As a teenager I was a productive letter writer. One letter I wrote
1 .to56pages, and was 2 .of the extremely ordinary details (微不足道的事) of daily life. It could only have been of interest to me, and maybe, the receiver. But then, 3 , it might become attractive just because of the 4 details it recorded.
Official records of history-books and pictures--may record important events 5 they were always intended to have a large audience. 6 , letters tend not to be modified (修) , often true to 7 . They were, after all, 8 for just one pair of eyes.
Sadly, however, we don t write proper letters any more. Not only that, but, it's a fact that nowadays hardly anyone 9 to the letters they have receivedWe think only about 10 living and throwing things out. Who among us will leave any helpful papers for historians? In researching a book, I would never have found out that, in the late 19 th century, showy(花枝招展) waistcoats caused a lot of 11 , if I hadn't read the 12 . One fellow even wrote to a friend to say that if he were to ever meet a man wearing a kind of showy clothes he 13 shoot the man on sight.
What a 14 if such details were lost due to lack of letter writing and a little saving. I think we should all 15 to write at least one letter a month any try to 16 those we get.
17 good emails should be printed out and kept, too. Emails may not leave an example of our handwriting, but 18 they allow us to record our lives. Some years ago, a friend 19 me with a bundle of letters that I'd sent her since I was 16 . They gave a wonderful 20 of my teenage. History will need to know this, I'm sure.