<p>Hi, I took the SAT test today and here is my essay, can you score it for me, so that I will begin my college search right now :D :D</p>
<p>“No great man live in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.”
(Thomas Carlyle, “The Hero as Divinity.” (1841))
“In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event itself.”
(Leo Tolsoy, War and Peace, Book 9, Chapter 1)</p>
<p>Assignment: What is your view of the claim that history is made not only by the actions of great leaders, but also by the daily contributions of average people? Support your stuffs with all stuffs that you can get from all stuffs that you read, read and read from whatever whatever and whatever … :D :D :D (I'm just joking. No offend)</p>
<p>While history books, as we learn in school, highlight only great events and great men, the history is also made up of daily contributions of average people. Without those contributions, great men couldn’t do such “big victories” that we learn of everyday. These are many less interesting events that associate with a great events. Take the history book in my country, for example. Since history isn’t a “main subject”, we learn so little history that we only know that the last leader of the Soviet was Mikhail Gorbachev. We don’t know that what brought about USSR’s collapse is a long story: Cold War, Emergency Committee, 1991 coup. We only know that Yeltsin dared to clamber up on a tank to defy the coup, as if he was a hero, but we hardly know that Russian people gathered before the Government’s bulding to denounce it, too. Their gathering was “contributions of ordinary people”, which was definitely a part of history, though many could neglect the fact.</p>
<p>In science classes, we often encounter passages of great talented scientists’ biography. Again, many people among us only know of those great men’s names. Doing more research, I found out that some well-known experiments resulted from ideas of college students (Oersted’s experiment of bar magnet and electric current), from other less-known scientists’ research (astrological accomplishments surely have taken results from millions of hours of observation in many space research institutes around the world). Great scientists themselves need co-ordinators, assistants, funds, universities in order to succeed. Again, those can be viewed as “ordinary people’s contributions”, and yet as a part of history.</p>
<p>In conclusion, I can say that history is “biography of world’s whole population”, not that of great men. In fact, with the development of Internet, one could find out all related minor information associating with a great event. One could find out all information of a ordinary congressman of the 1950s, who had ordinary position, and then retired without a little fame. I’m glad that history didn’t sideline those people.</p>
<p>If you can, please correct my grammatical errors. I did leave time to revise, so if I didn't find out one error, then that one must be very serious. Thank you.</p>