When a thought has found words

Poetry（诗歌） is the forgotten child of literature． Few people read it for pleasure． In Western high

schools， poetry is seldom taught because it is considered to be out of date and have little to do with the life of today's students．

In China， however． poetry is still an important part of the curriculum（课程）． Recently， the Ministry of Education has increased the number of ancient Chinese poems for students to memorize and recite， from 14 to 72． Why is it important to learn poems？

First of all， poetry is a necessary part of learning traditional Chinese culture． It is a path to understanding your history and your society． It is also the key to understanding the thoughts and feelings that are common to everyone but that we may be unable to express﹣the joy of Li Bai dancing with the moon， for example． Everyone has feelings of joy， love， loneliness， sadness and even anger， and a good poem can put those feelings into words and bring us self﹣understanding．

Poems can also express beauty． In a few short lines， even something common can become beautiful． Here is a poem called Fog by Carl Sandberg： The fog comes/on silent haunches（弓腰）/and then moves on． Yes， fog does move smoothly， silently and like a cat， and Sandberg catches that feeling and image（形象）， and makes it beautiful．

Of course， to really enjoy poetry， it has to be read aloud． After all， a poem is really just a song without music． Most ancient poetry， like Homer's Epics（《荷马史诗》） and China's Book of Songs， was spoken for hundreds of years before it was written．

The American poet Robert Frost said， "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words．" You are lucky that you now have seventy﹣two poems to learn!

Title： When a thought has found words
Passage outline	Detailed information
In the West	Most people think poetry is （1）　　from the life of today's students
China's recent action	Students must memorize and recite more ancient Chinese poems
（2）　　for learning poetry	◇Learning poems helps you （3）　　history and society ◇Poems help express your personal thoughts and feelings ◇Poems can express beauty of （4）　　things with very few lines
A tip on enjoying poetry	（5）　　aloud is the best way to enjoy poetry． In fact， many ancient poems were spoken before they were written
Conclusion	Chinese students should feel lucky to have 72 poems to learn!

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