Saving the past

江西 江海連

題材：文物修復 體裁：記敘文 文章詞數(shù)：329 建議用時：6分鐘

For a decade, Xie Jincheng has been completely involved in his duties at the National Library of China (NLC) in Beijing.Each working day, he sits at a desk and focuses on handling ragged yet priceless pieces of paper in front of him.As one of the 17 restorers of ancient books at the NLC, he shakes off centuries of old dust to renew the works he deals with.

Xie does not require a large space to use his skills.Using glue, scissors, tweezers (鑷子), brushes and several other simple implements, he skilfully restores the pages in front of him.

Xie, who majored in chemistry at college, switched to cultural relics conservation at graduate school, realizing that there was a shortage of restorers of ancient books in China.Despite his educational background, he thought that practicing a traditional craft was the best way to improve his skills.It took Xie more than two years of observing his tutors and developing his talent before he was formally assigned (分派) to restore his first page.

Everyone working in this industry has to learn a saying from the Ming Dynasty book Zhuanghuangzhi, “Restoration (of books) is like seeing a doctor.If the doctor is good, your illness will disappear immediately following treatment.But if not, you may die taking the medicine.So if you cannot see a good craftsman, you'd better keep your item as it is.”

To ensure quality, Xie only restores a few pages a day, and if the damage is severe, it sometimes takes him several days to fix a single page.It takes much longer time to search for the right paper to restore books, based on their original material.Patience is greatly required to do this job well.

Xie feels he is much more fortunate than restorers in ancient times.A long-term exhibition of key books restored in recent years opened at the NLC in 2020.Some of the titles he worked on are on display, with his name highlighted on tags.

Reading Check

1.What's the function of the first paragraph?

A.To state an opinion.B.To introduce a report.

一般每畝用33%二甲戊靈150～200毫升，對水40～50升；或每畝用90%的乙草胺藥液100～130毫升，對水40～50升，均勻噴于壟面上，噴藥后，要及時覆膜，保持藥效。可以有效地防除一年生禾本科雜草及部分闊葉雜草如稗草、馬唐、狗尾草、早熟禾、馬齒莧等。

C.To lead in the topic.D.To advertise an ancient book.

2.What does the underlined word “implements” in paragraph 2 mean?

A.Books.B.Tools.C.Skills.D.Pens.

3.Why did Xie change his major at graduate school?

A.He wanted to challenge himself.

B.He showed little interest in chemistry.

D.He learned the lack of restorers of ancient books in China.

4.Why does the author mention Zhuanghuangzhi?

A.To show it is a famous book.

B.To warn people of medicine's effects.

C.To help people understand the restoration of books better.

D.To explain the relationship between doctors and patients.

Language Study

Difficult sentence

To ensure quality, Xie only restores a few pages a day, and if the damage is severe,it sometimes takes him several days to fix a single page.為了保證質量，謝每天只修復幾頁，如果損壞嚴重，他有時要花幾天時間來修復一頁。

【點石成金】該句中and連接兩個并列句，to ensure quality為不定式作目的狀語。