首页
登录
职称英语
(1)Whom can you trust these days? It is a question posed by David Halpern of
(1)Whom can you trust these days? It is a question posed by David Halpern of
游客
2023-12-03
47
管理
问题
(1)Whom can you trust these days? It is a question posed by David Halpern of Cambridge University, and the researchers at the Downing Street Strategy Unit who take an interest in "social capital". At intervals they go around asking people in assorted nations the question: "Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted?"
(2)The results are fascinating. The conclusion that leaps from the figures and into sensational headlines is that social dislocation, religious decline, public scandals, family fragmentation and the fear of crime have made us less trusting. Comparative surveys over 40 years suggest that British trustfulness has halved: in the 1950s 60 percent of us answered "yes, most people can be trusted", in the 1980s 44 percent, today only 29 percent. Trust levels also continue to fall in Ireland and the US—meanwhile, the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and Dutch express tremendous confidence in one another’s probity: levels are actually rising. And the Palme d’Or for paranoid mutual suspicion goes to the Brazilians—with less than 3 percent replying "yes"—and the Turks with 6.5 percent. The French, apparently, never trusted one another and still don’t. So we become less Scandinavian and more French(or Turkish)every year.
(3)Regarding Britain, the obvious conclusions are being drawn. Mr. Halpern and others cite reasons why we appear less trustful: the demise of the job-for-life culture, rising divorce, physical mobility, higher immigration, an aggressive commercial ethic and the new isolation of mass media.
(4)This is useful research, but there are a few caveats. The trouble is that you may not get a very thoughtful answer if you merely ask—as they did last year—whether "generally speaking, most people can be trusted". For the British like to think of themselves as canny, savvy, nobody’s fools, we have a powerful culture of satire and a hypercritical media which gleefully splash news of every private and public betrayal, however trivial. In our fantasy life we court paranoia, lapping up crime thrillers and spy novels. We are fascinated by rogues, from Chaucer’s Pardoner to Del Boy. We are bad at risk-assessment, and repeated surveys show that we fear crime far more than is justified.
(5)So we are conditioned to claim that we don’t trust people much. A Scandinavian or Dutchman is proud to express trust and affection for his fellow-man. Our national preference is to purse the lips, shake the head and affect an air of judicious canniness.
(6)But if you look at the actual daily workings of British society there is an astonishing degree of unquestioning trust of strangers, simply because we are a technological society. These respondents who tell the researchers that "generally speaking, people cannot be trusted" are in fact blithely trusting distant strangers all day long. For example, every time you get on a train or plane you put your life into the hands of unseen engineers and designers, drivers, pilots and traffic controllers. The list of our trustful ways goes on and on. Twenty minutes’ contemplation of the simple scams uncovered by the BBC Watchdog should suggest that rather than living in a state of constant suspicion, in many areas of life we are relaxed to the point of gullibility.
(7)But ask the bald question, and we think immediately about those who publicly let us down: politicians who broke election promises, pension funds that jeopardized our future while their directors swanned off with bonuses, stars who turned sleazy. This is not entirely healthy. What we say will, in the end, become what we think. US evidence is denser than ours, but broadly speaking it is clear mat trust is linked to "social capital" —networks, alliances, local societies, anything that takes people out into common places.
(8)Mr. Halpern’s book will come to more informed conclusions than I can; but my own instinct, from the research and from observation, is to draw only two. Firstly, we’re not quite as cynical as we say we are, and nothing like as cynical as our media. Secondly, the worst crisis of trust is not actually between citizens, but between citizens and their government and institutions. The remedy for that is in the hands of politicians, who ought to police their own ambition and greed and that of their corporate friends. Interference from the top is a lousy idea. Example from the top would be much better. [br] The following statements about Scandinavians or Britons are true EXCEPT ______.
选项
A、Scandinavians are generally frank and open
B、Britons are very fond of satirical art
C、Scandinavians pretend to be shrewd
D、Britons might underestimate the hazard
答案
C
解析
第5段末句提到,我们(英国人)更喜欢撅着嘴摇着头,假装精明机智。但文中并未如此描述斯堪的纳维亚人,因此选C。根据第2段末句和第5段第2句可知,斯堪的纳维亚人通常都是坦率开明的,故排除A;由第4段第3句可知,B正确,而D是对该段第6句前一分句的同义改写。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3240086.html
相关试题推荐
Comparedwithwrittencomplexquestionnaires,structuredinterviews[br][origi
Comparedwithwrittencomplexquestionnaires,structuredinterviews[br][origi
Comparedwithwrittencomplexquestionnaires,structuredinterviews[br][origi
Comparedwithwrittencomplexquestionnaires,structuredinterviews[br][origi
Comparedwithwrittencomplexquestionnaires,structuredinterviews[originaltex
QuestioningTechniques—Asking
QuestioningTechniques—Asking
Whenschoolstartseachyear,themostimportantquestiononthemindsofpa
Whenschoolstartseachyear,themostimportantquestiononthemindsofpa
Whenschoolstartseachyear,themostimportantquestiononthemindsofpa
随机试题
InDowntownLosAngeles,youwillhavetheopportunitytoseetheMusicCente
FiveCommonMistakesinConversationandTheirSolutionsI.Notlis
逻辑变量X、Y进行逻辑“异或”(用⊕表示)运算的含义是:若X、Y取值相同(都为t
据说美国杜鲁门总统的成功与当学生的时候赢得英文教师布朗小姐的爱吻有关,这说明教师
甲状腺功能减退症的常见病因是A.肿瘤 B.甲状腺激素不敏感综合征 C.原发性
()各金融监管部门要按照职责分工,密切配合,切实做好金融消费者权益保护工作
下列( )不属于建设工程项目总进度目标论证的工作步骤。A、调查研究和收集资料
创新对于一个国家,或者一个企业很重要,机关工作人员在办事要讲规矩,作为一名公务员
2010年,银监会发布了《关于规范银信理财合作业务有关事项的通知》,要求融资类业
屋面防水工程中,关于涂膜防水层的说法错误的是()。A.胎体增强材料宜采用无
最新回复
(
0
)