2007年考研英语复习：《毕金献阅读理解》节选(4)

unit4

Text 3

Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all. We do not know who first set a broken leg, or launched a seaworthy boat, or calculated the length of the year, or manured a field; but we know all about the killers and destroyers. People think a great deal of them, so much so that on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier. And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors. It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized.

Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently — this, after all, is what conquerors and generals have done — is not being civilized.  People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and civilized peoples ought to be able to find some way of settling their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off greater number of the other side, and then saying that that side which has killed most has won. And it not only has won, but, because it has won, has been in the right. For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might is right.

This is what the story of mankind has on the whole been like. Even our own age has fought the two greatest wars in history, in which millions of people were killed or mutilated (disabled). And while today it is true that people do not fight and kill each other in the streets — while, that is to say, we have got to the stage of keeping the rules and behaving properly to each other in daily life — nations and countries have not learnt to do this yet, and still behave like savages.

11. In the opening sentence, the author indicates that

［A］ most history books were comprised by conquerors, generals and soldiers.

［B］ hardly anyone who gave impetus to civilization is mentioned in history books.

［C］ history writings are more about conquerors than actual creators of civilization.

［D］ conquerors, generals and soldiers should be least mentioned in history books.

12.  In the author’s opinion, the countries that conquered a large number of other countries are

［A］ certainly both the most powerful and most civilized.

［B］ neither the greatest nor the most civilized in any way.

［C］ possibly either the most civilized or the mightiest in a way.

［D］ likely the mightiest in some sense but not the most civilized.

13. The meaning of the last sentence in Paragraph 2 is that

［A］ fighters believe that the winner is right and the loser wrong.

［B］ only those who are mighty have the right to go to war.

［C］ those who are right should fight against those who are wrong.

［D］ only powerful nations might win the right to rule weak ones.

14. “Even our own age has fought the two greatest wars in history.” The author says this in order to show that our own age is

［A］ different from those of the past.

［B］ not much better than the past ones.

［C］ more civilized than the past times.

［D］ staying as civilized as those of the past.

15. The author’s attitude to war may be best expressed as

［A］ a great disappointment.［B］ a cold reproach.

［C］ a stern condemnation.［D］ a sharp criticism.