Lu Mingfei, why are you slaying dragons if you're not involved!

Chapter 137 Full marks!

Read the following material and write an essay as required. (60 points)
"Wildfire cannot burn it all, the spring breeze brings it back to life," "If there is no torch left, I will be the only light," "A single spark can start a prairie fire"...

Fire, with its intense blazing light, illuminates the long river of human history. It is not only the light that dispels darkness, but also the hearth that warms the cold winter, and the fuse that ignites hope and change.

We sing praises to the power of fire, depict its form, and dedicate our lives to protecting and passing on that precious flame.

What associations and thoughts did the above material evoke in you? Please write an essay with your own title.

"When have I ever bribed the exam setter?"

Lu Mingfei thought to himself, scratched his head, and couldn't help but smirk upwards.

This is like Tang Sanzang returning to the Tang Dynasty in the East after overcoming eighty-one tribulations to obtain the sacred scriptures from the Western Paradise. The Tang Dynasty was almost catching up with him on the border, and suddenly someone jumped out and said, "I want to compete with you to see who can shout 'Wukong, save me!' better!"

Regardless of why we're comparing these things, let's just say that Tang Sanzang was experienced, wasn't he?
Similarly, this essay topic was as natural to Lu Mingfei as Tang Sanzang shouting "Wukong, save me!"

He even dared to declare – “No one understands fire better than me!”

The exam begins.

To be honest, since reaching Level 1 in Chinese, Lu Mingfei hasn't devoted much time to it these days; he's just been attending classes and listening to lectures.

However, unlike other subjects where improvement is difficult to achieve through classroom listening and requires self-study, his Chinese proficiency has improved significantly, reaching a score of 80/200.

In subjects like math and physics, you either know it or you don't.

As for Chinese language? It's difficult to define the concept of "knowing" this subject, and it's hard to say that you've "fully mastered" it.

As can be seen from the exam questions, the Chinese exam questions are divided into subjective and objective questions, and the subjective questions account for a much larger proportion than the objective questions!
Objective questions have a single standard answer, but subjective questions are different. Their answers are open-ended to some extent, and they test the candidate's analytical, synthetic, and expressive abilities.

The author himself would probably get zero points on reading comprehension questions based on his own works, because the exam no longer requires analyzing the original meaning of the work, but rather assessing the student's analytical and expressive abilities.

Even if the author's initial idea was simple—as simple as just wanting to pad out the word count or just happened to see a curtain of a certain color in reality—it still needs to be analyzed in depth when used as a reading comprehension question.

Therefore, it's not necessarily a negative teaching style for language teachers to talk about anything and everything during class, from ancient times to the present. Analysis has no formula; it represents the diversity of thinking. And thinking is all about divergent thinking and creativity. How can we cultivate this if we don't talk about things in a lot?
This is a continuous process of improvement that never ends.

Therefore, there are many simple ways to improve one's proficiency in Chinese language and literature—memorizing ancient poems and prose is one thing, but the most important and also the most challenging aspect is that reading and thinking skills can also be improved!
Even if the reading and thinking involved is not in the language arts, but just reading the question description, it still counts!

Of course, progress is slow if you rely solely on this method, but little by little, it adds up. As long as it increases, that's enough. Lu Mingfei is already very satisfied.

Time passed second by second, and the answer sheet was gradually filled with writing.

Lu Mingfei remained calm and unhurried. Although he had almost thirty minutes less time to answer the questions than others, he already had a "perfect answer" for the most time-consuming essay, which he could easily come up with and simply had to copy down!

then--

The clock on the wall directly above the center of the blackboard had just reached the number 11, and with three minutes and six seconds left on the countdown to the schedule, Lu Mingfei finally put down his pen and breathed a sigh of relief.

He scrutinized the answer sheet that he had already filled out, finding it pleasing to the eye...

Okay, not at all.

Lu Mingfei was slightly embarrassed. His handwriting... was typically "written like a chicken's crawl," and could only be barely understood by others.

There's nothing we can do about it, since he's never practiced calligraphy.

As someone whose grades were always among the lowest in the class, he used to do his homework on a whim, so how could he possibly care about such "trivial details"?
"No problem, as long as you can understand it!"

Lu Mingfei stood up.

In the quiet classroom, the sound of wooden stools scraping the floor suddenly drew everyone's attention, and all eyes turned to them.

If it were the old Lu Mingfei, this would have been enough to make him feel like he had a thorn in his side, shrinking his neck and drooping his head.

But right now, he was preoccupied with whether he should compose the music for "The True Meaning of Fire" during his self-study session to catch up on the progress. Since he had already anticipated this situation, he didn't care at all.

What's there to care about? Are you suggesting that you have to endure electric shocks just because you're worried about being seen by others?

I've finished answering the questions, I'm not giving up on myself!

So he walked calmly and naturally to the podium with his answer sheet.

