To draw inferences from one instance; to deduce the whole from a part; to learn by analogy.
这位学生非常聪明，老师只讲了一道题，他就能举一反三，解答出同类型的所有题目。
This student is very intelligent; the teacher only explained one problem, and he could extrapolate from that one example to solve all problems of the same type.
Era:
Ancient
Frequency:
Story:
One day, Confucius, the Great Sage and Master, said to his students, 'If I present one corner of a problem, and you cannot infer the other three, I will not teach you again.'
This meant that if he gave an example or explained one aspect, his students should be able to flexibly deduce and understand the other related aspects. If they couldn't, he wouldn't continue teaching them.
Later, people coined the idiom '举一反三' (jǔ yī fǎn sān) from Confucius's words. It means to learn one thing and be able to think flexibly, applying that knowledge to other similar things or situations.
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