HAPPINESS never lasts long. Soon all the lessons were over and it was time for the end-of-term exam. Sophie hated it very much. For this kind of exam, she had always stick to one principle since she entered college: HAIL TO 60. She was always absent for a whole term of some “unimportant classes”, and had to recite a lot of books a few days before the exams. When she was taking the exam she was also very careless. She was always the first student to hand in the paper, and never checked it again carefully. She had her own excuses for this kind of attitude: “She loved knowledge and she hated exams. The Exam System was hateful restraining living thoughts. However, ever since primary school to college, she never got rid of the exams. She felt very upset and she had to take risks. By and by she formed a bad habit, and she did everything carelessly. Each time her score was lower and lower, and for several times she nearly failed.

 

This term Sophie was still very careless when she took the exam. The Intensive English Reading Exam was the most difficult, and she did not prepare for it carefully. So she was very worried when she handed in the paper. 

As soon as Sophie returned school the next term she hesitantly ran to check her scores. To her great relief and delight, she passed all the courses, even the most difficult Intensive English Reading.  

The next day Sophie waited for the Intensive English Reading Class to begin gladly. But she discovered that Professor Hu’s smiles had become rather fixed. Her own smile vanished also. 

 “Today I was quite shocked when I checked your scores. I could not believe my eyes. Our class gets the lowest average score in the department. I am really very disappointed. I thought there was no problem! Even though it was a bit difficult, you cannot get so low scores. At first I did not want to make you too tired, so I seldom asked you to do any homework. Then shall we learn from Class 7 from this term?”

The classroom was all-silent. It was the first time Sophie was criticized since she came to college. 

The professor paused for a moment and continued: “If you keep getting this kind of scores since sophomore year, you will suffer great losses. You are already in sophomore year. It will be late if you do not work hard. If you want to get a good job, a high score is one of the many basic conditions. 

Sophie used to look down upon so called “high scores”. To her opinion, it was earthly matter for common people to deal with. As for her future, she never considered carefully. She thought her present life would be less happy if she was worried about her future. Ever since she went to college, she never treated a single exam carefully. What Linda persuaded her went in one ear and out the other. But today, Professor Hu’ s earnest and anxious words had for the first time pricked her dumb nerves. 

On the platform, Professor Hu was adding: “The grammar part, the most basic, I can’t imagine you…”

The word “grammar” was what Sophie hated most. She thought all of the grammar problems were rubbish, the killer of living thought. It is not worthy of any attention. When she thought about this, Sophie raised her head and gave a slight smile absent-mindedly. 

On the platform Professor Hu had observed all of Sophie’ s slight reactions. Gazing at Sophie’ s raised eyebrows, she gave her a sincere advice in English: “Don’t overlook the difficulties! Sometimes things are not what you take granted for!”

The class was quite surprised. They did not know why Professor Hu said this sentence suddenly. Soon Sophie’ s arrogance reduced a great deal. 

Professor Hu added with a slightly sarcastic smile: “I remember somebody once said, one should only depend on interest in academic research. Now it is proved that it is far from enough!”

Sophie flushed. She never could imagine the professor had remembered “somebody” ’s dreamy words clearly in her mind and tried every means to persuade her. Even parents of her own could not be so considerate! Sophie was deeply moved. 

From then on, Sophie listened to the class much more carefully, hoping to get a high mark in the exam.