阅读理解 UTOPIANISM in politics gets a bad press. The case against the grand-scale, state-directed kind is well known and overwhelming. Utopia, the perfect society, is unattainable, for there is no such thing. Remaking society in pursuit of an illusion not only fails, it leads swiftly to mass murder and moral ruin. So recent history grimly attests.
Although true, that is just half the story. Not all modern Utopians aim to seize the state in order to cudgel the rest of the world back to paradise. Plenty of gentler ones want no more than to withdraw from the mainstream and create their own micro-paradise with a few like-minded idealists. Small experiments in collective living swept America, for example, early in the 19th century and again late in the 20th.
Most failed or fell short. None lasted. All were laughed at. Yet in this intelligent, sympathetic history, Chris Jennings makes a good case for remembering them well. Politics stagnates, he thinks, when people stop dreaming up alternative ways of life and putting them to small-scale test.
Though with occasional glances forward, Mr. Jennings focuses largely on the 19th century. At least 100 experimental communes sprang up across the young American republic in the mid-1800s. Mr. Jennings writes about five exemplary communities: the devout Shakers, Robert Owen's New Harmony, the Fourierist collective at Brook Farm, Massachusetts, the Icarians at Nauvoo, Illinois, inspired by a French proto-communist, Etienne Cabet, and the Oneida Community in New York state practising "Bible communism" and "complex marriage".
The Shakers' founder was a Manchester Quaker, Ann Lee, a devout mother worn out by bearing dead or dying children. In 1774 she left for the New World, determined to forswear sex and create a following to share her belief. An optimistic faith in human betterment, hard work and a reputation for honest trading helped the Shakers thrive. At their peak in the early 19th century, they had perhaps 5,000 members scattered in some 20 villages across eight states. They counselled celibacy to spare women the dangers of child-bearing, made spare, slim furniture, now treasured in museums, and practised a wild, shaking dance that was taken as a sign of benign possession by the Holy Spirit.

单选题 36.According to Paragraph 1, UTOPIANISM is______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词定位到文章第一段。A项意为乌托邦主义“在政治领域受欢迎”，其与第一句“乌托邦主义在政治上不是个好词”相悖，故错误。B项意为乌托邦主义“容易实现”，根据第三句关键词unattainable可知，乌托邦主义是“难以达到的”，故B项错误。C项意为乌托邦主义是“好的社会模式”，根据第三句关键词the perfect society可知，乌托邦是“完美的社会”，然而却是空想出来的，其更谈不上是“好的社会模式”，故C项错误。D项中的fantasy意为“幻想”，其是对第一段第四句关键词illusion的同义替换。故本题选D。

单选题 37.By saying "Although true, that is just half the story"(Para. 2), the author means that______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】含义题。根据题干关键词定位到文章第二段。Although true，that is just half the story位于该段开头，具有承上启下的作用，即承接第一段中的信息，连接第二段中的内容。A项意为“乌托邦主义故事不完整”，其仅仅是对half the story的字面理解，忽略其深层含义，故错误。C项“乌托邦主义是幻觉”和D项“追求乌托邦主义是危险的”都是第一段中的信息，虽然正确，但并不是that is just half the story所包含的内容，均错误。总结第二段可知，很多温和派乌托邦主义者“只希望退隐俗世，和一群志同道合者建造一个属于自己的微型天堂”，由此可知，他们对乌托邦主义有自己的理解，故本题选B。

单选题 38.Chris Jennings thinks that UTOPIANISM______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词定位到文章第三段。由第二段最后一句话及第三段前两句可知，collective living(群居)现象在美国并没有持续下来。A项意为乌托邦主义“并没有持续很长时间”，与原文有出入，故错误。B项乌托邦主义“象征人们的智慧”和C项乌托邦主义“值得人们的同情”分别是对第三段第三句前半部分关键词intelligent，sympathetic的同义转换，虽然正确，但它们是作者的具体陈述，并非是克里斯-詹宁斯的观点，故错误。由第三段第四句关键词stagnates(停滞)及下文信息可知，乌托邦主义“推动了政治的前进”，至少是人们在推动历史进程中所做的尝试，因此D项plays an important part in…(在……中扮演重要角色)正确，故本题选D。

单选题 39.Of the following points, which is NOT true about the Shakers?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】细节题。根据题干关键词定位到文章第五段，该段详细介绍了震教徒派的情况。A项中human progress是对第五段第三句中human betterment的同义替换，即“震教徒相信人类的进步”，故正确。B项意为“震教徒提倡单身”，由该段第五句中关键词celibacy(独身)可知该项正确。D项意为“震教徒跳一种特别的舞”，其是对第五段最后一句关键词shaking dance的同义替换，故正确。C项意为“震教徒象征圣灵”，Holy Spirit一词出现在文章最后，结合该词前文可知“狂野而颤抖的舞蹈被看作是圣灵良性附身的征兆”，而非“震教徒象征圣灵”，因此该项错误，故本题选C。

单选题 40.In the following part immediately after this text, the author will most probably focus on______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】结构题。由题干关键词the following part(接下来的部分)可知，该题考查的内容与第五段有别，而A项“颤抖舞蹈的生动描述”和D项“震教徒其他特征的具体描述”都是第五段的进一步扩展，故错误。由第四段内容可知，詹宁斯描述了5个典型的社区，前三个分别是虔诚的震教徒、罗伯特-欧文的新和谐村和傅立叶空想社会主义公社。而第五段描述了震教徒的具体特征，根据先后顺序可推出文章接下来将描述罗伯特-欧文的新和谐村，故本题选B。