首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Surveying the battleground at Gettysburg in 1863, Pres. Abraham Lincoln said: "The world will little note, nor long remember, wh
Surveying the battleground at Gettysburg in 1863, Pres. Abraham Lincoln said: "The world will little note, nor long remember, wh
admin
2011-01-26
44
问题
Surveying the battleground at Gettysburg in 1863, Pres. Abraham Lincoln said: "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." Alas, he may have been right—not only has his short speech been pretty much forgotten, but also has the Civil War that inspired it.
More than 100 years after the conflict, a Gallup poll of American college seniors found that 42% couldn’t date the war to the correct half-century. In 2001, sampling 12-to 17-year-olds, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation discovered that nearly one in four students didn’t even know the Civil War had been fought between the North and the South. Thirteen percent figured that it was the US against Great Britain, while five percent guessed it was East vs. West.
In the same poll, over 5,000,000 US teenagers were clueless about the Fourth of July. Fourteen percent thought we had declared our independence from France; three percent, from Native Americans; and one percent, from Canada. So much for 1776!
It’s not just early history that students get failing grades on. Americans of all ages even draw a blank when it comes to the 20th century. Questioned in 1995, 60% of adults couldn’t name the president who ordered the dropping of the first atomic bomb (Harry S. Truman). Even worse, 20% didn’t know where—or even if—such a bomb had ever been used.
The shocking results of these surveys show Americans are suffering from a disease called "cultural amnesia," the social equivalent of Alzheimer’s disease. Unlike Alzheimer’s, though, it afflicts the young as well as the old. Debilitating and progressive, the malady is eating away at America’s soul, for just as an individual needs memories to maintain a sense of personal identity, so does a nation need them in order to survive.
Survival means having a sense of continuity. As Civil War historian Bruce Catton put it, "The American story is above all other things a continued story. It did not start with us and it will not end with us." To sense this continuity, we need to know our history, for the selfrealization of a nation is based on keeping faith with the unfulfilled dreams and sacrifices of the past. It is to this idea that Lincoln referred in the Gettysburg Address when he spoke of the "unfinished work" that must be done if "this nation…shall have a new birth of freedom."
Yet, when a national civics test was administered in 1998, 35% of high school seniors failed. As educational researcher Diane Rayitch reported: "Only nine percent of the kids were able to give two reasons why it is important for citizens to be involved in a democratic society."
Combined with their historical ignorance, the civic disengagement of America’s young leaves their country’s future in peril. More so than any other system of government, a democracy relies on the wisdom and judgment of its people. To quote another president, Thomas Jefferson, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
According to the last two paragraphs, America’s young seem to______.
选项
A、know the duty of being a citizen in a democratic society
B、have historical ignorance and the civic disengagement
C、understand the independence of a nation’s democracy
D、become well-informed of Thomas Jefferson’s statement
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/mmXYFFFM
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
YouhavejustjoinedacompanyasthenewComputerSkillsTrainer.YouareorganizingameetingonMonday2ndJunetointroduce
A、thecompany’splansforthefuture.B、theperformanceofthecommittee.C、suggestedchangestoadocument.C
TheBossesSpeakJohnStuartisanexecutiverecruitmentspecialistwhohasturnedtowriting.Theresultisthisbook,ba
TheBossesSpeakJohnStuartisanexecutiverecruitmentspecialistwhohasturnedtowriting.Theresultisthisbook,ba
DELAYSEXPECTEDONCOMMUTERTRAINSERVICES.
Thepositionwillsuitanindividualwithinternationalsalesexperienceparticularlythroughadistributornetwork.
HowtosetpricesThemethodsadoptedinpricesettingarecrucialtoanybusiness.Whensettingprices,remembercostswill
Whetheryouwantaccesstoalltheday’snewsfast,breakinganalysisoftheevents,aconsideredviewoftrends,expertcomment
Manydifferentmeaningshavebeengiventothewordpoetry.ItwouldwearymyreadersifIweretodiscusswhichofthesedefini
Scientistshopethecollisionwillproducealargecraterinthecomet’ssurfaceinordertorevealthecoreandgivesome_____
随机试题
下列关于率的抽样误差的论述中,正确的是
上颌骨骨折伴移位时,急救处理措施是
临床死亡期的特征是
态度的成分主要包括()。
教师职业道德修养的最高层次是()
本学期,某大学的a个学生,或者付x元的全额学费,或者付半额学费。付全额学费的学生所付的学费占这a个学生所付学费总额的比率是(1)在这a个学生中,20%的人付全额学费;(2)这a个学生本学期共付9120元学费。
[*]
考生文件夹下有一个数据库文件“samp3.accdb”,其中存在已经设计好的表对象“tBand”和“tLine”,同时还有以“tBand”和“tLine”为数据源的报表对象“rBand”。请在此基础上按照以下要求补充报表设计。在“导游姓名”字段标题对应
机器语言是用______编写的。
Hestudiedthemapcarefully,tryingto______thenearestroutetothebeach.
最新回复
(
0
)