英语六级阅读理解精炼

46. a return to the past
Faced with rapid change and the fear and uncertainty1 that go with it, individuals as well as nations sometimes seek to return to the ways of the past as a solution. in the early 1980s the idea of returning to the ways of the past had a strong appeal 2 to many americans who increasingly viewed their past as being better than their future. Two famous experts have observed that until the 1970 s americans generally believed that the present was a better time for their country than the past and that the future would be better than the present; by 1978, however, public opinion polls3 showed that many americans had come to believe that just the opposite 4 was true: the past had been better for the country than the present, and the present was better than the future would be.
The popular appeal of returning to the ways of the past as a solution to the problems of the 1980s was demonstrated when ronald reagan5 was elected president of the united states in 1980 . time magazine chose president reagan as its "man of the year" and said of him, "intellectually, emotionally, reagan lives in the past."
One of president reagan’s basic beliefs is that the united states should return as much as possible to its pre-19307 ways. in those times business institutions were strong and government institutions were weak. reagan believes that the american values of individual freedom and competition are strengthened by business and weakened by government. therefore, his programs as president have been designed to greatly strengthen business and reduce the size and power of the national government. by moving in this way toward the practices of the past, president reagan believed that the standard of living of americans would begin to improve once more in the 1980s as it had done throughout most of the nation’s history.

阅读自测：
Ⅰ. add the correct prefix to the following words:
plan
bearable
expected
pay
certain
war
known
common
decided

Ⅱ. fill in the blanks with the words or phrases in the passage:
1. happiness doesn't necessarily ________( 伴随) money.
2. traveling has a strong ________ ( 吸引力) to many young people nowadays.
3. bill clinton has ever been chosen as ________ ( 年度风云人物) in the 1990s.
4. we all want to learn ________ ( 尽可能) to get a better future. 5. we are confident that the ________ ( 生活水平) of china has been greatly improved since the open-up.

参考答案及讲解

参考答案
Ⅰ. preplan / unbearable / unexpected prepay / uncertain / prewar unknown / uncommon / undecided
Ⅱ. 1. go with 2 . appeal 3 . man of the year 4. as much as possible 5. standard of living

参考译文
回归
面对社会的急速变化及随之而来的让人担忧而又难以预料的状况, 国家和个人时常试图按老办法来解决问题。20 世纪80年代初期, 那些老办法对许多美国人都有着强大的吸引力。他们总是越看越觉得昔日的生活比未来要美好。两位著名的专家曾经说道, 直到 20 世纪70 年代, 美国人还普遍认为他们的国家是“ 现在比过去好, 将来会比现在好”。然而, 到了1978 年, 民意测验则显示, 许多美国人已经清醒地认识到事实刚好相反: 过去的社 会状况比现在更有利于国家发展, 而未来可能还不如现在。
1980 年, 在罗纳德·里根当选为美国总统时, 这种用老办法来解决20 世纪80 年代出现的问题的流行思潮得到了很好的展示。《时代》周刊评选里根总统为当年的“年度风云人物”, 并评价道,“无论在思想上还是感情上, 里根都生活在过去。”
里根总统的基本信条之一就是美国应尽量回到20世纪30年代前期的状态。在那个年代, 商业机构十分强大而政府则没什么权威。里根相信, 商业的发展可以增强美国人的个人自由和竞争的价值观, 而政府机构的干预则会削弱这种价值观。因此, 作为总统, 他提出的计划旨在极大地强化商业发展的同时, 削弱国民政府的规模和权力。通过求助于老方法, 里根总统当时相信: 正如美国历史上大多数时候出现的情况那样, 美国人民的生活水平将在20 世纪80年代再次得到改善。

阅读导评
列宁曾说过:“忘记过去就意味着背叛。”但是, 美国人这种用老办法来解决新问题的思想到底是对过去黄金时代的怀念呢, 还是出于对现实的无奈? 上个世纪60、70 年代, 在经历了越战失败和政府高层丑闻事件等一系列的打击之后, 美国人不再如以前那般自信, 他们的生 活中充满了挫败和失望。正是在这种时代背景下, 美国人才打算用旧药除新病, 而这才是美国人回归思想的根源所在。然而, 这并不能根本解决问题, 毕竟, 新病还需新药医。

阅读导释
1.“不确定的事物, 让人难以预料的事物”。聪明的你一定发现了这个词语的独特构成了吧。不难看出这个词是由un-和certainty构成, un-是个很有用的否定前缀, 放在形容词、名词和动词前构成该词的反义词。同样的用法如:unable(不能);unbearable(不可忍受的); uncover(揭开); unknown (未知的, 陌生的) 。