1[阅读题,20分]
Read the following passage carefully and complete the succeeding three items
(1) Freedom’s challenge in the Atomic Age is a sobering topic. We are facing today a strange new world and we are all wondering what we are going to do with it. What are we going to do with one of our most precious possessions, freedom? The world we know, our Western world, began with something as new as the conquest of space.
(2) Some 2,500 years ago Greece discovered freedom. Before that there was no freedom. There were great civilizations, splendid empires, but no freedom anywhere. Egypt, Babylon, Nineveh, were all tyrannies, one immensely powerful man ruling over helpless masses. In Greece, in Athens, a little city in a little country, there were no helpless masses, and a time came when the Athenians were led by a great man who did not want to be powerful. Absolute obedience to the ruler was what the leaders of the empires insisted on. Athens said no, there must never be absolute obedience to a man except in war. There must be willing obedience to what is good for all. Pericles, the great Athenian statesman, said: “We are a free government, but we obey the laws, more especially those which protect the oppressed, and the unwritten laws which, if broken, bring shame.”
(3) Athenians willingly obeyed the written laws which they themselves passed, and the unwritten, which must be obeyed if free men live together. They must show each other kindness and pity and the many qualities without which life would be intolerable except to a hermit in the desert. The Athenians never thought that a man was free if he could do what he wanted. A man was free if he was self-controlled. To make yourself obey what you approved was freedom. They were saved from looking at their lives as their own private affair. Each one felt responsible for the welfare of Athens, not because it was imposed on him from the outside, but because the city was his pride and his safety. The creed of the first free government in the world was liberty for all men who could control themselves and would take responsibility for the state. This was the conception that underlay the lofty reach of Greek genius.
(4) But discovering freedom is not like discovering atomic bombs. It cannot be discovered once for all. If people do not prize it, and work for it, it will depart. Eternal vigilance is its price. Athens changed. It was a change that took place unnoticed though it was of the utmost importance, a spiritual change which penetrated the whole state. It had been the Athenians’ pride and joy to give to their city. That they could get material benefits from her never entered their minds. There had to be a complete change of attitude before they could look at the city as an employer who paid her citizens for doing her work. Now instead of men giving to their state, the state was to give to them. What the people wanted was a government which would provide a comfortable life for them; and with this as the foremost object, ideas of freedom and self-reliance and responsibility were obscured to the point of disappearing. Athens was more and more looked on as a cooperative business possessed of great wealth in which all citizens had a right to share.
(5) She reached the point when the freedom she really wanted was freedom from responsibility. There could be only one result. If men insisted on being free from the burden of self-dependence and responsibility for the common good, they would cease to be free. Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom. It is to be had on no other terms. Athens, the Athens of Ancient Greece, refused responsibility, she reached the end of freedom and was never to have it again.
(6) But, “the excellent becomes the permanent,” Aristotle said. Athens lost freedom forever, but freedom was not lost forever for the world. A great American statesman, James Madison, in or near the year 1776 A.D. referred to “the capacity of mankind for self-government”. No doubt he had not an idea that he was speaking Greek. Athens was not in the farthest background of his mind, but once a great and good idea has dawned upon man, it is never completely lost. The Atomic Age cannot destroy it. Somehow in this or that man’s thought such an idea lives though unconsidered by the world of action. One can never be sure that it is not on the point of breaking out into action, only sure that it will do so sometime. In this section, there are ten incomplete statements followed by four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and write the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet. (20 points, 2 points for each) http://bbs.zikao5.com 自考资料,自考白皮书
1. “Sobering topic” in paragraph 1 is a topic that makes one feel very ______.
A. nervous B. excited
C. serious D. sad
2. It can be inferred from paragraph 2 that ______.
A. Athenians would be willing to obey what would benefit them all
B. Egyptians insisted on absolute obedience to a powerful man
C. Athenians would be willing to obey a tyranny
D. Egyptians opposed any form of government
3. The word “underlay” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. was the consequence of B. was the cause of
C. was the key to D. was the basis of
4. In paragraph 4, “atomic bombs” is mentioned in order to ______.
A. emphasize that atomic bombs will threaten the survival of mankind
B. illustrate that freedom requires constant pursuit and dedication
C. stress that freedom is as influential as atomic bombs
D. point out that it took a long time to discover freedom
5. The word “obscured” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. made difficult to know or understand
B. made easy to know or understand
C. made hard to deal with
D. made clear to see
6. Paragraph 4 is mainly about ______.
A. the Athenians’s pride and joy to give to their city
B. the ideas of freedom and self-reliance
C. the spiritual change of the Athenians
D. a cooperative business
7. According to paragraph 5, the relationship between freedom and responsibility is that ______.
A. freedom is independent of responsibility
B. responsibility is the precondition of freedom
C. responsibility is the natural result of freedom
D. freedom is more important than responsibility
8. The author’s opinion about freedom in the future is that ______.
A. once lost, freedom will never be regained
B. people will never have freedom again
C. freedom will be challenged
D. freedom will last forever
9. “No doubt he had not an idea that he was speaking Greek” in paragraph 6 means ______.
A. he was thinking about the Greek freedom when he said this
B. he didn’t know he was speaking the language of Greek
C. Greek freedom was not on his mind when he said this
D. definitely he didn’t know what Greek freedom was
10. The best title for this passage is ______.
A. The Disappearance of Freedom B. The Development of Freedom
C. Importance of Freedom D. Roots of Freedom
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