中共中央党校考博英语真题,考博英语试题

2010年中央党校博士研究生入学英语考试试卷

(试卷共16页，请考生核对清楚)
注意：请按要求把1—60题的答案填在机读卡(Machine-scoring Answer Sheet)上；阅读理解部分的Section B的答案、翻译和作文写在答题纸(Answer Sheet)上。
I. Vocabulary and Structure (20 points)
Directions: There are 20 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D. Choose the one that best completes the sentence. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Machine-scoring Answer Sheet.
1. Indeed, it is this sense of intellectual freedom that he believes has ______ European schools ______ from US schools in the current economic crisis.
A. set……aside
B. set……apart
C. set……along
D. set……about
2. Technology companies might be interested in how the education tools they are developing ______ in a classroom setting, and the impact ______ pupils' ability to learn.
A. to perform……having on
B. performing……to have on
C. perform……they have on
D. performs……it has on
3. Amid growing concerns over the debt crisis in Greece, France and Germany will on Thursday try to ______ support from other European countries for debt-laden Greece.
A. ground
B. underlie
C. grapple
D. rally
4. With most of the crucial data needed to estimate third-quarter economic growth now ______, economists are coming up with a result considerably different from what they expected only a month ago.
A. in hand
B. in the hand
C. in hands
D. in their hands
5. With the retaking of Madrid in early December 1808, Napoleon regarded victory in the Iberian campaign as a ______. All that remained ______ southern Spain and oust the British from Portugal.
A. de facto……to occupy
B. de facto……was to occupy
C. fait accompli……was to occupy
D. fait accompli……occupy
6. Insurers have already agreed to several concessions ______ that they will gain 30 million or so new customers from the ranks of the uninsured.
A. on the reason
B. in the reason
C. on the assumption
D. in the assumption
7. It is due to its special caffeine-and-sweet-wine recipe which allows consumers to be tipsy and bouncy at the same time that Buckfast Tonic wine is so alluring to consumers and yet so ______ to politicians.
A. charming
B. repulsive
C. expensive
D. colorful
8. He recognized, with a familiar confusion of self-disgust and hopelessness, that he was telling more than he ought in his usual attempt to ______ her, to get her on his side.
A. buttress
B. propagate
C. deride
D. propitiate
9. Because of the sheer ______ of the system many badly needed reforms were never introduced.
A. inevitability
B. equity
C. inertia
D. empathy
10. In this case the defender was not insured and was not licensed, but an insurer was conducting a holding defence while they considered whether they should repudiate liability under a policy issued to the owner of the vehicle and persons taking the vehicle ______.
A. on hire
B. by hire
C. in hire
D. with hire
11. The pressure of population on available resources is the key to understanding history; consequently, any historical writing that takes no cognizance of ______ facts is ______ flawed.
A. ecological … marginally
B. demographic … intrinsically
C. cultural … substantively
D. political … demonstratively
12. If the police ______ when they did there would have been serious violence.
A. had not stepped in
B. did not stepped in
C. had not stepped down
D. did not stepped down
13. European officials, though, have already warned they will retaliate by boosting tariffs on US goods, ______ a row that has lasted six years and ______ agreement in the GATT international trade talks involving 108 countries.
A. escalating … blocking
B. to escalate … to block
C. escalating … blocked
D. escalated … blocking
14. When your dog does anything you want to ______, you wait till he does it and then beat him…this is the way judges make laws for you and me.
A. break him of
B. break him off
C. break him free
D. break him up
15. He has a wonderful brain, despotic, violent, and inexhaustible, meant for a soldier, by what chance converted to letters, ______ there is not a style nor a tint not known to him, yet with an English appetite for action and heroes.
A. X
B. in which
C. from which
D. for which
16. Tandja also dissolved the parliament and awarded himself some powers to rule by decree ______ the country's constitution.
