Traditionally, the study of history has had fixed boundaries and focal points — periods, countries, dramatic events, and great leaders. It also has had clear and firm notions of scholarly procedure: how one inquires into a historical problem, how one presents and documents one’s findings, what constitutes admissible and adequate proof.
Anyone who has followed recent historical literature can testify to the revolution that is taking place in historical studies. The currently fashionable subjects come directly from the sociology catalog: childhood, work, leisure. The new subjects are accompanied by new methods. Where history once was primarily narrative, it is now entirely analytic. The old questions “What happened?” and “How did it happen?” have given way to the question “Why did it happen?” Prominent among the methods used to answer the question “Why” is psychoanalysis, and its use has given rise to psychohistory.
Psychohistory does not merely use psychological explanations in historical contexts. Historians have always used such explanations when they were appropriate and when there was sufficient evidence for them. But this pragmatic use of psychology is not what psychohistorians intend. They are committed, not just to psychology in general, but to Freudian psychoanalysis. This commitment precludes a commitment to history as historians have always understood it. Psychohistory derives its “facts” not from history, the detailed records of events and their consequences, but from psychoanalysis of the individuals who made history, and deduces its theories not from this or that instance in their lives, but from a view of human nature that transcends history. It denies the basic criterion of historical evidence: that evidence be publicly accessible to, and therefore assessable by, all historians. And it violates the basic tenet of historical method: that historians be alert to the negative instances that would refute their theses. Psychohistorians, convinced of the absolute rightness of their own theories, are also convinced that theirs is the “deepest” explanation of any event, that other explanations fall short of the truth.
Psychohistory is not content to violate the discipline of history (in the sense of the proper mode of studying and writing about the past); it also violates the past itself. It denies to the past an integrity and will of its own, in which people acted out of a variety of motives and in which events had a multiplicity of causes and effects. It imposes upon the past the same determinism that it imposes upon the present, thus robbing people and events of their individuality and of their complexity. Instead of respecting the particularity of the past, it assimilates all events, past and present, into a single deterministic schema that is presumed to be true at all times and in all circumstances.
1. Which of the following best states the main point of the text?
[A] The approach of psychohistorians to historical study is currently in vogue even though it lacks the rigor and verifiability of traditional historical method.
[B] Traditional historians can benefit from studying the techniques and findings of psychohistorians.
[C] Areas of sociological study such as childhood and work are of little interest to traditional historians.
[D] The psychological assessment of an individual’s behavior and attitudes is more informative than the details of his or her daily life.
2. The author mentions which of the following as a characteristic of the practice of psychohistorians?
[A] The lives of historical figures are presented in episodic rather than narrative form.
[B] Archives used by psychohistorians to gather material are not accessible to other scholars.
[C] Past and current events are all placed within the same deterministic diagram.
[D] Events in the adult life of a historical figure are seen to be more consequential than are those in the childhood of the figure.
3. The author of the text suggests that psychohistorians view history primarily as
[A] a report of events, causes, and effects that is generally accepted by historians but which is, for the most part, unverifiable.轉自學易網 www.studyez.com
[B] an episodic account that lacks cohesion because records of the role of childhood, work, and leisure in the lives of historical figures are rare.
[C] an uncharted sea of seemingly unexplainable events that have meaning only when examined as discrete units.
[D] a record the way in which a closed set of immutable psychological laws seems to have shaped events.
4. The author of the text puts the word “deepest” (line 14, paragraph 3) in quotation marks most probably in order to
[A] signal her reservations about the accuracy of psychohistorians’ claims for their work.
[B] draw attention to a contradiction in the psychohistorians’ method.
[C] emphasize the major difference between the traditional historians’ method and that of psychohistorians.
[D] disassociate her opinion of the psychohistorians’ claims from her opinion of their method.
5. In presenting her analysis, the author does all of the following EXCEPT.
[A] Make general statements without reference to specific examples.
[B] Describe some of the criteria employed by traditional historians.
[C] Question the adequacy of the psychohistorians’ interpretation of events.
[D] Point out inconsistencies in the psychohistorians’ application of their methods.
答案與考點解析]
1. 【答案】A
【考點解析】這是一道中心主旨題。從第二段開始出現全文的主要談論內容，第二段的最后一句出現了全文所談論的中心“psychohistory”，在第二段中談到了“psychohistory”的流行性，在第二段和第三段中作者談到了“psychohistory”缺乏歷史科學研究的“嚴密性和可考證性”。由此分析可見本題的正確選項應該是包含“psychohistory”和“history”概念的選項A。考生在解題時要善于首先捕捉全文的中心主旨句，并通過閱讀和理解去把握原文所表達的思想。
2. 【答案】C
【考點解析】這是一道審題定位題。通過題干中的“psychohistorians”可將本題的答案信息確定在第三、四段，但是題干并沒有明確指出本題準確的信息來源。但是題干中的“practice”(實踐)一詞暗示考生本題的答案信息可能在尾段，因為人們一般闡述問題的規律是：從理論談到實踐。如果不出萬一本文的尾段應該談到“psychohistorians”的實踐問題。通過閱讀尾段，尤其是尾段尾句，我們可得出本題的正確選項應該是C。這道題的難點在于審題定位。審題定位不是一個簡單的問題，需要考生對文章的敘述結構和人類的表達習慣有所認識。
3. 【答案】D
【考點解析】這是一道審題定位題。通過題干中的“psychohistorians view history primarily as”可判斷本題是要考生找出“psychohistorians”如何看待(view…as)歷史(history)，即要考生找出“psychohistorians”對歷史的看法和態度。根據行文和表達規律，這道題的答案信息應該在第三段，準確地說在第三段的第五句話，因為這句話包含“history”一詞。通過閱讀和理解第三段的第四、五、六句話，我們可以推導出本題的正確選項應該是突出“psychological”含義的選項D。考生在解題時一定要注意英語行文和表達的規則。
4. 【答案】A
【考點解析】這是一道標點符號題。本題題干已將本題的答案信息確定在第三段的倒數第二行。此處引號所表達的含義是“所謂最深刻的”，即實際上是“不深刻的”。故本題的正確選項應該是含有“reservations”(有保留)一詞的選項A。考生在破解閱讀理解題型時一定要注意標點符號的應用，以及它們所產生的相應的含義。
5. 【答案】D
【考點解析】本題是一道寫作手法題型。這是一道比較難的題，旨在考察考生的語言基本功，尤其是寫作手法和文章結構方面的知識。本題A、B、C中所涉及的內容可分別在第三段第六、七、八句、第一段第一、二句以及第三段的尾句找到。本文并沒有談到“psychohistorians”在應用自己方法方面的前后矛盾不一致性，故本題的正確選項應該是選項D。考生在解題時應注意原文中常用的寫作手法。
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