单选题
In general, our society is becoming one of the giant enterprises directed by a bureaucratic management in which man becomes a small well-oiled cog in the machinery. The oiling is done with higher wages, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and "human relations" experts; yet all this oiling does not aver the fact that man has become powerless, that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue-collar and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management. The. worker and employee are anxious not only because they might find themselves out of a job, they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction of interest in life. They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually independent and productive human beings. Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not a matter of salary but even more a matter of self-respect. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the right mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on then are tested again and again by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge their behavior,soeia bitity, capacity to get along, etc. This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than one's fellow competitor ereates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and illness. Am I suggesting that we should return to the pre-industrial mode of production or to nineteenth century "free enterprise" capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest transforming our social system from a bureaucratically-man-aged industrialism in which maximal production and eonsumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities—those of all love and of reason-are the aims of social arrangements. Production and consumption should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man.
单选题
By "a small well-oiled cog in the machinery" the author intends to render the idea that man is______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查考生的推断能力。由题干关键词a well-oiled cog in the machinery定位文章第一段,文章指出:人成了社会大机器中微小的、润滑良好的齿轮,较高的收入和通风良好的厂房便是润滑油,但事实上人是无能为力的,蓝领工人和白领阶层都是毫无自主权的经济傀儡。由此推断,虽然工作生活条件不错,但人在社会中却是无足轻重的,故正确选项为B。
单选题
The real cause of the anxiety of the workers and employees is that______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查考生的推断能力。由题干关键词the anxiety 0f the workers and employees定位文章第二段。首句点明了工人和雇员忧虑的原因:不仅是由于他们可能会失业,还由于他们无法获得生活的真正乐趣。终其一生,他们从未作为情感和理智上独立的、富有创造性的人来面对生存的本质。由此可推断,他们忧虑的原因应是被剥夺了个性与独立性,故正确选项为A。B、D两个选项只是部分原因,不全面;C选项与文章内容相悖。
单选题
From the passage we can infer that real happiness of life belongs to those______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查考生的推断能力。由题干关键词happiness of life定位文章第三段最后一句,该句表明和同事的竞争造成了持久的忧虑和压力,而这正是:苦恼和疾病的根源。结合该段首句提到的处于社会上层的人同样也感到忧虑,他们面临的竞争更激烈,可推断出,无论是哪个阶层的人,都面临着激烈的竞争,生活在各种各样的忧虑与压力之中。由此可见,只有远离这个充满竞争的社会,人才可能获得幸福,故正确选项为C。
单选题
To solve the present social problems the author suggests that we should______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查考生的推断能力。由题干关键词solve the present social problems定位文章最后一段,作者在该段给出了解决现有社会问题的建议,即改革现有的工业制度,在新的工业制度中,人及其自身潜能的全面发展将是社会的目标,故正确选项为C。A选项是作者明确表明的不同意的观点,应排除;B选项是维持工业制度正常运转的手段之一,而不是解决社会问题的建议,应排除;D选项与原文不符,也是错误答案。
单选题
The author's attitude towards industrialism might best be summarized as one of______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查的是作者的态度。由题干关键词industrialism定位文章最后一段,作者建议将社会体系由官僚政治管理的工业制度过渡到人道主义的工业制度,结合文中的信息词economic puppets(经济傀儡)和unhappiness and illness可推知,作者对现有工业制度的态度是不满的,故正确选项为D。到人道主义的工业制度,前者以最大化的生产和消费为最终目的,而后者的社会目的则是人及其潜能(包括情感和理性的潜能)的全面发展。生产和消费只是实现该目的的手段,而不能让它们统治人类。