A. contrast with
B. contrary to
C. contradictory in
D. contempt of
17. It is reported that he means to exchange into another regiment, ______ for the purpose of separating himself from me.
A. avowingly
B. avowing
C. avowed
D. avowedly
18. Five years ago, that couple bought the house ______ making a quick profit out of it.
A. with eyes open to
B. in good eyes at
C. with an eye to
D. by an eye at
19. Besides those I have named, there was not in Britain the man living whom I ______, unless it were the Duke of Wellington, whom I afterwards saw at Westminster Abbey, at the funeral of Wilberforce.
A. cared for beholding
B. cared to behold
C. cared to be beheld
D. cared for being beheld
20. The Niger President had caused unease in the West African country following his failure to organize elections when his ______ elapsed.
A. tenancy
B. tension
C. territory
D. tenure
II. Cloze (10 points)
Directions: For each of the blanks, there are four choices given marked A, B, C, and D. Choose the one that best fits the blank and mark your choice by blackening the corresponding letter on the Machine-scoring Answer Sheet.
When discussing cultural perspectives, we need to recognize that there are two kinds: emic and etic. Emic perspectives are __21__ articulated by members of the culture to explain themselves and their culture, while etic perspectives are those of outsiders to the culture who use their own criteria to explain __22__ culture.
Etic perspectives include those of visitors to the culture, the criteria they use to describe and explain what they encounter, __23__ categories for cross-cultural description and analysis established by anthropologists and other cultural researchers __24__ many cultures. __25__ the continuum, etic perspectives consist of simple explanations from one's own cultural background. This is a common reaction to cultural phenomena—explaining them __26__ perceived similarities or differences to one's own culture, better __27__ ethnocentrism. At the other end of the spectrum, etic perspectives consist of categories that can be used to describe __28__ cultures. Some of these categories are drawn from notions of cultural universals and __29__ the table of contents of introductory cultural anthropology textbooks. They reflect cultural practices and products: institutions like family, kinship, economy, leisure, music, or government. Other etic classifications come from theories of cultural perspectives: value orientations such as individualism/collectivism, low-context/high-context, polychromic/monochromic, and __30__.
Etic perspectives, __31__, provide frameworks to describe, analyze, and explain a culture from the __32__. Each etic category carries assumptions about the nature of culture, and it is important to __33__ these assumptions.
Emic explanations are perspectives that members of the culture use to describe or explain their own way of life. These perspectives do not necessarily correspond to etic categories, __34__ that the members use for their explanations. __35__, members may easily express the reasons for cultural products and practice. Or, given that many fundamental cultural perspectives are outside awareness, like the submerged bulk of the cultural iceberg, members may have difficulty finding words to fully explain them, __36__ I had no explanation on American toilet training practices.
It is a daunting task to identify the perspectives of a culture. Fortunately for language teachers, anthropologists, interculturalists, and others have devised frameworks for explaining cultures. These frameworks, because they apply to all cultures, are examples of the __37__ perspectives.
A number of models of etic perspectives are __38__ in the field. __39__, these models presume that there is a finite set of realities that all cultures must address. These realities are part of the human condition. Different cultures perceive these realities in distinct ways. These distinct perceptions, __40__, lead to different beliefs, values, attitudes, and practices—in a word, to different worldviews.
21.
A. what
B. which
C. these
D. those
22.
A. another's
B. the other's
C. the others'
D. others'
23.
A. except
B. as well as
C. beside
D. besides
24.
A. to describe
B. describing
C. described
D. describe
25.
A. At an end of
B. At the end of
C. At one end of
D. At end of
26.
A. in term of
B. in terms of
C. on term of
D. on terms of
27.
A. been known as
B. been known for
C. known as
D. known for
28.
A. any and all
B. all other
C. some other
D. one another
29.
A. read from
B. read in
C. read like
D. read as
30.
A. the like
B. the likes
C. a like
D. likes
31.
A. nevertheless
B. moreover
C. therefore
D. however
32.
