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  3. Paul Johnson’s History Of The American People is what we have come to expect from this productive writer—clear, colorful narrati

Paul Johnson’s History Of The American People is what we have come to expect from this productive writer—clear, colorful narrati

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问题     Paul Johnson’s History Of The American People is what we have come to expect from this productive writer—clear, colorful narrative, vivid character sketches, marvelous research, sweeping, confident statements, and an insistent conservative viewpoint which tempts him into serious omissions. He will not conceal his opinions, he tells us. Good. Then we can judge his history free of pretenses to objectivity—his or ours.
    Almost at start, we notice something interesting: Johnson passes quickly over a defining moment in American history—the Columbus story—important because it is the first lesson every American schoolchild learns. How you treat that story—what you choose to tell of it—signals your view of the longer American experience, reaching to our time.
    In school textbooks, Columbus has always been presented as a hero. Only recently has a new set of facts—always available but ignored—begun to get into public attention: that Columbus, on landing, and desperate for gold, encountered native Americans who were peaceful and generous(by his own admission) and tortured them, kidnapped them, enslaved them, murdered them. Johnson, who goes into much detail about other matters (like Bonald Reagan’s jokes) is silent on this. Among his numerous references there is none to Bartolome de las Casas, an eyewitness, who described in detail the horrifying evils committed by Columbus and his fellowmen against the Indians, which resulted in the native population of Hispaniola being wiped out—genocide is an appropriate term—by the year 1550.
    I suggest this is not an innocent omission. Johnson wants us to look positively on the history of the United States. Yes, he says, there were "severe wrongs" committed in "the dispossession of a native people" and in the institution of slavery. But has the US, he asks at the start of his book, "made up for its organic sins"? His whole book suggests that it has, and that in doing so it has become (he says at the end) "a human achievement without parallel...the first, best hope for the human race".
    Since Johnson has decided that the US is "the first, best hope for the human race", he has shaped its history accordingly. If we prefer to see that history as a complex and unfinished struggle of Americans for justice, against militarism, for economic, racial and sexual equality, we are badly served by a flattering admiration of those in power, pretending to be a history of "the people".
The author would agree with the statement that the US_________.
选项 A、has compensated the natives for their earlier sufferings
B、has never committed serious evils to the natives in history
C、has not undone the wrongs committed in history
D、has become the best hope for the human race
答案C
解析 由第四段最后一句“His whole book suggests that it has，and that in doing so it has become(he says at the end)‘a human achievement without parallel…the first，best hope for the human race．’”以及最后一段最后一句“If we prefer to see that history…we are badly served by a flattering admiration of those in power，pretending to be a history of ‘the people’”可知，约翰逊的整本书都在暗示人们，美国已经弥补了那些错误，而且在此过程中它已经成为(他在最后说到)“一个无与伦比的人类成就……第一个人类最美好的希望”。然而本文作者却认为，如果我们更喜欢把历史看作是美国人为了争取正义公平对抗军国主义，争取经济、种族和性别平等而进行的复杂而又未尽的奋斗，那么很不幸，我们被当权者所控制的政府阿谀欺骗着，而它又偏偏假装这是在创造“人民的历史”。因此可以推断出作者认为美国还没有弥补他们所犯下的历史错误。故选C。
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