让我发泄一下

放假以来就基本窝在家里看课本。其实真正说起来，考试还是有其必要性的，大部分人是要有了考试的压力，才会真正仔细认真地去看书、去理解。至少我自己的感觉是，很多书本上的关键内容是自己在复习的时候才真正注意到并搞懂了的。

不过对读法律的人来说，考前这样集中突击式地阅读司法文献非常疲劳。我现在连续看了那么多法律人写的专业司法意见，很不爽的就有两点：第一，为何都爱用那么长的句子？无论是法官的裁决意见，或者是叫兽砖家的论文，满篇都是那些跨个六七行，套上两三个从句，用上十几个逗号的超长句，有时候不读上个两三遍可是别想弄懂他的意思。

还有就是为何有话都不好好说，尤其喜欢正话反说？律师们最爱的句式就是被动语态和否定句，比如“这样做合法”这类的句子，律师们一般都只会说，“这样做不违法”。最近我看到过最经典的一个句子是英国外交部的一个律师写出来的——“The best case that can be made ...[此处省略一个定于从句] is that it cannot be said to be unambiguously illegal.”。人家用的可是三重否定，让我楞了足足五秒钟，几乎就要用扳手指头的办法来算出他到底是个啥意思了。当然玩法律的家伙们肯定会说双重甚至三重否定与肯定还是有差别的，而且从某种意义上说法律其实就是语言的游戏，学法律就是在学如何分清void和voidable之间区别这一类的问题。

所以总体上备战考试还是比较痛苦的，晚上睡前只能读读林语堂来放松一下。人家的句子可就直白清楚多了，那是读起来有快感的句子。前几天正好读到一段是谈考试的，读起来痛快淋漓，很有助于情绪发泄：

Both the old and modern educational systems suffer from the foolish belief that you can weigh a man's knowledge by a series of examinations, which must by necessity be of a mechanical nature, and which must concentrate on the storing of information rather than on the development of a critical mind. For a critical mind cannot be easily graded or given a marking of 75 or 93, while a question on the dates of the Punic Wars can. Moreover, any college examinations must be of such a nature that students can prepare for it at the week's notice, or all of them will flunk. And any knowledge that can be crammed at a week's notice can be forgotten in as short a period.

——My Country and My People, p.217

嗯，发泄完毕，继续回去看书。