Change—or the ability to adapt oneself to a changing environment—is essential to evolution. The farmer whose land is required for housing or industry must adapt himself: He can move to another place and master the problems peculiar to it; he can change his occupation, perhaps after a period of training; or he can starve to death. A nation which can not adapt its trade or defense requirements to meet world conditions faces economic or military disaster. Nothing is fixed and permanently stable. There must be movement forward, which is progress of a sort, or movement backwards, which is decay and deterioration. In this context, tradition can be a force for good or for evil. As long as it offers a guide(without insisting that its path is the only one), it helps the ignorant and the uninformed to take a step forward, and thereby, to adapt themselves to changed circumstances. Tradition, or custom, can guide the hunter as effectively as it can influence the nervous hostess. But if we make an idol(偶像、崇拜)of tradition, it ceases to become a guide and becomes an obstacle lying across the path of change and progress. If we insist on trying to plot the future by the past, we clearly handicap ourselves and invite failure. The better course is to adopt the help which tradition can give but, realizing that it necessarily has its roots in the past, to be well aware of its limitations in a changing world. "The hunter and the nervous hostess" in Para. 2 are referring to people who______.
A. are ignorant and uninformed
B. are well aware of custom’s limitations
C. become an obstacle on the path of progress
D. constitute the force for good
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People who question or even look down on the study of the past and its works usually assume that the past is entirely different from the present, and that hence we can learn nothing worthwhile from the past. But it is not true that the past is entirely different from the present. We can learn much of value from its similarity and its difference. A tremendous change in the conditions of human life and in our knowledge and control of the natural world has taken place since ancient times. The ancients could not, however, see in advance our contemporary technical and social environment, and hence have no advice to offer us about the particular problems facing us. But, although social and economic arrangements vary with time and place, man still remains man. We and the ancients share a common human nature and hence certain common human experiences and problems. The poets bear witness that ancient man, too, saw the sun rise and set, felt the wind on his cheek, was possessed by love and desire, experienced joy and excitement as well as frustration and disappointment, and knew good and evil. The ancient poets speak across the centuries to us, sometimes more directly and vividly than our contemporary writers. And the ancient prophets and philosophers, in dealing with the basic problems of men living together in society, still have something to say to us. We also learn from the past by considering the respects in which it differs from the present. We can discover where we are today and what we have become by knowing what the people of the past did and thought. And part of the past—our personal past and that of the race—always lives in us. Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage
A. Our present has little in common with the past.
B. Past human experiences can be used to serve the present.
C. Some people in the past predicted things in our age accurately.
D. Our present age is basically similar to the past one.
名牌大学享受着绝大部分的政府教育拨款,而地方大学只能依靠市场的力量,这就意味着他们必须要招收更多的学生以确保财政收入。这种逐渐加大的差距必然会导致地方大学教育质量下滑,这些地方学校严重缺乏富有经验的优秀教师。更糟糕的是,这些学校都喜欢开发一些“软”专业,比如说,会计、金融、公共事业管理、国际贸易、外语等。这些时髦的专业不需要太多财资就可以开设,从而使得学校可以容纳下这些年的扩招学生。这些专业的毕业生过去受到就业市场的欢迎。然而,由于这些专业的毕业生日益增多,使得供需之间产生严重不平衡的现象。
Change—or the ability to adapt oneself to a changing environment—is essential to evolution. The farmer whose land is required for housing or industry must adapt himself: He can move to another place and master the problems peculiar to it; he can change his occupation, perhaps after a period of training; or he can starve to death. A nation which can not adapt its trade or defense requirements to meet world conditions faces economic or military disaster. Nothing is fixed and permanently stable. There must be movement forward, which is progress of a sort, or movement backwards, which is decay and deterioration. In this context, tradition can be a force for good or for evil. As long as it offers a guide(without insisting that its path is the only one), it helps the ignorant and the uninformed to take a step forward, and thereby, to adapt themselves to changed circumstances. Tradition, or custom, can guide the hunter as effectively as it can influence the nervous hostess. But if we make an idol(偶像、崇拜)of tradition, it ceases to become a guide and becomes an obstacle lying across the path of change and progress. If we insist on trying to plot the future by the past, we clearly handicap ourselves and invite failure. The better course is to adopt the help which tradition can give but, realizing that it necessarily has its roots in the past, to be well aware of its limitations in a changing world. This passage manly discusses the relationship between______.
A. industry and agriculture
B. evil tradition and good tradition
C. man and the changing world
D. tradition and change
People who question or even look down on the study of the past and its works usually assume that the past is entirely different from the present, and that hence we can learn nothing worthwhile from the past. But it is not true that the past is entirely different from the present. We can learn much of value from its similarity and its difference. A tremendous change in the conditions of human life and in our knowledge and control of the natural world has taken place since ancient times. The ancients could not, however, see in advance our contemporary technical and social environment, and hence have no advice to offer us about the particular problems facing us. But, although social and economic arrangements vary with time and place, man still remains man. We and the ancients share a common human nature and hence certain common human experiences and problems. The poets bear witness that ancient man, too, saw the sun rise and set, felt the wind on his cheek, was possessed by love and desire, experienced joy and excitement as well as frustration and disappointment, and knew good and evil. The ancient poets speak across the centuries to us, sometimes more directly and vividly than our contemporary writers. And the ancient prophets and philosophers, in dealing with the basic problems of men living together in society, still have something to say to us. We also learn from the past by considering the respects in which it differs from the present. We can discover where we are today and what we have become by knowing what the people of the past did and thought. And part of the past—our personal past and that of the race—always lives in us. In the second paragraph, the writer places great emphasis on the fact that______.
A. human nature does not change easily
B. a great change has taken place in the conditions of human life
C. social arrangements change quickly
D. it is impossible to ask the ancient people to give us useful advice