Chapter 7 Chapter VII

one Tom has never been particularly diligent about his studies, but he has done very well in subjects such as mathematics, English and science.He kept peas in bottles, and once he put an ant nest in a glass box, where he lived with the ants for a while.He observed how ants greeted their companions and how they reproduced, while imagining himself as an ant.When spring came, he always wanted to buy a pot of pansies.When the flowers bloomed, the velvety petals and beautiful colors always excited him.In fact, Tom has a great interest in all insects and flowers. When Flora bought fish on Fridays, she always told the fishmonger to save the heads from chopping them off.Her father-in-law likes to eat the heads of big carp, and her mother can turn them into a delicacy by adding some seasonings.If Flora bought the smaller fish, the head was always what Dad ate.Pa said there was a special flavor around the mouth of the fish, and there was nothing better in the world than that.But when the fish came to the table, the head was often messed up, the eyes were missing, and Dad's favorite part was broken.

How did this fish become blind?asked Dad at the dinner table. Tom gouged out the eyes.Flora replied. What are you going to do with it? I'm working on them.Tom said. Tom used to goug his eyes out, and there was a sticky, clear liquid around the eyeballs.He sometimes wondered how a man would see if his eyes were placed on the sides of his head like a fish's.He put the slimy liquid in the wine bottle. What do you use these things for?Flora asked. It looks like egg whites, I'm going to collect them. Tom!You are still so childish.You want to use them for scrambled eggs, don't you?Or use it for other purposes?

I don't know either. Tom just felt that such a transparent and clear liquid looked very comfortable.He fantasizes that one day he can invent a potion that will make you live forever, or at least he can make good glue out of it. His history is poor.The only thing that interested him about Charlemagne was its peculiar pronunciation.He called Napoleon Napkins goodbye.He also determined that Napoleon's surname was Bonaparte, Bon means good (French), and aparte means separate (both words mean separate) Napkins (diapers), showing his contempt for the invaders.Why would he want to rule the world?He read of Waterloo and was delighted to know that Napkin had been defeated, and he thought St. Helena would be a perfect fit for him.He got an E in history, which was unusual for him.

What's the matter with you, Tom.Feng?You are a smart kid, but you didn't do your homework seriously.His history teacher asked him that the one who taught him history was a male teacher in his fifties. Because there are many interesting things waiting for me to study.He thinks of pansies, ant nests and fish eyes at home. But isn't Napoleon funny? What is there to study about him?He is so short. He has done many great things! He killed many people, and he only wanted to be bigger and stronger than others.that is it. Don't you want to be a great man who changed the history of mankind?

No!Tom thought for a while before answering slowly.The idea of ​​changing the history of the world had never occurred to him. But you also respect the great men, don't you? Yes. Let's look at some examples! Newton.And Wright, Edison, and Singer. What winner?I've never heard of this guy. Oh, I thought he was the one who invented the sewing machine. Napkins can't do that. who? Napkins, this is my name for Napoleon. What's wrong with Napoleon?The history teacher asked embarrassingly and amusedly.He had taught Charlemagne and Napoleon for thirty years, and he felt that Tom despised Napoleon as if he despised his profession.

He was on the side of Louis XVI.The revolutionaries killed Louis XVI, so Napkins killed the revolutionaries.They kill each other.They kill others, others will kill them.do you understand me?He is simply a madman. Who is the madman? Napoleon, he thought he was greater than anyone else.Maybe the gods wanted him to be emperor or something.At last he had to be imprisoned in the castle. where? By castle, I mean St. Helena.It doesn't matter what you say, people with mental illness should be locked up there anyway. Um!We see in some respects that all great men have some degree of madness.

Thomas.Edison would not.He was right, and he proved he was always right.Singer people are also good.I mean those lunatics always get us right, Jeffrey.So did Hrukuk. tell me jeffyHrukuk thing. He wanted to bully all the boys, he and Mace wanted to be leaders, and he never let our weaker classmates go. The history teacher only knew that Hlutchuk often failed the exams, and never knew anything about him.In fact, he has no idea what the students are doing outside of the classroom. You say Jeffy is the leader of the boy group? Yes.He said he was going to be a ruler when he grew up, or a senator, or something.

