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  3. To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind is prone, no superhum

To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind is prone, no superhum

游客2025-04-19  51
问题     To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind is prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all error, but from silly error.【66】Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted. He did not do so because he thought he knew.
    Many matters, however, are less easily brought to the test of experience. If, like most of mankind, you have passionate convictions on many such matters, there are ways in which you can make yourself aware of your own bias.【67】If someone maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmeticthere is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion.【68】.
    A good way of ridding yourself of certain kinds of dogmatism is to become aware of opinions held in social circles different from your own. When I was young, I lived much outside my own country. I found this very profitable in diminishing the intensity of insular prejudice.【69】If the people and the newspaper seem mad, perverse, and wicked, remind yourself that you seem so to them.
    For those who have enough psychological imagination, it is a good plan to imagine an argument with a person having a different bias.【70】I have sometimes been led actually to change my mind as a result of this kind of imaginary dialogue, and, short of this, I have frequently found myself growing less dogmatic through realizing the possible reasonableness of a hypothetical opponent.
A. This has one advantage, and only one, as compared with actual conversation with opponents; this one advantage is that the method is not subject to the same limitations of time and space.
B. If you cannot travel, seek out people with whom you disagree, and read a newspaper belonging to a party that is not yours.
C. If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do.
D. In this opinion both parties may be right, but they cannot both be wrong.
E. If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself.
F. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants. [br] 【69】
选项
答案 B
解析 根据后面一句中的“the people and the newspaper”这里用了定冠词the，可知，前面一句必定提到people和newspaper。结合选项可知，只有选项B符合题意。
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