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【单选题】

What our society suffers from most today is the absence of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be; such consensus cannot be gained from society’s present stage, or from fantasies about what it ought to be. For that the present is too close and too diversified, and the future too uncertain, to make believable claims about it. A consensus in the present hence can be achieved only through a shared understanding of the past, as Homer’s epics informed those who lived centuries later what it meant to be Greek, and by what images and ideals they were to live their lives and organize their societies.
Most societies derive consensus from a long history, a language all their own, a common religion, common ancestry. The myths by which they live are based on all of these. But the United States is a country of immigrants, coming from a great variety of nations. Lately, it has been emphasized that an asocial, narcissistic personality has become characteristic of Americans, and that it is this type of personality that makes for the lack of well-being, because it prs us from achieving consensus that would counteract a tendency to withdraw into private worlds. In this study of narcissism, Christopher Lash says that modern man, "tortured by self-consciousness, turns to new therapies not to free himself of his personal worries but to find meaning and purpose in life, to find something to live for". There is widespread distress because national morale has declined, and we have lost an earlier sense of national vision and purpose.
Contrary to rigid religions or political beliefs, as are found in totalitarian societies, our culture is one of the great individual differences, at least in principle and in theory; but this leads to disunity, even chaos. Americans believe in the value of diversity, but just because ours is a society based on individual diversity, it needs consensus about some dominating ideas more than societies based on uniform origin of their citizens. Hence, if we are to have consensus, it must be based on a myth--a vision about a common experience, a conquest that made us Americans, as the myth about the conquest of Troy formed the Greeks. Only a common myth can offer relief from the fear that life is without meaning or purpose. Myths permit us to examine our place in the world by comparing it to a shared idea. Myths are shared fantasies that form the tie. that binds the individual to other members of his group. Such myths help to ward off feelings of isolations, guilt, anxiety, and purposelessness--in short, they combat isolation and the breakdown of social standards and values.
This text is mainly intended to

A.
explore certain ways of for a consensus.
B.
spotlight the role of myths in binding a community.
C.
interpret the meaning and purpose of modern life.
D.
reverse the decline of social standards and values.
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【单选题】18() A.efficient B.parallel C.relative D.respective

A.
As one works with color in a practical, or experimental way, one is impressed by two apparently unrelated facts. Color as seen is a mobile, changeable thing (1) to a large extent on the relationship of the color (2) other colors (3) simultaneously. It is not (4) in its relation to the direct stimulus which (5) it. On the other hand, the properties of surfaces that give (6) to color do not seem to change greatly under a wide variety of illumination color, usually (but not always) looking much the same in artificial light as in daylight. Both of these effects seem to be (7) in large part to the mechanism of color (8) .
B.
When the eye is (9) to a colored area, there is an immediate readjustment of the (10) of the eye to color in and around the area (11) . This readjustment does not promptly affect the color seen but usually does affect the next area to which the (12) is shifted. The longer the time of viewing, the higher the (13) , and the larger the area, the greater the effect will be (14) its persistence in the (15) viewing situation. As indicated by the work of Wright and Schouten, it appears that, at (16) for a first approximation, full adaptation takes place over (17) time if the adapting source is moderately bright and the eye has been in (18) darkness just previously. Also, (19) of the persistence of the effect if the eye is shifted around from one object to another, all of which are at similar brightness or have similar colors, the adaptation will tend to become (20) over the whole eye.