Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People should read those books that are about real events, real people, and established facts. Use specific reasons and details to support your opinion.
The Importance of Fiction
小说的重要性
How could anyone suggest that people should only read about real events, real people, and established facts? For one thing, that means people wouldn't be reading half of all the great books that have ever been written, not to mention the plays, short stories and poetry. For another, it would mean that people's imaginations would not develop as children and would remain dulled throughout their lives.
怎么可能有人建议人们只应该阅读真实的事件、真实的人和既定的事实？一方面，这意味着人们不会阅读所有伟大著作的一半，更不用说剧本、短篇小说和诗歌了。另一方面，这意味着人们的想象力不会在孩提时代发展，而且在他们的一生中都会保持迟钝的状态。
Reading stories as a child helps develop our creativity by reaching us a lot about how to use words to create mental images. It open our world up, exposing us to other times and different ways of living. Reading histories of those times would serve kind of the same purpose, but it probably wouldn't stick in our minds as sharply. Reading an essay about poverty in Victorian England is not the same thing as reading in Charles Dicken's Oliver Twist. The images of a small boy being sold are more horrifying than simply reading the statement, “children were sold into labor “because a novel makes that small boy seem real to understanding fiction makes a more lasting impression on our minds and emotions.
小时候读故事有助于培养我们的创造力，因为它让我们了解了如何使用文字来创造精神形象。它打开了我们的世界，让我们接触到其他时代和不同的生活方式。阅读那个时代的历史也有同样的目的，但它可能不会在我们的脑海中留下那么深刻的印象。读一篇关于维多利亚时代英国贫困的文章和读查尔斯·狄更斯的《雾都孤儿》不一样。一个小男孩被卖的画面比简单地读一句话更可怕：“孩子们被卖了，因为一本小说使这个小男孩看起来真实，理解小说会给我们的思想和情感留下更持久的印象。”
Besides, storytelling is an emotional need for human beings. From earliest times, humans have taught their children about life, not by telling them facts and figures, but by telling them stories. Some of these stories show what people are like (human nature),and help us experience a wide range of feelings. Some make us think about how we should act. Telling a child that it's wrong to lie will make little impression, but telling him the story of a little boy whose grows longer every time be tell a lie will make a big impression.
此外，讲故事是人类的一种情感需求。从最早的时候起，人类就教导他们的孩子生活，不是通过告诉他们事实和数字，而是通过告诉他们故事。其中一些故事展示了人的本性，帮助我们体验了各种各样的感受。有些人让我们思考我们应该如何行动。告诉一个孩子说谎是不对的，这会给他留下很小的印象，但是告诉他一个小男孩的故事，他每次说谎的时间越长，就会给他留下很深的印象。
Fiction is too important to our culture, our minds, and our emotions. How could we ever give it up?
小说对我们的文化、我们的思想和我们的情感太重要了。我们怎么能放弃呢？