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  3. Japan is going through a complex national identity crisis. That may be no bad thing, says a new book by an American researcher.

Japan is going through a complex national identity crisis. That may be no bad thing, says a new book by an American researcher.

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问题     Japan is going through a complex national identity crisis. That may be no bad thing, says a new book by an American researcher. The economy is ceased making progress, but the society is in motion. Japan is a difficult country to report on and analyze because things do not change in big, noticeable ways. They change in an increasing process, generally of small steps but which, over time, can add up to big movements. And just such a big movement seems to be taking place.
    Mr. Nathan has been observing Japan since the 1960s. Whereas most people look at economic data or the comings and goings of prime ministers, he is more interested in schools, novels, comic books, and the minds of young entrepreneurs and maverick (持不同意见的) local politicians. In particular, his focus is on whether Japan’s famously cohesive, conformist society may be breaking under the strain of economic stagnation (停滞), and on how such strains have been affecting the country’s sense of purpose and of national identity.
    Fractures (分裂) are what he looks for and fractures are what he finds. On balance, they are neither obviously dangerous nor obviously positive, but they are, as he says, signs of motion which could, in time, lead in unpredictable directions. The most worrying factures he writes about are in the schools where violence and truancy (逃学) have risen remarkably. Old Japan hands shrug wearily at such things, for worries about violence have long existed but have never really seemed terribly serious. Now, though, Mr. Nathan’s numbers do make the situation look grave.
    Such trends appear to be symptoms of two related phenomena: a widespread feeling of disillusionment, alienation, uncertainty or plain anger, which has spread to children, too; and a gradual breakdown of old systems of discipline — part familial, part social, part legal — which, appear to prevent schools and parents from dealing effectively with children behaving in a bad way.
    Japan is, in short, passing through a national identity crisis. However, there are plenty of positive aspects to it, too. One is a considerable increase in the number of actual or budding young entrepreneurs. The numbers remain modest, but are nevertheless surprisingly high given the state of the economy in recent years. Another is a new eagerness among popular writers and maverick politicians to try to define and encourage a new national pride.
It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that______.
选项 A、severe mental strain is affecting most people in Japan
B、many people suffer from job pressure in Japan
C、a motionless economy might have a negative influence on society
D、Japan is going through a serious political instability
答案C
解析 第二段第三句提到，Nathan关注的是日本这个有凝聚力的、遵循传统的社会是否可能被经济停滞的压力所毁坏，以及这种压力是如何影响这个国家的目标感和民族认同感的。由此可推断出，停滞的经济可能会对社会产生负面影响，故答案为C)，其中的motionless economy与原文中的economic stagnation对应。A)在文中未提及，故排除。文中提到“经济停滞”，但未提及“很多人面临失业压力”，故排除B)。D) 是针对the comings and goings of prime ministers设的干扰项。
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