Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all.We do not know who first set a broken leg,or launched a seaworthy boat,or calculated the length of the year,or manured(施肥)a field;but we know all about the killers and destroyers.People think a great deal of them,so much so that on all the highest pillars(紀念柱)in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier.And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors.It is just possible they are,but they are not the most civilized.
Animals fight;so do savages(野蠻人);hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized.Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently－this,after all,is what conquerors and generals have done－is not being civilized.People fight to settle quarrels.Fighting means killing, and civilized peoples ought to be able to find some way of settling their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other side,and then saying that that side which has killed most has won.And it not only has won,but,because it has won,has been in the right.For that is what going to war means;it means saying that might is right.
That is what the story of mankind has on the whole been like.Even our own age has fought the two greatest wars in history,in which millions of people were killed or disabled.And while today it is true that people do not fight and kill each other in the streets－while, that is to say,we have got to the stage of keeping the rules and behaving properly to each other in daily life－nations and countries have not learnt to do this yet,and still behave like savages.
小題1:In the opening sentence the author indicates that ________.
A．conquerors,generals and soldiers should not be mentioned in history books.
B．history books focus more on those who helped civilization forward.
C．those who truly helped civilization forward is rarely mentioned in history books.
D．most history books were written by conquerors,generals and soldiers.小題2:In the author’s opinion,the countries that ruled over a large number of other countries are
A．certainly both the greatest and the most civilized
B．neither the most influential nor the most civilized.
C．possibly the most civilized but not the most powerful.
D．likely the greatest in some sense but not the most civilized.小題3:The meaning of“it means saying that might is right.”(The last sentence of Paragraph 2)is that ________.
A．in a war only those who are powerful will win.
B．those who are right should fight against those who are wrong.
C．only those who are powerful have the right to go to war.
D．those who fight believe that the winner is right and the loser wrong.小題4:In the third paragraph,what the author wants to convey to us is that ________.
A．we have fought fewer wars but suffered heavier casualties.
B．modern time is not so civilized compared with the past.
C．our age is not much better than those of the past.
D．World War I and World War II are different from previous wars.小題5:According to the passage,who helped civilization forward?
A.The pioneers in science and technology.
B.Conquerors and generals.
C.Those setting disputes by force.
The experts in military matters
小題6:This passage is most likely taken from an article entitled ________.
A．Who Should Be Remembered
B．Civilization and History
C．War and World Peace
D．Great conquerors in the world
