单选题. Utopia is a perfect place. It is a place without war, hunger, poverty, or crime. It is a place where the people work together and share. There is no money in Utopia because the people do not need money. They do not have personal possessions because everything belongs to everyone. All of the people are equal in Utopia, and the laws are all fair. Utopia is not a new place. Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, described a perfect society in his famous dialogue The Republic. In Plato's Republic, philosophers were the kings, and every person had a place in the society. In 1516, Sir Thomas More wrote about an island in the Pacific Ocean where everything was perfect. He named the island "Utopia." In 1872, Samuel Butler wrote a novel about a perfect country which he named "Erehwon": "Utopia" is a Greek word that means "not a place" and "Erehwon" is the English word "nowhere" spelled backwards. Many people came to the New World to find Utopia. The Shakers, a religious group, wanted to live like the first Christians. The Shakers started their first community in New York in 1776. George Rapp, a German farmer, came to the United States in 1804 to start a Utopian community. In 1815, Rapp and his followers bought land for their community in Harmony, Indiana, and they made the things they needed with machines. In 1824, they sold the community to Robert Owen, who started the Utopian community of New Harmony there. In New Harmony, everything belonged to everyone and men and women were equal, but New Harmony lasted only two years. Then Francis Wright began Nashoba, a community where white people and black people could live and work together, near Memphis, Tennessee. Nashoba lasted from 1825 to 1830. A group of intellectuals founded Brook Farm, a Utopian farming community, in 1841. However, they did not have many farming skills, so the farm closed in 1847. Four years later, Josiah Warren set up Modem Times, an anarchist community near New York City. It closed in 1857. Utopia is a perfect place, but it is not a real place. Most "real" Utopias last only a short time. This is because everyone wants to live in Utopia, but no one knows how to make it work. As a result, when we say something is "Utopian" today, we mean that it is a good idea, but it is not realistic.1. The first paragraph is mainly about ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】 根据题目指示定位到第1段。 从第1段的句式Utopia is...，It is a place without...，It is a place where...可以知道该段定义了怎么样的地方可被称为Utopia，也就是说，该段主要描述了Utopia是什么样的，因此A为本题答案。 第1段主要的作用是“描述”，而非“教导”，即该段并无教导“如何”建设乌托邦，因此B不正确；乌托邦的起源在第2段才提及，第1段与其起源无关，因此C不正确；虽然第1段提到的money属于经济范畴，但这只是该段的某句话，并不能概括整段的主题，因此D不对。 [参考译文] 乌托邦是一个完美无瑕的地方。这里没有战争、没有饥饿、没有贫穷、也没有罪恶。人们在一起劳动、一起分享劳动成果。这里没有金钱，因为人们不需要。人民没有个人财产，因为每件东西都属于众人所有。在乌托邦里，所有人完全平等，法律也完全公正。 “乌托邦”这个概念并不新鲜。古希腊哲学家柏拉图在著名的对话《理想国》中描绘了一个完美的社会。在柏拉图的理想国里，哲学家是国王，每个人在社会中都有自己的位置。1516年，托马斯·摩尔爵士描述了一个在太平洋中的小岛，在那儿，所有的一切都完美无暇。他把小岛命名为“乌托邦”。1872年萨缪尔·巴特勒写了一本小说，描述一个他称之为“乌尔乡(Erehwon)”的完美国家。“乌托邦”是一个意为“乌有之地”的希腊词，而“乌尔乡(Erehwon)”正是英语词“nowhere”倒过来的拼法。 许兰人到新大陆来寻找乌托邦。宗教团体震颤派希望像第一代基督徒那样生活。震颤派于1776年在纽约创建了他们的第一个公社。德国农场主乔治·拉普于1804年来到美国创建一个乌托邦公社。1815年，拉普和他的追随者在印第安那州的哈莫尼为他们的公社购置土地，并用机器生产所需。1824年，他们把公社卖给了罗伯特·欧文，欧文在那里创建了新哈莫尼乌托邦公社。在新哈莫尼，每件东西都属于众人，男女平等。但是，新哈莫尼仅仅维持了两年。法兰西斯·莱特在田纳西州孟菲斯附近开创了纳索巴，在那里，白人和黑人可以共同生活、共同劳动。纳索巴从1825年维持到1830年。一群知识分子在1841年建立了布鲁克农场，一个乌托邦农业公社。可是他们没有多少耕作技能，所以在1847年农场就关闭了。4年后，约西亚·沃伦在纽约市附近建立了一个名为“摩登时代”的无政府主义公社。它在1857年结束。 乌托邦是一个完美无瑕的地方，但又是一个虚幻的地方。大多数“真实的”乌托邦都只能延续很短时间。这是因为虽然每个人都希望生活在乌托邦里，但没有人知道乌托邦应该怎样运作。因此，如今我们指某种东西是“乌托邦”，意为这是个好主意，但是不现实。