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
"ILL Fares the Land" is poignant and arresting, both for who wrote it and for what it says. Its author, a British 20th-century h
"ILL Fares the Land" is poignant and arresting, both for who wrote it and for what it says. Its author, a British 20th-century h
admin
2012-12-30
33
问题
"ILL Fares the Land" is poignant and arresting, both for who wrote it and for what it says. Its author, a British 20th-century historian at New York University, is dying of motor-neurone disease that has robbed him of movement and will soon rob him of speech. He dictated this cri de coeur about the need for social democracy to an amanuensis.
Social democracy, which Tony Judt calls "the prose of European politics", is what Americans call liberalism. Though wounded as a theory, it limps on under assumed names as the practice of government on both sides of the Atlantic for want of credible alternatives. As an idealist, Mr. Judt hopes for a revived social democracy that will again speak its name. As a realist, he recognises that it may be grievously, even terminally vulnerable.
He writes, he says, for the young, who have to deal with the mess he believes his own generation has made of Western society. He scolds it for letting inequalities grow. Not everyone will like the tone, although such charges are today harder to brush off than in the boom years. Preaching aside, his key point is sound:neither right nor left has any longer a plausible story to tell about the state.
Whichever label you use, liberalism or social democracy was the bipartisan outlook that underpinned American and European politics for 30 years after 1945. It achieved a balance between market and state. It oversaw a fruitful truce between business and labour that produced a golden period for capitalism with benefits all round.Then came stagflation, taxpayer revolts, fiscal crisis and a triumphant revival of free-market ideas. For the next 30 years, a new shrink-the-state "paradigm" ruled, with its own promise of open horizons and benefits all round. Now weakened and indebted governments are counted on for handouts from every side, banks and businesses included. Nobody is sure what to believe.
Though many will agree with that diagnosis, Mr. Judt himself is hesitant about the cure. Ideally he wants another post-1945 social compact. But he is too aware of the internal conditions that made it possible—economic depression, sacrifice in war, the totalitarian shadow—to think it restorable on the earlier terms. The external conditions have changed utterly as well. The West has lost economic eminence. Increasingly social democracy must borrow from foreigners to pay for itself. That cannot last.
The future is not inevitably bleak for the Euro-American way. As the rest of the world grows richer, perhaps it too will see the benefits of a compact that, for those lucky enough to enjoy it, struck a unique balance between economic growth, social equity and personal freedom. Then again, perhaps not, he says. Mr. Judt explores neither possibility in depth, ending instead with an eye cast back to the past century. How easily, he reminds readers, stable-looking societies can totter. His final case for social democracy is a "show-me-a-better-foxhole" plea. Nothing else looks more desirable. Without it, much that Western people value may be lost. "If social democracy has a future, " Mr. Judt concludes, "it will be as a social democracy of fear."
Which of the following statements about social democracy is INCORRECT?
选项
A、People didn’t know what to follow in the past 30 years.
B、It once boosted the development of the Western countries.
C、Liberalism was replaced due to the economic depression.
D、American and European governments failed to keep their promises.
答案
A
解析
细节题。根据试题顺序定位至第四段。最后两句指出“Now weakened and indebted govern.ments are counted on for handouts from every side,banks and businesses included.Nobody is surewhat to believe.”,此处是说人们现在感到无所适从,而[人]时态指过去,与原文矛盾,故为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/R8aO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Patents,saidThomasJefferson,shoulddraw"alinebetweenthethingswhichareworthtothepublictheembarrassmentofanexc
IntheUnitedStates,thereissomedisagreement(tosaytheleast)overtherisksandbenefits.ofnuclearpower.Therecanbe
Variationsamongstateinsurancelawscancauseproblemsforfamilies.Ifyoudoyour【M1】______homeworkbeforemovingtoanoth
Variationsamongstateinsurancelawscancauseproblemsforfamilies.Ifyoudoyour【M1】______homeworkbeforemovingtoanoth
Twotechniqueshaverecentlybeendevelopedtosimplifyresearchandreducethenumberofnonhumanprimatesneededinstudiesof
Physicalfitnessistheresultofmanyfactors—goodmedicalcare,propernutrition,adequaterestandrelaxation,andsensiblep
Physicalfitnessistheresultofmanyfactors—goodmedicalcare,propernutrition,adequaterestandrelaxation,andsensiblep
FastfoodispopularinChina.TheworldwidefamousforeigncompanieslikeKFCandMcDonald’sarespreadingtoalmosteverycity
Accordingtothecomponentialanalysis,thewords"boy"and"man"differinthefeatureof
Somepeoplethinkthatahighsalaryisthemostimportantfeatureofajob.Othersbelievethatthingssuchastraining,jobsa
随机试题
估算糖尿病患者饮食总热量时可不考虑()。
土地增值税是对()国有土地使用权及地上建筑物和其他附着物的单位和个人征收的一种税。
监理工程师的法律地位是由国家法律法规确定的,并建立在( )的基础上。
关于通信电源接地系统的说法,正确的有()。
在短期借款的利息计算和偿还方法中,企业实际负担利率高于名义利率的有()。
杜甫的两句诗“窗含西岭千秋雪,门泊东吴万里船”讲的是()的效果。
关于食品标签中的原料配方,说法不正确的是()
A、 B、 C、 D、 C题干中的5个图形分别是由直线曲线、直线、直线、直线曲线、直线组成的图形,应选一个只由直线组成的图形,故选C。
下列现象属于意识范畴的是()。
当并行接口芯片8255A被设定为工作方式2时,其工作的I/O口( )。
最新回复
(
0
)