新SAT阅读khan可汗学院-H-L4-2-The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over

This passage is excerpted from William Graham Sumner, “The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over," originally published in 1894. Sumner was an outspoken economist and highly influential sociology professor at Yale University.

It will not probably be denied that the burden of proof is on those who affirm that our social condition is utterly diseased and in need of radical regeneration. My task at present, therefore, is entirely negative and critical: to examine the allegations of fact and the doctrines which are put forward to prove the correctness of the diagnosis and to warrant the use of the remedies proposed.

When anyone asserts that the class of skilled and unskilled manual laborers of the United States is worse off now in respect to diet, clothing, lodgings, furniture, fuel, and lights; in respect to the age at which they can marry; the number of children they can provide for; the start in life which they can give to their children, and their chances of accumulating capital, than they ever have been at any former time, he makes a reckless assertion for which no facts have been offered in proof. Upon an appeal to facts, the contrary of this assertion would be clearly established. It suffices, therefore, to challenge those who are responsible for the assertion to make it good.

Nine-tenths of the socialistic and semi-socialistic, and sentimental or ethical, suggestions by which we are overwhelmed come from failure to understand the phenomena of the industrial organization and its expansion. It controls us all because we are all in it. It creates the 1.The main purpose of the passage is to

A）delineate the course of industrial progress.

B）question the practicality of democratic ideals.

C）encourage support for individual liberties.

D）highlight the uselessness of social reform.

2.Over the course of the passage, the main focus shifts from

A）an overview of industrial advancement to a clarification of the problem.

B）an acknowledgement of the problem with industrial advancement to the proposal of a solution.

C）an assembling of arguments against industrial advancement to a justification of its effects. D）an explanation of industrial advancement to an admission of the drawbacks.

3.The main purpose of listing the assertions in the second paragraph (lines 8–19) is to A）outline common complaints and portray them as ludicrous.

B）account for facts but stress their irrelevancy to the issue.

C）identify opposing claims and characterize them as speculative.

D）note possible solutions but highlight their ineffectiveness.

4.As used in line 15, “reckless” most nearly means

A）unfounded.

B）impulsive.

C）misguided.

D）negligent.

5.It can be inferred from the discussion of the movement of industry that the author believes that people have a natural tendency to

A）resist technological change.

B）encourage ethical actions.

C）control the course of events.

D）distrust the people in power.

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conditions of our existence, sets the limits of our social activity, regulates the bonds of our social relations, determines our conceptions of good and evil, suggests our

life-philosophy, molds our inherited political institutions, and reforms the oldest and toughest customs, like marriage and property. I repeat that the turmoil of heterogeneous and antagonistic social whims and speculations in which we live is due to the failure to understand what the industrial organization is and its all-pervading control over human life, while the traditions of our school of philosophy lead us always to approach the industrial organization, not from the side of objective study, but from that of philosophical doctrine. Hence it is that we find that the method of measuring what we see happening by what are called ethical standards, and of proposing to attack the phenomena by methods thence deduced, is so popular.

The advance of a new country from the very simplest social coordination up to the highest organization is a most interesting and instructive chance to study the development of the organization. It has of course been attended all the way along by stricter subordination and higher discipline. All organization implies restriction of liberty. The gain of power is won by narrowing individual range. The methods of business in colonial days were loose and slack to an inconceivable degree. The movement of industry has been all the time toward promptitude, punctuality, and reliability. It has been attended all the way by lamentations about the good old times; about the decline of small industries; about the lost spirit of comradeship between employer and employee; about 6.Which choice provides the best evidence to the answer to the previous question?

A）lines 20–23 (“Nine-tenths . . . its expansion”)

B）lines 37–40 (“Hence . . . popular”)

C）lines 50–52 (“ It has been …times;”)

D）lines 68–70 (“The first. . . disapproves”)

7.The author’s main claim about industrial development is that it

A）leads to tension among social groups.

B）reflects a natural evolution of society.

C）necessitates social reform.

D）magnifies societal deficiencies.

8.The main purpose of the words “turmoil,”“heterogeneous,” and “antagonistic” (lines 30–31) is most likely to

A）highlight divisions in philosophical doctrine.

B）draw analogies to revolutionary upheaval.

C）convey the instability of modern life.

D）stress the conflict between man and society.

9.Which choice best describes the author’s perspective on individual limitation?

A）It is a burden of the middle class.

B）It is most effective in industrial societies.

C）It is a consequence of free enterprise.

D）It is both natural and inevitable.

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the narrowing of the interests of the workman; about his conversion into a machine or into a "ware," and about industrial war. These lamentations have all had reference to unquestionable phenomena attendant on advancing organization. In all occupations the same movement is discernible in the learned professions, in schools, in trade, commerce, and transportation. It is to go on faster than ever,

now that the continent is filled up by the first superficial layer of population over its whole extent and the intensification of industry has begun. The great inventions both make the

intension of the organization possible and make it inevitable, with all its consequences, whatever they may be. I must expect to be told here, according to the current fashions of thinking, that we ought to control the development of the organization. The first instinct of the modern man is to get a law passed to forbid or prevent what, in his wisdom, he disapproves.

Now the intensification of the social organization is what gives us greater social power. It is to it that we owe our

increased comfort and abundance. We are none of us ready to sacrifice this. On the contrary, we want more of it. We would not return to the colonial simplicity and the colonial exiguity if we could. If not, then we must pay the price. Our life is bounded on every side by conditions.

10.Based on the passage, it can be inferred that the author would have been most critical of those who A ） defended unskilled laborers. B ） condemned the capitalist state. C ） promoted middle class values. D ） attacked the principles of democracy. 11.Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question? A ） lines 47–49 (“The methods. . . degree”) B ） lines 49–50 (The movement . . . reliability”) C ） lines 58–60 (In all occupations . . . transportation”) D ） lines 71–72 (“Now the . . . social power”) 55 60 65 70 75