You prove to your teacher that you understand the authors by being able to put their meaning in other words -in other words, to say the author is intending to say something, not just that the text says something and this is what it says, with your exam then being one long screed of quotation.

你们用自己的话写出文章的含义,以此向老师证明你们理解作者的意图,换句话说，要告诉老师作者想表达什么，而不仅仅是文本说的什么内容，然后在试卷上来一大段,冗长的引用。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选