2009年考博英语——考博英语阅读（五）

来源：在职研究生招生信息网发布时间：2011-10-25 16:33:09

　　Passage 9

　　The conflict between good and evil is a common theme running through the great literature and drama of the world, from the time of the ancient Greeks to all the present. The principle that conflict is the heart of dramatic action when illustrated by concrete examples, almost always turns up some aspect of the struggle between good and evil.

　　The idea that there is neither good nor evil--in any absolute moral or religious sense—is widespread in our times. There are various relativistic and behavioristic standards of ethics. If these standards even admit the distinction between good and evil, it is as a relative matter and not as whirlwind of choices that lies at the center of living. In any such state of mind, conflict can at best, be only a petty matter, lacking true universality. The acts of the evildoer and of the virtuous man alike become dramatically neutralized. Imagine the reduced effect of Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazoc, had Dostoevsky thought that good and evil, as portrayed in those books, were wholly relative, and if he had had no conviction about them.

　　You can't have a vital literature if you ignore or shun evil. What you get then is the world of Pollyanna, goody-goody in place of the good. Cry, The Beloved Country is a great and dramatic novel because Alan Paton, in addition to being a skilled workman, sees with clear eyes both good and evil, differentiates them, pitches them into conflict with each other, and takes sides. He sees that the native boy Absalom Kumalo, who has murdered, cannot be judged justly without taking into account the environment that has had part in shaping him. But Paton sees, too, that Absalom the individual, not society the abstraction, committed the act and is responsible for it. Mr. Paton understands mercy. He knows that this precious thing is not evoked by sentimental impulse, but by a searching examination of the realities of human action. Mercy follows a judgment; it does not precede it.

　　One of the novels by the talented Paul Bowles, Let It Come Down, is full of motion, full of sensational depravities, and is a crashing bore. The book recognizes no evil, and is coldly indifferent to the moral behavior of its characters. It is a long shrug. Such a view of life is non- dramatic and negates the vital essence of drama.

　　41. In our age, according to the author, a standpoint often taken in the area of ethics is the _____.

　　A) relativistic view of morals

　　B) greater concern with religion

　　C) emphasis on evil

　　D) greater concern with universals

　　42. The author believes that in great literature, as in life, good and evil are ____

　　A) relative

　　B) unimportant

　　C) constantly in conflict

　　D) dramatically neutralized

　　43. When the author uses the expression "it is a long shrug" in referring to Bowles's book, he　is commenting on the ___

　　A) length of the novel

　　B) indifference to the moral behavior of the characters

　　C) monotony of the story

　　D) sensational depravities of the book

　　44. In the opinion of the author, Cry, The Beloved Country is a great and dramatic novel be-cause of Paton's ____.

　　A) insight into human behavior

　　B) behavioristic beliefs

　　C) treatment of good and evil as abstractions

　　D) willingness to make moral judgments

　　45. The word "shun" in the 1st sentence in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.

　　A) shut

　　B) attend

　　C) show

　　D) avoid

　　Passage 10

　　African-American filmmakers should be in an enviable position, for since the early 1990s there has been a steady wave of low budget black films which have turned a solid profit due to a very strong response in the African-American community and a larger crossover audience than anticipated. Any rational business manager would now identify this sector as a prime candidate for expansion, but if the films have done so well with limited production and marketing costs,why have they not received full scale support7

　　Many analysts feel the business is engulfed in a miasma of self-serving and self-fulfilling myths based on the unspoken assumption that Mfrican-American films can never be vehicles of prestige, glamour, or celebrity. The relationship players have convinced themselves that black films can do only a limited domestic business under any circumstance and have virtually no for- eign box office potential. As executives who now control the film industry grew up in those de- cades when there were few black images on the screen and those that did exist were produced by film-makers with limited knowledge of the black community, it is little wonder that they avoid ideological issues, and seek to continue making films that they are comfortable with by avoiding they negative imagery of films they would prefer to eschew entirely.

　　Also to blame for this deleterious phenomenon are legions of desperate and Machiavellian African-American film producers, directors, and writers who would transform The Birth of A Nation into a black musical as long as it would provide them with gainful studio employment. These filmmakers not only perpetuate negative stereotypes in their films, but they also season them with a sprinkling of African-American authenticity. This situation would be onerous enough, given the economic exploitation of the community involved; unfortunately these films also validate the pathologies they depict. The constant projection of the black community as a kind of urban Wild Kingdom, the glamorization of tragic situations, and the celebration of inner　city drug dealers and gangsters has a programming effect on black youth. The power of music in film is a particularly seductive and propagandistic force which in the recent crop of African-American films has rarely been used in a positive social manner.

　　What flows from this combination of factors is a policy of market exploitation rather than market development, evidenced by the fact that any number of films may open to 1,500 screens in one week, only to totally disappear in less than a month. This restricted body of film products erodes the genre's long-term viability, particularly with the more fickle non-African-American-can audiences and foreign audiences. Furthermore, when African-American actors begin to emerge as stars, their projects are usually designed to be "more" than a black film, such that any success that follows is therefore perceived not as a reflection of the viability of African-American filmmaking but as the broader pursuit of celebrity.

　　46. According to the passage, all wise managers think that ___

　　A) the industry of black film would increase in the future

　　B) the industry of black film would decrease in the future

　　C) the industry of black film would not receive full scale support

　　D) the industry of black film is bound to win full scale support

　　47. It is suggested by the analysts that ___

　　A) black films can be very successful

　　B) black films can win prestige, glamour, or celebrity

　　C) black films are mysterious

　　D) black films can never be the road to prestige

　　48. It can be inferred from the passage that ___

　　A) the black community is wild