TEXT C The conflict between good and evil is a common theme running through the great literature and drama of the world, from the time of ancient Greeks to all the present. The principle that conflict is the heart of dramatic action when illustrated by concrete examples, almost always turn up some aspect of the struggle between good and evil. The idea that there is neither good not evil —— in any absolute moral or religious sense —— is widespread in our times. There are various relativistic and behaviorist standards of ethics. If these standards even admit the distinction between good and evil, it is as a relative matter and not as whirlwind of choices that lies at the center of living. In any such state of mind, conflict can at best, be only a petty matter, lacking true university. The acts of the evildoer and of the virtuous man alike become dramatically neutralized. Imagine the reduced effect of Crime and Punishment or the Brothers Karamazoc had Dostoevsky thought that good and evil, as portrayed in those books, were wholly relative, and if he had had no conviction about them. You cant have a vital literature if you ignore or shun evil. What you get then is the world of Pollyanna, goody-goody in place of the good. Cry, The Beloved Country is a great and dramatic novel because Alan Paton, in addition to being a skilled workman, sees with clear eyes both good and evil, differentiates them, pitches them into conflict with each other, and takes sides. He sees that the native boy Absalom Kumalo, who has murdered, cannot be judged justly without taking into account the environment that has had part in shaping him. But Paton sees, too, that Absalom the individual, not society the abstraction, committed the act and is responsible for it. Mr. Paton understand mercy. He knows that this precious thing is not evoked by sentimental impulse, but by a searching examination of the realities of human action. Mercy follows a judgment; it does not precede it. One of the novels by the talented Paul Bowles, Let It Down is full of motion, full of sensational depravities, and is a crashing bore. The book recognizes no good, admits no evil, and is coldly indifferent to the moral behavior of its characters. It is a long shrug. Such a view of life is non-dramatic and negates the vital essence of drama.
44. In our age, according to the author, a standpoint often taken in the area of ethics is the ____
A) relativistic view of morals.
B) greater concern with religion.
C) emphasis on evil.
D) greater concern with universals.
45. The author believes that in great literature, as in life, food ad evil are ____
A) relative terms.
B) to be ignored.
C) constantly in conflict.
D) dramatically neutralized.
46. When the author uses the expression "it is a long shrug" in referring to Bowles's book, he is commenting on the ____
A) length of the novel.
B) indifference to the moral behavior of the characters.
C) monotony of the story.
D) sensational depravities of the book.
47. In the opinion of the author, Cry, The Beloved country is a great and dramatic novel because of Paton's ____
A) insight into human behavior.
B) behavioristic beliefs.
C) treatment of good and evil as abstractions.
D) willingness to make moral judgments.
TEXT D Although Boud and I had fought and quarreled unceasingly throughout childhood, by the time she was eighteen and I was fifteen we had, surprisingly, become good friends. Boud had grown from a giant-sized schoolgirl into a huge and rather alarming debutante. She was generally out to shock, and in this she succeeded. I applauded her outrages, roared when she stole some writing paper from Buckingham Palace and wrote to all her friends on it, cheered when she took her pet rat to dances. But she was bored and restless. She was casting about for something more exciting, more intriguing than the London season offered —— something forbidden by our parents. Dianas house seemed like a good beginning, for we had been forbidden to visit her when, after a few years of marriage, she and Bryan were divorced. We had been excluded from the dreadful row that followed their separation; we knew only that unutterable shame and disgrace had been brought by Diana on the family. Needless to say, this only made Diana more glamorous in our eyes. Bound began to visit Diana and at her house she met Sir Oswald Mosley, whom Diana later married. Mosleys career had led him through the Conservative Party, the Labor Party and the New Party, a venture that had lasted only a year despite backing by the Daily Mail. He was now busily engaged in organizing the British Union of Fascists, which Boud immediately joined. "Dont you long to join too, Decca? Its such fun," she begged, waving her brand new black shirt at me. "Shouldnt think of it. I hate the beastly Fascists. If you are going to be one, Im going to be a Communist, so there!" In fact, this declaration was something more than a mere automatic taking of opposite sides to Boud. The little I knew about the Fascists repelled me. I took out a subscription to the Daily Worker, bought volumes of Communist literature and literature I supposed to be Communist, put up some home-made hammer and sickle flags and bought a small bust of Lenin for a shilling in a second-hand shop. My Communist library was catholic indeed, and many of the authors would no doubt have been amazed to find themselves included. It included not only works by Lenin Stalin but also by Bertrand Russell, the Webbs and George Bernard Shaw. The result of all this was that I greatly increased my knowledge of modern English literature and progressive thought. We divided our room down the middle, and each decorated her own side with flags and photographs, sometimes having pitched battles with books and records until Nanny came in to tell us to stop the noise. Yet, once, we teamed up in our own version of the United Front; we each stole five founds from the Conservative father to send to our respective parties.
