"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.
"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.
Plato asked "What is man" and St Augustine asked "Who am I" A new breed of criminals has a novel answer: "I am you!" Although impostors have existed for ages, the growing frequency and cost of identity theft is worrisome. Around 10m Americans are victims annually, and it is the leading consumer-fraud complaint over the past five years. The cost to businesses was almost ＄ 50 billion, and to consumers ＄ 5 billion, in 2002, the most recent year that America’s Federal Trade Commission collected figures.
After two recent, big privacy disasters, people and politicians are calling for action. In February, ChoicePoint, a large data-collection agency, began sending out letters warning 145,000 Americans that it had wrongly provided fraudsters with their personal details, including Social Security numbers. Around 750 people have already spotted fraudulent activity. And on February 25th, Bank of America revealed that it lost data tapes that contain
A. raise philosophical questions
B. show an obvious contrast
C. introduce the criminals
D. pave the way for the main topic
Questions 1-4
What has the man just done during his lunch break？（）
"What About the Men" was the title of a Congressional briefing last week timed to (1) National Work and Family Month. "What about them " you may be (2) to yell.
When Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, first went out on the road to talk about her organization’s research into men’s work-family (3) , she received many such grumpy responses. Work-life experts laughed at her. Men are (4) , they said. They don’t have the right to complain. That was in 2008, before the Great Recession had hit. And this year, when Galinsky went out on the road again to talk about the results of a new study on male work-life conflict, she got a very (5) response. Some men became very (6) . They felt they didn’t have permission to feel (7) . "’This is what I think about each and every day, ’ " she recalled another man telling her. " ’ I d
A. only to find
B. seeking
C. to find
D. to seek
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