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  3. What our society suffers from most today is the absence of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be; such consensus ca

What our society suffers from most today is the absence of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be; such consensus ca

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问题     What our society suffers from most today is the absence of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be; such consensus cannot be gained from society’s present stage, or from fantasies about what it ought to be. For that the present is too close and too diversified, and the future too uncertain, to make believable claims about it A consensus in the present hence can be achieved only through a shared understanding of the past, as Homer’s epics informed those who lived centuries later what it meant to be Greek, and by what images and ideals they were to live their lives and organize their societies.
    Most societies derive consensus from a long history, a language all their own, a common religion, common ancestry. The myths by which they live are based on all of these. But the United States is a country of immigrants, coming from a great variety of nations. Lately, it has been emphasized that an asocial, narcissistic personality has become characteristic of Americans, and that it is this type of personality that makes for the lack of well-being, because it prevents us from achieving consensus that would counteract a tendency to withdraw into private worlds. In this study of narcissism, Christopher Lash says that modern man, "tortured by self-consciousness, turns to new therapies not to free himself of his personal worries but to find meaning and purpose in life, to find something to live for". There is widespread distress because national morale has declined, and we have lost an earlier sense of national vision and purpose.
    Contrary to rigid religions or political beliefs, as are found in totalitarian societies, our culture is one of the great individual differences, at least in principle and in theory; but this leads to disunity, even chaos. Americans believe in the value of diversity, but just because our is a society based on individual diversity, it needs consensus about some dominating ideas more than societies based on uniform origin of their citizens. Hence, if we are to have consensus, it must be based on a myth — a vision about a common experience, a conquest that made us Americans, as the myth about the conquest of Troy formed the Greeks. Only a common myth can offer relief from the fear that life is without meaning or purpose. Myths permit us to examine our place in the world by comparing it to a shared idea. Myths are shared fantasies that form the tie that binds the individual to other members of his group. Such myths help to ward off feelings of isolations, guilt, anxiety, and purposelessness — in short, they combat isolation and the breakdown of social standards and values.  
Homer’s epics is mentioned in Paragraph 1 in order to______
选项 A、exemplify the contributions made by ancient poets.
B、illustrate the role of shared fantasies about society.
C、show an ideal stage of eternal social progress.
D、make known myths of what a society ought to be.
答案B
解析 题干问：“在第1自然段提到荷马史诗的目的是……”。提到荷马史诗的目的是为了说明一种共享神话对社会形态的重要作用，关于神话或关于共享这个话题在文中是反复说明的。只有通过过去才能得到一种共同的思想，才能对社会形态达成一种共识，因此B为正确选项。而选项A“举证古代诗人做出的贡献”，选项C“说明社会永久发展的一种理想阶段”以及选项D“让‘社会应该是什么’的神话为人们所知”都不是作者列举荷马史诗的目的。
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