A. inside
B. outside
C. visitors
D. nature
33.
A. bring about
B. bring in
C. bring off
D. bring out
34.
A. no the terminology does
B. no does the terminology
C. nor the terminology does
D. nor does the terminology
35.
A. When been asked
B. When asked
C. When asking
D. When having asked
36.
A. because
B. just as
C. though
D. since
37.
A. anthropological
B. intercultural
C. etic
D. emic
38.
A. prevalent
B. prevalence
C. prevail
D. prevailed
39.
A. Of the essence
B. In the essence
C. Of essence
D. In essence
40.
A. out of turn
B. on the turn
C. by turn
D. in turn
III. Reading Comprehension (40 points)
Section A (30 points)
Directions: There are four passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Machine-scoring Answer Sheet.
Passage 1
If sanity and insanity exist, how shall we know them?
The question is neither capricious nor itself insane. However much we may be personally convinced that we can tell the normal from the abnormal, the evidence is simply not compelling. It is commonplace, for example, to read about murder trials wherein eminent psychiatrists for the defense are contradicted by equally eminent psychiatrists for the prosecution on the matter of the defendant's sanity. More generally, there are a great deal of conflicting data on the reliability, utility, and meaning of such terms as "sanity", "insanity", "mental illness," and "schizophrenia."
Finally, as early as 1934, Benedict suggested that normality and abnormality are not universal. What is viewed as normal in one culture may be seen as quite aberrant in another. Thus, notions of normality and abnormality may not be quite as accurate as people believe they are.
To raise questions regarding normality and abnormality is in no way to question the fact that some behaviors are deviant or odd. Murder is deviant. So, too, are hallucinations. Nor does raising such questions deny the existence of the personal anguish that is often associated with "mental illness." Anxiety and depression exist. Psychological suffering exists. But normality and abnormality, sanity and insanity, and the diagnoses that flow from them may be less substantive than many believe them to be.
At its heart, the question of whether the sane can be distinguished from the insane is a simple matter: Do the salient characteristics that lead to diagnoses reside in the patients themselves or in the environments and contexts in which observers find them? From Bleuler, through Kretchmer, through the formulators of the recently revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, the belief has been strong that patients present symptoms, that those symptoms can be categorized, and, implicitly, that the sane are distinguishable from the insane. More recently, however, this belief has been questioned. Based in part on theoretical and anthropological considerations, but also on philosophical, legal, and therapeutic ones, the view has grown that psychological categorization of mental illness is useless at best and downright harmful, misleading, and pejorative at worst. Psychiatric diagnoses, in this view, are in the minds of the observers and are not valid summaries of characteristics displayed by the observed.
Gains can be made in deciding which of these is more nearly accurate by getting normal people admitted to psychiatric hospitals and then determining whether they were discovered to be sane and, if so, how. If the sanity of such pseudopatients were always detected, there would be prima facie evidence that a sane individual can be distinguished from the insane context in which he is found. Normality is distinct enough that it can be recognized wherever it occurs, for it is carried within the person. If, on the other hand, the sanity of the pseudopatients were never discovered, serious difficulties would arise for those who support traditional modes of psychiatric diagnosis. Given that the hospital staff was not incompetent, that the pseudopatient had been behaving as sanely as he had been outside of the hospital, and that it had never previously suggested that he belonged in a psychiatric hospital, such an unlikely outcome would support the view that psychiatric diagnosis betrays little about the patient but much about the environment in which an observer finds him.
41.
A. We can judge precisely what constitutes normality and abnormality.
B. It is not easy to distinguish sanity from insanity.
C. It is no doubt that some behaviors of human beings are odd.
D. Settings where people are living have much to do with how we know what sanity is.
42.
A. Questions from normality and abnormality.
B. The diagnoses.
C. Normality and abnormality, sanity and insanity.
D. People.
43.
