Some people believe that we cannot learn anything from the past for our life today, while others believe that history is a valuable source of information to understand human's life. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

There are those who argue that we cannot gain anything from the past from our current

life

. Others,

however

, contend that

history

is a great way to understand human

life

. To the way of my thinking, both views make sense,

although

for quite different reasons. In defence of the

first

argument, there are all kinds of reasons why it is logical, the way I see it. In the

first

place, we live in a modern world. Our lives are heavily dependent on technological devices like smartphones, computers and so on, which is quite different from the old time.

For instance

, we use smartphones to make calls, shop, bank and the like. It follows,

therefore

, our

life

is convenient.

In contrast

to the past, people used to write letters to each other to stay in touch. Not only that, but we

also

rely on science to take care of our health. There are many scientific research findings regarding healthy diets. To name but one example, many chemistry companies develop various supplements for vegetarians and vegans. Be that as it may,

however

, there are good reasons why the

second

argument is valid if you ask me. For one thing, it broadens our knowledge regarding things that happened in earlier times.

History

teaches us why and how it happened. If we knew why bad things happened in earlier times, to illustrate

this

, we can use

this

knowledge to stop things from occurring in the future. As well as

this

, historical knowledge helps governments and companies design better social and economic policies.

For example

, the Great Wall has an incomparable symbolic significance in the

history

of China. Turning to my own experience in relation to

this

matter, the situation in my country, China, is much the same as it is all over the world. My hometown of Qingdao in Shangdong Province is a textbook case in point in

this

regard. Here, it is mandatory to study science, computer and business courses while

history

is an elective course. These core subjects can help students to get good jobs later in

life

. At the end of the day, there are pros and cons to all choices we make, in all aspects of our lives. It matters how we use

history

in different contexts.