And you never wanted to be a leader? No, neither can I. oh!Between the two of us, the history teacher narrowed his eyes into a thin slit and whispered to him, I don't want to be a leader either, I just study those heroes objectively. two Tom was absorbing new ideas all the time, and when he was in ninth grade, he had to learn more about American history.These things seemed to be far away from him, especially the "Declaration of Independence", he had never read such difficult and difficult things, and it was not his favorite English at all.He went to his teacher to help him explain these declarations. Today, his history teacher is a radical with glasses. The first long sentence of the Declaration of Independence stumped Tom, and it sounded like a solemn and rhythmic syllable.

What does it mean to be freed from political shackles? That is to break the relationship between England and the colonies. And in order to show respect for the human point of view, they should be required to state the reasons that compelled them to take the means of disengagement? That means we should tell others why we do what we do. Tom tried to read the sentences out loud and tried to pronounce them correctly, following the tradition of Chinese reading aloud.They should be required to declare that they read well.But what kind of request is this? A respectful request. What are they asked to declare?

State the reasons for persecuting them. You are respectfully asked to state the reasons for the oppression.Tom read slowly.Mr. Witson, these are like ancient Chinese characters.They make us fail to understand what they write, and think they are very learned people. The word birthright took the teacher a lot of time to explain to Tom. Why are they birthright? Because no one can take those rights away.Like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they were yours when you were born.No one can take freedom away from you.No one can take away our right to be happy. Nobody? Nobody.The teacher said with certainty.He had a feeling that these things were not only completely foreign to young Tom, but revolutionary.