A. peevish
B. depreciatory
C. negative
D. meaningless
44.
A. Psychiatric diagnosis doesn't inform people of the patient but of the environment where he is living.
B. The patient isn't betrayed by psychiatrists but by the environment where he is living.
C. Psychiatrists know more about the patient than the environment where he is living.
D. Psychiatric diagnosis is likely to improve the environment where the patient is living which does little help to him.
45.
A. Description of the experiment of putting some sane people in psychiatric hospitals.
B. Argument against the difficulty of distinguishing the sane from the insane.
C. Description of the experiment of sane and insane people in the same psychiatric hospitals.
D. Argument for the difficulty of finding out who are real patients.
Passage 2
Comte's philosophical successor, who carried on both his phenomenalist and presentationalist philosophy into the social arena of politics and ethics, was John Stuart Mill. But first we must turn to an even greater influence on Mill's views, one of the leading radical reformers of the nineteenth century, Jeremy Bentham.
Born in London, the son of a leading attorney, Bentham was a child prodigy who began studying history and Latin at the age of three. At twelve he entered Queen's College in Oxford and earned his B. A. in three years and his M. A. two years later at the age of seventeen. His father expected him to become a practicing lawyer, but Bentham was far more interested in the philosophical foundations of ethics, morality, and legal theory. He traveled widely throughout Europe and wrote his first essay on economics in Russia. In 1792 he became a citizen of France.
Bentham's main philosophical influences were Locke and Hume. When he read Hume's Treatise and Human Nature he said it was as if scales fell from eyes. He went on to publish several books on political and legal theory, but it was his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation that made him a powerful and influential international figure. In his Principles he laid the groundwork for utilitarianism; as developed by Mill (whom we shall consider in the next section), his theory is still today one of the leading moral theories in the world.
Bentham defines his principle of utility as "that property in any object whereby it tends to produce pleasure, good or happiness, or to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered". According to Bentham, this principle takes account of the two main motives for all human action—pain and pleasure. Governments, social, political and legal institutions, as well as individual citizens, should follow the Greatest Happiness Principle: choose that course of action that leads to the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. His utilitarianism, designed to free people from oppressive laws and to make governing bodies moral, provided a foundation to many democratic societies. Since leaders as well as individuals are thus morally bound to follow the same universal principle and one that is readily accessible to everyone—we all know what pain and pleasure are—there can be no manipulation, through rhetoric, of the weak by the powerful. In Bentham's system we are each our own best judge as to how best to live and attain happiness.
He openly called for the rejection of all monarchies and established churches, claiming that "all government is in itself one vast evil." The only justification for putting such evil into place would be to prevent some greater evil; governments should therefore never stray from the principle of utility—the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Among Bentham's many disciples, the most famous is John Stuart Mill, who further developed utilitarianism but along rather different lines.
46.
A. His eyes were full of tears.
B. His eyes became smaller.
C. He was enlightened.
D. He could see clearly.
47.
A. Utility can be regarded as a quality which is likely to bring happiness or stop the occurrence of unhappiness to interested parties.
B. Utility is kind of possession by which concerned people can get happiness and avoid unhappiness.
C. The principle of utility is the principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
D. The principle of utility is the belief that the value of a thing or an action is determined by its utility.
48.
A. He influenced the philosophers in the whole world.
B. He contributed to overthrowing all the monarchies and churches.
C. His theory has changed the moral value of the modern world.
D. The moral foundation to many modern democracies traces back to his theory.
49.
A. Bentham had great influence on Locke and Hume, as well as on Mill.
B. Both Bentham and Mill were Comte's philosophical successors.
C. Bentham's father was disappointed that he didn't become an attorney.
D. Bentham contributed more than Mill to the foundation of utilitarianism.
50.
