The field of sociology in the United States developed as a result of a social experience which had very little to do with the po

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问题     The field of sociology in the United States developed as a result of a social experience which had very little to do with the political and ideological controversies that stimulated sociology in France and Germany. Rather, the discipline evolved as a result of the experiences associated with the problems of an immigrant society caught in the turmoil of rapid industrialization and urban growth. Indeed, it must be emphasized that from its beginning, sociology has had a very practical interest, which was characterized less by political divisiveness than by social reform and social work. This practical emphasis in the discipline has continued to persist to the present. It has only been since World War II, however, that there has existed something in American higher education that could be properly termed a "sociological establishment" or a highly respected academic field of study. Its major strength as an academic discipline resulted from its empirical and sophisticated approach to the identification and solution of practical but highly significant social problems.
    Today, what does the academic sociologist do? Professional sociologists are individuals who study and teach about societies, social institutions, and the patterns of human interaction and human behavior. As a scientific discipline, sociology may be divided into three broad, analytical fields; the study of groups; institutions analysis; and the study of the social structure in general. Thus, the content of the rapidly expanding discipline of sociology is based upon culture and society, with emphasis placed upon the study of the various types of interaction and relationships which exist among individuals and human groups. In the study of such areas as social organization and disorganization, sociologists attempted to explain the evolution and change of social institutions and the changing nature of human attitudinal and value systems. Among the selected topics of investigation included within the study of sociology are the changing nature of family life, institutional life, sexual attitudes, crime and violence, religious values, and the entire gamut of interpersonal relationships in politics and government. Indeed, many of the areas which professional sociologists study are, by their very nature, relatively familiar to many of us even though they are not clearly understood. The basic hypotheses of the discipline—that social life(both group and individual behavior)is patterned! that value and attitudes are learned, reinforced, and shared; that we as individuals are, in many respects, what others consider us to be—are ideas which most people now instinctively accept in order to live and function as members of society. These topics, which emphasize individual and group behavior processes, then, comprise areas of concern for sociology as one of the behavior science disciplines.
    During these last decades of the twentieth century advanced Western society will continue to be confronted with crucial social issues in the context of both individual and group behavior patterns resulting from continued rapid technological expansion. The solution to the problem plaguing our complex society will become, to a much greater extent, the primary responsibility of sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology, the three major academic disciplines comprising the behavioral sciences. This trend is being witnessed currently by the increasing numbers of behavioral scientists that are being employed by government, by business and industry, by hospitals and other agencies devoted to problems of health care, by welfare agencies, by public educational systems, and by many other types of organizations in which some systematic knowledge of human behavior is required.
The primary purpose of the passage is to______.

选项 A、distinguish sociology in the United States from sociology in France and Germany
B、compare sociology with social psychology and cultural anthropology
C、provide a general discussion of modern Western sociology and its significance
D、show that sociology is the study of social institutions

答案C

解析 主旨题。综观全文可知,本文主要介绍西方社会学的形成、发展和研究内容及其研究的重要性等。所以正确答案是C选项。
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