阅读理解
Uncle Geoff
My mother''s relations were very different form the Mitfords. Her brother, Uncle Geoff, who often came to stay at Swinbrook, was a small, spare man with thoughtful blue eyes and a rather silent manner. Compared to Uncle Tommy, he was an intellectual of the highest order, and indeed his satirical pen belied his mild demeanor. He spent most of his waking hours composing letters to The Times and other publications in which he outlined his own particular theory of the development of English history. In Uncle Geoff''s view, the greatness of England had risen and waned over the centuries in direct proportion to the use of natural manure in fertilizing the soil. The Black Death of 1348 was caused by gradual loss of the humus fertility found under forest trees. The rise of the Elizabethans two centuries later was attributable to the widespread use of sheep manure.
Many of Uncle Geoff''s letters-to-the-editor have fortunately been preserved in a privately printed volume called Writings of A Rebel. Of the collection, one letter best sums up his views on the relationship between manure and freedom. He wrote:
Collating old records shows that our greatness rises and falls with the living fertility of our soil. And now, many years of exhausted and chemically murdered soil, and of devitalized food from it, has softened our bodies and still worse, softened our national character. It is an actual fact that character is largely a product of the soil. Many years of murdered food from deadened soil has made us too tame. Chemicals have had their poisonous day. It is now the worm''s turn to reform the manhood of England. The only way to regain our punch, our character, our lost virtues, and with them the freedom natural to islanders, is to compost our land so as to allow moulds, bacteria and earthworms to remake living soil to nourish Englishmen''s bodies and spirits.
The law requiring pasteurization of milk in England was a particular target of Uncle Geoff''s. Fond of alliteration, he dubbed it "Murdered Milk Measure," and established the Liberty Restoration League, with headquarters at his house in London, for the specific purpose of organizing a counteroffensive. "Freedom not Doctordom" was the League''s proud slogan. A subsidiary, but nevertheless important, activity of the League was advocacy of a return to the " unsplit, slowly smoked fish" and bread made with "English stone-ground flour, yeast, milk, sea salt and raw cane-sugar."
单选题
According to Uncle Geoff, national strength could only be regained by