A. The introduction of John Stuart Mill.
B. The introduction of Comte.
C. The introduction of Hume.
D. The introduction of utilitarianism.
Passage 3
The Great Panic of 2008 may have destroyed blind optimism. But if excessive optimism was the near-fatal pose in 2008, blind pessimism has emerged as the reflexive post-bust crouch. And it has led the economic establishment to miss yet another inflection point. While we were wringing our hands about America's financial and industrial crisis, we ignored a parallel narrative that was emerging: the repairing of balance sheets, an embrace of reality, a nascent recovery. The same folks who chased the recession down now are likely to chase the recovery up.
Even as the economy started improving, corporate America continued to prepare for Armageddon for much of 2009. Inventories of manufactured goods fell in 10 of the first 11 months of 2009. Between October 2008 and October 2009, retailers slashed inventories from $500 billion to $432 billion. Translation? Pessimistic about their ability to sell stuff, companies cut way back on their orders. But when consumer demand finally materializes, retailers will be caught flat-footed and miss out on sales.
Excessive pessimism in other areas has been more costly. Virtually all the market geniuses who hung on as the Dow was scythed in half between October 2007 and March 2009 failed to call the market turn. Most hedge-fund managers have chased the 60 percent rally since March, not led it. Economic forecasters similarly missed the dramatic turn in the overall economy this spring. Having failed to forecast that the economy would shrink at a 6 percent annual rate through the first quarter of 2009, economists also failed to project it would start growing again at a decent pace in June. And they're still behind the curve. My bold prediction for 2010 is that the consensus of the forecasters surveyed by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, which projects the economy will grow only 2.4 percent in 2010, is too pessimistic, perhaps by half.
Then there's a large population of non-ideologues who may not fully embrace the narrative of economic recovery because they don't feel it yet in their paychecks, portfolios, or home values. Try telling a laid-off autoworker in Michigan or a laid-off magazine editor in Brooklyn that things are better. But they may soon be in for pleasant surprises, too. For all the advances of information technology, big economic turns always take us unawares. In 2007 all indicators flashed green--until the bottom suddenly fell out. In this environment, things can look awful, until a new order unexpectedly comes in or a few deals break in your firm's favor. All of a sudden, things seem much better. We're in a Missouri economy now, one in which recovery has to be shown, not told. Economic conditions may be improving, but it still may take more than a few quarters of growth before people fully commit to recovery, both financially and psychologically. If credit means belief, since the credit crisis began two years ago, belief has been in short supply. Maybe it's time for a little blind faith.
51.
A. Economic Pessimism vs. Economic Optimism.
B. American Economy after the Recession.
C. Economic Forecast for 2010.
D. The Dangers of Economic Pessimism.
52.
A. the retailers are unprepared when the customers want to purchase
B. the retailers are found to have flat feet so they miss out on sales
C. the unexpected economic recession makes the retailers lose their heads
D. the flat-footed retailers' sales are extinguished by others'
53.
A. people who are not advocates of a certain ideology
B. people who are pragmatists
C. people who are idealists
D. people who believe in nothing
54.
A. we cannot be too optimistic about economic recovery
B. economy has already recovered so people should be optimistic
C. it'll still take time for people to believe that economy is recovering
D. people do not believe in credit anymore
55.
A. Pessimistic.
B. Suspicious.
C. Disinterested.
D. Optimistic.
Passage 4
The Supreme Court ruled last week that a group of employees suing for age discrimination should get their day in court even though they filed their complaint on the wrong form. The decision is noteworthy because it suggests that this court could be pulling back from what has often seemed like a knee-jerk inclination to rule for corporations over workers and customers.
Group of couriers over the age of 40 sued Federal Express, claiming it tried to push out older workers. The issue was whether they submitted a proper complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within the legal time limit. FedEx claimed the couriers filed the wrong form, but the court ruled, 7 to 2, that an intake questionnaire and a signed affidavit---which the E.E.O.C. considered a valid complaint---met its "permissive standard" for what was acceptable.
