单选题 Traditionally, the study of history has had fixed boundaries and focal points—periods, countries, dramatic events, and great leaders. It also has had clear and firm notions of scholarly procedure; how one inquires into a historical problem, how one presents and documents one's findings, what constitutes admissible and adequate proof. Anyone who has followed recent historical literature can testify to the revolution that is taking place in historical studies. The currently fashionable subjects come directly from the sociology catalog: childhood, work, leisure. The new subjects are accompanied by new methods. Where history once was primarily narrative, it is now entirely analytic. The old questions "What happened?" and "How did it happen?" have given way to the question "Why did it happen?" Prominent among the methods used to answer the question "Why" is psychoanalysis, and its use has given rise to psychohistory. Psychohistory does not merely use psychological explanations in historical contexts. Historians have always used such explanations when they were appropriate and when there was sufficient evidence for them. But this pragmatic use of psychology is not what psychohistorians intend. They are committed, not just to psychology in general, but to Freudian psychoanalysis. This commitment precludes a commitment to history as historians have always understood it. Psychohistory derives its "facts" not from history, the detailed records of events and their consequences, but from psychoanalysis of the individuals who made history, and deduces its theories not from this or that instance in their lives, but from a view of human nature that transcends history. It denies the basic criterion of historical evidence; that evidence be publicly accessible to, and therefore assessable by, all historians. And it violates the basic tenet of historical method: that historians be alert to the negative instances that would refute their theses. Psychohistorians, convinced of the absolute lightness of their own theories, are also convinced that theirs is the "deepest" explanation of any event, that other explanations fall short of the truth. Psychohistory is not content to violate the discipline of history(in the sense of the proper mode of studying and writing about the past); it also violates the past itself. It denies to the past an integrity and will of its own, in which people acted out of a variety of motives and in which events had a multiplicity of causes and effects. It imposes upon the past the same determinism that it imposes upon the present, thus robbing people and events of their individuality and of their complexity. Instead of respecting the particularity of the past, it assimilates all events, past and present, into a single deterministic schema that is presumed to be true at all times and in all circumstances.
单选题 Which of the following best states the main point of the text?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:本题是中心主旨题。第二段的最后一句出现了全文所谈的中心“psychohistory”,在第二段中谈到了“psychohistory”的流行性,在第二段和第三段中作者谈到了“psychohistory”缺乏历史科学研究的“严密性和可考证性”。由此分析可知正确答案应包含“psychohistory”和“history”两个概念,故A正确。
单选题 The author of the text suggests that psychohistorians view history primarily as______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:本题是审题定位题。通过题干中的“psychohistorians view history primarily as”可判断本题是要考生找出“psychohistorians”如何看待(view…as)历史(history),即要找出“psychohistorians”对历史的看法和态度。从关键词psychohistorians找到第三段的对应原句“Psychohistory derives its“facts”not from history,the detailed records of events and theirconsequences,but from psychoanalysis of the individuals who made history,and deduces itstheories not from this or that instance in their lives,but from a view of human nature thattranscends history.”,心理历史学不是从历史、从事件的详细记录和它们的前因后果中来获取“事实”,而是对创造历史的个人进行心理分析,从中获取“事实”;不是从这些创造历史的人物一生的这个或那个实例中演绎出理论,而是从超越历史的人类本性的角度来推导理论。由此可知D正确。
单选题 The author mentions which of the following as a characteristic of the practice of psychohistorians?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:本题是细节题。通过题干中的“psychohistorians”可将本题的答案确定在第三、四段,但是题干并没有明确指出本题准确的信息来源。但是题干中的“practice”一词暗示本题的答案信息可能在尾段,因为一般阐述问题的规律是:从理论谈到实践。通过阅读尾段,可得出本题的正确选项是C。
单选题 In presenting her analysis, the author does all of the following EXCEPT______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:本题是写作手法题。本题A、B、C中所涉及的内容可分别在第三段第六、七、八句、第一段的第一、二句以及第三段的尾句找到。本文并没有谈到“psychohistorians”在应用自己方法方面的前后矛盾不一致性,故本题的正确选项应该是选项D。