阅读理解A
We can learn from the text that Americans have a history of_____.
题干
Americans today don' t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes，entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education-not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren't difficult to find.
“Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual, " says education writer Diane Ravitch. “Schools could be a counterbalance. "Ravitch's latest book, Left Back ： A Century of Failed School Reforms，traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others，they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, ” We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society. ”
“Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege, ” writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life，a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children ： “We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing. ” Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized-going to school and learning to read-so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country's educational system is in the grips of people who “joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise”.
“Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual, " says education writer Diane Ravitch. “Schools could be a counterbalance. "Ravitch's latest book, Left Back ： A Century of Failed School Reforms，traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others，they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, ” We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society. ”
“Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege, ” writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life，a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children ： “We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing. ” Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized-going to school and learning to read-so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country's educational system is in the grips of people who “joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise”.
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解析
细节题。根据关键词history可以定位到第四段。文章大部分都在讨论学校教育，只有第四段谈到了美国的历史。霍夫斯坦教授在他的一本书中探讨了美国政治、宗教和教育领域反才智主义的根源。他指出，从美国历史一开始, 对民主和和平主义的追求驱使我们拒绝任何带有精英优越论味道的东西。实用、常识、先天的智力被认为是比书本中学到的东西更加高尚的素质。可见, “精英优越论味道的东西”在这里指的就是才智主义。正确答案是A选项。
收录时间: 2020-06-04 23:37:06