今天修完美国历史课了,帖出作业供大家批评指证。

美国老师是不会让我们写定义那种作业的. 不同章节所有的作业都一样：这一章，你都学啥了？

这种作业也不是归纳总结性的作业。Reflection和读后感的意思差不多。要谈体会，要没话找话，才能写出这种作业。

这种作业要通读教材，看完教材配备的录像之后，才能写出来. 

这个月修这门课,  我一共写了26个这样的作业.

这个作业满分10 分, 我得了9分.

In a reflection paper of 1-2 pages please reflect on what you learned from Lesson 1: The Gilded Age.

After the civil war, United States was an underdeveloped country. How was America transformed to the advanced country now? In this lesson, it is shown that the development and movement in The Gilded Age (1865-1890) laid an important foundation for the next era in the American History.

During The Gilded Age, a period of “Get-rich-quick” and “era of incredible rottenness” as described by Mark Twain, many American heroes and vallians, including Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, stood out. Meanwhile, new inventions, including telephone and electricity, came into the world. Furthermore, women played more active roles in shaping America. Among so many social and technical events in this period, I am particularly interested in three things: the telephone, electricity and “Women’s holy war”.

The telephone was invented by Canadian immigrant Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 of The Gilded Age in American history. The invention of the telephone was significant not only for The Gilded Age to promote communication and business but also for our daily life now. To me, the telephone is a convenient tool to communicate with relatives and families in China. When I came to USA in 1990, the cheapest rate to call China was $1 per minute during the midnight time. More than 24 years later, the rate to call China now is so low and sometimes I can even have a free talk with family members in China using wechat by iphone. To me, Bell is not only American hero but also a world hero. Without his invention in the The Gilded Age, without the telephone, I cannot image how people around the world can survive our daily life. Due to the similar reason, Thomas Alva Edison is also a world hero to me because he invented electricity, which everyone in the world needs now, during The Gilded Age.

Although men dominated many things such as business and politics during The Gilded Age, the active role played by women cannot be ignored. To my understanding, the most inspiring Women Activism event that happened in this period was “Women’s holy war”, whose mission was to end drunkenness by temperance movement.  During the winter of 1873-74, temperance women armed with Bible and singing hymns marched to liquor store for a pledge to quit selling liquor. In our today’s view, these temperance women seemed to overreact with the bad influence of alcohol. However, their ideas and courage deserve our respect. Even in today’s life, alcoholism still plays negative role in family lives. The fact that women are abused physically and orally by their drunken husband still holds true.  Therefore, the core value of “Women’s holy war” of The Gilded Age is significant to our life now.