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Despite their many differences of temperament and of literary perspective, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman shared certain beliefs. Common to all these writers is their humanistic perspective. Its basic premises are that humans are the spiritual center of the universe and that in them alone is the clue to nature, history, and ultimately the cosmos. Without denying outright the existence of a deity, this perspective explains humans and the world in terms of humanity.
This common perspective is almost always universalized. It emphasizes the human as universal, freed from the accidents of time, space, birth, and talent. Thus, for Emerson, the "American Scholar" turns out to be simply "Man Thinking," while, for Whitman, the "Song of Myself" merges imperceptibly into a song of all the "children of Adam," where "every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."
Also common to all five writers is the belief that self-realization depends on the harmonious reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies: first, the self-asserting impulse of the individual to be responsible only to himself or herself, and second, the self-transcending impulse of the individual to know and become one with that world. These conflicting impulses can be seen in the democratic ethic. Democracy advocates individualism, the preservation of the individual's freedom and self-expression. But the democratic self is torn between the duty to self, which is implied by the concept of liberty, and the duty to society, which is implied by the concepts of equality and fraternity.
A third assumption common to the five writers is that intuition and imagination offer a surer road to truth than does abstract logic or scientific method. It is illustrated by their emphasis upon introspection-their belief that the clue to external nature is to be found in the inner world of individual psychology-and by their interpretation of experience as, in essence, symbolic. Both these stresses presume an organic relationship between the self and the cosmos of which only intuition and imagination can properly take account. These writers' faith in the imagination and in themselves led them to conceive of the writer as a seer.
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300难题
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The author quotes Whitman primarily in order to
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300难题
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The passage is most relevant to which of the following areas of study?
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300难题
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The author implies that nineteenth-century biologists who studied embryogenesis believed that they
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300难题
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The passage would be most likely to appear in which of the following?
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300难题 GWD
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The primary purpose of the passage is to
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300难题
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Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the passage?
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This passage is excerpted from material published in 1997.
Is there a massive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way? The evidence is inconclusive. Just as the Sun's mass can be determined, given knowledge of other variables, by the velocity at which its planets orbit, the mass at the center of the Milky Way can be revealed by the velocities of stars and gas orbiting the galactic center. This dynamical evidence, based on recently confirmed assumptions about the stars' velocities, argues for an extremely compact object with a mass two to three million times the mass of our Sun. Although according to current theory this makes the mass at the center of the galaxy too dense to be anything but a black hole, the relative lack of energy radiating from the galactic center presents a serious problem. A black hole's gravity attracts surrounding matter, which swirls around the black hole, emitting some energy as it is engulfed. Scientists believe that the amount of energy that escapes the black hole should be about 10 percent of the matter's rest energy (the energy equivalent of its mass according to the equation E=m$$c^{2}$$). But when the energy coming from the galactic center is compared to widely held predictions based on how much matter should be falling into a theoretical central black hole, there is a discrepancy by a factor of a few thousand.
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300难题 GWD
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The primary purpose of the passage is to
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300难题
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The theory mentioned in lines 35–38 suggests that which of the following was true for the hominid ancestors of modern humans before they made the transition to walking upright?
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Behind every book review there are two key figures: a book review editor and a reviewer. Editors decide whether a book is reviewed in their publication, when the review appears, how long it is, and who writes the review.
When many periodicals feature the same books, this does not prove that the editors of different periodicals have not made individual decisions. Before publication, editors receive news releases and printer's proofs of certain books, signifying that the publishers will make special efforts to promote these books. They will be heavily advertised and probably be among the books that most bookstores order in quantity. Not having such books reviewed might give the impression that the editor was caught napping, whereas too many reviews of books that readers will have trouble finding in stores would be inappropriate. Editors can risk having a few of the less popular titles reviewed, but they must consider what will be newsworthy, advertised, and written about elsewhere.
If these were the only factors influencing editors, few books that stand little chance of selling well would ever be reviewed. But editors feel some concern about what might endure, and therefore listen to literary experts. A generation ago, a newspaper used a brilliant system of choosing which books to feature. The book review editor sent out a greater number of books than reviews he actually intended to publish. If a review was unenthusiastic, he reasoned that the book was not important enough to be discussed immediately, and if good reviews of enough other books came in, the unenthusiastic review might never be printed. The unenthusiastic reviewers were paid promptly anyway, but they learned that if they wanted their material to be printed, it was advisable to be kind.
Most editors print favorable and unfavorable reviews; however, the content of the review may be influenced by the editor. Some editors would actually feel that they had failed in their responsibility if they gave books by authors they admired to hostile critics or books by authors they disapproved of to critics who might favor them. Editors usually can predict who would review a book enthusiastically and who would tear it to shreds.
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300难题
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Which of the following is an assumption made by the book review editor referred to in line 27?
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300难题
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It can be inferred that, as a prospective book buyer, the author of the passage would generally respond to highly enthusiastic reviews of new books with
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300难题
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In the author's opinion, an act of humility in comedy is most analogous to
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300难题
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Television programs developed in conjunction with the marketing of toys, which was once prohibited by federal regulations, are thriving in the free market conditions permitted by the current Federal Communications Commission.
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300难题 OG17
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A study of children of divorced parents found that ten years after the parents' divorce, children who had been under six years of age at the time of the settlement were not preoccupied, nor even very curious, about the reasons that led to their parents' divorces.
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300难题
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Rejecting its argument that the Masters Dog Training Club's primary aim was to teach people to train dogs, the court ruled the club ineligible for tax exemption as an educational group.
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300难题 OG17
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Since the 1930s aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly that the air passing over them would not become turbulent.
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300难题
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The overall slackening of growth in productivity is influenced less by government regulation, although that is significant for specific industries like mining, than the coming to an end of a period of rapid growth in agricultural productivity.
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300难题
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The large populations and impressive cultural achievements of the Aztecs, the Mayas, and the Incas could not have come about without corn, which was not only nutritious but also was able to be dried, transported, and stored for long periods.
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