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  3. Campaigning on the Indian frontier is an experience by itself. Neither the landscape nor the people find their counterparts in a

Campaigning on the Indian frontier is an experience by itself. Neither the landscape nor the people find their counterparts in a

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问题     Campaigning on the Indian frontier is an experience by itself. Neither the landscape nor the people find their counterparts in any other portion of the globe. Valley walls rise steeply five or six thousand feet on every side. The columns crawl through a maze of giant corridors down which fierce snow-fed torrents foam under skies of brass. Amid these scenes of savage brilliancy there dwells a race whose qualities seem to harmonize with their environment. Except at harvest-time,when self-preservation requires a temporary truce,the Pathan tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior,a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a real feudal fortress made, it is true,only of sun-baked clay,but with battlements,turrets,loopholes,drawbridges,etc. complete. Every village has its defence. Every family cultivates its vendetta; ever clan,its feud. The numerous tribes and combinations of tribes all have their accounts to settle with one another. Nothing is ever forgotten,and very few debts are left unpaid. For the purposes of social life,in addition to the convention about harvest-time,a most elaborate code of honour has been established and is on the whole faithfully observed. A man who knew it and observed it faultlessly might pass unarmed from one end of the frontier to another. The slightest technical slip would,however,be fatal. The life of the Pathan is thus full of interest; and his valleys,nourished alike by endless sunshine and abundant water,are fertile enough to yield with little labour the modest material requirements of a sparse population.
    Into this happy world the nineteenth century brought two new facts:the rifle and the British Government. The first was an enormous luxury and blessing; the second,an unmitigated nuisance. The convenience of the rifle was nowhere more appreciated than in the Indian highlands. A weapon which would kill with accuracy at fifteen hundred yards opened a whole new vista of delights to every family or clan which could acquire it. One could actually remain in one’s own house and fire at one’s neighbour nearly a mile away. One could lie in wait on some high crag,and at hitherto unheard of ranges hit a horseman far below. Even villages could fire at each other without the trouble of going far from home. Fabulous prices were therefore offered for these glorious products of science. Rifle-thieves scoured’ all India to reinforce the efforts of the honest smuggler. A steady flow of the coveted weapons spread its genial influence throughout the frontier,and the respect which the Pathan tribesmen entertained for Christian civilization was vastly enhanced.
    The action of the British Government on the other hand was entirely unsatisfactory. The great organizing, advancing, absorbing power to the southward seemed to be little better than a monstrous spoil-sport. If the Pathan made forays into the plains,not only were they driven back (which after all was no more than fair),but a whole series of subsequent interferences took place,followed at intervals by expeditions which toiled laboriously through the valleys,scolding the tribesmen and exacting fines for any damage which they had done. No one would have minded these expeditions if they had simply come,had a fight and then gone away again. In many cases this was their practice under what was called the "butcher and bolt policy" to which the Government of India long adhered. But towards the end of the nineteenth century these intruders began to make roads through many of the valleys,and in particular the great road to Chi-tral. They sought to ensure the safety of these roads by threats,by forts and by subsidies. There was no objection to the last method so far as it went. But the whole of this tendency to road-making was regarded by the Pathans with profound distaste. All along the road people were expected to keep quiet, not to shoot one another,and above all not to shoot at travellers along the road. It was too much to ask,and a whole series of quarrels took their origin from this source.
A suitable title for the passage would be_____.
选项 A、Campaigning on the Indian Frontier
B、Why the Pathans Resented the British Rule
C、The Popularity of Rifles among the Pathans
D、The Pathans at War
答案D
解析 主旨题。文章开篇对印度边境的地理状况进行了描写，接着描述了边境上的帕坦人的生活，除了收获季节，他们终年处于战争中，每个人都是一个战士，每个大房子都是名副其实的战争堡垒，第二段介绍了这里的人们对英国引入的来复枪的欢迎，最后一段写到殖民者修路对这里的影响。可见全文都是针对帕坦人的战争生活展开的，故答案为D。A没有抓住中心思想；B和C都只是十九世纪影响帕坦人生活的因素之一，不全面。因此，综上可知，正确的答案是D选项。
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