"Universal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here," wrote the Victorian sage Thomas Carlyle. Well, not any more it is not.
Suddenly, Britain looks to have fallen out with its favourite historical form. This could be no more than a passing literary craze, but it also points to a broader truth about how we now approach the past: less concerned with learning from our forefathers and more interested in feeling their pain. Today, we want empathy, not inspiration.
From the earliest days of the Renaissance, the writing of history meant recounting the exemplary lives of great men. In 1337, Petrarch began work on his rambling writing De Viris Illustribus--On Famous Men, highlighting the virtus (or virtue) of classical heroes. Petrarch celebrated their greatness in conquering fortune and rising to the top. This was the biographical tradition which Niccolo Machiavelli turned on
A. emphasized the virtue of classical heroes.
B. highlighted the public glory of the leading artists.
C. focused on epochal figures whose lives were hard to imitate.
D. opened up new realms of understanding the great men in history.
E. held that history should be the story of the masses and their record of struggle.
F. dismissed virtue as unnecessary for successful leaders.
G. depicted the worthy lives of engineers, industrialists and explorers.
Passage 1
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What will man be like in the future—in 5 000 or even 50 000 years from now We can only make a guess, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today. For man is slowly changing all the time. Let us take an obvious example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller. Five hundred years is a relatively short period of time, so we may assume that man will continue to grow taller. Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brain’s capacity. As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more, and eventually we shall need larger ones. This is likely to bring about a physical change to the head, in particular the forehead, A. how man’s life will be in the future B. how future man will look like C. the fact that man’s organs will function differently in the future D. the fact that man is growing uglier as time passes 我来回答: 提交
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