首页
登录
职称英语
(1)When does history begin? It is tempting to reply "In the beginning", but l
(1)When does history begin? It is tempting to reply "In the beginning", but l
游客
2024-09-08
21
管理
问题
(1)When does history begin? It is tempting to reply "In the beginning", but like many obvious answers, this soon turns out to be unhelpful. As a great Swiss historian once pointed out in another connection, history is the one subject where you cannot begin at the beginning. If we want to, we can trace the chain of human descent back to the appearance of vertebrates, or even to the photosynthetic cells which lie at the start of life itself. We can go back further still, to almost unimaginable upheavals which formed this planet and even to the origins of the universe. Yet this is not "history".
(2)Commonsense helps here: history is the story of mankind, of what it has done, suffered or enjoyed. We all know that dogs and cats do not have histories, while human beings do. Even when historians write about a natural process beyond human control, such as the ups and downs of climate, or the spread of disease, they do so only because it helps us to understand why men and women have lived (and died)in some ways rather than others.
(3)This suggests that all we have to do is to identify the moment at which the first human beings step out from the shadows of the remote past. It is not quite as simple as that, though. We have to know what we are looking for first and most attempts to define humanity on the basis of observable characteristics prove in the end arbitrary and cramping, as long arguments about "apemen" and "missing links" have shown. Physiological tests help us to classify data but do not identify what is or is not human. That is a matter of a definition about which disagreement is possible. Some people have suggested that human uniqueness lies in language, yet other primates possess vocal equipment similar to our own: when noises are made with it which are signals, at what point do they become speech? Another famous definition is that man is a tool-maker, but observation has cast doubt on our uniqueness in this respect, too, long after Dr. Johnson scoffed at Boswell for quoting it to him.
(4)What is surely and identifiably unique about the human species is not its possession of certain faculties or physical characteristics, but what it has done with them—its achievement, or history, in fact. Humanity’s unique achievement is its remarkably intense level of activity and creativity, its cumulative capacity to create change. All animals have ways of living, some complex enough to be called cultures. Human culture alone is progressive: it has been increasingly built by conscious choice and selection within it as well as by accident and natural pressure, by the accumulation of a capital of experience and knowledge which man has exploited. Human history began when the inheritance of genetics and behavior which had until then provided the only way of dominating the environment was first broken through by conscious choice. Of course, human beings have always only been able to make their history within limits. These limits are now very wide indeed, but they were once so narrow that it is impossible to identify the first step which took human evolution away from the determination of nature. We have for a long time only a blurred story, obscure both because the evidence is poor and because we cannot be sure exactly what we are looking for. [br] The passage is mainly about ______.
选项
A、what history is
B、the difference between human beings and animals
C、what point should be the beginning of the human history
D、how the human beings make their history
答案
A
解析
主旨题。文章自始至终都在探讨人类历史的问题,谈到它的起源,它的组成和人类创造历史的过程等,故A为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3749311.html
相关试题推荐
PASSAGETHREE[br]WhatwasBennett’sattitudetowardshistory?Helikesit.从文章倒数
Jack______fromhomefortwodaysnow,andIambeginningtoworryabouthissaf
Mynephew______fromhomeforthreedaysnow,andIambeginningtoworryabout
Rumorswerealreadybeginningto______thattheprojectmighthavetobeabando
SocialHistoryoftheEastEndofLondon1.lst-4thcenturi
SocialHistoryoftheEastEndofLondon1.lst-4thcenturi
SocialHistoryoftheEastEndofLondon1.lst-4thcenturi
SocialHistoryoftheEastEndofLondon1.lst-4thcenturi
(1)Whendoeshistorybegin?Itistemptingtoreply"Inthebeginning",butl
(1)Whendoeshistorybegin?Itistemptingtoreply"Inthebeginning",butl
随机试题
Youhavedecidedtogiveseveralhoursofyourtimeeachmonthtoimproveth
【B1】[br]【B9】[originaltext]Thehomesecretary,CharlesClarke,willtoday
[originaltext]PakistaniPrimeMinisterShaukatAzizmetIndianPrimeMiniste
[originaltext]M:AceEmploymentAgency.Goodmorning.W:Goodmorning.Iwonder
两年制(专业硕士)学生国家助学贷款贷款期限时间是()?A.72个月 B.84
A.强心甾烯类B.3α,14-二羟基强心甾烯C.蟾蜍甾二烯(或海葱甾二烯)类D.
紫外线用于空气消毒时,30W紫外线灯管安装要求A:1支/20m<sup>2</s
在工作中防止“过”或“不及”的关键在于( )。A.抓住事物的主要矛盾 B.认
下面属于熊市套利做法的是()。A.买入1手3月大豆期货合约。同时卖出1手5月大
根据《环境影响评价技术导则地表水环境》,属于水环境保护目标的有()。A.天
最新回复
(
0
)