阅读理解 Many of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all.
We do not know who first set a broken leg, or launched a seaworthy boat, or calculated the length of the year; but we know all about the killers and destroyers. People think a great deal of them, so much so that on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier. And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors.
It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently—this, after all, is what conquerors and generals have done—is not being civilized. People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and civilized people ought to be able to find some way of setting their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other side, and then saying that that side which has killed most has won. And not only has it won, but, because it has won, it had been in the right. For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might is right.
单选题 21.The author thinks that the conquerors and generals and soldiers _____.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推理判断题。本题考查转折处。根据文章开头第1句中whereas形成的对比关系，得知作者认为真正推动文明前进的人常常没被载入史册，由此可推断，载入史册的征服者或将军或战士没能真正起到推动文明前进的作用。选项A中的only过于绝对。选项B和C没有原文根据。
单选题 22.As is indicated in the passage, the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier is put on the highest pillars in the great cities of the world mainly because _____.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】事实细节题。本题考查复合句的理解。文中的第2段第2句的"People think a great deal of them，so much so that"是一个结果状语从句，主句是原因，从句是结果，由此可推出答案应为A，选项A是原句主句的近义替换。其他选项均无原文依据，纯属主观臆断。
单选题 23.What is the writer's attitude towards the countries that ruled over a large number of other countries?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】观点态度题。从文中第3段第1句推断出作者的态度，该句是一个转折并列句，转折连词but表明了作者认为那些国家虽然伟大但并不文明。从第2句开始，作者将这些国家与动物或野人相比，认为他们都是不文明的，由此可见，作者对这些国家的态度是带有批判性的。本题最具干扰性的是选项C，本文中作者对这些国家的不文明做法是直接批判的，没有讽刺的意味，因此不能用ironic来形容作者的态度。
单选题 24.The author says that civilized people _____.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】事实细节题。本题考查other than的理解。第3段倒数第3句提到文明人的做法，理解的关键在于短语other than(而不是)，并明白作者认同other than之前的做法，即find some way of settling their disputes。选项A和B无依据，选项D显然与作者的观点完全相反。
单选题 25.The meaning of the last sentence is that _____.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】词义推断题。要正确理解该句子的意思，关键在于might一词，该词在此句中是个名词，意为“权力，力量”。当然，还必须联系前文所述"…because it has won，it had been in the right"。结合这两句话，可以推断A为正确选项，其他选项都属曲解。