单选题 Social change is more likely to occur in societies where there is a mixture of different kinds of people than in societies where people are similar in many ways. The simple reason for this is that there are more different ways of looking at things present in the first kind of society. There are more ideas, more disagreements in interest, and more groups and organizations with different beliefs. In addition, there is usually a greater worldly interest and greater tolerance in mixed societies. All these factors tend to promote social change by opening more areas of life to decision. In a society where people are quite similar in many ways, there are fewer occasions for people to see the need or the opportunity for change because everything seems to be the same. And although conditions may not be satisfactory, they are at least customary and undisputed.
Within a society, social change is also likely to occur more frequently and more readily in the material aspects of the culture than in the non-material, for example, in technology rather than in values; in what has been learned later in life rather than what was learned early; in the less basic and less emotional aspects of society than in their opposites; in the simple elements rather than in the complex ones; in form rather than in substance; and in elements that are acceptable to the culture rather than in strange elements.
Furthermore, social change is easier if it is gradual. For example, it comes more readily in human relation on a continuous scale rather than one with sharp dichotomies (一分为二). This is one reason why change has not come more quickly to Black American as compared to other American minorities, because of the sharp difference in "appearance between them and their white counterparts".
单选题 The passage has mainly discussed ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 全文。
中心主旨题。根据全文的各段首句,利用排除法,可推出B。
单选题 ______ is one of the factors that tend to promote social change.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 第一段第二句“The simple reason for this...in the first kind of society.”。
事实细节题。根据第一段第二句可知,社会变化的一个原因是在一种类型的社会群体中,有更多不同的看待现在事物的方式,故D项符合。
单选题 According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 第一段第三句“There are...”。
判断推理题。选项B与文中第一段意思相反。
单选题 In the first paragraph "greater tolerance" probably refers to ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 第一段第四句“In addition...”。
语义猜测题。文章第一段后半部分提到,更多的利益和更大的忍耐力是导致社会变化的原因。
单选题 Social change is less likely to occur in a society where people are quite similar in many ways because ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 第一段倒数第一、二句“In a society...”。
语气态度题。根据第一段倒数第一、二句可知,在人们十分相似的社会里,社会变革发生较少的原因是每件事都既往不变,人们已经对当前状况习以为常了,故选A。