It is surprising and welcome to see the court apply any sort of permissive standard, considering how it ruled in a similar case just last year. Through a tortured and illogical reading of the law, the court ruled, 5 to 4, that a Goodyear employee missed the deadline for filing a complaint that she was paid less than male colleagues.
That was one of a series of rulings in recent years that stretched the law to come out against little-guy parties. In one egregious decision last year, the court ignored its precedents to hold that an inmate lost the right to challenge his murder conviction because he missed a deadline---even though he had filed the appeal by the day the federal district judge (mistakenly) told him to.
The FedEx ruling could be an aberration, or it could mark a new direction. The justices may have been chastened by the enormous criticism of the Goodyear ruling from Congress and the public. (The House has passed a bill reversing it, and the Senate may soon follow.) They may also be reacting---as the court has been known to do---to shifting political winds. Voters in this election year do not appear to favor the blind deference to corporate power that has been a theme of the last seven years.
It would be a mistake to read too much into one decision. There is certainly evidence the court will not easily shake its undue solicitude for the problems of corporations. One example came last week, in Exxon's challenge to a $2.5 billion punitive damages award against it arising out of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who once practiced corporate law, asked, "So what can a corporation do to protect itself against punitive damages awards such as this?" The court has been on a campaign to strike down large awards of punitive damages against corporations, but the lawyer for the oil spill's victims, Professor Jeffrey Fisher of Stanford Law School, had the answer: "It can hire fit and competent people."
56.
A. The Supreme Court seemed likely to support the employees.
B. Courts seemed likely to rule for companies over workers and consumers.
C. A group of employees failed on their accusation because they filed their complaint on the wrong form.
D. A group of workers got their holidays from the verdict of the Supreme Court.
57.
A. show it is surprising that the court applied any sort of permissive standard
B. express that the public welcome the application of any sort of permissive standard by the court
C. show that FedEx tried to push out old workers
D. indicate that the court has changed some conventions
58.
A. extremely bad
B. very similar
C. extravagant
D. quite noticeable
59.
A. the court has been on a campaign to protect the corporations
B. the court has been on a campaign to verdict for workers and consumers
C. the court will not easily give up its solicitude for the problems of the companies
D. the court will still verdict for the companies regardless of the FedEx case
60.
A. cautiously optimistic
B. suspicious
C. dissatisfied
D. indifferent
（注意：请将以下各题答案写在答题纸上）
Section B (10 points)
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with five questions. After you have read the passage, answer the questions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in English on the Answer Sheet.
Passage 5
The US administration has switched hesitancy for populism in proposing size and activity limits on America's largest banks. While details are still missing, possibly because no one really knows how to implement size limits or curbs on proprietary trading, the intent is clear—bankers must pay. It is hard to have much sympathy for the bankers, who have brought the public's ire on themselves through incompetence and then through an outrageous haste to pay themselves. Yet outrage is a poor guide to public policy. Beyond being punitive, will the administration's proposals help reduce financial system risk?
Consider size limit first. The idea is to ensure institutions are no longer too big to fail. But how to define size? Whether you use assets, capital or profits there will be problems—banks will try to economize on whatever measure is limited.
Crude asset size limits, for example, would probably ensure a lot of financial activity is hidden from the regulator, only to come back to light (and to balance sheets) at the worst of times. There are many legal ways to mask size. Banks can offer guarantees to assets placed in off-balance sheet vehicles, much like the conduits of the recent crisis. If, instead, capital is the measure, then we will be pushing banks to economize on it as much as possible, hardly a recipe for safety. And if it is profits, we will be inviting healthy banks to park profits elsewhere, while rewarding sickly ones by allowing them to expand indefinitely.
Even if we do settle on a definition, it is not clear that being large is necessary or sufficient for an entity to be a systemic risk. Bear Sterns would not be "large" by most calculations, though it was considered connected enough to be saved. But Vanguard, the mutual fund group, manages more than $1,000bn in assets and would probably not qualify as systemic. Not all large financial entities are equally troubling; would we include the mutual funds operated by a bank in its size?
