r18novel Chapter 71 Professor Sergei
Chapter 71 Professor Sergei
Chapter 71 Professor Sergei
Recalling his carefree days in high school, Hu Yi felt deeply ashamed. Looking at his current situation, however, he couldn't help but feel a little excited.
This excitement caused all sorts of things to resurface, including the personality traits that I had been deliberately suppressing for the past two years. I felt lightheaded and unsure of what to say, which is why I made that casual joke with Yu Feifei a few days ago.
Hu Yi has regained some of his former carefree attitude. Although he no longer acts as recklessly as he did in high school, he suddenly felt a sense of presence in the classroom and the joy of learning. This made him unconsciously return to his habit of interrupting in class.
Of course, although both involve responding to a question, their nature is quite different. In high school, responding to questions was mostly nonsense, a meaningless attempt to attract attention, just to embarrass the teacher and amuse the classmates. Now, however, it's mostly about extending and expanding on the lesson content, or answering questions by anticipating the teacher's train of thought. It's basically responding seriously, even if there's a bit of showing off involved.
Most teachers were quite tolerant of his attempts to liven up the classroom atmosphere, especially the younger female teachers, who were often amused and laughed heartily. Even if what he said was extremely wrong, they didn't care and patiently explained it to him. Only Professor Sergei disliked his frivolous behavior.
Sergei was one of the most senior professors in the entire university, around fifty years old, with a long face and rather faint features, lacking definition. If Hu Yi had met him later in life, he would have immediately thought of Facebook.
What Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of [company name], looks like when he's older.
Professor Sergei was a tall man with a slight stoop, but he always appeared at the school in a sharp suit, his silver hair was neatly combed, he spoke with perfect precision, and his blackboard writing was meticulous. He addressed everyone with the formal "you" in all his manners, giving him a slightly old-fashioned and polite old scholar vibe.
The professor's course is on Language, History, National Conditions, and Culture. It's a large, combined lecture, held only once every two weeks, with first-year language majors attending together. The course content is broad yet relaxed, covering backgrounds from ancient to modern times, and encompassing historical and cultural knowledge from many countries and regions.
With fewer than ten classes per semester, it's clearly insufficient time for a detailed study and exploration of such a broad topic. It only allows freshmen a rough understanding of the general principles and thought processes. The course doesn't have a textbook, and the professor's lectures are very divergent, often delving into a single point according to his own train of thought. He dislikes being interrupted, rarely asks questions, and spends most of his time lecturing on his own.
It is conceivable that such a course would be quite difficult even for the Russian students in the same class. Although the foreign students had completed the preparatory education, it was still very difficult for them to understand Sergei's class with their current vocabulary. Most of the time, they could only listen with furrowed brows and try their best to take notes.
Hu Yi was no exception. He didn't expect the old man's first lesson to be so confusing. He felt a little frustrated and exchanged glances with the foreign students next to him several times, only to find that they all looked helpless.
"—It's obvious that even in ancient human societies, language constantly evolved and changed along with social activities. Especially during the construction of some large-scale ancient projects, due to the concentration of a large amount of manpower and resources, and the protracted labor, new technologies and division of labor would constantly emerge, and language had to evolve accordingly to meet the communication needs of the workers. Speaking of this topic—" After more than half of the class had passed, Sergei finally initiated the first classroom interaction: "As we all know, there are seven famous architectural wonders in the ancient world. Do you know what they are?"
"The Great Pyramid of Giza!" "The Hanging Gardens of Babylon!" "The Lighthouse of Alexandria!" "The Statue of Zeus!"
The students offered a few suggestions all at once.
"Very good, very good." Sergei nodded and added, "And there's the Colossus of Apollo, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and the Temple of Artemis. So we can see that each of these architectural wonders is related to—"
He'd only spoken halfway when Hu Yi suddenly shouted excitedly, "The Great Wall of China!"
Sergei paused slightly, then smiled and shook his head. "The Great Wall of China, well—it could certainly be called an architectural marvel, but it's not within the scope of our discussion." He then continued, "These architectural marvels—"
"Why?" Hu Yi pressed. He didn't mean to interrupt Sergei, but he had always heard people say that the Great Wall was one of the eight architectural wonders of the world, and now this old man was saying it was one of the "seven wonders." Moreover, although the phrases that everyone had just used were all unfamiliar, they obviously did not include the Great Wall of China, which made him very curious.
"This involves architecture from different historical periods," Sergei replied patiently. "If you're interested, we can discuss it in history class."
Hu Yi nodded quickly and stopped talking. In his mind, architectural wonders of the world should at least include the Colosseum in ancient Rome, but since the professor hadn't mentioned it, perhaps he really hadn't understood what he was talking about.
The concept of "World Architectural Wonders" lacks authoritative selection criteria and is often proposed by one or more individuals and widely accepted to this day. The earliest widely accepted list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Europeans dates back to the pre-Christian era. The structures listed were limited to the Mediterranean coast and surrounding areas accessible to Europeans at the time, and most are now destroyed. The world-famous Colosseum in Rome was not yet built, and the Great Wall of China in the far east was unknown, thus falling under the category of medieval architectural wonders.
Sergei slowly and methodically recounted the impact of ancient large-scale engineering projects on language development and change. Looking at the worried foreign students in the classroom, he smiled slightly: "What I regret is that Russia hasn't left behind any engineering feats in its history that can truly be called 'miracles.' However, Russia does possess a world-renowned miracle. I'd like to ask the foreign ladies and gentlemen here, do you know what Russia's world miracle is?"
There was a moment of silence in the classroom, then the Israeli girl tentatively answered, "The Kremlin?"
The muscular young man chimed in, "It's the National Economic Achievements Exhibition Hall!"
Sergei shook his head: "None of them are correct."
After a moment's thought, the African-American girl happily raised her hand: "I know! It's the Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg!"
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