汉字之美

蒋建平

我们生活在一个电脑和智能终端使用都极其方便的数字时代，学习手写汉字真的有必要吗？作者给出了自己的答案。

1 Handwritten Chinese characters can be beautiful. I still remember looking at Chinese and not understanding anything it said and yet feeling a strong sense of beauty. Living in a digital era with smartphones and computers， most students sooner or later ask themselves this question： Is it really necessary to learn how to write by hand in Chinese？

2 First of all， knowing how to write Chinese characters by hand is just cool. It feels like magic when you write a few strokes （笔画） on paper that dont normally make sense， but they suddenly come together and create a meaning. And amazingly， you can understand it.

3 Second， handwriting characters is a form of meditation （冥想）. Once you learn how to stay focused， you will not only notice that your concentration skills improve， but you will also find yourself feeling calm and relaxed when writing characters.

4 Third， handwriting characters trains your muscle memory， making characters stay longer in your memory and improving your reading and speaking skills. You can manage without handwriting characters and learn Chinese to a certain level， but without knowing how to write characters by hand， you are very unlikely to reach a level above intermediate （中等的）.

5 Most people agree that we should learn to write at least some characters at some point as a student of Chinese. But unless you dont care about written language at all， you should learn the basics of handwriting. Without it， it will be very hard to understand characters. You dont need to be a calligraphy （书法） master， but you do need basic handwriting skills to do this. Simply looking at things is， as usual， a bad way of learning.

6 Learning the most common 500 characters or so is a good idea for all students. If you actually want to write by hand， extend that to 1，000. Then learn to write characters by hand outside of the 1，000 most common on a need?to?know basis.

1. What does the author think of Chinese characters？

A. They are communicative.

B. They are easy to understand.

C. They are attractive and of great beauty.

D. They show the greatness of Chinese culture.

2. How many advantages of writing Chinese characters are mentioned？

A. Two. B. Three.    C. Four.          D. Five.

3. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 5 refer to？

A. Understanding characters.

B. Being a calligraphy master.

C. Forming a good learning habit.

D. Learning basic handwriting skills.

4. What is the authors attitude to learning to write characters in the digital age？

A. Worried. B. Uncaring. C. Supportive. D. Surprised.

Useful expressions

a digital era 數字时代

its necessary to do 做……很有必要

first of all 首先

write a few strokes on paper 在纸上写几笔

stay focused 保持专注

train muscle memory 训练肌肉记忆

a calligraphy master 一位书法大师

as usual 照常