单选题
During the adolescence, the development of political
ideology becomes apparent in the individual: ideology here is defined as the
presence of roughly consistent attitudes, more or less organized in reference to
a more encompassing set of general principles. As such, political ideology is
dim or absent at the beginning of adolescence. Its acquisition by the
adolescent, in even the most modest sense, requires the acquisition of
relatively sophisticated cognitive skills; the ability to manage abstractness,
to synthesize and generalize, to imagine the future. These are accompanied by a
steady advance in the ability to understand principles. The
child's rapid acquisition of political knowledge also promotes the growth of
political ideology during adolescence. By knowledge I mean more than the dull
"facts" such as the composition of country government, that the child is exposed
to in the conventional ninth-grade school course. Nor do I mean only information
on current political realities. These are facts of knowledge, but they are less
critical than the adolescent's absorption of a feeling for those many unspoken
assumptions about the political system that comprise the{{U}} common ground of
understanding,{{/U}} for example, what the state can "appropriately" demand of its
citizens, and vice versa, or the "proper" relationship of government to
subsidiary social institutions, such as the schools and churches. Thus,
political knowledge is the awareness of social assumptions and relationships as
well as of objective facts. Much of the naivete that characterizes the younger
adolescent's grasp of politics stems not from an ignorance of "facts" but from
an incomplete comprehension of the common conventions of the system, of which is
and not customarily done, and of how and why it is or is not done.
Yet I do not want to over-emphasize the significance of increased
political knowledge in forming adolescent ideology, Over the years I have become
progressively disenchanted about the centrality of such knowledge and have come
to believe that much current work in political socialization, by relying too
heavily on its apparent acquisition, has been misled about the tempo of
political understanding in adolescence. Just as young children can count numbers
in series without grasping the principle of ordination, young adolescents may
have in their heads many random hits of political information without a secure
understanding of those concepts that would give order and meaning to the
information. Children's minds pick up bits and pieces of data,
but until the adolescent has grasped the encompassing function that concepts and
principles provide, the data remain fragmented, random, disordered.
单选题
The author's primary purpose in the text is to ______.
A. clarify the kinds of understanding an adolescent must have in order to
develop a political ideology
B. dispute the theory that a political ideology can be acquired during
adolescence
C. explain why adolescents are generally uninterested in political
arguments
D. suggest various means of encouraging adolescents to develop personal
political ideologies
单选题
Which of the following statements best describes the organization of
the author's discussion of the role political knowledge in the formation of
political ideology during adolescence?
A. He acknowledges its importance, but then modifies his initial assertion
of that importance.
B. He consistently resists the idea that it is important, using series of
examples to support his stand.
C. He wavers in evaluating it and finally uses analogies to explain why he
is indecisive.
D. He takes care not to make an initial judgment about it, but later
confirms its critical role.