2001年英语专八考试阅读真题:text H

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  TEXT H

  First read the question.
  34. The passage is primarily ___ in the development of the thesis.
  A. persuasive
  B. descriptive
  C. narrative
  D. expository

  Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 34.
  The question remains: must we conform? Or can we, somehow, resist the power s that conspire to domesticate us? And if so, with what arms are we to redeem ou r almost-lost manhood? Where are we to find the weapons of resistance?
  I believe that the question of conformity, in the long run, answers itself. I think that if there was a possibility, once, of a yes or no——if at one time humans could decide “we must conform” or “we must not” —— that possibilit y ha s been lost in the long reaches of evolution, far back along the corridors of Ti me. The simple truth is that we cannot conform.Built into man, is an instinct. I have chosen to call it the “instinct of rebellion”, since it reveals itself as a drive or urge toward mastery over ever y obstacle, natural or man-made, that stands as a barrier between man and his dis tant, perhaps never-to-be-achieved but always striven after goals. It is this in stinct that underwrites his survival, this instinct from which he derives his na ture: a great and powerful dynamic that makes him what he is——restless, seekin g, curious, forever unsatisfied, eternally straggling and eventually victorious. Because of the instinct of rebellion man has never been content with the limits of his body; it has led him to extend his senses almost infinitely, so that his fingers now probe space, his eyes magnify the nuclei of atoms, and his ears det ect whispers from the bottoms of seas. Because of the instinct of rebellion man has never been content with the limits of his mind; it has led him to inquire th e secrets of the universe, to gather and learn and manipulate the fabulous inven tory of the cosmos, to seek the very mysteries of creation.
  Man is a rebel. He is committed by his biology not to conform, and herein lies the paramount reason for the awful tension he experiences today in relation to Society. Unlike other cream of earth, man cannot submit, cannot surrender hi s birthright of protest, for rebellion is one of his essential dimensions. He ca n not deny it and remain man. In order to live he must rebel. Only total annihila tion of humanity as a species can eliminate this in-built necessity. Only with t he death of the last man will the revolt that is the essence of his nature also die.

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