehensive liberal arts questions, the most important thing is not to get stuck in a rut. You should learn to "let go" of some minor details to avoid running out of time to answer the questions and leaving big questions blank.

At 5:30 p.m., the bell rang to signal the end of the liberal arts exam.

Zhang Chao seemed to hear a low voice stirring and brewing in the air. Although the examinees were still standing in their seats waiting for the teacher to finish counting, their souls were already impatient to rush out the door.

The sun outside the window is still shining brightly, the sky is still blue, the air in early summer is humid and sticky, cicadas are chirping, and green leaves are fluttering.

Zhang Chao’s high school career ended again.

(End of this chapter)