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  3. Japan is going through a complex national identity crisis. That may be no bad thing, says a new book by an American researcher.

Japan is going through a complex national identity crisis. That may be no bad thing, says a new book by an American researcher.

admin2012-04-05  98
问题     Japan is going through a complex national identity crisis. That may be no bad thing, says a new book by an American researcher. The economy is ceased making progress, but the society is in motion. Japan is a difficult country to report on and analyze because things do not change in big, noticeable ways. They change in an increasing process, generally of small steps but which, over time, can add up to big movements. And just such a big movement seems to be taking place.
    Mr. Nathan has been observing Japan since the 1960s. Whereas most people look at economic data or the comings and goings of prime ministers, he is more interested in schools, novels, comic books, and the minds of young entrepreneurs and maverick (持不同意见的) local politicians. In particular, his focus is on whether Japan’s famously cohesive, conformist society may be breaking under the strain of economic stagnation (停滞), and on how such strains have been affecting the country’s sense of purpose and of national identity.
    Fractures (分裂) are what he looks for and fractures are what he finds. On balance, they are neither obviously dangerous nor obviously positive, but they are, as he says, signs of motion which could, in time, lead in unpredictable directions. The most worrying factures he writes about are in the schools where violence and truancy (逃学) have risen remarkably. Old Japan hands shrug wearily at such things, for worries about violence have long existed but have never really seemed terribly serious. Now, though, Mr. Nathan’s numbers do make the situation look grave.
    Such trends appear to be symptoms of two related phenomena: a widespread feeling of disillusionment, alienation, uncertainty or plain anger, which has spread to children, too; and a gradual breakdown of old systems of discipline — part familial, part social, part legal — which, appear to prevent schools and parents from dealing effectively with children behaving in a bad way.
    Japan is, in short, passing through a national identity crisis. However, there are plenty of positive aspects to it, too. One is a considerable increase in the number of actual or budding young entrepreneurs. The numbers remain modest, but are nevertheless surprisingly high given the state of the economy in recent years. Another is a new eagerness among popular writers and maverick politicians to try to define and encourage a new national pride.
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
选项 A、The Japanese economy in recent years is not very good.
B、Many young workers were fired because of the national identity crisis.
C、The country benefits nothing from the national identity crisis.
D、Writers and politicians in Japan give an ironic description to the crisis.
答案A
解析 文章末段第四句提到，青年企业家的数量虽然不多，但考虑到国家近几年的经济状况，这一数字还是大得惊人。由此可知，日本近几年的经济状况不好，故答案为A)。文中提到日本涌现出许多青年企业家，这并不意味着很多年轻人因民族认同危机而被辞退，故排除B)。文章末句提到，日本流行作家和持不同意见的政治家力图定义新的民族自豪感并鼓励其发展，C)和D)与该句意思不符，故排除。
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