专业英语八级考试:TEM-8Exercise8(12)

网络资源 Freekaoyan.com/2008-04-11


Now go through TEXT J quickly to answer question 58.
 
In spite of the wealth of examples of urban architecture in older cities, both in Europe and in the United States, solutions to current problems of the physical decay of cities in the United States have come slowly. The first reaction after the war was to bulldoze and build bright new towers and efficient roadways, but these solutions did not respond to people. By the close of the 1960's it became more common to deal gently with the existing urban fabric and to insert new buildings in such a way as to complement the physical and social environment; in other cases valued buildings have been rehabilitated and returned to economic productivity. A particularly striking example is the rehabilitation of Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco. This hillside mélange of nineteenth-century commercial buildings, clustered around a chocolate plant, was purchased in 1962 by William Roth to forestall wholesale development of the waterfront as a district of high-rent apartment towers. Nearly all of the nineteenth-century buildings were retained and refurbished, and a low arcade was added on the waterside. There are several levels, dotted with kiosks and fountains, which offer varied prospects of San Francisco Bay. Perhaps most telling is the preservation of the huge Ghirardelli sign as an important landmark; it is such improbable, irrational, and cherished idiosyncrasies which give cities identity and character. 
 
TEXT K

First read the question. 

59. In the writer's point of view, man is unique in ____.
A. killing members of the same species habitually
B. enjoying watching disgusting acts of violence
C. gaining pleasure from brutally treating each other
D. his savage impulse to torture members of the same species
正确答案是

60. The word "aggression" ____.
A. is difficult to define because it covers a great variety of human activities
B. is ambiguous because the dividing line between aggression and many other acts is unclear
C. is so imprecise that it is pointless to define it
D. Both A and B
正确答案是

Now go through TEXT K quickly to answer question 59 and 60.
 
Than man is an aggressive creature will hardly be disputed. With the exception of certain rodents, no other vertebrate habitually destroys members of his own species. No other animal takes positive pleasure in the exercise of cruelty upon another of his own kind. We generally describe the most disgusting examples of man's cruelty as brutal, implying by these adjectives that such behaviors is characteristic of less highly developed animals than ourselves. In truth, however, the extreme of "brutal" behavior are confined to man; and there is no parallel in nature to our savage treatment of each other. The depressing fact is that we are cruelest and most ruthless species that has ever walked the earth; and that, although we may shrink back in horror when we read newspaper or history book of the brutalities committed by man upon man, we know in our hearts that each one of us harbors within himself those same savage impulses which lead to murder, to torture and to war.
 
To write about human aggression is a difficult task because the term is used so many different senses. Aggression is one of those words which every one knows, but which is nevertheless hard to define. As psychologists use it, it covers a very wide range of human behavior. The red-faced infant squalling for the bottle is being aggressive; and so is the judge who awards a thirty-year sentence for robbery. the guard in a concentration camp who tortures his helpless victim is obviously acting aggressively. Less manifestly, but no less certainly, so is the neglected wife who threatens or attempts suicide in order to regain her husband's affection. When a word becomes so diffusely applied that it is used both of the competitive striving of a footballer and also of the bloody violence of a murderer, it ought either to be dropped or else more closely defined. Aggression is a combine term which is fairly bursting at its junctions. Yet until we can more clearly designate and comprehend the various aspects of human behavior which are subsumed under this head, we cannot discard the concept.
 
One difficulty is that there is no clear dividing line between those forms of aggression which we all deplore and those which we must not disown if we are to survive. When a child rebels against authority it is being aggressive; but it is also manifesting a drive towards independence which is a necessary and valuable part of growing up. The desire for power has, in extreme form, disastrous aspects which we all acknowledge; but the drive to conquer difficulties, or to gain mastery over the external world underlies the greatest of human achievements. Some writers define aggression as "that response which follows frustration", or as "an act whose goal-response is injury to an organism (or organism surrogate)". In the author's view these definitions impose limits upon the concepts of aggression word is attempting to express. It is worth noticing, for instance, that the words we use to describe intellectual effort are aggressive words. We attack problems, or get our teeth into them. We sharpen our wits, hoping that our mind will develop a keen edge in order that we may better divide a problem into its component parts. Although intellectual tasks are often frustrating, to argue that all intellectual effort is the result of frustration is to impose too negative a coloring upon the positive impulse to comprehend and master the external world. 

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