单选题 In general, our society is becoming one of 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 alter the fact that man has become powerless, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue 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 or 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 tight mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on they are tested again and again by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge their behavior, sociability, capacity to get along , etc. This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than one's fellow-competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and illness. Am I suggesting that we should return to the preindustrial 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 managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities — those of love and of reason — are the aims of all 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 well-oiled cog in the machinery" the author intends to render the idea that man is______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:a well—oiled cog in the machinery:机器中润滑良好的齿轮,指人在社会中所发挥的作用是微不足道的。C选项正好与之相一致。A、B、D项均与文章不符。
单选题 The real cause of the anxiety of the workers and employees is that______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:从文章第2段可以得出答案。工人们和雇员们忧虑的原因是可能失业;生活不能得到真正的满足和兴趣;被剥夺了个性和独立性。D项做了很好的概括。
单选题 From the passage we can infer that real happiness of life belongs to those______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:本题是细节题。第3段最后一句话指出这种不断证明自己与竞争对手同样优秀或者超过对手从而不断地产生忧虑和压力,正是不快乐和疾病的起因。可知D项为正确答案。
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:第4段第4句话指出,我建议转变我们的社会生产体制,从以追求最大限度的生产和消费为目的的官僚主义管理工业体制转变成一个以充分发挥人的潜能(如爱和理性的潜能)为目的的人性化工业体制。C项为正确答案。
单选题 The author's attitude towards industrialism might best be summarized as one of______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:本题问作者对工业体制的态度。本文作者指出了现代工业社会的种种弊端;第1段指出人的地位微不足道;第2段指出工人们与雇员们都感到忧虑;第3段指出上层社会的人们也感到忧虑。最后作者提出了改变这种社会体制的建议。因此不难得出,作者认为现行的industrialism不好。正确答案是B项。