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  3. The idea of "civilization" is one of the ways our mind uses to make sense of the world we inhabit. In recent experience, the "pl

The idea of "civilization" is one of the ways our mind uses to make sense of the world we inhabit. In recent experience, the "pl

admin2013-07-02  18
问题     The idea of "civilization" is one of the ways our mind uses to make sense of the world we inhabit. In recent experience, the "plural" usage of that idea appears to be the more prevalent one. In what we have recently come to describe as a multicultural context it seems appropriate to recognize the role, and the historical heritage, of a number of civilizations, even though their precise number and individual trajectories are not easy to determine. The plural notion tells us that the world is a complex place, and that it harbors variety and an evolving world thrives on variety.

    The alternative, and in fact the original sense of "civilization" is the singular one. Its roots lie in the age of Enlightenment when the opinion gained ground that a single thread, a civilizational process, connects the modern experience with the achievements of the past. The singular conception equated civilization, or culture, with the total social heredity of mankind, and made it possible to see humanity progressing, through successive stages including savagery, and barbarism, toward new levels of development. That means that the singular concept also included judgements of quality and it tells us that the world, in spite of its complexity, might have a single, and possibly even simple, hence common, trajectory of a civilizing experience.
    Each satisfies a particular need, each creates its own problems, and both would be needed for a rounded picture. In particular, the plural notion highlights variety and clarifies identity, features that make it an asset for any society and enables evolutionary change even while risking to exacerbate conflict. The singular notion conditions communication and cooperation, yet may also lend itself to manipulation. But in his original article Huntington in fact entirely ignored the singular kind. In the book that followed he admitted that there is a valid case for both of these two conceptions but he made it quite clear, too, that his main concern is "civilizations in the plural".
    The present discussion is a statement, and an interpretation of the singular conception. But in doing so, we need to avoid past mistakes, or confusion with earlier, unsustainable versions of that singular notion. In particular we need not subscribe to the widely held 19th century view that European civilization is virtually synonymous with civilization in general, nor are we ready to embrace late 20th century expectations that "universal civilization" is just about to spring in a finished form from the turmoil attending the end of the Cold War and recent advances in electronic and computer communi-cations. On the contrary, we propose a singular conception that understands human civilization to be a process that involves a variety of cultures and multiple exchanges, and one that has had a long lead time, and a long way to go still.
What is the author’s attitude towards the "plural" and "singular" civilization?
选项 A、Jaundiced.
B、Objective.
C、Ignorant.
D、Supportive.
答案B
解析 主旨大意题。文章首段指出现在更流行运用多元化文明；第二段主要说明单一概念文明的历史；第三段提出Huntington的观点；末段提出一些建议。所以综合全文可知，作者是客观地表述他对“单一概念文明”和“多元化文明”的观点的，并没有偏向哪一方，故[B]正确。
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