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Chrome Contact



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Chinese writing evolved from pictographs. It uses an ideographic script that expresses meaning directly through the forms of the characters themselves. This system of writing is unlike the phonetic alphabets and syllabaries of most other languages, which express meaning through phonetic representation.

11


Alec spun his old Chevy into Sundance’s student parking lot. Swirls of dust and gravel followed him as he raced to be on time for Professor Wong’s final exam.

Just in the nick of time, Alec preceded the professor into the room by several paces. The final was a set of a hundred NABB frames followed by three essay questions. They had a full 90 minutes to complete the test. Alec, who had a knack for details and a voracious memory, sped through it until he reached the last essay question on the heritage of Sima Qian, who in 107 BCE succeeded his father as Grand Historian of the Han court. 
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Alec had not studied the Han dynasty very well and all he could remember was that Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian was considered to be traditional China's greatest piece of historical writing. Beyond that he drew a blank until time was up.

After Dr. Wong’s final, he headed off to the last review class in Ancient Philosophy. He arrived in the classroom a half-hour early, beating Dr. Catania who typically was the first in the room. The room filled quickly with students poring over their texts in their final dash to the finish. Then, professor Catania jumped into the room as if he had just been transported from some other space-time point.

"Today, dear astute scholars, we will have the fifth and final…yes, final review of the main themes in the Meno," the agile professor announced. He bounced back and forth across the front of the room as if invisible rubber walls were containing him, preventing him from escaping to that other space-time point where, Alec could only conjecture, he must have been the moment before he appeared.

Alec hung on every word and nuance of the professor’s long, running commentaries in response to various questions from the students. He followed along in the original Greek text, reading as the small, bouncing professor recited lengthy passages, first in Greek and then in English—all from memory. The time passed quickly and the professor was making some final generalizations and final lists of key concepts.

"...and one final point...dissect Plato’s use of the Pythagorean Theorem in his experiment with the slave boy. Why did he use that example from geometry? Did the result shed any light on the initial question of the dialog? From the textual evidence, is it clear that Meno has had his question answered?" The kinetic professor paced in silence, alternately rubbing his hands and pulling on his earlobes.

Alec bolted upright in his seat. The professor’s reference to the Pythagorean Theorem conjured a floating right triangle in Alec’s imagination. "What if the Chrome was trying to do something similar to what Socrates attempted with Anytus?" Alec almost said aloud.

"That’s got to be it...at least for this summer," the professor almost shouted as he headed for the door. "Tomorrow, scholars, I expect to see your final best!" And with that, he vanished through the doorway as if it were a portal into another dimension.
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© 2000 Centroid Communications.

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