1、2008年南京大学英语专业（基础英语）真题试卷及答案与解析 一、阅读理解 0 The Ethics of Foreign Policy By Felix Morley 1. The architects of foreign policy throughout the ages have frequently asserted that morality plays an important part in their official planning and conduct. 2. This dubious claim has received much partisan support,
2、 but relatively little objective examination. The failure to exercise the critical faculty toward the acts of ones own government, while readily believing the worst in respect to the acts of other governments, is a tribute to the virtue of patriotism rather than to the quality of scientific analysis
3、. The law of averages alone would indicate, without reference to cases, that in countless number of disputes between sovereignties, no single government is likely to have demonstrated superior morality consistently, except in the opinion of its own adherents. 3. The logical assumption would be that
4、the foreign policy of any government is seldom completely “good“, in the sense of being a perfect exponent of the moral code of its time and place, and equally seldom is it absolutely “evil“, in the sense of being wholly oblivious to current moral standards. 4. From the ethical viewpoint the complex
5、ion of foreign policy would seem to be a habitual, though not uniform, gray. It is therefore the more desirable to indicate precisely why moral considerations, while seldom altogether ignored, are nevertheless of wholly secondary importance in determining the relations of governments. 5. Men are end
6、owed by their Creator with a moral sense. They possess an intangible organ, to which we give the name “conscience“, that distinguishes between the more and the less admirable choices in all the countless occasions of decision that occur in an individual lifetime. 6. Conscience may be strong to the e
7、xtreme of obduracy or weak to the point of impotence, but it is seldom altogether non-existent. Men have this inborn sense of “knowing with“, or being privy to, a code of moral conduct. Without conscience, all aspects of social life would be far more chaotic than is actually the case. To the degree
8、that men will not obey natural law, it is therefore reasonable to subject them to the artificial law that the state imposes. 7. But the state, which is the most complicated product of social development as yet folly achieved, has no moral sense; and, in spite of its law courts and enforcement agenci
9、es, it possesses no organ that can be compared with the human conscience. The church, as distinct from the state, is of course deeply and continuously concerned with moral issues. The church, however, no longer dominates the state, even in countries where a particular religion is legally “establishe
10、d“. 8. Of course, the state as an instrument may be utilized to forward morality and to oppose immorality. And in doing this whether by legislative action or executive fiat, it reflects both the influence of the individual conscience and the prevalent morality of a particular time and place. Neverth
11、eless, it remains true that the state can achieve good only by the application of coercion to its subjects. It substitutes the rigid compulsion of man-made law for the less well codified but morally more impelling influence of the natural law. 9. The state, in short, is the repository of physical ra
12、ther than moral power. While this physical strength can be used for moral ends, it can equally well be, and often has been, placed at the service of an immoral philosophy. The American case against Soviet Russia rests on the evidence that this distortion is currently dominant there. 10. Although the
13、 state has no conscience, its so-called welfare aspects substitute for the function of this organ in the social activities of the individual. To the extent that the welfare state deprives the individual of power to do good or evil as he sees fit, there is, of course, encroachment on the sphere of pe
14、rsonal morality, in behalf of governmentally defined morality. 11. In Soviet Russia, where God is virtually outlawed, this encroachment of positive law on natural law has reached the stage of almost complete substitution. In the United States, there is still a valiant and partially successful effort
15、 to oppose socialism, which may be accurately defined as the political system that seeks to take the right of moral decision from free individuals in order to vest it in officials serving the state. 12. It is frequently, and often persuasively, argued that the increasing complexity of human life and
16、 the growing interdependence of men in modern society make the expansion of state authority inevitable and indeed imperative. 13. Much that is specious can be detected in this argument, but even if it were wholly conclusive, an issue of great political and moral moment would still remain to be recon
17、ciled. Whenever and however the state assumes the power of decision, there must be an equivalent surrender of power on the part of the subjects. Encroachment may be on the freedom of the market, in the economic sphere; on the freedom of worship, in the religious sphere; on the freedom of criticism,
18、in the political sphere. But fundamentally, the encroachment is always on freedom, in one or another aspect of this condition for which the human being has not merely a biological but also an often passionate and deeply spiritual yearning. 14. Properly speaking, there is no such thing as freedom fro
19、m something. Freedom, being the political condition in which the individual retains his natural power of choice, must always be for something. The choice of the free individual may be neither intelligent nor moral, but it is always a definite choice in behalf of some selected course out of many that
20、 are usually available. 15. The socialist believes that it is socially advantageous when the state assumes the power of choice for the individual. Sometimes the argument is that the average person has no opportunity, and sometimes that he has no capacity, to choose wisely and well. But whether the e
21、mphasis in the argument is humanitarian or autocratic, the net result of its successful application is the same. The power in the people is contracted and the power of the state is enlarged. 16. Much more is involved here than the amount of spending power left to the taxpayer after Big Government ha
22、s taken its ever-increasing slice. The power of the individual to act as his conscience dictates is also taken from him by the state. Government may, because of the heritage of freedom, be patient and relatively gentle with the conscientious objector. It may, when the political heritage is tyrannica
23、l, dispose of him by firing squad. But either way, his right to follow the dictates of conscience is called in question. 17. Since the state does not and cannot possess the organ of conscience, and since the individual conscience alone gives human life a moral direction, it follows that the enlargem
24、ent of state power is necessarily at the expense not only of freedom, but also of morality. This means that the socialist, whether he realizes it or not, has actually a very low regard for the human race. The criticism that he lavishes on “Wall Street“ or other products of free enterprise system is
25、basically criticism of the concept of freedom. 18. Although the state is an amoral instrumentality, without a conscience and with no inherent sense of right and wrong, its actions towards its subjects are always to some extent restrained and guided by the prevalent morality of the people. The most c