48. When her sister shocked people, the author was ____
A) horrified and told her to stop.
B) jealous of her sister's anger and theft.
C) an approving and encouraging audience.
D) very anxious to do the same sort of thing.
49. The author decided to be a Communist because she ____
A) only wanted to annoy her sister, who had joined the Fascists.
B) was already fully in sympathy with revolutionary view.
C) did not like what little she knew about Fascism.
D) already felt a sympathy with its ideas and was now pushed into declaring them.
50. The two sisters ____
A) hated each other because they disagreed on politics.
B) still fought often but had moments of forgetting politics.
C) came to physical blows over their different politics.
D) submerged their personal differences in their political quarrels.
44. In our age, according to the author, a standpoint often taken in the area of ethics is the ____
A) relativistic view of morals.
B) greater concern with religion.
C) emphasis on evil.
D) greater concern with universals.
45. The author believes that in great literature, as in life, food ad evil are ____
A) relative terms.
B) to be ignored.
C) constantly in conflict.
D) dramatically neutralized.
46. When the author uses the expression "it is a long shrug" in referring to Bowles's book, he is commenting on the ____
A) length of the novel.
B) indifference to the moral behavior of the characters.
C) monotony of the story.
D) sensational depravities of the book.
47. In the opinion of the author, Cry, The Beloved country is a great and dramatic novel because of Paton's ____
A) insight into human behavior.
B) behavioristic beliefs.
C) treatment of good and evil as abstractions.
D) willingness to make moral judgments.
TEXT D Although Boud and I had fought and quarreled unceasingly throughout childhood, by the time she was eighteen and I was fifteen we had, surprisingly, become good friends. Boud had grown from a giant-sized schoolgirl into a huge and rather alarming debutante. She was generally out to shock, and in this she succeeded. I applauded her outrages, roared when she stole some writing paper from Buckingham Palace and wrote to all her friends on it, cheered when she took her pet rat to dances. But she was bored and restless. She was casting about for something more exciting, more intriguing than the London season offered —— something forbidden by our parents. Dianas house seemed like a good beginning, for we had been forbidden to visit her when, after a few years of marriage, she and Bryan were divorced. We had been excluded from the dreadful row that followed their separation; we knew only that unutterable shame and disgrace had been brought by Diana on the family. Needless to say, this only made Diana more glamorous in our eyes. Bound began to visit Diana and at her house she met Sir Oswald Mosley, whom Diana later married. Mosleys career had led him through the Conservative Party, the Labor Party and the New Party, a venture that had lasted only a year despite backing by the Daily Mail. He was now busily engaged in organizing the British Union of Fascists, which Boud immediately joined. "Dont you long to join too, Decca? Its such fun," she begged, waving her brand new black shirt at me. "Shouldnt think of it. I hate the beastly Fascists. If you are going to be one, Im going to be a Communist, so there!" In fact, this declaration was something more than a mere automatic taking of opposite sides to Boud. The little I knew about the Fascists repelled me. I took out a subscription to the Daily Worker, bought volumes of Communist literature and literature I supposed to be Communist, put up some home-made hammer and sickle flags and bought a small bust of Lenin for a shilling in a second-hand shop. My Communist library was catholic indeed, and many of the authors would no doubt have been amazed to find themselves included. It included not only works by Lenin Stalin but also by Bertrand Russell, the Webbs and George Bernard Shaw. The result of all this was that I greatly increased my knowledge of modern English literature and progressive thought. We divided our room down the middle, and each decorated her own side with flags and photographs, sometimes having pitched battles with books and records until Nanny came in to tell us to stop the noise. Yet, once, we teamed up in our own version of the United Front; we each stole five founds from the Conservative father to send to our respective parties.
48. When her sister shocked people, the author was ____
A) horrified and told her to stop.
B) jealous of her sister's anger and theft.
C) an approving and encouraging audience.
D) very anxious to do the same sort of thing.
49. The author decided to be a Communist because she ____
A) only wanted to annoy her sister, who had joined the Fascists.
B) was already fully in sympathy with revolutionary view.
C) did not like what little she knew about Fascism.
D) already felt a sympathy with its ideas and was now pushed into declaring them.
50. The two sisters ____
A) hated each other because they disagreed on politics.
B) still fought often but had moments of forgetting politics.
C) came to physical blows over their different politics.
D) submerged their personal differences in their political quarrels.