东莞实验中学高二（13）班

    罗士涵

    指导老师：蒋坛军

    Luo Shihan, Class 13, Senior 2, Dongguan Experimental Middle School Instructed by Jiang Tanjun

    Now that we are in senior high school, the English textbooks we use are different from what we used years ago. For example, last year, the English textbook we used was “New Senior English for China Students Book 6” by People’s Education Press.

    When learning about “The Power of Nature” in Unit 5 on Page 33, I was confused by a sentence that said, “volcanology could be a good career for you.” I thought the word “volcanology” was used incorrectly because “volcanology” is a scientific subject term, not a career. But the word appeared in a sentence in an authoritative textbook, and the publisher was the most influential in China. If they use the word in a sentence, they must be correct, I thought.

    After thinking twice, I decided to express my viewpoint to my English teacher. Unexpectedly, he agreed with me and encouraged me to write an email articulating my point to the publisher.

    I sent an email to People’s Education Press before the Spring Festival. Because of a heavy school load, I quickly forgot about the email. Then, out of the blue, I received a reply from the publisher saying they used an inappropriate word and promised to revise the sentence soon. They also praised my independent thinking.

    What a surprising bit of encouragement!