Abstract
Most Chinese children know this story and, like Li, they know that effort and hard work are important if one to achieve anything.
Li Bai, a great poet in Tang Dynasty, was said to be lazy in studying when he was young. One day, when he was playing at a riverbank, he saw an old woman rubbing a metal rod against the rocks. Li was curious and asked the woman what she was doing. The old woman explained that she wanted to make a needle out of the metal rod. Li looked at the woman with dis-believing eyes. The old woman explained that “If you are hard-working and persevering enough, a metal rod can be made into a needle.” Li was inspired. From that day on, he studied very hard and became one of the greatest poets in Chinese history.
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Hong, Yy. (2001). Chinese Students’ and Teachers’ Inferences of Effort and Ability. In: Salili, F., Chiu, C.Y., Hong, Y.Y. (eds) Student Motivation. Plenum Series on Human Exceptionality. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1273-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1273-8_6
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