考研英语二-新题型-B-练习.doc

PAGE PAGE 10 英语二新题型 练习（一） ?Directions: Read the following text and answer the questions by reading information from the left column that corresponds to each of the marked details given in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Make your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points) “University history, the history of what man has accomplished in the world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here,” wrote the Victorian Thomas Carlyle Well, not any more it is not. Suddenly, Britain looks to have fallen out with its favorite historical form. This could be no more than a passing literary craze, but it also points to a broader truth about how we now approach the past: less concerned with learning from our forefathers and more interested in feeling their pain. Today, we want empathy, not inspiration. From the earliest days of the Renaissance, the writing of history meant recounting the exemplary lives of great men. In 1337, Petrarch began work on his rambling writing Debins Illustribus-on Famous Men, highlighting the virtus (or virtue) of classical heroes. Petrarch celebrated their greatness in conquering fortune and rising to the top. This was the biographical tradition which Niccolo Machiavelli turned on its head. In The Prince, he championed cunning, ruthlessness, and boldness, rather than virtue, mercy and justice, as the skills of successful leaders. Over time, the attributes of greatness shifted. The Romantics commemorated the leading painters and author of their day, stressing the uniqueness of the artist’s person experience rather than public glory. By contrast, the Victorian author Samuel Smile wrote self-Help as a catalogue of the worthy lives of engineers, industrialists and explorers. “The valuable examples which they furnish of the power of self -help, of patient purpose resolute working and steadfast integrity, issuing in the formation of truly noble and manly character, exhibit.” wrote Smile, “what it is in the