首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Imagine a chart that begins when man first appeared on the planet and tracks the economic growth of societies from then forward.
Imagine a chart that begins when man first appeared on the planet and tracks the economic growth of societies from then forward.
admin
2009-06-24
23
问题
Imagine a chart that begins when man first appeared on the planet and tracks the economic growth of societies from then forward. It would be a long, fiat line until the late 16th or early 17th century, when it would start trending upward. Before then the fruits of productive labor were limited to a few elites-princes, merchants and priests. For most of humankind life was as the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously described it in 1651—"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". But as Hobbes was writing those words, the world around him was changing. Put simply, human beings were getting smarter.
People have always sought knowledge, of course, but in Western Europe at that time, men like Galileo, Newton and Descartes began to search systematically for ways to understand and control their environment. The scientific revolution, followed by the Enlightenment, marked a fundamental shift. Humans were no longer searching for ways simply to fit into a natural or divine order; they were seeking to change it. Once people found ways to harness energy-using steam engines-they were able to build machines that harnessed far more power than any human or horse could ever do. And people could work without ever getting tired. The rise of these machines drove the Industrial Revolution, and created a whole new system of life. Today the search for knowledge continues to produce an ongoing revolution in the health and wealth of humankind.
If the rise of science marks the first great trend in this story, the second is its diffusion. What was happening in Britain during the Industrial Revolution was not an isolated phenomenon. A succession of visitors to Britain would go back to report to their countries on the technological and commercial innovations they saw there. Sometimes societies were able to learn extremely fast, as in the United States. Others, like Germany, benefited from starting late, leapfrogging the long-drawn-out process that Britain went through.
This diffusion of knowledge accelerated dramatically in recent decades. Over the last 30 years we have watched countries like Japan, Singapore, South Korea and now China grow at a pace that is three times that of Britain or the United States at the peak of the Industrial Revolution. They have been able to do this because of their energies and exertions, of course, but also because they cleverly and perhaps luckily adopted certain ideas about development that had worked in the West reasonably flee markets, open trade, a focus on science and technology, among them.
The diffusion of knowledge is the dominant trend of our time and goes well beyond the purely scientific. Consider the cases of Turkey and Brazil. If you had asked an economist 20 years ago how to think about these two countries, he would have explained that they were classic basket case, Third World economies, with triple-digit inflation, soaring debt burdens, a weak private sector and snail’s pace growth. Today they are both remarkably well managed, with inflation in single digits and growth above 5 percent. And this shift is happening around the world. From Thailand to South Africa to Slovakia to Mexico, countries are far better managed economically than they have ever been. Even in cases where political constraints make it difficult to push far-reaching reforms, as in Brazil, Mexico or India, governments still manage their affairs sensibly, observing the Hippocratic oath not to do any harm.
选项
A、priests.
B、merchants.
C、civilians.
D、princes.
答案
C
解析
civilian意为平民,他们不拥有文中提到的劳动力,其它几种人却相反,文中第一段就提到了,把这些人通称为elites,精英。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/LCHd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语五级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语五级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
GoodWritingLikefinefood,goodwritingissomethingweapproachwithpleasureandenjoyfromthefirsttastetothelast.(46)
Rumorsbegantocirculateabouthisfinancialproblems.
LudwigVanBeethovenLudwigVanBeethoven,amajorcomposerofthenineteenthcentury,overcamemanypersonalproblemstoac
SeeingtheWorldCenturiesAgoIfyouenjoylookingthroughtravelbooksbysuchfamiliarauthorsasArthurFormerorEugene
PreservingNatureforFutureDemandsforstrongerprotectionforwildlifeinBritainsometimeshidethefactthatsimilarne
PreservingNatureforFutureDemandsforstrongerprotectionforwildlifeinBritainsometimeshidethefactthatsimilarne
Thetiesymbolizesallofthefollowingexcept______.WhendidBritishgentlemenbegintoweartiesregularly?
LifeConnectedWithComputerAftertoolongontheNet,evenaphonecallcanbeashock.Myboyfriend’sLiverpudlianaccen
Theword"bound"inline1isclosestinmeaningto______.TheNationalRepublicanPartyismentionedinline7asanexampleo
______hasasmallandcomplexkeyboardandscreen?______mightcarryoutfinancialtransactions?
随机试题
《祭十二郎文》中,韩愈和孟郊的关系是()
求2yy’+2xy2=的通解.
头项强痛伴恶寒发热者多为头痛而胀伴发热恶风者多为
位于市区的甲高尔夫球具厂(以下简称“甲厂”)为增值税一般纳税人,产成品成本中外购比例60%,2019年6月有关生产经营情况如下:(1)向农业生产者收购原木30吨,收购凭证上注明支付收购货款42万元,另支付运输费用2万元(不合增值税),取得运输公司
在签证有效期内,外国游客可在中国对外开放地区内自由旅行,但必须尊重旅游地区的民风习俗。()
在本行政区实施有效的教育法规,属于()。
有一只青蛙在井底,每天上爬10米,又下滑6米,这口井深20米,这只青蛙爬出井口至少需要多少天?
下列诗句中所描写的节日与其他三项不同的是:
【2013江苏BNO.65】”法之必行”的真正动力来自哪里?有人说靠监督,有人说靠激励,也有人寄希望于惩戒。这些都不无道理,但还有一点往往被人忽视,那就是法治精神的作用。常见媒体有这样的报道,一些考试尽管监考人员众多,监考规则严格,技术手段先进,却依然难以
A、Ithasjustchangedfrom16to18.B、Itusedtobe18butnow16.C、Ithasbeenchangedto18forlong.D、Itwillkeeprising
最新回复
(
0
)