26、omplete autocrat must give consideration to the inborn sense of justice and decency among those over whom he rules. 19. In dealing with other sovereignties, however, political rules have never been and are not now much influenced by ethical considerations as such. Rulers raise no taxes from those ou
27、tside the area of their control and therefore have no politically compelling reason to treat the subjects of other sovereignties with respect. It is not that the ruler is less humanitarian in his instincts or more immoral in his behavior than any other individual, but that, having the responsibility
28、 of the state on his shoulders, the ruler tends to put what seems to be the states immediate interest above all other considerations, including those of an ethical nature. In time of war, of course, this subordination of ethical considerations is especially pronounced. 20. The absence of any ethical
29、 content in foreign policy during time of war is too obvious to need much citation or emphasis. Many would be inclined to discount this characteristic, however, by saying that war represents a break-down rather than an aspect of forging policy, and by asserting further that even in wartime the chief
30、 executive of a democratic nation is under constitutional restraints which tend to check immoral conduct on his part. 21. Unfortunately, both qualifications are more apparent than real. The President of the United States is nominally subject to many Constitutional restraints, in time of war as well
31、as in time of peace. However, aside from the indication that the United States can now be plunged into a major war by Presidential edict, it is also clear that during the fighting, foreign policy decisions of the greatest moment will be made by the President alone. 22. As against the theory that war
32、 is a mere interruption of the normal conduct of foreign policy, one recalls the aphorism of von Clausewitz, to the effect that war has always been definitely an instrument of national policy and that peacetime diplomacy only fills in the chinks until the time has come for the state to strike with m
33、ilitary force. Certainly in the Prussian tradition, from Hegel on, there is little to indicate that peace is the normal condition of a nation; war a mere unfortunate aberration. Though Prussia is destroyed, the “Prussian doctrine“ of Nietzschethat the state is “beyond good and evil“, determining mor
34、als for itselfis stronger than ever before. 23. Because individuals for the most part possess a moral sense, there has been, usually under religious leadership, a long and valiant effort to introduce an ethical content into the theory and practice of foreign policy. This effort has taken two distinc
35、t forms. One is the long-standing attempt to make those who control foreign policy strictly accountable to elected representatives of the people. The other is the more recent endeavor to establish an enforceable international law, involving the creation of an international political authority empowe
36、red and competent to take preventive action against a government whose foreign policy threatens a breach of peace. 24. The latter effort was obviously impractical until nations as we know them today had taken form as disciplined political units, with government competent to keep order at home as a p
37、reliminary to making international commitments. Also, there had to be development of communications, trade, and travel on a large scale before the need for any international political authority became apparent to people as a whole. 25. Aside from these positive factors, two of a negative nature help
38、ed pave the way for interest in world government. One was the decline of vital religious interest, which followed the fragmentizing of the Christian church throughout the European counties that once had recognized the spiritual supremacy of Rome. The other was the increasing destructiveness of war.
39、With no universally recognized religious authority and with all existing political authorities seriously menaced by the effects of scientific war, argument for international organization was greatly strengthened. 26. The effort to establish popular control over the forging policy of an individual so
40、vereign, however, had made great headway long before concerts, or leagues, or unions of nations had become more substantial than the dreams of idealistic philosophers. Instances of this effort that could be cited from many countries would be found to rest on the principle that arbitrary executive au
41、thority in this field is an intolerable infringement of “the liberty of the subjects“. 27. Liberty, of course, is an ethical concept based on the religious belief that men “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights“, as the Declaration of Independence asserts. And it is in no way
42、accidental that the endeavor to give an ethical content to foreign policy has made the most headway under representative government, especially in those countries where men with a deep religious faith are willing to challenge the authority of the state. For questions 1 to 10, choose the best answer
43、according to the passage you have just read. 1 In spite of its law courts and enforcement agencies, the state has no organ comparable to the_. （ A） natural law （ B） executive fiat （ C） human conscience （ D） disciplined political unites （ E） Prussian doctrine of Nietzche 2 The choice of the free indi
44、vidual must always be a definite choice_. （ A） between an easily lead minority and a highly educated group of citizens （ B） between genuine public spirit and personal official duty （ C） that is socially advantageous to the average person （ D） within the limits set down by the state （ E） of some sele
45、cted course from the many choices available 3 One argument about modern society, which the author terms “specious“, is that_. （ A） the increasing complexity and interdependence in our lives make the expansion of state authority imperative and inevitable （ B） the foreign policy of any nation is seldo
46、m completely “good“ （ C） conscience may be strong to the point of “obduracy or weak to the point of impotence“ （ D） all aspects of social life would be more chaotic without conscience （ E） the state imposes an artificial law to the degree that men will not obey the natural law 4 In dealing with coun
47、tries other than their own, political rulers have been influenced chiefly by the_. （ A） immediate interests of their own sovereignties （ B） ethical considerations of a high order （ C） humanitarian motives of the good of mankind （ D） inborn feelings of justice and decency （ E） democratic constitution
48、al restraints 5 One of the authors major points is that the enlargement of state power is necessarily at the expense of_. （ A） Wall Street and free enterprise （ B） freedom and morality （ C） critical faculties and logical assumption （ D） worker productivity and rising wages （ E） ideal democracy and t
49、he “man on the street“ 6 One of the positive factors not included in the effort to introduce an ethical content into the theory and practice of forging policy is that of_. （ A） perpetuating the American ideal on a worldwide scale by overcoming the evils of indifference （ B） realizing the need for an international political authority after trade, travel, and communications mushroomed （ C） making governments orderly at home prior to making international commitments （ D） establishing an enforceable international law to contain foreign policy （ E） mak
