首页
登录
职称英语
(1)Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but
(1)Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but
游客
2023-11-28
63
管理
问题
(1)Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but the tests that have to be applied to them are not, of course, the same in all cases. In Gandhi’s case the questions on feels inclined to ask are: to what extent was Gandhi moved by vanity—by the consciousness of himself as a humble, naked old man, sitting on a praying mat and shaking empires by sheer spiritual power—and to what extent did he compromise his own principles by entering politics, which of their nature are inseparable from coercion and fraud? To give a definite answer one would have to study Gandhi’s acts and writings in immense detail, for his whole life was a sort of pilgrimage in which every act was significant. But this partial autobiography, which ends in the nineteen-twenties, is strong evidence in his favor, all the more because it covers what he would have called the unregenerate part of his life and reminds one that inside the saint, or near-saint, there was a very shrewd, able person who could, if he had chosen, have been a brilliant success as a lawyer, an administrator or perhaps even a businessman.
(2)At about the time when the autobiography first appeared I remember reading its opening chapters in the ill-printed pages of some Indian newspaper. They made a good impression on me, which Gandhi himself at that time did not. The things that one associated with him—home-spun cloth, "soul forces" and vegetarianism—were unappealing. It was also apparent that the British were making use of him, or thought they were making use of him. Strictly speaking, as a Nationalist, he was an enemy, but since in every crisis he would exert himself to prevent violence—which, from the British point of view, meant preventing any effective action whatever—he could be regarded as "our man". In private this was sometimes cynically admitted. The attitude of the Indian millionaires was similar. Gandhi called upon them to repent, and naturally they preferred him to the Socialists and Communists who, given the chance, would actually have taken their money away. The British Conservatives only became really angry with him when, as in 1942, he was in effect turning his non-violence against a different conqueror.
(3)But I could see even then that the British officials who spoke of him with a mixture of amusement and disapproval also genuinely liked and admired him, after a fashion. Nobody ever suggested that he was corrupt, or ambitious in any vulgar way, or that anything he did was actuated by fear or malice. In judging a man like Gandhi one seems instinctively to apply high standards, so that some of his virtues have passed almost unnoticed. For instance, it is clear even from the autobiography that his natural physical courage was quite outstanding: the manner of his death was a later illustration of this, for a public man who attached any value to his own skin would have been more adequately guarded. Again, he seems to have been quite free from that maniacal suspiciousness which, as E. M. Forster rightly says in A Passage to India, is the besetting Indian vice, as hypocrisy is the British vice. Although no doubt he was shrewd enough in detecting dishonesty, he seems wherever possible to have believed that other people were acting in good faith and had a better nature through which they could be approached. And though he came of a poor middle-class family, started life rather unfavorably, and was probably of unimpressive physical appearance, he was not afflicted by envy or by the feeling of inferiority. Color feeling when he first met it in its worst form in South Africa, seems rather to have astonished him. Even when he was fighting what was in effect a color war, he did not think of people in terms of race or status. The governor of a province, a cotton millionaire, a half-starved Dravidian coolie, a British private soldier were all equally human beings, to be approached in much the same way.
(4)Written in short lengths for newspaper serialization, the autobiography is not a literary masterpiece, but it is the more impressive because of the commonplaceness of much of its material. It is well to be reminded that Gandhi started out with the normal ambitions of a young Indian student and only adopted his extremist opinions by degrees and, in some cases, rather unwillingly. There was a time, it is interesting to learn, when he wore a top hat, took dancing lessons, studied French and Latin, went up the Eiffel Tower and even tried to learn the violin—all this was the idea of assimilating European civilization as thoroughly as possible. He was not one of those saints who are marked out by their phenomenal piety from childhood onwards, nor one of the other kind who forsake the world after sensational debaucheries. He makes full confession of the misdeeds of his youth, but in fact there is not much to confess.
(5)One feels that even after he had abandoned personal ambition he must have been a resourceful, energetic lawyer and a hard-headed political organizer, careful in keeping down expenses, an adroit handler of committees and an indefatigable chaser of subscriptions. His character was an extraordinarily mixed one, but there was almost nothing in it that you can put your finger on and call bad, and I believe that even Gandhi’s worst enemies would admit that he was an interesting and unusual man who enriched the world simply by being alive. Whether he was also a lovable man, and whether his teachings can have much for those who do not accept the religious beliefs on which they are founded, I have never felt fully certain. [br] The British liked Gandhi because _____.
选项
A、he prevented effective action in every crisis
B、he incited action against India’s rich middle-class
C、he cheated the British as well as his countrymen
D、he lent himself for use by the British colonists
答案
A
解析
本题要求选出英国人喜欢甘地的原因。根据第2段第5句可知,甘地在每次危机中都努力阻止暴力(prevent violence),这一点在英国人看来意味着阻止任何有效的行动(meant preventing any effective action),A选项“prevented effective action in every crisis”是对以上信息的概括,故选A。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3226639.html
相关试题推荐
PASSAGETHREE[br]Whatmaybethebesttitleofthepassage?Whyshouldwelearn
(1)Lettytheoldladylivedina"SingleRoomOccupancy"hotelapprovedbyt
(1)Lettytheoldladylivedina"SingleRoomOccupancy"hotelapprovedbyt
(1)Lettytheoldladylivedina"SingleRoomOccupancy"hotelapprovedbyt
[originaltext]M:Andwhatabouttheoverheadprojector?DoyouthinkIshouldu
[originaltext]M:Andwhatabouttheoverheadprojector?DoyouthinkIshouldu
Englishpronunciationmustbetaught;theteachershouldbepreparedtodevotes
Secondlanguageteachingshouldfocusonencouragingacquisition,andonpro
Secondlanguageteachingshouldfocusonencouragingacquisition,andonpro
Secondlanguageteachingshouldfocusonencouragingacquisition,andonpro
随机试题
Although"namingrights"haveproliferatedinAmericanhighereducationfor
【S1】[br]【S10】去掉which或者∧which→in本题考查定语从句用法。引导本句定语从句的先行词在从句中充当状语成分,而which在定语从句中不
[originaltext]Mostofusknowthattheriskofgettingillisreducedwhenwel
教师被人们称为“园丁”、“人类灵魂的工程师”,是受到全社会尊重的一种职业。每年的10月5日为世界教师日。【T1】该节日旨在赞扬和感谢全世界教师为教育事业
程量清单项目,如果因工程变更等原因导致工程量偏差超过()时,合同单价应进行调整
既是改制方案的依据,又是改制资产评估的基础的是( )。A.改制审计报告 B.资
决议和决定都是对重大事项或行动作出决策安排的指挥性下行公文,下列关于二者的说法不
当遇到火灾时,以下逃生方法哪种是错误的()A.在逃生过程中及时关闭防火门、防火卷
由国家主管部门公布的职业病目录所列的职业病称为法定职业病。下列关于职业病诊断条件
女性,30岁,自幼发作性咳嗽、咳痰、喘息,多于春季发作,多自行缓解,10-20岁
最新回复
(
0
)