传承八中“悦读”优良传统，在2015-2016年度期末寒假期间，八中国际部高二全体学生进行了“读一本英文小说，写一篇小说评论‘的活动。开学以来，在Allan外教及全体高二英语教师历时一个多月的认真审稿，公正评定和学生电子档的修订之后，国际部高二组团的李睿璇，潘昊辰和张诗嘉等12位学生的阅读评论作品脱颖而出。

附：国际部高二（一）班李睿璇作品（一等奖）

Great expectations

“Great expectations” is one of Dicken’s most maturest works. After Dicken had experienced large part of meaningful life, he had a deeper cognition for people, environment, as well as the life which he had gone through. And all the mature cognitions are included in this writing“Great expectations”.

Before I read this novel the first time, I supposed that it was a comedy, but when I finished it, this Great Expectation seemed to be a tragedy.This novel tells us a story about how Pip gets to his Great Expectation. In the beginning of the novel, Pip who is sympathetic and innocent is satisfied with his normal life. However, his destiny was changed when he met a criminal in wetland. He helps him even though he doesn’t want to, but he is very scared that there will be someone finding it and in his deep down, he wants to forget this experience eagerly. And then, he is hired by an embittered wealthy woman Miss Havisham as an occasional companion to her and her beautiful but haughty adopted daughter, Estella. When he meets Estella at first sight, he falls in love with her. But Estella looks down him and this hurt little Pip very much. That is the main reason for Pip to gain the idea to chance his life. Before having the idea about the Great Expectation, he just wants to be blacksmith. After falling love with Estella, he becomes unsatisfied with his simple life and desires to be a gentleman. Then his value about his life changed totally. Pip doesn’t decide his own life. His life is controlled by other people as if he is a puppet played without spirit, so in the end he cannot attain his Great Expectation.

In the novel, I feel very sympathetic to Pip. His peaceful life is broken by some accidents. As a child, he has no choice but to be guided by his fate. Sometimes we face the same situation like little Pip’s. How can we avoid the tragedy? People often say that environment has a big influence on life. For example, after arriving in London, Pip becomes prodigal and loafer, what’s more, he looks down upon his brother-in-law. However, is it right that environment is the most deciding factor of our life? I don’t think so. If we can have a firm faith in our heart, we can decide our destiny. In modern society, there are more temptations around us. If we cannot resist these temptations, we will lose our direction. Many girls want to be famous or be rich without any efforts so they choose some disrepute way to acquire their “great expectation”. They prefer being a lover for some rich men to earning money independently. Or they put their nude pictures on the internet rather than work hardly. We cannot attain our great expectation without any attempts. Pip fails to gain his expectation because the ideal on the basis of peacockery and effortlessness will not come true. If he can pursue his future through hard working, I think he can have another achievement.

The other impressing character is Miss Havisham. She is very rich in material life but so poor in her heart. She was hurt by her brother and fiancé when she was young. Miss Havisham is so proud that when she was hurt by other people, she cannot recover soon. We can feel her dead heart through the author’s descriptions. She lives in a dark and moldy house and everyday all she thinks is retaliation. As an abandoned woman, she uses her all life to hate. This kind of hate is enlarged, and in the end she destroys not only her life but also Pip’s and Estella’s lives. In our life we will meet a lot of obstacles which will break our belief about the world. When we are defeated, there are two choices in front of us, to stand again or shatter totally. Miss Havisham chooses the next one, so she has the tragic life. We cannot decide how the weather is, but we can choose our emotion. In order to attain a happy life, we must have an optimistic attitude towards life. Sometimes even though we are hurt deeply, we must think out some methods to overcome the difficult. We hear a lot of news about criminal on account of being abandoned. Some girls choose some extraordinary way after being dumped by their boyfriends. I think they love their boyfriends than love themselves. Even they don’t put themselves as the first consideration, how they can require other people attach importance to them? That is why we often say girls must be self-love.

Finally, the book makes me understand that there is no use comparing with others blindly. Humans seem to share a common interest in comparing every detail with each other. While it may sound reasonable to some extent that comparison makes progress, I hold a different opinion. As we know, one person differs from another. Everybody has his or her own advantages and shortcomings. Our goal should be improving advantages and rectifying those bad aspects. If we always think that someone is still better than us in some certain areas and waste a lot of time to change ourselves, we’ll gradually lose our own character. Comparing with other people is a way with no end, because there is always someone better than us. It can’t make one stand out. On the contrary, it produces numerous people who are all the same, with no particularity, creativity or even a definite view of their own. That would result in a terrible situation. From my perspective, I fully agree on the notion that the only person one should compare with is oneself. As long as we work hard, try our best and make progress day by day, we can surpass ourselves constantly and become not only a better self, but also a real individual!

After reading the book, all kinds of characters and plots intrigue me so much that I watched the same episode made by BBC. It changed all the sceneries emerged in my mind when I was reading into virtual pictures. It is definitely a remarkable work worthy of reading and watching in the different stages of life.