Who said this? Said by the men who founded the republic. Do you believe this statement? All Americans believe it.You remember, no one.Then he said, this is why we have the America we have today.The young teacher spoke with high spirits. What if someone wants to take your rights away? You can shake them off.Read on. The existence of the government is to protect these human rights. Unless people want this government to govern them, the government has no right to rule.If any government violates these human rights, the people have the right to change the government, overthrow them and install a new government. Mr. Whitson knew that some new ideals were slowly forming in Tom.He explained the whole of the Declaration of Independence to Tom, and he said more to him than he ever said in class, because Tom listened intently.By the time he finished speaking, an hour had passed. To tax the people without explaining it is a despotism.The teacher repeated this.It was almost the strangest thing Tom had ever heard, and he listened eagerly.In the US taxpayers are the most important.He pays his taxes and he gets to choose the government he wants.Tom couldn't believe it.This is the foundation of American democracy. The next day, the teacher said in class: Tom.Feng, stand up and tell the whole class what the Declaration of Independence is about?Tom surprised the whole class. Who is the king of England, Tom?Mr. Whitson asked. George III. What kind of person is he? He is a moron.He can't even speak English well. The whole class roared with laughter. And his queen is a flirtatious woman.Tom went on to say so again, using a word he had only recently looked up in the dictionary (libbetigihbet frivolous woman), and the class laughed again. Why did the American people declare independence from England? What else did the Declaration of Independence say? Tom paused, and then said: When a nation wants to break the chains that another nation imposes on it, they should announce to the other people why they do so.Government exists to protect our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of pleasure.No one can take away these rights.If a government violates these rights of ours, then we can overthrow that government and install a new one. The whole class listened carefully, none of them thought that this declaration could be expressed in such simple words. Go on!Teacher says. The people of the colonies were crushed by England until they could not bear it.We all know that people have always been too lazy to change the status quo.The people of the colony decided not to go on like this.George VIII was not fair at all, he ordered them, he made unfair deals with them, he deprived them of their rights.Example: The king says that laws passed without his permission are bad, but he never allows laws that are good, practical and important to the people.He said they would have to wait until he had thought it all through before deciding whether to allow them, but he simply threw the bills aside.He summoned the representatives of the colonies to small country towns with poor transportation, where they could not begin to draft the manuscripts they needed.He did this only to play tricks on the delegates, exhausting them and abandoning their original purpose.Tom gave examples as he remembered, and concluded that every time the king ordered a tax the people of the colony begged him to change it.In fact they were pleading in vain, and he exploited the people again and again in spite of their pleas.A tyrant has no right to rule over us.We also appealed to the Englishmen of our blood, but they ignored us.The people of the colony were fed up with all this and decided to overthrow the king and declare them free. When the history teacher listened to Tom express the idea he said yesterday so clearly, his eyes lit up and a happy expression appeared on his face. three Sister-in-law, Tom said to Flora, are the people who pay the taxes really the most important people in America? Yes, that's right!Flora said. Are you a taxpayer? Yes I am. The concept was new to Tom.It took him a few days to absorb it, to understand it.Teacher's words: No one can deprive you of your rights, no one can.It kept ringing in his ears.He began to understand why the American was so proud of himself and disliked showing weakness to others, preferring to fight the person who violated him.He also understands why the American girl struts without flinching.A long time ago, he read George.Washington, Abraham.Lincoln, and of the people, by the people, and for the people.Everyone usually only understands the literal meaning, not what it really means.But it's pretty clear that taxpayers pay taxes to support their government in the hope that it will protect them.He elects a government and wants it to work out, and if the government doesn't do its job, the taxpayers can overthrow them and elect a new government.Now he totally understands. He saw Jeff and his gang, all so domineering and ready to fight, just like the white people he saw on the streets of Canton, and the Chinese always backed down.When he boarded a steamboat in Hong Kong, he saw a white man in a sun hat and shorts hire a sampan to carry his luggage to the steamboat.The owner of the sampan charged a higher price.The white guy could decide if he wanted to pay a little more, but he just chose to beat the sampan owner to solve his problem.It was lucky for him that the sampan driver didn't throw his bronzed arms back and forth. Tom's mother often told him not to fight with others.He who strikes first in any dispute is considered a savage by others, no matter how much the other party offends him.So Jeffy is a good American, right?Tom was confused.He thought again, maybe the Americans will overthrow Jeffrey's rule!Thinking of this, he felt better. One day, my eldest brother brought home a Chinese-English bilingual "Four Books".The first half of each page is in Chinese, and the bottom half is an English translation.No one in the family had actually read Confucius.When my eldest brother was ten or twenty years old, his father often asked him to read it, but his father didn't know how to read it, let alone teach him to read it.The eldest brother had to flip through the book in a hurry, and he didn't understand most of the meanings.Anyway, all of them are sentences beginning with Ziyue.Some sentences are useful, but some sentences don't make sense at all.The second brother is not interested in this book at all, and he doesn't even touch it. When my father saw the "Four Books" brought back by his eldest brother, his eyes lit up. Ask Tom to read this book, it has great lessons in how to be a gentle gentleman.And Eva, you must read this book too. This book got the whole family curious.The content of the book mentions many things about politics, etiquette, benevolence, and shame, but rarely mentions about children.Moreover, the English part of it is poorly translated, making it difficult to understand. After a few glances, Eva lost interest.She said: Confucius said a lot of things about a gentleman, a gentleman should be like this, a gentleman should be like that, but he didn't mention what a lady should be.Confucius was not interested in women, and neither am I. I don't want to read his books. It took Tom some time to study the book, but he found it tiresome to read the dull epigrams.A gentleman asks for himself, but a villain does the opposite.These great principles are like Mrs. Dennis's lectures in the morning meeting. The book "Mencius" is better, the chapters are longer and easier to understand.One of them said that King Xuan of Qi had a private park of seventy square miles. Mencius believed that this park should be turned into a public park so that the people could share the king's pleasure.Mencius said that those who hunt in the king's park will be sentenced to death, just like setting a trap of seventy square miles in the country to trap the people.Tom understood and liked the meaning of this passage.He didn't know whether King Xuan of Qi opened his private park as a public park.Maybe not!Later he also put the book aside. One night, his father said to him: Tom, I didn't see you reading "Four Books". I don't understand what it's saying.Seniors and young are orderly, husband and wife are different, father and son have relatives, and friends have trust.That's the way it is! I can't teach you either.Confucius is the wisest man, and all the scholars adore him.Maybe you should have a Chinese teacher.Isn't what he said very wise? I have no idea. Tom turned his attention to his ant nest again.