Also, being big has its virtues. Some larger banks are better at diversifying and attracting managerial talent (including risk managers). While a poorly managed $2,000bn bank creates immense problems for the system, the problems could be even greater with 100 banks of $20bn in size, each of which has taken similar risks. What is important is not size per se but the concentration and correction of risk in the system as well as the size of exposure relative to capital.
Instead of imposing a blanket ban on institutions growing beyond a certain size, regulators should use more subtle mechanisms such as prohibiting mergers of large banks or encouraging the break-up of large banks that seem to have a propensity for getting into trouble. While there are always concerns about whether regulators will use these sorts of powers arbitrarily, they are no more difficult for legislators and courts to oversee than are powers based on anti-competitive considerations.
Answer the following questions briefly according to what you have just read.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
2. How does the public think of big banks in the US? Why?
3. What is the main idea of the third paragraph?
4. What does the example of Bear Sterns show?
5. What does the phrase "large banks that seem to have a propensity for getting into trouble" mean in the last paragraph?
IV. Translation (15 points)
Directions: Put the underlined sentences into Chinese, and write your translation on the Answer Sheet.
The great work of Gibbon is indispensable to the student of history. The literature of Europe offers no substitute for "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." It has obtained undisputed possession, as rightful occupant, of the vast period which it comprehends. However some subjects, which it embraces, may have undergone more complete investigation, on the general view of the whole period, this history is the sole undisputed authority to which all defer, and from which few appeal to the original writers, or to more modern compilers. The inherent interest of the subject, the inexhaustible labor employed upon it; the immense condensation of matter; the luminous arrangement; the general accuracy; the style, which is throughout vigorous, animated, often picturesque always commands attention, describes with singular breadth and fidelity, and generalizes with unrivalled felicity of expression; all these high qualifications have secured, and seem likely to secure, its permanent place in historic literature.
This vast design of Gibbon, the magnificent whole into which he has cast the decay and ruin of the ancient civilization, the formation and birth of the new order of things, will of itself, independent of the laborious execution of his immense plan, render "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" an unapproachable subject to the future historian.
The gradual decline of the most extraordinary dominion which has ever invaded and oppressed the world must necessarily fix the attention and excite the interest of men, who cannot behold with indifference those memorable epochs.
This extent and harmony of design is unquestionably that which distinguishes the work of Gibbon from all other great historical compositions. He has first bridged the abyss between ancient and modern times, and connected together the two great worlds of history. The great advantage which the classical historians possess over those of modern times is in unity of plan, of course greatly facilitated by the narrower sphere to which their researches were confined. Except Herodotus, the great historians of Greece - we exclude the more modern compilers, like Diodorus Siculus - limited themselves to a single period, or at least to the contracted sphere of Grecian affairs.
Natural unity confined their narrative almost to chronological order, the episodes were of rare occurrence and extremely brief. To the Roman historians the course was equally clear and defined. Rome was their centre of unity; and the uniformity with which the circle of the Roman dominion spread around, the regularity with which their civil polity expanded, forced, as it were, upon the Roman historian that plan which Polybius announces as the subject of his history, the means and the manner by which the whole world became subject to the Roman sway. How different the complicated politics of the European kingdoms! Every national history, to be complete, must, in a certain sense, be the history of Europe; there is no knowing to how remote a quarter it may be necessary to trace our most domestic events; from a country, however apparently disconnected, may originate the impulse which gives its direction to the whole course of affairs.
V. Composition (15 points)
Directions: Write a composition of 200 words in about 40 minutes on the following topic. Remember to write in readable handwriting on the Answer Sheet.
After they complete their university studies, some students work and live in their hometowns. Others work and live in different towns or cities. Which do you think is better—working and living in your own hometown or working and living in a different town or city? Give specific reasons for your answer.