Chapter 160: Chapter 161: [Shocked! The truth about the Great Famine in Ireland is...]
The essay contest was in full swing. Anyone who could read, even if they couldn't write, had to write an essay and submit it.
In just over ten days, as many as 5,300 articles flooded into the submission mailbox.
However, among these more than 5,000 submissions, at least 3,000 can be described as "childish". It is obvious that their vocabulary is not up to standard. People with a vocabulary of only a few hundred words wrote articles of a thousand words, and the content is unreadable.
Some are even like the "Peace Sutra", full of nonsense, as if they were randomly generated by a computer.
After reading these articles, Ma Shao couldn't help but regret the setting of the essay writing rules.
If he had known this, he should have only solicited essays from people who had attended advanced grades and math and physics classes. Now a large number of people from lower grades and literacy classes have joined in the fun, making the review work extremely difficult.
However, he still decided to review the manuscript himself.
Although the number of submissions reached 5,000, the review was not too troublesome.
First, he instructed people to divide the submissions into two groups, one group from students in lower grades and literacy classes, and one group from students in higher grades and mathematics and physics advanced classes.
For the former, Ma Shao's review speed is about ten seconds to half a minute. He just glances at the beginning and the end and is done. He reviews thousands of articles a day.
This reminded him of the Chinese language grading in high school in his previous life. Although he was a physics teacher in his previous life, he had witnessed the scene of Chinese teachers grading papers in an assembly line style, and the speed was just like his.
Although the thousands of articles written by the lower grade groups were generally not very good, there were a few good ones.
It's good not only because the content is good, but more importantly, it's the author.
The authors of these articles from the lower grade group that were praised by Ma Shao were all children under ten years old. Although the content was not top-notch, they had commendable potential, so Ma Shao decided to set up a "Special Encouragement Award" for them, with the prize being a few books.
It takes more than ten hours to finish most of the submissions, and I have to read the remaining articles carefully.
For the articles written by the senior grade group, Ma Shao would at least read them for half a minute, and for some, he would read the entire article.
Anyone who lets him finish reading the entire book can basically get an encouragement award of ten dollars.
Reviewing and submission are carried out simultaneously. People submit papers every day, and Ma Shao also takes time to review them every day.
As time approaches the deadline, the number of articles sent to Ma Shao every day continues to decrease.
However, the quality of the articles has improved significantly.
These writers who take their time obviously have more patience and polish their articles meticulously.
The time has come to December 31st, and on that evening, the Apache News Agency's essay contest will end and stop accepting submissions.
However, until the evening, there were still people in slepping bear city busy writing.
A man was smoking a pipe, the room was filled with smoke, and a piece of paper was placed in front of him.
The entire article was written in unusually neat letters, almost looking like printed material.
There were also a lot of waste manuscripts piled up nearby, all crumpled into balls and scattered all over the table and the floor.
"Aren't you going to eat yet?" A woman walked in.
The man frowned, his eyes still fixed on the manuscript: "I always feel like something is missing..."
The woman looked at it for a while and said: "The Great Irish Famine - your title doesn't look attractive at all. It's almost as if there is no title at all."
"So what title do you think we should use?" the man asked.
The woman thought for a while, then did not answer. Instead, she took the feather pen and wrote something before and after the title.
The original title was "The Great Irish Famine", and the revised title was "Shock! The truth about the Great Irish Famine is..."
The man was a little annoyed: "The words you added are not even aligned!"
"Why don't you copy it again? It's almost dark, why don't you go and submit it?" said the woman.
The man looked at the sky outside the window and could only sigh slightly. He took the manuscript and ran straight to the bulletin board and stuffed the article into the submission mailbox.
Soon, the soldier next to the notice board tore down the essay contest notice to indicate that the contest was over, then picked up the mailbox and entered the chief's hall.
"Captain, High Priest, this is the last batch of submissions," said the soldier.
"Okay, put it on the table." Ma Shao said casually while concentrating on writing.
After the soldiers left, he took the key to open the mailbox, took out dozens of submissions, and sorted them out.
Xia Yutian, who was standing next to him, took the manuscript written by Ma Shao and flipped through it: "Thermodynamics... Is this the new textbook you compiled for the math and physics advanced class?"
"Yes, but not yet. Students in the mathematics and physics advanced class do not have the ability to learn it yet." Ma Shao said, "Strictly speaking, this is a new textbook for physicists around the world."
"worldwide?"
"Yes, all physicists must read this book written by American savages." Ma Shao said.
Then he looked at the last batch of submissions, and one of them caught his eye almost immediately.
"Shocked! The truth about the Great Famine in Ireland is..."
When he saw this title, his eyes widened, and he felt as if he had returned to the era of mobile Internet.
I wanted to ask more about thermodynamics on a rainy day, but I was attracted by the title and started to read the submissions.
U's Shock Department is regarded as the epitome of the 21st century's headline party.
There is no doubt that this was an epoch-making invention for people in the 19th century, and its temptation was hard to resist even on rainy days.
Although Ma Shao was so accustomed to it in his previous life that he never even read it, this was the first time he saw the title of the Shocking Department in the 19th century. He couldn't help but feel fresh and read it carefully.
It turns out that there is no necessary connection between clickbait and content.
A flashy title can still contain profound content, and a serious title can still contain nonsense.
This article is a typical example. Although it has a title that resembles a marketing account of later times, the content is quite exquisite.
It combines narration with discussion, combining news with discussion of the man-made disasters during the Irish Famine, criticizing the feudal monarchy and capitalists' exploitation of the people, and denouncing colonialism.
Moreover, the article is very contagious in expression, eloquent and passionate, like a manifesto.
This stance is very common in Sleeping Bear City. It is not the most popular one. Some are so popular that they can be described as extreme.
However, it is almost unique in that it can be written so detailed and powerfully.
When Ma Shao and Xia Yutian finished reading the article, they immediately agreed: "This should be the first prize."
"That's right." Ma Shao nodded, then looked at the author's name, "Thick Smoke."
"It turned out to be him." Rainy Day said.
"What?" Ma Shao had no impression of this person.
Rainy Day explained, "He's an Arapaho war criminal, but I gave him his freedom a few months ago when he successfully read through The Oracle."
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