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  3. If the idea of duty was obsolete, how would society function? Nobody would report for work, nobody would bother about paying the

If the idea of duty was obsolete, how would society function? Nobody would report for work, nobody would bother about paying the

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问题     If the idea of duty was obsolete, how would society function? Nobody would report for work, nobody would bother about paying their bills, and no one would even bother about their friends or loved ones. Without duty, there would be no commitments, no boundaries, and no relationships! and if this ever happens, if duty ever vanishes completely from the earth, what the heck would happen to humanity, to civilization?
    Well, first things first. What is duty? Duty, I believe, is a desire to work, to keep a commitment. Duly is to commitment what conscience is to morals; duty is the basic instinct and need to fulfil an earlier promise and commitment, and failure to do so would result in a sharp pang of guilt, just the same as conscience. Duty is what makes people honour their commitments, whether in their relationships, jobs, verbal promises, or self-set goals.
    Therefore, this argument can be explained in two levels: firstly, duty cannot be obsolete as it is a primal emotion, and secondly, if it was obsolete, we wouldn’t even be having this debate as society would degenerate rapidly.
    Right. Firstly, duty can never be obsolete. Why? Duty is an emotion, just like your conscience. It is similar, and in fact probably can be considered a variation of guilt. Duty is basically the desire to fulfill commitments, and the ensuing guilt that occurs upon failure to do so. Therefore, as duty is a contextual variation of guilt, and guilt is an emotion, duty can then be considered an emotion. And can emotions ever become ’obsolete’? Can anger be obsolete? Or happiness? Or maybe you’ve heard of ’obsolete sadness’? Emotions are a primal attribute of humans, just like any other physical or mental attributes unique to not only humans, but any sentient being, albeit maybe on a larger or smaller scale depending on intelligence. And as a primal force, emotions can NEVER become obsolete.
    Secondly, assuming that duty is obsolete, how can we even hold a proper debate? Duty is what causes humans to honour commitments, commitments are what cause humans to work on a daily routine, and work is what makes society progress." Without commitment, whether monetary or obligatory, no one would even bother working a day in their lives. And without any productive work occurring in our society, civilization would soon degenerate into its primordial states and there’s the end of life as we know it.
The author argues that duty______.
选项 A、is a trait inherited from predecessors
B、is likely to cause a sharp pang of guilt
C、makes people pledge to his normal life
D、means respecting previous commitment
答案D
解析 根据第二段中的“…duty is the basic instinct and need to fulfil an earlier promise andcommitment，…”可知，责任意味着履行过去的承诺。所以，D应为答案。
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