kvmb Chapter 300: The Exam!
Chapter 300: The Exam!
Two months later, the college entrance examination was held as scheduled. Most of the educated youth from Wangjiagou Brigade took the exam at the county high school. It snowed heavily the night before the exam, and although it stopped the next day, the roads were already covered in snow. The first exam was at 8:30, so they had to leave at 5:00. There was no other way; the journey was long, and with the snow, missing the exam would be a lifelong regret.
It was still dark. Holding flashlights and torches, they trudged through the snow, which was more than ten centimeters thick, on their way to the county town. More than two hours later, they arrived at the examination site. Their faces were red from the cold, their cotton shoes and trousers were soaked, and their feet were freezing cold. They kept breathing on their feet and stamping them.
Zheng Tong, Qian Zhimin, and Cao Gang, who had already started working and lived in the county town, pushed a small cart with two large gasoline drums on it and a pile of firewood beside it. As they pushed it towards them, the crowd gathered around.
"Zheng Tong, Cao Gang, what are you doing? Why are you pushing this thing so early in the morning?"
"What else can we do? We'll make a fire for you to warm yourselves up," Zheng Tong said.
"This was specially brought over from the factory by Cao Gang. Come on, help me carry it down and put it in that corner over there to avoid the wind!"
With everyone's help, they lifted the gasoline drum down, placed it aside, and immediately lit it. The roaring flames provided them with a bit of warmth.
"Take off your shoes and warm them up. This exam will last all day, so you can't take it in cold shoes."
Cao Gang and Qian Guangzhi were now taking care of everyone like nannies, not forgetting to give them instructions.
"You haven't forgotten your admission ticket, pen, paper, or stationery, have you? Check them all yourself."
As they talked, they baked flatbreads for them. These flatbreads were made last night and left overnight. With the journey, they were frozen solid. They skewered them with a twig, roasted them over the fire, and ate them while they were still warm.
"Yes, I brought them all!"
Luo Jianguo said:
"Cao Gang, Guangzhi, are you two really not going to take the exam? This is a rare opportunity."
Cao Gang said:
"Jianguo, don't try to persuade us anymore. With our level, even if we participated, we'd just be cannon fodder. We should just stay and work in the factory. Besides, it's too late to take the exam now. If we regret it later, we can take it again in a few years. It won't be a problem. Don't worry about us now. You should both prepare well and do your best on the exam."
After resting for over an hour, with two stoves warming the area, my shoes and trousers dried. Eating some hot flatbread warmed me up considerably. When it was almost time, I went into the examination hall. The exam lasted three days. On the first day, I took Chinese in the morning and math in the afternoon. On the second day, I took physics and chemistry (for science students) in the morning, history and geography (for humanities students) in the afternoon, and politics in the afternoon. Most students took these four subjects. If they wanted to take a foreign language, they would have to take that subject on the third day.
After two days of exams, most candidates' biggest takeaway from the questions could be summed up in one word: [unclear - possibly referring to a specific word or phrase].
difficult!
Most of them walked out of the examination room with gloomy faces, looking dejected and listless, a stark contrast to their excited and thrilled state at the start of the exam.
Is it difficult?
In fact, judging the first college entrance examination after its resumption from the perspective of later generations, we will find that much of the content is still at the junior high school level. For example, in Chinese, the composition accounted for 70 points, the translation of classical Chinese was 10 points, and the comprehension of modern Chinese was 20 points. Mathematics was limited to solving quadratic equations and simple geometry problems. Geography tested how many continents and oceans there are in the world. Most of the questions were based on basic knowledge.