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
(1)When does history begin? It is tempting to reply "In the beginning", but like many obvious answers, this soon turns out to be
(1)When does history begin? It is tempting to reply "In the beginning", but like many obvious answers, this soon turns out to be
admin
2017-10-17
53
问题
(1)When does history begin? It is tempting to reply "In the beginning", but like many obvious answers, this soon turns out to be unhelpful. As a great Swiss historian once pointed out in another connection, history is the one subject where you cannot begin at the beginning. If we want to, we can trace the chain of human descent back to the appearance of vertebrates, or even to the photosynthetic cells which lie at the start of life itself. We can go back further still, to almost unimaginable upheavals which formed this planet and even to the origins of the universe. Yet this is not "history".
(2)Commonsense helps here: history is the story of mankind, of what it has done, suffered or enjoyed. We all know that dogs and cats do not have histories, while human beings do. Even when historians write about a natural process beyond human control, such as the ups and downs of climate, or the spread of disease, they do so only because it helps us to understand why men and women have lived (and died) in some ways rather than others.
(3)This suggests that all we have to do is to identify the moment at which the first human beings step out from the shadows of the remote past. It is not quite as simple as that, though. We have to know what we are looking for first and most attempts to define humanity on the basis of observable characteristics prove in the end arbitrary and cramping, as long arguments about "apemen" and "missing links" have shown. Physiological tests help us to classify data but do not identify what is or is not human. That is a matter of a definition about which disagreement is possible. Some people have suggested that human uniqueness lies in language, yet other primates possess vocal equipment similar to our own; when noises are made with it which are signals, at what point do they become speech? Another famous definition is that man is a tool-maker, but observation has cast doubt on our uniqueness in this respect, too, long after Dr. Johnson scoffed at Boswell for quoting it to him.
(4)What is surely and identifiably unique about the human species is not its possession of certain faculties or physical characteristics, but what it has done with them—its achievement, or history, in fact. Humanity’s unique achievement is its remarkably intense level of activity and creativity, its cumulative capacity to create change. All animals have ways of living, some complex enough to be called cultures. Human culture alone is progressive: it has been increasingly built by conscious choice and selection within it as well as by accident and natural pressure, by the accumulation of a capital of experience and knowledge which man has exploited. Human history began when the inheritance of genetics and behavior which had until then provided the only way of dominating the environment was first broken through by conscious choice. Of course, human beings have always only been able to make their history within limits. These limits are now very wide indeed, but they were once so narrow that it is impossible to identify the first step which took human evolution away from the determination of nature. We have for a long time only a blurred story, obscure both because the evidence is poor and because we cannot be sure exactly what we are looking for.
The passage is mainly about ______.
选项
A、what history is
B、the difference between human beings and animals
C、what point should be the beginning of the human history
D、how the human beings make their history
答案
A
解析
文章自始至终都在探讨人类历史的问题,谈到它的起源,它的组成和人类创造历史的过程等,故A为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/PNDK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Fewpeopleexpectluxurywhileflying,butthesedays,eventhebasicsseemtobeinbadshape.It’snotuncommontofindyourt
"Ifinditreallyattractivehowsuccessfulyouare,"mydatesaid,leaninginforakiss.Sure,itsoundslikealine.But
"Ifinditreallyattractivehowsuccessfulyouare,"mydatesaid,leaninginforakiss.Sure,itsoundslikealine.But
ThearchitectoftheWalkieTalkiebuildinginLondonhasadmittedthathepredicteditmightreflecthotsunraystothestreet
Inthesentence"Three-quartersofrespondentsthoughtitimportanttocomparetheirincomeswithothers",theitalicizedparti
DayoftheDeadForMexicans,thedayofOctober31stmarksthebeginningofcelebrationsforDayoftheDead./Ithonorst
TheNationalMuseumofNaturalHistoryTheNationalMuseumofNaturalHistoryisoneofthemostvisitedmuseums./Ithast
Haveyoueverbeeninasituation______youknowtheotherpersonisrightyetyoucannotagreewithhim?
AHealthyMixofReading,WritingandTechnologyI.Aboutstudents’readingA.Childrencannot【T1】theInternetinformationwell
Massivechangesinalloftheworld’sdeeplycherishedsportinghabitsareunderway.Whetherit’soneofLondon’sparksfullof
随机试题
强心苷中的糖基常见为()
A、双解磷B、亚硝酸钠C、盐酸烯丙吗啡D、谷胱甘肽E、乙酰胺主要用于丙烯腈、氟化物、一氧化碳等中毒的解毒剂是()。
1.背景:A公司中标北方地区某郊野公园施工项目,内容包括绿化栽植、园林给水排水、夜景照明、土方工程、园路及广场铺装,合同期为4月1日~12月31日。A公司项目部拟定施工顺序:土方工程一给排水一园路、广场铺装一绿化栽植一夜景照明。因拆迁等
(操作员:赵主管;账套:301账套;操作日期:2015年1月31日)选择单据号为0002(单据类型为应收借项)的应收单,生成凭证。
ThepositionofchildreninAmericanfamilyandsocietyisnolongerwhatisusedtobe.The【B1】_________familyincolonialNorth
在处理与教师的关系问题上,王充提出的观点是()
A.翼外肌痉挛B.骨关节病C.可复性关节盘移位D.不可复性关节盘前移位E.关节盘穿孔或破裂患者张口中度受限,开口、前伸运动时,患侧颞下深区疼痛,张口型偏向患侧,此表现符合()。
计算其中D由y=一x,y=围成.
函数y=x+2cosx在[0,π/2]上的最大值为__________.
OilcompaniesintheUSarealreadybeginningtofeelthepressure.Refineryworkersandpetroleum-equipment-manufacturingemplo
最新回复
(
0
)