"Submit the exam early?"

The proctor looked at Lu Mingfei with some surprise.

Teachers also chat and gossip among themselves. Although they were unaware of the series of sensational news on the campus forum due to confidentiality, they had all witnessed Lu Mingfei's visible efforts and the change in his image over the past few days.

They even discussed in private that if Lu Mingfei could continue to work hard like this, after the winter break and another half semester, he might become the new generation's "hard work and comeback" legend.
But Lu Mingfei is now actually handing in his paper early.

"Not writing anymore?"

"I'm done writing." Lu Mingfei smiled.

"Row……"

The proctor didn't want to say anything more, but just thought to himself, "It seems that Lu Mingfei hasn't changed. But even if he doesn't do well on the college entrance exam, he won't have to worry about making a living." So he let him go.

Lu Mingfei walked briskly out of the classroom, leaving almost all the students in the classroom in shock.

The teachers didn't know about the opening... but they did!

Lu Mingfei handed in his paper and left the exam room half an hour early. Was he trying to say, "I can still get 600 points even if I hand in my paper early"? Normally, the thought would be, "He's given up on himself," but Lu Mingfei has already left a deep impression on his classmates' subconscious in just nine days—

It seems like nothing is impossible for this guy.

"Stop looking around! Have you all finished your essays? Anyone else want to hand in their paper early?"

The proctor noticed the commotion below the podium and quelled it with a single sentence.

The effect was immediate; the classroom quieted down again, with only the faint sound of pen tips scratching across paper.

However... the proctor himself was getting a little restless.

Being a proctor is very boring. You can't use your phone, so you can basically just sit around or find something to do.

Coincidentally, the proctor was a Chinese language teacher from another class who had also participated in setting the questions for this mock exam and knew the answers to every question perfectly.

So, having nothing better to do, he tore off a piece of scrap paper and began grading Lu Mingfei's answer sheet directly—

Yes, that's the correct answer.

This question is also correct.

Then this question...

After a moment, he looked at the answer sheet again, somewhat confused, to make sure he hadn't misread it.

Did you get all the multiple-choice questions right?
Maybe it was just luck... let's see.

So he lowered his gaze, and what caught his eye first was the handwriting.

It's really ugly!

Fortunately, there were no problems with identification or cleanliness; there were no alterations, and it was still legible.

He then proceeded to correct the errors.

The classical Chinese translation is correct.

Ancient poetry appreciation: correct. Recitation: correct.

Then came the main event: modern text reading and language expression application...

A moment later, the proctor scratched his head.

It feels like an invisible electric current is coursing through your head; that feeling is called "scalp tingling".

This answer isn't exactly a direct copy of the standard answer, but it perfectly addresses every key scoring point.

According to the grading standards, so far he has not been able to find a single point to deduct from this answer sheet!

Shilan Middle School is full of talented people, and such extraordinary individuals have certainly appeared before... But when did such a person become involved with Lu Mingfei?

But he could guarantee that Lu Mingfei absolutely did not cheat, because anyone who has actually experienced it knows that when you stand on the podium and look down, you can see everything. Many times, if you try something and don't get caught, it's just because the teacher is too lazy to care or is giving you a chance.

"How about we look at the essay again?"

With that in mind, he flipped over the answer sheet.

A few minutes later...

He numbly put down the answer sheet, momentarily wondering if he hadn't slept well the night before, causing him to go a little crazy.

If he were to grade this answer sheet alone, it would receive an unprecedented level of recognition.

Full score!

This is Chinese language!
Moreover, the questions in this mock exam were quite difficult...

He reviewed and revised it several times, trying to find some flaws.

But as the exam bell rang, he became more and more satisfied! He even started to find the somewhat ugly handwriting more pleasing to the eye.

At this moment, two people rushed forward. One of them was the student who was the first to arrive at the classroom every day, besides Lu Mingfei and Ling, and whose campus forum ID was "Our Station's First Reporter". Both of them were holding Nikon D300 SLR cameras.

"Teacher, teacher, give me a smile! This is a photo from the 'Most Handsome Teacher' contest..."

"what?"

The proctor was taken aback, wondering when this event had started and how he hadn't heard it, but he still heard the words "most handsome," so he subconsciously made a peace sign.

Suddenly, the flash went off, not just once, but a series of flashes using the "strobe" function. In the blink of an eye, another assistant took photos of both sides of Lu Mingfei's answer sheet on the lectern with lightning speed, and then the two of them safely left.

Shortly after, two posts were published on the campus forum.

The first one is: "[The genius student confidently left the exam half an hour early; a score of over 600 is practically guaranteed?]"

The second point is: [To prevent any unscrupulous individuals from using treacherous schemes to influence the results, I and my assistant immediately took photos of the answer sheet for record-keeping! These photos will be released after the answers and total scores are available, to ensure fairness, impartiality, and transparency!]

(End of this chapter)