【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 23-28
Professor
How much of man's history do we know? It turns out we really know very little. Written records exist for only a fraction of what we suppose to have been man's time as a unique species. Furthermore, the accuracy of these records is often suspected and the scope and selection of significant detail in them often needs improvement. At times there is no more than a collection of a few songs, myths and legends. Even in recent times, the not uncommon lack of truly factual historical data makes it difficult to reconstruct an accurate picture of what actually did happen in man's history.
It is even worse when we try to reconstruct man's history before the development of writing. This is unfortunate because the history of the greatest discoveries, such as fire, the wheel and the sail, as well as the history of the early development of human society are lost to us. The most that we can do is to use deduction, speculation and the knowledge we have of the habits of those animals which have some elementary social order to help us make a partial reconstruction. This is hardly a satisfactory substitute for precise information.
With our fragmentary and limited knowledge of human history, it is nearly impossible to reconstruct the beginning, and to deduce the end, of the story of man. Thus, many schools of thought on the subject have developed, each of which attempts to give coherence to the human past by fitting it into the framework of a general theory of history.
In one of these theories, it is assumed that man continually progresses. He has evolved from a lower to a higher form of being, and he continues to evolve. This evolution takes place both in terms of his potentials and his abilities to actualize these potentials. If one holds to this theory, one feels that modern man must be more intelligent and civilized today than his ancestors, as well as physically and morally superior to them. One further assumes that this progress will continue into an ever more glorious future. Here deduction often ends and dreams of utopia begin, for it seems that most of us find it hard to think of the human race developing into a race of angels. All in all, as a theory of history, the above view has had many eminent supporters.
It might be well to mention here a variation on this theory that used to be popular, that is, the idea that man rose from a low condition to a Golden Age at some time in the remote past, and that things have gone straight downhill ever since. Many eminent men have found a sort of gloomy comfort in this idea, but science has now opened up possibilities for the future which make this theory less defendable. Perhaps for this reason the theory has little modern support.
A second theory of history is held by those men who see man's history as something quite different from a simple progression from a lower to a higher state. They see it as a cycle of stages of development which are predictable in their broad outlines and main features. The chief pattern one sees in history is the rise and fall of civilizations.
Man, according to this theory, is warlike in one stage of his history and humane in another. This is not due to individual human beings or to general progress, but rather to determining socioeconomic patterns that are not, as yet, understood. To holders of this theory, modern man is not looked upon as the most superior social being yet produced. He is simply the typical product of the current stage in the cycle of our civilization. In fact he may actually be inferior to members of past civilizations. It all depends upon what stage of civilization we happen to be living in. Indeed, it has been said that the average modern literate city dweller is comparatively more ignorant of his era's wealth of knowledge than other literate city dwellers of the past.
In a third theory of history, the two above theories are to some degree reconciled. According to this theory, which is often termed the spiral view of history, human societies do repeat a cycle of stages, but overall progress is observable in the long historical perspective. Civilizations do rise and fall, as the advocates of the second theory maintain, but the new civilization which replaces the first, usually by conquest, contains superior qualities which enable it to rise to a higher stage of development until it, too, declines and is replaced by yet a third civilization.
[解析] 本题为要点题，要求考生能分清主要观点和说明观点的细节，尤其能够通过综合分析来确定听力材料的要点。讲座通过提问的方式引入人类历史的再现这一论题，然后用三个历史学的理论对这一论题进行介绍和阐述，也就是B项所表达的内容。

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为细节题，要求考生能够弄清围绕主题而阐述的细节和事实。题目问：讲座谈到了再现历史的困难，下列哪一项不是导致困难的原因?A项(关于人类历史的文字记录很少)、B项(我们对于人类历史的了解是断断续续的)、C项(我们收集到的历史相关数据往往缺乏准确性)这三项的内容都能在材料中找到与其对应的细节，只有D项(历史理论的框架没有完全建立起来)文中没有提到，因此选择D项。

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为细节题。题目问：各历史理论学派的共同目标是什么?B项(为现代社会的发展提供指导)、C项(预测人类社会未来的发展)和D项(再现人类社会的起源)都不符合题意。教授在引出几种不同的历史理论前说道：“Thus, many schools of thought on the subject have developed, each of which attempts to give coherence to the human past by fitting it into the framework of a general theory of history(关于这一学科，产生了许多理论学派，每一个学派都试图通过建立一个历史的通用理论框架来对人类的过去进行统一的描述)”，因此，A项(实现理论与史实相结合)为正确答案。

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题仍为细节题。题目问：下面哪一项是关于第一个理论的正确说法?B项(人类将进化成为天使)、C项(乌托邦式文明最终将会出现)和D项(人类文明有兴也有衰)这三项都不正确。在说到第一个理论时，教授就说：“In one of these theories, it is assumed that man continually progresses(在这些理论中，其中有一个认为人类是不断进步的)”，因此，选项A(人类是不断进步的)为正确答案。

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为语用理解题中的立场题，要求考生能判断讲话者的态度。题目问：教授对于第二个理论持什么样的态度?教授在介绍和阐述这三个理论时，一直都使用客观的口吻，没有对其进行比较和评价。因此，应是中立的态度，即选择B项。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 本题为语用理解题中的功能题，要求考生推断出讲话者所表达的深层意思。题目问：教授在说“In a third theory of history, the tow above theories are to some degree reconciled(在第三个历史理论中，前两个理论在某种程度上互相妥协了)”时，想表达的意思是什么?本题的关键在于理解reconcile的意思，其本意是“妥协，和解”，但在这里应该理解成“结合”。因为在这之后教授紧接着介绍了第三个理论的内容，即历史的发展总处于回旋上升的状态；而第一个理论的内容是历史的发展呈上升状态，第二个理论的内容是历史的发展在上升与下降中循环，两者结合以后，则类似于第三个理论的“回旋上升”。因此，C项为正确答案。