题目内容
Part A
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)
What our society suffers from most today is the absence of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be; such consensus cannot be gained from society's present stage, or from fantasies about what it ought to be. For that the present is too close and too diversified, and the future too uncertain, to make believable claims about it. A consensus in the present hence can be achieved only through a shared understanding of the past, as Homer's epics informed those who lived centuries later what it meant to be Greek, and by what images and ideals they were to live their lives and organize their societies.
Most societies derive consensus from a long history, a language all their own, a common religion, common ancestry. The myths by which they live are based on all of these. But the United States is a country of immigrants, coming from a great variety of nations. Lately, it has been emphasized that an asocial, narcissistic personality has become characteristic of Americans, and that it is this type of personality that makes for the lack of well-being, because it prevents us from achieving consensus that would counteract a tendency to withdraw into private worlds. In this study of narcissism, Christopher Lash says that modern man, "tortured by self-consciousness, turns to new therapies not to free himself of his personal worries but to find meaning and purpose in life, to find something to live for". There is widespread distress because national morale has declined, and we have lost an earlier sense of national vision and purpose.
Contrary to rigid religions or political beliefs, as are found in totalitarian societies, our culture is one of the great individual differences, at least in principle and in theory; but this leads to disunity, even chaos. Americans believe in the value of diversity, but just because ours is a society based on individual diversity, it needs consensus about some dominating ideas more than societies based on uniform. origin of their citizens. Hence, if we are to have consensus, it must be based on a myth—a vision about a common experience, a conquest that made us Americans, as the myth about the conquest of Troy formed the Greeks. Only a common myth can offer relief from the fear that life is without meaning or purpose. Myths permit us to examine our place in the world by comparing it to a shared idea. Myths are shared fantasies that form. the tie that binds the individual to other members of his group. Such myths help to ward off feelings of isolations, guilt, anxiety, and purposelessness—in short, they combat isolation and the breakdown of social standards and values.
This text is mainly intended to ______.
查看答案
搜索结果不匹配？点我反馈
更多问题
Judged from the information in the last paragraph, we can predict that the author is likely to write which of the following in the next section？
A．whenB．whereasC．whileD．once
农村五保供养服务机构应当建立健全()和服务管理制度。
The frugality phenomenon first achieved prominence as a middle-class (6)_____ of high consumption lifestyle. in the industrial world during the 50's and 60's. In the Silent Revolution, Ronald Inglehart of the University of Michingan's Institute of Social Research examined this (7)_____ in the United States and 10 Western European nations. He concluded that a change has taken place "from an (8)_____ emphasis on material well-being and physical security (9)_____ greater emphasis on the quality of life", that is, "a (10)_____ from materialism to postmaterialism".
Inglehart calls the 60s the "fat year". Among their more visible trappings were the ragged blue jeans favored by the affluent young. Most of them (11)_____ from materialism; however, this was (12)_____ Comfortably fixed Americans were going (13)_____, (14)_____ making things last longer, sharing things with others, learning to do things for themselves and so on. But (15)_____ economically significant, it was hardly (16)_____ in a US Gross National Product climbing vigorously toward the $2 thousand billion mark (17)_____, as the frugality phenomenon matured—growing out of the soaring 80s and into the somber 90s—it seemed to undergo a (18)_____ transformation. American consumers continued to lose (19)_____ in materialism and were being joined by new converts who were (20)_____ frugality because of the darkening economic skies they saw ahead.
微信支付 
支付宝支付