首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Civilization and History Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquero
Civilization and History Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquero
admin
2010-04-28
67
问题
Civilization and History
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 ail. 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 arid 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 bow 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 the greater number of the other side, and then saying that side which has killed most has won. And 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.
That 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. 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.
But we must not expect too much. After all, the race of men has only just started. From the point of view of evolution, human beings are very young children indeed, babies, in fact, of a few months old. Scientists reckon that there has been life of some sort on the earth in the form of jellyfish and that kind of creature for a- bout twelve hundred million years, and there have been civilized men for about eight thousand years at the out side. These figures are difficult to grasp; so let us scale them down. Suppose that we reckon the whole past of living creatures on the earth as one hundred years; then the whole past of man works out at about one month, and during that month there have been civilizations for between seven and eight hours. So you see there has been little time to learn in, but there will be oceans of time in which to learn better. Taking man’s civilized past at about seven or eight hours, we may estimate his future, that is to .say, the whole period between now and when the sun grows too cold to maintain life any longer on the earth, at about one hundred thousand years. Thus mankind is only at the beginning of its civilized life, and as I say, we must not expect too much. The past of man has been on the whole a pretty beastly business, a business of fighting and bullying and gorging and grabbing and hurting. We must not expect even civilized peoples not to have done these things. All we can ask is that they will sometimes have done something else. (668)
Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
选项
A、Those who won the wars should have been tried as war Criminals instead of being glorified
B、The one who invented the wheel may have helped civilization forward to a greater extent than those generals.
C、When the sun grows too cold to maintain life on the earth, people will migrate to other planets.
D、Nations and countries should have learnt to behave properly to each other.
答案
B
解析
推理判断题。文章的第一句话作者就指出 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.真正为文明的进步做出贡献的不是这些将军、征服者,而是那些默默无闻的创造者。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/LxqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
NextmonthalargegroupofBritishbusinesspeoplearegoingtoAmericaonaventurewhichmaygenerateexportearningsforthe
Extract1Maysawthepremiereofmyfirstfull-lengthnarrativeballet—TheBalletShoes—fortheLondonChildren’sBallet.I
A、Heboughtasecondhandcar.B、Hehadjustinheritedafortune.C、Heusedtogotoworkbytrain.D、Hewasoverchargedbyther
Manyfirmsfailbecausewhentheybeginexportingtheyhavenotresearchedthetargetmarketsordevelopedaninternationalmark
Scientistshavetakenagiantleaptowardmakingpossiblethedreamofbuildingapowerfultelescopeonthemoonthatcouldwith
Whyshouldmankindexplorespace?Perhapsthebestreasonforexploringspaceisourbuilt-in【B1】______predispositiontoexpand
PlansforoneofBritain’sbiggesthousingdevelopments,of5,000homesworthhundredsofmillionsofpounds,mayhavetobeab
A、HewantedtoseetheIceHotel.B、Heorganizedafashionshowthere.C、Hewasonhiswintervacation.D、Hewasonabusinesst
______dealswiththerelationshipbetweenthelinguisticelementandthenon-linguisticworldofexperience.
Sofar,inflationisroaringinonlyafewsectorsoftheeconomy.Whileplatinumhassoared121percent,soybeanshaverisen11
随机试题
用不了几十年,人工智能就会超越多种人类自认独有的能力。对我们这一代人来说,这是个巨大的挑战,也许我们需要“非理性”地应对。计算机占领了曾专属于人类的工作——那些需要知识、策略甚至创造力的工作。在这种“劳动分工”之下,我们应把人类的工作定位在与机器互补,而非
在Excel工作表中已输入数据如图所示,如果将D1单元格中的公式复制到D2单元格中,则D2单元格的值为()
某企业从事服装销售业务,经工商登记机关登记取得营业执照。就税收法律关系而言,该个体户必须实施下列哪些行为?()
图7-6电路中,a-b路的开路电压Uab为()。
一般平行屋的构成有()。
某企业的流动比率为2,速冻资产占流动资产的70%,则该企业的速动比率是()。
阅读材料,根据要求完成教学设计。课题:《初识Flash动画软件》教学要求:(1)认识Flash8的操作界面,学会Flash常用工具的使用。(2)初步理解Flash动画制作的基本知识,理解Flash动画制作的基本方法。(3)体验Flash动画制作的一
开发一个新的信息系统时最重要的前提条件是()。
已知一个函数的原型是:intfn((toubiex);若要以5.27为实参调用该函数,应使用表达式______。
Youshouldspendabout20minutesonQuestions1-13whicharebasedonReadingPassage1below.Howmuchhig
最新回复
(
0
)